Other Linguistics Commons^™

Language, Exogamy And Ethnicity In The Upper Rio Negro Region, Thiago Chacon, Luis Cayón

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this article we explore how languages interact with exogamous social units (e.g., clans and phratries) and descent ideologies (such as having a common mythical ancestor and emergence from the same mythical place) to help organize the multilingual and interethnic societies from the Upper Rio Negro region (URN) in the Amazon. We show that the expected alignment of language boundary, exogamous group and descent group is actually quite unusual. Complex social structures involving the aggregation of clans into larger ethnic groups or marriage alliances with other clans have important variations in the alignment of language, exogamy, and descent ideology. Existing …

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 …

Exploring Strategies For Modeling Sign Language Phonology, Lee Kezar, Riley Carlin, Tejas Srinivasan, Zed Sehyr, Naomi Caselli, Jesse Thomason

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Like speech, signs are composed of discrete, recombinable features called phonemes. Prior work shows that models which can recognize phonemes are better at sign recognition, motivating deeper exploration into strategies for modeling sign language phonemes. In this work, we learn graph convolution networks to recognize the sixteen phoneme “types” found in ASL-LEX 2.0. Specifically, we explore how learning strategies like multi-task and curriculum learning can leverage mutually useful information between phoneme types to facilitate better modeling of sign language phonemes. Results on the Sem-Lex Benchmark show that curriculum learning yields an average accuracy of 87% across all phoneme types, outperforming …

A Computational Analysis Of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Public Diplomacy Discourse In Times Of Crisis, Amber Brittain-Hale, Amber Brittain-Hale

Education Division Scholarship

In this study, we delve into the public diplomacy discourse of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the ongoing crisis of the Russo-Ukrainian War. We aim to conduct a computational analysis of Zelenskyy's English, Russian, and Ukrainian speeches, exploring the linguistic patterns and code-switching employed in his discourse. The study period encompasses Russia’s build-up to and full-scale invasion of Ukraine from May 2019 to May 30, 2023. This time frame is crucial as it captures the dynamic development of the crisis and the expansion of Zelenskyy's presidency, providing a unique context for analyzing his public diplomacy efforts. By utilizing Linguistic Inquiry …

Kxanuw! (Miichuwaakan Waak Aweeyayusak), Kira Fucci, Camilla Bager

Games

Kxanuw! (I have it!) is modeled after bingo. This version allows players to practice plant and animal names, engaging listening comprehension, speaking, and visual recognition. The game kit includes instructions, a caller's card, and printable player cards.

Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Amazigh Politics In The Wake Of The Arab Spring, Paul A. Silverstein

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

Digital Collaborative Language Learning And Augmented Reality, Matthew Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a collection of works written by the author as he was studying in the Masters of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. The focus of these works is on technology and its impact on language learning. The first few sections consist of an introduction to the portfolio, a few pages dedicated to the author’s philosophy on second language teaching, and details and insights from an observation of a teacher in practice while in the program. The following section comprises the bulk of the portfolio and includes a paper devoted to augmented reality’s place in digital …

The Would-Chuck Construction, Grace Teuscher

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

In Standard American English sentences, only one modal verb is typically allowed. However, in certain varieties of English, most notably the Double Modal Construction, spoken mainly in the American South, more than one modal is allowed. This thesis provides a syntactical analysis of a currently under-researched construction—the Would- Chuck Construction. Here, four modal verbs are allowed in the English middle field: first is typically will, followed by the perfect have, which is then followed by another modal and another perfect auxiliary. This results in a sentence resembling “I will have should have pet the cat.” When the linear order of …

Rigor And Reliability Of Qualitative Research Conducted In Various Languages: Fundamentals And Their Application, Shweta Jain Verma Dr., Puja Gulati, Vishav Kumar Dhiman, Jeyaraj Durai Pandian

The Qualitative Report

Lack of a common language between researcher and participants, especially when participants speak different languages, complicates and makes the qualitative research process more difficult. Since language is the vehicle through which meaning is eventually communicated to the reader, interpretation and translation are essential to qualitative research. The researcher must adopt the principal tenets of cross language research to extrapolate the knowledge to all the spheres for a methodologically reliable and valid framework that is culturally sensitive in this situation. The purpose of the article is to acquaint qualitative researchers, including physician-researchers, with the fundamentals of qualitative study being carried out …

