Linguistics Commons^™

The Expression Of Modality In Iranian Sign Language (Zei), Sara Siyavoshi

Linguistics ETDs

This dissertation uses data from Zaban Eshareh Irani, Iranian Sign Language, to investigate the linguistic strategies for the expression of modality in this language. Manual and facial markers of modality are recognized and analyzed based on their form and the semantic domain each covers. Vander Auwera and Plungian (1998) offered a semantic map for categorization of different modals across languages. According to their framework, modality can be classified into two vast domains of possibility and necessity. Based on the source of the modal force then, each modality domain is categorized into three groups of participant-external, participant-internal and epistemic. In this …

Techniques And Methods Change, Methodology Remains The Same: Web Technology Use As Cosmetic Change In Cfl Classrooms, Justin Olmanson, Xianquan Liu, Nannan Wang, Christopher Heselton

Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology

Technology has been a staple in the language classroom for more than fifty years. From audio cassettes, to video tapes, to multimedia CD-ROMs, to static and interactive web technologies, language teachers have taken the time to learn these tools and integrate them into the classroom experience. Each new technology, each new app, creates an opportunity to alter the experience of teaching and learning—often supporting increased authentic interactions with the Chinese language. This potential however can go unrealized when the ways the technologies are used align with more traditional grammar and vocabulary-focused teaching methodologies and promote efficiency over communication. In this …

Reverse The Curse: Colonialist Legacies Of The Magic Poem, Karen E. Lepri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the conceptual relationships between poetry, magic, and race and their effects on both intellectual and creative practices from modernism through the post-war era. In doing so, this study works cross-disciplinarily, tracing early anthropological and sociological characterizations of primitive religion in connection to early-to-mid-twentieth-century literary study and writing. In working across disciplines at this particularly fungible moment in the history of the academy, this dissertation attempts to understand how the concurrent colonial global context effects the production and organization of knowledge just prior to and during modernism. It ultimately seeks to de-colonize literary thinking about poetry by performing …

Articulation Of The Japanese Moraic Nasal: Place Of Articulation, Assimilation, And L2 Transfer, Ai Mizoguchi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The moraic nasal /N/ in Japanese has been transcribed in multiple ways, but very few studies have examined its articulation. The nature of its assimilation has often been described in phonology, but again, very few articulatory investigations have been conducted. Also, while a first language (L1) effect on second language (L2) production has been discussed for some phonemes, there is no good research on the effect of Japanese /N/ on L2 English syllable-final nasals. This dissertation investigates the articulation of the moraic nasal /N/ in Japanese using an ultrasound articulatory imaging technique to assess 1) its place of articulation, 2) …

The Practice Of Secularism In Religious Cencorship In Turkish Film (1939-1990), Aditama Aditama, Nadira Bella Rachmanti, Siti Rohmah Soekarba

International Review of Humanities Studies

This paper analyzes a film as one of the media with the ability to convey certain messages to the public. Films can reflect the social and cultural conditions of society, thereby they can be used to spread the current ideas, views, and ideologies of a country. Films in Turkey are part of a culture that has developed rapidly and has become an entertainment for the people. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk reformed and turned Turkey into a new country with the ideology of secularism, controlling religious institutions and expressions. This journal article aims to describe the implementation of Turkish secular ideology in …

Structural Justice: A Critical Feminist Framework Exploring The Intersection Between Justice, Equity And Structural Reconciliation., Camille Burnett, Michael Swanberg, Ashley Hudson, Donna Schminkey

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Violence against women is a human rights violation (UN, 2006). It affects the health of women globally (UN, 2009) and its elimination is at the heart of many international and national goals. Intimate partner violence (IPV), one of the most common forms of gender-based violence, affects one in three women worldwide (WHO, 2013). The consequences of IPV create negative health outcomes for women that diminish their quality of life and their overall well-being. Abused women access community supports such as shelters to seek safe refuge from the abuse and restore their lives. While shelters play an extensive role in helping …

