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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Comparative and typological linguistics'

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Published: 10 December 2022
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1

Pulleyblank, Douglas, Ping Jiang-King, Myles Leitch, and Nike Ola. "Typological Variation Through Constraint Rankings: Low Vowels in Tongue Root Harmony." Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/227278.

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One of the fundamental claims of Optimality Theory is that by varying the rankings of universal constraints, different grammars result (Prince & Smolensky 1993). Just as the ranking A » B should define an occurring language, so should the ranking B ≫ A. In this paper, we examine this claim in the domain of tongue root harmony systems, specifically with respect to the behaviour of low vowels. We examine cases where the relative ranking of faithfulness conditions and alignment conditions is varied with respect to substantive conditions governing low vowels. Our primary conclusions are twofold. First, we find that the types of typological variation expected to occur do occur; six different types of harmony patterns are presented. Second, we note that a large degree of variation is attested in a very narrowly defined area of the phonology. This paper begins by a basic discussion of the formal constraints assumed to govern vowel harmony, followed by a discussion of a case where low vowels harmonise in a manner comparable to other vowels (Degema). We then turn to six cases (five languages) where we observe asymmetric behaviour. First, we discuss cases involving constraints against feature "insertion" and feature "spreading ", constraints of the faithfulness family (Yoruba, Konni, Ngbaka-Ma'bo). Second, we turn to cases involving constraints of the alignment family, cases where harmony exhibits directional asymmetries (Ngbaka-Ma'bo, Emalhe, Maasai).
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2

Kazeminejad, Ghazaleh. "Pronominal Complex Predicates in Colloquial Persian." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/5.

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Pronominal complex predicates in colloquial Persian are periphrastic constructions with an idiosyncratic syntactic pattern. They show a peculiar behavior compared to the regular agreement system in Persian, and they are the only construction in Persian which requires the obligatory presence of a pronominal enclitic. This work is an attempt to analyze this construction in order to find its function. For this purpose, a lexical semantic classification of them was proposed, which helped in presenting a new analysis. It was found out that this construction is used to express a particular diathesis in which the topic of the sentence (determined according to Givón’s topicality hierarchy) is an indirect participant. I proposed a hybrid dual-layer agreement system which includes a morphosyntactic and a semantic layer. The pronominal enclitic was analyzed as a phrasal affix and agreement marker by reference to Givón’s (1976) and Anderson’s (2005) arguments. The construction was analyzed to be an instance of the external possessor construction proposed by Haig (2008), which is observed in Iranian languages. The classification of the data clarified the mapping of semantics onto syntax. The proposed analysis could be added to and unified with the current analysis of Persian complex predicates (Bonami and Samvelian, 2009).
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3

Suzuki, Keiichiro 1968. "A typological investigation of dissimilation." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288816.

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This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of dissimilation from a theoretical perspective, with special attention to crosslinguistic patterns. After first arguing that the previous accounts based on the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) (Leben 1973, McCarthy 1979, 1986) are not satisfactory, I propose an alternative theory of identity avoidance, G sc ENERALIZED OCP (GOCP) which generalizes the applicability of the traditional OCP to a wider range of phenomena, not just autosegmental (i.e. featural) ones. My proposal asserts that identity avoidance between two elements in sequence is fundamental to linguistic theory, an idea that can be characterized by a universal constraint governing various types of dissimilatory phenomena. This concept is implemented within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993a,b), which provides the flexibility for constraints to be both violable and rankable. Contrary to the traditional OCP based approach which is bound by various representational properties such as feature geometry and underspecification, the proposed approach abandons this representational dependency in favor of the richly articulated constraint-based system. Based on the data collected from 57 language cases, I then examine the various factors that play a role in dissimilation, including the elements involved, their adjacency relations, and the domain of dissimilation. I demonstrate that the GOCP constitutes a consistent formal apparatus on the one hand, and the versatility to accommodate the complexity of dissimilation patterns on the other. Moreover, it is shown that the present approach formally unifies the characterization of both the similarity effects and blocking effects by directly incorporating Local Conjunction as a uniform mechanism of accounting for the Similarity effect, OCP-subsidiary feature phenomena. As a result, these phenomena need not require novel theoretical devices for each case, but rather are construed as instances of the combination of multiple GOCP constraints.
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4

Chen, Jianrong. "Coordinative conjunctions in Chinese dialects : a typological study /." View abstract or full-text, 2010. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?HUMA%202010%20CHAN.

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5

Hieber, Daniel William. "The cohesive function of prosody in Ekegusii (Kisii) narratives| A functional-typological approach." Thesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10103584.

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This thesis aims to advance the idea that prosody is fundamentally about creating cohesion, that is, signaling the “relations of meaning that exist within the text” (Halliday & Hasan 1976:4). Building on research on the cohesive function of prosody by Wichmann (2000) and Wennerstrom (2001), I show how each of the features generally referred to as prosodic are used by speakers to lend cohesion to their discourse by signaling the transitions from one unit of discourse to the next, the relations that hold between those units, and their relative prominence. To accomplish this, I look at six prosodic cues in Ékegusií, a Great Lakes Bantu language of southwestern Kenya with lexical and grammatical tone (Cammenga 2002; Nash 2011). Those cues are pause, vowel elision, prosodic accent, pitch reset, isotony (intonational parallelism), and intonational contour. For each feature, I exemplify the ways in which it demarcates conceptually cohesive units of discourse, and/or signals the relations between one unit of speech and another. I show that when these prosodic cues appear, they create cohesive ties between one segment of discourse and another by signaling where one discourse topic ends and another begins, and indicating how – and how closely – the new discourse topic relates to the old (Couper-Kuhlen 2004; Swerts & Geluykens 1994). Together with morphosyntactic devices for cohesion, such as anaphoric pronouns and reference, the cohesive ties created by prosody are what give coherence to the text, thus distinguishing it from a random assortment of unrelated utterances (Halliday & Hasan 1976). I conclude by discussing how an understanding of prosody as a means for signaling discourse cohesion complements more interactional approaches to prosody (Barth-Weingarten 2013; Barth-Weingarten & Reber 2010; Couper-Kuhlen & Ford 2004), and provides a language-independent means of examining prosody crosslinguistically, thus laying a foundation for future typological studies.

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6

Natarina, Ari. "Complementation in Balinese: typological, syntactic, and cognitive perspectives." Diss., University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6230.

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The goal of this thesis is three-fold: to examine complementation in Balinese from typological, syntactic, and cognitive perspectives. This thesis contributes to typological studies of complementation by providing a descriptive account of the distinguishing syntactic properties of four types of Balinese clausal complements: sentence-like (s-like), Subject Control (SC), Object Control (OC), and Raising complements. The data presented in this thesis demonstrate the clausal complement in Balinese can be differentiated through the kinds of elements that can be admitted within the complements: the type of complementizer, aspectual auxiliaries, modals, temporal specifications, and overt subjects. The theoretical aspect of this thesis is the application of Minimalist theory to account for the syntactic structure of Balinese monoclausal and biclausal constructions. This thesis also addresses a theoretical problem related to the syntactic structure of complementation within Generative syntax: finiteness. The presence of modals, aspectual auxiliaries, and the temporal specification of the complement do not signify finiteness in Balinese. Instead, finiteness in Balinese is marked by the licensing of overt subjects in the clausal complement, following the argument made by Kurniawan & Davies (2015), based on the evidence provided through the comparison of control complements and their subjunctive sentence-like complement counterparts. The cognitive processing of Balinese complementation is investigated through two sentence processing experiments with the goals of understanding how ambiguous Crossed Control Construction (CCC) sentences are processed in comparison to the processing of unambiguous Subject Control (SC) sentences and Raising sentences. The self-paced reading experiment focuses on the comparison of reading times for the verbs in these three types of sentences when the animacy of the subject is manipulated (i.e. animate or inanimate clause-initial DP). The results suggest that CCC sentences are processed differently than the SC and Raising sentences. The second experiment aims at investigating the effect of discourse context on the interpretation of the ambiguous CCC sentences. The results show the influence of context that primes subject control interpretation on the processing of Balinese SC and CC sentences.
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7

Hellmark, Elis. "A typological description of Celtic and Uralic consonant mutations : Towards a full typological overview of consonant mutations." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-448233.

