Digital Commons Network^™

Project Maplemon: Peeling Back The Secrets Of Queer Writing Through Stylometric Demographic Identification, Theodore D. Manning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Project MapLemon is a corpus for stylometric demographic identification of 54,000+ words across 345 participants, originally created to obtain a baseline corpus for linguistic variation among North American English speakers. The corpus contains responses from 30 linguistic backgrounds, and 40 US states and 6+ Canadian provinces. Project MapLemon has innovated a new method for data collection for linguistic variants in the natural, digital written word. Project MapLemon utilizes a hand-drawn map and asks the participant to give directions via this map, as well as asking participants for a recipe for lemonade. In addition to its novel collection methods, MapLemon contains …

Discourse Analysis Of Ethnonyms For Black Italians On Youtube, Kaithlyn Massiah

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There have been various studies on the intersection of race and national identity for the African diaspora, but there has not been many on how language is used to evoke a stance on identity. This project focuses on the how ethnonyms, or names given to an ethnic group, are assigned to Black Italians in online discourse on YouTube. In this research, comments were analyzed from two YouTube videos that comprise of Black Italians who discuss their identity and the ethnonyms they prefer. ZERO is the first Netflix Italian series that centers the Black Italian experience. In the videos “Black [Italian] …

“4, 24”, And 4c”: The Shared Knowledge Of Hair Terminology And Cultural Pride Among Black Women., Aliya J. Claiborne

Student Research Submissions

This paper aims to explain the significance of hairstyles and terms used by black women and seeks to explore how these choices can sway the negative perceptions about black womanhood. Past research has shown that what is “just hair” to others serves as a statement piece and an overall representation of black women. By observing and recording naturally occurring conversations in black hair salons and conducting interviews with black women, I investigated the following question: How do black women use specific terminology to discuss their hair while also constructing identity and reflecting on societal views? I conclude that black women’s …

Notes From The Field - Conference Proceedings, Center For Latin American, Caribbean, And Latino Studies (Clacls)

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

CLACLS features proceedings papers from the CLACLS Fellows Showcase, held on November 2nd. This day-long event showcased the research and fieldwork results of Summer Fellows, who offered presentations on their projects funded by the CLACLS Summer Fellowship. The showcase was curated into four panels: 'Bodies in Resistance,' 'Ecocritical Approaches to Latin America,' 'Migration & Diasporic Experiences,' and 'Inequality: An Intersectional Approach.'

‘Kazakh Means Freedom’ - Kazakh Language Policy And National Identity Before And During The Ukraine War, Mclean T. Brown

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the link between language policy and national identity in Kazakhstan, tracing the relationship between the two across history and describing how they have been affected by the Ukraine War. The Kazakh government has put considerable effort into developing a national identity for contemporary Kazakhstan, but conflicting standards of production make it difficult for a cohesive, well-defined Kazakh national identity to be put forth. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, phenomenological critical discourse analysis, and ethnographic research, this thesis strives to alleviate existing gaps in Central Asian studies research while arguing that language policy is a lens through which …

Codeswitching In The Egyptian Arabic Movies: How Do Social Variables Trigger Codeswitching?, Randa Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This is a qualitative study designed to examine the growing linguistic practice of codeswitching in a sociolinguistic context. For this purpose, 7 Egyptian Arabic films were purposefully selected to investigate what social variables and contexts can be associated with codeswitching. Data was sampled in 43 experts from the 7 films. The data was analyzed in terms of the social variables of education, social class, identity, stance, and age, within the theoretical framework of the critical discourse analysis, the accommodation theory, and the social arena theory. Although the study started with these social variables in mind, data analysis revealed two …

The Movie Is On!: Pragmatics Of The Video Joker In Who Killed Captain Alex?, Hunter Hulett

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The film Who Killed Captain Alex? (WKCA) is a Ugandan film that provides an opportunity to examine the use of pragmatic and specifically deictic features to study the manipulation of borders between the film and reality. A commentator called the Video Joker (VJ) is the film’s deictic center, constantly destabilizing deictic relations and orienting the internal and external pragmatics of the film around themself. As the film’s ultimate pragmatic force, they occupy a position blurring diegesis and non-diegesis due to originating as real-time film commentators before being edited into the text. In this unique position, they shift the deixis’s organization …

"And I / Am The Arrow": The Narrative, Personae Construction, And Language Ideology Of Confessional Poets' Identity Performance, Madison Fuchs

