Linguistics Commons^™

Semantic And Phonological False Memories In Adults' First And Second Language, Amber Victoria Sapp

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

I explored second language acquisition in adults by examining false memories for semantically and phonologically related word lists in both the participants' first language and second language. I expected less proficient bilinguals who are initially acquiring their second language would make more phonological false memory errors, like children learning their first language. In contrast, I anticipated that more proficient bilinguals would make more semantic false memory errors in the DRM paradigm as the semantic stores for their two languages overlap more fully. Forty-one English-Spanish bilinguals (High Proficiency: n = 17; Low Proficiency: n = 24) completed a false memory task …

Locating Linguistic Power Relationships: A Glimpse Into Transnational Feminist Dialogue Through Comparison Of Major Feminist Publications In The Us And China (2000-2012), Shuli Han

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Does the use of English as a universal language in the transnational feminist dialogue empower women globally? In what way does English shape the flow of conversation by circulating some feminist knowledge while neglecting others? Through conducting content analysis research on major feminist publications in both China and the US, this thesis probes the limitations of English as “Lingua Franca” through comparing authors, topics, and the use of references in the Collections of Women’s Studies (CWS), the most prestigious feminist journal in China, with Signs, one of the core feminist journals in the US. Through the comparison …

The Case Of Brown, Sara Ellingsworth

Colloquy Undergraduate Research Journal

The world is understood through the formation of categories, of defining what something is and what something is not, totalizing an experience, person, or word in order to come to an understanding of its essential meaning. Associations color one’s thoughts whether they are fully acknowledged or not. Without exploring the associations, accumulated through personal experience, that determine one’s view of another individual, there is a danger of marginalizing that person, instead of allowing them to fully inhabit their identity. In the following, I aim to expose the ways in which Richard Rodriguez uses Jacques Derrida’s concept of deconstruction as a …

Classifier Constructions As Procedural Signs In American Sign Language, Stephen Perry Jones Ii

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I will be analyzing what has typically, in sign language literature, been termed classifiers and classifier constructions. I will be approaching them from the pragmatic perspective by applying Relevance Theory to explain their usage as representations that manipulate and modify their referents. The data comes from texts signed by native users of American Sign Language and are from academic lectures, interviews, narrative, and course curriculum. I have found that Relevance Theory adequately describes why and when classifiers constructions are used and that they function as a procedural referring expression.

Functional Morphology And Performance Of Ecological Systems With Extreme Pressures: Waterfall Climbing And Predator-Prey Interaction In Amphidromous Gobioid Fishes, Takashi Maie

All Dissertations

Understanding the functional capacity and performance of organisms provides a strong foundation for recognizing the forces that are responsible for their form, and how they might adapt to variable or changing environmental conditions. Amphidromous stream goby fishes live in a habitat subject to two potentially extreme selective pressures: (1) predation on juvenile fish returning to freshwater from the ocean, and (2) the demand to climb waterfalls to reach adult breeding habitats. Recognizing these selection pressures, I present studies evaluating (1) the mechanisms underlying the functional capacity for adhesive performance, and (2) the risk that predation imposes on amphidromous gobies. Specifically, …

April 26, 2013: Postcolonial Environments/Transnational Aesthetics At Notre Dame (5/3/13), Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Facilitating Language Learner Motivation: Teacher Motivational Practice And Teacher Motivational Training, Shelby Werner Thayne

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the connection between teacher use of motivational strategies and observable learner motivated behavior in an adult Intensive English Program (IEP) in the United States. The question of whether teachers would find value in being specifically trained in the use of motivational strategies as part of teacher educations programs was examined. Eight teachers and 117 students were observed over the course of 24 classes using a classroom observation instrument, the motivation orientation of language teaching (MOLT), originally developed by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008) and modified by the current researchers. The MOLT observation scheme allowed for real-time coding of …

April 23, 2013: Happy Shakespeare's Birthday, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 22, 2013: Comparative Drama Is Pleased To Announce The Publication Of Our Spring 2013 Issue, Volume 47.1., Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 19, 2013: Nagle Essay On Queer Temporality Published, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Exploring Different Factors Of Language Development, Elizabeth Scribner

2013 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

The purpose of this paper is to explore the different factors that affect language development and examine successful intervention strategies. It includes descriptions of home exposure and involvement, bilingualism and culture awareness, as well as the importance of early intervention. Teaching opportunities and coaching features are also explored. Language is a feature every individual should have the opportunity to explore, and can be done in a variety of different ways. The term 'language' does not necessarily refer to English; it can be applied to most languages and language users. Language is needed for both, receptive and expressive functioning. Receptive includes …

April 15, 2013: Mfa/Phd Festival: Wmu Creative Writing Program, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 12, 2013: "Tony's Tigers": Please Support The Relay For Life Team In Honor Of Dr. Anthony Ellis, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 11, 2013: Please Share The Following With Your Students, Subscribers And Associates:, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

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.

April 8, 2013: Wmu Offers Summer Writing Workshops For Teachers, Kids, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

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

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

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.