Digital Commons Network^™

The Case Of Capaz In Argentina: An Epistemic Adverb With Mood Variability, Boris Yelin

Open Access Theses

This thesis examines mood selection in Argentine Spanish with epistemic adverbs considering the independent variables of certainty, temporal reference, and epistemic adverb. It is the first known study to investigate mood selection with the epistemic adverb capaz . A sentence completion task included 24 written contexts, each followed by a sentence with an epistemic adverbial to be completed with a verb, either in the indicative or subjunctive. The contexts contained information that made participants Certain (N = 12) or Not Certain (N = 12). Within the Certain and Not Certain contexts, four contexts expressed events in the future, four in …

Clausal Complements To Attitude Predicates Cross-Linguistically: Being Glad About What You Thought You Knew, Eric Anthony Follett

Open Access Theses

In this thesis I explore the syntactic structure of emotive factive predicates in Spanish, English, Tatar, and Mayangna. I analyze emotive factive predicates of the glad type, such as (1). (1) I'm glad you liked the cake.

First, I analyze the basic structural configuration of these predicates, claiming that the clausal Source of Experience argument is a complement to the lexical head glad. This is similar to the configuration of canonical transitive attitude predicates like semi-factive know and intensional think. Second, I claim, following Kiparsky and Kiparsky (1970) and Krapova (2010), that factive heads select complements headed by a (null) …

“Little Soldiers With Big Guns”: The Language Of Child-Soldiering In Africa, Karen J. Norris

Student Publications

This project examines the language of child-soldiering in Africa, specifically in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Uganda, comparing its use between Western observers and the Africans who experienced the conflict first hand. It concludes that Westerners unilaterally display ethnocentric conceptions of the sanctity of childhood in their admonitions of child-soldiering, while former child-soldiers, perpetrators, victims and local aid workers exhibit more diverse perspectives that more accurately reflect the complexity of the conflicts. Furthermore, it concludes that the use of rhetorical, monolithic language regarding child-soldiering perpetuates stereotypes about African conflict and state-failure while diverting attention from underlying root causes of conflict, and …

Urban Hermitage In Literature Of The City, Mark Ryan Mengel

Open Access Theses

Since Aristotle, theory and literature concerning the city has centered around the participant--those citizens who operate within the city system in more or less recognizable ways (i.e. politicians, police, rioters, workers, etc.). This thesis adds to that body of work by investigating the emergence and significance not of the participant, but rather of the nonparticipant who exists within the city system but is denied interaction within that system. I term this figure the hermit.

Chapter 1 focuses on establishing a theoretical framework for the hermit's emergence, using primarily Michel De Certeau's notions of city participation from his book The Practice …

Equality Isn’T All It’S Cracked Up To Be: The Price Of Duality And Bilingualism, Alexandria Roberts-Mendel

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

In the province of New Brunswick, English and French have shared co-official status since 1969, with the approval of the Official Languages Act. Francophones (French-speakers) make up a little over 31% of the population, and Anglophones (English-speakers) are the majority at 69% of the population. Even with equal linguistic rights, the Francophone minority often struggles to receive equal treatment in areas such as health care and education. From May-July 2013, I worked with Professor Keating Marshall on a SURP project, collecting 17 months’ worth of op-ed articles and letters to the editor from two of Southeastern New Brunswick’s Anglophone newspapers, …

Affect-Marked Lexemes And Their Relational Model Correlates, Robert Moore

Faculty Publications

Four categories of affect-marked lexemes are prominent in a variety of languages, suggesting thereby that all four may be universal, cross-cultural categories: slang, swearwords, honorifics and terms of endearment. Each of these categories (as well as the closely associated ones of nicknames and pet names) is "designed" to serve specific social functions. Data from China and the U.S. indicate that these lexemic categories overlap with each other both functionally and in terms of the specific lexemes that comprise them (Moore et al. 2010). However, they can be distinguished in terms of their prototypical forms and functions. Furthermore, the prototypical functions …

Studying Communication: Deepening My Understanding And Insights, Katie Sepa

Communication Studies

This paper shows the great impact that studying communication can have on an individual. It provides descriptive insights that are highly applicable to daily life. It also aims to spread that knowledge onto others, as the lessons revealed are quite valuable.

