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Gender And The Poetics Of Conversation, Cassie Keller, Dr. William Eggington Sep 2013

Gender And The Poetics Of Conversation, Cassie Keller, Dr. William Eggington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This research extended the findings of Neal Norrick and Deborah Tannen in examining the poetical elements of conversation and gender differences in discourse. Related research suggests that the “poeticity” of conversational language among and between sexes has not been analyzed (Norrick). This project was conducted by recording and transcribing face to face discussions between three groups: females to females, males to males, females to males. Using poetic elements, these conversations were analyzed to show the different ways the genders utilize these devices and how they combine them when speaking together.

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American Attitudes Toward Six Varieties Of English In The Usa And Britain, Katherine Morris, Dr. Wendy Baker Aug 2013

American Attitudes Toward Six Varieties Of English In The Usa And Britain, Katherine Morris, Dr. Wendy Baker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Studying attitudes toward different varieties of English has helped researchers understand how different language groups interact. When a listener judges a particular speaker based solely on his or her variety of English, the listener is really making a judgment on the group the speaker belongs to. Thus, a listener’s attitude toward a particular variety of English can indirectly reveal the listener’s prejudices (good or bad) toward the group of people who speak that variety. For this project, I conducted an attitudinal study that examined how Americans feel about different varieties of British and American English.

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A Comparative Study: Language Attitudes And Linguistic Practice In Amazonian Ecuador, Bradley Miller, Dr. Janis B. Nuckolls Aug 2013

A Comparative Study: Language Attitudes And Linguistic Practice In Amazonian Ecuador, Bradley Miller, Dr. Janis B. Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The original Quechua language was the main language spoken in the ancient Inca Empire. This language became over the years the native language of many Indians of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile. However in the 1500’s, with the conquistadores, Spanish became the language of dominance and power in Ecuador. Over time, and because of geographical and social separations, Quechua has become separated into several different dialects. Scientifically these dialects are considered mutually intelligible, though most natives say this isn’t true.

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Foundation For The Gevterm Multilingual Database French-English Food Terms, Jennifer Smith, Dr. Alan K. Melby Aug 2013

Foundation For The Gevterm Multilingual Database French-English Food Terms, Jennifer Smith, Dr. Alan K. Melby

Journal of Undergraduate Research

GEvTerm is an initiative whose primary goal is to “address language challenges on a global scale” . One method for achieving this goal is to provide databases of terms in many different languages in order to help facilitate translation and communication. One example is their Olympic Sporting Events Database which provides translations for all the sports names used in the Olympics. My research project was to create a similar database but intended for food terms and with a concentration on French and English terms.

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Na Wahi Pana O Hawai’I: Sacred Places Of Hawai’I, Eve Okura, Dr. Cynthia Hallen Aug 2013

Na Wahi Pana O Hawai’I: Sacred Places Of Hawai’I, Eve Okura, Dr. Cynthia Hallen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In cultures with oral traditions, sacred place names and ritual language may serve as a sacred text of a people. Cultures across the globe have unique definitions of and rules reagrding sacred space. Knowing these rules and definitions can help the cross-cultural traveler exhibit more culturally sensitive behavior in other lands.

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Phonological And Semantic Influence Of L1 And L2 In L3 Acquisition, Silia Dutson, Dr. Wendy Baker Aug 2013

Phonological And Semantic Influence Of L1 And L2 In L3 Acquisition, Silia Dutson, Dr. Wendy Baker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

As an international student it’s easy to see the importance of language learning and how it can be a means to create and take advantage of opportunities. The learning of a second language is so important that there is an extensive field of research dedicated to improving the learning methods of a second language. Research has allowed the development of resources and a better understanding of how languages are learned.

