Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Context (linguistics)'
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Aravind, Athulya Ph D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Presuppositions in context." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120669.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-199).
This dissertation is about the acquisition of presupposition. The specific focus is on the interplay between presuppositional content as hardwired in the semantics of particular expressions and the conversational contexts in which utterances containing those expressions may be used. A series of behavioral experiments examine what children in the preschool age range know about the pragmatic principles governing presupposition, and how they come to acquire this knowledge. The dissertation is organized into two thematic halves. The first half investigates the conditions that govern when presupposing something is appropriate, hence allow for the use of a presupposition triggering expression. Specifically, I ask: do young children know the common ground requirement - the formal requirement that presuppositions be previously established common knowledge - and do they know when and how this requirement can be violated? Two sets of experiments, using two presupposition-carrying expressions with importantly divergent properties (too and the), reveal that children, like adults, generate a default expectation that a presuppositional sentence be uttered to a listener who already takes for granted the presupposition. However, they hold onto this expectation even in circumstances where adult speakers do not. Unlike adults, children do not expect that an otherwise 'neutral' listener might accommodate a speaker's informative presupposition. Together, these findings point to a developmental path where the formal requirement - that presuppositions be presuppositions - is acquired before an understanding that the rule can be bent and how. The second half examines the conditions that make marking of presuppositions obligatory, hence require the use of a presupposition triggering expression. Are children sensitive to Maximize Presupposition! (Heim 1991) as a principle governing competition and utterance choice? The ability to deploy Maximize Presupposition! in an adult-like way shows a more protracted developmental trajectory. Moreover, children's ability to rule out presuppositionally weaker sentences seems to vary across competition environments. Taking the non-uniformity in development as signaling non-uniformity in the underlying phenomena, I develop an alternative account for a pair of expressions commonly thought to compete for Maximize Presupposition!: another vs. a. Ultimately, I suggest that Maximize Presupposition! is one of several pragmatic principles that lead to competition and selection of structures imposing the strongest contextual requirement. Children have command of some of these conditions, but not others. The acquisition trajectories are modulated by various factors, including the type of requirement imposed on the context (e.g. that some proposition is salient vs. accepted common belief) and the types of knowledge that are pre-requisites (e.g. knowledge of idiosyncratic properties of the lexicon).
by Athulya Aravind.
Ph. D. in Linguistics
Swanson, Eric (Eric Peter). "Interactions with context." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37356.
Full textThis electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [109]-119).
My dissertation asks how we affect conversational context and how it affects us when we participate in any conversation -- including philosophical conversations. Chapter 1 argues that speakers make pragmatic presuppositions when they use proper names. I appeal to these presuppositions in giving a treatment of Frege's puzzle that is consistent with the claim that coreferential proper names have the same semantic value. I outline an explanation of the way presupposition carrying expressions in general behave in belief ascriptions, and suggest that substitutivity failure is a special case of this behavior. Chapter 2 develops a compositional probabilistic semantics for the language of subjective uncertainty, including epistemic adjectives scoped under quantifiers. I argue that we should distinguish sharply between the effects that epistemically hedged statements have on conversational context, and the effects that they have on belief states. I also suggest that epistemically hedged statements are a kind of doxastic advice, and explain how this hypothesis illuminates some otherwise puzzling phenomena. Chapter 3 argues that ordinary causal talk is deeply sensitive to conversational context. The principle that I formulate to characterize that context sensitivity explains at least some of the oddness of 'systematic causal overdetermination,' and explains why some putative overgenerated causes are never felicitously counted, in conversation, as causes. But the principle also makes metaphysical theorizing about causation rather indirectly constrained by ordinary language judgments.
by Eric Swanson.
Ph.D.
Everdell, Michael Sklar. "Reconsidering the Puebloan Languages in a Southwestern Areal Context." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1368021379.
Full textLin, Tzu-Chun. "Communicative patterns in the discussion meetings of a Buddhist society." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2011. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=186212.
Full textNg, E.-Ching. "The Phonology of Contact| Creole sound change in context." Thesis, Yale University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3663654.
