Digital Commons Network^™

Law And Language(S): Image, Integration And Innovation, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

Examining the complex relationship between law and language enhances our understanding of the marginalization and subordination of linguistic Outsiders. This nexus between law and language has many manifestations. In this essay I discuss the biases about language that constrain traditional legal discourse while I explore strategies for its reframing by using the languages of Outsiders. Succinctly stated, this essay posits that traditional language norms create images or maintain stereotypes that stultify public discourse as well as impose cultural integration and linguistic assimilation with destructive consequences. The essay proposes that linguistic norms in law schools can be refashioned through pedagogical innovations …

Purposeful Approach To Products Liability Warnings And Non-English-Speaking Consumers Notes, Thomas H. Lee

Faculty Scholarship

This Note examines the problems associated with the duty-towarn doctrine and the non-English-speaking consumer or product user. Part II explains the current duty-to-warn doctrine, emphasizing when a warning is required, to whom the warning must be directed, and how the warning must be given. Next, Part III examines state and federal language-specific statutes, constitutional provisions, and case holdings, emphasizing the most recent cases addressing product warning requirements for non-English-speaking plaintiffs. Part IV then outlines the risks to both product sellers and consumers of continuing the current haphazard approach and suggests a statutory solution to the doctrinal confusion, drawing from the …

An-Pan Man: Language And Culture In A Japanese Children's Cartoon, Debra Jane Occhi

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines a Japanese children's fantasy story, An-Pan Man, an animated television cartoon. The cartoon employs stereotypical characterizations that are (a) defined by language use, especially politeness markers encoded in referents for self and other, and (b) exhibited through enacted nonverbal behavior. Since the episodic An-Pan Man story is directed toward a young audience, it can be considered as a presentation that models appropriate and inappropriate language and behavior to children through the media of popular culture. I present an interpretation of culturally specific identities established by language use through translation and interpretation of the cartoon assisted by native-speaker …

English As An International Language: A Sociolinguistic Analysis Of The Japanese Experience, Marek M. Koscielecki

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study was designed to investigate the nature of English as an International Language (ElL) in Japan from both a diachronic and a synchronic point of view, drawing some comparison with countries in South East Asia and Africa. Using comparative material from socio-historical and sociolinguistic literature from other countries it was possible to examine the use and cultivation of English in Japan and compare it with that in other countries where English fulfils different roles. The material on Japan was supplemented by research based on data obtained from questionnaires both at the high school level and within business corporations. From …

Picking Up The Principles: An Applied Linguistic Analysis Of The Legal Problem Genre, Colin J. Beasley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Legal study requires not only the learning of new content, but also the learning of a new academic discourse with its own lexico-semantic, syntactic, and discoursal features. This thesis explores the answering of legal problem questions as an important and distinct new genre that undergraduates studying law units need to achieve competence in. In order to delineate the general features of this genre, systemic functional linguistic (SFL) analyses were performed on a series of texts (a tutorial question, an assignment question, and an examination question) written by lecturers in the introductory Commerce course Principles of Commercial Law as exemplars of …

Three Mistakes About Interpretation, Paul Campos

Michigan Law Review

The single most important word in modem constitutional theory is "interpretation." The single most confusing word in modem constitutional theory is "interpretation." What accounts for this unhappy state of affairs?

I will try to show that Barry Friedman's assertions, as well as others that are but rephrasings of the same basic ideas, are not the common sense truths that so many constitutional theorists assume them to be, but are instead the products of an extraordinarily confused and ultimately incoherent set of assumptions regarding the interpretation of language.

