Linguistics Commons^™

April 4, 2013: Jill M. Hebert Publishes Her First Book, Morgan Le Fay, Shapeshifter By Palgrave Macmillan, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

A Grammatical Paradigm, Alexia Polacheck

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Avram Noam Chomsky is known for his work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his political pursuits, and most importantly, for his theories in the discipline of linguistics. Chomsky linguistic pursuits aimed to answer the following linguistic studies: how a person learns and develops a language, how a person structures and understands a sentence, and what the purpose of linguistics is as a whole. His theories dramatically changed the linguistic paradigm. Due to this change, this paper also attempts to illustrate the correlation between scientific philosopher Thomas Kuhn’s belief in ‘paradigm shifts’ and the subsequent change in linguistic thought spurred …

Language Shift And Development: A Case Study Of Zhongdian Southern Khams Language Vitality, Simon Peters

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The fields of language endangerment and maintenance address language shift overwhelmingly in the context of a local language being replaced by that of a surrounding oppositional dominant cultural group. There are, though, situations in which a local language is competing with the dominant variety of the wider cultural group to which it belongs. How a situation like this is dealt with by linguists and language planners depends largely on the recognition of participant tongues as their own languages or one as a dialect of another. Reversing language shift for a “dialect” is difficult to garnish institutional and financial support for …

[Sabbatical Report], Elizabeth Winkler

Sabbatical Reports

I am working to develop a English-Kpelle dictionary database for use in the electronic world as well as various paper dictionaries to be published and used primarily in Liberia. I input over 2200 entries into a database. Entries include information about pronunciation, meaning, grammar, spelling, etymology and related words. This database will be uploaded to the website as well as formatted for paper publication of the dictionaries.

A Morphological Study Of Drug Brand Names, Celina M. Williamson

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Differential Object Marking In Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Mariluz Ortiz Vergara

Open Access Theses

In monolingual development, the acquisition of differential object marking (DOM) is completed by three years of age (Rodríguez- Mondoñedo, 2008). However, among bilingual speakers, the development and use of the marker at a young age is less predictable. Spanish marks animate and specific direct objects with the preposition-a; English in contrast does not. Based on previous studies documenting transfer in areas where Spanish and English differ, it was predicted that bilingual children would experience difficulties with the use of the preposition both in matrix and left dislocated sentences (CLLD) (Montrul, 2004, Montrul & Bowles, 2009). This study tested 14 simultaneous …

Phonological Adaptations Of English Loanwords In Turkish, Rachel Beel, Jennifer Felder

Other Undergraduate Scholarship

When trying to understand the phonological system of a language (the sounds used in speech), what are some of the ways to figure out the patterns of an unfamiliar language? The way that borrowed or loanwords (words taken from one language and used in another) are pronounced in a language reveals much about the language’s phonology. The phonological system of Turkish has accommodated for starkly different syllable structures when incorporating modern English words into this contrasting language.

A personal survey of Turkish syllable structure has revealed how native speakers of Turkish cope with the phonological features of borrowed English words …

Implementing A Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Phonics Curriculum That Incorporates Music To Meet The Needs Of English Language Learners In The Response To Intervention Process, Danielle Miller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the Sing, Spell, Read, Write (SSRW) phonics curriculum that uses explicit and systematic methods and incorporates music to teach literacy skills implemented as a tier-two reading intervention in the Response to Intervention process to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of English Language Learners. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design will be used to explore the research questions. Using a quantitative quasi-experimental comparison method, the researcher gathered archived data relating to ELLs reading achievement using the reading portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests and the STAR Reading assessment. The …

Migration For Education: Haitian University Students In The Dominican Republic, Jenny Miner

Pomona Senior Theses

Haitian university students represent a part of the increasing diversity of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. Using an ethnographic approach, I explore university students’ motivations for studying in the Dominican Republic, their experiences at Dominican universities and in Dominican society, Haitian student organizations, and their future plans. Additionally, I focus on Haitian students’ experiences with discrimination and how they relate to other Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. I find that most students come to the Dominican Republic due to the difficulty of gaining entrance to affordable Haitian universities and logistical convenience. The university is a unique setting where …

