Linguistics Commons^™

Perception And Production Of Nanning Mandarin Fourth Tone, Julie Flaming

Theses and Dissertations

Local varieties of Mandarin Chinese have been underdocumented. This study focuses on Mandarin high falling fourth tone (T4), as pronounced in connected speech by four female speakers native to Nanning City and its surrounding areas, in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Surface forms of T4 and the high level tone (T1) often exhibit minimal difference, most likely due to the strong Cantonese influence in the area. I compare the pronunciation of T4 in multiple environments to the predictions about Standard Mandarin T4 surface forms in those same positions. Nanning T4 is flatter overall than Standard Mandarin T4 in all positions, with …

Information Structure In Soumraye (Somrai), An Eastern Chadic Language, Emily Ruthann Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the information structure of Soumraye, also known as Somrai (common alternative spelling: Soumray; ISO: SOR; autonym: Chibne, Chibné or Shibne), a largely unstudied Eastern Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) language of Central Chad (Eberhard et al. 2020). Analysis is based on four fiction and two non-fiction narratives as well as part of an expository text and some previously published proverbs. I primarily use a framework from Lambrecht (1994). The default information structure of Soumraye is topic-comment or presupposition-focus. The construction for marked topic, or topicalization, consists of a preposed noun phrase ending with the topicalization particle da. Da's …

Adverbial Clauses Introduced With ‘ Cuando’, Julen Carrasco Oteo

Theses and Dissertations

The meaning differences that the temporal-aspectual system and the indicative and subjunctive versions of sentences trigger in the Spanish language are the cornerstone of its semantic and syntactic possibilities. These possibilities increase if we take into account not only all the types of subordinate clauses that exist in Spanish, but also the number of Spanish- speaking communities spread around the globe. This synchronic corpus-based study of Spanish major varieties focuses on dependent adverbial clauses introduced with ‘cuando’ (‘when’) in order to examine indicative and subjunctive mood distribution. Prescriptive standards tend to be too broad if they are applied to explain …

An Action Research Study On The Use Of Flipped Learning In A Spanish As A Foreign Language Class, Juan Carlos Acevedo Fontecha

Theses and Dissertations

The present action research evaluated the teacher’s perception and the students’ attitudes and practices over the impact of applying a flipped learning model for a basic Spanish course. Unlike previous studies that have evaluated the model considering students’ perceptions and language performance, this study also considered the teacher in a cyclical process of using the flip model. The intervention consisted of four classes that dealt with grammar topics transferred into tutorial videos and in-class activities to practice the content from the videos. To gain a broader spectrum of the teacher’s perception, this study used questionnaires, and field journals designed to …

Anxiety In Presentational And Interpersonal Oral Tasks Face-To-Face And Online, Angus Leydic

Theses and Dissertations

Within computer mediated communication, there has been a large focus on synchronous and asynchronous text-based methods and how it can be used to help oral proficiency and lower anxiety but very few studies have looked at how audio computer mediated communicative tasks affect anxiety. This study sets out to seek whether using audio computer mediated communication helps lower anxiety for beginner Spanish language students. In order to do so, three research questions are suggested: (1) How do participants’ levels of FLA differ between presentational oral tasks completed in the classroom and presentational tasks completed in an online interface? (2) How …

The Relation Of Linguistic Awareness Skills To Reading And Spelling In School-Age Children With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder, Victoria Suzanne Henbest

Theses and Dissertations

Linguistic awareness is the ability to consciously consider and manipulate language. Multiple linguistic awareness skills relate to and predict the word-level reading, spelling, and reading comprehension skills of children who are developing typically and those with language impairments. However, few researchers have investigated the literacy skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and even fewer have investigated their linguistic awareness skills. This is problematic given the large number of children with ASD who are educated in the public schools and the importance of literacy skills for life success. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to begin to close the gap in …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Training And Supervision Provided To Spanish/English Bilingual Graduate Students, Sonia Venegas Mezquita

Theses and Dissertations

Spanish/English bilingual graduate students (n = 7) completed interviews evaluating language variables, training variables, and supervision related experiences. Experiences were gathered through the use of open-ended questions which focused on participants' linguistics abilities, program coursework, training experiences, and supervision experiences. A phenomenological research design was applied to analyze the collected data from the qualitative interviews. A phenomenological research design uses the collection of qualitative (open-ended) data in response to the research question (Mruk, 2010). Results indicated that the most common areas in the program which graduate students identified as most helpful in preparation for working with Spanish-speaking Latinx clients were …

Evaluative Discourse As Community Identity Among Expatriates In Shenzhen, China, Karyn Harding