Teaching Foreign Languages In Context: Intermediate Italian And Critical Thinking, Chiara Frenquellucci

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Declining student interest in the study of foreign languages in U.S. universities has prompted calls for reform. This thesis proposes to enhance the teaching of intermediate Italian through the integration of critical thinking skills and innovative techniques of language instruction. Implementing such a program requires shifts in both content and teaching methods. Language (both native and foreign) is not a set of detached components, but rather a tool for communication of perceptions and ideas through meaningful exchanges. The learning of a language should fulfill its promise of proficiency and be a congenial opportunity for success in learning. Exploiting the natural …

On The Non-Creole Basis For Afro-Caribbean Spanish, John M. Lipski

Research Papers

The claim has frequently been made by scholars that Africans in the Spanish Caribbean, deprived of the opportunity for learning the prevailing dialects of Spanish, developed a Spanish-based creole. The most ambitious theories assert that this Afro-Hispanic language permanently affected other varieties of Caribbean Spanish. An accompanying claim is that the postulated creole was built upon an earlier Afro-Portuguese trade jargon, pidgin, or even fully nativized creole, originally formed on the coast of Africa, and learned in the African slaving stations and on slave ships crossing the Atlantic. The present study injects a note of caution, after considering a wider …

A Sign-To-Speech Translation System, Koka Veera Raghava Rao

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis describes sign-to-speech translation using neural networks. Sign language translation is an interesting but difficult problem for which neural network techniques seem promising because of their ability to adjust to the user's hand movements, which is not possible to do by most other techniques. However, even using neural networks and artificial sign languages, the translation is hard, and the best-known system, that of Fels & Hinton (1993), is capable of translating only 66 root words and 203 words including their conjugations. This research improves their results to 790 root signs and 2718 words including their conjugations while preserving a …

Notes On Korihor And Language, Robert E. Clark

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Korihor makes use of language to cast doubt in the minds of his listeners and to tear down the power of God. Language is used for both good and ill.

Basic Methodological Problems With The Anti-Mormon Approach To The Geography And Archaeology Of The Book Of Mormon, William J. Hamblin

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Anti-Mormon criticisms of the Book of Mormon are frequently based on a questionable set of assumptions concerning the nature of historical and archaeological evidence, the role of governing presuppositions, and the nature of historical proof. Using arguments found in a recent anti-Mormon critique by Luke Wilson as a foundation, this article analyzes difficulties of reconstructing ancient geographies, problems with the discontinuity of Mesoamerican toponyms, the historical development of the idea of a limited geography model, and challenges of textual and artifactual interpretation when trying to relate the Book of Mormon to archaeological remains.

Second Language Acquisition: The Application Of The Mentalist Theory To The Linguistic Behaviors Of A Second Language Learner, Natalie A. Nevin

Whittier Scholars Program

The field of second language acquisition research is currently a little over 20 years old. It has borrowed much of its methodology from research in first language acquisition. From its beginnings, the focus of interest regarding second language acquisition has shifted from the external linguistic environment to the internal cognitive mechanics of the learner. The Mentalist theory is one of the major theoretical positions in the field. Researchers in second language acquisition are searching several issues; one source of controversy is the role of linguistic input on the acquisition of the second language. The project will present a case study …

The Intelligibility Of Japanese Speakers Of English To Native Speakers Of English, Manabu Aoki

All Master's Theses

This research was conducted to identify the most important English speech sounds which determine non-native English speakers' intelligibility to native speakers of English. The researcher focused on variation of pronunciation by Japanese English speakers of differing levels of proficiency and examined the correlation between their pronunciation and intelligibility to native speakers. The results provided some keys to intelligible English speech and some implications for developing comprehensible speech in teaching English as a second language or English as a foreign language.

The Death Of A Dialect: Brule Spanish In Ascension Parish, Louisiana., Charles Edward Holloway

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The goals of this dissertation are: (1) to describe the Brule dialect, (2) to investigate aspects of language death, and (3) to provide important information to the area of Hispanic dialectology. The vestigial Spanish dialect spoken by the Brule dwellers of Ascension Parish, Louisiana is at the brink of linguistic extinction. The "Brule dwellers" have remained isolated from other Spanish-speaking groups since they arrived in Louisiana from the Canary Islands in the late 1700's. The specific phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of this unique variety of Spanish are documented here. Although the close relationship of Brule Spanish to the dialects …

Self-Regulatory Speech In Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disordered Children, Megan Lee Marquier

