Whatever: Prosodic Context Cues And Their Influence On Pragmatic Meaning,
2012
California State University, San Bernardino
Whatever: Prosodic Context Cues And Their Influence On Pragmatic Meaning, Pamela Kathleen Wahler
Theses Digitization Project
This thesis examines real language in use to observe the different intonation contours associated with the discourse marker "whatever" to see if or how these contours contribute to the pragmatic meaning associated with the different functions. Interactional sociolinguistic and conversational analysis approach to investigate the different pragmatic meaning associated with the discourse marker "whatever" were employed to carry out the analysis. In addition, corpus linguistic methodology was used to gather data to investigate the different pragmatic meanings of the word "whatever."
Prospective Teachers Of English Learners' Error Detection In Oral Output Of Nonnative English Speakers,
2012
California State University, San Bernardino
Prospective Teachers Of English Learners' Error Detection In Oral Output Of Nonnative English Speakers, Begüm Yengel
Theses Digitization Project
This project is designed to present the extent to which native English speakers (NESs) and nonnative English speakers NNESs) detect errors in NNESs' oral output. It also aims to shed light on the error of perception of participants from different first-language (L1) backgrounds, and intends to uncover the possible underlying reasons of the variations in their detection rates.
Introduction To The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary In Philosophy,
2012
University of Western Ontario
Introduction To The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary In Philosophy, Maite Ezdurdia, Robert Stainton
Philosophy Publications
An introductory survey of the nature and importance of the semantics-pragmatics boundary.
In Defense Of Public Languages,
2012
University of Western Ontario
In Defense Of Public Languages, Robert Stainton
Philosophy Publications
My modest aim in this note is to sketch three interrelated critiques of public languages, and to respond to them. All allegedly support the same conclusion: that, insofar as they even exist, the study of public languages is not a viable scientific project. (Related critiques of semantics, understood as involving word-world relations, will be touched on as well.)
Compression Effects In English,
2012
West Virginia University
Compression Effects In English, Jonah Katz
Faculty & Staff Scholarship
This paper reports the results of an English experiment on vowel-shortening in different contexts. The data concern compression effects, whereby, in syllables with a greater number of segments, each one of the segments is shorter than in syllables with fewer segments. The experiment demonstrates that the amount of vowel compression found in English monosyllabic words depends in part on which consonants occur adjacent to the vowel in that word, how many consonants occur, and in which position they occur. Consonant clusters drive more vowel shortening than singletons when they involve liquids, but not when they involve only obstruents. Clusters involving …
Subgrouping Of Nisoic (Yi) Languages: A Study From The Perspectives Of Shared Innovation And Phylogenetic Estimation,
2012
University of Texas at Arlington
Subgrouping Of Nisoic (Yi) Languages: A Study From The Perspectives Of Shared Innovation And Phylogenetic Estimation, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan Lama
Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive
In southwest China and neighboring countries, including Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, there live over 100 ethnic groups who speak languages known as Nuosu, Naxi, Hani, Lisu, Lahu, etc. These languages belong to the Nisoic Branch or the Loloish Branch of Tibeto-Burman (TB) subfamily of Sino-Tibetan. Though the Nisoic affiliation to TB is unquestionable, its internal subgrouping has not been settled. This dissertation aims to study the internal relationship of 34 Nisoic and three Burmic languages from two perspectives shared innovation and phylogenetic estimation. Shared innovation has been regarded as the most reliable criterion in determining subgroups of language descent …
Repair Negotiation By English L2 Learners,
2012
University of Texas at Arlington
Repair Negotiation By English L2 Learners, Yujeong Choi
Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive
It is widely accepted that L2 learners often face communication problems due to lack of competency in the target language and familiarity with its culture of origin. One way to resolve miscommunication problems is to seek clarification of the utterance; this process is called repair negotiation (Nakahama et al. 2001). Repair negotiation has been studied as a subset of Long's (1996) Interaction Hypothesis in second language acquisition (SLA). Existing research has solely focused on repair negotiation which is initiated by the native speaker or teacher rather than the L2 learner, thus resulting in other-initiated repair (OIR). However, it has also …
Binding Accessibility And Online Anaphora Processing,
2012
University of Texas at Arlington
Binding Accessibility And Online Anaphora Processing, Michael P. Mansbridge, Jeffrey Witzel
Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive
No abstract provided.