Reconciling Perception With Production In Southern Speech, Joseph A. Stanley, Rachel M. Olsen, Michael L. Olsen, Lisa Lipani, Margaret E. L. Renwick

Faculty Publications

• Weakening of canonical /aɪ ɔɪ aʊ/ occurs in Southern speech (Thomas 2003)
• /ai/ weakening
• Most prevalent • Triggering feature of the Southern Vowel Shift (SVS) (Labov, Ash & Boberg 2006) • /ɔɪ/ weakening • Most prevalent amongst African Americans, and older European Americans in the South • For everyone before laterals (Thomas 2008) • /aʊ/ weakening • Widespread in European American Southern English (Thomas 2008)

Embedding Oer's For The Development Of Information Literacy In The Foreign Language Classroom, Odette Gabaudan, Susanna Nocchi

Books/Book Chapters

Despite a rapid growth of Open Educational Resource (OER) availability, Thoms and Thoms (2014) note that few empirical studies examine the impact of OERs on foreign language learning and teaching. This paper presents an action research study investigating the embedding of selected components of DigiLanguages, an OER for Digital Literacies (DLs) for Foreign Languages (FL) within a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Business and Languages at the Technological University Dublin. Digilanguages.ie is an open portal developed collaboratively by six tertiary education institutions in Ireland. Digital literacies for FL learning and teaching is a key strand in this resource. The …

Editorial, Miglena Nikolova, Veronika Roth, Carina Staudte

German Journal Sprache Literatur Kultur

No abstract provided.

Thematic And Narratological Affinities In George Eliot’S Felix Holt And Theodor Fontane’S Frau Jenny Treibel, Monica Felix

German Journal Sprache Literatur Kultur

This article investigates affinities in George Eliot’s “Felix Holt: the Radical” and Theodor Fontane’s “Frau Jenny Treibel.” Both texts present suggestive narratological and thematic affinities in how the 19th-century female identity is articulated within the socio-political framework of society novels. This analysis interrogates the boundaries of a ‘sentimental education’ to uncover deeper layers distinguishing Bildung from Herzensbildung, thereby placing greater emphasis on women’s romantic education in the public performance of identity.

“[T]here is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life... ”

-George Eliot, Felix Holt: The Radical

“Männer männlich, Weiber weiblich.”

-Theodor Fontane, …

Structuring Peer Review Activities For Beginning Learners Of German As A Second Or Foreign Language, Miglena Nikolova

German Journal Sprache Literatur Kultur

The present paper offers a complete framework for effective implementation of peer review into beginning German language courses. The framework is informed by insights gained from research literature addressing the use of peer review and feedback provided by the students who were engaged in the peer review activities. The suggestions made in this paper have implications for materials development and would allow language instructors to make informed pedagogical decisions.

Aspekte Der Psychoanalyse Und Der Subjektivität In Judith Hermanns Erzählung ‘Sonja’, Martha Christine SüSs

German Journal Sprache Literatur Kultur

Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht zwei Frauenfiguren aus der Erzählung ‘Sonja’ der Autorin Judith Hermann, die über ihr Sprechen Einblicke in die Verfasstheit ihres sprachanalog organisierten Unbewussten ermöglichen. Dabei deutet das volle Sprechen der Figur Verena auf eine erfolgreiche Subjektwerdung; das Sprechen der Figur Sonja hingegen auf eine erfolglose, die die Figur jedoch mehrmals mithilfe des namenlosen Ich-Erzählers nachzuholen versucht. Diese Versuche bleiben insgesamt erfolglos und Sonja verschwindet aus dem Leben des Erzählers, der für sie nicht mehr nutzbringend ist. Mithilfe der Arbeiten des Psychoanalytikers Jaques Lacan und des Ethnologen Claude Lévi-Strauss arbeitet der Artikel heraus, dass die Verwendung von Sprache …

Nicht Der Rede Wert? Zur Vielfalt Der Deutschen Sprache Im Fach Deutsch Als Fremdsprache, Naomi Shafer

German Journal Sprache Literatur Kultur

Deutsch ist offizielle Amtssprache mehrerer europäischer Länder und Regionen. Doch selbstredend sprechen im amtlich deutschsprachigen Raum nicht alle Menschen genau gleich. Sprachliche Vielfalt findet sich aber nicht nur auf der Ebene von Dialekt und Regiolekt. Varietäten und Varianten zeigt sich auch in der mündlichen und schriftlichen Standardsprache – also in derjenigen Sprachform, um die es im Deutschunterricht ja üblicherweise geht.