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This thesis produces a definition of consonant mutations, a hitherto relatively unexplored phenomenon in typology, using a sample of languages from the Celtic and Uralic languages. It is defined using Canonical Typology. The base of the phenomenon is established as ‘functionalized consonant alternations’, with seven dimensions of variation: conditioning elements>no conditioning elements; sole functional indicator>accompanied by other morphemes; more than two grades>two grades; some effect on surrounding vowels>only affecting the consonant; only leniting>also non-leniting sound changes; word-initial/-final>word-medial placement; and less regular>more regular. It is also argued that mutations’ phonology is less important than their function.
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8

Löfgren, Althea. "Phasal Polarity in Bantu Languages : A typological study." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-169570.

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This study explores a category of expressions akin to not yet, already, still and no longer, called PhasalPolarity (PhP) expressions and builds on the work of Löfgren (2018). PhP expressions encode the domainsof phasal values, polarity and speaker expectations and have previously been described in Europeanlanguages (van der Auwera: 1998) and in a small, genealogically diverse sample (van Baar: 1997).Using reference grammars as the primary source of information the aim of this study is to describe PhPexpressions in Bantu languages. The results confirm the findings in Löfgren (2018), the distribution andbehaviour of PhP expression in Bantu differs from both European languages and the genetically diversesample of van Baar. The markers are found to be morphologically diverse and the verbal morphotax indicatesthat the markers are, or are in the process of, being incorporated into the tense-aspect systemsof their respective language. Furthermore, the cross-linguistic frequency of PhP expressions seem tohave areal or genealogical tendencies.
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9

Moser, Elena Vera. "Answers to Polarity Questions : A Typological Study." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-157363.

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Polarity questions, i.e. questions that demand as an answer either an affirmation or a denial (e.g. yes or no), are considered to be an universal language feature. Different strategies to answer polarity questions have been observed across languages. Sadock & Zwicky (1985) identified three systems of answer strategies: yes/no systems, agree/disagree systems and echosystems. Other studies have attested languages exhibiting a mix of these types (i.a. Floydet al. 2016, Holmberg 2016). Sadock & Zwicky (1985) do not offer any statements about the frequency distribution of the language systems, nor do they explain what kind of sample was used for their analysis. The aim of this study is to fill this gap. Specifically, the goals are to investigate the validity of the typology offered in Sadock & Zwicky (1985) and to establish some estimates about the cross-linguistic frequency of the types identified during this investigation. The data are collected through consultation of reference grammars and elicitation by means of a questionnaire.
Polaritetsfrågor, frågor där det förväntade svaret är ja eller nej, anses vara ett universellt språk drag. Olika strategier för att svara på polaritetsfrågor har observerats i världens språk. Sadock & Zwicky (1985) identifierade tre svarssystem: polaritetsystem (yes/no system), sanningssystem (agree/disagree system) och ekosystem (echo system). Andra studier har funnit att språk också kan blanda dessa system (i.a. Floyd et al. 2016, Holmberg 2016). Sadock & Zwicky (1985) varken redogör för vilken distribution dessa svarssystem har eller vilket urval resultaten baseras på. Syftet med denna studie är att fylla den luckan. Målet är att undersöka validiteten i Sadock & Zwickys (1985) typologi samt att fastställa den tvärspråkliga frekvensen för de svarssystem som undersöks. Datainsamlingen sker genom grammatikor och elicitering genom en enkät.
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10

Faiq, Said. "A typological model for text-structure processing : implications for the pedagogy of teaching with reference to translation (Arabic-English)." Thesis, University of Salford, 1990. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/42965/.

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This thesis starts with the postulate that advanced Arab students are generally «good» at the level of sentence formation and context free semantics of English, but who are «poor» when it comes to appropriately structuring information as texts. In an attempt to help such a student population, in the first instance, achieve a textual competence and find some pedagogical implications, the present thesis adopts - with some modifications -a typologically oriented model for text-structure processing. To achieve such objectives, six chapters make up the thesis. Chapter 1 sets both the motivations and the assumptions which underly the thesis. Chapter 2 selectively reviews some episodes in the development of text-linguistics. Chapter 3 is devoted to the explanations of the various components of the model adopted for text-structure processing. Chapter 4 has two purposes: 1- A descriptive analysis of three exemplary texts to demonstrate the pure analytic potential of the model. 2- The design of an experiment to test the pedagogical implications of the model with particular reference to the teaching of translation ( Arabic - English ) to advanced Arab students. The experiment involves two groups of advanced Arab students from the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) and the University of Salford (US). Chapter 5 is devoted to the analysis and discussion of the experimental data. Chapter 6, the final one, concludes the thesis and covers some possible applications and plausible implications of the model. Some suggestions for further research are also proposed.
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11

Kapogianni, Eleni. "Irony and the literal versus nonliteral distinction : a typological approach with focus on ironic implicature strength." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.608107.

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12

Lautin, Julia. "Grammatical gender in Hindukush languages : An areal-typological study." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-135775.

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In the mountainous area of the Greater Hindukush in northern Pakistan, north-western Afghanistan and Kashmir, some fifty languages from six different genera are spoken. The languages are at the same time innovative and archaic, and are of great interest for areal-typological research. This study investigates grammatical gender in a 12-language sample in the area from an areal-typological perspective. The results show some intriguing features, including unexpected loss of gender, languages that have developed a gender system based on the semantic category of animacy, and languages where this animacy distinction is present parallel to the inherited gender system based on a masculine/feminine distinction found in many Indo-Aryan languages.
I den här studien undersöks grammatiskt genus i ett antal språk som talas i ett bergsområde beläget i norra Pakistan, nordvästra Afghanistan och Kashmir. I området, här kallat Greater Hindukush, talas omkring 50 olika språk från sex olika språkfamiljer. Det stora antalet språk tillsammans med den otillgängliga terrängen har gjort att språken är arkaiska i vissa hänseenden och innovativa i andra, vilket gör det till ett intressant område för arealtypologisk forskning. Resultaten av den här undersökningen visar att en del språk i urvalet helt har tappat sitt grammatiska genus trots att det anses vara ett relativt stabilt språkdrag. Några språk har utvecklat ett nytt grammatiskt genus baserat på en animacitetsdistinktion, antingen som det enda kvarvarande systemet, eller parallellt med ett nedärvt indoariskt genussystem baserat på biologiskt kön.
Language contact and relatedness in the Hindukush region (421-2014-631)
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13