Testing The Viability Of Web Dmdx For Masked Priming Experiments,
2012
University of Texas at Arlington
Testing The Viability Of Web Dmdx For Masked Priming Experiments, Samantha Cornelius, Jeffrey Witzel, Naoko Witzel, Kenneth Forster, Jonathan Forster
Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive
Purpose: • Evaluate the viability of a web-based version of the DMDX software package (web DMDX). • It was unclear whether web DMDX allowed for the consistent and accurate display of experimental stimuli. Research Question: • Is web DMDX a reliable tool for psycholinguistic experiments? Are display times in web DMDX comparable to those in the original lab-based version of this software (lab DMDX)?
Masked Onset Priming In Korean: Evidence For Syllable- And Phoneme-Level Effects,
2012
University of Texas at Arlington
Masked Onset Priming In Korean: Evidence For Syllable- And Phoneme-Level Effects, Yujeong Choi, Naoko Witzel, Jeffrey Witzel
Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive
No abstract provided.
Deeper Than Shallow: Evidence For Structure-Based Parsing Biases In Second-Language Sentence Processing,
2012
University of Arizona
Deeper Than Shallow: Evidence For Structure-Based Parsing Biases In Second-Language Sentence Processing, Naoko Witzel, Jeffrey Witzel, Janet Nicol
Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive
This study examines the reading patterns of native speakers (NSs) and high-level (Chinese) nonnative speakers (NNSs) on three English sentence types involving temporarily ambiguous structural configurations. The reading patterns on each sentence type indicate that both NSs and NNSs were biased toward specific structural interpretations. These results are interpreted as evidence that both first-language and second-language (L2) sentence comprehension is guided (at least in part) by structure-based parsing strategies and, thus as counterevidence to the claim that NNSs are largely limited to rudimentary (or “shallow”) syntactic computation during online L2 sentence processing.
Narrativity And Involvement In Online Consumer Reviews: The Case Of Tripadvisor,
2012
University of South Florida
Narrativity And Involvement In Online Consumer Reviews: The Case Of Tripadvisor, Camilla Vasquez
World Languages Faculty Publications
Drawing on recent work on digital narratives of personal experience in online genres such as email, social networking sites, and blogs, the present study explores narrative features in 100 online consumer reviews of hotels. Focusing on negative reviews, or “Rants,” from popular consumer travel platform, TripAdvisor, the article examines both canonical and genre-specific structural features of narratives, as well as some of the discursive resources used by online narrators to engage their audiences, and to draw them into their stories. Specifically, the study explores the use of story prefaces and related forms of second person address, represented speech and mental …
The Gift: Synesthesia In Translingual Texts,
2012
CUNY Kingsborough Community College
The Gift: Synesthesia In Translingual Texts, Natasha Lvovich
Publications and Research
This article explores the relationship between multilingualism and synesthesia (neuro-psychological blend of senses). In the absence of research in any of the related fields, the author (a multilingual, a L2 scholar, a writer, and a synesthete all at once) views synesthesia through the lens of “translingual texts” written in L2 by multilingual authors and takes an interdisciplinary perspective, fusing L2 scholarship, cognitive theory, neuroscience, literary theory, and semiotics to investigate the complexities and subjectivities of the multilingual mind. ‘Translingual synesthesia’ appears to represent an idiosyncratic form of language emotionality and creativity, allowing translingual authors to transcend cognitive and linguistic realms …
Knowledge Of Adjective Reference By Monolingual Spanish-And English- Speaking Children,
2012
University of Texas at El Paso
Knowledge Of Adjective Reference By Monolingual Spanish-And English- Speaking Children, Martha Elizabeth Rayas Tanaka
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Previous studies (Waxman and Kosowski 1990, Waxman, Senghas and Benveniste, 1997 and Waxman and Guasti, 2009) have concluded that there is a distinct inclination for Spanish-speaking monolingual children but not for English-speaking children (3 and 4 years of age) to "extend" a novel adjective that is applied to an individual object, to other members of the same superordinate level category due to the Determiner-Adjective construction in Spanish, in which a postnominal adjective occurs in the same surface position as a noun such as in: La azul `the blue (one)'. In an Across-Category condition, children were presented with a model object …
Japanese Language Proficiency, Social Networking, And Language Use During Study Abroad: Learners' Perspectives,
