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Full-Text Articles in Modern Languages

Who Are You? The Relationship Between Language And Personality, Gwendolyn Cooley Jan 2024

Who Are You? The Relationship Between Language And Personality, Gwendolyn Cooley

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The relationship between language and personality is one that has been ruminated upon for decades, leading to a plethora of often contradictory scholarship. This project examines that relationship from an outsider perspective, utilizing both existing research and original questionnaire data to draw conclusions about how one's second language learning impacts personality.


A Questionnaire Study Of Two-Verb Clusters In West Central German, Shannon A. Dubenion-Smith Apr 2013

A Questionnaire Study Of Two-Verb Clusters In West Central German, Shannon A. Dubenion-Smith

Modern & Classical Languages

Until recently, the West Central German dialect area was largely neglected in investigations of verb clusters. The article presents the results of a questionnaire study of two-verb clusters involving 55 participants in 17 localities in that dialect area. These results indicate that the occurrence of particular orders is subject to interspeaker, intraspeaker, and areal variation as well as morphosyntactic constraints. Furthermore, a comparison of these results with those from a corpus study of the same dialect area suggests diachronic stability in the relative areal distribution of verb clusters over the roughly 50 years since the spoken data for the corpus …


Review Of: Japanese And Continental Philosophy: Conversations With The Kyoto School, Michiko Yusa Nov 2012

Review Of: Japanese And Continental Philosophy: Conversations With The Kyoto School, Michiko Yusa

Modern & Classical Languages

The aim of this anthology of seventeen essays, clearly set forth by the editors’ introduction, is “to promote dialogue between Western and Eastern philosophy, and more specifically between Continental philosophy and the Kyoto School” (p. 1). This venture is guided by the conviction that philosophy is ultimately “a quest for liberating wisdom” and not just an academic exercise (p. 15). This book comes as a timely response to today’s globalized environment, which is fast becoming one-dimensional, flat, and uniform, and in which human beings are unwittingly reduced to mere “numbers” for the profit of faceless corporations.


Review Of: Women In The Prose Of María De Zayas, Joan M. Hoffman Jun 2012

Review Of: Women In The Prose Of María De Zayas, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

With Women in the Prose of Maria de Zayas, Eavan O'Brien presents a remarkable, exception ally well-researched addition to the ever-increasing Maria de Zayas library, albeit with what is, in my estimation, an unfortunate and inexpressive title. O'Brien wholly succeeds in her stated intention to study "the complex ramifications of women's interaction in [Zayas's] prose" (5). Without a doubt, this study does represent "a new contribution to the study of Zayas's prose, unearthing a neglected and innovative aspect, its gynocentrism" (6). Using a very close reading of all twenty tales in Novelas amorosas y ejemplares and Desenganos amorosos, supported by …


Review Of: From The Outside Looking In: Narrative Frames And Narrative Spaces In The Short Stories Of Emilia Pardo Bazán, Joan M. Hoffman Mar 2012

Review Of: From The Outside Looking In: Narrative Frames And Narrative Spaces In The Short Stories Of Emilia Pardo Bazán, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

In a nicely bound volume of the sort for which Juan de la Cuesta is well-known, Susan Walter undertakes the study of thirteen of Emilia Pardo Bazan's short stories published between 1892 and 1909. All of these tales have in common two narrative levels - an introduction presented by one framing narrator and a central narration as told by a second, internal, narrator - thus allowing Walter to "untangle the distinct voices of narrative authority in the texts in order to uncover the ideological positioning of the tale" (22). Also, the author views such stories as "an ideal place to …


A Response To Campbell, Edward J. Vajda Jul 2011

A Response To Campbell, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

The Dene–Yeniseian (DY) hypothesis argues that Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (NaDene) is related to the Siberian family Yeniseian, which consists of Ket and several extinct relatives. The strongest evidence comes from the verb-internal tense–mood system, action nominal (gerund, infinitive) morphology, and sound correspondences based on cognates in basic vocabulary. Shared words for ‘conifer needles’, ‘conifer pitch’, ‘rump, leg’, ‘liver’, and others reveal that phonemic tones arose separately in Yeniseian and Athabaskan from an earlier distinction involving coda glottalization, the original glottal articulation surviving in Tlingit and Eyak. Proponents of the DY hypothesis regard such evidence as indicative of genealogical affinity.