Wie lässt sich die Diversität des Standard- bzw. Hochdeutschen im DACH-Raum linguistisch beschreiben und erklären? Hört man, ob jemand aus Deutschland, Österreich oder aus der Deutschschweiz kommt – auch dann, wenn der/die Sprecher/in auf einem schriftlichen Text basiert und …

A Sociophonetic Analysis Of Islander Creole Rhotics, Falcon Restrepo-Ramos

World Languages & Cultures Department Publications

This study uses a combination of phonetic predictors and sociolinguistic factors to examine the variable production of rhotics in an English-based Creole in the Island of Old Providence, Colombia. Speech data were collected from five informants by means of sociolinguistic interviews and other-speech elicitation tasks, while 328 Praat-annotated tokens were extracted from a transcribed corpus of approximately 5,700 words. Rhotic production was examined according to several acoustic correlates (i.e., formant frequencies and segmental duration) and linguistic (i.e., word position and stress) and social (i.e., sex) factors. Formant frequencies in the form of F3 and F2 revealed a post-alveolar production, while …

The Family Of Japanese No-Wa Cleft Construction: A Register-Based Analysis, Michiko Kaneyasu

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

This paper presents a comparative study of the Japanese (pseudo-)cleft no-wa construction, schematized as: [clause] no-wa [NP/AdvP/clause] (da), in four spoken/written registers: informal conversations, academic presentations, news reports, and newspaper editorials. The study finds that the no-wa cleft appears more frequently in non-objective discourse that deals with a higher level of complexity. Close examination of instantiations of the no-wa cleft uncovers various register-oriented functions that show a varied degree of family resemblance with one another. These functions can be subsumed under two general functional properties of the no-wa construction: highlighting function at the local level and (retrospective) anticipatory …

Quasi-Factives And Cognitive Efficiency, Axel Barcelo Aspeitia, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

We introduce the notion of a "quasi-factive" -- sentences such as 'It isn't widely known that Obama has been arrested', which is true because he hasn't been arrested -- and offer an explanation of why we hear them as if they were factives.

Slurs And Register: A Case Study In Meaning Pluralism, Justina Diaz-Legaspe, Chang Liu, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

Most theories of slurs fall into one of two families: those which understand slurring terms to involve special descriptive/informational content (however conveyed), and those which understand them to encode special emotive/expressive content. Our view is that both offer essential insights, but that part of what sets slurs apart is use-theoretic content. In particular, we urge that slurring words belong at the intersection of a number of categories in a sociolinguistic register taxonomy, one that usually includes [+slang] and [+vulgar] and always includes [-polite] and [+derogatory]. Thus, e.g., what distinguishes ‘Chinese’ from ‘chink’ is neither a peculiar sort of descriptive nor …

Ideological Analysis Of Colorblindness In Get Out, Danielle Goldstein

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

This ideological analysis of the horror film, Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele investigates three major ideological aspects that are poignant to the film. The main ideology that will be examined is “colorblindness” also known as colorblind racism, which is the belief or attitude that denying the existence of race will cure racism and achieve racial equality. The two other sub-ideologies that will be examined are multicultural racism and post-racism, as they are both facets of colorblindness and work together to reinforce one another in society. Colorblindness is apparent in the film’s dialogue that reveal attitudes regarding interracial dating …

"Do They Know The Normal Language?": Language Attitudes And Ideologies In German Hip Hop Culture, Matt Garley

