Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Syntax Of The Arabic Determiner Phrase, Mohamed Cheikh Beina

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to analyze the syntactic structure of the Arabic determiner phrase (DP) within the confines of Chomsky's minimalist program. Attention is drawn to a number of the misconceptions many linguists have about this constituent. Some of the issues that linguists overlook include the existence of an indefinite article as well as a possessive determiner that heads the genitive phrase. A new analysis of agreement within DP is presented, as well as an argument against the construct state analysis and analyses of other related issues.

Tutor Assisted Vocabulary Support: Easing The Vocabulary Load For Burundian Refugees Studying For The U.S. Citizenship Test, Eleanor Anne Clark

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis was to develop vocabulary materials to supplement those already in use for emergent literate Burundian refugees preparing for the U.S. Citizenship Test. These learners study in conjunction with the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City, Utah, and with volunteer tutors who help them study. The flashcards and supporting activities were designed to better enable tutors to teach learners highly-dense vocabulary items, as well as to provide vocabulary scaffolding support for both learners and tutors and to increase depth of vocabulary knowledge with the target vocabulary. The U.S. Citizenship Test Vocabulary Flashcards and Vocabulary Support …

A Teacher's Guide To Academic Reading: Focusing On The Academic Reading Demands Of Esl Learners, Rebecca Jean Stone

Theses and Dissertations

With over 765,000 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students studying in the United States, a greater understanding of the academic requirements and demands these students face while studying in the US is needed. Some of the biggest challenges they face include the amount of reading required and the various tasks employed with academic reading. University reading tasks require more than an understanding of the text. These tasks place a strong emphasis on text comprehension, summary, synthesis, and critical analysis. This is problematic as students, especially ESL learners, lack experience with academic tasks, and many additionally struggle with low metacognitive awareness, limited or low …

December 9, 2013: Kazoo Books Author Day, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

La Production De Gestes Pendant Les Pauses Du Discours : Pour Qui Et Pour Quoi ?, Gale Stam, Marion Tellier, Brigitte Bigi

Gale Stam, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Cross-Grade Analysis Of Chinese Students' English Learning Motivation: A Mixed-Methods Study, Qian-Mei Zhang, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

This mixed-methods study investigated the changes in Chinese students’ motivation to learn English from elementary to high school and explored the reasons for these changes at different school levels. A motivational questionnaire was designed and administered to 3,777 elementary, junior high, and high school students, and followup interviews were then conducted with nine students in order to investigate their perceptions of their motivations. Seven subcomponents of motivation were identified. The statistical results revealed that junior high school students had the highest learning motivation, followed by those in elementary school and those in high school. The interview data indicated that parents’ …

A Brief History Of The Cornish Language, Its Revival And Its Current Status, Siarl Ferdinand

e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies

Despite being dormant during the nineteenth century, the Cornish language has been recently recognised by the British Government as a living regional language after a long period of revival. The first part of this paper discusses the history of traditional Cornish and the reasons for its decline and dismissal. The second part offers an overview of the revival movement since its beginnings in 1904 and analyses the current situation of the language in all possible domains.

Language Ideologies And Orthographies: Developing A Writing System For Than Ówîngeh, Evan Ashworth

Linguistics ETDs

The use of writing to represent the heritage language represents a contentious issue for many members of Puebloan societies in the American Southwest. Many community members resist the use of writing for this purpose on the grounds that it acts as a form of colonialism, while others accept the use of writing in the heritage language because it is seen as valorizing the heritage language itself. This study seeks to address three research questions: 1) What factors motivate either a resistance to or acceptance of the use of writing to represent a heritage language? 2) If the use of writing …

La Condition Postmétisse, Célestin Monga

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Patrick Chamoiseau’s thought has evolved considerably over the past twenty-five years. Whether it inscribes itself in the registers of utopia or counter-utopia, it has moved away from the linguistics issues of creoleness to acquire a humanistic thickness. It now advocates the advent of a global identity that could be viewed as “post-mestizo”. This essay analyzes its invocation of the Tout-Monde and its faith in a universal poetics of relation. It also assesses the empirical basis for his views in a world where nihilism appears to be the only credible virtue.

December 1, 2013: Bay Psalm Book Auctioned For $14.2 Million, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Predictive Admission Criteria In Graduate Programs In Speech-Language Pathology, Mary Lloyd Moore

Dissertations

Speech-language pathology is a profession for which there is increasing demand as well as being one of the most desirable career paths in the United States. Graduation of qualified persons who can pass the Praxis exam is an essential outcome of all graduate programs in speech-language pathology. If predictors of competence could be identified before admission, graduate programs would be better able to select students who would maximize the expenditure of materials, energy, and expertise, thereby decreasing the potential failure for both students and universities. Therefore, this research addresses the extent to which selected variables may serve to predict success …

Lexical Retrieval In Discourse: An Early Indicator Of Alzheimer’S Dementia, Seija Pekkala, Debra Wiener, Jayandra Himali, Alexa Beiser, Loraine Obler, Yulin Liu, Ann Mckee, Sanford Seshadri, Philip Wolf, Rhonda Au

