Linguistics Commons^™

Speaking Like A Brahmin: Social Aspects Of A Register Of Spoken Telugu, Bradley B. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Among sociological studies in South Asia, frequent reference is made to caste as one of the greatest motivating factors in establishing, reinforcing, and creating social structure. This system of social hierarchy has, however, undergone drastic shifts and changes over the past decades (Dirks, 2001: 5) resulting in 'caste' as a term used to systematize concepts of social identity, community, and organization in India. The Brahmin caste, in particular, has undergone drastic changes as a result of social and political influence from without as well as from within, resulting in a conflict of identity (Bairy, 2010: 233).As a direct result of …

Bringing The Tutors To The Students: An Investigative Study Of Wac Tutoring In Second Language Contexts, Kendon C. Kurzer

Theses and Dissertations

The number of English as a second language (ESL) students attending universities in the United States has increased during the 2011-2012 school year (Hagedorn & Lee, 2005), with, for the first time since 2001, more undergraduate international students than graduate students in institutions across the country (Davis, 2012). Given the wide range of backgrounds and English proficiencies represented by this group, their varying needs are frequently not being fully met, particularly in reading and writing, two areas that are often weak in ESL students but linked to academic success (Matsuda, 2004). Regarding writing, much research has shown that ESL students …

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Developing English Language Learners' Listening Skills" And "Developing English Language Learners' Speaking Skills", Ubambor Bumandalai

Theses and Dissertations

Today, a countless number of untrained and volunteer English as a second or foreign language teachers are working throughout the world to help meet the rising need for English teachers. Many of these volunteers have little or no training in teaching English. However, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) is a book and website that can be used as both a teacher-training program and a self-learning resource to help prepare these volunteer teachers. The idea for this program started with Dr. Lynn Henrichsen, who later invited a team of graduate students …

Areal Patterns Of Possessive Morphology In The Languages Of Eurasia, Garrett K. Nay

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to confirm Eurasia as an independent linguistic area with respect to four features of possessive morphology: locus of marking, position of pronominal possessive affixes, obligatory possessive inflection, and possessive classification. Raw data on these features was taken from the WALS database and then run through an algorithm of genealogical stratification called g-sampling, in order to minimize the bias of the sample. The resulting g-units were then categorized by type and geographical area (New World vs. Old World, Eurasia vs. the rest of the world). These counts were tested for significance using Fisher's exact test. …

An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Music And Sound Effects In Fiction E-Books, Alissa Eugenia Strong

Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates that music has a unique and powerful ability to affect how listeners react to a story (Schaefer, 1998). Publishing houses are increasingly incorporating music and other multimedia effects into their products, with companies such as Booktrack now including novel-length soundtracks with e-books. The present study aimed to empirically investigate the relationship between music and text by examining whether readers' enjoyment of and distraction from a fiction e-book is affected by the inclusion of music or sound effects. One hundred and twenty undergraduate students at Brigham Young University completed an e-book reading task (either accompanied by sound effects, music, …

A Dictionary Of Unorthodox Oral Expressions For English Learners And Teachers, Eewen Ting

Theses and Dissertations

To learn a language successfully, one needs to incorporate terms which are used commonly by native speakers but cannot be found in dictionaries. Words like uh-huh, oops, ouch, and brrr, are some examples of these terms. These expressions, commonly categorized under such linguistic labels as interjections (Ameka, 1992), alternants (Poyatos, 2002), and response cries (Goffman,1981), are what Dr. Lynn Henrichsen (1993) and Rebecca Oyer (1999) termed Unorthodox Oral Expressions (UOEs). These utterances are considered unorthodox because many of them are not formal or standard English words. Because of that, “we do not consider them part of the productive system of …

Second Language Learnerhood Among Cross-Cultural Field Workers, Thor Andrew Sawin

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies second language learnerhood (ideologies about why and how to acquire a target language) among American field workers of a multinational, faith-based development organization, "Love the World". This organizational ethnography is longitudinal, tracking how learnerhood changes across the first years of field service. It is also multi-sited, tracing learnerhood across an assemblage of interconnected nodes. Field workers' learnerhoods are shaped by two larger ideologies of language learning which interact across the nodes of and individual trajectories through Love the World. One ideology, rooted in academic tradition, developmental second language acquisition and modernist missiological theory, valorizes the individual learner …

Nouns And Verbs In The Tagalog Mental Lexicon, Linda Walton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to study grammatical categories in the Tagalog mental lexicon using lexical decision tasks. Some linguists question whether words in Tagalog can be classified as nouns and verbs (Foley, 1998; Kaufman, 2011) because most root words can be inflected for any grammatical function and because verbs cannot be used in their uninflected form. Previous studies with English and German (Kauschke and Stenneken 2008) have shown that participants respond differently to nouns and verbs in lexical decision tasks. These studies have also shown that participants respond differently to transitive and intransitive verbs in lexical decision tasks. …

