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Sapinski, Tania H. "Language use and language attitudes in a rural South Australian community /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1998. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09arms241.pdf.
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Kumar, Manoharan. "Genomics, Languages and the Prehistory of Aboriginal Australia." Thesis, Griffith University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/405626.
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When European settlers first arrived in Australia in 1788, Aboriginal Australians, or Traditional Owners, spoke more than 250 languages. Indigenous Australian languages are now broadly categorised into two groups: Pama-Nyungan (PN) and Non-Pama-Nyungan (NPN) languages. PN speakers traditionally inhabited more than 90% of the land mass of mainland Australia, whereas NPN speakers traditionally occupied only 10% of the land area, and this was in the far northwest of the continent. The NPN language group in particular shows very high linguistic diversity.
Studies of nuclear DNA variation can provide valuable information on population polymorphism, structure, and demographics such as expansion, settlement and to date, there have been no such studies on NPN populations. Hence, population genetic studies are important to understand the genetic structure and history of NPN speaking populations. To understand the settlement of NPN language speakers in Australia and their genetic relationship with PN speakers, I undertook a comprehensive population genetic analysis of Aboriginal Australians across the continent. I obtained 56 samples with approval of Aboriginal Australian Elders from six different regions of the country, including Groote Eylandt Island (Anindilyakwa language speaker; NPN), Mornington Island (where Lardil, Kaidal and Yangkaal language speaker; NPN), northeast Arnhem Land (Yolngu language speakers; PN) and Normanton (Gkuthaarn/Kukatj language), Cairns (Gunggandjii) and Stradbroke Island (Jandai language speakers; PN). I performed whole genome sequencing with coverage (30-60X) and population genetic analysis of individuals representing three PN-speakers from three locations and four NPN-speaking populations from two locations. The 56 new genomes reported here were combined with previously published whole genome sequences of contemporary (100) and high coverage (5X) ancient (4) individuals to understand maternal and paternal ancestry, as well as nuclear genetic diversity.
Mitochondrial DNA analyses revealed that Aboriginal Australians comprise four major haplogroups. These comprised N and S haplogroups that are unique to Aboriginal Australians while P, M haplogroups are shared with their neighbours from Papua and South East Asia. Phylogenetic analysis of whole mitochondrial genomic sequences showed NPN and PN speakers have shared ancestry within Australia and outside Australia, prior to European settlement. Analysis of Y-Chromosome haplogroups showed that NPN language speakers from Gulf of Carpentaria Island regions and PN speakers (Yolngu) from northeast Arnhem land have experienced very little admixture with Europeans since they arrived. However, Y-Chromosome marker from individuals belong to Stradbroke Island and Normanton showed that 90-100% of samples have European and East Asian ancestry. In addition, Y-Chromosome sequences from the Arnhem Land region showed that members of the Yolngu speaking population have a higher level of shared male ancestry with NPN speakers from Groote Eylandt and Mornington Islands than with other PN populations.
Analyses of nuclear whole genome data, including PCA, ADMIXTURE & Out-group F3-statistics, revealed that NPN have distinct ancestry shared among NPNs. In addition, genetic analysis shows that PNs are the closest population to NPNs. This suggests that Australia were likely colonised by a single founder population. Furthermore, Nuclear analysis of PN speaking Arnhem Land population show that they are more closely related to NPN speakers than any other PN speakers in Australia. This is owing to the geographical proximity between these populations than their linguistic relatedness.
Finally, the above 56 Aboriginal Australians samples were used to address the intriguing hypothesis, first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870, that a close genetic relationship exists between the Indigenous peoples of Australia and India. To investigate this hypothesis, I sampled 14 genomes from South Asia and sequenced these to 30X coverage. These were compared to 160 Aboriginal Australian genomes which comprised newly sequenced (56) and previously published modern (100) together with ancient (4) samples. Population genetic analysis revealed that Aboriginal Australians do have Indian ancestry, ranging from 1-7%. However, due to the low proportion of Indian ancestry in a very few individuals I could not further confirm the potential Holocene migration from India to Australia. Future studies based on more modern and ancient Aboriginal Australian genomes could help to confirm or reject the hypothesis.
The datasets presented in this thesis provide new knowledge about Aboriginal Australians including insights into their uniparental sequence ancestry, as well as genetic structure and settlement of NPN language speakers. These results will be invaluable for future research on contemporary Aboriginal Australians and will provide important implications for the identification of unprovenanced remains from regions across Australia.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Environment and Sc
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Gaby, Alice Rose. "A grammar of Kuuk Thaayorre /." Connect to thesis, 2006. http://eprints.unimelb.edu.au/archive/0002486.
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McManus, Hope. "Loanword Adaptation: A study of some Australian Aboriginal Languages." Thesis, Department of Linguistics, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5335.
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This thesis is a case study of some aspects of the adaptation of English words in several Australian Aboriginal languages, including Martu Wangka, Gamilaraay and Warlpiri. I frame my analysis within Smith’s (to appear) source-similarity model of loanword adaptation. This model exploits loanword-specific faithfulness constraints that impose maximal similarity between the perceived source form and its corresponding loan. Using this model, I show that the conflict of the relevant prosodic markedness constraints and loanword-specific faithfulness constraints drives adaptation. Vowel epenthesis, the most frequent adaptation strategy, allows the recoverability of a maximal amount of information about the source form and ensures that the loan conforms to the constraints of language-internal phonological grammar. Less frequent strategies including deletion and substitution occur in a restricted environment. The essence of the present analysis is minimal violation, a principle that governs loanword adaptation as well as other areas of phonology.
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Singer, Ruth. "Agreement in Mawng : productive and lexicalised uses of agreement in an Australian language /." Connect to thesis, 2006. http://eprints.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00003242.
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Steele, Jeremy Macdonald. "The aboriginal language of Sydney a partial reconstruction of the indigenous language of Sydney based on the notebooks of William Dawes of 1790-91, informed by other records of the Sydney and surrounding languages to c.1905 /." Master's thesis, Electronic version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/738.
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Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University (Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy. Warawara - Dept. of Indigenous Studies), 2005.Bibliography: p. 327-333.
Introduction -- Sources and literature -- The notebooks -- Manuscripts and databases -- Neighbouring languages -- Phonology -- Pronouns -- Verbs -- Nouns -- Other word classes -- Retrospect and prospect.
'Wara wara!" - 'go away' - the first indigenous words heard by Europeans at the time of the social upheaval that began in 1788, were part of the language spoken by the inhabitants around the shores of Port Jackson from time immemorial. Traces of this language, funtionally lost in two generations, remain in words such as 'dingo' and 'woomera' that entered the English language, and in placenames such as 'Cammeray' and 'Parramatta'. Various First Fleeters, and others, compiled limited wordlists in the vicinity of the harbour and further afield, and in the early 1900s the surveyor R.H. Mathews documented the remnants of the Dharug language. Only as recently as 1972 were the language notebooks of William Dawes, who was noted by Watkin Tench as having advanced his studies 'beyond the reach of competition', uncovered in a London university library. The jottings made by Dawes, who was learning as he went along, are incomplete and parts defy analysis. Nevertheless much of his work has been confirmed, clarified and corrected by reference to records of the surrounding languages, which have similar grammatical forms and substantial cognate vocabulary, and his verbatim sentences and model verbs have permitted a limited attempt at reconstructing the grammar.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xxi, 333 p. ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports
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Disbray, Samantha. "More than one way to catch a frog : a study of children's discourse in an Australian contact language /." Connect to thesis, 2008. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/8533.
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Baker, Brett Joseph. "Word Structure in Ngalakgan." University of Sydney, Linguistics, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/408.
