Linguistics Commons^™

The Development Of An Esp Vocabulary Study Guidefor The Utah State Driver Handbook, Kirsten M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project details research conducted and the method employed to create a tool for acquiring the technical vocabulary from the Utah Driver Handbook. Technical terms were compiled into a vocabulary tool for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. ESL programs within the state have noted the need for materials to help learners acquire this vocabulary. The tool will assist ESL learners preparing for the written driving exam by reinforcing the vocabulary through various iterations, including flash cards, simplified definitions, and an L1 gloss. Learners preparing for the exam will be able to study difficult vocabulary terms using the …

Syriac Rhetorical Particles: Variable Second-Position Clitic Placement, Patrick Brendon Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

Investigation on second-position clitic phenomena has steadily increased since Wackernagel’s (1892) observations. Researchers have applied contemporary clitic typology to various Semitic languages though Syriac has received little attention. This thesis identifies a group of Syriac rhetorical particles and describes their categorization as clitics, versus words or affixes. It establishes each of the Syriac particles as second-position clitics and provides evidence of this conclusion from a state-of-the-art digitized corpus of Syriac literature. Extending previous Syriac analyses, this thesis describes the nature of attachment of these second-position clitics as enclisis to either the first word or the first constituent/phrase of their domain. …

A Corpus-Based Analysis Of Russian Word Order Patterns, Stephanie Kay Billings

Theses and Dissertations

Some scholars say that Russian syntax has free word order. However, other researchers claim that the basic word order of Russian is Subject, Verb, Object (SVO). Some researchers also assert that the use of different word orders may be influenced by various factors, including positions of discourse topic and focus, and register (spoken, fiction, academic, non-academic). In addition, corpora have been shown to be useful tools in gathering empirical linguistic data, and modern advances in computing have made corpora freely available and their use widespread. The Russian National Corpus is a large corpus of Russian that is widely used and …

Identity Phauxnetics, Nathan T. Jones

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the construction of identity and authenticity through sociophonetic variation, focusing on British Hip Hop artist Amy Winehouse. Prior work on British vocal artists’ phonetic variation has relied upon regional categorical frameworks (Trudgill, 1983; Carlsson, 2001) and found variation to be evidence of production errors and speakers’ misidentification of targeted speech patterns, resulting in summative interpretations of conflict between speakers’ discreet identities and speech pattern categories. More recent work has attended to linguistic processes within cultural movements influenced but not strictly delimited by sociolinguistics’ canonical categories of region, class, race, etc. Within the context of the Hip Hop …

Spectrums, Subgroups And School-Lunch: The Linguistic Capital Of Students With Autism, Scott Belden

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to have difficulties with pragmatic language. There is, however, a subpopulation of those with ASD that exhibits a high competency with pragmatic language. It can be difficult for researchers to find natural contexts to record these high-functioning individuals and examine their spontaneous use of pragmatic language. Additionally, there is a need to move beyond analyzing the cognitive abilities of these individuals to a sociolinguistic exploration of how they use pragmatic abilities to form and navigate social groups.

The research involved in this thesis included audio-visual recordings of 14 high school students with …

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the failures of the creolization movement with the success of the language revitalization movement and seeks to determine which elements are missing from the former to make it as successful as the latter. Education policy, identity, and language ideology are all examined as contributors to the future success of creole inclusivity in education and society, as well as the potential benefits such a movement would include. Specifically examined are Siegel’s research on creole education and Armstrong’s work on language ideology.

Reflexive And Reciprocal Constructions In Modern Irish, Brian Nolan

The ITB Journal

This paper examines reflexive (and reciprocal) constructions in modern Irish, a VSOX language for which the generative analysis using c-command is problematic. Reflexive and reciprocal constructions are best reflected in the inherent VSOX word order. The reflexive occurs in transitive constructions with the reflexive marker féin, which can also be used non-reflexively but emphatically. A continuum is observed with a human/animate participant as the subject argument at the reflexive pole and a nonhuman inanimate at the emphatic end. Motion is an ingredient in reflexivity. Fictive or nontranslational motion are both non-reflexive. Translational motion alone allows reflexivity. Reciprocals are complex in …

Passive Voice Constructions In Modern Irish, Brian Nolan

The ITB Journal

This paper is about the passive construction, of which modern Irish (a VSO language) has two primary forms, the personal passive and its variants, and the impersonal. An empirical question is posed as to whether a third passive form exists within the language, that of a functionally defined GET-passive. To deliver a unified analysis of the various passive constructions, a perspective that takes account of the complete event is necessary.