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Memory-Texts And The Interdiscursive Construction Of Identity Among The Khmer Diaspora, Brandon Bales, Dr. Janies Nuckolls Aug 2013

Memory-Texts And The Interdiscursive Construction Of Identity Among The Khmer Diaspora, Brandon Bales, Dr. Janies Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Displaced people present a problem for ethnographic research in that they generally lack stable socio-cultural contexts on which researchers rely for making empirical observations. This study shows how people produce memory-texts as a way of recontextualizing themselves in new or unstable social situations and establishes memory-texts as the empirical material necessary to produce analysis on displaced people. The discursive production of memory-texts is an activity displaced people engage in to recontextualize and stabilize themselves in shifting or new environments. Memory-texts are composed of the interface between defining moments in people’s lives and recent experiences and cultural frameworks. As an interdiscursive …

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Summary Of Hungarian Apocalypse Analysis, Arle R. Lommel, Dr. John Robertson Aug 2013

Summary Of Hungarian Apocalypse Analysis, Arle R. Lommel, Dr. John Robertson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The fifteenth century was an important time in the development of the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian language. Despite a war with both the Turks and the Austrians, Hungarian culture was undergoing a flowering in the independent principality of Transylvania. This was linked largely to the introduction of printing from Germany. For the first time Hungarian texts could be disseminated widely to a populace that had never seen vernacular literature before. Particularly important in this blossoming was the publication of biblical translations, translations that the Reformers thought would put God into the hands of the people and take away Rome’s …

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Stich On Charity And Truth, David A. Jensen, Dr. K. Codell Carter Aug 2013

Stich On Charity And Truth, David A. Jensen, Dr. K. Codell Carter

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Stephen Stich argues in the Fragmentation of Reason for a pragmatic account of cognition; that is, our processes of how we acquire knowledge should be evaluated, he maintains, not on how well they produce true beliefs, but on how well they produce beliefs relevant to some pragmatic value (survival, happiness, and so forth). To put forth his pragmatic account, Stich first must debunk at least two mainstays of epistemology: charity and truth.

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Men, Women, And Russian Requests: The Influence Of Gender On The Pragmatic Competence Of Second Language Learners, Elizabeth Hassell, Jennifer Brown Aug 2013

Men, Women, And Russian Requests: The Influence Of Gender On The Pragmatic Competence Of Second Language Learners, Elizabeth Hassell, Jennifer Brown

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Dr. Jennifer Bown and I wished to assess how gender affects the pragmatic competence of students learning Russian. By analyzing the differences between men and women’s ability to form appropriate requests in their second language, we hoped to assist other researchers in developing better language-teaching techniques.

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Orca Grant Final Report, Alisha Walbrecht Aug 2013

Orca Grant Final Report, Alisha Walbrecht

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Metaphors are a very important aspect of language, particularly of the English language. Lakoff and Johnson opened linguists to the study of metaphors by pointing out that English speakers use metaphors throughout their speech. For example, Lakoff and Johnson say that the phrase “spending time” is evidence of the metaphor “time is money,” which allows speakers to use money terms with time terms. According to Lakoff and Johnson, these metaphors permeate almost every aspect of English speech.

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Syntax And English Language Acquisition, Malena Weitze, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Aug 2013

Syntax And English Language Acquisition, Malena Weitze, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An oral testing method, Elicited imitation (EI), has provided helpful insight into the process of language acquisition and language assessment over the past 40 years. EI is an oral test in which the subject hears a sentence, forms a cognitive representation, and then produces a sentence according to that representation (Bley-Vroman & Chaudron 1994, 245). The theory behind EI is that, controlling for utterance length, people can only reproduce an utterance if they understand its syntax (sentence structure). Although there is controversy concerning the use of EI—asserting that it is not the most precise language acquisition assessment tool—currently prevalent methods …

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Semantic Change In Supreme Context: Semantics In The Privacy Line And Originalist Interpretation, Adam Prestidge, Dr. William Eggington Aug 2013