Language Classification In Western Amazonia: Advances In Favor Of The Pano-Takana Hypothesis, Pilar M. Valenzuela, Roberto Zariquiey

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

The languages of the Pano and Takana families exhibit a considerable number of lexical and structural affinities that cannot be ascribed to mere chance and are not readily detectable instances of borrowing. After the comparative studies by Key (1968) and Girard (1971) the proposal of a genetic relationship between these two families was generally accepted (e.g. Loos 1973, 2005; Suárez 1973; Kaufman 1990; Campbell 1997). Without solid argumentation, however, this classification was later put into question (Fabre 1998; Loos 1999; Fleck 2013) and, even today, there is no full consensus as to whether the observed similarities are due to genetic …

Stand-Up Comedy Visualized, Berna Yenidogan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Stand-up comedy has become an increasingly popular form of comedy in the recent years and comedians reach audiences beyond the halls they are performing through streaming services, podcasts and social media. While comedic performances are typically judged by how 'funny' they are, which could be proxied by the frequency and intensity of laughs through the performance, comedians also explore untapped social issues and provoke conversation, especially in this age where interaction with artists goes beyond their act. It is easy to see commonalities in the topics addressed in comedians’ work such as relationships, race and politics.This project provides an interactive …

Donald R. Kelley (1931-2023), Michael C. Carhart

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

‘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 …

Lexico-Grammatical Analysis Of Translated Japanese Immigration Law, Kasumi Arciaga

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Legal language is a specialized language. However, it is not universal, although its uniqueness and specialty in every legal language are ubiquitous. The lexical and grammatical aspects of legal texts have not been the subject of much attention as there is an evident dearth of research on this aspect of the legal language. The present study is, therefore, the first study that has looked at lexical and grammatical features of the Japanese immigration law, which has been translated into English. The sum of 70,000 words in selected immigration acts, which were translated from 2020 to 2021, was used as data …

Language Issues Of Migrants During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Reimagining Migrant (Linguistic) Integration Programs In (Post-)Pandemic Times, Ariane Macalinga Borlongan

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This paper surveys the language issues experienced by migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently proposes a (linguistic) integration program for migrants, which is responsive and sensitive to their needs particularly during crises and emergencies. Migrants’ access to disease prevention and health care has been limited, and one of the reasons for this is the language barrier. Likewise, migrants have also voiced out their difficulty communicating with health care providers also because of language. Migrants have also felt isolation because of their inability to reach out to people who could likewise speak their language and they can communicate with. Another …

Untangling The Evolution Of Body-Part Terminology In Pano: Conservative Versus Innovative Traits In Body-Part Lexicalization, Roberto Zariquiey, Javier Vera, Simon J. Greenhill, Pilar Valenzuela, Russell J. Gray, Johann-Mattis List

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

Although language-family specific traits which do not find direct counterparts outside a given language family are usually ignored in quantitative phylogenetic studies, scholars have made ample use of them in qualitative investigations, revealing their potential for identifying language relationships. An example of such a family specific trait are body-part expressions in Pano languages, which are often lexicalized forms, composed of bound roots (also called body-part prefixes in the literature) and non-productive derivative morphemes (called here body-part formatives). We use various statistical methods to demonstrate that whereas body-part roots are generally conservative, body-part formatives exhibit diverse chronologies and are often the …

Degrees Of Temporal Remoteness In Pano: Contribution To The Cross-Linguistic Study Of Tense, Pilar Valenzuela, Sanderson Castro Soares De Oliveira

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

Beyond simply indicating future or past tense, the languages of the Pano family grammatically distinguish various degrees of temporal distance relative to a reference point, typically the moment of utterance; i.e., they possess what has been called ‘metrical tense’ (Chung & Timberlake 1985; Frawley 1992), ‘degrees of remoteness’ (Comrie 1985; Dahl 1985; Bybee et al. 1994; Botne 2012), or ‘graded tense’ (Cable 2013). This article offers a comparative analysis of the rich graded tense systems found in Pano, concentrating on morphologically expressed categories. In so doing, it seeks to expand our typological knowledge of languages exhibiting this feature, particularly …