Speaking Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Hao Liang, Christopher Marquis, Luc Renneboog, Sunny Li Sun

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We argue that the language spoken by corporate decision makers influences their firms’ social responsibility and sustainability practices. Linguists suggest that obligatory future-time-reference (FTR) in a language reduces the psychological importance of the future. Prior research has shown that speakers of strong FTR languages (such as English, French, and Spanish) exhibit less future-oriented behavior (Chen, 2013). Yet, research has not established how this mechanism may affect the future-oriented activities of corporations. We theorize that companies with strong-FTR languages as their official/working language would have less of a future orientation and so perform worse in future-oriented activities such as corporate social …

The Cultural Foundations To Develop A Kichwa Language Program At El Centro Infantil Alejo Saes In Quito City, Ecuador, Maria Teran

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This qualitative study was concerned with the Kichwa values to develop a Kichwa language program for Indigenous children from birth to five-years old from El Centro Infantil Alejo Saes in Quito City. The parents of these children come from the Puesitús Indigenous community located in Chimborazo Province in the south of Ecuador. In the 1950s, these Indigenous Peoples migrated from their community to the city due to the lack of good living conditions and education. During the migration process, they left their Pachamama, the Mother Earth, and gradually began to lose their culture and language, as they were forced to …

An Exploration Of The Relationships Between Language, Culture, Safety, And Training In The Construction Workforce In New Mexico, Luis Guillermo Amezcua

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The purpose of safety training is to avoid or at least decrease the number of work-related accidents and deaths. This study was concerned with the role that native language plays in effective training of adult construction workers in New Mexico. Specifically, this study examined workers and trainers' perceptions of the effectiveness of safety training as these perceptions relate to language and cultural considerations. Bilingual safety training is often ineffective because the trainers are limited in their use of the second language. In some cases, individuals without a true grasp of the second language become trainers due to the large demand …

Lds Missionary Work In The Basque Language: How The Work Began, And Why It Was Discontinued, Devin Caywood, Dr. Bruce Vanorden

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Basque Country is a relatively small region composed of three (arguably four) provinces in North Central Spain and two in Southern France. Statistics state that there are two million people in Spanish and French Basque provinces that claim Basque as their first language. 70-80 percent of those people also speak Spanish or French, although at varying levels of fluency. That leaves about 400,000 people who speak only Basque. These people can only be taught discussions in Basque, and can only read church literature in Basque. On top of those 400,000, there are many more (around one and a half million …

Negotiating Language Policy And Practice: Teachers Of English Learners In An Arizona Study Group, Amy J. Heineke

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Arizona language policy now requires English learners to enroll in English language development classrooms for four hours of skill-based, English-only instruction. In this article, I describe Arizona teachers’ interpretation and negotiation of language policy and practice during this time of change to more restrictive mandates. I conducted this qualitative case study with a teacher study group comprised of six English language development teachers and one instructional coach from an urban elementary school during the first semester of language policy implementation. Using discourse analysis of individual interviews, study group dialog, and institutional documentation, I investigated teachers’ talk as they grappled with …

The Language And The Law: Trademark Dilution Online, David Stankiewicz, Dr. William Eggington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One of the most important areas of legal dispute today is internet trademark law. This has become an increasingly greater concern as more and more web pages grab for consumer attention. Many legal questions remain unanswered, and perhaps the most important of these is “Do we apply the old laws directly to cyberspace?” This question became a practical concern with “Kelley Blue Book v. Primdedia, Inc.”

Defining Gender Differences In Suriname Through Language, Shaun Hunley, Dr. David Bowie

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For the people of Suriname, the word “Sranan” is more than just a word, it is a symbol of national pride and independence. “Sranan” is the native word for Suriname, a small country on the northeastern coast of South America. Throughout its remarkable history, Suriname has transformed into a nation rich in culture and values. Its unique society bears the scars of Dutch colonialism while absorbing facets of African, Indian, and Indonesian cultures.

Phrasal Cloning Through Analogical Modeling Of Language, Deryl K. Hatch, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Analogical Modeling (AM) is an algorithm for systematically comparing related sets of data (‘vectors’) in search of patterns of recurrence or dominance, whether they be apparent or not, in order to predict the likely outcome of novel occurrences. As an alternative to rule-based explanations of language, for example, it allows analogy to predict behavior, instead of rules prescribing that behavior. The motivation behind this approach is the idea that the human mind learns and processes language more by analogy than through applying hierarchal rules. It has successfully modeled many tendencies in language: historical change in English, irregularities and “exceptional” behavior …

Determining The Relationship Between Language And Attention In Elders With Nonfluent Aphasia, Amanda Wadams

ETD Archive

Researchers have questioned whether the occurrence of aphasia creates executive function deficiencies that result in cognitive-linguistic deficits. Aphasia is a breakdown in language comprehension and production caused by a focal lesion in the left hemisphere of the brain (Papathanasiou, Coppens, & Potagas, 2013). Executive function refers to a set of "higher order component functions required to control and coordinate performance on complex problem solving tasks" (Dick & Overton, 2010). Researchers have speculated that attention, an important part of executive function, may be compromised in addition to language deficits in persons with aphasia. The purpose of this exploratory multiple case comparison …