Full textThis dissertation identifies three previously unexplained typological asymmetries between creoles, other types of language contact, and `normal' sound change. (1) The merger gap deals with phoneme loss. French /y/ merges with /i/ in all creoles worldwide, whereas merger with /u/ is also well-attested in other forms of language contact. The rarity of /u/ reflexes in French creoles is unexplained, especially because they are well attested in French varieties spoken in West Africa. (2) The assimilation gap focuses on stress-conditioned vowel assimilation. In creoles the quality of the stressed vowel often spreads to unstressed vowels, e.g. English potato > Krio /&rgr;ϵ&rgr;&tgr;ϵ&tgr;ϵ/. Strikingly, we do not find the opposite in creoles, but it is well attested among non-creoles, e.g. German umlaut and Romance metaphony. (3) The epenthesis gap is about repairs of word-final consonants.These are often preserved in language contact by means of vowel insertion (epenthesis), e.g. English big > Sranan bigi, but in normal language transmission this sound change is said not to occur in word-final position.
These case studies make it possible to test various theories of sound change on new data, by relating language contact outcomes to the phonetics of non-native perception and L2 speech production. I also explore the implications of social interactions and historical developments unique to creolisation, with comparisons to other language contact situations.
Based on the typological gaps identified here, I propose that sociohistorical context, e.g. age of learner or nature of input, is critical in determining linguistic outcomes. Like phonetic variation, it can be biased in ways which produce asymmetries in sound change. Specifically, in language contact dominated by adult second language acquisition, we find transmission biases towards phonological rather than perceptual matching, overcompensation for perceptual weakness, and overgeneralisation of phrase-final prominence.
Pate, John Kenton. "Parsing with Local Context." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243880542.
Full textAycard, Pierre Benjamin Jacques. "The use of Iscamtho by children in white city-Jabavu, Soweto: slang and language contact in an African urban context." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12813.
Full textThe work presented in this thesis relies on language recordings gathered during thirty months of fieldwork in White City-Jabavu, Soweto. The data was collected from children between the ages of two and nine, following anthropological participant observation, and through the use of an audio recorder. Strong attention was given to the sociolinguistics and structure of the language collected. This thesis is interested in issues of slang use among children and language contact, as part of the larger field of tsotsitaal studies. It is interested in: sociolinguistic issues of registers, slang, and style; and linguistic issues regarding the structural output of language contact. The main questions answered in the thesis concern whether children in White City use the local tsotsitaal, known as Iscamtho; and what particular kind of mixed variety supports their use of Iscamtho. Particularly, I focus on the prediction of the Matrix Language Frame model (Myers-Scotton 2002) regarding universal constraints on the output of language contact. This model was used previously to analyse Iscamtho use in Soweto. Using methodologies from three different disciplinary fields (anthropology, sociolinguistics, and linguistics) as well as four different analytic perspectives (participatory, statistical, conversational, and structural), I offer a thorough sociolinguistic and linguistic description of the children's language. I demonstrate that the universal constraints previously identified do not apply to a significant part of the children's speech, due to stylistic and multilingual practices in the local linguistic community. I further demonstrate that style, slang, and deliberate variations in language, can produce some unpredictable and yet stable structural output of language contact, which contradicts the main hypotheses of universal natural constraints over this output formulated by the Matrix Language Frame model.
Yanovich, Igor. "Four pieces for modality, context and usage." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/84422.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-269).
The main part of this dissertation consists of four loosely connected chapters on the semantics of modals. The chapters inform each other and employ similar methods, but generally each one is self-contained and can be read in isolation. Chapter 2 introduces new semantics for epistemic modality. I argue that the epistemic modal base consists of the propositions that can be obtained by the interlocutors early enough to affect their resolution of their current practical goal. Integrated into the standard contextualist semantics, the new definition successfully accounts for two sets of data that have been claimed to falsify standard contextualism, namely from disagreement dialogues and complements of attitude verbs. Chapter 3 traces the historical rise of the may-under-hope construction, as in I hope we may succeed. In that construction, the modal does not contribute its normal existential modal force. It turns out that despite the construction's archaic flavor in Present-Day English, it is a very recent innovation that arose not earlier than the 16th century. I put forward a hypothesis that the may-under-hope construction arose as the replacement of an earlier construction where the inflectional subjunctive under verbs of hoping was used to mark a specific type of formal hopes about good health. Chapter 4 proposes that O(ld) E(nglish) *motan, the ancestor of Modern English must, was a variable-force modal somewhat similar to the variable-force modals of the American Pacific Northwest. I argue that in Alfredian OE, motan(p) presupposed that if p gets a chance to actualize, it will. I also argue that several centuries later, in the 'AB' dialect, Early Middle English *moten is was genuinely ambiguous between possibility and necessity. Thus a new trajectory of semantic change is discovered: variable force, to ambiguity between possibility and necessity, to regular necessity. Chapter 5 argues that, first, restrictions on the relative scope of deontics and clausemate negation can hardly be all captured within the syntactic component, and second, that capturing some of them can be due to semantic filters on representations. I support the second claim by showing how such semantic filters on scope may arise historically, using Russian stoit 'should' and English have to as examples.
by Igor Yanovich.