Publications and Research

This article presents a theoretical discussion of the relationship between language ideologies and language attitudes and builds on previous work by providing an organized framework connecting these notions. This framework is evaluated with reference to online and offline ethnographic work surrounding attitudes and ideologies about anglicisms, or English loanwords, among German hip hop fans and artists. Language attitudes are theorized as individual thoughts and expressions about language, and are often, but not always, informed by individual reproductions of language ideologies, which are conceived of as systematic, shared over groups of individuals, enduring, and mediated. Language ideologies can then be organized …

Choutouts: Language Contact And Us-Latin Hip Hop On Youtube, Matt Garley

Publications and Research

This paper presents a corpus-sociolinguistic analysis of lyrics and com-ments from videos for four US-Latinx hip hop songs on YouTube. A‘post-varieties’ (Seargeant and Tagg 2011) analysis of the diversity andhybridity of linguistic production in the YouTube comments finds thenotions of codemeshing and plurilingualism (Canagarajah 2009) usefulin characterizing the language practices of the Chicanx community ofthe Southwestern US, while a focus on the linguistic practices of com-menters on Northeastern ‘core’ artists’ tracks validate the use of namedlanguage varieties in examining language attitudes and ideologies asthey emerge in commenters’ discussions. Finally, this article advancesthe sociolinguistics of orthography (Sebba 2007) by examining thesocial …

"I Have A Scream" Enunciaciones Disidentes En Torno Al 15m En España, José Del Valle, Natalia Castro Picón

Publications and Research

En este artículo analizaremos el primer Grito Mudo, gesto colectivo de desobediencia realizado por el movimiento de los Indignados en la Puerta del Sol de Madrid en mayo de 2011, como escena glotopolítica. En esta acción, que consistió en que la multitud auto-convocada guardase un minuto de silencio justo antes de la medianoche, cuando entraba en vigor la sentencia que ilegalizaba la concentración, convergen diferentes formas discursivas (que incluyen el lenguaje, el silencio y los cuerpos) que ponen en conflicto los regímenes normativos que limitan el sentido de la participación política y los límites de la democracia. Este tipo de …

A New Argument For The Lexical Underspecification Of Causers, James E. Lavine, Leonard H. Babby

Faculty Journal Articles

This article shows how a systematic impersonalization alternation in Russian provides additional evidence for underspecification in argument structure. In the case of a large class of lexically causative verbs, the causer is realized either as a volitional Agent in the nominative case or as an oblique-marked, nonvolitional causer, depending on how the event is construed. A causative theory of accusative is advanced, according to which the mere presence of external causation is a sufficient condition for accusative licensing, including those cases that lack an external argument altogether. The analysis is extended to explain accusative preservation in the Icelandic “fate accusative” …

Extending The Morpheme Order Studies: Acquisition Of Modal And Non-Modal Verbal Morphemes By Esl Learners, Amal Alshehry

All Master's Theses

The morpheme order studies have long prevailed in the field of second language acquisition. However, these studies are often undermined by their extent and focus on a limited number of morphemes. Thus, the present study extends the scope of morphemes to include modal verbs within other verbal morphemes and studies the order of their acquisition. Discourse Completion Tests (DCTs) were used to examine a total of twenty-seven ESL learners from a wide range of L1 backgrounds: Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Thai, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. The study reveals a universal pattern in ESL learners’ acquisition of English verb morphology. …

Language Planning And Its Discontents: Lines Of Flight In Haugen’S View Of The Politics Of Standardization, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

In this article, I claim that, while placing his theory of language, language planning, and standardization within a conceptual and historical framework inspired by Modernity, the emergence of the nation-state and liberal democracy, Haugen carefully mapped sociolinguistic phenomena onto their political treatment. And it was this careful and honest cartography—unafraid of generating internal tensions—that revealed aspects of language planning practice and scholarship in need of a critical treatment. Ultimately, Haugen embraced an understanding of linguistics that revolves around normativity and accepts language’s fundamentally political nature.