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Ngalakgan is an Australian language of the Gunwinyguan family, spoken fluently by just a few people in the mid Roper River area of the Top End. The thesis is a description and examination of the phonology, prosody, and morphology of Ngalakgan, based on several years of fieldwork. Ngalakgan is a language with a rich inventory of classically Gunwinyguan morphological features, including noun class agreement for all major and some minor word classes, compounding of both nouns and verbs, and a rich array of modifying and inflectional prefixes and suffixes. In Ngalakgan, there is a distinction between two kinds or 'levels' of morphology: 'root'-level and 'word'-level. Root-level morphology is lexicalised and unproductive. It is restricted to the tense/aspect/mood inflection of the small closed class of 'finite' verb roots, and to the large closed class of compounds of these roots. Word-level morphology is productive, and includes almost all prefixes, all (non-tensed) suffixes and all clitics. Only word-level structure is consistently reflected in prosodic structure; forms which are complex only at the root-level are treated as prosodic units. I show that all word-level morphemes constitute prosodic domains: every word-level stem, affix and clitic potentially begins a new domain for metrical foot structure. Geminates and glottal stops are over-represented at morpheme boundaries in complex words. In addition, they are subject to complex, non-local alternations with simple stops and zero, respectively, in Ngalakgan and related languages. The alternations are conditioned by preceding geminates and voiceless obstruent clusters, as well as by prosodic and morphological structure. I propose that voiceless obstruent clusters constitute 'boundary signals' to morphological structure, in a similar fashion to stress and, like stress, are 'licensed' by the organisation of intonation. Ngalakgan displays a quantitive-sensitive stress system in roots which is apparently unique to languages of this area. Heavy syllables in Ngalakgan are those which are articulatorily and perceptually complex: those in which the coda is followed by a consonant with a distinct place of articulation. Geminates, homorganic nasal+stop clusters and glottal stops interact with this distinction in ways which are not predicted by current prosodic theories.
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Baker, Brett. "Word Structure in Ngalakgan." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/408.
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Ngalakgan is an Australian language of the Gunwinyguan family, spoken fluently by just a few people in the mid Roper River area of the Top End. The thesis is a description and examination of the phonology, prosody, and morphology of Ngalakgan, based on several years of fieldwork. Ngalakgan is a language with a rich inventory of classically Gunwinyguan morphological features, including noun class agreement for all major and some minor word classes, compounding of both nouns and verbs, and a rich array of modifying and inflectional prefixes and suffixes. In Ngalakgan, there is a distinction between two kinds or 'levels' of morphology: 'root'-level and 'word'-level. Root-level morphology is lexicalised and unproductive. It is restricted to the tense/aspect/mood inflection of the small closed class of 'finite' verb roots, and to the large closed class of compounds of these roots. Word-level morphology is productive, and includes almost all prefixes, all (non-tensed) suffixes and all clitics. Only word-level structure is consistently reflected in prosodic structure; forms which are complex only at the root-level are treated as prosodic units. I show that all word-level morphemes constitute prosodic domains: every word-level stem, affix and clitic potentially begins a new domain for metrical foot structure. Geminates and glottal stops are over-represented at morpheme boundaries in complex words. In addition, they are subject to complex, non-local alternations with simple stops and zero, respectively, in Ngalakgan and related languages. The alternations are conditioned by preceding geminates and voiceless obstruent clusters, as well as by prosodic and morphological structure. I propose that voiceless obstruent clusters constitute 'boundary signals' to morphological structure, in a similar fashion to stress and, like stress, are 'licensed' by the organisation of intonation. Ngalakgan displays a quantitive-sensitive stress system in roots which is apparently unique to languages of this area. Heavy syllables in Ngalakgan are those which are articulatorily and perceptually complex: those in which the coda is followed by a consonant with a distinct place of articulation. Geminates, homorganic nasal+stop clusters and glottal stops interact with this distinction in ways which are not predicted by current prosodic theories.
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Bremner, Patricia. "Teacher scaffolding of literate discourse with Indigenous Reading Recovery students." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/5623.
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The research study described in this report was conducted in 2007 at a Kindergarten to Year 12 College, situated in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. Using case study methods, this research aimed to examine the scaffolding techniques used by two Reading Recovery teachers as they supported the language and literacy learning of two Indigenous Reading Recovery students. And further, to examine the impact of this scaffolding on each student’s language and literacy learning.Multiple data sets were collected and examined with results discussed throughout this study. Transcripts and direct quotes were used to support the reporting of emergent themes and patterns with the convergence of the data used to support the internal validity of this small scale study.
This paper takes the position that generalisations, assumptions and stereotypical negative images of Indigenous students as disengaged and noncompliant students can be curtailed when teachers acknowledge that Indigenous students are active language learners with rich cultural and linguistic ‘funds of knowledge’ (Moll & Greenberg, 1990). These funds can support students’ new learning of literate discourse which is defined and used throughout this study as: the language used in schools to read, write and talk about texts used for educational purposes. Significantly, difficulties Indigenous students experience with literate discourse have been identified as contributing to the educational underachievement of this group of Australian students (Gray, 2007; Rose, Gray & Cowey, 1998, 1999).
The findings from this small scale study indicate that within the context of Reading Recovery teaching, teacher-student interaction and contingent teacher scaffolding, centred on text reading and writing experiences can support Indigenous students to code-switch between home languages and dialects, Standard Australian English and literate discourse.
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Robson, Stephen William. "Rethinking Mabo as a clash of constitutional languages /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2006. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20070207.131859.
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Andrew, Robert Frederick. "Describing an Indigenous Experience: The Unforgetting of Australian history through language and technology." Thesis, Griffith University, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/387968.
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The central focus of this research is to subvert dominant narratives of colonisation in Australia through three-dimensional, mechanical devices I have constructed to make visual utterances that give authority to an Australian Aboriginal experience. Informed by my Indigenous heritage that I discovered as a teenager, and my subsequent research into my extended family’s experiences, my work scrapes back the layers of colonial concealment to expose what exists below the overlays of control. I reveal aspects of the histories that exist below this thin, almost mechanical, controlling veneer.
The materials used in my constructions include those that are embedded with connections to place, connections to family, and connections to history and culture that are personal to me. I use specific materials to carry and magnify narrative, so that the stories are made visible. I was denied so much of my history in childhood and now ‘the machine’ becomes a transitional agent for claiming and for telling something of that history.
Appropriating contemporary colonial Western technology, including text, I provide alternative narratives of colonisation to resist and counter the negative effects of colonisation on Australian Indigenous people. I have learnt to speak the language of the post-industrial colonialist era and I use it to understand my own experience. In the artworks, I forge links with technology, materials and non-linear, non-written text-based processes. I claim value in revealing hidden, forgotten, denied and ever-changing histories.
By taking the power of language and technology that was and is used to control Aboriginal people, I take the power of that technology to disarm it. In using so-called ‘non-Indigenous’ Western technologies, I build, construct, and use the coloniser’s tools to undo the coloniser’s work. I work to make visible an Aboriginal experience and to assert authority over history, experience and storytelling.
I do not intend to create hierarchies or further means for oppression but to disrupt the ongoing processes and effects of colonisation that marginalise Aboriginal voices. My goal is to deflect the violent, debasing and destructive energies of colonialism and to create positive expressions of Aboriginality.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Visual Arts (DVA)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
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Harper, Helen. "The gun and the trousers spoke English : language shift on Northern Cape York Peninsula /." St. Lucia, Qld, 2001. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe16394.pdf.
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Monaghan, Paul. "Laying down the country : Norman B. Tindale and the linguistic construction of the North-West of South Australia." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phm734.pdf.