Semantic Change In Supreme Context: Semantics In The Privacy Line And Originalist Interpretation, Adam Prestidge, Dr. William Eggington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In a nation governed by laws, change in the meaning of the words that compose those laws can have an unexpected impact. When I began to research this topic, I noticed that in certain Supreme Court cases, the word liberty was central to the discussion of the rights in question, and was used in some surprising ways. In the 2003 Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, liberty was described as something that guaranteed “the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention.” After this statement piqued my interest, I noticed that Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey …

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English Article Acquisition Of Native Russian Speakers, Jacob Burdis, Ray Graham Aug 2013

English Article Acquisition Of Native Russian Speakers, Jacob Burdis, Ray Graham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For decades, researchers have explored various aspects of the development or morphology in second language learners of English. Undoubtedly, one of the most popular models describing this development is the natural order hypothesis. Stephen Krashen (1977) presents an average morphological order of acquisition for English where learners, “acquiring English as a second language also show a “natural order” for grammatical morphemes, regardless of their first language” (p. 146). Many recent studies have challenged the assertion that a learners’ native language does not influence this order, but plays a vital role in its development. This study examines an aspect of the …

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Creating A Sentence-Level Syntactic, Morphological And Lexical Feature Identification Application, Ross Hendrickson, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Aug 2013

Creating A Sentence-Level Syntactic, Morphological And Lexical Feature Identification Application, Ross Hendrickson, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Elicited imitation (EI) was originally used to study L1 acquisition in children and has since been applied to L2 oral proficiency testing (Chaudron, 1994). The PSST research group I am involved with has been researching EI as a viable method of language proficiency testing for some years now. An EI test consists of a series of sentence-length items that a subject must repeat verbatim after hearing each one. The sentences must be carefully chosen for their lexical, morphological, syntactic, and semantic content as well as for their length (usually counted in syllables). The primary impetus for this research project lies …

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The Least You Should Know About Teaching A Second Or Foreign Language, Danielle Shurtleff, Lynn Henrichsen Aug 2013

The Least You Should Know About Teaching A Second Or Foreign Language, Danielle Shurtleff, Lynn Henrichsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

People from a wide variety of different backgrounds and ages participate in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Many will be going abroad to countries where people need English to advance their education or employment. A majority of them will not have the training and experience that they should have to effectively teach English and are not in a position, due to finances, timing, or location, to get a TESOL degree or certificate. I am working with Dr. Henrichsen on a project that will solve the problem of inexperienced teachers going abroad with little or no knowledge or experience. …

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Researching English Language Instruction To The Deaf In Germany, Brooke Harding, Dr. Mark W. Tanner Aug 2013

Researching English Language Instruction To The Deaf In Germany, Brooke Harding, Dr. Mark W. Tanner

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The principle question this research was to address is how instructors for the deaf in Germany are approaching English language and literacy development in deaf students. (The term deaf is used in this paper to denote both deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals). English language instruction is part of the standard curriculum in schools for the deaf in Germany as a prerequisite for students to receive the secondary school certificate of completion (RealschulabschlujB) or to take the college entrance exam (Abitur). However, language learning presents deaf students with significant challenges. Language in its spoken form is virtually inaccessible to the deaf which …

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Over The Individualism Wall: Creating An Ubuntu Community At Immaculate Conception Catholic Parish, Jordan Layton, Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw Aug 2013

Over The Individualism Wall: Creating An Ubuntu Community At Immaculate Conception Catholic Parish, Jordan Layton, Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw

Journal of Undergraduate Research

As I near my host family’s neighborhood, the streets become constraining tunnels. Lining the curbs are wall after wall of concrete above my head, topped with razor wires, electric lines, or metal spikes. The only breaks to the walled monotony are tall, jail-like gates. Shutting the automatic gate behind me instills the intentional impression of exclusion from the outside. Privacy and security of walled homes is increasingly sought after, even in townships where resistance to apartheid once forged strong communal unity. Here, such walls are also signs of community rejection. Both anthropologists and politicians have noted a decline in sense …

