Linguistics Commons^™

Summary Of Hungarian Apocalypse Analysis, Arle R. Lommel, Dr. John Robertson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The fifteenth century was an important time in the development of the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian language. Despite a war with both the Turks and the Austrians, Hungarian culture was undergoing a flowering in the independent principality of Transylvania. This was linked largely to the introduction of printing from Germany. For the first time Hungarian texts could be disseminated widely to a populace that had never seen vernacular literature before. Particularly important in this blossoming was the publication of biblical translations, translations that the Reformers thought would put God into the hands of the people and take away Rome’s …

August 27, 2013: 2013-2014 Distinguished Alum, James Griffioen, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Orca Grant Final Report, Alisha Walbrecht

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Metaphors are a very important aspect of language, particularly of the English language. Lakoff and Johnson opened linguists to the study of metaphors by pointing out that English speakers use metaphors throughout their speech. For example, Lakoff and Johnson say that the phrase “spending time” is evidence of the metaphor “time is money,” which allows speakers to use money terms with time terms. According to Lakoff and Johnson, these metaphors permeate almost every aspect of English speech.

Syntax And English Language Acquisition, Malena Weitze, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An oral testing method, Elicited imitation (EI), has provided helpful insight into the process of language acquisition and language assessment over the past 40 years. EI is an oral test in which the subject hears a sentence, forms a cognitive representation, and then produces a sentence according to that representation (Bley-Vroman & Chaudron 1994, 245). The theory behind EI is that, controlling for utterance length, people can only reproduce an utterance if they understand its syntax (sentence structure). Although there is controversy concerning the use of EI—asserting that it is not the most precise language acquisition assessment tool—currently prevalent methods …

Semantic Change In Supreme Context: Semantics In The Privacy Line And Originalist Interpretation, Adam Prestidge, Dr. William Eggington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In a nation governed by laws, change in the meaning of the words that compose those laws can have an unexpected impact. When I began to research this topic, I noticed that in certain Supreme Court cases, the word liberty was central to the discussion of the rights in question, and was used in some surprising ways. In the 2003 Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, liberty was described as something that guaranteed “the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention.” After this statement piqued my interest, I noticed that Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey …

Creating A Sentence-Level Syntactic, Morphological And Lexical Feature Identification Application, Ross Hendrickson, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Elicited imitation (EI) was originally used to study L1 acquisition in children and has since been applied to L2 oral proficiency testing (Chaudron, 1994). The PSST research group I am involved with has been researching EI as a viable method of language proficiency testing for some years now. An EI test consists of a series of sentence-length items that a subject must repeat verbatim after hearing each one. The sentences must be carefully chosen for their lexical, morphological, syntactic, and semantic content as well as for their length (usually counted in syllables). The primary impetus for this research project lies …

The Least You Should Know About Teaching A Second Or Foreign Language, Danielle Shurtleff, Lynn Henrichsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

People from a wide variety of different backgrounds and ages participate in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Many will be going abroad to countries where people need English to advance their education or employment. A majority of them will not have the training and experience that they should have to effectively teach English and are not in a position, due to finances, timing, or location, to get a TESOL degree or certificate. I am working with Dr. Henrichsen on a project that will solve the problem of inexperienced teachers going abroad with little or no knowledge or experience. …

Researching English Language Instruction To The Deaf In Germany, Brooke Harding, Dr. Mark W. Tanner

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The principle question this research was to address is how instructors for the deaf in Germany are approaching English language and literacy development in deaf students. (The term deaf is used in this paper to denote both deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals). English language instruction is part of the standard curriculum in schools for the deaf in Germany as a prerequisite for students to receive the secondary school certificate of completion (RealschulabschlujB) or to take the college entrance exam (Abitur). However, language learning presents deaf students with significant challenges. Language in its spoken form is virtually inaccessible to the deaf which …

Constructing A Stemma For The Lds Book Of Mormon, 1879-1911, Adam Neilan Davis, Dr. Royal Skousen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During the period 1879-1911, seven editions of the Book of Mormon were published by or for the LDS Church. Each contains a significant number of variants which aid the researcher in establishing a history of relationships between various texts, otherwise known as a stemma. My research established the stemma beginning with the 1879 Liverpool edition and concluding with the 1911 Chicago large-type edition.

Dialogue As Character Revelation In Wuthering Heights, Jennifer E. Shakespear, Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In her novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brönte uses the dialogue of her characters to disclose their inner-most workings. Like real humans, characters in novels share a part of themselves every time they speak. Their personalities, moods, demeanor, affections, dispositions, and affinities are revealed through language. By conducting a detailed linguistic analysis of the dialogue of both Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, I hoped to discover language patterns reflecting their temperament, emotions, and relationships with other characters. I believe my study was very successful in achieving this goal.