Why Do Narcissists Disregard Social-Etiquette Norms? A Test Of Two Explanations For Why Narcissism Relates To Offensive-Language Use, John Milton Adams, Dan Florell, K. Alex Burton, William Hart

Psychology Faculty and Staff Research

Narcissists often fail to abide by norms for polite social conduct, but why? The current study addressed this issue by exploring reasons why narcissists use more offensive language (i.e., profanity) than non-narcissists. In this study, 602 participants completed a survey in which they responded on a measure of trait narcissism, rated several offensive words on the degree to which the words were attention-grabbing and offensive, and then indicated how frequently they used the words. Consistent with the idea that narcissists use offensive language to gain attention, narcissists were incrementally more likely to use offensive language if they perceived such language …

The Mockingbird - 2014, Department Of Literature And Language, East Tennessee State University, Etsu Department Of Art And Design

The Mockingbird [magazine]

Andrew Barnes [Good Stock]; Josh Blevins [Firebird]; Joseph Bowman [Epilogue]; Nikki Buckner-McCoy [Bargaining]; Andrew Butler [Octet and Sestet from an Asheville Balcony, Convalescent Haiku, Alchemy, Coming of Age Again and The Graduate]; Danielle Byington [Children until We Die]; Disconnected Rima Day [Quilt]; Ashley Fox [Baptism, Interview with Jane Hicks, His Girl]; Hannah Harper [Selkie]; Hunter Hines [Inward Spiral]; Mary Hunter [Learning Norn Iron]; Becca Irvin [Altered Vessel]; Storm Ketron [Origin: Johnson City, TN]; Derek Laurendeau [Pop-Up Book I , Metamorphosis]; Kimberly Leland [Empty Nest]; Caroline Lowery [Stella]; Freddie Lyle [Untitled II]; Kelly Meadows [Seek]; Andrea Menendez [Radio Children]; Shalam Minter …

English Language Acquisition By Chechen Programme Refugees In Roscommon, Ireland, Liana Rose [Thesis]

Theses

This research explored the acquisition of English by Programme Chechen refugees who arrived in Ireland ten years ago. Very many of them had less than a basic level of English. To meet the language needs of the newly arrived Chechen Programme refugees an intensive English course was set up by the local Vocational Education Committee. However, refugees’ basic needs such as health care, parental care took precedence over language provision. The research found that they were unable to fully participate in and benefit from the course. The process of acquiring English happened to a large extent outside the classroom. This …

The Reliability Of The N400 In Single Subjects: Implications For Patients With Disorders Of Consciousness, Damian Cruse, Steve Beukema, Srivas Chennu, Jeffrey G. Malins, Adrian M. Owen, Ken Mcrae

Psychology Publications

Functional neuroimaging assessments of residual cognitive capacities, including those that support language, can improve diagnostic and prognostic accuracy in patients with disorders of consciousness. Due to the portability and relative inexpensiveness of electroencephalography, the N400 event-related potential component has been proposed as a clinically valid means to identify preserved linguistic function in non-communicative patients. Across three experiments, we show that changes in both stimuli and task demands significantly influence the probability of detecting statistically significant N400 effects — that is, the difference in N400 amplitudes caused by the experimental manipulation. In terms of task demands, passively heard linguistic stimuli were …

Sign Language Ability In Young Deaf Signers Predicts Comprehension Of Written Sentences In English., Kathy N Andrew, Jennifer Hoshooley, Marc F Joanisse

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

We investigated the robust correlation between American Sign Language (ASL) and English reading ability in 51 young deaf signers ages 7;3 to 19;0. Signers were divided into 'skilled' and 'less-skilled' signer groups based on their performance on three measures of ASL. We next assessed reading comprehension of four English sentence structures (actives, passives, pronouns, reflexive pronouns) using a sentence-to-picture-matching task. Of interest was the extent to which ASL proficiency provided a foundation for lexical and syntactic processes of English. Skilled signers outperformed less-skilled signers overall. Error analyses further indicated greater single-word recognition difficulties in less-skilled signers marked by a higher …

The Profanation Of Revelation: On Language And Immanence In The Work Of Giorgio Agamben, Colby Dickinson

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay seeks to articulate the many implications which Giorgio Agamben’s work holds for theology. It aims therefore to examine his (re)conceptualizations of language, in light of particular historical glosses on the ‘name of God’ and the nature of the ‘mystical’, as well as to highlight the political task of profanation, one of his most central concepts, in relation to the logos said to embody humanity’s ‘religious’ quest to find its Voice. As such, we see how he challenges those standard (ontotheological) notions of transcendence which have been consistently aligned with various historical forms of sovereignty. In addition, I intend …

Rwandan University Efl Teachers' Awareness And Attitudes Toward Clt And Their Classroom Practices, Gaudence Uwamahoro

