Digital Commons Network^™

Morphological Typology, Andrew R. Hippisley

Linguistics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Words: The Use Of Language In Ethan Frome, Heather Faye Spear

Masters Theses

Edith Wharton's novel, Ethan Frome, has been sharply criticized for its tragic ending, yet Wharton's compelling storytelling which depicts universal conditions of mankind accomplishes something powerful through its narrative: it defends language. The complicated relationship between the three main characters, Zeena, Ethan, and Mattie is rooted in their utilization of language. Using a combination of close reading for textual analysis and identifying a communicative style for each character, this thesis asserts that how the characters in this novel utilize language contests the meaninglessness and relativity supported by deconstructionists. Wharton clearly illustrates Zeena's linguistic power over both Ethan and Mattie, and …

Cross Linguistic Differences In The Immediate Serial Recall Of Consonants Versus Vowels, Elizabeth M. Kissling

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

The current study investigated native English and native Arabic speakers’ phonological short term memory (PSTM) for sequences of consonants and vowels. PSTM was assessed in immediate serial recall tasks conducted in Arabic and English for both groups. Participants (n=39) heard series of 6 CV syllables and wrote down what they recalled. Native speakers of English recalled the vowel series better than consonant series in English and in Arabic, which was not true of native Arabic speakers. An analysis of variance showed that there was an interaction between first language (L1) and phoneme type. The results are discussed in light of …

The Power Of Culture In Diplomacy: The Case Of U.S. Cultural Diplomacy In France And Germany, Sofia Kitsou

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

Cultural diplomacy represents a facet of diplomacy that has not been utilized completely in building better diplomatic relations and, although it could serve as a linking bridge toward better relations, it has been underestimated, if not neglected. Foreign positive perceptions of the United States declined considerably especially during the George W. Bush administration, as a result of various actions taken by the United States in the international arena that were unpopular. Anti-Americanism reached its peak in Europe because of the unilateral decision to proceed with the war in Iraq while the transatlantic rift between traditional partners such as the United …

Exploration, Language And Application: An Approach To Teaching Beginning Instrumental Jazz Improvisation, Jeremy Todd Pownall

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide preservice and inservice teachers with an alternative approach to teaching beginning jazz improvisation to instrumentalists in a classroom setting. It was determined that there exists a need for an accessible (to both teacher and student) method for teaching beginning jazz improvisation to instrumentalists. This is due to the lack of emphasis on jazz improvisation at both the public school and university level, as well as the inclusion of improvisation in both the national and Georgia state standards for music performance. The teaching method presented in this study is based on previous research, …

The Role Of Esl Teacher Support In Facilitating School Adjustment In English Language Learners, Mary Sharp-Ross

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Immigrant students are the fastest growing sector of the US school population.These students are English Language Learners (ELLs) who enter our schools with a constellation of social-emotional risk factors that predispose them to psychological disorders, as well as undermine their learning and educational outcomes. English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESL) teacher support is indicated to be a primary protective factor for ELLs facing the pervasive task of acculturation to a new society and school culture. This study surveyed 200 ESL teachers in Pennsylvania in order to gather information regarding their beliefs about the social-emotional and acculturation needs of their …

Rhetorical Weapons: The Social And Psychological Influences Of Language And Labeling In Instances Of Genocide, Emma C. Jones

CMC Senior Theses

It is difficult to understand why genocide continues to occur, even when the international community pledges never to let it happen in the future. Techniques such as moral disengagement and dehumanization have consistently resulted in genocide. These techniques can be greatly amplified through the careful use of language and labeling. The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles that language and labeling play in genocide. Social and psychological influences that use language will be investigated through the examination of the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide and the Rwandan genocide. These influences are many times unintentionally or unknowingly exercised and …

Time Of Day Effects On Language Discourse In Healthy Aging And Dementia, Amanda L. Stead

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study’s purpose was to investigate whether language discourse follows a diurnal pattern across one 10-hour day in normal healthy aging individuals (NHA) and individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Ten healthy older adults; and ten older adults clinically labeled with probable Alzheimer’s disease were recruited for this study. Measurements of procedural language, narrative language, and cognition, the Benton Judgment of Line Orientation (BJLO), were collected across one day at 9:00am, 12:00pm, 3:00 pm, and 6:00pm. Language samples were evaluated for linguistic variables to evaluate the quantity and quality of the discourse samples. Results indicated that the two groups …

The Hegemony Of Language - Literary Writing And The Quest For Subjectivity In The Works Of Michel De Montaigne And Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, Carla Bota Vance

