Linguistics Commons^™

Pinky Extension In American Sign Language: Evidence For A Lexically Restricted Morphological Process, Laurel Whitsett

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations

This study investigates pinky extension (PE) in American Sign Language (ASL). PE involves extending the pinky finger in signs, even though this feature is not present in standard dictionary representations of those signs. Although PE has been previously described as conveying emphasis, this account does not fully explain its distribution. This study asks whether PE reflects a meaningful part of how signs are structured in ASL, rather than a matter of individual style or variation. Focusing on adjectives, it examines whether PE interacts with sentence position. In ASL, certain adjectives may appear either before (prenominally) or after (postnominally) the noun …

Bilingual Beginnings: Expressive Language And Socio-Emotional Development In Early Childhood, Molly C. Mccormick

Scripps Senior Theses

Although research on bilingualism has expanded rapidly in recent years, the majority focuses on cognitive advantages or receptive vocabulary, or the words children understand. Far less attention has been given to how expressive language, the words children produce, and its potential role as the mechanism linking bilingual exposure to socio-emotional development. Although dual-language learners sometimes appear to have relatively limited expressive vocabularies in one language, these differences tend to reflect patterns of language use and input quality rather than true developmental delays. Even so, temporary differences in expressive skills can be especially meaningful during children’s formative years, when they rely …

Tuning Human And “Artificial” Intelligence: A Sentic Theory Of Resonance And Communication, Michael J. Miller, Chatgpt (Ai~Nesbo+)

Psychology

This paper introduces a new model of intelligence as resonant communication, co-developed by a human researcher and a generative AI system. Drawing from emotion science, communication theory, and studies of AI–human interaction, we argue that intelligence is not merely a function of problem-solving or pattern recognition. Instead, it emerges through dynamic resonance—an attunement process rooted in shared rhythms, emotional calibration, and symbolic co-creation. At the core of this model is the Resonance Octave (8va), a framework of eight foundational emotions conceptualized not as static categories but as waveform phenomena that shape meaning, memory, and predictive cognition.

These emotional waveforms are …

Making Sense Of East Asian Languages, Keiko Konoeda, Linh Hoang, Geizuo Mahai, Nary Phon, Georgia Green, Ana Grieve, James Soifer

Open Educational Resources

In Winter 2026, the Bates College Asian Studies course “Making Sense of East Asian Languages” launched this open collection of supplementary readings. This collection helps students of Chinese and Japanese explore the histories behind the languages they study. Often, language courses focus on mastering a "standard" version without looking at its context. These readings bridge that gap.

Each entry investigates how certain language varieties became the national standard and what happened to other varieties and languages that were left out. By looking at these historical and colonial contexts, the collection helps students understand the power dynamics that shape language today. …

Theory Of Mind: Effects Of Ecological Syntactic Training In Children With And Without Autism, Jill De Villiers, Stephanie Durrleman

Linguistics: Faculty Publications

Complement clauses, such as Mary says that Santa exists, are complex linguistic structures that have been argued to help children grasp others’ beliefs when those beliefs do not align with reality. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to have difficulties with Theory of Mind (ToM), which might be helped by enhancing understanding of complements. The study investigates whether an ecological approach to training, using children's books containing false complement clauses, can improve false belief reasoning in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children. The goal is to assess if structured dialogic reading at home, led by parents, …

A Critical Toponymy Of Humboldt County: Ethics And Tensions Within Efforts To Change Place Names, Serenity Aleta Wood

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores how Humboldt regional placenames enact toponymic silencing and how Indigenous activists challenge colonial names and geographies, advancing un-settled interpretations that position language revitalization/regeneration as a means of revitalizing relationships with the land. Mobilizing Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy’s concept of (re)naming, I analyze two case studies, the Baduwa’t documentary and the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation’s film A'-t'i Xwee-ghayt-nish: Still, We Live On, as well as three additional artistic works: Sarah Biscarra Dilley’s every pattern needs a passage, Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe’s Thunder Song, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s painting, State Names. In tandem with film and poetry analysis, I survey local …