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"June 2003" 2 maps in pocket on back cover. Bibliography: leaves 285-308. This thesis critically examines the processes involved in the construction of the linguistic historical record for the north-west region of South Australia. Focussing on the work of Norman B. Tindale, the thesis looks at the construction of Tindale's Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Antikirinya representations. It argues that Tindale effectively reduced a diversity of indigenous practices to ordered categories more reflective of Western and colonial concepts than indigenous views. Tindale did not consider linguistic criteria in depth, had few informants, worked within arbitary tribal boundaries, was biased towards the category 'Pitjantjatjara' and was informed by notions of racial/linguistic purity. These factors which shaped the linguistic record must be taken into account when interpreting records for use as historical and native Title evidence.
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Leeding, Velma J. "Anindilyakwa phonology and morphology." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1558.
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Anindilyakwa is the language spoken by over 1,000 Warnindilyakwa Aborigines on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. In the Australian language families, it is placed in the Groote Eylandt Family (Oates 1970:15) or the Andilyaugwan Family (Wurm 1972:117). As Yallop (1982:40) reports, Anindilyakwa and Nunggubuyu "are similiar in grammar and possibly share the distinction of being the most gramatically complex Australian languages. They are diverse in basic vocabularly, however, and are therefore allocated to separate families".
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Leeding, Velma J. "Anindilyakwa phonology and morphology." University of Sydney, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1558.
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Doctor of PhilosophyAnindilyakwa is the language spoken by over 1,000 Warnindilyakwa Aborigines on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. In the Australian language families, it is placed in the Groote Eylandt Family (Oates 1970:15) or the Andilyaugwan Family (Wurm 1972:117). As Yallop (1982:40) reports, Anindilyakwa and Nunggubuyu "are similiar in grammar and possibly share the distinction of being the most gramatically complex Australian languages. They are diverse in basic vocabularly, however, and are therefore allocated to separate families".
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Sharifian, Farzad. "Conceptual-associative system in Aboriginal English : a study of Aboriginal children attending primary schools in metropolitan Perth." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2002. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/757.
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National measures of achievement among Australian school children suggest that Aboriginal students, considered as a group, are those most likely to end their schooling without achieving minimal acceptable levels of literacy and numeracy. In view of the fact that many Aboriginal students dwell in metropolitan areas and speak English as a first language, many educators have been unconvinced that linguistic and cultural difference have been significant factors in this underachievement. This study explores the possibility that, despite intensive exposure to non-Aboriginal society, Aboriginal students in metropolitan Perth may maintain, through a distinctive variety of English, distinctive conceptualisation which may help to account for their lack of success in education. The study first develops a model of conceptualisations that emerge at the group level of cognition. The model draws on the notion of distributed representation to depict what are here termed cultural conceptualisations. Cultural conceptualisations are conceptual structures such as schemas and categories that members of a cultural group draw on in approaching experience. The study employs this model with regard to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students attending schools in the Perth Metropolitan area. A group of 30 Aboriginal primary school students and a matching group of non-Aboriginal students participated in this study. A research technique called Association-Interpretation was developed to tap into cultural conceptualisations across the two groups of participants. The technique was composed of two phases: a) the 'association' phase, in which the participants gave associative responses to a list of 30 everyday words such as 'home' and 'family', and b) the 'interpretation' phase, in which the responses were interpreted from an ethnic viewpoint and compared within and between the two groups. The informants participated in the task individually. The analysis of the data provided evidence for the operation of two distinct, but overlapping, conceptual systems among the two cultural groups studied. The two systems are integrally related to the dialects spoken by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, that is, Aboriginal English and Australian English. The discrepancies between the two systems largely appear to be rooted in the cultural systems which give rise to the two dialects while the overlap between the two conceptual systems appears to arise from several phenomena such as experience in similar physical environments and access to 'modem' life style. A number of responses from non-Aboriginal informants suggest a case of what may be termed conceptual seepage, or a permeation of conceptualisation from one group to another due to contact. It is argued, in the light of the data from this study, that the notions of dialect and 'code-switching' need to be revisited in that their characterisation has traditionally ignored the level of conceptualisation. It is also suggested that the results of this study have implications for the professional preparation of educators dealing with Aboriginal students.
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Kruger, Candace. "In The Bora Ring: Yugambeh Language and Song Project - An Investigation into the Effects of Participation in the ‘Yugambeh Youth Choir’, an Aboriginal Language Choir for Urban Indigenous Children." Thesis, Griffith University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365270.
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Knowledge of Indigenous language and identity for Australian Indigenous children is vital. Despite this there has been little research into the effects that living culture practice affords Australian Indigenous children through learning heritage language. Yarrabil (to sing) is one way in which Indigenous youth can participate in learning Indigenous language. Through a series of surveys, wula bora (focus group) sessions, interviews and reflections, the jarjum (children) of the Yugambeh language region assisted to discover how the process of participation in an urban Aboriginal children’s language choir can play an integral part in youth leadership, language acquisition, well-being (self-efficacy), and Identity and Aboriginality. The research also demonstrates how a language choir can safe-guard language and culture whilst building socio-cultural capital within an Indigenous community. The National Indigenous Languages Survey Report of 2005 listed the Aboriginal language Yugambeh of the Gold Coast, Logan and Scenic Rim regions of South-East Queensland, Australia as endangered. This thesis investigates an alternate way to girrebba (wake up) a sleeping language and engage youth in the process of learning their heritage language. The ‘Yugambeh Language and Song project’ provides academic knowledge in a relatively unstudied field, supports living culture practice and provides a model to assist other Indigenous communities to sing their language alive.Thesis (Masters)
Master of Arts Research (MARes)
School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science
Arts, Education and Law
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O'Shannessy, Carmel. "Language contact and children's bilingual acquisition learning a mixed language and Warlpiri in northern Australia /." Connect to full text, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1303.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2006.Title from title screen (viewed 28 March 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.
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Amery, Rob. "Warrabarna Kaurna : reclaiming Aboriginal languages from written historical sources : Kaurna case study /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1998. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09pha512.pdf.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Linguistics, 1998.Vol. 2 consists of unpublished or not readily available papers and miscellaneous material referred to in vol. 1. Includes historical material and Kaurna language texts. Includes bibliographical references (47 p. ).
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Ogilvie, Sarah. "The Morrobalama (Umbuygamu) language of Cape York Peninsula, Australia." Thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/110346.
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This partial-Masters thesis describes Morrobalama, a highly endangered Australian Aboriginal language belonging to the Pama-Nyungan family. Originally spoken in Princess Charlotte’s Bay on the eastern coast of Cape York, its speakers were forcibly displaced from the region in the early 1960s and made to live with eight other tribes in a region 500 miles further north. Although Morrobalama is a socially marginalized language in Australia, it is important linguistically because it displays atypical features. Most notable is its phonemic inventory which is unusually large and includes sounds which are rare in Australian Aboriginal languages, e.g. fricatives, prestopped nasals, voicing contrasts, and a system of five vowels that contrast in length. Morrobalama’s morphology is not dissimilar from other Pama-Nyungan languages: it displays pronominal cross-referencing and a split-ergative system (nouns operate in an absolutive/ergative paradigm, while pronouns are nominative/accusative). Pronouns have three numbers – singular, dual, and plural – and distinguish inclusive and exclusive in first-person dual and plural. They can occur both independently or bound
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Watts, Janet D. "Language and interaction in a Standard Australian English as an additional language or dialect environment: The schooling experiences of children in an Australian Aboriginal community." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/392883.
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This thesis is a study of students’ experiences as learners of Standard Australian English (SAE) as an additional language or dialect in early years classrooms in an Australian Aboriginal community. It takes as its starting point reports that English‐lexified varieties spoken in many Aboriginal communities are not explicitly recognised as systematically different from SAE within the formal education system. That is, that the status and needs of Aboriginal students as learners of SAE may be ‘invisible’ in classroom interactions which make up a large part of these children’s educational experiences (Angelo & Hudson 2018; Dixon & Angelo 2014; McIntosh, O’Hanlon & Angelo 2012; Sellwood & Angelo 2013).