Hackl, Martin 1968. "Comparative quantifiers." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8765.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, February 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-193).
The main goal of the thesis is to present a novel analysis of comparative quantifiers such as more than three students. The prevalent view on such expressions advocated in Generalized Quantifier Theory is that they denoted generalized quantifiers ranging over individuals - entirely on a par with expressions like every student, some student(s), etc. According to this view, more than three is a determiner (like every) that is, even though morpho-syntactically complex, semantically a simplex expression that can be viewed as denoting a relation between sets of individuals. The proposal that will be developed in this thesis on the other hand maintains that expressions like more than three are also semantically complex. More specifically, an analysis of comparative quantifiers will be given that is fully compositional down to level of the formation of comparative determiners. The proposal is based on concepts that are independently needed to analyze comparative constructions. Three main pieces will be argued to form the semantic and syntactic core of comparative quantifiers: a degree function expressed by many, a degree description given by the numeral (which will be analyzed as measure phrase) and the comparative relation expressed by the comparative morpheme -er. Importantly, each of the three pieces can be empirically shown to interact in predictably (and partially independent) ways with elements inside the quantifier as well as with elements in the matrix clause. These interactions are unexpected unless comparative quantifiers are built in the syntax. Giving a fully compositional analysis is therefore not just conceptually appealing but also required to explain new empirical generalizations. The more general enterprise that this thesis hopes pave the way is giving a uniform and fully compositional analysis of comparative quantificational structures that does not exist so far.
by Martin Hackl.
Ph.D.
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14

Fuster, Sansalvador Carles. "Negation in Germanic languages : A micro-typological study on negation." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Avdelningen för allmän språkvetenskap, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-92731.

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Traditionally, typological classifications have been done in a macro-typological perspective; that is,they have been based on balanced world-wide samples of languages, which often avoid includingclosely related languages, since these are supposed to act alike with respect to their typologicalfeatures and structures. However, attention has recently been drawn to the idea that even closelyrelated languages, as well as dialects within languages, may differ on their typological features. Theintention of this thesis is to give an overview of and study how the Germanic languages differ fromeach other in regards to their negative word orders and negation strategies. Mainly their negativeadverbs (English equivalent not), but also their negative indefinite quantifiers, are analyzed in mainclauses, subordinate clauses, and (negative) imperative structures. The focus lies on the standardlanguage varieties, but some of their non-standard varieties are included, in order to be able to give amore detailed description of the variation within the family. The expected result that the ratherhomogeneous described area of the Germanic languages will turn out to be much more complex, withrespect to negation aspects, is confirmed. The results show that the standard language varieties behavedifferently than the non-standard ones, which are less "rare" cross-linguistically. In addition, the nonstandardNorth-Germanic varieties show that multiple negation occurs in the North-Germanic branch,which is traditionally claimed to not occur.
Typologiska klassifikationer har traditionellt gjorts från ett makrotypologiskt perspektiv; vilketinnebär att de har baserats på utvalda språksampel där närbesläktade språk ofta exkluderas, eftersomdessa antas uppvisa liknande typologiska särdrag och strukturer. Nyligen har det dock påpekats attnärbesläktade språk, och även dess dialekter, kan uppvisa signifikant variation med avseende på derastypologiska särdrag. Syftet med den här studien är att ge en översikt över och studera hur degermanska språken skiljer sig åt vad avser deras ordföljd i negativa satser samt derasnegationsstrategier. Det negativa adverbet (motsvarande svenskans inte) står i fokus men ävennegativa indefinita pronomen analyseras, i huvud- och bisatser samt i (negativa) imperativakonstruktioner. Fokus ligger på standardspråkvarianterna, men några icke-standardvarianter till dessainkluderas, för att kunna ge en mer detaljerad beskrivning över variationen inom språkfamiljen.Hypotesen att det traditionellt homogent beskrivna germanska området är mer komplext vad gällernegationsaspekter bekräftas. Resultaten visar att de standardspråkvarieteterna uppvisar olika mönsterjämfört med de icke-standardspråkvarieteterna, som är mindre "ovanliga" i världens språk. Dessutomvisar de nordgermanska icke-standard språkvarieteterna att dubbelnegation förekommer i dennordgermanska språkgrenen, vilket traditionellt har antagits inte förekomma alls.
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Knobloch, Nina. "A Micro-Typological Study of Shina : A Hindu Kush Language Cluster." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Avdelningen för allmän språkvetenskap, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-169818.

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In this thesis, 9 Indo-Aryan languages which have previously been classified as Shina languages were analyzed. A cognate analysis of basic vocabulary was conducted, in order to explore the relatedness of the languages. Furthermore, a selection of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical features was analyzed, in order to explore areal patterns among the languages. The data mainly consisted of first-hand data, which has been collected for the project ”Language contact and relatedness in the Hindu Kush region”, but even previous descriptions of the languages were used. The results primarily confirmed hypotheses about the relatedness of the Shina languages, and showed interesting areal patterns.The data also suggested that the Shina languages share many typical features with other Hindu Kush Indo-Aryan languages, such as SOV word order, the use of postpositions, sex based grammatical gender, and moderately complex to complex syllable structures. Other features, such as aspiration, retroflexion, and case alignment in noun phrases showed more variation and could certainly be relevant for future studies on these languages.
I den här uppsatsen har 9 indoariska språk som tidigare har klassificerats som shinaspråk analyserats. För att undersöka hur språken är besläktade med varandra har en kognatanalys av det grundläggande ordförrådet genomförts. Dessutom har ett urval fonologiska, morfologiska, syntaktiska, och lexikaladrag analyserats, i syfte att undersöka areala mönster hos språken. Datan för undersökningen bestod huvudsakligen av förstahandsdata, som har samlats in för projektet “Språkkontakt och släktskap i Hindukushregionen”, men även tidigare beskrivningar av språken har används. Resultaten bekräftade mestadels hypoteser om hur shinaspråken är besläktade med varandra, och visade intressanta areala mönster. Det visade sig att shinaspråken delar många drag med andra indoariska språk i Hindukushregionen, såsom SOV ordföljd, användning av postpositioner, grammatisk genus baserat på biologisk kön, och medelkomplexa till komplexa stavelsestrukturer. Andra drag, exempelvis aspiration, retroflexion,och kasuskongruens i nominalfraser, visade större variation och skulle kunna vara relevanta för framtida studier av dessa språk.
Language Contact and Relatedness in the Hindu Kush Region, Swedish Research Council (VR 421-2014-631)
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Vafaeian, Ghazaleh. "Breaking paradigms : A typological study of nominal and adjectival suppletion." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Avdelningen för allmän språkvetenskap, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-43461.

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Suppletion is a term used to describe the occurrence of unpredictable and irregular patterns. Although typological research has been devoted to verb suppletion, not as much attention has been given to suppletion in nominal and adjectival paradigms. The thesis presents the cross-linguistic distribution of nominal and adjectival suppletion. The lexical distribution as well as the features involved are presented. The results of nominal suppletion show that nouns referring to humans are most often suppletive, that number is the most common grammatical feature involved in nominal suppletion and that „child‟ is by far the most common noun to be suppletive cross-linguistically. The results on adjectival suppletion show that adjectival suppletion is well spread though not very common cross-linguistically. A study of 8 Semitic languages shows that „woman‟ versus „women‟ are stable suppletive forms in this language family.
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17

Rönnqvist, Hanna. "Fusion, exponence, and flexivity in Hindukush languages : An areal-typological study." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Avdelningen för allmän språkvetenskap, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-120357.

