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Full-Text Articles in Linguistics

The Evolution Of *-E:R In Mayan Languages, Christy Barber, Dr. John Robertson Aug 2013

The Evolution Of *-E:R In Mayan Languages, Christy Barber, Dr. John Robertson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Common Mayan had a suffix, *-e:r, which was an adverbial deictic clitic indicating past tense. (1) Its form and function remained fairly regular throughout the evolution of Common Mayan into more than 30 distinct languages. This study focuses on its evolution in the construction #-TIME-e:r, a Mayan phrase meaning “# days ago,” and that of its complementary phrase #-TIME, meaning “# days from now.” The most frequently occurring construction uses a form of the morpheme *-e:j “day,” as in Colonial Kaqchikel coh-eh-er “four days ago.”


The Development Of A Biblical Hebrew Parser, John D. Crawford, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Aug 2013

The Development Of A Biblical Hebrew Parser, John D. Crawford, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to produce a phrase-structure grammar for Biblical Hebrew and to determine the best way to apply said grammar in a computerized parser in order to test its durability. Overall I believe this project was a success. Although the parser has only been tested within the first few chapters of Genesis, there is sufficient variety of syntax there to test the parser’s capabilities. In addition, the problems of developing a parser have made the more difficult aspects of the application of linguistic theory to real data much more real and interesting for me.


A Corpus-Based Evaluation Of Usage Advice From The Cse And Chicago Style Manuals, Shelsea Van Ornum, Doris Dant Aug 2013

A Corpus-Based Evaluation Of Usage Advice From The Cse And Chicago Style Manuals, Shelsea Van Ornum, Doris Dant

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Writers and editors are constantly faced with decisions about usage (the actual use of language), as opposed to grammar (the theoretical structure of language). To help writers and editors make these decisions, various organizations and language authorities have compiled manuals and handbooks that include advice on and examples of various usage items. However, actual usage may not always reflect what language experts claim is the correct choice. Furthermore, language experts often disagree with each other in their usage recommendations.


Development Of New Malagasy-English Dictionary, Matthew Winterton, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Aug 2013

Development Of New Malagasy-English Dictionary, Matthew Winterton, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Since Madagascar gained its independence from France in 1960, the country’s leaders have tried to promote a unique sense of identity for the Malagasy people and culture. Part of this effort has been spent in preserving the Malagasy language. However, due to the limited extent of vocabulary in the Malagasy language, a high demand for English arose, resulting in English becoming an official language in 2007. Since the first Malagasy-English dictionary was published by British missionaries in 1835, there have been attempts to fabricate a modernized Malagasy-English dictionary, but these efforts have by no means been comprehensive and are often …


The Problem With Chicago’S Possessives, Betsy Snider, Doris Dant Aug 2013

The Problem With Chicago’S Possessives, Betsy Snider, Doris Dant

Journal of Undergraduate Research

American English has no official language rules; rather, it has guidelines of what is acceptable and what is not. These guidelines, or prescriptions, are found in grammar books such as usage books, dictionaries, and style guides. Grammar books are created and maintained by editors and grammarians who base their prescriptions on what they observe as acceptable or unacceptable usage based on what occurs in educated texts. Despite the commonality of method, there is great variety and contradiction between what different grammar books prescribe. Nineteenth century grammarian, Goold Brown, once barbed “Grammarians would perhaps differ less, if they read more.”


Text Messaging: An Analysis Of Concise Strategies Of Politeness, Jessica Evans, Dr. Wendy Baker Aug 2013

Text Messaging: An Analysis Of Concise Strategies Of Politeness, Jessica Evans, Dr. Wendy Baker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, this study helps in expanding our understanding of how new mediums such as texting differ from traditional forms of speech and writing (Baron, 2008). One of the important practical implications of this research is a better understanding of the appropriate uses of texting, which is important especially for non-native English speakers to understand. We hope that the findings of this study will help improve our understanding not only of how such mediums are used (especially how they relate to more traditional forms of speech and writing) but also …


The Etymologies Of Noah Webster: Ridiculous Or Revolutionary?, Dallin Bailey, Dr. Cynthia Hallen Aug 2013

The Etymologies Of Noah Webster: Ridiculous Or Revolutionary?, Dallin Bailey, Dr. Cynthia Hallen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In addition to priceless definition writing, the famed lexicographer, Noah Webster, spent over a decade in research for the etymologies, or word origins, in his dictionary. Unfortunately, scholars and biographers often criticize his etymological work in the literature. The trend in these criticisms seems to be that labeling a few obscure examples of Webster’s etymologies as incorrect is sufficient reason for the entire collection of his etymologies to be ignored. These critics dismiss his etymologies as being too speculative, lacking in scientific rigor, and too Biblical. Surprisingly, no study to date has reported a scientific analysis of his etymologies. My …