Publications and Research

We examined the progression of lexical-retrieval deficits in individuals with neuropathologically determined Alzheimer’s disease (AD; n=23) and a comparison group without criteria for AD (n=24) to determine whether linguistic changes were a significant marker of the disease. Our participants underwent multiple administrations of a neuropsychological battery, with initial administration occurring on average 16 years prior to death. The battery included the Boston Naming Test (BNT), a letter fluency task (FAS) and written description of the Cookie Theft Picture (CTP). Repeated measures analysis revealed that the AD-group showed progressively greater decline in FAS and CTP lexical performance than the comparison group. …

The Acquisition Of Relative Clauses: How Do Second Language Learners Of Arabic Do It?, Dola Algady

Theses and Dissertations

The new developments in syntactic theory under Minimalism reconsiders the relation between the language faculty and general cognitive systems whereby language acquisition is accomplished by the interaction of Chomsky (2005)'s three factors: (F1) a minimally specified UG (Genetic endowment); (F2) Primary Linguistic Data (PLD), i.e., input; and (F3) non-language faculty-specific considerations, including principles of efficient computation and principles of data analysis employed in acquisition. Based on this assumption, this study examines the role of economy conditions of (F3) on syntactic derivation and feature interpretability in accounting for the process of second language acquisition by investigating the nature of interlanguage grammars …

Second Language Gesture And Acculturation In Study Abroad Contexts, Christie Marie Gardner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Motivationis an integral part of learning; Gestures are an important aspect of human communication, and culture plays a significant role in shaping all of these human elements. This study explores the relationship betweensocial, cultural-historical activityand second language(L2) gesture acquisitionas student motivations both drive, and emanate from, the L2 learning process. Six American students participating in a study-abroad program in Chile were evaluated at three different levels of L2 proficiency (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) for L2 gesture articulations and motivational developments. During the semester-long investigation, three audio-video recorded interviews were conducted to observe L2 gestural behaviors, and two e-mail logs were …

"What's In A Name?": Heteroglossia And History In Native Alaskan Names, Shannon Hannahs

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines Native Alaskan personal names and naming practices and how these names are being used to index cultural identity in Anchorage, Alaska. In order to do this, I follow Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossia (1981), which states all words are populated with meaning from all of the contexts in which they have been used in the past. Native Alaskan personal names should be considered heteroglossic based on the Yup'ik/Cup'ik and Inupiaq beliefs that personal names are a type of soul that carries with it the characteristics of a person who uses it. When that person dies, the name-soul …

Numeral Incorporation In American Sign Language, Vanessa L. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Numeral incorporation is a moderately productive process in ASL which combines a numeral and a base to form a compounded fully formed sign. Numeral-incorporated signs involve some sort of simultaneity of the base and the numeral. I interviewed six individuals who use ASL as their primary language in order to gather examples of numeral-incorporated signs in ASL, thus getting a sampling of variation in the American deaf community.

Traditionally, numeral incorporation has been viewed as a process of combining a numeral sign with a noun, which I call a source sign. Instead, I found that the source signs are separate …

A Survey Of Those In The U.S. Deaf Community About Reading And Writing Asl, Jennifer Keogh

Theses and Dissertations

On average, students who are deaf do not develop English literacy skills as well as their hearing peers. The linguistic interdependence principle suggests that literacy in American Sign Language (ASL) may improve literacy in English for students who are deaf. However, the Deaf community in the United States has not widely adopted a written form of ASL. This research surveys individuals in the U.S. Deaf community to better understand the opinions surrounding literacy in ASL.

The survey was presented online, containing both ASL in embedded videos and written English. The survey asked for the participants' demographic information, language and educational …

Resemblance-Oriented Communication Strategies: Understanding The Role Of Resemblance In Signed And Spoken Languages, Daniel R. Eberle

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to propose that resemblance plays an important role in human communication. Saussure proposed a characteristic principle of the linguistic sign: that connections between linguistic codes and the objects they signify are arbitrary; however, I intend to show that resemblance, which I define as the visual or aural similarity between a stimulus, the thought it is intended to activate, and the real world target that utterance is about, is an important part of human communication and should be taken into consideration when defining language and proposing theories of human communication.

I have chosen Relevance Theory …

Many Voices, Many Selves: An Analysis Of Education Blog Discourses, Kelli Lynn Finney

Theses and Dissertations

At this point, the majority of computer mediated communication (CMC) studies have employed a variation analysis approach, quantitatively describing language on the Internet and comparing CMC to speech and writing. While these studies have provided valuable information about CMC, they have also left many gaps, especially related to social and ideological issues such as language use.