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-regulation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disordered (ADHD) boys was assessed by examining differences in task-directive verbalizations between boys with ADHD and their peers using Meichenbaum et al.'s (1992) coding system. Eleven dyads of ADHD/normal boys and eleven dyads of normal/normal boys were asked to work on a Lego block task. All of the boys were between the ages of 7 and 10 years and were rated to be average or above in intelligence. Videotapes of the interactions were transcribed and coded for task functions, dialogue features, affect, attribution, and behavioral ratings. Correlated and independent sample t-tests showed that the non-ADHD …

Intention, Interpretation, And Stories, Jane B. Baron

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 42, No. 1, Marion Lois Huffines, Amos Long Jr., Robert P. Stevenson, Robert L. Leight

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• The Trunk in the Attic was a Window
• The Rural Pennsylvania-German Home and Family
• The Happy Story of Georges Creek
• Duties of a Rural School Board at the Turn of the Century
• Aldes un Neies (Old and New)

Toward A More Adequate Characterization Of The Chicano Language Setting, Santa Ana A. Otto

SHRI Publications

Although several typologies of the linguistic varieties of language varieties heard in the speech of Chicanos have been proposed, many disagreements about the assumptions underlying such typologies remain, in particular, concerning the nature of Chicano English. These disagreements have a direct, detrimental effect on the assessment and education of Chicano children, and by extension, all language minority children. Critical commentary on certain of these disagreements is presented in this paper. A unitary model of the language varieties used by Chicanos which goes beyond recent typologies is proposed, made on the basis of explicit assumptions about the sociolinguistic nature of language …

Seeking… The Faces Of Otherness…: A Response To Professors Sarat Felstiner And Cahn , Lucie E. White

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Thinking About Grammar In The Middle School: A Study And Recommendations, Jennifer Ault Simmons

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The study involved 53 sixth graders in a small, rural town in southeastern Massachusetts. Its purpose was to identify some of the grammatical concepts held by these students. The survey is presented. Briefly, these students lack understanding of basic grammatical concepts (such as the subject/verb relationship and subject versus object). These and other misconceptions indicate that students do not understand the role of word function in language. A central finding about students' attitudes toward grammar study is that students do not realize that they have intuitive knowledge of their native language. Although students are not sure what grammar is, most …

A Content Validity Analysis Of The University Of Texas-Pan American English 1320 Grammar And Usage Exam, Cynthia Eilene Elder

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines the degree of content validity of the grammar and usage exam administered to The University of Texas-Pan American's developmental writing classes (English 1320). Final exam essays from the freshman composition course (English 1301) were divided into groups according to their scores and examined for the occurrence of adjective agreement, apostrophe, pronoun usage, punctuation of clause, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, and tense usage errors, which are tested on the exam. An Analysis of Variance was then calculated for each error type; none of the error types proved statistically significant at the.05 level. The students within each group did …

When Lehi's Party Arrived In The Land, Did They Find Others There?, John L. Sorenson

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

A number of statements in the Book of Mormon text indicate the presence in Lehi’s promised land of peoples other than those descended from Lehi’s party. Reasons the topic is not addressed more explicitly in the record include a focus on the Nephites (and not on other people), a generic treatment of Lamanites, an a desire not to waste space on something obvious or insignificant. Clear evidence for the presence of others in substantial populations is present in the Book of Mormon. The demographic or cultural history of Lehi’s literal descendants must take into account these other groups.

Boats, Beginnings, And Repetitions, Alan Goff

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Ancient texts are too often approached using modern assumptions. Among those assumptions obstructing an understanding of ancient texts is the modern emphasis on originality and on writing as intellectual property. Ancient writers relished repetition—stories that were repeated in succeeding generations—over originality. The Bible is full of repeated or allusive stories, and the Book of Mormon often reinscribes this biblical emphasis on repetition. One such biblical reverberation in the Book of Mormon is Nephi’s ocean voyage, which evokes biblical stories of origination: creation, deluge, and exodus. These three stories of beginnings are carefully alluded to in Nephi’s own foundational story, exactly …

Some Aspects Of Multi Source Satellite Image Processing., L. Lalitha Dr.

