Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sign Language Word List Comparisons: Toward A Replicable Coding And Scoring Methodology, Jason Parks

Theses and Dissertations

This study describes and evaluates a methodology for sign language word list comparisons. The purpose of this sociolinguistic research tool is to identify similarity relationships among sign language varieties by assessing similarities of lexical items. Similarities are calculated using the Levenshtein distance metric which measures the number of differences between signs.

In this study, the methodology was refined for optimal efficiency through an analysis of: which parameters of a sign should be compared, which values should be included in each parameter value inventory, and which items should be used in the word list. As a result of the study, I …

Simultaneity Between Trade And Conflict: Endogenous Instruments Of Mass Destruction, Cullen F. Goenner

Economics & Finance Faculty Publications

The classical liberal belief is trade, which economically benefits countries, creates ties binding the interests of countries and reduces conflict. While the vast majority of the empirical literature supports this view, recent research questions these findings by also considering the reciprocal relationship between trade and conflict. If conflict also influences trade, then trade is an endogenous right hand side regressor and previous estimates which ignore this are inconsistent. This article determines when one uses appropriate instruments for the endogenous regressors that trade reduces conflict and conflict reduces trade. Failure to use such instruments results in inconsistent estimates and can lead …

Eerc Economic Impact, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Brochure summarizing the economic impact of the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC).

Phonological And Phonetic Aspects Of Enggano Vowels, Brendon E. Yoder

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes aspects of Enggano phonology and phonetics, primarily at the word level. It focuses mainly on vowels and vocoid sequences.

The Enggano phoneme inventory consists of twelve consonants and fourteen vowels in a seven-vowel oral system and an analogous seven-vowel nasal system. There are seven possible syllable types. Word stress is consistently final in both monomorphemic and polymorphemic words. Acoustic measurements show that word stress is indicated by intensity in closed syllables, and possibly by length and pitch in both open and closed syllables.

There are a few allophononic processes in Enggano. An intrusive vowel (Hall 2006) is …

Thematic Groupings In Magpie Miao Narrative, Won Ho Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Magpie Miao is a Hmong-Mien language spoken in Guizhou Province of southwest China. This thesis presents a description of three particles (jik, nid, and dik) and participant reference, which are both useful for understanding boundaries between and climaxes within thematic groupings. The primary data source for this thesis consists of five oral narratives, one of which is included in the appendix.

The three particles function as both aspectual markers and connectives. They function as the former when they occur at the end of a clause and as the latter when they occur at or near the …

A Grammar Of Signwriting, Stuart M. Thiessen

Theses and Dissertations

Signed languages have not enjoyed the benefits of writing for lack of an effective writing system. Writing systems designed for spoken languages are not easily adaptable to signed languages because signed languages are not based on sound. A successful writing system for sign languages must convey a different set of articulators, namely the configurations and movements of the hands, head, and body to convey meaning. This necessarily means that writing systems for signed languages must find a way to express those articulators, reducing a three-dimensional event to a written representation.

One such writing system is SignWriting, a system developed by …

Music, Anthropology, And The Senses: Cognition For Social Change, Marcia Mikulak

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Both anthropology and music embrace the method of participant observation: performance and observation of self and others. As a classical musician, I bring a musical heritage in both classical and experimental music performance, and as a cultural anthropologist my training in ethnology allows me to couple musical sensibilities with participant observation. This paper explores three venues of human expression: experimental musical improvisation, musical performance with and for street and working youth in Brazil, and anthropological fieldwork. I argue that the combination of musical expression and participant observation provide unique opportunities to share the universality of lived experiences, while augmenting complex …

The Symbolic Power Of Color: Constructions Of Race, Skin-Color, And Identity In Brazil, Marcia Mikulak

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Some current cultural anthropologists define race as a social construct, yet explorations of the socio-historical constructions that give form and structure to racial identities perpetuating notions of “race” are rarely discussed. This study explores the theory of racial formations proposed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant as it applies to Brazil’s racial project, arguing that Brazil’s rhetoric on race and national identity during the late 19th to early 20th century culminated in a racial project ultimately known as democracia racial. As a result, I propose that Brazilian racial consciousness is symbolically pluralistic, encompassing race, social class, and social position, generating …

The Seris And The Comcaac: Sifting Fact From Fiction About The Names And Relationships, Stephen A. Marlett

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

This paper discusses the names that have been used in the literature for the Seri people and the language that they speak, including meanings of those names. It also sorts through proposals that have been made for the relationship of their language to other languages. These topics are presented from a historical perspective so that a non-specialist can understand the facts and see the reasons for the confusion.

Corrections To And Clarifications Of The Seri Data In Greenberg & Ruhlen's "An Amerind Etymological Dictionary", Stephen A. Marlett

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

Seri data have been included in comparative studies of Native American languages of North America, especially those that relate to the putative Hokan family and the putative Amerind family. Since the publication in recent years of much more analyzed Seri data, including those found in the 2005 dictionary, it is important to reassess the data that has been used in earlier comparative studies. This paper examines the data included in Greenberg & Ruhlen's (2007) An Amerind Etymological Dictionary, corrects mistakes and clarifies the data generally.