Halted Grammaticalization and Regrammaticalization in German

The present paper deals with some putative cases of so-called ‘halted’ or ‘arrested grammaticalization’ in the history of German. The following phenomena are discussed: Old High German perfect auxiliaries; the modals ‘shall’, ‘will’ and the transformative copula werden as sources of future auxiliaries in Old, Middle and New High German; some shortened verb forms in Middle High German; the Old High German etc. pronoun of identity der selbo used as a demonstrative or personal pronoun; the inflection of determiners, quantifiers and adjectives in New High German; Old High German thô, dô and Middle High German ez as syntactic ‘place-holders’ in sentence-initial position; the syntactic status of the German so-called ‘ethical dative’; and the demise of Old High German -lîhho, Middle High German -lîche as an adverb-forming suffix. It is claimed that certain general language-specific, ‘characterological’ patterns influence the way in which the grammaticalization developments in question are halted or, sometimes, given another direction by way of regrammaticalization.The present paper deals with some putative cases of so-called ‘halted’ or ‘arrested grammaticalization’ in the history of German. The following phenomena are discussed: Old High German perfect auxiliaries; the modals ‘shall’, ‘will’ and the transformative copula werden as sources of future auxiliaries in Old, Middle and New High German; some shortened verb forms in Middle High German; the Old High German etc. pronoun of identity der selbo used as a demonstrative or personal pronoun; the inflection of determiners, quantifiers and adjectives in New High German; Old High German thô, dô and Middle High German ez as syntactic ‘place-holders’ in sentence-initial position; the syntactic status of the German so-called ‘ethical dative’; and the demise of Old High German -lîhho, Middle High German -lîche as an adverb-forming suffix. It is claimed that certain general language-specific, ‘characterological’ patterns influence the way in which the grammaticalization developments in question are halted or, sometimes, given another direction by way of regrammaticalization

Are elderly sufferers of dementia able to play a reminiscence game on a tablet device independently?

As the old population is growing older, a huge need for increased health care is needed, and the time per patient may be decreased in the future because of an increased carer burden. Many of the elderly develop some sort of dementia when growing older. In Norway 70 000 people already suffers from this syndrome. However, reminiscence is considered the process of thinking or telling others about one’s past experiences, and may probably delay the aggravation of these peoples’ cognitive function and dementia symptoms. In this thesis a mobile reminiscence game was developed using a strong user centered design process with five patients suffering from dementia and an expert mini-focus group. The intention was to make the game assist the patients while playing questions from the past, by giving automated instructions and feedback to the user while playing. Several usability issues regarded with the reminiscence game were revealed during this process, to suit the patients’ different physical and mental skills. An observational study was conducted in the end to observe a selected group of patients’ suffering from dementia ability to play the game independently. This study found 21 of 40 given questions (52,5%) to be answered totally independent by the users. The results found the users to play more independently as they progressed in the game. The results also discovered individual differences among the users, in terms of playing independently

Enhancing the Benefits Management Model for Complex eHealth Efforts

This thesis suggests five ways to improve BM in complex eHealth efforts. First, the concept of BR was defined to clarify the existing conflation of the BR and BM concepts. Second, an extended and enhanced BMM was developed that incorporated the BM context, levels of complexity for both organizational and interorganizational initiatives, and the critical aspects of learning and governance. Third, three propositions concerning learning and governance in BM were suggested based on the new model, which can be used to inform future BM studies and guide empirical work. Fourth, the propositions were further translated into a six-question checklist to stimulate learning from the BM process itself. Finally, I provide suggestions for BM governance in interorganizational ICT efforts aiming to realize societal benefits.publishedVersio

Understanding the Complexity of Benefits Management in an Interorganizational eHealth Effort

Information and communication technology (ICT) is an intervention for the future provision of healthcare services and diverse types of technologies are being implemented. However, realizing the benefits of such efforts is challenging. Moreover, collaboration among organizations has become common, which increases the complexity level and making the benefits of ICT efforts even more challenging to realize. As benefits management (BM) practices have not been designed for complex situations, a deeper contextual understanding of BM practices is required. To address this issue, a case study was conducted in a Norwegian interorganizational eHealth effort. The results provide an overview of four central concepts describing interorganizational complexity, as well as organizational and external concepts that challenge current BM practices. The case study findings highlight the need for updated BM practices and provides three novel suggestions for improving BM practices in interorganizational eHealth efforts

