Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons^™

The Catalan-Speaking Linguistic Landscape Of Spain: A Comparative Analysis Of Commercial Signage In Barcelona, Valencia, And Palma De Mallorca, Kyle Reasons

Honors Theses

The present study is a linguistic landscape of the Catalan-speaking region of Spain. Linguistic landscaping is a relatively new survey technique in the world of linguistics first developed in a study by Landry & Bourhis (1997) and has a focus on addressing the languages present on various forms of signage within a given area. Catalan is a Romance language with approximately 9 million speakers where it is recognized as a co-official language in 3 communities included in this study (the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and the Valencian Community). This study looks at 3 cities in Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, and Palma de …

Contacto, Identidad Y Convergencia: El Español Dominicano En Puerto Rico, Ricardo Estremera-Marcial

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

El presente estudio analiza el contacto dialectal entre el español dominicano y el puertorriqueño en Puerto Rico. Se trata de explicar el encuentro de dos variedades cercanas del español dentro de un mismo espacio monolingüe, pero con valoraciones sociales distintas. En particular, se examina el grado de convergencia que resulta de ese contacto en el caso de la articulación de la /s/ en posición final de sílaba, junto con la convergencia léxica y el papel de las actitudes lingüísticas en la construcción de la identidad.

Para llevar a cabo esta investigación se combinaron métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos. Se trabajó con …

The Machine And The Masses: A Sociolinguistic Study Of Ai Political Rhetoric, Yaseen Tasnif

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

With increased use of and access to generative Artificial Intelligence, or AI, political communications have begun to see its influence, leading to the question of how this AI generated political rhetoric is received. In previous research, AI output has been extensively researched and indexed, highlighting specific qualities such as overly polished speech as indicators of use. Research has also been done on perception and detectability of AI, showing that people can accurately identify AI-generated text, but tend to be overconfident. However, such research has not been done in the context of political rhetoric, which is consumed in different ways than …

Translanguaging: Leveraging Theoretical Shifts Toward Social Change, Sara E. Vogel, Ofelia Garcia

Publications and Research

Translanguaging posits that all people make meaning, communicate, and learn by orchestrating heterogeneous features from a unitary repertoire in ways that defy named languages and other socially constructed language categorizations. In this chapter, we share insights about translanguaging theory for applied linguistics by revisiting themes we surfaced in an encyclopedia article we authored a half-decade ago, specifically reconsidering our 2017 tenets in light of scholarship that has (a) deepened translanguaging's relationships to dismantling social and political hierarchies; (b) emphasized how translanguaging has been used to highlight the heterogeneity of all language-in-use, and not just the practices of those people recognized …

Codec-M: The Multi-Lingual Manosphere Subcorpus Of The Corpus Of Digital Extremism And Conspiracies, Rachel Mccullough, Daniel Drylie, Mindl Barta, Cass Dykeman, Daniel Smith

English Faculty Publications

In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General warned the public of the current “loneliness epidemic” and its potential consequences on physical and mental health. One possible consequence of this epidemic is the growth of a movement defined by loneliness and isolation: the incel (“involuntary celibate”) movement. This warning presents a worrying glimpse at the future, as the incel movement, along with other parts of the manosphere, is one that espouses violently misogynist rhetoric which is intrinsically linked to right-wing extremism. While linguistic studies have been conducted on the speech of incels and other constituent movements of the manosphere, few of these …

Attitudes And Perceptions Toward The Qassimi Dialect, Fahad M. Alwehaibi

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores attitudes and perceptions surrounding the Qassimi dialect within Saudi Arabia. It addresses two primary questions: What are the attitudes of Qassimi speakers toward their own dialect? and What are the perceptions of non-Qassimi Saudi citizens regarding the Qassimi dialect in terms of stereotypes and its speakers? To investigate these questions, the research employed two population-specific surveys—one for Qassimi speakers and another for non-Qassimi participants—alongside semi-structured interviews with selected Qassimi individuals to gain deeper qualitative insights. The findings reveal that Qassimi speakers generally express strong pride and a positive emotional connection to their dialect, viewing it as a …

A Morphosyntactic Study Of Arab American Code-Switching, Qamar Bazar

Publications and Research

This study examines the morphosyntactic behavior of Arabic lexical items in English-dominant speech among Arab American bilinguals. Based on original survey data from 22 participants between the ages of 16 and 32, the paper focuses on specific Arabic words, such as yani, khalas, and ana, in English conversations across informal and professional settings. The analysis shows that these lexical items function as free morphemes and are inserted without disrupting English syntax, often serving discourse, emotional, or identity-marking purposes. Grounded in sociolinguistic theory and Poplack’s model of intra-sentential code-switching, this paper argues that code-switching among Arab Americans is intentional and …