Providing Corrective Feedback To Second Language Writers: What Are Educators Currently Doing?, Emily B. Allen, Norman Evans Aug 2013

Providing Corrective Feedback To Second Language Writers: What Are Educators Currently Doing?, Emily B. Allen, Norman Evans

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Demosthenes, a Greek orator and statesman, affirmed that “small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” I feel that my receipt of an ORCA grant has been one such small opportunity which has been the beginning of many great enterprises for me personally and also for my chosen field. My faculty mentor, Dr. Norman Evans, and I have made great progress and had many remarkable experiences with the pursuits of our ORCA project. Together we have designed and launched a successful online survey, presented in two conferences, and are now in the process of composing several manuscripts for future …


How Do The Frequency Of Prosodic Errors In The Speech Of Non-Native English Speakers Influence Comprehensibility Ratings Given By Native Speakers Of English?, Jonathan Porter, Dr. Mark Tanner Aug 2013

How Do The Frequency Of Prosodic Errors In The Speech Of Non-Native English Speakers Influence Comprehensibility Ratings Given By Native Speakers Of English?, Jonathan Porter, Dr. Mark Tanner

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to identify the degree to which prosodic features in English (primarily pausing, word stress, and sentence-final pitch) influence native speakers (NS) comprehensibility of non-native speech. Identifying the extent to which particular features of speech influence comprehensibility could have major ramifications on the type of pronunciation instruction that is provided to non-native speakers. It can also have impact on the development of classroom and published materials for non-native speakers.


Critical Factors In Standard English Acquisition, Adam Prestidge, Dr. William Eggington Aug 2013

Critical Factors In Standard English Acquisition, Adam Prestidge, Dr. William Eggington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The ability to acquire Standard English is requisite for upward mobility in the United States. As English-language-learners are able to acquire command of a higher code, society rewards them with greater opportunities for success.


Korean Language Acquisition And Syntax: Setting A Foundation For Korean Ei Testing, William Wilson, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Aug 2013

Korean Language Acquisition And Syntax: Setting A Foundation For Korean Ei Testing, William Wilson, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Accurate and reliable L2 testing (or second language testing) is something that many entities rely on, including educational institutions, business enterprises, and the government. Researchers over the last several decades have proposed new testing methods, and a particularly promising venue is Elicited Imitation (EI). Simply put, an EI test is a sentence imitation test. Test-takers hear a series of recorded utterances in the target language, repeat those sentences as exactly as possible, and then receive scores based on the accuracy of their repetitions.


Languages Without Borders: Creating An Enhanced Teacher’S Guide For Romanian 101, Sarah Holden, Dr. Michael Bush Jun 2013

Languages Without Borders: Creating An Enhanced Teacher’S Guide For Romanian 101, Sarah Holden, Dr. Michael Bush

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Brigham Young University’s Romanian orphanage internship has been a popular and well-attended program since its inception, attracting mainly students majoring in childhood development, nursing, psychology, and health sciences. The volunteer work these interns perform during their semester abroad is of utmost importance–both to the orphans receiving care and to the students providing it. The orphanage caretakers greatly value BYU interns, but have often expressed frustration in their inability to adequately communicate in the Romanian language. Although a beginning Romanian course has been offered at BYU for several years, it was clear that its curriculum needed to be altered and an …


Judeo-Spanish In Thessaloniki: A Survey Of The Speakers Of The Dialect Today, Randall Craig Meister, Dr. David Eddington Jun 2013

Judeo-Spanish In Thessaloniki: A Survey Of The Speakers Of The Dialect Today, Randall Craig Meister, Dr. David Eddington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

“Pero Salonik no kanta mas1,” said an elderly speaker of Judeo-­‐Spanish in Thessaloniki, as she reflected with me during a discussion concerning her life as a Sephardic Jew after World War II. This expression embodies the historical and cultural awareness of the dwindling Judeo-­‐Spanish speaking Sephardic community in Thessaloniki, Greece2. After 500 years of prevalence in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Spanish-­‐ peaking Sephardic Jews have endured centuries of Muslim rule, Greek cultural assimilation, a horrific Holocaust, and starkly diversified linguistic exposure. This plethora of diversity and circumstances has created a dwindling community of speakers, but a community, …