Review Of: Spanish Periodicals And Newspapers: Women's Magazine Digital Collection/Revistas Y Periódicos Españoles: Colección Digital De Revistas Femeninas, Joan M. Hoffman Mar 2011

Review Of: Spanish Periodicals And Newspapers: Women's Magazine Digital Collection/Revistas Y Periódicos Españoles: Colección Digital De Revistas Femeninas, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

In the 1970s, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut acquired the vast collection of Spanish periodicals accumulated by the bibliophile, Juan Perez de Guzman y Boza (1852-1934), Duque de T'Serclaes in the Spanish province of Badajoz. The periodicals and newspapers, mainly from southern Spain, date from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, with a majority of the materials from the nineteenth century. The collection as a whole covers a wide variety of topics including politics, literature, science, business, art, and music; as such, it aptly reflects the complex history of Spain of this period. …


Verbal Complex Phenomena In West Central German: Empirical Domain And Multi-Causal Account, Shannon A. Dubenion-Smith Jun 2010

Verbal Complex Phenomena In West Central German: Empirical Domain And Multi-Causal Account, Shannon A. Dubenion-Smith

Modern & Classical Languages

This paper is a synchronic investigation of verbal complex phenomena in the West Central German dialects. The types of verbal complexes attested in 187 recordings of West Central German from the Zwirner Corpus are first classified and analyzed. A GoldVarb analysis reveals that in subordinate clause two-verb complexes, the factor groups syntagm and verbal prefix type have statistically significant effects on word order, while in main clause two-verb complexes the factor groups syntagm, verbal prefix type, and a grammatical correlate to focus have statistically significant effects. Taking as a point of departure Lötscher 1978 and Sapp 2007, a multi-causal account …


Review Of: Auxiliary Verb Constructions, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2010

Review Of: Auxiliary Verb Constructions, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This monograph offers much to typologists and historical-comparative linguists alike. Although some readers may balk at including under the single rubric of auxiliary verb construction the entire range of structurally diverse types of complex predicates examined here, the results of this study thoroughly vindicate bringing them together in a single analysis.


Review Of: Asura's Harp: Engagement With Language As Buddhist Path, Michiko Yusa Jul 2009

Review Of: Asura's Harp: Engagement With Language As Buddhist Path, Michiko Yusa

Modern & Classical Languages

Asura's Harp: Engagement with Language as Buddhist Path by Dennis Hirota is a book that grew out of lectures given by the author at the Fürst Franz-Josef and Fürstin Gina Memorial Philosophy Lecture series in Liechtenstein (p. 153). Herein the author examines the significant role that language plays in the religious practice of the True Pure Land Sect of Japanese Buddhism (hereafter referred to as Shin Buddhism), founded by Shinran (1173-1263). Hirota's original audience being those present at his lectures, this book directly engages Western intellectuals, Christian and non-Christian.


Review Of: Épocas Y Avances: Lengua En Su Contexto Cultural, And Cuaderno De Trabajo To Accompany 'Épocas Y Avances: Lengua En Su Contexto Cultural', Joan M. Hoffman Mar 2009

Review Of: Épocas Y Avances: Lengua En Su Contexto Cultural, And Cuaderno De Trabajo To Accompany 'Épocas Y Avances: Lengua En Su Contexto Cultural', Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

In the "Preface" to this, the first edition of Épocas y avances: Lengua en su contexto cultural, the authors immediately state the goal and scope of the text: "Designed to present a broad spectrum of content-rich materials for the study of language and culture of the Spanish-speaking world, Épocas y avances offers a communicative-humanistic approach to second language acquisition." . The accompanying Cuaderno de trabajo is equally well contextualized and includes an audio CD for oral practice. Further, like the textbook, the Cuaderno includes a variety of exercises including inventive, open-ended writing assignments, sometimes with cues and sometimes requiring library …


Idea: Family Flash Cards For Second-Language Or Ell Classes, Joan M. Hoffman Sep 2008

Idea: Family Flash Cards For Second-Language Or Ell Classes, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

Second-language and ELL students can practice vocabulary building, sentence construction, grammar, culture, and geography using this new and improved take on the flash card.


Review Of: Estrategias TemáTicas Y Narrativas En La Novela Feminizada De MaríA De Zayas, Joan M. Hoffman Mar 2008

Review Of: Estrategias TemáTicas Y Narrativas En La Novela Feminizada De MaríA De Zayas, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

Estrategias tematicas y narrativas en la novela feminizada de Maria de Zayas offers a fine introduction to and summary of Maria de Zayas's unique authorial strategies and techniques, viewed within the context of the male-dominated times in which she wrote. Nevertheless, more original insight would be appreciated, coupled, of course, with more accurate proofreading. Such revisions would certainly make for a more satisfying analysis of a fascinating subject.


Review Of: Aspect In Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus-Based Study, Edward J. Vajda Sep 2007

Review Of: Aspect In Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus-Based Study, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

The authors of this study pursue two goals. Citing examples from a large corpus of texts rather than relying primarily on native-speaker intuitions, they provide a fine-grained account of how aspect operates on both the lexical and sentential levels in contemporary Mandarin Chinese. Based on this description, they propose a number of refinements to currently existing general theories of aspect. The accompanying discussion revisits such important issues as the difference between aspect and Aktionsart, situation aspect vs. viewpoint aspect, contextual levels of analysis, and the notion of time vs. space in definitions of event boundedness.