This study responds to the need for more qualitative studies of language on the Internet by examining one form of CMC: education blogs. The study analyzes a selection of posts from five blogs published between March 21, 2012 and March 28, 2013. These five …

Terror From The Sky: Unconventional Linguistic Clues To The Negrito Past, Robert Blust

Human Biology

Within recorded history. most Southeast Asian peoples have been of "southern Mongoloid" physical type, whether they speak Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, or Hmong-Mien languages. However, population distributions suggest that this is a post-Pleistocene phenomenon and that for tens of millennia before the last glaciation ended Greater Mainland Southeast Asia, which included the currently insular world that rests on the Sunda Shelf, was peopled by short, dark-skinned, frizzy-haired foragers whose descendants in the Philippines came to be labeled by the sixteenth-century Spanish colonizers as "negritos," a term that has since been extended to similar groups throughout the region. There are three …

Time And Place In The Prehistory Of The Aslian Languages, Michael Dunn, Nicole Kruspe, Niclas Burenhult

Human Biology

The Aslian language family, located in the Malay Peninsula and southern Thai Isthmus, consists of four distinct branches comprising some 18 languages. These languages predate the now dominant Malay and Thai. The speakers of Aslian languages exhibit some of the highest degree of phylogenetic and societal diversity present in Mainland Southeast Asia today, among them a foraging tradition particularly associated with locally ancient, Pleistocene genetic lineages. Little advance has been made in our understanding of the linguistic prehistory of this region or how such complexity arose. In this article we present a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of a large sample of …

Who Are The Philippine Negritos? Evidence From Language, Lawrence A. Reid

Human Biology

This article addresses the linguistic evidence from which details about Philippine "negritos" can be inferred. This evidence comes from the naming practices of both negrito and non-negrito peoples, from which it can be inferred that many negrito groups have maintained a unique identity distinct from other groups since the dispersal of Malayo-Polynesian languages. Other names, such as Dupaningan and Dumagat, reference locations, from which it is assumed the negritos left after contact with Malayo-Polynesian people. Evidence also comes from the relative positions of negrito groups vis-à-vis other groups within the subfamily with which their current language can be grouped. Many …

November 12, 2013: New Issue Of Comparative Drama, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

American Perceptions Of British Regional Dialects, Joanne Sampaio

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sociolinguists have discussed problematic language ideologies, such as Standard Language Ideology (Lippi-Green 1997) extensively and social perceptions of Standard English in the U.S and U.K are well documented. However, most work in this area has focused on perceptions of dialects within national contexts. This study makes a novel contribution to the study of language attitudes, investigating perceptions of British regional dialects within the U.S. A survey was created to gauge perceptions of five British regional dialects (Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, London). 49 survey participants listened to audio clips of British regional dialect speakers and then completed a mapping activity, answered …

Re-Cognizing Power In The Culture Of Dementia Care Knowledge, Ryan T. Deforge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In light of increasing system demands, system regulations, and constrained resources, those living and working with dementia in the long-term care sector are vulnerable to oppressive care practices. This is true so long as our understanding of how social power affects the ways in which dementia care knowledge is created, shared, and enacted remains limited. Based on prolonged field observations and on informal and formal interviews with care recipients, family members, and staff, the aim of this critical qualitative research was to examine the culture of dementia care knowledge in two sites: a specialized dementia care unit in a long-term …

Phonological Profiles Of 2-Year-Olds With Expressive-Only And Expressive And Receptive Language Delay: A Pilot Study, Kristin Vanwyngaarden, Shari L. Deveney

Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This poster discusses: Background, Research Question, Methods, Results, Conclusions, Clinical Implications, and Limitations & Future Directions.

Performative Memory: Form And Content In The Jewish Museum Berlin, Lisa A. Costello

Department of Writing and Linguistics Faculty Research and Publications

Work published in Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies.

Poststructuralist Theory And Sociolinguistics: Mapping The Linguistic Turn In Theory, Phillip M. Carter

Phillip M. Carter

Poststructuralist theory has been broadly influential throughout the humanities and social sciences for two decades, yet sociolinguistic engagement with poststructuralism has been limited to select subfields. In this paper, I consider the possibilities for richer cross-disciplinary work involving sociolinguistics and poststructuralist social theory. I begin by describing the place of social theory within sociolinguistics, paying attention both to the possibilities of interdisciplinarity and the resistance to it. I then introduce the basic tenets of poststructuralism, focusing primarily on its two main constructs, ‘performativity’ and ‘discourse,’ and briefly discuss the discontentment with structuralism that resulted in ‘the linguistic turn’. I outline …

The Politics Media Equation:Exposing Two Faces Of Old Nexus Through Study Of General Elections,Wikileaks And Radia Tapes, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

The important identity of a responsible media is playing an unbiased role in reporting a matter without giving unnecessary hype to attract the attention of the gullible public with the object of making money and money only.After reporting properly the media can educate the public to form their own opinion in the matters of public interest. Throughout the centuries, the world has never existed without information and communication, hence the inexhaustible essence of mass media. The government has the power to either make or reject whatever that will exist within its environment. It also determines how free the mass media …

The Auld Sod: Staging The Diaspora At The 1897 Irish Fair In New York City, Deirdre O’Leary

e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies

The 1897 Irish Fair in New York City is significant for its map exhibit of a topographical map of Ireland, with soil from each county represented. For ten cents, participants could walk across the map and stand again on the soil of Ireland. This article examines the map exhibit as demonstrating diasporic nationalism of the late nineteenth century Irish emigrant, and also reads the exhibit as a contrapuntal political discourse on Irish nationalism, Anglo/American relations, and the position of the Irish immigrant in New York.