The Rhetorical Canon Of Memory And The Assistive Use Of Mnemonics, Jonathan Bobby

Masters Theses

People often imagine at some point in their existence what it would be like to have a photographic memory. However, this mental aptitude is a misnomer, and extremely rare in humankind. What we possess from our Creator is a photographic mind. Our memory recall is based on the recognition of visual pictures that appear in our mind. The early communication theorists illustrated this recognition and described it in the fourth canon of rhetoric. Because of the advancements in information technology, memory no longer holds the significance it once did. Numerous academic texts refer to memory as the lost art of …

March 28, 2013: Poet Jean Valentine Reads Tuesday: Gwen Frostic Reading Series, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Moore’S Paradox, Direct Doxastic Voluntarism, And Atheist Distrust, Kyle Thompson

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The concept of belief is analyzed and then discussed within the context of the current climate of atheist distrust in America. To begin, Moore’s Paradox, and its relationship to an important claim made by Wittgenstein regarding false beliefs, is explored. Next, the definition of belief that results from affirming Wittgenstein’s claim is outlined and subsequently defended from an attempted refutation constructed by John N. Williams. The defended definition of belief, which regards direct doxastic voluntarism as false, is then used to argue that atheists do not directly choose to not believe in any gods so as to evade moral responsibility.

March 24, 2013: Premiere Of New Bentley Film Features Wmu Alum, Faculty, Students, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

The Locus And Nature Of The Object-Extracted Relative Clause Penalty, Jeffrey Witzel, Kenneth Forster

Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive

No abstract provided.

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.

Toward A More Inclusive Construct Of Native Chinese Speaker L2 Written Error Gravity, Steven K. Holland

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine two types of error gravity in a corpus of texts written by native Chinese learners of English (ELLs)—one that enriches the traditional construct of gravity found in error gravity research by including error frequency, or how often an error occurs in a text relative to others, as an intervening variable, and one that applies the new error gravity data in a practical way to help establish salient grammatical focal points for written corrective feedback (WCF). Previous error gravity research has suggested that the amount of irritation caused by error is determined by …

"At The Coal-Face Of Standardization": Uncovering The Role Of Copy Editors In Standardizing The English Language, Jonathon R. Owen

Theses and Dissertations

Though much work has been done on the definition of Standard English and on the standardization process, little attention has been paid to the role of copy editors in that process. Editors comprise a class of craft professionals employed to remove errors from texts and make them more consistent, but when editors speak about editors at all, they generally rely on anecdotes rather than hard data about what editors do. Since formal written English is often used as a baseline for determining what is standard, and since corpora of published writing are increasingly used to research questions of usage, it …

March 17, 2013: Prose Writer Davy Rothbart Reads This Friday: Spring 2013 Gwen Frostic Reading Series, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

March 15, 2013: Limón Lecture Concludes Scholarly Speakers Series, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

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. …

March 13, 2013: 2013 Frostic Creative Writing Awards, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

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, …

March 10, 2013: Wood In Savannah, Vickery In Denver, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

March 7, 2013: T. Geronimo Johnson Finalist For Pen/Faulker Award, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

March 5, 2013: De Oliveira Wins A&S Award, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

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 …

Automatic Detection Of Idiomatic Clauses, Anna Feldman, Jing Peng

Department of Linguistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We describe several experiments whose goal is to automatically identify idiomatic expressions in written text. We explore two approaches for the task: 1) idiom recognition as outlier detection; and 2) supervised classification of sentences. We apply principal component analysis for outlier detection. Detecting idioms as lexical outliers does not exploit class label information. So, in the following experiments, we use linear discriminant analysis to obtain a discriminant subspace and later use the three nearest neighbor classifier to obtain accuracy. We discuss pros and cons of each approach. All the approaches are more general than the previous algorithms for idiom detection …