Marshallese Corpus Project: The Marshallese Language Resource, Marco Mora Huizar, Dr. Heather Willson Jun 2013

Marshallese Corpus Project: The Marshallese Language Resource, Marco Mora Huizar, Dr. Heather Willson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of the Marshallese Corpus Project (MCP) is to create an extensive online corpus of Marshallese language texts to be used for research and other applications. Currently, there is a severe lack of resources for the study of the Marshallese language, and it is difficult to gain access to many Marshallese texts. Further, there is little by way of available naturalistic language data in Marshallese. Therefore, the ability of both researchers and language learners to study the language is severely inhibited. This project involves collecting both printed and online text samples, standardizing the spelling of these texts and creating …


Don’T Judge A Voice By Its Color: The Influence Of Visual And Linguistic Cues On Racial Profiling, Alex Jennings, Dr. Wendy Baker-Smemoe Jun 2013

Don’T Judge A Voice By Its Color: The Influence Of Visual And Linguistic Cues On Racial Profiling, Alex Jennings, Dr. Wendy Baker-Smemoe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Linguistic profiling1 has emerged as an area of research only within the last decade. Several researchers have shown that people who speak non-standard, ethnically-tied dialects are treated less favorably than their Standard American English (SAE)-speaking counterparts. However, no known studies have shown the relative importance of visual versus linguistic cues in profiling. The purpose of my project was to experimentally this by answering this question: Does one’s dialect have a greater bearing on racial judgments than skin color? Sadly, because this type of research has never really been done, we had to synthesize a new methodology. We did this …


Noun-Preposition Collocations: The 2010 Chicago Manual Of Style (Cms) Compared To The Corpus Of Contemporary American English (Coca), Christina Champenois, Doris Dant Jun 2013

Noun-Preposition Collocations: The 2010 Chicago Manual Of Style (Cms) Compared To The Corpus Of Contemporary American English (Coca), Christina Champenois, Doris Dant

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines collocation as “a noticeable arrangement or conjoining of linguistic elements” (s.v. “collocation”). Collocational constructions may present difficulties to editors, translators, and second-language learners. Malgorzata Martyńska explains that collocations tend to be “one of the most problematic and error-generating area [sic] of vocabulary, especially for second language learners” (5) and that “collocations pose enormous problems, even for the most proficient in English” (10). My research focuses specifically on noun-preposition collocations.


How Performative Are Ideophones In Pastaza Quechua?, Roseanna Hopper, Dr. Janis Nuckolls Jun 2013

How Performative Are Ideophones In Pastaza Quechua?, Roseanna Hopper, Dr. Janis Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

With my ORCA grant, I set out to investigate the performance qualities of ideophones, a category of words marked by a specific speaking style in Ecuadorean Pastaza Quechua. I planned to use software to determine phonetic properties of the words and compare to the rest of speech. I also wanted to look at gesture as a part of the performance involved in using ideophones. I planned to gather data from acquaintances in Ecuador by recording stories, conversations and definitions of the words, which was a strategy used by Dingemanse while working with Siwu (2011). I used audio recordings for the …


Multilingual Extraction Ontologies, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Apr 2013

Multilingual Extraction Ontologies, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

On December 29, 2009 we were informed that our application for a 2010 MEG grant was approved. This final report sketches the accomplishments attained during the project’s timeframe since then.


Refinement
 And 
Validation 
Of 
Elicited 
Imitation 
As 
A 
Measure
 Of 
Oral
 Proficiency, Dr. Dan Dewey Mar 2013

Refinement
 And 
Validation 
Of 
Elicited 
Imitation 
As 
A 
Measure
 Of 
Oral
 Proficiency, Dr. Dan Dewey

Journal of Undergraduate Research

We 
were 
able 
to 
achieve 
most 
of 
the 
goals 
established
 in 
the 
MEG 
proposal 
we
 submitted
 in 
the 
Fall 
of 
2008 
(for
 a 
grant 
Winter, 
2009). 

We 
did 
end 
up
 adjusting
 the 
project 
and 
use 
of 
the 
funds 
slightly 
to 
adapt 
to 
changing 
needs 
and 
to 
fit 
the
 personnel 
available 
to 
accomplish
 the 
tasks. 

One 
example
 of 
adapting 
was
 that 
we
 had 
an 
outstanding 
graduate 
student 
in 
Linguistics 
who 
was 
able 
to 
team
 up 
with
 several 
undergraduates 
to
 create
 an 
Elicited
 Imitation 
(EI) 
test 
in 
Japanese. 

Much 
of
 our
 development 
occurred 
in 
Japanese
 as
 a
 result.