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Surrounding the Hindukush mountain chain is a stretch of land where as many as 50 distinct languages varieties of several language meet, in the present study referred to as “The Greater Hindukush” (GHK). In this area a large number of languages of at least six genera are spoken in a multi-linguistic setting. As the region is in part characterised by both contact between languages as well as isolation, it constitutes an interesting field of study of similarities and diversity, contact phenomena and possible genealogical connections. The present study takes in the region as a whole and attempts to characterise the morphology of the many languages spoken in it, by studying three parameters: phonological fusion, exponence, and flexivity in view of grammatical markers for Tense-Mood-Aspect, person marking, case marking, and plural marking on verbs and nouns. The study was performed with the perspective of areal typology, employed grammatical descriptions, and was in part inspired by three studies presented in the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). It was found that the region is one of high linguistic diversity, even if there are common traits, especially between languages of closer contact, such as the Iranian and the Indo-Aryan languages along the Pakistani-Afghan border where purely concatenative formatives are more common. Polyexponential formatives seem more common in the western parts of the GHK as compared to the eastern. High flexivity is a trait common to the more central languages in the area. As the results show larger variation than the WALS studies, the question was raised of whether large-scale typological studies can be performed on a sample as limited as single grammatical markers. The importance of the region as a melting-pot between several linguistic families was also put forward.
Språkkontakt och språksläktskap i Hindukushregionen, Vetenskapsrådet, Projektnummer: 421-2014-631
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Shirtz, Shahar. "Patterns of Morphosyntactic and Functional Diversification in the Usage of Cognate Verbs in Indo-Iranian." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/22720.

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This is a study of processes of structural and functional diversification of the uses of three cognate verbs across the Indo-Iranian language family: “do/make”, “be/become”, and “give”. First, this study identifies over sixty distinct construction types in which these verbs are used, including complex predicate constructions, nominal predication constructions, serial verb constructions, and several distinct auxiliary constructions. Since the sets of verbs studied here are cognates, and share a common source, crosslinguistic differences in their uses are the result of grammatical change, and especially shared and parallel innovations of similar uses. Then, this study presents a taxonomy of different complex predication types with “do/make”, and shows that there are general patterns in the deployment of different types of complex predication to express different types of situations. These patterns exhibit “transitivity prominence” previously identified by typologists with “heavy” or “lexical” verbs. This study then shows that these patterns are the result of several distinct pathways of grammatical change, often motivated by analogy to existing constructions, giving raise to different types of N-V complex predication constructions. Then, this study shows that despite the fact that Indo-Iranian speakers can potentially deploy distinct constructions to encode each of the six nominal predication functions, sets of such functions are often co-expressed by the same structural coding means, especially clauses with cognate “be/become” verbs. This study uses a novel method, based on bipartite network graphs, to compare of the degree to which nominal predication functions are co-expressed in different languages. Finally, this study shows that the three sets of cognate verbs are more likely to be used similarity within branches and subbranches of Indo-Iranian than across branches. The scope of this branches, however, is different for different verbs: “do/make” and “give” behave more similarly in languages which belong to the same major branch, Iranian or Indo-Aryan, but “be/become” clusters are at different levels of subbranching. This is the result of the different types of innovations attested with these verbs: reanalysis and actualization motivated by analogy with “do/make” and “give”, and metaphorical and metonymy extensions with “be/become”.
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Haugen, Jason D. "Issues in comparative Uto-Aztecan morphosyntax." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290110.

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This dissertation seeks to test recent important theoretical ideas in the Principles and Parameters and Distributed Morphology frameworks against data from the relatively under-studied Uto-Aztecan languages. In this work I focus on the morphology of reduplication, noun incorporation and related derivational morphology, and the diachronic development of the polysynthetic morphological type in one sub-branch of the family (Corachol-Aztecan). With respect to prosodic morphology, I argue that the comparative Uto-Aztecan evidence suggests that reduplicants should be viewed as morphological pieces, and I analyze them as Vocabulary Items inserted into syntactic slots at Morphological Structure. I also argue that the evidence of cognate reduplication patterns across Uto-Aztecan supports a prosodic view of morphology, as well as the constraint-ranking approach to morphophonology. With respect to noun incorporation and derivational morphology, I argue that the comparative Uto-Aztecan evidence supports the view that denominal verbs are a sub-class of noun-incorporating verbs. I survey the noun incorporation types in Uto-Aztecan and classify NI in these languages into four types: N-V compounding, syntactic NI, classificatory NI, and "object polysynthesis". I offer a unified syntactic account of these types, maintaining that each is formed via head-movement in syntax. I provide a novel approach to hyponomous objects, suggesting that these are in argument positions, and that they are derived via the Late Insertion of material that is not cognate to the incorporated noun, but which is inserted into the lower copy of a movement chain. Non-theme "nominal" roots incorporated into verbs, such as instrumental prefixes, are analyzed as adverbial elements Merged directly into the verbal position. Finally, I argue that this theoretical analysis of NI leads naturally to a diachronic account of the development of polysynthesis in Nahuatl. I show that the crucial aspects of polysynthesis, subject and object pronominal marking on the verb as well as syntactic noun incorporation, have analogues elsewhere in Uto-Aztecan, and I offer a reconstruction of the likely stages of the development of polysynthesis in Nahuatl, each of which have attestation elsewhere in the family.
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Nussbaum, Miriam Claire. "Subset comparatives as comparative quantifiers." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113771.

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Thesis: S.M. in Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 42-44).
This paper motivates and presents a novel analysis of the "subset comparative" construction (e.g. John saw more phonologists than just Mary; John drank more than just coffee). I build on Hackl (2000) and Alxatib (2013)'s analyses of comparative quantifiers (more than three) to develop a unified account for both. This analysis entails that subset comparatives are formed via ellipsis of a clausal source; I provide evidence for this claim and against previous analyses that give subset comparatives a phrasal analysis.
by Miriam Claire Nussbaum.
S.M. in Linguistics
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Morgan, Tricia. "A comparative study of hypernymic patterns for knowledge extraction." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ58487.pdf.

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Ozbeck, Nurdan. "Discourse markers in Turkish and English : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.281623.

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Matsinhe, Sozinho Francisco. "Pronominal clitics in Tsonga and Mozambican Portuguese : a comparative study." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1997. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28507/.

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This thesis contrasts the system of pronominal clitics (also known as subject and object markers) in Tsonga, a Bantu language spoken in Mozambique, with that of European Portuguese; and seeks to establish how the co-existence of the two languages in the bilingual section of the community is reflected in the variety of Portuguese spoken by Tsonga native speakers, referred to here as "Popular Mozambican Portuguese (PMP)". The theoretical framework within which the languages are analyzed is Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), which has been used extensively in the past for describing subject and object markers in Bantu languages. In addition, it has a mechanism for differentiating between grammatical and anaphoric agreement, which is a central issue in the syntax of Tsonga and European Portuguese pronominal clitics. Chapter 1 outlines the aims of the thesis, and the structure and administration of the questionnaire used to investigate the usage of pronominal clitics in PMP. It also discusses the position of Tsonga and European Portuguese in the Mozambican constellation of languages; and presents the main aspects of LFG relevant to the thesis. Chapter 2 discusses the Tsonga class and number system and the European Portuguese systems of number, gender and case, features of which are signalled by the pronominal clitics. Chapter 3 looks at the argument structure and syntax of verbs in both languages, focusing on the types of objects selected by different verbs, and on the ways such objects are marked in these languages. Furthermore, this chapter also considers Tsonga verbs which are derived by means of the applicative and causative affixes. Chapter 4 is the core of the thesis. For, while dealing with the subject and object pronominal clitics in Tsonga and European Portuguese, concentrating on the main distributional and functional differences between them, it seeks to determine the conditions under which the pronominal clitics mark anaphoric agreement and grammatical agreement in the two languages. It also provides an account of independent pronouns in Tsonga and European Portuguese, paying particularattention to their discourse functions. Chapter 5 discusses the Tsonga reflexive marker, comparing it with its counterpart in European Portuguese and considering its distribution and the effects on the verbs that host it. It also argues that while the situation of the reflexive markers in other Bantu languages remains unclear in the literature, the Tsonga reflexive marker is nothing more than a derivational suffix and, therefore, should be treated in conjunction with the applicative, causative, passive and reciprocal affixes. Chapter 6 discusses the pattern of grammatical variation found in the forms and function of the pronominal clitics in PMP, concluding with a general consideration as regards the future of the Portuguese language in Mozambique. Chapter 7 contains concluding remarks which highlight the the results of the thesis.
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E, Chen-chun. "The syntax of comparative correlatives in Mandarin Chinese." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3622174.