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Constructing A Stemma For The Lds Book Of Mormon, 1879-1911, Adam Neilan Davis, Dr. Royal Skousen Aug 2013

Constructing A Stemma For The Lds Book Of Mormon, 1879-1911, Adam Neilan Davis, Dr. Royal Skousen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During the period 1879-1911, seven editions of the Book of Mormon were published by or for the LDS Church. Each contains a significant number of variants which aid the researcher in establishing a history of relationships between various texts, otherwise known as a stemma. My research established the stemma beginning with the 1879 Liverpool edition and concluding with the 1911 Chicago large-type edition.

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Dialogue As Character Revelation In Wuthering Heights, Jennifer E. Shakespear, Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen Aug 2013

Dialogue As Character Revelation In Wuthering Heights, Jennifer E. Shakespear, Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In her novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brönte uses the dialogue of her characters to disclose their inner-most workings. Like real humans, characters in novels share a part of themselves every time they speak. Their personalities, moods, demeanor, affections, dispositions, and affinities are revealed through language. By conducting a detailed linguistic analysis of the dialogue of both Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, I hoped to discover language patterns reflecting their temperament, emotions, and relationships with other characters. I believe my study was very successful in achieving this goal.

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Progress Summary Of Translation Of The Parson’S Family, Owen F. Witesman, Ralph V. Larson Aug 2013

Progress Summary Of Translation Of The Parson’S Family, Owen F. Witesman, Ralph V. Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My first-draft translation of Finnish dramatist Minna Canth’s Papin Perhe [The Parson’s Family] is currently twenty pages (of one hundred thirty) from completion. This draft will be further proofed and refined by a number of character readings using individuals experienced in editing and dramatic interpretation. This final version will be submitted as my honors thesis in April of 2001. I will then publish the text online and seek print publication. The project as a whole has progressed somewhat more slowly than I had anticipated, owing mostly to an overestimation on my part as to how much text I would effectively …

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Hebrew Language Tutorial, David R. Coughanour, Chuck Bush Aug 2013

Hebrew Language Tutorial, David R. Coughanour, Chuck Bush

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When I proposed to undertake this project it was to provide a computer-aided language instruction tutorial for Hebrew 101 students. I was taking Hebrew 101 at the time that the opportunity to apply for an ORCA award came along and I remembered my Hebrew 101 instructor commenting that less than half of those who enroll in the class are able to make it to the end. Most of those who drop out do so after they encounter the first exam. My proposal was to develop a Hypercard-based computer program that would make that first exam more manageable and then to …

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The Ethnophysiologocial Janus: Changing Perceptions Of Illness And Curing In The Guatemalan Mayan Highlands, Steven Shem Rode, Dr. John P. Hawkins Aug 2013

The Ethnophysiologocial Janus: Changing Perceptions Of Illness And Curing In The Guatemalan Mayan Highlands, Steven Shem Rode, Dr. John P. Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Ethnomedical literature rarely addresses the problem of how illness is recognized and understood among Nahualenos in southwest Guatemala. In that area of the world, mother/infant mortality rates remain high, and local perceptions of illness continue to bewilder western biomedical caregivers. This study investigates data collected from doctor-patient communication, linguistics, and traditional medicine to explain how ethnophysiological understandings of illness exemplify effective and ineffective teaching methods about bacteriology and prevention within the liminal Nahualeno society.

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Teaching French Literacy In West Africa As Part Of A Byu Study Abroad Program, Charles Thomas Sones, Dr. Chantel P. Thompson Aug 2013

Teaching French Literacy In West Africa As Part Of A Byu Study Abroad Program, Charles Thomas Sones, Dr. Chantel P. Thompson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Before arriving in Africa, our contact had arranged for us to work in a village outside of Saint-Louis, Senegal, within walking distance of where we would be studying. We were told that a group of twenty adults and twenty children were already selected who needed literacy skills. Although we were not sure of their specific levels, we were told that most had no literacy skills and many would have no French language skills.