These issues were explored through two research questions and five sub‐questions:
1) How are students choosing between variants in their linguistic repertoires as they talk during class time at school, a. Do students choose variants associated with SAE or the community variety according to interlocutor, topic of talk or the type of activity they are engaged in?; b. Are there changes in students’ rate of use of SAE and non‐SAE variants in their speech in the classroom over three years?
2) To what extent, and how, do teachers present SAE (as an additional language/dialect) as a learning focus for students in lessons, a. What are the norms and expectations for students’ ways of speaking in the classroom, as revealed through teachers, teacher aides and students’ practices?; b. Is SAE (AL/D) presented as a learning focus in literacy lessons, and how?; c. Is SAE (AL/D) presented as the main content to be learned in any lessons, and how?
Data for the study was collected over three years, following two cohorts of students in the first four years of school, in an Aboriginal community in Queensland. Usual classroom lessons were audio and video recorded with the aim of capturing as closely as possible what would have been happening if researchers had not been present.
Research Question 1 was investigated through two complementary approaches, providing qualitative and quantitative analysis. Variationist sociolinguistic methods were used to consider how linguistic and social factors influenced students’ choices between linguistic variants associated with the community variety and SAE, and the effect of change over time. Variation in absence and presence of the verb ‘be’ in the children’s classroom talk was taken as a case study for the focus of this analysis. Results showed that literacy task related topics of talk strongly favoured presence of the verb ‘be’. However, contrary to expectation, ‘be’ presence in the children’s classroom talk was not favoured with SAE‐speaking teacher addressees. The analysis did not show the expected increase in rate of ‘be’ presence with an increased length of time at school.
Research Question 1 was additionally explored using a Conversation Analysis (CA) approach. CA analysis of classroom interactions showed ways in which students oriented to the social meanings of different ways of talking. In literacy tasks, children’s self‐talk showed how they navigated between variants in their linguistic repertoires, and children demonstrated in their interactions with peers and teachers that they associated certain words with particular ways of talking in the community.
Research Question 2 was explored through analysis of classroom interactions from a CA perspective. Analysis revealed little explicit orientation from teachers to students being speakers of the community variety, or learners of SAE, with students being instead treated to a considerable extent as already speakers of SAE. Lessons ostensibly targeted at explicitly teaching linguistic forms were found to focus on topic‐specific applications of SAE words to academic tasks. The context where teachers attended most to non‐SAE aspects of students’ speech was in interactions centred on reading and writing tasks. However, in these interactions, there was evidence that students were treated primarily as learners of literacy, rather than learners of SAE.
Both of the methodological approaches, CA and variationist sociolinguistics, drew on naturally occurring classroom data to provide insight into young Aboriginal students’ linguistic experiences encountering SAE as the medium of instruction at school. These analyses contribute new material to previous observations regarding the level of acknowledgement of Aboriginal SAE as an additional language or dialect learners at school (Dixon & Angelo 2014; McIntosh, O’Hanlon & Angelo 2012; Sellwood & Angelo 2013), providing insight into the visibility of these students’ existing linguistic knowledge and SAE learning needs in everyday classroom interactions central to their education.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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Westwood, Virginia. "Critical design for Indigenous language learning: A critical qualitative study of CALL design in an Australian Aboriginal language." Thesis, Westwood, Virginia (2017) Critical design for Indigenous language learning: A critical qualitative study of CALL design in an Australian Aboriginal language. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2017. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/38475/.
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Over 30 years of Indigenous language continuation efforts around the globe have not halted or reversed the escalating decline in usage of Indigenous languages. Despite the success of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in commonly spoken languages, there have been few implementations in Indigenous language contexts. The research aimed to gain an understanding of this situation by problematising CALL and CALL design.
The investigation was carried out in north-west Western Australia, with Nyikina co-researchers, through a collegiate participatory design – development process. The study employed design-based research (DBR) as critical qualitative inquiry, resulting in both theoretical and practical outcomes. Grounded theory as a guide to data collection and analysis led to the exposure of linguistic colonisation of Indigenous languages and language learning design. This explanatory theory underpinned the research problem. It also shaped the DBR outcomes of a practical artefact (Nyikina nganka Yimardoowarra), participant benefits, formulation of a critical contextual design model (CCDM) for language learning design and consequent design guidelines for CALL in an Indigenous language. The study confirmed the use of critical qualitative DBR as a powerful and effective research methodology for investigating design and development of educational materials.
The CCDM is a broad concept for design, consisting of five levels. Language learning design starts with the language community and origins, and form and usage of the language. These foundations inform language learning theory and thence pedagogy. Finally, development of the product is a situated activity and CALL is only one mode of delivery. The research identifies an urgent need for international collaborative research with Indigenous communities using the CCDM to develop appropriate learning theory, pedagogy and delivery for oral Indigenous languages.
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Koppe, Rosemarie. "Aboriginal student reading progress under targeted intervention." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2000. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/36652/1/36652_Digitised%20Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Urban Aboriginal students often come to school with a different set of cultural and
language learnings than those of their non- indigenous peers. These differences can
pose major barriers for the primary- aged Aboriginal student trying to access the
curriculum which is based on Standard Australian English (SAE). Aboriginal students
often come to school speaking a recognised dialect of English, Aboriginal English
(AE) which has its own grammatical, phonological, pragmatic and socio- cultural
standards which at times are quite different from those of classroom language
interactions. The mismatch between the language of the home (AE) and the language
of the classroom (SAE) can have dramatic effects on the literacy learning of
Aboriginal students and hence their ability to effectively read in Standard Australian
English.
This study aims to explore the question of whether changes would be evident in urban
Aboriginal students (who speak Standard Australian English as a second dialect),
following a targeted reading intervention program. This reading intervention program,
called an "Integrated Approach" combined existing strategies in reading and second
language I second dialect teaching and learning, with cultural understandings, in a
methodology aimed at improving the reading ability of the participating Aboriginal
students. The students who were the 5 case studies were part of a larger cohort of
students within a wider study. Students were drawn from primary schools in urban
localities within the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia.
Qualitative data collection procedures were used to observe the 5 case study students
over a period of 6 months and quantitative measures were also utilised to support this
data for the purposes of triangulation. Both data collection sources for the case studies
and the wider study showed that the reading intervention program did have significant
effect on reading accuracy, reading comprehension and the affective area of learning.
The study revealed that by using the teaching I learning strategies described in the
intervention program, combined with socio-cultural understandings which include
respect for the students' home language and an understanding of the effects of
learning English as a Second Dialect (SESD), educators can assist Aboriginal students
m improving their abilities to read in SAE. Other positive effects on students'
behaviours during the intervention program which were recorded during the study
included: an improved attitude to reading; a new willingness and confidence in
reading; an improved willingness to participate in language activities both in tutorial
sessions and back in the classroom; improved use of decoding skills and an improved
control over SAE grammatical structures in writing tasks.
This study emphasises the need for educators to work ardently at increasing their own
understanding of how best to assist Aboriginal students in becoming competent
literacy learners in SAE. Closing the gap created by the mismatch between home and
school language can only be achieved by educators exploring eclectic pedagogical
options and valuing the Aboriginal student's home language as a vital learning tool in
gaining this competence in SAE literacies.
KEYWORDS
Australian Aborigines; Aboriginal; urban Aborigines; Primary- aged students;
Standard Australian English; English as a Second Language; Standard English as a
Second Dialect; Aboriginal English; Standard Australian English; home language;
socio- cultural; culture; language; oral language; oral culture; prior knowledge;
literacy; reading; reading comprehension; reading strategies; modelling reading;
literature; learning styles; mechanics of reading; code switching; standardised
assessment.