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Starting from the premise that one’s identity is first and foremost construed in language, this dissertation argues that language is the fundamental site of resistance for writers who define themselves through linguistic difference. Recognizing also that language and literary production frequently fall under the control of complex authorities, this thesis examines literature as a site where confrontation is played out aesthetically. Literary writing, in other words, is exposed as a point of intersection between writers whose language draws its sources from a peripheral location and the centers of authority that regulate and dictate what is accepted as artistically and culturally …

An Unlikely Marriage: Theorizing The Corporeality Of Language At The Crossroads Of Thoreau, Heidegger And The Botanical World, John Charles Ryan

Research outputs 2011

This paper examines the relationship between language, particularly language that expresses aesthetic experiences of plant life, and corporeality. The theorisation of language is a keystone towards conceptualising participatory relationships between people and the botanical world. A comparative reading of the works of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Heidegger provides a framework for approaching language as embodied participation. Despite political differences, Thoreau and Heidegger shared a mutual conviction about the generative powers of language. Thoreau’s literary practice partly involved immersion in places such as swamps and forests. Fittingly, Heidegger’s explication of Rilke’s concept of “the Open” mirrors the participatory aesthetics of …

The Neural Underpinnings Of Prosody In Autism, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Jillian Schuh, Einar Mencl, Robert T. Schultz, Rhea Paul

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

This study examines the processing of prosodic cues to linguistic structure and to affect, drawing on fMRI and behavioral data from 16 high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 11 typically developing controls. Stimuli were carefully matched on pitch, intensity, and duration, while varying systematically in conditions of affective prosody (angry versus neutral speech) and grammatical prosody (questions versus statement). To avoid conscious attention to prosody, which normalizes responses in young people with ASD, the implicit comprehension task directed attention to semantic aspects of the stimuli. Results showed that when perceiving prosodic cues, both affective and grammatical, activation of …

Relationships Between Organizational Variables And The Inclusive Language Used By Leaders, Matthew J. Keller

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

I investigated relationships between organizational variables and leadership, as measured by inclusive language use. Specifically, I examined whether organization size and profitability relate to the organization leader's use of language. I expected language use to be more inclusive in smaller and more profitable organizations, relative to larger and less profitable organizations. In this study, I used a regression approach to test my hypotheses. Results indicated that organization size was positively related to passive voice indicators, in support of Hypothesis 1. However, profitability was negatively related to inclusive pronouns and positively related to passive voice indicators, both of which were opposite …

Which Components Of Joint Attention Are Critical For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders To Learn New Words?, Dana Smith

All ETDs from UAB

Though established that language deficits comprise a core element of a definitive autism diagnosis, relatively less research has been conducted to understand the bases for impaired language abilities as compared to understanding the social deficits associated with the disorder. Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impoverished joint attention (JA) abilities, evidenced by their relative difficulty both in initiating bids for JA as well as responding to them. Once accepted that JA was crucial in lexical development in typically developing (TD) children, recent trends have diverged from this perspective, shedding light on JA's role in lexical development in an …

Some Like It Hot – Goblin‐Style: “Ozhivliazh” In Russian Film Translations, Alexander Burak

Russian Language Journal

This article is about English‐to‐Russian voiceover translating as a translation technique and a medium that responds to and shapes sociocultural identities. It is also about a trend in Russian film translating to enliven – in various degrees – the translation text as compared with the more neutral language in the original films. And, finally, given the multiple translations of the same cultural products, films included, it is an attempt to make a case for a strand of research and translation quality analysis that that may be called “translation variance studies.”

Translations, Retranslations, And Multiple Translations: A Case For Translation Variance Studies, Alexander Burak, Timothy Sergay

Russian Language Journal

The cluster of three related articles offered here represents what the authors propose to call “translation variance studies,” or TVS, a subfield of translation studies concerned with semantic, pragmatic, and stylistic equivalence and divergence between a single source text and its multiple translations into a specified target language. Multiple translations of a single source text into a single target language have become a widespread phenomenon. Its “ontological basis,” as Anna Muza recently observed, is “variability of solution within the target language.” All parties to translation must of necessity negotiate this variability of solution, beginning with the translator in the act …

New But Hardly Improved: Are Multiple Retranslations Of Classics The Best Cultural Use To Make Of Translation Talent?, Timothy D. Sergay