Review Of: A Grammar Of Kwaza, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2007

Review Of: A Grammar Of Kwaza, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This fundamental account of Kwaza, an unclassified language spoken by twenty five people in a remote area of Brazil’s state of Rondoˆnia, makes a superb addition in every way. Based primarily on the author’s extensive fieldwork from 1995 to 2002, it contains a thorough analysis of all aspects of the phonology, morphology, and syntax. It also provides useful commentary on varied aspects of the speakers’ culture and history, likewise hitherto barely remarked upon in any publication. Before the author’s work, documentation of this critically endangered language was limited to three brief word lists compiled in 1938, 1943, and 1984—data the …


Review Of: Time In Child Inuktitut: A Developmental Study Of An Eskimo-Aleut Language, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2007

Review Of: Time In Child Inuktitut: A Developmental Study Of An Eskimo-Aleut Language, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

Most studies of child language acquisition up till now have focused on Indo-European or the major languages of East Asia. An investigation of how children master the typologically very different structure of a language such as Inuktitut is therefore of considerable theoretical interest. This book describes how children up to the age of three and a half acquire the mechanisms of time reference in the Tarramiut (Hudson Strait) subdialect of Inuktitut, a language spoken by about fifteen hundred Inuit in arctic Quebec.


Review Of: España Y Su Civilización, Joan M. Hoffman Mar 2007

Review Of: España Y Su Civilización, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

With this textbook, Michael Ugarte and Kathleen McNerney offer a new and revised fifth edition of the late Francisco Ugarte's well-known and much-used Espa?a y su civilizaci?n, first published in 1952. In keeping with the elder Ugarte's original goal of presenting an overview of "the fundamental aspects of Spain's culture" (xi), the younger Ugarte and McNerney also employ "a historical perspective to explore the great developments in fine arts: literature, visual arts, music" (xi). That is, like the original and other previous versions, this new edition combines Spanish history and important aspects of so-called "large-C" culture in a format accessible …


Review Of: A Grammar Of Mangghuer: A Mongolic Language Of China's Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund, Edward J. Vajda Dec 2006

Review Of: A Grammar Of Mangghuer: A Mongolic Language Of China's Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

One of the least remarked aspects of the Mongol conquest is the dissemination of Mongolic languages to various corners of Eurasia. Like the far-flung remnants of a supernova, some of these are still spoken today. Keith Slater's book is a detailed synchronic description of one such language, called Mangghuer, which has received little attention from Western linguists before the appearance of this study.


Review Of: Gender In Indo-European, Edward J. Vajda Dec 2006

Review Of: Gender In Indo-European, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This book takes a fresh look at the development of gender in Early and Late Proto-Indo-European. Matasovic reduces the diachronic picture to a few basic facts, while also making informed comparisons with non-Indo-European (IE) languages. Early Proto-IE appears to reveal a binary noun-class opposition between a common gender and a neuter gender, with the feminine arising only later


Review Of: Beginning Creek (Mvskoke Emponvkv), Edward J. Vajda Dec 2006

Review Of: Beginning Creek (Mvskoke Emponvkv), Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This introductory course is aimed at speakers who wish to maintain and pass on their ancestral language. Each chapter begins with a straightforward explanation of the concepts covered, so even students with no formal linguistic training will find the presentation easy to follow. At the same time, the material is sophisticated enough to be of illustrative value to typologists as well. The inclusion of morpheme glosses beneath most example sentences should be particularly welcome to the serious linguist.


De Princesas Y Hadas Madrinas: La Cárcel De Género En Tigre Juan Y El Curandero De Su Honra De Ramón Pérez De Ayala, María Francisca Paredes Méndez Sep 2006

De Princesas Y Hadas Madrinas: La Cárcel De Género En Tigre Juan Y El Curandero De Su Honra De Ramón Pérez De Ayala, María Francisca Paredes Méndez

Modern & Classical Languages

Ramón Pérez de Ayala publica, en 1926, "Tigre Juan y El curandero de su honra", obra única en dos volúmenes. En conjunto la obra se presenta como una alegoría social que promociona un cierto modelo de hombre y mujer como base de una comunidad renovada. El deseo de transformación presente en la obra se hace eco de las voces de los intelectuales que en los años veinte se reunían en torno a la Revista de Occidente y la tertulia iniciada por su fundador, José Ortega y Gasset, de la que el propio Pérez de Ayala formaba parte. En el turbulento …


Review Of: Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2006

Review Of: Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This concise yet detailed treatment of Standard Mandarin Chinese focuses almost entirely upon diverse aspects of phrase and sentence construction. It is not a basic learner's grammar with a graduated presentation of material. Lacking any introduction to the phonology or writing, this book is intended for those already familiar with some form of Chinese orthography.