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This dissertation is an analysis, assuming the framework of Government and Binding Theory, of the syntactic derivation of comparative correlative constructions (hereafter CCs for short) in Mandarin Chinese. It attempts to evaluate the theoretical adequacy of extant treatments of CCs and propose an alternative analysis to the prevailing adjunct approach.

CC constructions exist crosslinguistically. An English example is The more chocolate I eat, the happier I feel. In Chinese, a simplex CC sentence consists of two non-coordinated clauses; the lexical word yue, which indicates degree, is obligatory in both clauses, as illustrated in (1): (1) tianqi yue1 re, dian-fei yue 2 gao. weather [ YUE1 hot], electricity-fee [YUE 2 high] 'The hotter the weather is, the higher the electricity fee is.'

Unlike the English comparative phrase, which has been shown to undergo A-bar movement in earlier studies, the yue-constituent remains in situ. I argue that yue is generated in [Spec, DegP] and behaves as an indefinite in-situ degree element on a par with an in-situ wh-element (Li 1992; Tsai 1994; Cheng and Rooryck 2000; Cheng 2003a, 2003b). The yue-variable in each clause is unselectively bound (Lewis 1975, Heim 1982, Cheng and Huang 1996) by an implicit CORRELATIVITY OPERATOR and does not undergo A-bar movement.

In addition to the idiosyncratic in-situ yue-phrase, another property of CCs is the syntactic interdependency between the constitutive clauses. Earlier studies (Dikken 2005, Taylor 2006, 2009, Tsao and Hsiao 2002) treat the preceding clause as an adjunct. However, an adjunct approach cannot account for the property of syntactic interdependency. As an alternative, I assume Rizzi's (1997) work on the Split CP Hypothesis, arguing that Chinese CCs implicate the information structure in the left periphery and that they are a type of Focus construction. A Chinese CC sentence like (1) is projected by a null functional head Foc0. The first clause is focused and base-generated in [Spec, FocP] and the second clause is the complement of the null Foc0. The [+focus] feature in Foc 0 licenses the co-occurrence of yue1 and yue2. This alternative analysis can capture not only crosslinguistic commonalities but also the language-internal property of topic-prominence in Chinese.

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Rodriguez, Gabriel R. "The Enregisterment of Dialects in Japanese YouTube Comments| A Comparative Analysis." Thesis, Georgetown University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10788816.

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This study contextualizes the explosive valorization and commodification of dialect in Japan since the 1980s, known as the “dialect boom”, in terms of Japanese social and economic issues and the growing public interest in diversity within Japan. While the dialect boom has been widely studied in sociolinguistics, little work has related it to the growing valorization of diversity, and most recent work has focused primarily on the Kansai dialect. To these ends, I analyze the enregisterment of six Japanese dialects, those of Osaka, Hakata, Nagoya, Aomori, Okinawa, and K?sh?. I analyze a corpus of YouTube comments responding to videos of dialect usage, using stance (DuBois 2007) to break down the social acts that produce enregisterment (Agha 2003). I draw on the theories of indexicality (Johnstone and Kiesling 2008, Eckert 2008) and the discourse analytic concept of dialect performance (Schilling-Estes 1998, Coupland 2007) as guides to interpreting the micro-social interactions I observe, connecting them to a macro-social context through the theories of Standard Language Ideology (Lippi-Green 1997), identity construction (Bucholtz & Hall 2005), and folklorization (Fishman 1987).

I examine evaluations of dialect based on attractiveness, humorousness, intelligibility, folklorization, and country-ness, evaluate their relative prestige by investigating the willingness of speakers to debate dialect performances’ fidelity, and finally examine the political conflicts dialects are implicated in by looking at how they are related to questions of diversity and nationalism. The similarities between evaluations of the dialects of Okinawa and Aomori, particularly in the category of folklorization, suggest that the dialects of Aomori have accrued affective traits of an Indigenous language (such as nostalgia or sentimentality) despite being spoken by members of the ethnic majority. However, the conflicts that arise over the cases of Okinawa and Osaka suggest that the use of dialect as a marker of regional identity is now being integrated into a nationalist Japanese self-image as a country with rich internal diversity. This provides a means by which Japan can engage with the discourses of liberal multiculturalism and diversity without seriously threatening the hegemony of Japanese ethno-nationalism, suggesting a need to reevaluate the past focus on nihonjinron in building critiques of Japanese nationalist ideology.

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Quwaider, Hussain M. "Idiomaticity in Arabic : towards a comparative exploration in English Arabic idiomaticity." Thesis, University of Bath, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.299689.

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Zaixi, Tan. "A comparative study of the Chinese and Western traditions of translation." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264610.

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Alsulami, Abeer S. "Comparative constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) : an HPSG approach." Thesis, University of Essex, 2018. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/22326/.

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The aim of this thesis is to provide a description of comparative constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth MSA) and develop an analysis for some of the facts framed within Head - driven Phrase Structure Grammar (henceforth, HPSG). To the best of my knowledge, MSA comparative constructions have not been addressed before but present an interesting challenge for Arabic and general linguistics. MSA has simple and complex comparatives, which look rather like their counterparts in many other languages. Simple comparatives are indeed like those of other languages, in that it involves adjectives with a distinctive form and semantics and an extra PP complement. Complex comparatives, however, are quite different. They involve an adjective with a nominal complement, which may be an adjectival maṣdar (known in English as adjectival noun) or an ordinary noun, and are rather like so-called 'adjectival constructs'. Complex comparatives in English and many other languages might be analysed as involving periphrasis, where a slot in a paradigm is filled not by a single word but by a pair of words. My analysis, however, argues that MSA complex comparative construction is not a case of periphrasis. Instead, it is an independent construction that expresses the meaning that would otherwise be expressed by certain missing forms. Simple comparatives, complex comparatives, and adjectival constructs can all be analysed with lexical rules within HPSG. With a 'real' nominal comparative that quantifies a noun, the thesis shows that in MSA kutubun ʔakṯar 'more books' and kutubun ʔaḥsan 'better books' are syntactically essentially the same in which we have nouns with an attributive adjective. The thesis also shows that MSA has both ordinary clausal comparatives and phrasal comparatives. The former is introduced only by maa and involves adjectival and nominal gaps and adverbial gaps in subcomparative cases and the latter is introduced by free relatives maa , man and allḏai and have either nominal gaps or resumptives. It was also shown that maa comparatives with nominal gaps are ambiguous and can be either a clausal or a phrasal complement.
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Mtenje, Atikonda. "A comparative analysis of the phonology and morpho-syntax of Cisukwa, Cindali and Cilambya." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22877.