Haiga In The Borderland: Sociolinguistic Perception And Variable Production Among Bilinguals In El Paso, Elyana Amparan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The linguistic variant haiga in the Ciudad Juárez, Mexico – El Paso, Texas border region is often a stigmatized feature within the bilingual community. This non-standard form, derived from haya (the present subjunctive of haber “to be” in Spanish) carries negative social connotations and is often perceived as incorrect. Our aim was to investigate the use and attitudes towards haiga in the bilingual population at the U. S. – Mexico border. A text infilling task was employed to elicit the use of haiga and an attitude elicitation task using memes was used to investigate the participants attitudes towards the form. …

A Usage-Based Account Of Ongoing Structural Changes In Sanapaná: Grammar Sketch And Case Studies, Jens E. L. Van Gysel

Linguistics ETDs

This dissertation presents three case studies on sociolinguistic variation in Sanapaná, an Enlhet-Enenlhet language spoken by around 1000 people in Paraguay. It investigates the impact of the process of language shift towards Paraguayan Guarani and Spanish that Sanapaná is undergoing. Specifically, it attempts to disentangle the effects of speakers’ multilingualism in Spanish and/or Guarani, their frequency of use of Sanapaná, and structural factors internal to Sanapaná on phonetic, morphological, and syntactic variation. It finds that Spanish/Guarani proficiency is correlated with L1-to-L2 convergence in Sanapaná vowel productions and use of different motion framing strategies, while frequency of Sanapaná usage is a …

Discourse Analysis Of Ethnonyms For Black Italians On Youtube, Kaithlyn Massiah

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There have been various studies on the intersection of race and national identity for the African diaspora, but there has not been many on how language is used to evoke a stance on identity. This project focuses on the how ethnonyms, or names given to an ethnic group, are assigned to Black Italians in online discourse on YouTube. In this research, comments were analyzed from two YouTube videos that comprise of Black Italians who discuss their identity and the ethnonyms they prefer. ZERO is the first Netflix Italian series that centers the Black Italian experience. In the videos “Black [Italian] …

“4, 24”, And 4c”: The Shared Knowledge Of Hair Terminology And Cultural Pride Among Black Women., Aliya J. Claiborne

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper aims to explain the significance of hairstyles and terms used by black women and seeks to explore how these choices can sway the negative perceptions about black womanhood. Past research has shown that what is “just hair” to others serves as a statement piece and an overall representation of black women. By observing and recording naturally occurring conversations in black hair salons and conducting interviews with black women, I investigated the following question: How do black women use specific terminology to discuss their hair while also constructing identity and reflecting on societal views? I conclude that black women’s …

"And I / Am The Arrow": The Narrative, Personae Construction, And Language Ideology Of Confessional Poets' Identity Performance, Madison Fuchs

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This thesis argues for consideration of linguistic features in service of raising the postmodern confessionalist poet identity as an utterance and an act of loyalty to performance. The embodiment of the confessionalist identity, attributed to the features used to adhere to the confessional mode, is realized through the invention of confessional personae. These confessional personae merge the responsibilities of the speaker and the narrator to convey a pseudo-autobiographical utterance to a designated audience. In this thesis, I analyze a sequence of poems that either possess taboo subjects or utilize linguistic functions, like indexicality and audience design, that mark its mode. …

Language, Hip Hop, And Identity Work On Youtube, Matt Garley, Cecelia Cutler

Publications and Research

As hip hop has evolved into the dominant form of global popular music, YouTube has become a locus of fan-artist interaction. This chapter examines how hip hop artists and fans produce their identities and engage with hip hop culture on YouTube. This identity work centers around establishing credibility, glocal and ethnic positioning, and signaling stances of resistance and simultaneous alignment with ultralocal and global hip hop personae. Building on a background of research about language and identity in hip hop, particularly in the Internet sphere, the chapter summarizes the state of the art and then highlights the authors’ own explorations …

The Movie Is On!: Pragmatics Of The Video Joker In Who Killed Captain Alex?, Hunter Hulett

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The film Who Killed Captain Alex? (WKCA) is a Ugandan film that provides an opportunity to examine the use of pragmatic and specifically deictic features to study the manipulation of borders between the film and reality. A commentator called the Video Joker (VJ) is the film’s deictic center, constantly destabilizing deictic relations and orienting the internal and external pragmatics of the film around themself. As the film’s ultimate pragmatic force, they occupy a position blurring diegesis and non-diegesis due to originating as real-time film commentators before being edited into the text. In this unique position, they shift the deixis’s organization …

‘A Category Of Their Own’: Quantitative Methods In The Use Of Pile-Sort Data In Perceptual Dialectology, Zachary Ty Gill