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research investigates Rwandan English teachers' awareness of and attitudes toward CLT including their practices in their respective classrooms. Data were collected by means of an online questionnaire that was responded to by 16 practicing teachers. The results revealed that most participants believed that both form- and meaning-based pedagogy were important in the language classroom. The participants also reported that they practiced what they believed in their respective classrooms. With regard to CLT awareness, most of Rwandan university teachers who responded to the questionnaire confirmed that they had learned or heard about CLT, eleven teachers among thirteen who had known …

Performance Dialogues: Conversations In Poetry And Dance, Rebekah Moriah Bray

Theses & ETDs

This thesis was concerned with the problem of identifying a relationship between poetry and dance as performance arts. The first chapter explored historical developments among the arts of poetry, music, and dance to suggest that these areas, though distinct, are also harmonious. The second chapter of this thesis was an exercise in interdisciplinary experimentation through the conception and production of a poetry and dance performance. The final chapter of this thesis argues for the recognition of poetry and dance as languages in dialogue with their audiences. Through the process of researching and writing this thesis I discovered evidence to support …

Eyes, Ears And Guesswork: Creating Orthographic And Phonological Measures Of Vocabulary Breadth For Beginning And Advanced Spanish And Mandarin Chinese Second-Language Learners, Robert Matthew Klinkel

Theses & ETDs

Spanish is the most studied language in the U.S., and the study of Mandarin Chinese is increasing the most rapidly. Efficient measures of vocabulary acquisition, although available in other languages, are not readily available in Spanish and Chinese. Vocabulary measures are important because they help to assess learners’ receptive vocabulary breadth, or size, as well as to predict overall language ability. The X_Lex and A_Lex are standard measures of vocabulary breadth that assess two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge: the X_Lex measures orthographic, or reading knowledge, while the A_Lex measures phonological, or listening knowledge. Thus, the X_Lex better predicts reading and …

The Signs We Speak: An Exploration Of The Loss Of Precision And Meaning In Language Today., Emilie Finney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My interest is in the beauty and power of language. I have sought to understand language on a systemic level. I have broken language down to alter signified meaning, exalted extinct words, mourned the loss of formal language, and explored the confines of common vernacular. My artwork addresses meaning within the context of Semiotics and Linguistics. I have investigated the Semiotic theories and philosophies of Roland Barthes, Jacques Ranciere, Pierre Guiraud, and Erving Goffman. As outlined by Roland Barthes, our language is a semiotic system used to communicate meaning. My work is also informed by the rules of Linguistics and …

Is Shakespeare Still In The Holler? The Death Of A Language Myth, Jennifer Cramer

Linguistics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Language Skills In Incarcerated Young Offenders: Links With Offending Severity, Pamela Snow

Language as a Social Justice Issue Conference

Oral language competence (i.e. skills with verbal expression and auditory comprehension) underpins and emerges out of, early social-emotional relationships, and forms the basis of the transition to literacy in early childhood. Some outcomes of suboptimal language development in the early years include difficulties forming and maintaining interpersonal relationships, and identifying and understanding affective states of others. This paper presents findings from a study of 100 incarcerated young male offenders in Victoria, Australia. We sought to determine the prevalence of language impairment in this very high-risk group, and also examined correlates of language impairment that could act as early intervention levers, …

From Data To Creation Of Meaning Part Ii: Data Librarian As Translator, Kristin Partlo

Staff and Faculty Work

While institutions, methodology and geography all present barriers for communication and development of infrastructure, sometimes the greatest barriers may be in reaching not across the world but across the hallway. Engaging in the work of unified infrastructure requires finding language that bridges modes of inquiry and meaning, so that all participants see their place in the whole. This work of finding shared language involves translation at many levels. Data librarians know that not everyone means the same thing by ‘data’ and increasingly they seek language that spans the practices of social science, sciences, humanities, and performing arts. This paper aims …

El Uso Del Quechua En El Perú: Una Investigación De Identidad Y Performance Cultural, Theresa A. Renker

Honors Theses and Capstones

Utilizando varias fuentes diversas de campos de estudio diferentes, este trabajo investiga temas de autenticidad y autoridad como son relacionados a los “performances” culturales que tantas personas indígenas son forzadas dar para evitar la discriminación cultural y sobrevivir económicamente. Este proyecto se enfoca en el doble siguiente: la sociedad peruana dominante rechaza el quechua por representar atraso, mientras a la vez frecuentemente idealizándolo como reliquia del imperio inca. Generalmente quechua-hablantes del Perú no tienen el espacio ni la autoridad cultural necesarios para establecer sus propias identidades distintas. Concepciones sociales de sus culturas y formas de hablar son construidas por una …