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This PhD thesis describes and compares the grammars of Cisukwa, Cindali and Cilambya (SuNdaLa) - three closely related varieties spoken in the northern region of Malawi. The analysis of the language data collected in this research project focuses on the phonological and morpho-syntactic systems of the SuNdaLa varieties by examining variation among them and by identifying the shared linguistic features. Within this research project, the linguistic distance among the three varieties has been analysed and suggestions have been made as to whether the SuNdaLa varieties should be considered as being three dialects of one language or as constituting three distinct languages. The study also places the SuNdaLa cluster into a wider context of the Bantu languages spoken in the region and more generally. Quantitative and qualitative language data was collected in the field from "native" speakers of all three varieties. The SuNdaLa survey included the collection of a comparative word list by using a questionnaire that was designed based on existing wordlists, such as „Swadesh 100 word list‟ (Swadesh 1955) as well as the SIL Comparative African Wordlist (Snider and Roberts 2006). Language data on the morpho-sytax and phonology was collected in elicitation sessions as well as by recording natural conversations among the key language consultants as well as their conversations with other community members.
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Siddiki, Asma Azam. "Developmental and behavioural studies in English and Arabic inflectional morphology." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269485.

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Loffredo, Eugenia. "The translator's voyage into madness : an experimental translation of Jeanne Hyvrad's Mère la mort." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268578.

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32

Schwarz, Anne. "QUIS data from Buli, Kɔnni and Baatɔnum with notes on the comparative approach." Universität Potsdam, 2011. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2011/5141/.

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Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Selection of QUIS Data for Comparative Goals 2.1 Fairy Tale (Topic and Focus in Coherent Discourse) 2.2 Focus Translation Extract 3. On the Presentation and Comparison of the Data 4. Buli 4.1 Tomatoes Fairy Tale in Buli 4.2 Focus Translation Extract in Buli 5. Kɔnni 5.1 Tomatoes Fairy Tale in Kɔnni 5.2 Focus Translation Extract 6. Baatɔnum 6.1 Tomatoes Fairy Tale in Baatɔnum 6.2 Focus Translation Extract in Baatɔnum
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Collins, Clifford John. "Homonymous verbs in biblical Hebrew : an investigation of the role of comparative philology." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.328118.

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Venetz, Jacqueline. "Lexico-Semantic Areality in the Greater Hindu Kush : An Areal-Typological Study on Numerals and Kinship Terms." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-170385.

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The Greater Hindu Kush designates a mountainous area extending from Afghanistan over Pakistan, Tajikistan and India to the westernmost parts of China. It is home to over 50 lan- guages from six different phyla; Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Nuristani, Turkic, Tibeto-Burman and the language isolate Burushaski. Due to its unique geographical setting, it is characterised by language contact and isolation, which lays the perfect ground for research on linguistic diversity, language convergence and genealogical relations. The present study relies on data from the entire region and attempts to identify structural similarities based on lexical items from core vocabulary, numerals and kinship terms. The study reexamines the genealogical affiliation through lexical similarity and investigates areal patterns of vergence, i.e. the branching out or mergence of these patterns. Results reconfirm the established classification of the languages and indicate a certain level of structural simi- larity across language families for some features such as numeral bases, numeral composition and the terms for ‘parents’ and ‘parents-in-law’, yet it also shows great diversity for other features such as ‘grandchildren’ and one’s siblings’ partner.
Language contact and relatedness in the Hindukush region (421-2014-631)
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MATUS, LAUREN A. "SCOTS GAELIC AND WELSH: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY IN LANGUAGE SURVIVAL." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1132347017.

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Al-Ageli, Hussein M. "Syllabic and metrical structure in Tripolitanian Arabic : a comparative study in standard and optimality theory." Thesis, University of Essex, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.294669.

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Reiter, Rosina Marquez. "'Polite' and 'impolite' requests and apologies in British English and Uruguayan Spanish : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1999. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14780/.

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The research hereby presented provides an analysis and interpretation of the realisation patterns of requests and apologies by female and male native speakers of British English and Uruguayan Spanish. The speech acts in question have been analysed following Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) 'negative' and 'positive' politeness distinction. The data for the study were collected in Uruguay and England by means of a non-prescriptive open role-play designed for the present study and performed by university students in both countries. The results obtained show that the performance of the above speech acts is motivated by the same social variables in Uruguayan Spanish and British English. The level of (in)directness in requests correlates negatively with the social distance between the interlocutors. In other words, the smaller the social distance between the participants the more direct the request will be. The performance of apologies, on the other hand, is motivated by an interaction between the severity of the offence and social power in that the less social power a speaker has in relation to his/her addressee and the more severe the offence, the more likely s/he is to apologise. The results also show that higher levels of indirectness together with heavily modified requests are appropriate in British English but not in Uruguayan Spanish where a preference for less tentative requests is expected. In terms of the apologies, this study shows the British employing a much higher number of intensified as well as non-intensified apologies than the Uruguayans. With respect to the distinction between 'positive' and 'negative' politeness this study shows that both forms of politeness interpreted as the want for association and dissociation respectively, are present in both British and Uruguayan culture with the British showing a tendency to pursue 'negative' politeness more than the Uruguayans. This pattern was also found to be present in the linguistic behaviour British and Uruguayan females when compared to their male counterparts.
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Hasan, Ali S. "Variation in spoken discourse in and beyond the english foreign language classroom : a comparative study." Thesis, Aston University, 1988. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/14816/.

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This study is concerned with one of the most interesting and the least well-researched areas in contemporary research on classroom interaction: that of the discourse variability exhibited by participants. It investigates the way in which the language of native speakers (NSs) as well as that of non-native speakers (NNSs) may vary according to the circumstances under which it is produced. The study, therefore, attempts to characterise the performance of both NSs and NNSs (with particular emphasis placed on the latter) in various types of interaction in and beyond the EFL classroom. These are: Formal Interview (FI), Formal Classroom Interaction (FCI), Informal Classroom Interaction (ICI), Informal Classroom Discussion (ICD), and Informal Conversation (IC). The corpus of the study consisted of four NSs and fifteen NNSs. Both a video and a tape recording was made for each type of interaction, with the exception of the IC which was only audio-recorded so as not to inhibit the natural use of language. Each lasted for 35 minutes. The findings of the study mark clearly the distinction between the `artificiality' of classroom interaction and the `naturalness' or `authenticity' of non-classroom discourse. Amongst the most interesting findings are the following: Unlike both FCI and ICI, in the FI, ICD, and IC, the language of NNSs was characterised by: greater quantity of oral output, a wider range of errors, the use of natural discourse strategies such as holding the floor and self-correction, and a greater number of initiations in both ICD and IC. It is suggested that if `natural' or `authentic' discourse is to be promoted, the incorporation of FI, ICD, and IC into the EFL classroom activities is much needed. The study differs from most studies on classroom interaction in that it attempts to relate work in the EFL classroom to the `real' world as its prime objective.
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Kabinga, Moonde. "A comparative study of the Morphosyntaz and Phonetics of Town Bemba and Standard Bemba of the Copperbelt Zambia." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3612.