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Mississippi Gulf Coast Creoles perceive language differences in their home area. A pile-sort task was carried out in which respondents were given stacks of cards with local communities written on them and instructed to stack together the regions where people “talk the same.” Once the piles were made, the fieldworker discussed their sortings with the respondents. The stacks were analyzed by means of a hierarchal agglomerative cluster analysis and non-parametric multidimensional scaling with k-means cluster analysis overlays to extract the perceived dialect areas. The groupings reveal that respondent strategies are based …

Language Ideologies In Deep South Korea: Voices Of Jeollanamdo English Teachers, Ian Schneider

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Language ideologies serve as shared beliefs and key frames that link language and society, mediating both macro-level social forces and micro-level interactions. Through this lens, this thesis compares the ideological perspectives and experiences of expatriate and local English teachers working in secondary-level schools in the rural province of Jeollanamdo, South Korea. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, this study argues for complexity and nuance in how language teachers from distinct backgrounds perceive and negotiate dominant English language ideologies in Korean society. Moreover, these ideological perspectives differ between teachers of local and expatriate backgrounds, or teachers working in urban and rural …

We Can Do This / Juntos Sí Podemos: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Government-Sponsored Covid-19 Public Service Announcements (Psas) In English And Spanish, Katalina R. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

Communication inequities are known to negatively impact people from socioeconomically and linguistically disadvantaged backgrounds during public health crises (Gomez-Aguinaga et al., 2021). In the United States, Hispanics—especially those who speak Spanish—have been among the communities most disproportionately affected by COVID-19 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2022). The pandemic has underscored the importance of understanding the linguistic and discursive strategies implemented by institutions entrusted with disseminating public health information to reach diverse audiences, especially the most vulnerable. This paper analyzes the linguistic practices used to create public service announcements (PSA) produced in English and Spanish by health agencies at both the …

Entre La Ciudad Y La Provincia VariacióN SociolingüÍStica En MáLaga, Marina Bonilla Conejo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

En esta tesis se presenta una investigación sociolingüística sobre el español de la provincia de Málaga, y, específicamente, se realiza una comparación entre la variedad hablada en la capital y dos localidades cercanas a la misma: Rincón de la Victoria y Vélez-Málaga. La finalidad de este estudio es determinar el empleo del sonido interdental fricativo [θ] y la articulación de la /s/ en posición de coda en las tres áreas geográficas mencionadas y si, a su vez, existe progresivamente una convergencia hacia el estándar nacional, o si, por el contrario, los participantes hacen uso del estándar regional, de acuerdo con …

Investigating Media Influence On Language Change In Low-Level Sociolinguistic Variables, Keaton Strawn

Honors Projects

This survey investigates the contentious issue of media influence on language change in variationist sociolinguistics, focusing on low-level variables – a distinction created to partition phonological and morphosyntactic variables into a category that emphasizes their deep level in the linguistic system. Works by influential researchers and well-respected names in the field are put in dialogue to determine what evidence for and against media influence is compelling and where gaps exist, incorporating work on global linguistic variants and phonological variant diffusion in places like Glasgow per Jane-Stuart Smith’s controversial study. This discussion draws conclusions when possible, and ultimately comments on the …

Finding Their Chrysanthemum: Linguistic Representation In Children's Literature, Marielena Zajac

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Children in America today struggle with finding themselves in the books they read due to societal expectations. From an early age, children are dictated on the correct way to speak and write in “American,” which can leave children and their home languages feeling unseen and dismissed. To help further the conversation and promotion of linguistic diversity in American society, this capstone analyzes dialectal representation in children’s books, with a heavy focus on attitudinal linguistic principles rather than prescriptive mechanics. The secondary research explores current literature and resources that discuss literacy acquisition in adolescents, trends in dialects in America, and childhood …

Using Sociolinguistics And Literary Studies To Understand Code-Switching Within Works By Louise Erdrich, Bruno Santic

Undergraduate Theses

There exists a multitude of definitions and concepts that describe the movement between and from one linguistic code to the next, commonly referred to as code-switching. Each definition given differs not only between fields of research but also within said fields of research, making it incredibly difficult to create one unified definition for code-switching. The two most popular fields of research that have extensively studied code-switching are sociolinguistics and literature/literary studies, with both fields having basic tenets of study that create different nuances in how code-switching is described by researchers in each respective field of study. One of the key …

Ambiguous Appalachianness: A Linguistic And Perceptual Investigation Into Arc-Labeled Pennsylvania Counties, Crissandra J. George

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The Appalachian Regional Commission (2022) designates 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties as Appalachia, excluding only the southeast portion of the state. Matthew Ferrence, in Appalachia North, states that his "home is sometimes called Appalachia, sometimes Rust Belt, other times Midwest, even though very few who live there would accept any of those labels as correct" (xi). This ambiguous and fluid identity is due to the shaping, forming, and changing of Pennsylvania’s role within society from a founding colony to a thriving state with industry, unselfishly spoiling others, to the grounds of converging identities (Ferrence xi). This ambiguous identity makes …