Review Of: Galdos Beyond Realism: Reading And The Creation Of Magical Worlds, Joan M. Hoffman May 2006

Review Of: Galdos Beyond Realism: Reading And The Creation Of Magical Worlds, Joan M. Hoffman

Modern & Classical Languages

Timothy McGovern's latest offering, Galdós Beyond Realism: Reading and the Creation of Magical Worlds, may prove surprising, if not a bit unsettling, for the die-hard, skeptical fan of Spanish High Realism who can not imagine the words "Galdós" and "magical worlds" in the same sentence. Nonetheless, McGovern presents a fascinating examination of what he terms Don Benito's "magical fictions" (7). He jostles us out of our comfort zone, examining "post-realist, non-realist, or magical" Galdosian works that push the limits of traditional realism through the employment of metafictional and magical frames, supernatural interventions, and a very conscious lack of verisimilitude (29). …


Review Of: Yearbook Of Morphology 1999, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2005

Review Of: Yearbook Of Morphology 1999, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This Yearbook volume contains eleven articles, five on diachronic aspects of morphology, the rest dealing with miscellaneous topics. The data derives mainly from Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages.


Review Of: A Student Grammar Of Euskara, Edward J. Vajda Sep 2004

Review Of: A Student Grammar Of Euskara, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

Devotees of Basque (Euskara) have been enjoying a steady increase in the number of user-friendly introductions to the complexities of this fascinating language. There already exist beginner courses accompanied by cassette tapes (e.g. Alan R. King and Begotxu Olaizola Elordi, Colloquial Basque, London: Routledge, 1996), something that not long ago was mainly a luxury of the more frequently studied languages. This book adds the first full-length English-language description of Euskara grammar written for pedagogical purposes.


Review Of: Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, And Poetry Of Saigyō, Michiko Yusa Apr 2004

Review Of: Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, And Poetry Of Saigyō, Michiko Yusa

Modern & Classical Languages

A quarter of a century ago William LaFleur published his book on Saigyō, Mirror for the Moon, which the present work, Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyō, thoughtfully and masterfully supersedes. In the first part of the book, "The Life and Times of Saigyō," the author succinctly incorporates many of these findings and relates Saigyo's poems both to historical events and to his personal life experience (pp. 1-70). The second half of the book contains LaFleur's translation of over 150 poems by Saigyō, all of which appear to be taken from his earlier book.


Review Of: Circum-Baltic Languages Vol. 1: Past And Present, And Circum-Baltic Languages Vol. 2: Grammar And Typology, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2003

Review Of: Circum-Baltic Languages Vol. 1: Past And Present, And Circum-Baltic Languages Vol. 2: Grammar And Typology, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

These twin volumes grew out of a six-year research program entitled 'Language typology around the Baltic Sea', sponsored by the Faculty of Humanities at Stockholm University and directed by one of the editors (Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm). They seek to unite the broad sweep characteristic of typological inquiries with the finer-grained detail typical of language contact studies. While K-T concedes that Circum-Baltic (CB) languages are not a true Sprachbund, she emphasizes that the contact situation in northeastern Europe has never been assessed holistically because the languages spoken there have traditionally been the domain of separate disciplines founded on genetic lines. Many facets …


Review Of: The Phonology Of Standard Chinese, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2003

Review Of: The Phonology Of Standard Chinese, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

San Duanmu's eclectic, clearly written approach to the sound pattern of Standard Chinese (or putonghua, China's official lingua franca used by hundreds of millions) could easily serve as an undergraduate text, yet his presentation is rich in theoretical proposals. Explanations are based on a variety of perspectives, from traditional views of the phoneme to feature geometry and optimality theory (OT), each concisely introduced so that the discussion is easy to follow, even for the novice. The result is a flowing, integrated approach that addresses-and solves-some of the thorniest perennial problems in Chinese phonology.


Review Of: Evidentials: Turkic, Iranian And Neighbouring Languages, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2003

Review Of: Evidentials: Turkic, Iranian And Neighbouring Languages, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This collection represents an important contribution to the study of evidentials. It contains many descriptive advances and showcases the plurality of current views on evidentiality-something apparent even in the diverse terminology used by the individual contributors. Most important, the volume proposes new topics for future investigation, thereby offering much of real value to typologists, language contact specialists, and anyone interested in processes of grammatical change


Review Of: Non-Canonical Marking Of Subjects And Objects, Edward J. Vajda Jun 2003

Review Of: Non-Canonical Marking Of Subjects And Objects, Edward J. Vajda

Modern & Classical Languages

This crosslinguistic study of patterns formed by exceptions to general typological rules governing the verb-external valence marking of grammatical terms investigates diverse languages-some familiar, others barely described in the literature at all. The results should be of interest to linguists of all theoretical persuasions as they impinge on our understanding of a core area of grammar.