Progress Summary Of Translation Of The Parson’S Family, Owen F. Witesman, Ralph V. Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My first-draft translation of Finnish dramatist Minna Canth’s Papin Perhe [The Parson’s Family] is currently twenty pages (of one hundred thirty) from completion. This draft will be further proofed and refined by a number of character readings using individuals experienced in editing and dramatic interpretation. This final version will be submitted as my honors thesis in April of 2001. I will then publish the text online and seek print publication. The project as a whole has progressed somewhat more slowly than I had anticipated, owing mostly to an overestimation on my part as to how much text I would effectively …

Hebrew Language Tutorial, David R. Coughanour, Chuck Bush

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When I proposed to undertake this project it was to provide a computer-aided language instruction tutorial for Hebrew 101 students. I was taking Hebrew 101 at the time that the opportunity to apply for an ORCA award came along and I remembered my Hebrew 101 instructor commenting that less than half of those who enroll in the class are able to make it to the end. Most of those who drop out do so after they encounter the first exam. My proposal was to develop a Hypercard-based computer program that would make that first exam more manageable and then to …

Semantic Class Disambiguation In Natural Language Soar, Anton Rytting, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Soar1 is a unified theory of human cognition implemented as a computer program. It posits that the interaction of a few fundamental mechanisms can account for any aspect of cognition. The theory’s computer implementation allows the creation of testable computer simulations of various cognitive tasks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Accent In Uspanteko, Ryan Bennett, Robert Henderson

English Faculty Research Publications

Uspanteko (Guatemala; ∼2000 speakers) is an endangered K’ichean-branch Mayan language. It is unique among the K’ichean languages in having innovated a system of contrastive pitch accent, which operates alongside a separate system of non-contrastive stress. The prosody of Uspanteko is of general typological interest, given the relative scarcity of ‘mixed’ languages employing both stress and lexical pitch. Drawing from a descriptive grammar and from our own fieldwork, we also document some intricate interactions between pitch accent and other aspects of the phonology (stress placement, vowel length, vowel quality, and two deletion processes). While pitch accent is closely tied to morphology, …

The Tone System Of Acatepec Me'paa, Kevin Cline

Theses and Dissertations

The tone system of Me'phaa, an Otomanguean language (or group of languages) spoken in the eastern part of the state of Guerrero, Mexico, is quite complex, largely due to the complex agreement systems used with nouns and verbs. Aspects of the tone system have been described to some degree for the Malinaltepec and Azoyú varieties, but little has been documented about tone in other varieties. This thesis focuses on the tone system of a less-documented variety, Acatepec, with the goal of broadening the understanding of the tone systems of other Me'phaa varieties.

The thesis follows the methodology set forth in …

Toward A Further Understanding Of The Extensibility Of Sign Languages, Jason Hopkins

Theses and Dissertations

Sign language video recordings have limited extensibility when compared with live, face-to-face communication by signers. In an effort to improve the extensibility of video recordings this study explores the possibility of leveraging a common meaning negotiation technique, depictional signing, to increase understanding of recorded texts. In an effort to gauge the understanding of depictional signing compared to lexical signing a Recorded Text Test was devised using two texts, one with a high number of visual depictions, the other with a high number of lexical signs. While a comparison of the results of the two tests did not substantiate the hypothesis …

The Mouthing Of Verbs In Japanese Sign Language, Mark Penner

Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing four publicly available stories told by Japanese Deaf people, this paper shows that verbs are mouthed in natural Japanese Sign Language roughly 20% of the time, whereas other word classes are mouthed roughly 46% of the time. More than half of mouthed verbs are always or nearly always mouthed as one of their lexical properties. Abstract verbs tend to be mouthed more frequently than concrete verbs. When a Japanese Sign Language verb corresponds to a word that is not a verb in Japanese, it is far more likely to be mouthed. Verbs in headed relative clauses are mouthed whenever …

Persuasion In Political Discourse: Tunisian President Ben Ali's Last Speech As A Case Stud, Soufien Jarraya

Theses - ALL

Within a discourse analysis framework, this research investigates persuasion in political discourse in the last speech of the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, delivered one day before he left the country in the middle of the Tunisian Revolution that sparked the so-called Arab Spring.

Sentences are analyzed to check their illocutionary force in light of Searle's typology of Speech Act Theory. Then, an analysis of agency is carried out to investigate the persuasive dimension of the use of deictic pronouns to construct the self-image as well as the image of the Other. The speech is also examined …

Grammar Enhanced Biliteracy: Naskapi Language Structures For Facilitating Reading In Naskapi, William Joseph Jancewicz

Theses and Dissertations

The Naskapi language is the language of instruction in the early primary grades of the school in the Naskapi community. Only recently have Naskapi-speaking teachers received formal instruction in pedagogy, with a cohort of Naskapi teachers following courses for their Bachelor of Education degree towards careers teaching in the Naskapi language in their local school. These adults are highly motivated to become literate in their mother tongue in order to teach or prepare curriculum materials in the Naskapi language. This thesis explores how basic grammatical structures can be mastered, and provides insight into the form that pedagogical grammatical instruction should …