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For many years now, the status of Town Bemba (TB) has been fuzzy in its descriptions, as no specific framework has been used in characterising the language variety. TB has been regarded as an urban variety spoken in the townships of the Copperbelt province, Zambia. It had also been perceived as a 'secret language' or 'mixed jargon' used by male migrant workers on the mine, but today, it is used by males and females across the board, and also tends to be used as first language (L1) for offspring raised there. This research attempts to investigate the status of TB. It will also make observations of any significant differences between TB and Standard Bemba (SB) through linguistic markers and style of speech by the informants. The comparative analysis will help in assessing the extent to which TB has deviated from SB. The data for morphosyntax, socio-phonetic and lexical analyses was collected through one-on-one interviews and two TB music lyrics. Twenty speakers of TB and SB were interviewed in this research. For data analysis three theoretical frameworks were used namely; Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language Frame Model (MLF) for the morphosyntax data; socio-phonetics using Praat and Normalisation of vowels for phonetic data; and a linguistic characterisation of language varieties were used to characterise TB and establish its status. The results show that TB is quite similar to the base language SB and exemplifies general characteristics that are more similar to Tsotsitaal. The difference is that the former (TB) uses one base language (SB) with heavy borrowing and assimilations from English mainly and a bit from local languages like Nyanja, and Afrikaans; the variety is used by people of different ethnic backgrounds, its commonly used in everyday life among educated and non-educated male and female speakers. TB also has been able to preserve many forms associated with more traditional Bemba and at the same time shows changes in some of its lexical and grammatical forms, mainly simplification. Tsotsitaal in comparison is associated with many base languages but behaves similarly to TB in other ways. In this regard, I suggest that TB be referred to as another type of an urban variety that is moving towards being a new language because it is more than a 'style' (Hurst 2008) like Tsotsitaal.
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Huang, MeiYen. "A comparative study of editorials in Chinese and English." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2006. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3054.

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The study reveals national cultures may influence the use of politeness strategies and organizational patterns in editorials written in the two languages, English and Chinese. Due to a newspaper's political orientation and its regional and national background, the rhetorical form of linguistic features in editorials might vary among cultures.
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Fernández, Fuertes Raquel. "A comparative analysis of verb-movement effects in English and Spanish: Pollock and the Minimalist approach." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/10128.

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Recent developments in linguistic theory carried out within the Principles and Paramater Model and the Minimalist Program provide an excellent framework for the comparison of languages. In this thesis we use said framework to analyze the Verb-movement phenomena of English and Spanish. We specifically concentrate on the Null Subject parameter and the Verb-movement parameter in order to provide a comparative account of word order differences and similarities between English, Spanish and French. We show that the $\lbrack+/-$ strong) agreement differences are responsible for: (1) the relationship between auxiliary verbs and participles in compound verbal constructions; (2) the placement of adverbs in these constructions, and (3) the movement relationships established in existential constructions and other constructions with auxiliaries.
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Smith, Benjamin C. "Compounding and Incorporation in the Ket Language: Implications for a More Unified Theory of Compounding." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/1.

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Compounding in the world’s languages is a complex word-­‐formation process that is not easily accounted for. Moreover, incorporation is equally complex and problematic. This examination of compounding and incorporation in the Ket language seeks to identify the underlying logic of these processes and to work towards a typology that captures generalizations among the numerous ways in which languages expand their lexicons through these processes. Canonical Typology provides a framework that does just this. A preliminary canonical typology of compounds is proposed here, one that subsumes a range of compounds as well as incorporation. For this reason, the Ket language, which relies heavily on compounding and incorporation, will be used as a test case. The aim is to define the canonical com
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Silvestri, Sara. "A Comparative Analysis of Donald Trump's and Hillary Clinton's Political Discourse." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/16545/.

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In this dissertation, I carry out an analysis of Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's political discourse in the 2016 US presidential campaign, in order to identify non-obvious meanings and patterns in their distinctive use of language. This comparison is carried out using a corpus-assisted approach, taking advantage of tools developed within corpus linguistics, such as the corpus query tool 'AntConc'. Based on the comparison of lists of keywords for both corpora, the analysis highlights aspects of their political rhetoric that would not be noticeable by simply reading the transcripts.
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Lindmark, Carolina. "Nouns on fire in Mainland Scandinavian : A lexico-typological study of selected nouns referring to FIRE in Danish, Norwegian (Bokmål) and Swedish." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-148449.

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The current study investigates the use of a selected group of nouns in the domain of FIRE in written Mainland Scandinavian languages, i.e. Danish, Norwegian (bokmål) and Swedish. The main goal is to capture the semantic features of the nouns by examining typical situations where they occur, following the frame-method for lexical studies by Rakhilina & Reznikova (2016). The nouns are examined in terms of their combinatorial patterning in compounds with other nouns, in trigrams and in figurative use. The synchronic data is drawn from corpora, lexica and first speaker intuition. Four parameters are formulated, which seem to play a role in the lexical use among the fire words, in the three languages. The nouns are structured according to the parameters and each lexeme displays combinatorial pattern revealing semantic restrictions. The selected ‘fire nouns’ are fairly similar, but differ in terms of semantic load most prominently among the lexemes that refer to controllable fires. The lexemes relevant for the parameter of ‘subcomponents of fire processes’ display an asymmetry, which needs to be studied further. The scope of the current study also includes two lexemes in Swedish that semantically have not been possible to disentangle. On the whole, at least the controllability of the fire is lexically encoded, possibly because that property is crucial for survival.
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45

Cowles, Heidi Wind. "Processing information structure : evidence from comprehension and production /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3100373.

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46

Bhatti, Joanna. "The communication of emotions in England and Poland : compliments and refusals." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/575283.

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Previous research has shown some significant differences in the way speech acts are made and responded to in different cultures and languages. This study investigates two speech acts in particular, compliments and refusals, in two specific cultures, England and Poland. The project investigates the role of emotions in communication and social interaction with reference to these speech acts, which are particularly interesting due to their opposite emotional valence: compliments are perceived as positive and refusals are negative. English and Polish compliments and refusals are investigated as the two cultures are often perceived as proximate, which suggests that the observed differences will be particularly interesting as they have the potential to shed light on important and yet intractable distinguishing features of the two cultures. The research has two lines of investigation: theoretical and empirical. The theoretical aspect of research aims to bring together insights on the role of emotions in communication and a cognitive perspective on communication to explain the functions of compliments and refusals in social interaction and the relation between the cognitive and affective aspects of the production and reception of these speech acts. The empirical part of the research is based on an original study that presents new insights into complimenting and refusing behaviour in English and Polish culture. The comparison of English and Polish findings reveals many similarities in complimenting behaviour and some striking differences in refusing behaviour (most notably, Polish speakers tend to be less congruent than English speakers when making refusals and their refusals tend to be more detailed and more elaborate). The pragmatic analysis of the data has some interesting implications for the classification of compliment responses, suggesting that the classification should be based on appreciation, rather than on acceptance or rejection.
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47

Young, A. S. "Motivational state and process within the sociolinguistic context : an Anglo-French comparative study of school pupils learning foreign languages." Thesis, Aston University, 1994. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/14859/.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the socio-cultural environment upon the motivation school children have to learn foreign languages. Motivation was therefore considered from a sociolinguistic, rather than from a psycholinguistic perspective, giving primary importance to contextual, as opposed to personal factors. In order to examine the degree of relationship between motivational intensity and the contextual factors of parental attitudes, amount of foreign language exposure and the employment related value of foreign language learning (FLL), data obtained from school children living in two distinct sociolinguistic environments (Mulhouse, France and Walsall, England) were compared and contrasted. A structured sample drawn from pupils attending schools in Mulhouse and Walsall supplied the data base for this research. The main thrust of the study was quantitative in approach, involving the distribution of almost 1000 questionnaires to pupils in both towns. This was followed up by the use of qualitative methods, in the form of in-depth interviews with an individually matched sample of over 50 French/English pupils. The findings of the study indicate that FLL orientations, attitudes and motivation vary considerably between the two sociolinguistic environments. Levels of motivation were generally higher in the French sample than in the English one. Desire to learn foreign languages and a commitment to expend effort in order to fulfil this desire were key components of this motivation. The study also found evidence to suggest that the importance accorded to FLL by the socio-cultural context, communicated to the child through the socialisation agents of the family, the mass media and prospective employers, is of key importance in FLL motivation.
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48

Urakami, Junnosuke. "Some problems in the phonology of Old Japanese reconsidered in the light of comparative evidence from the Amami dialects." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1989. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29487/.