Ph.D.in Linguistics
Thomas, Andrew Lambert. "The grammar and pragmatics of context-dependence in discourse." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.281423.
Full textBrillman, Ruth. "Tough constructions in the context of English infinitives." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113784.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-237).
The dissertation was inspired by the question of why subjects cannot undergo tough movement (1). (1) a. Jonathan Franzen is easy for Anneke to criticize b. *Anneke is easy - to criticize Jonathan Franzen. To answer this question, this dissertation proposes that a spec-to-spec anti-locality constraint (in the spirit of Erlewine 2016 and Brillman & Hirsh to appear) limits subject tough movement because the subject tough movement chain is "too short." Brillman & Hirsh's spec-to-spec anti-locality constraint is given in (2). Spec-to-spec anti-locality bans subject tough movement because subject tough movement would need to involve A movement from the embedded spec-TP to the immediately adjacent spec-CP. This movement chain is banned by spec-to-spec anti-locality. (2) Spec-to-Spec Anti-Locality A-movement of a phrase from the specifier of XP must cross a specifier projected by a maximal projection other than XP. Movement from position a to 3 crosses y if and only if y dominates a but does not dominate 3 A spec-to-spec anti-locality analysis of the ban on subject tough movement also provides an explanation for why gapped degree phrases, a syntactic structure that shows many parallels to tough constructions (Lasnik & Fiengo 1974) can license subject movement (3). This dissertation will show that, compared to tough constructions, gapped degree phrases have a structurally "larger" embedded clause, with a DegP layer dominating the CP layer. This DegP layer contains a syntactically and semantically active (but optionally silent) evaluator argument in it's specifier; this argument situates the threshold of the degree predicate, allowing the degree word to be compared to a pre-determined standard. Subject movement within a gapped degree phrase would involve A-movement from spec-TP to spec-DegP, across CP and the evaluator argument in spec-DegP. This movement chain is not banned by spec-to-spec anti-locality. (3) a. Jonathan Franzen is banal [OP EVAL enough for Anneke to criticize -] b. Anneke is intelligent [OP EVAL enough - to criticize Jonathan Franzen] This dissertation will argue that spec-to-spec anti-locality can explain much more than the contrast between how tough constructions and gapped degree phrases treat subject extraction. Particularly, it will propose that anti-locality can explain a wide range of subject/non-subject asymmetries, both within English and cross-linguistically. These include complementizer trace effects, do-support asymmetries in English subject wh-questions, as well as specific subject/non-subject A alternations in Imbabura Quechua, Hebrew and Berber. Finally, this dissertation is also interested in the related question of whether or not tough construction subject/non-subject asymmetries are represented identically across both the adult and child grammars. To that end, this dissertation presents the results of a novel acquisition experiment which shows that children do not represent tough construction extraction asymmetries the same way that adults do. Specifically, these results show that-while adults find subject tough constructions ungrammatical and object tough construction grammatical-children find both subject and object tough constructions ungrammatical. Interestingly, this experiment also shows that children do not have an adult-like representation of argument extraction asymmetries in raising constructions. While the adult grammar only allows for subjects to raise, the child grammar allows both subjects and object to raise. This dissertation will discuss what these results mean, both in terms of how these results relate to previous work on the acquisition of tough and raising and in terms of what these results can tell us about the syntax of tough movement.
by Ruth Brillman.
Ph. D. in Linguistics
Terrasa, Helena Aparicio. "Processing Context-Sensitive Expressions| The Case of Gradable Adjectives and Numerals." Thesis, The University of Chicago, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10640835.
Full textThis dissertation investigates the processing of two types of meaning and context interactions, vagueness and imprecision, through the case study of gradable adjectives and round numerals. The first half of the dissertation, asks the question of whether vagueness and imprecision should be collapsed into one single category, or whether they should be treated as fundamentally different types of meaning and context interactions. I investigate this question through two experiments (a Visual World eye-tracking study and a judgment task study) that focus on the processing of Relative and Absolute adjectives. Existing accounts of the relative vs. absolute distinction agree in that the context-sensitivity displayed by Relative adjectives is due to vagueness. More specifically, vagueness results from the fact that these adjectives have highly flexible lexical thresholds, whose value is generally fixed by accessing contextual information. There is however less consensus about whether context-sensitive interpretations of Absolute adjectives result from threshold variability in the sense described above, or from pragmatic reasoning about imprecision. The results reported in the dissertation converge to show that participants recruit and integrate information from the visual context differently during the processing of Relative and Absolute adjectives, suggesting that the context-sensitivity of these two classes of adjectives is indeed of a different nature. I argue that these findings constitute support for theories that claim that Absolute adjectives are not lexically context-sensitive –and therefore have fixed, context-insensitive, adjectival thresholds–, and that variable interpretations of Absolute adjectives involve imprecision.