Theses and Dissertations

Expatriates are a modern-day community built by a rapid advance towards globalization. Expatriates are now likely to be self-initiated; that is, they chose to live in a foreign country rather than having been sent there by an employer, and they are changing the face of the global job market. However, their social interactions have not been the subject of much previous study. This paper delves into the ways that expatriates build and maintain their communities. In this case, participant observation and discourse analysis are used to study an expat community living in Shenzhen, China. As a group not defined by …

Phonology And Morphology Of Bolgo, Katie Ann Tikka

Theses and Dissertations

Bolgo [bvo] is a language spoken in central Chad. It is a Bua language within the Adamawa branch of the Niger-Congo language family. This thesis provides an overview of the phonology and morphology of Bolgo, focusing on the underdocumented Bolgo Dugag dialect. The data on which the thesis is based consist of original research; approximately 600 nouns, 350 verbs, and 50 adjectives were elicited, as well as a number of phrases and sentences.

A significant aspect of Bolgo phonology is its ATR harmony system, which contains nine phonemic vowels. In this harmony system, words contain either the +ATR vowels /i/, …

Impact Of Intercultural Competence On Communicative Success In L2 Environments(With Reference To Missionaries Of The Church Ofjesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints), David Milford Lucero

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the impact of cultural competence on success in completing key missionary tasks. Qualitative survey results are supported by data from an intercultural effectiveness assessment and a Mandarin Chinese listening proficiency test to describe themes related to missionary communicative success and to explore correlations between intercultural effectiveness and listening proficiency. Missionary communicative tasks are clarified into themes:"obtaining referrals,"obtaining teaching opportunities," and"helping people make and keep commitments." Factors perceived as associating with communicative success include"feeling and communicating love" and receiving"spiritual guidance." The effect of training on intercultural competence is also described. The intercultural effectiveness subcategory of positive regard is …

A Text-Based Exploration Of Topics In White Hmong Grammar, Katherine Ann Birnschein

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis traces the historical development of the understanding of White Hmong grammar, comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing the extant analyses. It then responds to these analyses, based exclusively on a corpus of interlinearized texts included as appendices. It proposes new elements in the grammar including an indefinite article, a potential prefix (the perfective aspect marker), and several aspect markers that have grammaticalized from adverbs. It resolves conflicting descriptions of the constituent order of the noun phrase. It clarifies a number of incomplete or inaccurate descriptions including the lexical and structural ambiguity of constructions involving the homophones of tau (a lexical …

Constituent Order And Participant Reference In Napo Quichua Narrative Discourse, Larinda Moffitt

Theses and Dissertations

Napo Quichua is a Quechuan language variety spoken along the Napo River in Northern Peru and Southern Ecuador. This thesis presents a description of the constituent order and participant reference system of oral narrative discourse. The primary data source for this study consists mostly of folk tales told by native speakers, with a few autobiographical accounts.

Napo Quichua is an SOV language with a relatively high degree of variation in constituent order. Constituent order variations are motivated by the guiding principles of information structure, including showing focus, highlighting information, and backgrounding information. Constituent order and participant reference also interact to …

Dialect Transfer For L2 Arabic Learners, Jozeca Lathrop

Theses and Dissertations

With rising numbers of Arabic language learners studying abroad, language programs face two challenges that are unlike many other commonly-studied languages. First, dialects of spoken Arabic vary significantly across the span of North Africa and the Middle East, so in choosing a location to study abroad, learners are also choosing a particular dialect of Arabic on which to focus their attention. Second, Arabic is diglossic, so written and spoken varieties are significantly different from each other. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is used for most written material, media, and some formal settings, while Colloquial Arabic (CA) is used for informal spoken …

Using Context To Communicate: Romanian Sign Language Learners And Their Communication Strategies, Rebecca Melville

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the communication strategies used by second language learners of Romanian Sign Language (LSR), including learners of different proficiency levels, and investigates whether the learner’s proficiency level affects the kinds or variety of communication strategies they use. Unlike previous studies of communication strategies by language learners, it focuses on learners of a signed rather than a spoken language.

The study consisted of two tasks—the first being a structured task where the learner was given a list of ten words to communicate to an interlocutor (a Deaf native signer). The second task was less structured and asked the …

L1 And L2 Reading Behaviors By Proficiency Level: An English-Portuguese Eye-Tracking Study, Larissa Grahl

Theses and Dissertations

The process of reading in a second language is an under-studied area of research on second language processing. Researchers have found similarities and differences between first- and second-language reading (Koda, 2007; Artieda, 2017; Walter, 2007), and many believe that readers’ successful reading behaviors in their L1 reflect their reading patterns in the L2 (Yamashita, 2007; Cummings, 1991; Sparks & Ganschow, 1995). Others claim that a certain threshold level of L2 language proficiency is necessary before L1 reading ability transfers to L2 reading (Clark, 1978; Cummings, 1991). Eye tracking technology has enabled researchers to investigate early and late reading measures, the …