Error Frequencies Among Esl Writers: A Resource Guide, Maria Teresa Company

Theses and Dissertations

Being a competent writer is an important skill in academic education. However, second language (L2) writers often struggle to be linguistically and lexically competent. This project explored the most frequent linguistic writing errors made by 343 English as a second language (ESL) students when Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) was applied as an instructional methodology. These errors were also classified by language groups based on the students' first language (L1). These students were enrolled in an intensive English program at the English Language Center (ELC), Brigham Young University. The first languages of these students were Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, …

Using A Cognitive Architecture In Incremental Sentence Processing, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee

Theses and Dissertations

XNL-Soar is a specialized implementation of the Soar cognitive architecture. The version of XNL-Soar described in this thesis builds upon and extends prior research (Lewis, 1993; Rytting,2000) using Soar for natural language processing. This thesis describes the updates made to operators creating syntactic structure and the improved coverage of syntactic phenomena. It describes the addition of semantic structure building capability. This thesis also details the implementation of semantic memory and describes two experiments utilizing semantic memory in structural disambiguation. This thesis shows that XNL-Soar, as currently instantiated, resolves ambiguities common in language using strategies and resources including: reanalysis via snip …

The Effect Of Pause Duration On Intelligibility Of Non-Native Spontaneous Oral Discourse, Ryan Frederick Lege

Theses and Dissertations

Pausing is a natural part of human speech. Pausing is used to segment speech, negotiate meaning, and allow for breathing. In oral speech, pausing, along with other suprasegmental features, plays a critical role in creating meaning as comprehensible speech is seen as a goal for language learners around the world. In order to be comprehensible, language learners need to learn to pause correctly in their speaking. Though this notion is widely accepted by applied linguists and many language teachers, the effect of pausing on intelligibility of spontaneous oral discourse has not been established by empirical data. This study isolates pause …

Six Discourse Markers In Tunisian Arabic: A Syntactic And Pragmatic Analysis, Chris Adams

Theses and Dissertations

The following study is a description and analysis of six discourse markers in Tunisian Arabic. In it I will attempt to determine the syntactic and pragmatic roles of each marker, describing its function in discourse. The final analysis will be based on the pragmatic model of relevance theory.

I have based my study on thirty-two (32) texts in Tunisian Arabic, looking at frequently-occurring discourse markers in these texts and analyzing them based on their discourse roles in terms of local cohesion and pragmatic inference.

The conclusions of this study focus on the conceptual and procedural content of each discourse marker. …

The Acoustic Qualities Of Embera Katío Stops, Gisella Teresa Greenfield Vélez

Theses and Dissertations

Embera Katío is a Chocó language of Colombia. This thesis presents the results of an acoustic analysis of the stops as produced by speakers from the departments of Córdoba and Antioquia. The analysis of the stops allows me to establish more conclusively their actual physical correlates and corresponding phonological categories.

Five male adult native speakers of Embera Katío were recorded on location. Each one pronounced sixty-one words in a constant sentential frame, five times each. The utterances were analyzed acoustically, measuring duration, formant onset time, pre-voicing, and burst.

Analysis of the data verifies that Embera Katío has three series of …

The Phonology And Morphology Of Verb Forms In Mubi, Davis Prickett

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of the verb system of Mubi, an Eastern Chadic language spoken in central Chad. Previous brief analyses of the Mubi verb system have been used to demonstrate and reconstruct the Proto-Chadic verb system. However, these analyses are based on a very limited amount of data and information on the language. This thesis provides more complete data on the verb system of Mubi in order to attain a more comprehensive description and analysis, as well as to evaluate the previous claims that have been made regarding the verb system.

Chapter 1 gives a general introduction to …

Participatory Methods In Sociolinguistic Sign Language Survey: A Case Study In El Salvador, Julia Ciupek-Reed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a three-week sociolinguistic survey of El Salvador's Deaf community that was carried out in June and July 2009. The survey utilized various traditional tools that have been used in previous sign language surveys, as well as some new tools derived from participatory research methodology. Results from the various tools were analyzed to form conclusions about the language community and its goals for language development. El Salvador's Deaf community uses Salvadoran Sign Language (LESSA) most commonly, but various subgroups also use American Sign Language (ASL), and Costa Rican Sign Language (LESCO), as well as switching between language varieties …

The Effects Of Explicit Instruction On The Development Of Reading Fluency, Michael Jeffrey Zwick