2012
Brigham Young University - Provo
Japanese Language Proficiency, Social Networking, And Language Use During Study Abroad: Learners' Perspectives, Dan Dewey, Jennifer Brown, Dennis Eggett
Faculty Publications
This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels of the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines and the least in novice and superior-level abilities, largely because of a ceiling effect – learners were highly capable of novice-level tasks before study abroad and therefore had little to gain. Regression analysis indicated that self-reported pre-departure proficiency level, …
Children’S Acquisition Of Subject Markers In Isixhosa,
2012
University of Cape Town
Children’S Acquisition Of Subject Markers In Isixhosa, Mantoa Smouse, Sandile Gxilishe, Jill De Villiers, Peter A. De Villiers
Philosophy: Faculty Publications
The study of African languages is a rapidly growing area of investigation in linguistics. It has become clear that there is a rich fund of information in the large number of African languages falling into several families that can inform the science of the universal and particular features of human language. Although the Bantu language family has no historical relation to the family of Romance languages, fruitful discussion has begun among researchers seeking to illuminate some of the special features that are shared (De Cat and Demuth 2008), especially in the area of concern here, namely clitics. But the definition …
Beefmoves: Dissemination, Diversity, And Dynamics Of English Borrowings In A German Hip Hop Forum,
2012
CUNY York College
Beefmoves: Dissemination, Diversity, And Dynamics Of English Borrowings In A German Hip Hop Forum, Matt Garley, Julia Hockenmaier
Publications and Research
We investigate how novel English-derived words (anglicisms) are used in a German-language Internet hip hop forum, and what factors contribute to their uptake.
A Comparative Linguistic Study Between Sicilian And Spanish (Estudio Lingüístico-Comparativo Del Siciliano Y El Español),
2012
Portland State University
A Comparative Linguistic Study Between Sicilian And Spanish (Estudio Lingüístico-Comparativo Del Siciliano Y El Español), Eva NúÑEz-MéNdez, Raven Chakerian
World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations
This study proposes a linguistic-comparative analysis of both Spanish and Sicilian. While numerous linguistic studies have been done on Romantic languages, very few deal with Sicilian, isolated as a dialect of Italian. According to some linguists, Sicilian, as well as Sardinian (spoken in Sardinia), is not a dialect but an independent language per se. It lost its language status when the Italian parliament decided to assign a national language. This research, independently of Sicilian being a language or a dialect, analyses the most important phonetic, lexical, spelling and morphological differences with his sister-language, Spanish. At the same time, some parallelisms …
Partial Word Knowledge: Frontier Words In The L2 Mental Lexicon,
2012
Old Dominion University
Partial Word Knowledge: Frontier Words In The L2 Mental Lexicon, Alla Zareva
English Faculty Publications
The study set out to examine the partial word knowledge of native speakers, L2 advanced, and intermediate learners of English with regard to four word features from Richards' (1976) taxonomy of aspects describing what knowing a word entails. To capture partial familiarity, the participants completed in writing a test containing low and mid frequency content words, accompanied by a word knowledge scale. The analysis showed that there were three distinctive patterns of partially familiar vocabulary but their distribution across the three groups was quite different, which indicated that partial knowledge was linked to different word features across the three proficiency …
Cross-Culture Communication: Linguistic And Nonverbal Accommodation Within An English As A Second Language Classroom,
2012
Gonzaga University
Cross-Culture Communication: Linguistic And Nonverbal Accommodation Within An English As A Second Language Classroom, Patrick Snyder
Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses
Immigration to the United States presents difficulties to culturally diverse communities because of various customs, beliefs and languages. Daily social interaction and differing behavioral norms in these communities harbor positive and negative interethnic interactions. English as a second language (ESL) classrooms are common places in which people of numerous nationalities meet and work. The goal of this ethnography study is to observe the students’ and teachers’ interactions within an ESL classroom aided by Howard Giles’s communication accommodation theory (CAT) as a lens through which to view these issues. The communication interaction patterns and themes are divided into groups based on …