In the second half of the dissertation, I investigate the processing of imprecision in more detail. It has been claimed that comprehenders favor imprecise interpretations over precise ones whenever possible. One of the explanations that has been put forth to explain this alleged preference is that imprecise representations might be less costly to process for the comprehender. The few existing studies that have sought to empirically substantiate this claim focus on the numeral domain, and use the round vs. non-round distinction (i.e. 100 vs. 101) as a proxy for imprecise vs. precise interpretations of the numerals. The logic behind this choice is that non-round numbers usually give rise to precise interpretations, while round numbers (by assumption) tend to be interpreted imprecisely. I argue that approaching this question from this perspective introduces the confound that non-round numerals might be independently difficult to process for reasons that are orthogonal to (im)precision calculation. I suggest that the relevant comparison should therefore be between precise and imprecise interpretations of round numbers. With these goals in mind, I conducted a series of three self-paced reading studies, where I tested (im)precise interpretations of the same round numbers. Contra previous claims, the results show that imprecise interpretations are not faster to process than their precise counterparts, but rather the opposite: imprecise interpretations incur a processing penalty compared to precise interpretations, independently of whether (im)precision is signaled explicitly by means of a slack regulator (e.g. about or exactly), or through pragmatic cues (e.g. reasoning about conversational goals).
Almajdoa, Mahdi A. "Processing polysemes and homonyms in context by L2 learners of English." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10137436.
Full textThe current study set out to explore the nature of online lexical access to polysemes and homonyms within L2 learners of English. Two separate experiments were conducted on 30 ESL learners and 30 native speakers of English (as a control group) using the self-paced reading method (SPR) with a view to exploring whether L2 learners of English access the meanings of the lexically-ambiguous words selectively (i.e., only the meaning primed by the preceding contextual information is accessed), exhaustively (i.e., several meanings are accessed concurrently), or in a frequency-ordered way (i.e., the most frequent meaning is accessed prior to the less frequent meanings) during sentence processing. Experiment 1 examined the effect of the lexical ambiguity type on lexical access using three categories of words: 10 polysemes, 10 homonyms, and 10 single-meaning words. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of meaning dominance on lexical processing using 20 polarized ambiguous words with dominant and subordinate meanings to find out whether the frequency of meaning affects the latency of lexical access. The results from the two experiments showed that neither lexical ambiguity type nor meaning dominance significantly affected the processing latencies of the non-native speakers (NNSs) and native speakers (NSs) in context. The results suggest that the nature of lexical access to the meanings of the lexically ambiguous words in L2 learners is selective as long as the word is presented in a sentential context.
Wieland, Nellie Claire. "Scribbledehobble a dissertation on linguistic agency /." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2007. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3259063.
Full textTitle from first page of PDF file (viewed June 21, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-213).
Walichinski, Danieli. "Contextualização no ensino de estatística: uma proposta para os anos finais do ensino fundamental." Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, 2012. http://repositorio.utfpr.edu.br/jspui/handle/1/1252.