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Mythogony (The Creation Of Myth): A Comparative Religion Study Of Sai Culture, St. Shane Sanders, Dr. Lanier Britsch Aug 2013

Mythogony (The Creation Of Myth): A Comparative Religion Study Of Sai Culture, St. Shane Sanders, Dr. Lanier Britsch

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The scope of my research was the analysis of a syncretic paradigm extending from east to west. India houses the three major ashram(a)s of a new religious movement and sub-culture, united by a mythological belief in their guru, Swami Sathya Sai Baba. The village born guru boasts a following of one million, which is made up of indigenous Indians as well as foreigners coming from as nearby as Nepal and Burma to as far as San Francisco, London, Trinidad and Portugal to name but a few of the nationalities of the people I interviewed. The culture incorporates the religious thought …

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Semantic Class Disambiguation In Natural Language Soar, Anton Rytting, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Aug 2013

Semantic Class Disambiguation In Natural Language Soar, Anton Rytting, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Soar1 is a unified theory of human cognition implemented as a computer program. It posits that the interaction of a few fundamental mechanisms can account for any aspect of cognition. The theory’s computer implementation allows the creation of testable computer simulations of various cognitive tasks.

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English Language Learner Program Improvement Study, Amy Jones, Dr. Erin Whiting Aug 2013

English Language Learner Program Improvement Study, Amy Jones, Dr. Erin Whiting

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Parental involvement is a key focus of educational debate today because it has been shown to be correlated to academic achievement. I chose to help research and collect data to include in a longitudinal study conducted by Dr. Erin Whiting and Dr. Ray Graham of Brigham Young University. This purpose of this on-going study is to understand how parents of Hispanic students are involved in their child’s education, and in what ways that may differ from parents of other ethnic groups.

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Report On Orca-Funded Interpretation Research, Brian L. Price, Mariam B. Labrum Aug 2013

Report On Orca-Funded Interpretation Research, Brian L. Price, Mariam B. Labrum

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Last year I submitted a proposal for funding to support a research project aimed at improving the quality of interpreter training at the undergraduate level for all those students with demonstrated interest in the field of interpretation. I claimed that such improvements would benefit the existing Spanish Translation and Interpretation program at Brigham Young University, and could eventually serve the needs of other institutions. In the course of my investigation, I have determined that such improvements can be made with relatively little effort and without having to hire large quantities of additional staff to meet the needs of a stronger …

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A Bibliography Of Uighur Studies, David T. Allred, Dr. David C. Wrigth Aug 2013

A Bibliography Of Uighur Studies, David T. Allred, Dr. David C. Wrigth

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Uighur Turks are a minority group several million strong now living primarily in the desert oasis towns of western China. They first appeared on the world stage during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) as a fierce nomadic tribe threatening China from the Mongolian steppe. By raiding the border they forced the Tang government into doling out lavish protection payments, but later as allies to the Chinese the Uighur cavalry was instrumental in rescuing the government from destruction by civil war. Chinese dynastic records give vivid accounts of official processions to the capital at Changan and magnificent weddings between Chinese …

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The Evolution Of *-E:R In Mayan Languages, Christy Barber, Dr. John Robertson Aug 2013

The Evolution Of *-E:R In Mayan Languages, Christy Barber, Dr. John Robertson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Common Mayan had a suffix, *-e:r, which was an adverbial deictic clitic indicating past tense. (1) Its form and function remained fairly regular throughout the evolution of Common Mayan into more than 30 distinct languages. This study focuses on its evolution in the construction #-TIME-e:r, a Mayan phrase meaning “# days ago,” and that of its complementary phrase #-TIME, meaning “# days from now.” The most frequently occurring construction uses a form of the morpheme *-e:j “day,” as in Colonial Kaqchikel coh-eh-er “four days ago.”

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