Russian Language Journal

The notion of audio remastering seems to inform the way literary “consumers” conceive of retranslations of classic works today. This is almost certainly because the two operations—remastering and retranslation—are such natural cousins. Retranslation seems to imply, at the very least, continuous improvement of the literary product in the target language, that is, the elimination of earlier translators’ errors in construing the source text and the ever more adequate recreation of the original author’s stylistics. How close this seems to the idea of “cleaning up” an audio signal, improving the “signal‐to‐noise ratio,” enhancing fidelity—this critical term, along with loss, is common …

Великий И Могучий Олбанский Язык: The Russian Internet And The Russian Language*, Daniela S. Hristova

Russian Language Journal

The worldwide proliferation of the Internet as a fundamentally new media technology has coincided with a radical social and linguistic liberalization in Russia. This junction changed drastically the interrelationship between the standard language and the non‐standard language varieties. A paradigmatic manifestation of the new Russian linguistic reality is the prevalent Internet trend of alternate spellings and non‐normative lexical use. The phenomenon is frequently referred to as an “Olbanian” language and associated with the counter‐culture of the so‐called “padonki.” Disregarding the fundamental principles of Russian orthography, spelling, and even morphology, the padonki have created an idiom that seemingly allows complete freedom …

Digital Determinism: The Cyrillic Alphabet In The Age Of New Technology, Martin Paulsen

Russian Language Journal

The spread of digital technology has created new conditions for the existence and development of languages. The East Slavonic languages Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian are excellent examples. Since the Internet originated in the U.S., and since most computer devices are created on the basis of languages that use the Latin alphabet (i.e., English), people who use other alphabets, such as Cyrillic, face additional challenges in adapting to the new technological realities (Sproat 2010).3 In this article, I shall focus on how digital technology challenges Cyrillic, as the alphabet in which the East Slavonic languages are written.

The consequences of similar …

Lost In Translation: Linguistic Minorities In The European Union, Nirvana Bhatia

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“A nation without a language is a nation without a soul,” declares a Gaelic proverb. Indubitably, language is a product of national identity; it preserves heritage, reflects societal beliefs and values, and expresses a cultural spirit. The current international human rights regime, however, does not recognize an individual’s right to language choice; instead, it promises freedom from linguistic discrimination. The implications are not quite the same and, as a result, states have successfully repressed minority populations by controlling their language options. The European Union in particular—with its panoply of languages—demonstrates an inconsistent approach toward linguistic minorities; it attempts to promote …

Communicating The Unspeakable: Linguistic Phenomena In The Psychedelic Sphere, Diana R. Slattery

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Psychedelics can enable a broad and paradoxical spectrum of linguistic phenomena from the unspeakability of mystical experience to the eloquence of the songs of the shaman or curandera. Interior dialogues with the Other, whether framed as the voice of the Logos, an alien download, or communion with ancestors and spirits, are relatively common. Sentient visual languages are encountered, their forms unrelated to the representation of speech in natural language writing systems. This thesis constructs a theoretical model of linguistic phenomena encountered in the psychedelic sphere for the field of altered states of consciousness research (ASCR). The model is developed from …

Space: A Discovery Of Visual Language, Kelley White

Theses and Dissertations

Space is a visual communicator. The act of perceiving space is a neurological soiree that projects and negotiates meaning in our constructed world. The poetry that we observe within space is tied directly to our emotions and to previous experience. Within ourselves, we each have particular feelings, unconscious or not, relating to height, length, and depth, as well as light and shadow. For example, a long, narrow hallway may elicit anxiety, while an open, sunlit nave in a cathedral may bring about feelings of serenity and joy. Our observations and interactions within the perceptual confines of space reveal clues to …

Academic Language Teaching And Learning In The Third Space Classroom: A Preservice Teachers' Perspective, Cinzia Forasiepi

Doctoral Dissertations

The increased percentage of immigrant children in the public school system in the United States has challenged schools to provide adequate academic language instruction to reach the same levels as their monolingual peers. Teachers must demonstrate the ability to support the development of academic language in accordance to both the standards' requirements and the linguistic needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. It is very important to shed light on teacher preparation programs and how they support their candidates to develop a pedagogy that can best respond to students' needs. This study explore the beliefs and practices of preservice teachers …

Spenser's "Inward Ey": Poetics, Lexicography, And The Motivations For Edmund Spenser's Linguistic Idealism, Lawrence Revard