La Planificación Lingüística De En La Universidad De Costa Rica: Política Lingüística De Lenguaje Inclusivo De Género, Su Ejecución Y Relación Con Propuestas De Universidades Hispanohablantes, Silvia Rivera Alfaro

Publications and Research

En este artículo analizamos la política y planificación lingüística (PPL) de uso de lenguaje inclusivo de género de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), de su creación al presente, relacionándola con propuestas que surgen en otras instituciones de educación superior del mundo hispanohablante. Con una perspectiva glotopolítica, describimos la PPL (Cooper, 1997) y su instrumento (CIEM, 2004); exploramos la ejecución de la PPL en documentos administrativos y noticias de la Rectoría; y contextualizamos la PPL de la UCR tras analizar las guías de uso no sexista del lenguaje de otras universidades hispanohablantes. Entre los principales resultados, tenemos que esta política …

The Last Of Anything, Malerie V. Lovejoy

Honors Theses

DR. MARCUS HALL BENNETT is lead archaeologist on a site in Northumberland, England dated after the Norman Conquest. The excavation seems standard until the discovery of Artifact XX.46.8.2, a collection of animal skins covered in writing. To translate the writing, Hall calls in DR. QUINN PRESTON, a linguist studying Middle English as a creole. As Quinn begins to analyze the writing, she realizes they have discovered a new pidgin—a perfect storm of changing language during a time of political upheaval. Through months of study, Quinn understands the text as a history of the tribe leading up to their extinction at …

Beyond A Language Boundary: Encounters With Silence And L1 Spanish-Speakers' Willingness To Communicate In English, John Turnbull

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The descriptive multi-case study asks three adult migrants, first-language (L1) Spanish-speakers from México, about their interpretations of their own and others’ silences as they navigate daily life, jobs, family, and English-language learning in the United States. Subjective opinions about silence, their second-language (L2) acquisition processes, comfort levels in various speaking situations, functions of L2 communication, and affective and social dimensions of language learning are related to participants’ willingness to communicate (WTC), a construct that measures a predisposition to talk, rather than stay silent, in L2 interaction.

The research, through daily language-use surveys and semi-structured Spanish-language interviews with the three English-language …

San Millán De La Cogolla Y La Celebración Pública Del Idioma: Memorialización Prospectiva De La Lengua En La Transición Española, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

Este artículo tiene por objeto contribuir al cuestionamiento de las políticas consensuales que presidieron el periodo transicional en España empleando para ello un ángulo de análisis glotopolítico. Para ello, toma como caso de estudio el metalenguaje desplegado en las celebraciones y efemérides transicionales relacionadas con las famosas glosas custodiadas en San Millán de la Cogolla. Este revela su apropiación nacionalista por parte de distintos poderes académicos, políticos e institucionales.

Code-Switching Practices In The Foreign-Language Classroom: Instructor Nativeness And Students' Perceptions, Zachary Ty Gill

Honors Theses

In this study we investigated code-switching practices in the foreign language classroom among instructors who are native speakers of the target language (Spanish) and instructors who are non-native speakers of the target language, as well as students’ perceptions of L1 use. Participants were three college instructors of Spanish and 38 college students in an intermediate level Spanish course. The participants were observed and recorded during two hour-long classes involving group work. After the observations, the instructors completed an interview, and the students completed an online questionnaire. This study found that native instructors use less English than non-native instructors and the …

Final Vowel Devoicing In Blackfoot, Samantha Leigh Prins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a study of final vowel devoicing in Blackfoot, an indigenous language of Montana and Alberta. Previous research on final vowel devoicing in Blackfoot variously suggests word-final, phrase-final, and utterance-final vowel devoicing processes (e.g. Taylor 1965, Bliss & Gick 2009, Frantz 2017), though, the conditioning environment for this phenomenon had not been a research focus prior to this study. The present study investigates intonation units (IUs) as the conditioning domain for final vowel devoicing in Blackfoot.

Final vowel devoicing in Blackfoot is investigated here by examining the common word-final suffixes –wa (3SG.AN) and –yi (4SG) in two recordings …