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This thesis focuses on the most controversial phonological problem in Old Japanese, the phonetic and phonological status of two types of syllables, found in written texts, known as the 'A/B-type' contrast. Previous approaches have centred around the phonetic evaluation of Middle Chinese characters, and examination of Pre-Old Japanese diphthongal sources reconstructed through the morpho-phonemic analysis of Old Japanese. All of these approaches have various limitations, since Old Japanese does not provide sufficient evidence to support the results thus gained. Recently attempts have been made to apply study of the Ryukyu dialects to the problem. In particular linguists have claimed that the Modern Amami dialects reflect the A/B-type distinction. The importance here lies in the fact that study within this field can provide firm empirical evidence. The present thesis, therefore, aims at shedding light on the A/B-type distinction by a study of the Modern Amami dialects, specifically by the reconstruction of the phonemes of Proto-Amami. Chapter One is an introduction, containing the argument in favour of undertaking this line of research, with details of the survey and informant information. Chapter Two contains a review of the Old Japanese A/B distinction, plus a survey of previous works in the field by Hashimoto, Arisaka, Lange, Unger, Ono, Matsumoto, Mori, etc. Problems to be dealt with in the present work are isolated. Chapter Three discusses the Ryukyu dialects, and focuses in on the importance of the Amami dialects. It concludes with a synchronic overview of the Amami dialects. Chapter Four contains the reconstruction of Proto-Amami phonemes, a synchronic description of Proto-Amami and sound changes. Chapter Five offers a sub-grouping of the Modern Amami dialects, with a tree diagram and isoglosses. Chapter Six contains a comparison of the Old Japanese A/B contrast with PA. Chapter Seven compares the results obtained for PA from Chapter Six with the work of past researchers, specifically Shibata. Chapter Eight is a summary of this work, plus suggestions for further work on Proto-Amami.
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49

Silva, Sofia Oliveira Pereira dos Anjos Coimbra da. "Considerações sobre a posição dos verbos na língua brasileira de sinais: uma análise descritiva a partir de diálogos entre surdos." Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2015. http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/8558.

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This study presents a descriptive analysis of Libras about the position of verbs in the turns of a dialogue between deaf people. For this, we resorted to the descriptive analysis, recognizing the dialogical interaction as a textual instrument, and to the semantic-syntactic theoretical base to analyse the documented data, which allowed us to observe the relations between elements that predicate and the position of verbal predication in the analyzed turns. Our analysis favors the typological-functional view, once our hypothesis is that the position of verbs is preferred in certain texts for inherent pragmatic factors and not derived from an underlying basic order.Thus, we use the theoretical bases of prototypicality in the simple sentence composition and in the verb semantics suggested by Givón (2001), in order to analyze the documented data. In the dialogue the verbs present an ending position when the turns contain predications, when relating elements, that represent changing of location and aspectual and descriptive information of the entities. The verbs present a medial and initial position when such predications have the articulated base anchored to the body. Therefore, the position of the verb will follow accordingly the compositional mode of the predicate inserted in the turn. The position of the verbs in Libras is a consequence of the pragmatic influence upon the semantic and syntactic structure of the units presented in turns in the analyzed dialogue.
Este estudo apresenta uma pesquisa de análise descritiva da Libras acerca da posição dos verbos nos turnos de um diálogo entre surdos. Para isso, recorremos à análise descritiva, reconhecendo a interação dialogada como instrumento textual, e à base teórica semântico-sintática para analisar os dados documentados, que permitiu observar as relações entre elementos que predicam e a posição da predicação verbal nos turnos analisados. Nossa análise privilegia a visão tipológico-funcional, uma vez que nossa hipótese é de que a posição dos verbos é preferida em determinados textos por fatores pragmáticos inerentes e não derivada de uma ordem básica subjacente. Para tanto, nos valemos das bases teóricas de prototipicidade na composição sentencial simples e na semântica dos verbos sugerida por Givón (2001), a fim de analisar os dados documentados. No diálogo, os verbos apresentam posição final quando os turnos contêm predicações que, ao relacionar elementos, representam mudança de localização e informações aspectuais e descritivas das entidades. Os verbos apresentam posição medial e inicial quando tais predicações têm base articulatória ancorada ao corpo. Sendo assim, a posição do verbo seguirá o modo composicional do predicado inserido no turno. A posição dos verbos na Libras é uma consequência da influência pragmática sobre a estrutura semântica e sintática das unidades apresentadas por turnos no diálogo analisado.
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50

Ndlovu, Sambulo. "A comparative analysis of metaphorical expressions used by rural and urban Ndebele speakers: the contribution of S'ncamtho." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29515.

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This thesis explores language expansion and change through metaphorical expressions that originate with urban youth varieties. It focuses on the impact of S'ncamtho, an Ndebele-based urban youth variety of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe along the variables of rural/urban, sex, age and level of education. The thesis uses Cognitive Metaphor Theory to build on research on metaphor in urban youth varieties to answer the overarching question; how is S'ncamtho impacting Ndebele? It confirms that sex and sexuality, music and partying, love and relationships are popular themes in S'ncamtho. The thesis identifies relexicalisation and replacement of metaphoric vehicles as the main metaphor derivational strategies in S'ncamtho and confirms the existence of clearly discernible genres of metaphor in S'ncamtho which are proverbs, sayings, aphorisms and euphemistic metaphors. While S'ncamtho and other youth varieties in Africa have been identified as urban varieties, the study brings in the dimension of measuring the spread of S'ncamtho to peri-urban and rural areas. Data from questionnaire tests, interviews and observations is analysed using the Idiom Familiarity and Comprehension Judgement Method to measure the impact and spread of S'ncamtho metaphors. The guiding theory in evaluating the spread of S'ncamtho metaphors is a Social Psychology framework- Social Impact Theory (SIT). The thesis argues that S'ncamtho metaphors spread outside Bulawayo’s high density male youth to female and older Ndebele speakers in and outside the city, it identifies male youth in the age cohort 15- 35 years as more familiar and using more S'ncamtho metaphors compared to females and older males in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. It also reveals that S'ncamtho metaphor familiarity declines with age and distance from Bulawayo, and that generally females use less S'ncamtho compared to males and the young are more familiar with S'ncamtho compared to adults. The research reveals that there is no significant difference between rural and urban professionals in S'ncamtho metaphor familiarity and this confirms that improved communication networks impact on the spread of S'ncamtho as professional people frequent Bulawayo for pay and other services. However, the study also noted that there are still more people who have negative attitudes towards S'ncamtho, compared to those who view its impact positively. The thesis argues that the popularity of S'ncamtho has seen S'ncamtho metaphors operating in professions including journalism, health professions, teaching and religious professions. Furthermore, attitudes are changing as some people have begun to view S'ncamtho positively outside the criminal prejudices.
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