Some Typological Differences between the Modern Germanic Languages in a Historical and Geographical Perspective

Einige typologische Unterschiede zwischen den modernen germanischen Sprachen aus historischer und arealer Sicht. In dieser Arbeit werden die Stellung des finiten Verbs in Haupt- und Nebensätzen, die Abfolge finiter und infiniter Verbalformen in "Verbketten" sowie das Verhältnis zwischen Linearisierungsregeln für nichtverbale Satzglieder und anderen syntaktischen Regeln in modernen germanischen Sprachen aus einer typologischen und geographischen Perspektive betrachtet. Dabei wird auch auf ähnliche Strukturmuster in anderen europäischen Sprachen hingewiesen. Die infrage stehenden Erscheinungen werden insgesamt als Evidenz dafür gesehen, dass syntaktische Restrukturierung morphologischem Schwund vorangehen kann und nicht dessen Folge sein muss

Digital Innovation of Healthcare Services in Times of Crisis and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a worldwide state of emergency, triggering extensive digital innovation within healthcare institutions to recover from the disrupted services caused by the pandemic. The purpose of this research is to explore the phenomena of digital innovation during these extraordinary conditions and to understand the impacts during the pandemic and beyond. To do so, we conducted a systematic literature review by analyzing 130 research articles across research disciplines that were published during the pandemic. We found that the innovation processes were highly iterative and focused on rapid diffusion to address the urgent need for stabilizing and recovering disrupted services. This short-term perspective may result in adverse impacts beyond the pandemic, such as increased inequity. Moreover, we found that some environmental factors were highly adaptive to the pandemic, whereas others were less so. We suggest that organizations should focus on the latter when building resilience to future pandemics

Digital Innovation of Healthcare Services in Times of Crisis and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a worldwide state of emergency, triggering extensive digital innovation within healthcare institutions to recover from the disrupted services caused by the pandemic. The purpose of this research is to explore the phenomena of digital innovation during these extraordinary conditions and to understand the impacts during the pandemic and beyond. To do so, we conducted a systematic literature review by analyzing 130 research articles across research disciplines that were published during the pandemic. We found that the innovation processes were highly iterative and focused on rapid diffusion to address the urgent need for stabilizing and recovering disrupted services. This short-term perspective may result in adverse impacts beyond the pandemic, such as increased inequity. Moreover, we found that some environmental factors were highly adaptive to the pandemic, whereas others were less so. We suggest that organizations should focus on the latter when building resilience to future pandemics

Stakeholder Contradictions in Early Stages of eHealth Efforts

Use of information and communication technology (ICT) in healthcare has increased substantially over the past decades. Implementation of ICT in municipal health services (eHealth) involves a variety of stakeholders, and may lead to changes in the roles of providers and patients. Coordination, communication, early identification and involvement of key stakeholders in eHealth projects have been highlighted as important. However, research often takes a narrow perspective and pays scant attention to conflicting drivers. This study used a qualitative approach to identify and investigate contradictory stakeholder interests in the early phase of a municipal eHealth project. Analysis using Stakeholder Theory (ST) and Dialectic Process Theory revealed two important contradictions; 1) effective service versus efficient service and 2) technology enthusiasm versus reluctance to change. The analysis illustrated the usefulness of combining these theories in eHealth efforts. Implications from our research suggest that stakeholder management should be considered to prevent conflicts in eHealth projects

Sebastian Møller Bak: En sammenlignende undersøgelse af syntaktiske træk i middelnedertyske diplomer fra Lübecks kancelli og det kongelige danske kancelli (1400–1449).

Denne avhandlingen av Sebastian Møller Bak (SMB) tar sikte på å gi en empirisk basert variasjons- og kontaktlingvistisk analyse av to temaer fra middelnedertysk syntaks: for det første ”venstreekstraposisjon” (”Vor-Vorfeldbesetzung” etc.) av ikke-verbale setningsledd og bisetninger, og for det annet toleddede verbkomplekser (verbkjeder) bestående av finitt og én infinitt verbform i bisetninger. Det er et utbredt synspunkt at syntaks er et forsømt område innenfor middelnedertyskforskningen i forhold til fonologi og morfologi (s. 10; jf. også den generelle forskningsoversikten hos Mähl 2014: 13–14, spesielt om verbstilling 37–42). Valget av syntaktiske temaer er derfor fortjenstfullt