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This thesis argues for consideration of linguistic features in service of raising the postmodern confessionalist poet identity as an utterance and an act of loyalty to performance. The embodiment of the confessionalist identity, attributed to the features used to adhere to the confessional mode, is realized through the invention of confessional personae. These confessional personae merge the responsibilities of the speaker and the narrator to convey a pseudo-autobiographical utterance to a designated audience. In this thesis, I analyze a sequence of poems that either possess taboo subjects or utilize linguistic functions, like indexicality and audience design, that mark its mode. …

Negotiating Arabic: Diglossic Language And Intercultural Proficiency In American Education, Natalie C. Parsons

International Studies Honors Projects

Diglossia refers to the coexistence of High (H) and Low (L) varieties within a language (Ferguson 1959). Arabic, a diglossic language, struggles with this division. Native speakers of Arabic communicate via their dialects (L). Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) in the US focuses on Modern Standard Arabic (H), neglecting the dialects. US government investment in Arabic as a critical language since 9/11 has continued to prioritize the instruction and professionalization of the H variety, suppressing intercultural proficiency. Arabic Language curricula in the US must evolve to teach meta-linguistic awareness between the H and L forms of Arabic.

Language Of The Enemy: Impacts Of The 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War On Linguistic And National Identity Paradigms In Ukraine, Julia Panter

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, attempts at nation-building in newly independent Ukraine were stymied by disagreements over two competing narratives of national identity. Both the Eastern Slavic and ethnic Ukrainian national identity complexes evolved over the course of centuries of Russian subjugation of ethnic Ukrainians through imperial control, cultural erasure, and linguistic russification and standardization. This master’s thesis examines the oppositional complexes that have long defined conceptions of Ukrainian nationhood and examines how they developed in response to nationality policies imposed by Russian imperial rulers, and evaluates the glottopolitical dimension of recent events, focusing on the …

An Exploration On The Spanish Caribbean Dialectical Community: ¿Unidos O Separados?, Bryan J. Jimenez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Latin America holds a diverse array of people and language. Even regions and countries that speak the same language tend to speak it differently. This leads to interesting variations in language and speech. Most people of Latin American origin are able to note that Mexican Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish are different in terms of intonation, speech pattern, vocabulary, and more. Most popular theories that section Latin America off by dialects group the entirety of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean into a single dialectical community. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic each hold unique histories and are home to a fascinating …

We Can Do This / Juntos Sí Podemos: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Government-Sponsored Covid-19 Public Service Announcements (Psas) In English And Spanish, Katalina R. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

Communication inequities are known to negatively impact people from socioeconomically and linguistically disadvantaged backgrounds during public health crises (Gomez-Aguinaga et al., 2021). In the United States, Hispanics—especially those who speak Spanish—have been among the communities most disproportionately affected by COVID-19 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2022). The pandemic has underscored the importance of understanding the linguistic and discursive strategies implemented by institutions entrusted with disseminating public health information to reach diverse audiences, especially the most vulnerable. This paper analyzes the linguistic practices used to create public service announcements (PSA) produced in English and Spanish by health agencies at both the …

Language Ideologies In Deep South Korea: Voices Of Jeollanamdo English Teachers, Ian Schneider

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Language ideologies serve as shared beliefs and key frames that link language and society, mediating both macro-level social forces and micro-level interactions. Through this lens, this thesis compares the ideological perspectives and experiences of expatriate and local English teachers working in secondary-level schools in the rural province of Jeollanamdo, South Korea. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, this study argues for complexity and nuance in how language teachers from distinct backgrounds perceive and negotiate dominant English language ideologies in Korean society. Moreover, these ideological perspectives differ between teachers of local and expatriate backgrounds, or teachers working in urban and rural …

‘A Category Of Their Own’: Quantitative Methods In The Use Of Pile-Sort Data In Perceptual Dialectology, Zachary Ty Gill

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Mississippi Gulf Coast Creoles perceive language differences in their home area. A pile-sort task was carried out in which respondents were given stacks of cards with local communities written on them and instructed to stack together the regions where people “talk the same.” Once the piles were made, the fieldworker discussed their sortings with the respondents. The stacks were analyzed by means of a hierarchal agglomerative cluster analysis and non-parametric multidimensional scaling with k-means cluster analysis overlays to extract the perceived dialect areas. The groupings reveal that respondent strategies are based …

Layering Landscapes: Linguistic Commodification And Semiotic Layering In United States’ Recreational Spaces, Hannah Irene Soblo

Doctoral Dissertations

In the process of linguistic landscaping, spaces are transformed into textual and semiotic representations linked to particular social uses, cultural meanings, and historic narratives. Recently, digital technology has been used to create additional layers of semiotic representation in linguistic landscapes. This dissertation investigates multiple layers of digital and physical representation at six United States’ park spaces, with a particular focus on heritage tourism sites, and analyzes the social meaning and narratives of tourism constructed both by individual layers and within their relationships. Photo-based methods are used to collect data, both by documenting the representations of sites as filtered through the …

Introduction To Language And Linguistics, David M. Johnson

KSU Distinguished Course Repository

This course will analyze the nature of human language. It will include an introduction to speech sounds, morphology, syntax, and semantics. A heavy emphasis will be placed on the social and pedagogical implications of modern linguistic theory, which include an examination of issues such as language acquisition, dialect variation, historical linguistics, and English as a Second Language.