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Edmund Spenser's concepts of language have been seen as "anti-linguistic" to the extent that his idealism extols the power of thought while depicting speech as a corrupting monster--most notably the Blatant Beast of The Legend of Courtesy, Book 6 of The Faerie Queene. My thesis re-examines Spenser's antipathies for language, telling the story of his definition of the poet both in terms of his understandings of language and his part in the struggle to legitimize English vernacular. I first focus on Spenser's imagery of naming, tongues, writing, and identity in his later work, particularly the Platonic ideas in The Fowre …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Communication And Socialization Deficits In Infants And Toddlers With Autism And Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (Pdd_Nos), Megan Alice Hattier

LSU Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by pervasive impairments in repetitive behaviors or interests, communication, and socialization. As the onset of these features occurs at a very young age, early detection is of the utmost importance. In an attempt to better clarify the behavioral presentation of communication and socialization deficits to aid in early assessment and intervention, impairments in these areas were examined among infants and toddlers (17-37 months) with Autistic Disorder (AD), Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), and non-ASD related developmental delay. The Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits-Part1 (BISCUIT-Part1) and the Battelle …

Caregiver Behaviors As Moderators Of The Relation Between Children's Joint Attention Skills And Subsequent Language In An At-Risk Sample, Dolores Farhat

Open Access Dissertations

The positive link between children's joint attention skills and subsequent language outcomes is well established. There is also abundant evidence that responsive caregiver behaviors lead to optimal language outcomes. Though directive behaviors are generally considered detrimental to children's growth, specific types of directive behaviors which extend or build upon a child's behavior are thought to promote children's learning. No study has examined how caregiver behaviors interact with children's joint attention skills to affect subsequent language. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine how three different caregiver behaviors (Responsiveness, Supportiveness, and Intrusiveness) measured at 18 months moderated the …

K-12 Teacher Perceptions Regarding Hispanic Family Educational Beliefs And Language And Literacy Practices, Marisa Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Abundant research exists examining what occurs in Hispanic homes regarding educational beliefs and literacy and language practices before and after children enter the school system. What is not known is whether or not teachers are aware of these practices and beliefs. The research questions of this study focus first on what perceptions K-12 teachers have about Hispanic educational beliefs and practices, and second, on determining if those perceptions correlate with teacher training in English as a second language (ESL). To answer these questions, a questionnaire was written based on an extensive review of literature regarding three aspects: Hispanic educational beliefs, …

Teaching, Learning, And Writing In The Third Space: A Study Of Language And Culture Intersecting With Instruction, Susan Toma-Berge Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to compare the characteristics and attributes of an effective first grade teacher of writing to English learners through the lens of the "third space." The "third space" represents a place where sociocultural theory interacts with language and culture, and authentic, integrated literacy instruction. Because there is no empirical evidence to support the theory of the "third space" the observation and interview data were analyzed using literature that draws on three areas of study: English learners, first grade literacy, and urban schools. The key findings from this study produced three themes that came about by …

Ecos De Barro De La Memoria A La Imagen De La Imagen Al Poema, Rossy Evelin Lima-Padilla

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

En este trabajo se analizarán los factores que guían hacia la realización de mi escritura creativa. Se explorará el papel de la memoria como vehículo que reproduce las imágenes después de haber sido transformadas por los sentidos para representar las experiencias personales y el registro que se obtiene por medio de la observación. Se considerará también el aspecto de identidad inmigrante que se obtiene de la percepción que se va adquiriendo de sí mismo de acuerdo a la relación que se tiene con el entorno. Este trabajo resulta de suma importancia porque incorpora la idea de que el poeta escribe …

The Conservative Conversation, Heather Hall

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The conservative movement is defined by its ideology as well as its rhetoric. Richard Weaver’s conversion to the Right offers an opportunity to define conservatism and conservative rhetoric through his hierarchy of argumentation, and his examination of Plato’s Phaedrus allows an examination of the speaker’s nature and the nature of rhetoric. Glenn Beck, one of today’s most controversial conservative representatives, also deserves examination for his ideology and rhetoric. Both Richard Weaver and Glenn Beck bear scrutiny as influential members of the conservative movement and the role their rhetoric has in the conservative conversation today.

Will Second Life Help Me Survive In Italy, Carmela Dell'aria, Susanna Nocchi

Conference Papers

This paper aims at sharing the experience we had in the design and implementation of a short pilot course of Italian in Second Life® (SL). The paper will provide a description of the course mentioning preliminary findings, discussed in relation to the theories adopted by the two researchers. The paper is the result of the course, La Lingua in gioco: dire, fare e giocare in SL, that had a strong focus on the development of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and Oral Language Proficiency and was aimed at a group of third-level Irish students of Italian in the Technological University Dublin …