Linguistics Commons^™

'The Letter Killeth': The Obscurity Of Language And Communication In Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure 2016, Victoria T. Corning

Master's Theses

While the epistolary novel is a genre closely associated with 18th century England, 19th century Victorian literature also incorporates letter writing as a significant form of communication. Written messages convey what can often not be said out loud, as it is easier to hide behind a pen and paper, write in solitude, and be absent when the letter is read by the recipient. Impulsive and emotional thoughts and feelings can be written down immediately and then later edited, which makes writing an unstable form of communication. Is the author conveying true feelings or concealing true feelings? Layering multiple modes of …

Isolated Words Selectively Enhance Memory For High Transitional Probability Sound Sequences, Ferhat Karaman

Masters Theses

Research over the past two decades has demonstrated that infants are equipped with remarkable computational abilities that allow them to find words in continuous speech. Infants can encode information about the transitional probability (TP) between syllables to segment words from speech when tested immediately after familiarization with an artificial (e.g., Saffran, Aslin & Newport, 1996) or natural language (Pelucchi, Hay, & Saffran, 2009). However, infants’ ability to retain the sequential statistics beyond the immediate familiarization context remains unknown. In the present study, we examine infants’ memory for statistically-defined words 10- minutes following familiarization with a naturally produced Italian corpus. Eight-month-old …

Global-To-Local-To-Global: A Model For Tutoring Esl Students In The Writing Center, David Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception, the writing center has always focused on traditional students, and today that tradition is continued in such a way that the overwhelming amount of research dedicated to writing center theory and practice addresses the concerns of those students. However, universities with unique student populations, such as the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with its majority of Hispanic students, require novel practices within their writing centers. Moreover, much of the linguistic, social, and cultural factors of the region are not well documented and therefore are not addressed by the mainstream theory and practices of other universities. With …

Is Big Press Tougher On "She"-Eos?, Kenan G. Smith

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Yiddish Diction In Singing, Carrie Suzanne Schuster-Wachsberger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The standard for classical singers in the United States to be trained in the singing diction of the German, Italian, and English languages. This sung diction varies from the spoken diction for those languages and is therefore important for singers to study in classes dedicated to singing language pronunciation. Literature is also available for the instruction in the singing diction of numerous other languages including Latin, Spanish, Czech, Russian, and Hebrew. While there is a vast scope of languages represented by vocal diction guides, there is no available singing diction guide for Yiddish songs, despite the spectrum of classical vocal …

Bad French: Imagining Illiteracy On The Margins Of Paris, Cat Tebaldi

Cat Tebaldi

Lingua Franca: An Analysis Of Globalization And Language Evolution, Abigail Watson

Honors Projects

This project details the evolution of languages and how globalization and advances in communication have effected smaller language groups. A world community in which communication is standardized by a Lingua Franca is in most cases harmful for isolated language groups without many speakers. The extinction of language is harmful for human society and culture, and there are many different ways to help prevent language extinction.

This project includes an essay, an animation, six illustrations, and a coloring book that all relate to endangered languages.

From Building Vocabulary To Talking About Family Traditions Together: Discussions On The Facebook Group “Hoisan Phrases 學講台山話”, Melissa Chen, Genevieve Leung

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This poster focuses on online discourses of an online Facebook group - “Hoisan Phrases.” “Hoisan Phrases” is used to construct positive ideologies about Hoisan-wa. Using multicompetence and symbolic competence frameworks, these online interactions are sites where Hoisan-wa speakers engage in the ability “to perform and construct various historicities in dialogue with others” (Kramsch & Whiteside). Humor serves as a way of moving beyond negative ideologies of Hoisan-wa. Data comes from a corpus of three years’ worth of posts. The data demonstrates a re-envisioning of the way we view Hoisan-wa vis-à-vis online communication, and expands the domains of language use.

The Effect Of Signal-Independent Information And Sentence Predictability On Speech Comprehension In Babble Noise For Typical Hearing Young Adults, Mariah N. Smart

Linguistics Senior Research Projects

The influence of signal-independent information and sentence predictability on listeners’ comprehension was investigated by measuring transcription accuracy of a series of English sentences spoken in multi-talker babble background noise with circumstances varying between sets of sentences. Fourteen native English speaking young adults with no self-reported hearing or language disabilities completed written transcriptions of four sets of sentences. Listeners were presented with a control set of the signal alone, followed by a set of sentences spoken in multi-talker babble noise, then a set with visual presence of the speaker included, and finally a set where content context was given in addition …

Is This Author Intelligent? The Effect Of Spelling Errors On Perception Of Authors, Rachel M. Schloneger

Linguistics Senior Research Projects

This study seeks to understand how the presence of spelling errors affects readers’ perceptions of an author’s intelligence and writing ability. Undergraduate students and professors read a short essay and completed a sixteen-question questionnaire concerning their perceptions of the author and the essay. The number of spelling errors present (zero, five, or ten) in the essay was manipulated by the researcher. Participant perceptions of the author and the essay suffered as more spelling errors were found. Participants in the five- and ten-error conditions judged both the author and the essay more harshly, giving it lower scores. Further, intelligence ratings suffered …

