Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons^™

Scribblescholar Was Here: Confessional Notes Of A Vandal Academic, Clay Shields

Theses and Dissertations--English

As a (former) vandal-punk in the academy, I often fear succumbing to Ivory Tower Stockholm syndrome. The identities I perform, vandal-punk and scholar, ideologically clash to the point that they often feel irreconcilable. By codemeshing the high-low discourses associated with these adopted cultures, I attempt to disrupt any hierarchal privileging of either, instead searching for a way to live with and harness both.

Specters Of Kurdish Nationalism: Governmentality And Counterinsurgent Translation In Turkey, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

This essay examines translations of the Kurdish epic poem Mem û Zîn into Turkish, tracing the logics behind these state-sponsored translations and examining how acts of translation are also efforts to regulate, translate, and erase Kurdish subjectivities. I argue that the state instrumentalizes Mem û Zîn’s potent nationalist currency in order to disarm present and future claims of Kurdish national autonomy. Using translation as a counterinsurgent governmental tool, the state attempts to domesticate Kurdish nationalist discourses even as it reproduces them, thereby transforming Kurdish nationalism into a specter of itself. Attending to this specter, however, allows us to see how …

Toward A Biocommunicable Cartography Of Health Decision-Making In The Amazon Basin Of Ecuador, James Cartwright

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper comprises a critical, ethnographic study of health communication in a rural community of Amazonian Ecuador. By synthesizing approaches from anthropology, discourse studies, and public health, the study explores how conversations influence health decisions, how communities understand health systems, and how macrostructural discourse changes the political economy of healthcare in Ecuador. My work draws on the recent theoretical development of ‘biocommunicability’ in anthropology as well as earlier sociological research on knowledge construction. Most importantly, this paper offers a critique of current interventions by NGOs in the region.

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

Lateralización De /ɾ/ Implosiva: La Conciencia Fonológica Y Sus Manifestaciones En El Español Puertorriqueño Oral Y Escrito (Lateralization Of Syllable Final /ɾ/: Phonological Consciousness And Its Manifestations In Oral And Written Puerto Rican Spanish), Antonio Medina-Rivera

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

This study examines the process of lateralization of syllable final / r / in Puerto Rican Spanish. In addition to analyzing the process in oral speech, this study takes into consideration written registers as well. The results show that the process of lateralization goes beyond oral registers among Puerto Rican Spanish. However, the manifestation of the lateral variant does not only occur as a result of neutralization or confusion between 'r' and 'I.' There seems to be a ludic function and evident intentionality in the use of lateral variant, that in some ways shows a mark of identity among Puerto …

Strategic Deployments Of ‘Sisterhood’ And Questions Of Solidarity At A Women’S Development Project In Janakpur, Nepal, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

Linguistic uses of ‘sisterhood’ provide a window into disparate understandings of relationality among virtual and actual interlocutors in women’s development across vectors of caste, class, ethnicity and nationality. In this essay, I examine the trope of ‘sisterhood’ as it was employed at a women’s development project in Janakpur, Nepal, in the 1990s. I demonstrate that the use of this common signifier of kinship with culturally disparate ‘signifieds’ created a confusion of meaning, and differential readings of the politics of relationality. In my view, ‘sister,’ as used at this project, was a multivalent, strategically deployed, and divergently interpreted term. In particular, …

Participation Framework And Footing Shifts In An Interpreted Academic Meeting, Annie R. Marks

Journal of Interpretation

Students training to become sign language interpreters are often faced with the challenge of negotiating boundaries with the deaf and hearing consumers with whom they interact. Many interpreter-training programs have traditionally taught students that it is most appropriate to maintain “neutrality” in our interactions and in our interpretations. (Metzger, 1999). The objective of this study is to add to limited amount of research that examines footings in interpreted interaction. Metzger (1999) performed one of the only studies of participation framework and footings in American Sign Language-English interpreted encounters. This study is a replication of her initial work and aims to …

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 …

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …

Communication Strategies In Social Interaction Between Arab And Iranian Postgraduate Students., Elham Shahban

Student Works (2010-2019)

Arab and Iranian students must communicate in English in Malaysia but due to their lack of proficiency they tend to use communication strategies (CS) to overcome problems they encounter while communicating in English. According to Corder (1977) CSs are systematic techniques employed by speakers to facilitate communication during conversations. The aim of this study is to investigate the type and frequency of the CSs high and low proficiency Arab and Iranian postgraduate students with differing linguistic background (Arabic and Persian) use when speaking in English with each other. To achieve the objective of the study 12 Arab and Iranian participants …

Language Choice In Interracial Marriages : The Case Of Filipino-Malaysian Couples., Francisco Perlas Dumanig

Student Works (2010-2019)