Entre La Ciudad Y La Provincia VariacióN SociolingüÍStica En MáLaga, Marina Bonilla Conejo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

En esta tesis se presenta una investigación sociolingüística sobre el español de la provincia de Málaga, y, específicamente, se realiza una comparación entre la variedad hablada en la capital y dos localidades cercanas a la misma: Rincón de la Victoria y Vélez-Málaga. La finalidad de este estudio es determinar el empleo del sonido interdental fricativo [θ] y la articulación de la /s/ en posición de coda en las tres áreas geográficas mencionadas y si, a su vez, existe progresivamente una convergencia hacia el estándar nacional, o si, por el contrario, los participantes hacen uso del estándar regional, de acuerdo con …

Investigating Media Influence On Language Change In Low-Level Sociolinguistic Variables, Keaton Strawn

Honors Projects

This survey investigates the contentious issue of media influence on language change in variationist sociolinguistics, focusing on low-level variables – a distinction created to partition phonological and morphosyntactic variables into a category that emphasizes their deep level in the linguistic system. Works by influential researchers and well-respected names in the field are put in dialogue to determine what evidence for and against media influence is compelling and where gaps exist, incorporating work on global linguistic variants and phonological variant diffusion in places like Glasgow per Jane-Stuart Smith’s controversial study. This discussion draws conclusions when possible, and ultimately comments on the …

Finding Their Chrysanthemum: Linguistic Representation In Children's Literature, Marielena Zajac

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Children in America today struggle with finding themselves in the books they read due to societal expectations. From an early age, children are dictated on the correct way to speak and write in “American,” which can leave children and their home languages feeling unseen and dismissed. To help further the conversation and promotion of linguistic diversity in American society, this capstone analyzes dialectal representation in children’s books, with a heavy focus on attitudinal linguistic principles rather than prescriptive mechanics. The secondary research explores current literature and resources that discuss literacy acquisition in adolescents, trends in dialects in America, and childhood …

This Way Kids: The Roles Of Locativity In Korean Queer Identity Creation, Shea A. Husband

Linguistics Honors Projects

The study of queer linguistic practices in East Asia as a whole, and especially in Korea, is an area in desperate need of scholarship. While extensive research exists on the linguistic practices of people with non-heteronormative sexual identities in an English-speaking context (see Bucholtz and Hall, 2004; 2005; Eckert and McConnel-Ginet, 1992 as examples), only two paper touches on queer identity in a Korean linguistic context, namely King (2008) and Kim (2016). King’s paper discusses the roles queer identity plays in English learning among three Korean gay men in Seoul, and Kim’s paper deals with the othering of queer Korean …

Schism And Suppression: Early Threats To The Esperanto Language, And Resulting Impacts On International Acceptance, Anabel E. Cull

Young Historians Conference

The constructed language of Esperanto, created by Polish linguist Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof in 1887, was founded with the intention of facilitating global peace and unification. Due to the mission and philosophy of the language, known as Esperantism, Zamenhof’s invention gained popularity among political reformers and communities facing religious discrimination. Aiming to resolve conflict through common language, Esperantism inspired hope amidst the increasingly oppressive social and political climate present in Eastern Europe and Russia during the early 1900’s. This paper explores the contributing factors to Esperanto’s decline, and the impact of internal conflict, political affiliation, and religious significance on efforts to …

Using Sociolinguistics And Literary Studies To Understand Code-Switching Within Works By Louise Erdrich, Bruno Santic

Undergraduate Theses

There exists a multitude of definitions and concepts that describe the movement between and from one linguistic code to the next, commonly referred to as code-switching. Each definition given differs not only between fields of research but also within said fields of research, making it incredibly difficult to create one unified definition for code-switching. The two most popular fields of research that have extensively studied code-switching are sociolinguistics and literature/literary studies, with both fields having basic tenets of study that create different nuances in how code-switching is described by researchers in each respective field of study. One of the key …

The Religious Lexicon Embedded In Public American Curricula, Daniel R. Jones

Student Publications

What is the relationship between one's own religious beliefs and their everyday colloquial diction choices? Moreover, why is the subfield that encompasses the intersection of sociolinguistics, education, and religious studies one that has gained little scholarly interest in recent years, where one could argue the importance of religious belief, and other socio-political beliefs in education have come center stage in the heart of American political debate? This article will tackle this broad range of topics through a case study focusing on my primary research question: How does a teacher’s own religious identity affect the religious language utilized in their classroom …

Triangulation Of The Phonetic Usage Of Appalachian Englishes In Southeastern Ohio, Lynden Caldwell

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This study seeks to triangulate self-report data of phonetic usage of Appalachian Englishes with interview data.