Examining The Linguistic Ideology "Throaty Sounds Are Bad For Performers": The History Of Negative Attitudes Towards Glottal Stops And Laryngealization In English, Dayle M. Towarnicky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes explicit metadiscourse (Johnstone et al 2006) on throaty sounds, primarily focused on glottal segments and non-modal constricted voice quality in English. Authors contributing to this metadiscourse are argued to be an offshoot of the speech chain network which valorized and circulated the English accent known as RP or Received Pronunciation, studied by Agha (2003). The evaluated texts center on English-speaking elocution, singing training, voice, speech, and voice care. The analysis shows glottal and guttural articulations are framed negatively and often discouraged by appeals to both health and aesthetics. Many authors in this performance speech chain network …

Plant And Animal Body-Part Terms In Shiwulu Grammar: Classification, Nominalization, And Incorporation, Pilar M. Valenzuela

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"The goal of the present study is to offer an account of the principal constructions containing body-part terms in Shiwilu. These involve inanimate classifiers, three lexical nominalizers (instrumental, habitual agent, and resultative), and incorporated nouns and classifiers. While articles have previously been written addressing the Shiwilu system of classifiers and nominal incorporation (Valenzuela 2016, 2019, to appear), this chapter focuses on the role that body-part terms play in the grammar of the language."

Language Ideologies In First Year Composition Textbooks, Joanna Clevenger

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis examines how standard language ideologies are perpetuated in the five most frequently assigned first year composition textbooks from four higher education institutions in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Standard language ideologies position one variation of a language as superior, correct, appropriate and the normal variation of a language which everyone should be able to speak. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the five textbooks were analyzed in order to uncover the embedded power and hegemony over women, people of color, and those from a lower socioeconomic status which are prevalent throughout society because they are unchallenged and widely accepted as the …

The Symbolic Work Of Prices, Akash Miharia, Jan Osborn, Bart J. Wilson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We posit that prices are signs, not just signals, that work in the same symbolic way as words. Both are complex, generative systems of shared meaning that rely on a web of intricate symbolic references. Just like the meaning of a word is a product of our social and linguistic action, the meaning of a price is a product of our relationship to the physical world phenomena of people in markets. The fundamental conception of both is to communicate and construct worlds with ourselves and others, enabling us to act in the world. Prices, like words, do symbolic work.

Legislative Language For Success, Sanjana Gundala

Master's Theses

Legislative committee meetings are an integral part of the lawmaking process for local and state bills. The testimony presented during these meetings is a large factor in the outcome of the proposed bill. This research uses Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques to analyze testimonies from California Legislative committee meetings from 2015-2016 in order to identify what aspects of a testimony makes it successful. A testimony is considered successful if the alignment of the testimony matches the bill outcome (alignment is "For" and the bill passes or alignment is "Against" and the bill fails). The process of finding what …

Corpus Linguistics Criticisms Of Heller Misuse Corpus Linguistics, Michael Showalter

SMU Law Review Forum

A number of linguistics experts have asserted that new corpus-linguistics evidence undermines the U.S. Supreme Court’s conclusion in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment phrase keep and bear arms means to possess and carry weapons. At the time of ratification, the term bear arms carried both an idiomatic sense meaning “to serve as a soldier” and a literal sense meaning “to carry weapons.” The Heller majority concluded that the Second Amendment uses the literal sense, partly because the idiomatic reading has the absurd implication of causing the Amendment to protect a right to serve as a soldier. …

Amplifying Arab American Heritage Language Students' Voices: A Multiple Case Study On Translanguaging Practices And Identity Negotiation In University Arabic Classrooms, Lina Gomaa