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Taylor, Colleen Jane. ""Variations of the rainbow" : mysticism, history and aboriginal Australia in Patrick White." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22467.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography: pages 206-212.This study examines Patrick White's Voss, Riders in the Chariot and A Fringe of Leaves. These works, which span White's creative career, demonstrate certain abiding preoccupations, while also showing a marked shift in treatment and philosophy. In Chapter One Voss is discussed as an essentially modernist work. The study shows how White takes an historical episode, the Leichhardt expedition, and reworks it into a meditation on the psychological and philosophical impulses behind nineteenth century exploration. The aggressive energy required for the project is identified with the myth of the Romantic male. I further argue that White, influenced by modernist conceptions of androgyny, uses the cyclical structure of hermetic philosophy to undermine the linear project identified with the male quest. Alchemical teaching provides much of the novel's metaphoric density, as well as a map for the narrative resolution. Voss is the first of the novels to examine Aboriginal culture. This culture is made available through the visionary artist, a European figure who, as seer, has access to the Aboriginal deities. European and Aboriginal philosophies are blended at the level of symbol, making possible the creative interaction between Europe and Australia. The second chapter considers how, in Riders in the Chariot, White modifies premises central to Voss. A holocaust survivor is one of the protagonists, and much of the novel, I argue, revolves around the question of the material nature of evil. Kabbalism, a mystical strain of Judaism, provides much of the esoteric material, am White uses it to foreground the conflict between metaphysical abstraction and political reality. In Riders, there is again an artist-figure: part Aboriginal, part European, he is literally a blend of Europe and Australia and his art expresses his dual identity. This novel, too, is influenced by modernist models. However, here the depiction of Fascism as both an historical crisis and as a contemporary moral bankruptcy locates the metaphysical questions in a powerfully realised material dimension. Chapter Three looks at A Fringe of Leaves, which is largely a post-modernist novel. One purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how it responds to its literary precursors and there is thus a fairly extensive discussion of the shipwreck narrative as a genre. The protagonist of the novel, a shipwreck survivor, cannot apprehend the symbolic life of the Aboriginals: she can only observe the material aspects of the culture. Symbolic acts are thus interpreted in their material manifestation. The depiction of Aboriginal life is less romanticised than that given in Voss, as White examines the very real nature of the physical hardships of desert life. The philosophic tone of A Fringe of Leaves is most evident, I argue, in the figure of the failed artist. A frustrated writer, his models are infertile, and he offers no vision of resolution. There is a promise, however, offered by these novels themselves, for in them White has given a voice to women, Aboriginals and convicts, groups normally excluded from the dominating discursive practice of European patriarchy.
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Hawkes, Lesley. "Placing the Halo : language in the novels of David Malouf." Thesis, University of Queensland, 2000.
Find full text
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Moreton, Romaine. "The right to dream." Click here for electronic access: http://arrow.uws.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/uws:2495, 2006. http://arrow.uws.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/uws:2495.
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Campbell, Genevieve. "Ngarukuruwala - we sing: the songs of the Tiwi Islands, Northern Australia." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/10520.
Full textAbstract:
Through an analysis of Tiwi song composition techniques and comparison between performances recorded over the last hundred years, I give, for the first time in the literature, a comprehensive musical description of the Tiwi song repertory, showing that while it is primarily based on innovation, it forms a continuum of oral tradition, relying upon the acquisition of complex musical, linguistic and poetic composition skills. I place the Tiwi initiation ceremony, Kulama, as the centre-point of song creativity and instruction and suggest that its near-disappearance, along with social and linguistic change, have put the future of Tiwi extemporised song practice in jeopardy. The framework for this study is the repatriation to the Tiwi community of ethnographic field–recordings of Tiwi songs, made between 1912 and 1981, archived at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. Drawing from the corpus of approximately 1300 recorded song items, I find that the fundamentally contemporary, topical and current nature of the Tiwi song culture has resulted in a rich social, cultural and historical oral record being preserved amongst the song texts. Documenting the physical, emotional and artistic journeys of a particular group of elders who travelled to Canberra to reclaim the recordings, I recount some of the outcomes of the reclamation and I discuss the impact the recordings’ return is having on the current performance practice, the future of song knowledge transmission and the future of improvisatory composition skills. In the context of Ngarukuruwala- we sing songs, a collaborative music project involving a group of song-women from the Tiwi Islands and jazz musicians from Sydney, I also report on new music projects instigated by a group of Tiwi women who are working to maintain and develop song and language skills in young Tiwi people, negotiating new forms of music while maintaining Tiwi song traditions.
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Grote, Ellen. "An ethnography of writing : the writing practices of female Australian indigenous adolescents at school." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1675.
Full textAbstract:
The lack of success in addressing the educational needs of Aboriginal English (AbE) speaking adolescents is evidenced by consistently lower outcomes in literacy than those of their non-Indigenous peers. Differences in literacy levels between Indigenous girls and boys suggest that gender is an influential factor in literacy achievement. This ethnographic study explores cultural and gender influences on the writing practices of a group of female Indigenous adolescents in the cross-cultural context of an urban Western Australian secondary school.
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Garde, Murray. "Social deixis in Bininj Kun-wok conservation /." St. Lucia, Qld, 2002. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe17551.pdf.
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Kral, Inge. "The socio-historical development of literacy in Arrernte : a case study of the introduction of writing in an aboriginal language and the implications for current vernacular literacy practices /." Connect to thesis, 2000. http://eprints.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00001023.
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Blythe, Joe. "Doing referring in Murriny Patha conversation." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5388.
Full textAbstract:
Successful communication hinges on keeping track of who and what we are talking about. For this reason, person reference sits at the heart of the social sciences. Referring to persons is an interactional process where information is transferred from current speakers to the recipients of their talk. This dissertation concerns itself with the work that is achieved through this transfer of information. The interactional approach adopted is one that combines the “micro” of conversation analysis with the “macro” of genealogically grounded anthropological linguistics. Murriny Patha, a non-Pama-Nyungan language spoken in the north of Australia, is a highly complex polysynthetic language with kinship categories that are grammaticalized as verbal inflections. For referring to persons, as well as names, nicknames, kinterms, minimal descriptions and free pronouns, Murriny Patha speakers make extensive use of pronominal reference markers embedded within polysynthetic verbs. Murriny Patha does not have a formal “mother-in-law” register. There are however numerous taboos on naming kin in avoidance relationships, and on naming and their namesakes. Similarly, there are also taboos on naming the deceased and on naming their namesakes. As a result, for every speaker there is a multitude of people whose names should be avoided. At any one time, speakers of the language have a range of referential options. Speakers’ decisions about which category of reference forms to choose (names, kinterms etc.) are governed by conversational preferences that shape “referential design”. Six preferences – a preference for associating the referent to the co-present conversationalists, a preference for avoiding personal names, a preference for using recognitionals, a preference for being succinct, and a pair of opposed preferences relating to referential specificity – guide speakers towards choosing a name on one occasion, a kinterm on the next occasion and verbal cross-reference on yet another occasion. Different classes of expressions better satisfy particular conversational preferences. There is a systematicity to the referential choices that speakers make. The interactional objectives of interlocutors are enacted through the regular placement of particular forms in particular sequential environments. These objectives are then revealed through the turn-by-turn unfolding of conversational interaction.
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Blythe, Joe. "Doing referring in Murriny Patha conversation." University of Sydney, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5388.