The Impacts Of Artificial Intelligence Grammar Checkers On The Grammatical Skills Of L2 English Speakers, Tessa Brizhik

Honors Theses

In recent years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a widely accessible tool in academia, upon which students have increasingly come to rely and include in their writing process (Alharbi et al., 2023). Across the field of English second language learning, corrective feedback is widely recognized as a major influence for grammatical development (Lyster & Ranta, 1997). Corrective feedback may function implicitly, explicitly, or as an interaction between both mechanisms. Research suggests that grammatical knowledge may be largely acquired implicitly for adults learning a new language, with explicit learning playing a secondary role (Ivanova et al., 2012, Jackson & …

Investigating Bilingual Language Learning Using Artificial Grammars, Kyla Kelly

Honors Theses

Language development research has established that infants can learn language rapidly and without explicit instruction through implicit learning mechanisms like statistical learning. These mechanisms can be used to learn word boundaries, sounds, meanings, and grammar rules of language. One method for investigating this is artificial grammar learning (AGL), in which people are exposed to sequences of nonwords to see if they can unconsciously learn their underlying grammars. While much of statistical learning and AGL research has focused on a monolingual perspective, most of the world’s population is multilingual. Studies like Weiss, Gerfen, and Mitchel (2009) and Mitchel and Weiss (2010) …

Iceberg Ethos: Credibility And Hemingway In Predictive Legal Writing, Brad Desnoyer

Faculty Works

In predictive legal writing, credibility is not inferred from conclusions alone. It is constructed sentence by sentence. Analytic correctness is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Supervising attorneys read prose as evidence of intellectual control, treating disciplined style as proof of substantive mastery. Yet legal writing scholarship has largely framed clarity as a matter of pedagogy or professionalism rather than as a structural theory of ethos.

This article reframes predictive writing as institutional rhetoric. Within the hierarchical environment of law practice, cognitive fluency governs professional trust: writing that is easy to process yet disciplined in reasoning reads as competence. Drawing …

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 …

An Analysis Of Tone Perception Differences Of Native English Speakers Between Beijing And Taiwan Accented Mandarin Chinese, Tehya Banach , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Bilingualsim In The Workplace: How Work Attitudes Influence Burnout And Turnover Intentions, Andrea Del Aguila

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Understanding whether language status functions as a risk or protective factor for employee well-being and retention is essential for developing organizational policies that support workers from varied demographic backgrounds. This study examined how work attitudes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work engagement are seen among bilingual and monolingual workers and how these outcomes relate to employee burnout and turnover intentions. An outside researcher from Talent Metrics Consulting collected data via an online survey utilizing previously validated measures of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, burnout, work engagement, and turnover intentions. Participants were recruited through online advertising and social sampling obtaining …

Neutralization Mechanisms In Protest-Related Vandalism: Implications For Psycholinguistic Crisis Communication, M. Agung Lyndardi

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

Protest-related vandalism has become a recurring phenomenon in Indonesia’s democratic landscape, particularly during large-scale demonstrations involving students, labor groups, and civil society coalitions. Conventional legal approaches that define vandalism as a public-order violation are insufficient to explain why such actions persist, why they concentrate on symbolic state targets, and why participants frequently deny moral wrongdoing. This article analyzes protest-related vandalism in Indonesia through the framework of neutralization theory (Sykes & Matza, 1957), integrating perspectives from criminology, moral disengagement theory, collective action, political legitimacy, and public psycholinguistics. Using a structured literature review of international and Indonesian scholarship published between 1957 and …

The Impacts Of Technology-Based Student-Centered Learning On Students’ Perception Of Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning (French, Spanish, And Chinese), Gideon Yeboah