Dissertations and Theses

Little research has been conducted on Arab American students at universities and specifically, in the heritage language studies field. The experiences of Arab American heritage language (AAHL) students are significantly less examined than those of other heritage language students. Arabic language curricula and instructional practices in universities tend to privilege the teaching of Modern Standard Arabic over dialects, which marginalizes heritage learners' prior knowledge of the Arabic culture and its language, specifically Arabic dialects used in their home communities. These phenomena can create a non-affirming learning experience for these students. As such, in this study, I addressed these questions:

• To …

Nominal Incorporation In Shiwilu (Kawapanan): Nouns, Classifiers And The Deceased Marker =Ku’, Pilar Valenzuela

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Shiwilu is a good representative of the Andes-Amazonia transitional zone, in that it exhibits a mixture of phonological and grammatical traits that are typical of the languages of these two regions (Valenzuela 2015, 2018). The present article addresses a phenomenon that is common in Amazonian languages but absent in the Central Andean families Quechuan and Aymaran: nominal incorporation (Dixon and Aikhenvald 1999: 10; Adelaar with Muysken 2004; Aikhen- vald 2017: 296). In this work, ‘nominal incorporation’ is a cover term to designate the process of inserting into the verb a noun, a classifier, or the deceased marker =ku’."

"A Fallen Woman": The Use Of Metaphor In Psychoanalysis, Matthew Schneider

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study sought to understand the use of a central metaphor in a psychoanalytic treatment and its relationship to the process of change for the analysand. In linguistics, a metaphor is a word, phrase or idea that stands in for another idea. In psychoanalysis the relationship between conscious and unconscious conflictual material can share similar metaphorical connections as conscious thoughts or behavior often stands in for an unconscious wishes. The presence of a word or phrase that appears in speech in the context of particular affective moments in an analysand’s experience could be understood to be linked to unconscious processes …

Contextual Inference Reading Comprehension Skill Activities As Determinants Of Reading Comprehension Performance, Joyce Njiiri

Journal of the Language Association of Eastern Africa

Reading comprehension is one of the most important features in the learning process for second language learners because texts are the means through which most concepts are learnt. However, it is one of the least developed linguistic skills as manifested in the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC 2010; 2011; 2013;2015;2017;2018). KNEC attributes poor performance in reading comprehension of passages to inadequate reading comprehension skill activities of contextual inference, note-making, paraphrasing, and summary writing among others during the reading comprehension lessons. Additionally, there is notable lack of exposure to reading comprehension skill activities to secondary school learners. The purpose of this …

Trademark Fame And Corpus Linguistics, Jake Linford, Kyra Nelson

Scholarly Publications

Trademark law recognizes that the same word can mean different things in different commercial contexts. Legal protection might extend to two or more owners who use the same symbol (like Delta) to indicate different sources of disparate goods or services, such as airlines and faucets. Generally, only those uses that threaten to confuse consumers-the use of similar symbols on identical or related goods-are subject to legal sanction.

But the law extends special protection to famous trademarks, not only against confusing use, but also against dilution: non-confusing use that blurs or tarnishes the distinctiveness of the famous mark. The result of …

A Critical Biography Of John Algeo: From Historical Linguist To Dialectologist, Lindy Sipes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This critical biography of lexicographer, linguist, and dialectologist Dr. John Algeo delves into his corpus of research data and notes and seeks to analyze his methods and the resulting wealth of publications derived from their compilation. It also aims provide a succinct overview of his life and career. Algeo experienced many changes within these fields; perhaps most notably, the advent of technological advances that made data collection and storage easier, such as the Internet and computer processes. As a result, his work lends itself as an incredible historic model and, as such, will be compared to current techniques of dictionary-making. …

Indigenous Language Revitalization: Success, Sustainability, And The Future Of Human Culture, Grace Lewis

Capstone Showcase

This thesis looks at different styles of Indigenous language revitalization programs and seeks to delineate the three most successful characteristics seen across differing designs in an effort to promote the presence of these characteristics in existing programs. The literature analyzed outlines three main schools of thought: first, that language-based education is the most effective program design, second, that language-based education is only effective if it is directed and driven by the community it serves, and third, that culture-based education is the most effective design. The data rejects the idea that one design is superior to another, and instead presents three …