Full textAbstract:
Doctor of PhilosophySuccessful communication hinges on keeping track of who and what we are talking about. For this reason, person reference sits at the heart of the social sciences. Referring to persons is an interactional process where information is transferred from current speakers to the recipients of their talk. This dissertation concerns itself with the work that is achieved through this transfer of information. The interactional approach adopted is one that combines the “micro” of conversation analysis with the “macro” of genealogically grounded anthropological linguistics. Murriny Patha, a non-Pama-Nyungan language spoken in the north of Australia, is a highly complex polysynthetic language with kinship categories that are grammaticalized as verbal inflections. For referring to persons, as well as names, nicknames, kinterms, minimal descriptions and free pronouns, Murriny Patha speakers make extensive use of pronominal reference markers embedded within polysynthetic verbs. Murriny Patha does not have a formal “mother-in-law” register. There are however numerous taboos on naming kin in avoidance relationships, and on naming and their namesakes. Similarly, there are also taboos on naming the deceased and on naming their namesakes. As a result, for every speaker there is a multitude of people whose names should be avoided. At any one time, speakers of the language have a range of referential options. Speakers’ decisions about which category of reference forms to choose (names, kinterms etc.) are governed by conversational preferences that shape “referential design”. Six preferences – a preference for associating the referent to the co-present conversationalists, a preference for avoiding personal names, a preference for using recognitionals, a preference for being succinct, and a pair of opposed preferences relating to referential specificity – guide speakers towards choosing a name on one occasion, a kinterm on the next occasion and verbal cross-reference on yet another occasion. Different classes of expressions better satisfy particular conversational preferences. There is a systematicity to the referential choices that speakers make. The interactional objectives of interlocutors are enacted through the regular placement of particular forms in particular sequential environments. These objectives are then revealed through the turn-by-turn unfolding of conversational interaction.
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Babidge, Sally. "Family affairs an historical anthropology of state practice and Aboriginal agency in a rural town, North Queensland /." Click here for electronic access to document: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/942, 2004. http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/942.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.) - James Cook University, 2004.Thesis submitted by Sally Marie Babidge, BA (Hons) UWA June 2004, for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology, James Cook University. Bibliography: leaves 283-303.
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Byrge, Matthew Israel. "Black and White on Black: Whiteness and Masculinity in the Works of Three Australian Writers - Thomas Keneally, Colin Thiele, and Patrick White." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2010. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1717.
Full textAbstract:
White depictions of Aborigines in literature have generally been culturally biased. In this study I explore four depictions of Indigenous Australians by white Australian writers. Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) depicts a half-caste Aborigine's attempt to enter white society in a racially-antipathetic world that precipitates his ruin. Children's author Colin Thiele develops friendships between white and Aboriginal children in frightening and dangerous landscapes in both Storm Boy (1963) and Fire in the Stone (1973). Nobel laureate Patrick White sets A Fringe of Leaves (1976) in a world in which Ellen Roxburgh's quest for freedom comes only through her captivity by the Aborigines. I use whiteness and masculinity studies as theoretical frameworks in my analysis of these depictions. As invisibility and ordinariness are endemic to white and masculine actions, interrogating these ideological constructions aids in facilitating a better awareness of the racialized stereotypes that exist in Indigenous representations.
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Sapinski, Tania Helen. "Language use and language attitudes in a rural South Australian community / presented by Tania H. Sapinski." Thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/108270.
Full textAbstract:
Argues the importance of considering non-linguistic factors in understanding the community situation, the most important of these non-linguistic factors being the role of peoples attitudes. Outlines the situation in the target community. Discusses language attitude research and compares attitudes to language varieties around the world. Illustrates Australian Governmental attitudes through their past and present policies in dealing with Indigenous Australians.Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of European Studies, 1999?
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Besold, Jutta. "Language recovery of the New South Wales South Coast Aboriginal languages." Phd thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/10133.
Full textAbstract:
The recent years have witnessed an increase in revisiting language descriptions of the
‘sleeping’ traditional languages of south-east Australia from available historic material.
The languages of south-east New South Wales have thus far been largely neglected
and this thesis fills a gap in the contemporary language work that has and still is being undertaken on traditional New South Wales languages. This research study investigates the traditional Aboriginal languages of the New South Wales South Coast. The languages presented here are Dharrawal, Dharumba, Dhurga and Djirringanj, which were spoken from the southern parts of Sydney and Botany Bay down along the coast, close to the Victorian border. The language material used for the analysis consists entirely of archival material that was collected by various people between ca. 1834 and 1902.
Although previous work on the New South Wales South Coast languages (see
Capell (n.d.) and Eades’ (1976)) offered insight into the structure of the languages, the available archival material has not been exhaustively utilised until now. Part B of this thesis presents the seventeen previously unanalysed texts transcribed by Andrew Mackenzie and Robert Hamilton Mathews during the latter half of the 19th Century.
These texts supply a significant amount of additional morphological and syntactical
information, and insights into narrative and discourse features; as well as mythologies
of the South Coast people.
Throughout the thesis, issues of working from archival material are appropriately
discussed to clarify interpretation of the material and to introduce the reader to the
stages and processes involved in working from historic material.
This work is ultimately produced as a tool for local Aboriginal communities and
community members to assist in current and future language reclamation and revitalisation projects, and to allow for projects to aim for higher language proficiency than has previously been possible.
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Illert, Christopher R. "A mathematical approach to recovering the original Australian Aboriginal language." Thesis, 2013. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/530268.
Full textAbstract:
This text is submitted as a thesis by publications. It consists of four articles already published in the Journal of Applied Statistics, making up sequences of an argument, preceded by an Over-arching statement. The thesis applies mathematical concepts and reasoning to aspects of Aboriginal languages and in this way throws new light on some problems that have hitherto proved intractable for Aboriginal linguists. Mathematical forms of analysis have not previously been much used in mainstream linguistics in general, or applied to Aboriginal languages, with the major exception of the work of George Zipf (1949), whose application of Power Laws to language phenomena has influenced researchers in many other fields while being ignored in Zipf’s own home discipline of Linguistics. The thesis uses Power Laws allied to other mathematical ideas and operations, including Lagrange forms, van der Waals effects, Huygens principle and Snell’s law, to illuminate basic aspects of Aboriginal languages. Mathematical methods can provide new ways of treating data and drawing conclusions, and produce a revolutionary new picture of the original forms of the early language. They can be used to trace major processes of change over the 60,000-70,000 years currently estimated as the time Australian Aboriginal people have lived in Australia. This thesis shows how mathematical analysis can be a powerful tool and resource for linguistics. It is able to reconstruct a proto-form of Aboriginal language from a much greater time-depth than linguists have believed is possible for any language. This takes the scientific study of language closer to the probable time when human language itself first emerged.
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Richards, Mark B. "Revitalisation of an Australian Aboriginal language : archival utterances as scaffolding for independent adult language learning." Thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:55583.
Full textAbstract:
Increasingly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are seeking to maintain, revitalise and reawaken their traditional languages. In contexts where there are few fluent speakers of the languages or few learning resources, this can present particular challenges. The goal of this thesis is to investigate how adult community members can be supported towards greater independence as language learners and teachers in their communities. This was explored in the context of Jilkminggan, a remote Aboriginal community in the western area of the Northern Territory, 135 km south-east of Katherine. A design-based methodology was adopted to investigate learning in its natural context, involving community members in resource creation across several iterations and allowing for a more collaborative approach to the research. The research was conducted in three phases. In Phase 1 informal discussions were held with community members, including Elder Sheila Conway and representatives of the Jilkminggan Community Aboriginal Corporation, concerning their aspirations for learning and revitalisation of Mangarrayi. The project which developed in light of these discussions centred on the use of a bank of Mangarrayi utterances or ‘chunks’ – termed Chunkbank – captured from archival audio recordings to support development of everyday communication in Mangarrayi for younger adult learners. In Phase 2, in line with a design-based approach, three studies were conducted to provide baseline information informing the development of tasks and resources in Phase 3. Study 1 established topics and language functions of importance to Jilkminggan community members. Study 2 provided insights into the current uses of digital technology at Jilkminggan and its potential to support language learning. Study 3 provided an opportunity to observe the degree to which community members could understand and capture Mangarrayi archival audio chunks. This research provides evidence of existing capacity amongst younger adult Jilkminggan community members to drive learning and resource creation. The use of digital resources, in addition to face-to face learning from speaker Sheila Conway, the rekindled knowledge of older community members, and external linguistic, metalinguistic and pedagogic expertise, can help develop language knowledge and skills to build on this capacity. This provides a possible model for sustainable revitalisation of other Aboriginal languages in a similar context.