Increasing Language Awareness And Self-Efficacy Of Fl Students Using Self-Assessment And The Actfl Proficiency Guidelines, Elizabeth M. Kissling, M. E. O'Donnell

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

This study describes how oral language was assessed in an advanced-level college foreign language (FL) conversation course. Learners used the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines to guide self-analyses of their oral production at intervals throughout the course. The intent was to provide opportunities for learners to develop an understanding of what constitutes oral proficiency, gauge their own progress, and set personal goals. Learners’ self-analysis narratives suggested they began to notice different aspects of their speech and to better articulate their abilities and limitations. Broadly speaking, the results suggest that self-assessment of oral performance guided by the Proficiency Guidelines is an effective way …

November 6, 2015: Carol Symes Lecture, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

The Department of English Anthony Ellis Scholarly Speakers Series featuring Carol Symes

Progressive Place Assimilation In Optimality Theory, Andrew Lamont

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis presents an investigation into progressive place agreement in clusters through the lens of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004; McCarthy & Prince, 1995, 1999). A large typology of such languages is presented and examined to detail a broad swath of phenomena. The main line of inquiry over this typology is how direction of assimilation is formally represented. This work argues that simple phonological mechanisms explain the cross-linguistic effects including an agreement constraint and conflicting faithfulness constraints.

The Vocabulary Research Database: A Compilation Of State-Of-The-Art Academic Vocabulary Research, Melissa Ann Young

Theses and Dissertations

The Vocabulary Research Database (VRD) is a research tool comprised of a compilation of state-of-the art academic research in the field of vocabulary acquisition and pedagogy. The VRD has flexible search features that allow users to obtain higher granularity than is possible with other free databases and online search options currently available, making the results more relevant and manageable. These features include the ability to constrain results by date, author, publication, sub-topics, keywords, citation numbers, journal impact factors, and participant ages. It is anticipated that the ability to manipulate results, combined with relevant and current content, will provide language professionals …

Idioms As A Measure Of Proficiency, Kyle Hugh Vanderniet

Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between idiomatic knowledge and second language proficiency. As the amount of research directly related to this topic is sparse, an in-depth discussion of relevant research and definitions comprises the first part of this paper. Two studies are then presented here that test the relationship between idiomatic knowledge and second language proficiency. A new definition for idioms proposes that all non-compositional phrases, popularized by usage, that is stored, retrieved, and employed as a single lexical unit. The results from more than 400 participants across two studies indicate that the two constructs …

The Effect Of The Spanish Diminutive In Gender Processing Of Opaque Nouns, Falcon Restrepo-Ramos, Jorge Valdés-Kroff

World Languages & Cultures Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploración De Las Narrativas BilingüEs Orales Y Escritas En Español E Inglés, Maria Luisa Spicer-Ecalante

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Este estudio investiga las diferencias y/o similitudes en las narrativas personales bilingües, español e inglés, de un grupo de estudiantes de escuela secundaria, cuando cuentan una historia de manera oral o escrita. Previos estudios sugieren que los estudiantes bilingües nativo-hablantes del español tienden a producir narrativas diferentes dependiendo de la lengua en que relatan las historias. Los participantes del estudio escribieron una narración en español y unos días después escribieron la misma narración en inglés. Posteriormente, durante una entrevista personal, se les pidió que contaran la narración que habían escrito, tanto en español como en inglés. Las muestras se analizaron …

Ideographs And American Mass Media: Understanding The Narrative On The Israel-Palestine Conflict And Its Influence On Publics, Savanna Lynn Fowler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the American mass media's narrative on the Israel-Palestine conflict to understand the power of ideographs and their influence on specific publics. I focus on two popular ideographs in mass media reporting,and, in order to examine how these ideographs are utilized to construct a narrative for the media's publics, the political ideologies they represent, the agendas they further, and the consequences their narrow use has on developing counterpublics and emerging alternative narratives around the conflict. I focus my attention on the mass media's coverage of a sixteen day Israeli shelling in Gaza and how public consent is acquired …

October 5, 2015: David Bleich Lecture, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

The Department of English Anthony Ellis Scholarly Speakers Series featuring David Bleich

October 1, 2015: Safe On Campus Training, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

Learn to be a better advocate and ally to lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people. Participants receive information on practical strategies for addressing homophobia, learn ways to support students who are coming out, and gain an understanding of respectful language use.

A Computational Translation Of The Phaistos Disk, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

For over a century the text of the Phaistos Disk remained an enigma without a convincing translation. This paper presents a novel semi-automatic translation method that uses for the first time a recently discovered connection between the Phaistos Disk symbols and other ancient scripts, including the Old Hungarian alphabet. The connection between the Phaistos Disk script and the Old Hungarian alphabet suggested the possibility that the Phaistos Disk language may be related to Proto-Finno-Ugric, Proto-Ugric, or Proto-Hungarian. Using words and suffixes from those languages, it is possible to translate the Phaistos Disk text as an ancient sun hymn, possibly connected …

A Computational Study Of The Evolution Of Cretan And Related Scripts, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Crete was the birthplace of several ancient writings, including the Cretan Hieroglyphs, the Linear A and the Linear B scripts. Out of these three only Linear B is deciphered. The sound values of the Cretan Hieroglyph and the Linear A symbols are unknown and attempts to reconstruct them based on Linear B have not been fruitful. In this paper, we compare the ancient Cretan scripts with four other Mediterranean and Black Sea scripts, namely Phoenician, South Arabic, Greek and Old Hungarian. We provide a computational study of the evolution of the three Cretan and four other scripts. This study encompasses …