What’S In A Name? Sound Symbolism And Coffee Shops, Claire Anderson

Linguistics Senior Research Projects

This study explores the relationship between sound symbolism and coffee shop names. Specifically, phonetic qualities in coffee shop names have crossmodal associations with other sensory experiences such as taste, sight, sound, and touch. Previous studies show a strong association between product or brand name and consumer preference; therefore, a study of coffee shop names is worthwhile in expanding the corpus of sound symbolism knowledge. A phonetic analysis of top-rated coffee shops in the United States, paired with a survey, shows that a balance of stops and smoother phonemes (fricatives, nasals, laterals, etc.), as well as a mixture of front and …

A Linguistic Comparison Of Biblical Greek And English: How Should The Adverbial Participle Be Translated?, Sarah C. Nickchen

Linguistics Senior Research Projects

This paper combines the two fields of linguistics and biblical Greek studies in a scientific study of original research. Linguistics can be defined as “the scientific study of the language systems of the world” (Black, 1995, 5). Biblical Greek studies focus on analysis of the original New Testament text. Semantics (the meaning of words and phrases) is one subfield of linguistics, and the focus of this paper. The Greek adverbial participle is the most versatile Greek participle. The English adverbial participle is much less versatile. Thus, this paper focuses on adverbial participles in Greek and English in order to determine …

Spanish For Heritage Speakers: Instructional Module #1, Gabriela C. Zapata

Activities and Assignments Collection

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

1. Identify and name characteristics of the narrative genre;

2. Identify the rules for and correctly use the preterite and imperfect;

3. Identify the rules for the accentuation of palabras agudas and esdrújulas and correctly apply them;

4. Write a narrative of at least 300 words;

5. Understand the rules behind the production of visual "texts";

6. Produce a visual narrative using images and video.

The Relative Effects Of Processing Instruction And Traditional Output Instruction On The Acquisition Of The Arabic Subjunctive., Youness Mountaki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The role of input and output in the acquisition of language has been a source of controversy in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. This present study aimed to investigate the relative effects of processing instruction (PI) as a type of input-based instruction and traditional instruction (TI) as a type of output-based instruction. Specifically, this experiment examined whether PI and TI bring about any improvement in comprehension and production of the Arabic subjunctive by beginner-level learners of Arabic. The PI instructional technique was based on the principles of input processing suggested by VanPatten (1993, 2002, 2004). It has three main elements: …

Animacy And Alienability: A Reconsideration Of English Possession, Jaimee Jones

Senior Honors Theses

Current scholarship on English possessive constructions, the s-genitive and the of-construction, largely ignores the possessive relationships inherent in certain English compound nouns. Scholars agree that, in general, an animate possessor predicts the s-genitive while an inanimate possessor predicts the of-construction. However, the current literature rarely discusses noun compounds, such as the table leg, which also express possessive relationships. However, pragmatically and syntactically, a compound cannot be considered as a true possessive construction. Thus, this paper will examine why some compounds still display possessive semantics epiphenomenally. The noun compounds that imply possession seem to exhibit relationships prototypical of inalienable …

¿Vera O Verra? Using Principles Of Task-Based Language Teaching To Practice Spanish Rhotics, Avizia Long

Faculty Publications

Research on task-based language teaching and learning has demonstrated that tasks may encourage second/foreign language development, specifically by facilitating conditions believed to engage processes that are important for second language acquisition to occur (Robinson, 2011; Skehan, 2014). Recent studies conducted by Solon, Long, and Gurzynski-Weiss (2014, 2015) have demonstrated that tasks designed to make pronunciation task essential do encourage learner attention to pronunciation, and increasing task complexity leads to greater accuracy in the production of the Spanish vowels [o] and [u]. This micro-teaching lesson, inspired by Solon et al., will showcase a task designed to make the pronunciation of the …

Ethnography Of A Genderqueer Community, Markita Session

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Linguistic Qualities Of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Public Addresses: A Primary Source Based Study, Ashleigh Cox

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Natural Language Processing Of Forum Data: Modeling Social Interaction And Performance In Stem Learning, Marissa Emory, Lucile Pitte

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Parent Child Interaction And Language Stimulation On Children's Language Development, Rachel E. Timm, Helen Raikes

UCARE Research Products

Research Questions:

• Does parent positive regard relate to a child’s receptive language development?

• Does language stimulation relate to a child’s receptive language development?

• Does parent bookreading behavior (reading fluency, reading intonation/animation, comfort level, and child involvement) relate to a child’s receptive language development?

Measures:

• Preschool Language Scale-5 (PLS-5)
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (PPVT-4)
• HOME Language and Literacy Scale
• Video Codes from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care

Results:

• Positive regard was not significantly related to the PLS-5 or the PPVT-4.
• The HOME Language and Literacy Scale was a significant predictor of the PPVT-4 and was related to the PLS-5 …