Theses and Dissertations

Developing reading fluency in a first language (L1) is a topic that has received a considerable amount of attention. Developing reading fluency in a second language (L2), however, has received relatively little attention (Grabe, 2009). Anderson (2008) defines reading fluency as "reading at an appropriate rate with adequate comprehension." For adult ESL learners, Anderson suggests a minimum rate of 200 wpm with at least 70% comprehension. Previous studies that have been conducted on L2 reading fluency focus primarily on reading rate development. This study seeks to combine rate development and comprehension development to effectively foster L2 reading fluency. Doing so …

Reference In Udi Narrative Discourse, Catherine Macleod

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines concepts of reference assignment as seen in a written collection of narrative texts from Udi, a Caucasian language from the Lezgian family. This study explores the linguistic factors that affect reference assignment in Udi narrative in terms of participants, props and time and locative phrases.

Reference assignment incorporates reference forms such as nouns, noun phrases, proper names and pronouns. All of these features aid in building the mental representation of the texts in the mind of the reader. Surface-level linguistic factors, such as cohesion, coherence, backgrounding, foregrounding and focus also interact with reference forms.

This paper incorporates …

Courtroom Discourse As Verbal Performance: Describing The Unique Sociolinguistic Situation Of The American Trial Courtroom, Seth William Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Individual events within courtroom discourse, such as lawyer-witness interactions have been studied extensively, particularly within a framework of powerful vs. powerless language (Adelsward, 1987; Archer, 2006; Bogoch, 2000; Eades, 2010; Fuller, 1993; Gnisci & Bakeman, 2007; Hobbs, 2007; Keating, 2009; Penman, 1990; Philips, 1984; Roberts, 1990). However, this thesis will show that courtroom discourse is sufficiently unique to warrant a distinct framework. It will also explore the explanatory power of a Courtroom Discourse Verbal Performance framework influenced by Verbal Art as Performance (Bauman, 1977). In particular this work will create a framework (Courtroom Discourse Verbal Performance) that explains the sociolinguistic …

The Correlation Of Arab Ells' Academic Reading Fluency In Arabic And English, Jonathon C. Mccollum

Theses and Dissertations

Educational and economic developments in the Persian Gulf have increased the need for academic English reading fluency in the rising generation of college-bound students. A discussion of the literature on the linguistic properties of Arabic diglossia and orthography affirms the challenge that Arabs confront in L1 literacy. Because of the difficulties encountered in Arabic literacy, the transfer of L1 skills to L2 emerges as a salient issue for English instruction in the Arab world. The following study of Arab ELLs' academic reading fluency in Arabic and English investigates a hypothesized positive correlation between L1 and L2 reading abilities. Quantitative and …

Students' Perspectives On Language Use Outside The Classroom In An Intensive English Program, Elena Vladimirovna Shvidko

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to 1) explore student attitudes toward the English-only environment in an intensive English program, and 2) find factors that either promote or inhibit students' desire to use English in their communication with compatriots in school. Qualitative research methods employed were a) a student questionnaire (with a total of 158 participants), b) semi-structured interviews with students (total 6 participants), and c) four student focus groups (with a total of 62 participants). The study was conducted at the English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University. The participants were students of four native language groups (Spanish, …

Fluency Features And Elicited Imitation As Oral Proficiency Measurement, Carl V. Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

The objective and automatic grading of oral language tests has been the subject of significant research in recent years. Several obstacles lie in the way of achieving this goal. Recent work has suggested a testing technique called elicited imitation (EI) can be used to accurately approximate global oral proficiency. This testing methodology, however, does not incorporate some fundamental aspects of language such as fluency. Other work has suggested another testing technique, simulated speech (SS), as a supplement to EI that can provide automated fluency metrics. In this work, I investigate a combination of fluency features extracted for SS testing and …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Curricular Changes In The Undergraduate Tesol Internship Program At Brigham Young University, Lydia Ripplinger

Theses and Dissertations

This MA project consists of the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of intended improvements to the TESOL minor internship program at Brigham Young University (BYU). The majority of changes implemented and evaluated in this study were suggested by Marisa Ontiveros in her 2010 MA thesis, An Evaluation of the Learning Outcomes and Curricular Organization of the Brigham Young University Undergraduate TESOL Internships Course. The present report summarizes relevant literature that led to the current project, including a discussion of the importance of internships in general, information regarding the significance of TESOL internships, and a summary of the BYU …

Forecasting The Vitality Of The Fur Language: A Study In Language Use Patterns And Attitudes In Darfur, Kerry Mae Corbett