The Use Of Discursive Features As A Representation Of Voice And Identity In L2 Writing: A Case Study Of Multilingual Graduate Students, Demet Yigitbilek

Theses and Dissertations

Considering the constant increase in the number of international students studying in the US universities, it is important to address the issue of self-representation in writing as there are classrooms where students are still assumed to be native English speakers by default (Matsuda, 2006). Therefore, academic writing practices of multilingual writers can easily be seen as divergences from the ‘standard’ rather than conscious acts. However, since languages are at the core of who we are (Anzaldúa, 2001), how we use our linguistic repertoires in writing should be seen as representation of our multilingual and diverse identities. This thesis, then, presents …

The Distribution Of [ʍ]: An Acoustic Analysis Of Sociophonetic Factors Governing The Wine-Whine Merger In Southern American English, Keiko Bridwell

Theses and Dissertations

In US English, the merging of the voiceless labiovelar glide [ʍ] and its voiced counterpart [w] has been an ongoing process over the past century, originating in central port cities on the Atlantic seaboard and gradually spreading to include the bulk of the continental US. While described by many sources as still present in Southern American English, the so-called wine-whine merger shows evidence of nearing its completion as its usage becomes increasingly rare even within the Southeast, even as the segment [ʍ] is interpreted as a feature of Southern speech. Despite this fact, very little research has been conducted on …

Implementing Mental Contrasting To Improve English Language Learner Social Networks, Hannah Trimble Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The present study looks at how utilizing mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII), a form of self-regulation, impacts the social networks of English language learners’ in a study abroad (SA) setting. Over 100 English language learners (ELLs) form the treatment and control groups for this study. This research compares the social network measures between students who used MCII and those who did not over the course of one 14-week semester in an intensive English program in the United States. It also examines students' perception of this self-regulation strategy. Additionally, the impact of MCII on students who are in their first …

The Interaction Of Individual Working Memory Capacity With Cognitive Linguistics-Based And Translation-Based Instructional Treatments During The Acquisition Of Polysemous L2 Spanish Spatial Prepositions, Joseph F. Letexier

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated three areas in SLA related to the acquisition of polysemous L2 Spanish spatial prepositions. These three areas were (1) the effect of instructional method on the acquisition of productive knowledge of polysemous L2 Spanish spatial prepositions, (2) the effect of working memory capacity on the acquisition of productive knowledge of polysemous L2 Spanish spatial prepositions, and (3) the effects resulting from the interaction of working memory capacity with instructional method on the acquisition of productive knowledge of polysemous L2 Spanish spatial prepositions. The target learners were adult L1 English speakers 18 years of age or over …

Acquisition Of The English Copula By Arabic Speaking Esl Learners: Evidence For Feature Reassembly, Jenna Steiner

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to identify whether the acquisition of the English copula by Arabic- speaking learners of English provides evidence for a performance or representational- based account of errors. The representational theory tested in this study is the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli & Mastropavlou, 2007) which proposes that language learners have only partial access to Universal Grammar (UG), making some language structures unacquirable for second language learners. The performance theory tested in this study is Feature Reassembly (Lardiere, 2008), which proposes that the source of errors lies with the mapping of features onto morphology rather inside the core computational component of …

Sociocultural Identification With The United States And English Pronunciation Comprehensibility And Accent Among International Esl Students, Christinah Paige Mulder

Theses and Dissertations

Sociocultural identity is defined for this study as the element of identity affixed to a social or cultural group. Previous research on sociocultural identity has recognized the need for further study of its effect on second language performance, particularly pronunciation. Previous studies have found contradictory results when studying the relationships between sociocultural identity and various measures of second language pronunciation. This thesis takes a quantitative correlational approach to the study of sociocultural identification with the United States and English pronunciation comprehensibility and accent in a group of 68 international students learning English in the United States. Participants completed a survey …

The Effects Of Repeated Reading On The Fluency Of Intermediate-Level English-As-A-Second-Language Learners: An Eye-Tracking Study, Krista Carlene Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Most would agree that reading fluency is a concern of every L2 teacher. Repeated reading (RR) positively affects fluency development, supported by much research with L1 children. However, relatively little focus has been given to L2 RR. Most research on RR in L2 settings has focused on audio-assisted RR, used insufficient data collection methods prone to human error, and taken place in an EFL setting. In our experiment, we used eye–tracking as a direct mode of measurement of the effects that RR has on early and late reading measures. In this study, 30 intermediate-level English language learners studying in an …

Reference Tracking In Ethiopian Sign Language, Katelin Jo French

Theses and Dissertations

Very little has been written about Ethiopian Sign Language, but the language has obvious differences from more well-studied signed languages. This thesis focuses on striking differences in reference tracking: looking at all the different referring types—lexical items, points, eye gaze, body shift, agreement, and zero reference—and their distribution throughout narrative texts. Through this process, Ethiopian Sign Language has proved different from expectations based on previously studied signed languages. This language uses loci with much more flexibility, depending on role shift alone to strongly establish loci for entities. Another way this language differs from other languages is its lack of entity …

Some Features Of Participant Reference In Xochapa Mixtec, Laura J. Cline

Theses and Dissertations

Many works have been published about the grammar and phonology of Mixtecan languages, but relatively little has been written about the discourse features of these languages. One of these areas of discourse where relatively little research has been done is that of participant reference.