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Bannister, Corinne. "A Longitudinal Study of Ngarrindjeri." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2237.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aims to follow the changes that occur in Ngarrindjeri, a language from South Australia, over a period of 130 years. Over this period of time the speakers underwent great social and cultural change, with the settlement of white people, and the language changed from being a vibrant living language to one where only a few lexical items can be remembered. Particular attention is given to the syntactic changes, with a focus on case, the pronominal system and the antipassive function. A range of sources have been used; however Meyer’s grammar from 1843 and the Berndt texts, recorded in the 1940s, plus the accompanying analysis provided by Cerin (1994), receive the main focus because they are the most extensive descriptions of the language. The other sources are used when necessary to fill in the gaps. Chapter one introduces the language and the source material. It also discusses general concepts in language attrition. Chapter two deals with nominal morphology, with a particular focus on how the cases have changed. It also contains some reanalysis of the forms, which differs slightly from previous analyses. Chapter three address the pronominal morphology and identifies and explains discrepancies among the sources. This chapter contains information on the personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns and also a small section on how the pronominal system influenced a change in word order. Chapter four addresses the antipassive in Ngarrindjeri. Previous work on the antipassive has been scarce, so firstly this chapter establishes the form of the antipassive. Next it identifies the semantic uses of the construction. Finally, there is an investigation into the existence of a syntactic antipassive and the type of pivots that may also exist.
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Spronck, Stef. "Reported speech in Ungarinyin: grammar and social cognition in a language of the Kimberley region, Western Australia." Phd thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/733712596.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines a polysemous construction in the North Western Australian language Ungarinyin (Non-Pama Nyungan, Worrorran) that can express reported speech (x says p), reported thought (x thinks p) and reported intentionality (x wants p). Following Rumsey (1982) and McGregor (1994) it refers to this construction as the ‘framing construction’ and details its functions, specific forms, the discourse contexts in which it occurs and alternative expressions the construction alternates with.
The analysis reveals how the expression of perspective interacts with key areas of Ungarinyin grammar. In doing so, this study aims to contribute to understanding the ways in which central aspects of sociality, like perspective taking and intention attribution can shape grammar, and to present desiderata for a linguistic theory of social cognition.
After an introductory chapter introducing the Ungarinyin framing construction, a background and methodology, chapter 2 lays out the fundamentals of Ungarinyin grammar. The chapter describes the language as a non-configurational, head-marking language with a limited set of relational and locational case suffixes and an extensive verbal inflectional template. Most verbal constructions consist of combinations of a verbal particle (a coverb) and an inflecting verb. Like in other Australian languages the use of complex clause constructions is limited and word order is often variable.
Chapter 3 contextualises the study within the literature on reported speech and looks at the functions of the Ungarinyin framing construction in detail (reported speech, thought, intentionality, causation-intention and naming). The chapter concludes that although there are prototypical construction types for each of these functions none of them unambiguously identifies a particular meaning.
Chapter 4 introduces the notion of ‘defenestration’, viz. signalling the functions of a framing construction without a framing construction, and demonstrates that this can be achieved alternatively by elements in the clause immediately preceding the defenestrated expression or by elements within the defenestrated expression itself. The chapter presents the main alternative devices and strategies for signalling perspective in Ungarinyin and examines their distribution within and outside contexts of reported speech.
Chapter 5 returns to the topic of framing constructions in a narrower sense and addresses their discourse properties. The chapter finds that the distribution of framing constructions in (narrative) discourse is far from random and that this aspect can serve to distinguish their respective functions. It also concludes that the discourse referential properties of framing constructions differ considerably from regular, non-attributed discourse and that this is connected to the ability of framing constructions to simultaneously express multiple perspectives.
Chapter 6 dives further into the topic of multiple perspective by focusing on a specific type of framing construction that explicitly reflects the perspective of the current speaker and that of the speaker whose speech/thought is expressed in the framing construction.
Chapter 7, finally, summarises the findings and arguments and considers some of the implications of the study for analysing the grammar of social cognition.
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Hendy, Caroline Rose. "The distribution and acoustic properties of fricatives in Light Warlpiri." Thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/200483.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines potential fricatives in Light Warlpiri, an Australian mixed language with Warlpiri, Kriol, and English adstrates. Most Australian languages, including Warlpiri, lack contrastive fricatives. Because of this, any inherited fricatives in Light Warlpiri – including those that have come through Kriol – are originally from English. However, the fricative inventories of Standard Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English, and Kriol differ in terms of which places of articulation are differentiated and whether voicing is contrastive. The aim of this thesis is to establish whether fricatives exist in Light Warlpiri, to investigate their acoustic properties if so, and to compare these properties with those of the Light Warlpiri source languages. This thesis consists of two studies using elicited data from 10 first language speakers of Light Warlpiri. The first study investigates the presence and distribution of potential fricatives in Light Warlpiri. It is found that Light Warlpiri lacks /h/, and reflexes of English dental fricatives are realised as stops. The second study is an acoustic analysis of the subset of potential fricatives that are produced as fricatives. It is shown that Light Warlpiri speakers differentiate fricative production by the place of articulation of the English source. Voicing is shown to be contrastive for labiodental fricatives, but not for alveolar or postalveolar fricatives. These results show that the fricative inventory of Light Warlpiri has significant influence from Standard Australian English, but differs from all of its source languages.
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Amery, Robert Maxwell. "Warrabarna Kaurna : reclaiming Aboriginal languages from written historical sources : Kaurna case study / Rob Amery." 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/19250.
Full textAbstract:
Vol. 2 consists of unpublished or not readily available papers and miscellaneous material referred to in vol. 1. Includes historical material and Kaurna language texts.Includes bibliographical references (47 p.)
2 v, : ill. (some col.), maps ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Linguistics, 1998
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Saunders, Jane E. "Between surfaces a psychodynamic approach to cultural identity, cultural difference and reconciliation in Australia /." 2006. http://wallaby.vu.edu.au/adt-VVUT/public/adt-VVUT20071129.092250/index.html.
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Thieberger, Nicholas. "Aboriginal language maintenance some issues and strategies." 1988. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/8534.
Full textAbstract:
In this dissertation I will discuss some of the issues involved in maintenance of Aboriginal languages in Australia. Chapter 1 places the movement in a historical context, establishing why there is an interest in maintaining Aboriginal languages in the 1980s. In chapter 2 I ask what language maintenance actually is. Both 'language' and 'maintenance' need to be defined, and in doing so I suggest that we need something other than a structuralist notion of language. I distinguish two uses of the term 'language maintenance': (a) the activity of a group of speakers, usually described by linguists in terms of causes of maintenance, numbers of speakers over generations and so on; and (b) maintenance as an interventional practice, the approach that is favoured in this work. I also distinguish between maintenance of indigenous languages and maintenance of immigrant languages in the Australian context.In chapter 3 I assess some arguments for language maintenance, and suggest that the strongest argument is based on social justice, with more commonly expressed arguments (e.g. that language is part of identity, that it is part of the national resources) often lacking firm ground, or else being potentially damaging. For example, if a language is equated with identity, then on what grounds do people still identify themselves with their heritage if they do not still speak that language?