Un Estudio Sociolingüistíco Del Español De Hombres Con Descendencia Mexicana Que Se Identifican Como Homosexuales, Víctor Bulfrano Estanislao

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Ciertos rasgos lingüísticos específicos se asocian con hablantes de diferentes grupos. Los investigadores sociolingüísticos han identificado una serie de características lingüísticas como marcadores del habla homosexual en inglés y español; el presente estudio examina si estas características están presentes en el español producido por hombres homosexuales bilingües. Los hablantes examinados son hombres mexicanos de entre 18 y 30 años que viven en Chicago o los suburbios circundantes, son bilingües y se identifican como homosexuales. Los participantes completaron una serie de tareas: un cuestionario del contexto lingüístico, una narración oral y una entrevista sociolingüística grabada con el investigador. Se examinaron los …

Una Lengua En Un Cuerpo, Silvia Rivera Alfaro

Publications and Research

Texto autoetnográfico sobre el trabajo lingüístico.

Phonetic Contrast In New York Hasidic Yiddish Vowels: Language Contact, Variation, And Change, Chaya R. Nove

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study analyzes the acoustic correlates of the length contrast in New York Hasidic Yiddish (HY) peripheral vowels /i/, /u/, and /a/, and compares them across four generations of native speakers for evidence of change over time. HY vowel tokens are also compared to English vowels produced by the New York-born speakers to investigate the influence of language contact on observed changes. Additionally, the degree to which individual speakers orient towards or away from the Hasidic community is quantified via an ethnographically informed survey to examine its correlation with /u/-fronting, a sound change that is widespread in the non-Hasidic English-speaking …

You Talk Like A Girl: Stereotypes About Women’S Language, Allison Fisher

Honors College Theses

In her 1973 essay “Language and Woman’s Place,” linguist Robin Lakoff claimed that clear differences exist between the speech of women and men, and that these differences both reflect and perpetuate women’s powerlessness in society. Lakoff’s work became the basis for a substantial number of studies on gendered language since. Outside of academia, assumptions about the existence of “women’s language” are prevalent in popular advice books and manuals directed at women, who are advised to use or avoid certain linguistic features, including those identified by Lakoff nearly fifty years ago. These include the use of empty adjectives, tag questions, hedges, …

The Lexiculture Papers: English Words And Culture, Stephen Chrisomalis

Anthropology Faculty Research Publications

The Lexiculture Papers is a collection of scholarship on English words and culture. Each of the 62 chapters was originally authored by a student-scholar in the course, Language and Culture, at Wayne State University, between 2013 and 2020. Each chapter is a short social and historical description of a single English word in its cultural context, principally since 1800. Using a combination of historical linguistics, etymology, corpus linguistics, and discourse analysis, the papers analyze English-speaking social life through the lens of specific words.

Dominican Spanish In New York : Language Attitudes And Variation Of Final /ɾ/ And /L/, Gabriel Valentín Guadalupe

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the growing body of research on sociolinguistic variation of final liquids in Caribbean Spanish in a language and dialectal contact situation. To achieve that objective, this study analyzes the Spanish of Dominicans in the New York Metropolitan Area. The dissertation has two main goals. The first is to describe language attitudes among Dominicans in New York. Data extracted from questionnaires are analyzed to show how Dominicans evaluate their varieties of Spanish and those of others. Additionally, the dissertation looks at whether inter- and intra-group interactions affect language attitudes. The second goal …

Perspectivas Sociolingüísticas Y Culturales En La Conservación Lingüística Del Wayuunaiki, Andrés Gabriel Espejel Fuentes

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Indigenous languages all over the world are endangered. The wayuunaiki language, spoken by wayuu Colombian ancestral communities, is not the exception. Even though the wayuunaiki is not endangered per se, does not mean that it is not at risk. Along this paper you will understand what the former statement means, and how this reality derives from a predetermined system yielded by a colonial epistemology. There is a succinct overview of the wayuu communities’ history so that we can truly understand how deep and well-hidden are the power discourses that might become a threat to the preservation of ancestral languages. …

Spanish From The "East Side" Of Las Vegas: Simplification Of Tense/Aspect Distinction In Ser And Estar In Spanish Heritage Speakers Of Sunrise Manor, Nathalie Martinez

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Spanish heritage speakers in the United States are a reflection of the influence of linguistic and sociolinguistic pressures that creates variation across linguistic generations. This exploratory investigation seeks to fill this gap of linguistic knowledge in the Spanish-speaking community of Las Vegas, Nevada through a sociolinguistic study of the process of simplification of the simple forms of the past tense in Spanish heritage speakers of Sunrise Manor (Clark County, Nevada, USA), locally known as the “East Side”. The investigation focuses on the tense-aspect semantics in the verbs ser and estar of 9 heritage speakers between the ages of 18 and …