Language choice has become a common phenomenon in interracial encounters in which speakers are always faced with the challenge of choosing an appropriate language in various domains of communication. In multilingual and multiracial societies, language choice can sometimes be crucial because of its social, political, and economic impact on the speakers. Even in the smallest unit of a society which is the family, language choice plays an important role particularly in interactions between husbands and wives who come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It is therefore the objective of this research to examine the language choice in interracial couples’ …

Physician-Patient Communication About Patients' Sexual Activities And Substance Use : Information Exchange On Potentially Delicate Matters, Paul Michael Denvir

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Previous interaction-based research has shown that physicians and patients collaboratively realize the routine character of comprehensive medical histories through their communicative behavior. A primary resource in this regard is the design of information seeking and reporting actions. Physicians seek information through closed-ended query formats and patients report information in fitted, minimal formats. This organization provides a relatively efficient way to address a wide range of health-related topics. One topical domain that has been described as sensitive and difficult is patient `lifestyle,' which typically includes discussion of sexual activities and substance use. In these domains, patients engage in some special interactional …

Blogging About Feminist Lnterdisciplinarity In The Study Of Communication, Language, And Gender, Cynthia Berryman-Fink, Janet Bing, Deborah Cameron, Amy Sheldon, Anita Taylor

English Faculty Publications

This article provides information about several blog posts discussed during a round-table discussion on feminist interdisciplinary studies in relation to communication, language, and gender. Topics under discussion include the nature of interdisciplinarity and its relevance to feminist studies, intercultural communication, and the study and teaching of gender in women's studies programs in higher education.

Language, Racism, And Ethnicity, Thomas Paul Bonfiglio

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

While ethnic prejudices can be expressed in and through language, they are not, however, intrinsically linguistic in nature. They are, instead, supralinguistic concepts that become disguised as linguistic ones and imported into the theater of language. The pathways that facilitate this importation have been made by the repeated interconnections between the concept of language and the concept of race. In other words, language in the service of racism and ethnocentrism cannot occur without conceptualizing language and race in similar ways. Accordingly, the identification of language with race is not possible without the genetic misprisions that create the myth of race …

The Electronic Polis: Media Democracy And The Invasion Of Iraq, Jeff Lewis, Kirsty Best

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The American-led victory in Baghdad was announced to the world with scenes of Iraqi citizens dragging down the statues of the deposed tyrant. Like the spectacle of World Cup Soccer or the Olympic Games, the image was transmitted live through the global media network to the billions of people who had been closely watching the three week invasion. President Bush shared in the celebration, announcing the dawn of a new age for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. This new democracy, the president proclaimed, would bring stability and prosperity to the region through the obliteration of terrorism …

A Comparative Study Of Standard American English And Non-Standard American English Accents, Casey S. Gleason

Masters Theses

Through the birth and maturation of the American society, dominant cultures have developed and become the accepted norm of America. However, with the constant flow of immigrants entering America, a variety of cultures and languages entered, also. The English language has remained the dominant language, while Standard American English has remained the dominant accent. Those who do not display Standard American English (SAE) often fall victim to a lower level of speaker credibility than those who speak SAE. One's sex may also affect speaker credibility due to different communication styles. The affect one's combination of accent and sex has on …

Strategi Penukaran Kod Di Kalangan Guru-Guru Cina Berpendidikan Cina Dan Bukan Berpendidikan Cina : Satu Kajian Kes, Kheng Leng Gan

Student Works (2000-2009)

Kajian ini merupakan satu tinjauan terhadap gejala penukaran kod yang ber1aku di kalangan guru-guru keturunan Cina yang berpendidikan Cina dan bukan berpendidikan Cina di sebuah sekolah menengah di Seremban.  Objektif Kajian ini adalah untuk meneliti fenomena penukaran kod dalam masyarakat Cina Malaysia yang boleh bertutur pelbagai bahasa dialek khususnya Bahasa Kantonis, Bahasa Mandarin dan bahasa lain iaitu Bahasa Melayu dan Bahasa lnggeris.  Di samping itu, kajian ini turut mengesan kekerapan penukaran kod yang ber1aku di kalangan dua kumpulan informan ini dan mengkaji faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan berlaku penukaran kod berdasarkan fungsi-fungsi penukaran kod wacana dan faktor-faktor soslo-budaya.

Language Maintenance And Shift Among The Portuguese Eurasians In The Portuguese Settlement, Sudesh Nicholas Ramachandran

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study examines language maintenance and shift among the Portuguese Eurasians living in the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca. Firstly, this study focuses on the use of Kristang in seven domains: work/school, transaction, family, neighbourhood, friendship, entertainment and prayer. Secondly, it investigates the attitude of the subjects towards Kristang, English end Malay. The instrument used in conducting this study is a forty-two item questionnaire administered on sixty-four respondents based on the variables of age, gender and socioeconomic status. The findings indicate that the use of Kristang among the community members is decreasing in almost all the domains studied. The findings also …