Doctoral Theses

The observation of a target by a device plaoed at some distance from it is cal.led remote sensing as ngainst in situ sensing where the sensor is kept in contact with the target. Usually physical emanations such as the electr omagnetic radiation from the target s observed by the sensing device. Sensors mounted on aircraft or satallite platforms measure the amount of energy reflected from or emitted by the earth's surface. Sensors scan the ground below a nd to either side of the satellite platform and as the platform noves forward, an image of the earths surface is formed.A satellite …

Book Chapter: The Return Of The Repressed: Saussure And Swift On Language And History, Tony Crowley

Scripps Faculty Publications and Research

Departures in linguistics are nothing new of course. Ideas come and go, "facts" appear and disappear along with the theories which first brought them to light, trends shift and alter. The language used to describe the history of the field, a field which once constituted a new departure in its own right, is replete with the language of innovation: "breakthrough," "advance," "progress," and even "revolution" are familiar enough epithets. In the face of all this novelty then the question must be, how to do something new? The answer which is proposed here might appear somewhat odd for the intention is …

Fonctions De L'Ecriture Dans Les "Elements D'Ideologie" D'Antoine Destutt De Tracy., Fabrice Gerard Teulon

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

L'Ideologie tracyenne s'inscrit au point de clivage venant marquer d'apres Michel Foucault la fin de "l'episteme classique" et les debuts de "la modernite". Moment donc exemplaire dans l'histoire de la representation puisque le texte de Destutt de Tracy serait la "derniere philosophie classique"--ultime tentative de reorganisation du savoir sur un ordre epistemologique desormais echu. Pour les quelques linguistes et/ou semioticiens qui a la suite de Foucault ont redecouvert cette oeuvre longtemps oubliee, la raison de l'echec de la "science des idees" se trouve dans la definition meme de l'ecriture. Les signes, nous dit Destutt de Tracy, sont en definitive "vagues" …

Metaphor Within/Without Metaphysics: Nietzsche, Heidegger, And Derrida., Jonggab Kim

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The contemporary preoccupation with metaphor lies in its capability of deconstructing and disempowering metaphysics, and of creating a logic of uncertainty or a Derridian logic of supplements in opposition to the logic of identity and of non-contradiction. As a figure of speech saying one thing but meaning something else, metaphor contains in itself a certain alterity and otherness which resists a logical identity as well as a systematic philosophy. In my study of metaphor in the texts of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida, I inquire into the problematic relation or difference between philosophy and metaphor, focusing on how the former is …

Making The Secular Sacred: An Analysis Of Linguistic Devices Used To Give Religious Perspective To Ordinary Events., Wayne Porter Gregory

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

It has been suggested that human beings do not possess social reality so much as they actively and cooperatively construct it by means of language in interaction with others. The manipulation of symbols, the creation of inferences, the posturing of one's personal identity all work together to enable participants (both speakers and hearers) in a given speech event to create social reality and reaffirm and maintain their social relationships. In religious speech communities, like the one investigated in this study, participants seek to create a different kind of social reality--one that encompasses all of the individual and corporate experiences of …

Normal And Pathological Breakdown In Arabic., Sabah Safi-Stagni

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The grammatical structure of Arabic allows for significant cross-linguistic comparisons in the study of Slips-of-the-tongue as well as aphasia. The dissertation presents a case study of the aphasic deficit in the speech of a speaker of Arabic, in particular, the Hijazi dialect spoken in the Western Province of Saudi Arabia, with a subsequent comparison with regular slips-of-the-tongue in the same dialect collected and analyzed by the same author. Both the slips-of-the-tongue data and the aphasia data have been collected in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by the present investigator. It was observed that in such a highly inflected language, …

The Development Of A Test Of Concept Identification, Semantic And Syntactic Performance For Use With Hearing Impaired Children, Heather Joan Hussey

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to develop the Concept Identification Instrument (CII); an instrument for measuring prelinguistically deaf children's concept identification, semantic and syntactic abilities in a reading situation. Analysis of the related literature suggested that isolation of some of the factors which contribute to the problems faced by deaf children in reading development, such as concept identification, may lead to improved chances of understanding, reducing or eliminating reading problems and improving reading outcomes for these children. The subjects were 21 prelinguistically deaf children who attended or had previously attended the Speech and Hearing Centre for Deaf Children (WA) …