Un Estudio Sociolingüistíco Del Español De Hombres Con Descendencia Mexicana Que Se Identifican Como Homosexuales, Víctor Bulfrano Estanislao

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Ciertos rasgos lingüísticos específicos se asocian con hablantes de diferentes grupos. Los investigadores sociolingüísticos han identificado una serie de características lingüísticas como marcadores del habla homosexual en inglés y español; el presente estudio examina si estas características están presentes en el español producido por hombres homosexuales bilingües. Los hablantes examinados son hombres mexicanos de entre 18 y 30 años que viven en Chicago o los suburbios circundantes, son bilingües y se identifican como homosexuales. Los participantes completaron una serie de tareas: un cuestionario del contexto lingüístico, una narración oral y una entrevista sociolingüística grabada con el investigador. Se examinaron los …

A Sociophonetic Analysis Of Female-Sounding Virtual Assistants, Alyssa Allen

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As conversational machines (e.g., Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa) are increasingly anthropomorphized by humans and viewed as active interlocutors, it raises questions about the social information indexed by machine voices. This thesis provides a preliminary exploration of the relationship between human sociophonetics, social expectations, and conversational machine voices. An in-depth literature review (a) explores human relationships with and expectations for real and movie robots, (b) discusses the rise of conversational machines, (c) assesses the history of how female human voices have been perceived, and (d) details social-indexical properties associated with F0, vowel formants (F1 and F2), -ING pronunciation, and /s/ …

Pitch Perfect: Impression Formation And Impression Management In Women's Pitch Modulation, Grace A. Corrigan

Scripps Senior Theses

How does the pitch of a woman’s voice impact how she is perceived, and how might women change the pitch of their voices to fit the situation at hand? Study 1 examined whether pitch plays a role in impression formation. Participants listened to two women’s voices at three pitch levels (raised, unchanged, lowered) and rated the speakers’ personality traits. Ratings of speaker competence, confidence, and intelligence were significantly lower for the pitch-raised voices than for the unchanged or pitch-lowered voices. Additionally, ratings of speaker persuasiveness and attractiveness were significantly lower for the pitch-raised voices than for the unchanged voices. No …

Ambiguous Appalachianness: A Linguistic And Perceptual Investigation Into Arc-Labeled Pennsylvania Counties, Crissandra J. George

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The Appalachian Regional Commission (2022) designates 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties as Appalachia, excluding only the southeast portion of the state. Matthew Ferrence, in Appalachia North, states that his "home is sometimes called Appalachia, sometimes Rust Belt, other times Midwest, even though very few who live there would accept any of those labels as correct" (xi). This ambiguous and fluid identity is due to the shaping, forming, and changing of Pennsylvania’s role within society from a founding colony to a thriving state with industry, unselfishly spoiling others, to the grounds of converging identities (Ferrence xi). This ambiguous identity makes …

Measuring Cross-Cultural Engagement Of Those Using The Growing Participator Approach, Cheryl Lea Cross

Theses and Dissertations

The Growing Participator Approach (GPA) is a language-learning approach used among global professionals living cross-culturally. Developer Greg Thomson claims that through the GPA, learners grow as active participants in their new culture by learning language primarily in relationship. Because cultural participation is central to GPA, measuring social engagement is the most appropriate form of evaluation. This research seeks to answer the questions: (1) Does focused language learning using the GPA correspond with a high degree of social integration in the host community? (2) Does the use of scales from other academic fields help evaluate social engagement for language learners?

For …

Fórmulas De Tratamiento En Ocaña, Colombia, Liceth Bohorquez Leon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The paradigm of forms of address has been a recurrent topic of study from a sociolinguistic perspective. Voseo, tuteo and ustedeo are the forms of address used in the Hispanic world. Voseo expreses confidence and familiarity, while tuteo same as voseo, denotes confidence and familiarity. Finally, ustedeo has a connotation of formality, respect and distance. This thesis aims to examine how forms of address are used in Ocaña, Colombia, and the relationship between their use and the social factors that affect the choice of pronoun. To achieve this aim, a sociolinguistic survey was applied to 88 participants. The …