Theses and Dissertations

The Fur language of Darfur, Sudan has been undergoing a decades-long language shift to the more dominant and prestigious Arabic spoken throughout the country. However, a decade of conflict in Darfur has brought greater awareness of ethnic identity and disrupted the previously-documented language shift. Using questionnaires, this study explores the current language use patterns and attitudes of 286 individuals in two towns and four Internally Displaced People camps in Darfur. It uses interviews to further explore language attitudes. The research shows that demographic variables such as gender, age, and level of education affect language use and attitudes and confirms that …

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Working Successfully With Young Learners" And "Working Successfully With Very Young Learners", Heidi Healy

Theses and Dissertations

Many thousands of people with varying degrees of preparation teach English as a second or foreign language to many millions of people around the world. Some of these teachers are novice, volunteer teachers, who have not received any professional-level training. These novice teachers help to meet the demand for English teachers by often teaching for little remuneration or in non-ideal teaching conditions. These teachers can benefit from receiving training in how to teach English as a foreign language. Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) is a program that is being created to provide …

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Content-Based Language Classes" And "Multiple Skills In One Class", Amanda Staten Malaman

Theses and Dissertations

Under the direction of Dr. Lynn Henrichsen, a group of students has developed numerous units for the Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) program. This program is currently located on a website and will someday be published in book and DVD format. These units provide general training for novice teachers who teach domestically or abroad. With little or no training, volunteer English language teachers are often left with questions that BTRTESOL strives to answer in its 52 units. As this audience may or may not have university education or heavy commitment, these units …

Visual Form And A Typology Of Purpose: A Peircean-Based Approach To Visual Information Design Pedagogy, Christina Laraine Perkins Rosenquist

Theses and Dissertations

Visual information design is a vital part of modern communication. Currently discussion is occurring in most disciplines to determine more effective ways to incorporate visual information design into all their communication, including website and document design. These discussions typically focus on elements of traditional graphic design that tell the student what is "good" graphic design; however, traditional graphic design depends on trial and error, luck, and best practices, with only rare attempts to construct general principles. Selection of visual elements is usually based on designer preference rather than any consistent conceptual framework or empirical support for design decisions. Another approach …

Greening The Market: The Development And Effect Of Environmental Terms On Consumer Perception Of Products, Jae Parker Heiner

Theses and Dissertations

History, discourse analysis, and corpus linguistics show the green movement (humankind's response to issues affecting the environment) to have proliferated both ecological ideologies and the linguistic tools to discuss them, (R. J. Alexander, 2002; Bang, Døør, Steffensen, & Nash, 2007; Carvalho, 2007; Mahlberg, 2007; Wang, 2009) showing the development of green or environmental language in the lexicon. The topic has also left its mark on the market, and green market research has shown effects of messages on perceptions of green brands (Phau & Ong, 2007) and profiles of m (J. A. Roberts, 1996). However , surprisingly little research has been …

A Study In Computerized Translation Testing (Ctt) For The Arabic Language, Amanda J. Kuhn

Theses and Dissertations

Translation quality assessment remains pertinent in both translation theory and in the industry. Specifically, the process of assessing a target document's quality or a person's translation competence involves a lot of time and money on the part of various governments, organizations and individuals. In response to this issue, this project builds on the ongoing research of Hague et al. (2012), who seek to determine the capabilities of a computerized translation test for the French-to-English and Spanish-to-English language pairs. Specifically, Hague et al. (2012) question whether a good score on a detect-and-correct style computerized translation test that is calculated by a …

Ruqual: A System For Assessing Post-Editing, Jason K. Housley

Theses and Dissertations

Post-editing machine translation has become more common in recent years due to the increase in materials requiring translation and the effectiveness of machine translation systems. This project presents a system for formalizing structured translation specifications that facilitates the assessment of the performance of a post-editor. This report provides details concerning two software applications: the Ruqual Specifications Writer, which aids in the authoring of post-editing project specifications, and the Ruqual Rubric Viewer which provides a graphical user interface for filling out a machine readable rubric file. The project as a whole relies on a definition of translation quality based on the …

A Phonological Analysis Of Mro Khimi, Christina Scotte Hornéy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides an overview of the phonology of Mro Khimi, particularly with regard to tone. Mro Khimi is a Southern Chin language, belonging to the Kuki-Chin-Naga branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family (Lewis 2009).

Mro Khimi is distinct from other Chin languages in that it has a voiceless velar fricative and that, like Burmese, it distinguishes between an aspirated and unaspirated voiceless sibilant. Furthermore, the velar nasal /ŋ/ is conspicuously absent, except as a rare variant of /n/.

Mro Khimi also has three front round vowels /y ʏ ø/ that are not found in the vowel inventories of Proto-Chin …