A general formalism for computing the nonlinear interactions between triads of coastally-trapped gravity and vorticity waves is developed. An analysis of the linearized problem reveals that gravity (or edge) waves and vorticity (or shear) waves exist as members of the same non-Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem, with unstable shear waves representing the complex eigenvalue portion of the result...

We show how the wide range in strengths of intensifying degree adverbs (e.g. very and extremely) could be explained by pragmatic inference based on differing cost, rather than differing semantics. This predicts a linear relationship between the meaning of intensifiers and their length and log-frequency. We test this prediction in two studies, using two different dependent measures, finding that...

Caption : An Australian beach where surfers ignore the danger sign because in fact the rip current is very useful in taking their surfboards beyond the breaker zone Cover photograph by : Matthew Celia (2008) i Title : Acknowledgements This thesis concludes the M.Sc. Civil Engineering program at the Delft University of Technology. Writing this thesis was challenging, not only for the subject at ...