This thesis explores the features of participant reference in one Mixtec language, Xochapa Mixtec, by examining the use of nouns, pronouns, and deictic phrases in eight Xochapa Mixtec texts. The texts used in this research were transcribed from audio recordings and then analyzed with respect to the participant reference forms they employed. The thesis begins with …

The Effects Of Teacher Background On How Teachers Assess Native-Like And Nonnative-Like Grammar Errors: An Eye-Tracking Study, Wesley Makoto Schramm

Theses and Dissertations

Studies have shown that composition and L2 writing teachers give different scores (Golombek, Weigle, Boldt, & Valsecchi, 2003) and focus on different features (Brown, 1991) when assessing student writing, which is assumed to be due to the differences in their background and training (Santos, 1992; Atkinson & Ramanathan, 1995). Error gravity is thought to be one reason why composition and L2 writing teachers give different scores (Rifkin & Roberts, 1995). Common methods for examining error gravity were to analyze scores and responses given by the raters and to have raters reflect on the rating process and analyze their responses. Only …

Second Language Semantic Retrieval In The Bilingual Mind: The Case Of Korean-English Expert Bilinguals, Janice Si-Man Lam

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aims to explore the relationship between proficiency level and semantic retrieval in the second language. A group of Korean bilinguals who speak English with high proficiency performed semantic relatedness judgement tasks of two hundred English word pairs. Unbeknownst to the participants, half of the words in both the related and the unrelated categories contained a "hidden prime"—a common first syllable shared by the two words, if translated into Korean. Each participant's event-related potential (ERP) was recorded while reading the words. While a former study by Thierry and Wu (2007) found that Chinese-English bilinguals were affected by the …

Modest Dress As Literacy Practice In English-Speaking Conservative Mennonite Groups, Megan Lois Mong

Theses and Dissertations

English-speaking conservative Mennonites exercise a distinct set of dress practices that are not often understood by people outside the community. Advances in New Literacy Studies pave the way to understand their dress practices as a type of literacy. Multiple literacies work together to inform conservative Mennonite dress practices. One of these literacies is the reading and writing of religious texts. A second literacy is a form of heritage literacy where clothing functions as a multimodal text. Conservative Mennonites use their clothing to codify their Christian identity, gender roles and church affiliation. They intend their clothing to represent who they are …

The Impact Of Translation On Constructed Action And Constructed Dialogue In Asl Texts, Beth C. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Depiction, a phenomenon similar to iconicity, involves representing what something "looks like or is like" (Streeck 2008:289). Because depiction is used more heavily in sign languages than spoken languages (Dudis 2007), people interpreting or translating spoken/written texts into signed languages struggle to use depiction naturally (Thumann 2011). This thesis analyzes constructed action (CA) and constructed dialogue (CD), two types of depiction in which the signer's hands represent those of a discourse participant. Using Tannen (1989) & Metzger's (1995) framework of non-directly-quoted CACD and Quinto-Pozos & Mehta's (2010) degrees of CA, I examine differences between narratives originally composed in ASL and …

A Phonology Of Hill (Kone-Tu) Asho, Daniel Tignor

Theses and Dissertations

Asho (ISO 639-3: csh) is a Tibeto-Burman language in the Southern Chin branch of Kuki-Chin. It is spoken by about 170,000 people, primarily in western and west-central Myanmar (Simons & Fennig 2018). Although Asho received some early attention in the studies of Tibeto-Burman languages (Houghton 1892; Joorman 1906), it has remained mostly unstudied for the past century. Current data confirm the traditional distinction of two basic dialects of Asho (Hill and Plains), and this paper focuses on the Hill or "Kone-tu" dialect. The Hill dialect has 26 consonants (compared to 29 in the Plains dialect), and both dialects have 14 …

Backward Transfer Of Apology Strategies From Japanese To English: Do English L1 Speakers Use Japanese-Style Apologies When Speaking English?, Candice April Flowers

Theses and Dissertations

When learning a second language, there are elements of a learner's native language that can transfer and are exhibited during production in the second language. This can extend not only to the way things are said but even to gestures that are language- and speech-act-specific. However, there is evidence that the same can occur backwards, that is to say that elements of a second language can be exhibited during production of one's native language (Pavlenko and Jarvis, 2002). This study focuses on English L1 learners of Japanese who have spent significant time both in country and learning the language to …