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study investigates the perceptions of 21 university students enrolled in first- and second-year foreign language courses - French 102 & 202, Spanish 102 & 202, and Chinese 102 & 202 - regarding the effectiveness of technology-based learning tools in vocabulary acquisition compared to traditional methods. Data were collected through an online survey questionnaire voluntarily completed by participants across three courses taught by four instructors. Findings indicate a generally positive view of digital tools such as flashcards, language apps, and online platforms, valued for enabling self-paced learning, interactive engagement, immediate feedback, and increased motivation, which enhanced vocabulary retention. Traditional methods …

East To West: Cultural Attitudes And The Perceptions Of Death, Hannah F. Ahmed

UROP Posters

Death is a universal human experience, but cultures teach people to interpret it in different ways. These interpretations influence how individuals understand dying, how they cope with loss, what support looks like, and what meaning death makes in their lives. Eastern, spiritual, and religious traditions emphasize death as a natural transition or return to divinity rather than an endpoint, and as something one must prepare for. In these contexts, people often grow up hearing stories, prayers, and teachings that situate death within a broader journey. Because of this, death becomes something familiar and speakable rather than distant or frightening (Naderi-Afif …

Framing Migration And Legitimizing Power: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Suella Braverman’S Illegal Migration Bill, Darren Pullen, Andy Brown, Gui Ying Annie Yang-Heim

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Language plays a crucial role in shaping public perceptions, reinforcing ideological dominance, and legitimizing government policies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how linguistic and rhetorical strategies are used as a means to legitimize government authority and construct migrant identities.  This is achieved through an examination of the rhetorical strategies employed by the former UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman in her speech on the Illegal Migration Bill. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the Sociolinguistic concepts of ideological positioning and social actor representation, this research investigates word choice, lexical framing, and ideological positioning to reinforce dominant migration narratives. …

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 …

Integrating Non-Binary Morphology Into Spanish Grammatical Gender: A Study On Native And Second-Language Speakers, Abigail H. Gustafson

Scripps Senior Theses

This study investigates how native (L1) and second-language (L2) Spanish speakers process non-binary gender morphology, focusing on the pronoun ‘elle’ and the adjective/noun ending ‘-e’. Prior studies show that native speakers outperform L2 speakers in processing traditional masculine–feminine agreement, non-binary forms and their emergence in a binary grammatical system are understudied. To address this gap, I conducted an online reaction-time experiment with bilingual speakers from the Claremont Colleges, who judged the grammaticality of Spanish sentences containing either grammatical gender or social gender (él/ella/elle) agreement and disagreement. Survey data also captured participants’ familiarity with and attitudes toward the pronoun ‘elle’. The …

Reawakening Waⁿdat: Community Research & Reclamation, Darcy Allred

Theses and Dissertations

The Wyandot(te) have undergone language dormancy due to settler colonial impacts of warfare, refugee relocation, forced removals, and U.S. assimilation projects. One of the most pressing priorities among our people today is reawakening our ancestral language, Waⁿdat. The common follow-up question is: how? Through the conduit of Waⁿdat language reclamation, this project grapples with the above question in collaboration with the Wyandot(te) community, and in adherence to the tribal sovereignty of the Wyandotte Nation. The project engages with diasporic perspectives, community-based pedagogy design, and tribally specific research protocols and policies. The living collective knowledgebase with which I engage in this …

Gender-Inclusive Language In Spanish: A Data-Informed Sociolinguistic Exploration Of Naming Variation, Silvia Rivera Alfaro, Jonathan Hanon

Publications and Research

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a data-informed sociolinguistic exploration of the variation in the names given to gender-inclusive language in Spanish. We use publicly available Google Trends (GT) data to describe the frequency of usage of different names over time and explore their geographical distribution. To account for the challenges and limitations of using Google Trends, we compare the data with information from two large linguistic corpora (CORPES XXI and Google Books Ngram Viewer). Using these tools, we generate small datasets to explore the intricacies of the topic addressed in this paper. In our literature review, we identified 17 names for …