Chapter 4 discusses some models that have been used for language maintenance, using the term now to include language resurrection, revival, renewal and language continuation. Following these models I discuss some of the causes for language shift, suggesting that an understanding of the causes may allow us to devise more appropriate interventional strategies, some of which are discussed in chapter 4.3.
Practical examples of the models and strategies of chapter 4 are included in a broader study of Aboriginal language maintenance in Western Australia in chapter 5. A brief historical sketch shows that little has been done by the colonial and state authorities to encourage the use of indigenous languages. The best examples of programmes aimed at maintaining the use of Aboriginal languages are in the community schools, and in the homelands movement, both examples relying on local community direction and involvement.
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Green, Jennifer. "Kin and country: aspects of the use of kinterms in Arandic languages." 1998. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/2847.
Full textAbstract:
The central hypothesis of this thesis is that aspects of the use of kinterms in Arandic languages (or dialects) are dependent upon pragmatic factors to do with broad levels of relationship beyond the genealogical, especially those between people and country, and between countries and Dreamings. It is suggested that other pragmatic factors such as the notions of closeness and distance are significant in determining the use of kinterms. Through an analysis of ‘unexpected’ uses of kinterms it is shown that systematic patterns of skewing exist in Arandic systems, and the factors which determine this are explored. Particular types of kin are marked by the use of specialised kinterms, by respectful codes of behaviour, and by the use of special registers.
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Cotton, Hugh. "Music-Based Language Learning in Remote Australian Indigenous Schools." Thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7762.
Full textAbstract:
In response to the disproportionately low educational outcomes of students in remote Indigenous schools, this study examined the potential for musical activities to provide a platform for the learning of Standard Australian English (SAE) in these contexts. The study also investigated ways in which the same or similar approaches may contribute to the maintenance and revival of Australian Indigenous languages. Conducted as a qualitative multi-case study, this research analysed interview data collected from nine participants, including classroom teachers, ethnomusicologists and music educators, each with relevant professional experience and knowledge. Findings demonstrated the capacity of music-based learning to facilitate meaningful immersion in both SAE and Indigenous languages, and to interface with Indigenous pedagogies and perspectives. Music-based approaches were seen to promote engagement in language learning through experiences that students perceived as valuable and purposeful. Equally, music-based learning provided students with a sense of ownership over learning and opportunities for personal and cultural validation. In addition, the findings identified several factors that often place limitations on remote schools' capacity to facilitate music-based learning. The need to develop local capacity in remote Indigenous communities was recognised as vital in order to provide students with an education that is both holistic and sustainable.
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Kenny, Lawrence. "Mapping early speech : a description of Standard Australian English in the first two years of school in four very remote Central Western Desert Aboriginal communities." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:36597.
Full textAbstract:
Annual reports of Indigenous disadvantage mark the inability of children in very remote Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory (NT) to meet national benchmarks in education. On their entry into the school system, these children are usually identified by the Diagnostic Net T-2 Continua as being behind their mainstream counterparts. After more than a decade of living and teaching in a very remote Aboriginal community for the NT Department of Education (DoE), it is apparent to me that there is a disconnect between the actual and expected development of Standard Australian English (SAE) speech of very remote Aboriginal school students.
There is scant research on the language development of very remote Aboriginal children and to date, there are no studies that have investigated their development of English as a Second Language (ESL) within the very remote context. Those involved in education acknowledge the key constructivist or social-cultural premise that it is language that mediates relationships and understanding, yet the current accounts that describe how these children learn to speak and understand English are incomplete. The relationship between speech and literacy is well established and ESL research has highlighted that first language factors influence the developmental acquisition sequences for ESL. The research questions for this study aim to identify the characteristics of the developing SAE ESL speech for a group of very remote Aboriginal school children from four Central Western Desert communities.
For linguists, two interrelated and accepted measures of early language competency and development are the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) and the grammatical morpheme stages of learning. This study examined both aspects of the developing SAE ESL speech of 30 children over an eight-month period in the 2008 Indigenous Language Speaking Student (ILSS) program. The ILSS children selected were a linguistically homogenous Aboriginal language group of school-aged children from four very remote Aboriginal Communities in the Central Western Desert of the NT.
This study reinforces earlier findings that an ESL learner’s first language influences the developmental and acquisition patterns for ESL and this study is the first to consider the influence of an Aboriginal language on developing SAE in this way. The results of this study are divided into two sets. The group results [collective] are within Set A and there are two case studies [individual children] in Set B. The aim was to investigate SAE ESL speech development to determine the existence of and describe any general patterns of speech development. The data was collected using culturally appropriate techniques developed by the NT DoE, in negotiation with community stakeholders.
Analysis of the data from this study reveals the differences between the actual and expected SAE ESL rates of progression by identifying and charting the oral language capabilities of these children. Findings indicate that the ILLS children are in the initial stages of SAE ESL development, which is clearly reflected in the length of their utterances and also in their varied use of grammatical morphemes. These initial stages of SAE ESL development are characterised by speech that is telegraphic in style and format, typically with a range of inconsistently applied grammatical morphemes.
Overall, the grammatical morpheme results revealed that these children are within the beginning developmental phases and they display the inchoate characteristics of such learners. The results showed that the children exhibit a range of grammatical morphemes across MLU stages and this diversity warranted closer inspection. This revealed that at this early stage of language development, rather than a linear acquisition profile for grammatical morphemes, it is prudent to examine the frequency ratios and create a priority list that will enable very remote teachers to better orchestrate ESL oracy in their classrooms.
Consequently, drawing on the results of this study, it is noted that within the very remote context of limited SAE immersion, any ESL approach must include explicit modelling and teaching. This will provide the children with a contextual cultural linguistic framework upon which to establish and build their SAE ESL oracy.
The very remote Aboriginal classroom is characteristically subjected to overtly formulaic and explicit periods of interaction throughout each day. Within the very remote context, teachers need to regularly program formal explicit periods in which a variety of formulaic sequences can be modelled and practiced by children every day. Teaching programs need to choreograph a range of habitualised experiences. These explicit activities must deliver opportunities for children to be exposed to, and experience a range of SAE ESL lessons that cover both the content and the communication strategies and other skills necessary to learn another language.
Three recommendations arise from this study. First, further longitudinal research is necessary to complete this SAE ESL grammatical morpheme developmental profile. Second, a review of existing mandated SAE ESL profiles to include earlier emerging developmental indicators is warranted. Third, there is a need for development and systematic delivery across the NT of a professional and teaching learning package around early and emerging ESL oracy. This teaching package will be informed by evidence-based research on language acquisition that promotes best practice in ESL oracy for very remote children.
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Monaghan, Paul Edward. "Laying down the country : Norman B. Tindale and the linguistic construction of the North-West of South Australia / Paul Monaghan." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21991.
Full textAbstract:
"June 2003"2 maps in pocket on back cover.
Bibliography: leaves 285-308.
xiv, 308 leaves : ill., maps ; 30 cm.
This thesis critically examines the processes involved in the construction of the linguistic historical record for the north-west region of South Australia. Focussing on the work of Norman B. Tindale, the thesis looks at the construction of Tindale's Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Antikirinya representations. It argues that Tindale effectively reduced a diversity of indigenous practices to ordered categories more reflective of Western and colonial concepts than indigenous views. Tindale did not consider linguistic criteria in depth, had few informants, worked within arbitary tribal boundaries, was biased towards the category 'Pitjantjatjara' and was informed by notions of racial/linguistic purity. These factors which shaped the linguistic record must be taken into account when interpreting records for use as historical and native Title evidence.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of European Studies and General Linguistics, 2003
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Littleton, Peita. "Looking for a sign : the acquisition of discourse in Australian Sign Language." Phd thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/146059.
Full text