Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons^™

You Can't Teach Kids From A Book: Language, Authority And Revitalization In Jicarilla Apache Life, Mariann Skahan

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation examines how Jicarilla Apache is learned, taught, and used across community life, with particular attention to contemporary language revitalization. Based on ethnographic research with elders, educators, language workers, families, and community institutions, it follows language practices across classrooms, culture camps, homes, ceremonial settings, and collaborative archival projects. I show that linguistic knowledge does not carry the same authority or consequences in every setting. Words may be recognized without being taken up, speakers may possess linguistic knowledge without being authorized to teach or correct, and archival texts may preserve linguistic forms without preserving the relations needed to interpret and …

A Navajo Corpus Of Historical Narratives, Lukas Denk, Melvatha R. Chee

A Navajo Corpus of Historical Narratives

The Navajo Corpus of Historical Narratives is a digital compilation of morphologically annotated narratives. They were first published by Robert W. Young and William Morgan in the 1950’s in the volumes Navajo Historical Selections (1954) and The Trouble at Round Rock (1952). Nine out of 28 narratives are included in the corpus, totaling over 10,000 Navajo words. The corpus contributes to the understanding of the Navajo language by offering interlinear glosses of words, morphemes, morphs, and a free translation. These different interlinear tiers bridge the gap between the original Navajo text and the free translation provided by Young and Morgan, …

Form-Meaning Mappings Of Cyclic Gestures, Wilho Macneil

Linguistics ETDs

Hirrel (2018) examines form-meaning mappings between speech and co-articulated cyclic gestures, identifying meanings associated with such gestures. To test replicability, this thesis analyzes two functional-semantic domains: modification (adverbs, quantifiers) and morphosyntactic constructions (complex sentences, English Progressive) and their relationship to cyclic gestures. About 12 hours of video was coded in ELAN for cyclic gestures (n=586) and analyzed textually for speech instances (n=1919) of target constructions. Contrary to Hirrel’s predictions, cyclic gestures were not more commonly co-articulated with adverbs than quantifiers and were also not more commonly co-articulated with complex sentences than the English Progressive Construction. Neither pattern reached statistical significance …

Reduction Of The Vocalic Sequence /Ea/ In Tapatío Spanish, Karol Ibarra Zetter

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

Reduction of the Vocalic Sequence /ea/ in Tapatío Spanish

This study investigates reduction in the vocalic sequence /ea/ in spontaneous conversational Tapatío Spanish from CCT: El Corpus Conversacional Tapatío (Martínez Gómez & Ibarra Zetter, 2017). An example of this phenomenon is the vocalic sequence /ea/ in the word in teatro ‘theater,’ which is often produced as [ˈtja.tɾo]. However, the word azotea ‘rooftop’ is usually pronounced [a.so.ˈte.a] by CCT speakers. The lexical frequency of these words is one factor that influences the degree of /ea/ reduction. Typically, there is a correlation between the frequency of lexical items and their phonetic reduction …

Conceptual Meaning In Phonology: Multimodal Iconic Expressions In Discourse Focus, David Páez Acevedo

Linguistics ETDs

In everyday communication, speakers go beyond words to synchronize speech sounds and gestures, adding nuanced meanings. For instance, in Colombian Spanish, recounting the distant past involves elongating words, modulating pitch, and using expressive hand movements. This dissertation explores this phenomenon, termed Multimodal Iconic Expressions (MMIEs), using Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Grammar. The quantitative study uncovers correlations between verb aspect, nominal quantification, and speech duration, revealing phono-iconic connections. The qualitative study examines construal operations giving rise to MMIEs across semantic domains. MMIEs predominantly appear in discourse Focus, with durative events and mass-like quantities exhibiting pronounced phono-iconic associations. Patterns include stress and …

The Impact Of Ideology On Lexical Borrowing In Arabic: A Synergy Of Corpus Linguistics And Cda, Sami Hamdi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Lexical borrowing is a natural outcome of language contact and one source of neologisms. The traditional view of lexical borrowing explains it as motivated mainly by lexical need or prestige where loans in the recipient language have more or less similar if not identical meanings with the borrowing language. Linguistic adaptation has been often seen grammatically based where grammarians or linguists assume the major task of nativizing foreign terms. This is typical in many studies on linguistic borrowing in Arabic while a secondary attention is given to semantic, sociolinguistic, and educational perspectives. The present study approached lexical borrowing as more …

The Variable Expression Of Transitive Subject And Possesor In Wayuunaiki (Guajiro), Andres M. Sabogal

Linguistics ETDs

In Wayuunaiki, verbal affixes cross-reference clausal arguments in various ways. Most notably, there are two ways to express transitive subjects, and two ways to express possessors. Much like voice alternatives, the variable expression of subject and possessor impart different perspectives on a situation type, but unlike traditional voice categories, syntactic valence remains equal. This dissertation characterizes these constructions with a specific question in mind: what do these two cross-referencing alternations communicate and what influences their usage? To answer these questions, I consider the linguistic properties observed in the usage of these constructions in narratives (Jusayú 1986, 1994), and informal conversations. …

Lexical Variation, Lexical Innovation, And Speaker Motivations: A Historical Psycholinguistic Approach, Jason Timm Dr.

Linguistics ETDs

Speakers commonly re-purpose existing forms in the mental lexicon to create novel form-meaning. Contemporary evidence that such innovation processes have occurred historically is attested in varying degrees of polysemy in the mental lexicon. This dissertation considers speaker motivations underlying these innnovation processes historically. Strong synchronic relationships between frequency and degree of polysemy, on one hand, and frequency and lexical access, on the other hand, have traditionally been interpreted as evidence for the primacy of economic motivations in processes of lexical innovation. In contrast, the cognitive processes that most commonly facilitate innovation, metaphor and metonymy, have largely been described as processes …

From “My Block” To “Born On The Rez”: A Linguistic Analysis Of Lyrics By 2pac, Frank Waln, Litefoot, Nataanii Means, And Night Shield, Teresa Y. Neely, Sarah Kostelecky, Jorge Ricardo Lopez-Mcknight, Monica Etsitty Dorame

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The lack of consistent wide-spread media coverage of recent events in North America involving violence against Native Americans and African Americans in the U.S., missing and murdered indigenous women, led the authors to a thoughtful discussion about the similar and parallel issues shared by our people. Although the deaths of Michael Brown (August 9, 2014, Ferguson, MO), Eric Garner (July 17, 2014, NY), and Sandra Bland (July 13, 2015, TX) were nationally covered news events; the deaths of Misty Upham, Blackfeet (October 5, 2014, WA); Native American activist Rexdale Henry, Choctaw (July 14, 2015, MS), and Christina Tahhahwah, Comanche (November …

The Efficiency Of Bilingual Children In Understanding Analogies In The English Language, Veta Walker Mercer

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

It is felt that the bilingual population in the southwest is of significantly large enough proportions to warrant specialized emphasis on its education problems. These children need to become better comprehensive readers, not merely word-callers. Teachers frequently assume that if their pupils recognize the words of selection, comprehension is assured. Unfortunately, this is not true in many instances. There are many aspects of English language which might cause bilingual children some difficulty. A few of these might be the analogy, synonym, homonym, multiple meaning, antonym, and the idiomatic expression. This study is designed to reveal the extent which bilingual children …