Full textO presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar as contribuições que uma sequência de ensino pautada nos pressupostos da contextualização poderá trazer para o ensino e aprendizagem de Estatística nos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental. A revisão de literatura referente ao ensino de Estatística apoia-se em Cazorla (2002), Lopes (2003, 2008, 2010a, 2010b), Silva (2007), Andrade (2008), Cazorla, Kataoka e Silva (2010), Jacobini et al. (2010), Campos, Wodewotzki e Jacobini (2011), dentre outros. Quanto a contextualização, a revisão de literatura apoia-se em Brasil (1998b, 1999), Tufano (2001), Pais (2002, 2010), Ramos (2004), Mello (2005), Sadovsky (2007), Luccas (2011), além de outros. Com a intenção de alcançar o objetivo proposto, foi desenvolvida no ano de 2011 uma pesquisa aplicada, qualitativa com análise interpretativa e, descritiva em uma turma de alunos do 7° ano do Ensino Fundamental de um colégio público estadual do município de Ponta Grossa, Paraná. A revisão de literatura referente às características da pesquisa fundamenta-se em Gil (1991, 2006), Chizzotti (2003, 2008), Silva e Menezes (2005), Moreira e Caleffe (2008), Alves-Mazzotti (2011), Sarmento (2011), Teixeira (2011), dentre outros. Primeiramente foi realizada uma análise do desempenho prévio dos alunos em relação a conteúdos básicos de Estatística, tendo como base um instrumento diagnóstico chamado pré – teste. Depois foi aplicada uma sequência de ensino direcionada a conteúdos básicos de Estatística, por meio da utilização de dados coletados na própria turma, ou seja, por meio da contextualização. Verificou-se durante a aplicação da sequência de ensino, um maior interesse e motivação dos alunos para as aulas, além de um maior envolvimento dos educandos com os conteúdos estudados. Os resultados da análise do desempenho dos alunos após a aplicação da sequência de ensino mostraram que essa contribuiu para que houvesse um ganho significativo quanto à aquisição de conteúdos básicos de Estatística por parte de educandos dos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental. Considera-se que as atividades realizadas com os educandos, contribuíram para o desenvolvimento das competências de raciocínio, pensamento e, letramento estatísticos desses, formando a base necessária para que futuramente esses alunos possam atingir o nível de letramento estatístico que a sociedade contemporânea exige. Como produto final deste trabalho foi elaborado um material didático de apoio ao professor contendo uma sequência de ensino contextualizada sobre conteúdos básicos de Estatística voltada ao Ensino Fundamental, o qual se encontra anexado a esta dissertação.
The present study aimed to examine the contributions that a sequence of teaching based on assumptions of contextualization can bring to the teaching of statistics in the final years of basic school. The literature review concerning the teaching of statistics relies on Cazorla (2002), Lopes (2003, 2008, 2010a, 2010b), Silva (2007), Andrade (2008), Cazorla, Kataoka and Silva (2010), Jacobini et al. (2010), Campos, Wodewotzki and Jacobini (2011), among others. As for context, the literature review supported by Brazil (1998b, 1999), Tufano (2001), Pais (2002, 2010), Ramos (2004), (2005), Sadovsky (2007), Luccas (2011), among others. With the intention of achieving the proposed goal, was developed in the year 2011 a applied research, interpretive analysis and qualitative, descriptive in a batch of students of 7° year of basic school to a State public College of the city of Ponta Grossa, Paraná. The review of literature pertaining to the search features based on Gil (1991, 2006), Chizzotti (2003, 2008), Silva and Menezes (2005), Moreira and Caleffe (2008), Alves-Mazzotti (2011), Sarmento (2011), Teixeira (2011), among others. First was conducted an analysis of previous performance of the students on the basic content of statistics, based on a diagnostic instrument called pre-test. Then it was applied a sequence of teaching directed to basic statistical content, through the use of data collected in their own class, i.e. through contextualization. It emerged during the implementation of education, a greater interest and motivation of students to classes, as well as greater involvement of learners with the contents. The results of the analysis of the performance of the students after teaching sequence showed that this contributed to a significant gain on the acquisition of basic statistical content by students of the final years basic school. It is considered that the activities undertaken with learners, contributed to the development of the skills of reasoning, thinking, and statistical literacy of those forming the necessary basis for that in the future these students can reach the level of statistical literacy that contemporary society requires. As the final product of this work was to elaborate a courseware to support teacher education sequence containing a contextualized on basic statistical content aimed at the basic school, which is attached to this dissertation.
Spadine, Carolyn. "The structure of attitude reports : representing context in grammar." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129119.
Full textCataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-183).
This dissertation argues for a view of grammar that encodes certain facts about the discourse context in the narrow syntax. In particular, the recurring claim that there are clause peripheral elements that correspond to a kind of perspectival center is supported by novel evidence that this perspectival element can be overt in certain languages. This is shown using data from attitude reports in Tigrinya (Semitic, Eritrea), which overtly realizes a perspective holder, as well as a diverse collection of other languages, including Ewe and Malayalam. In analyzing this construction, I propose that the certain complementizers have a secondary use as a marker of reported speech. I unify this use of complementizers with their more common clausal subordination use by adopting the proposal in Kratzer (2006), which argues that the modal quantification component of attitude reports is in the complementizer, rather than the attitude predicate, as is commonly assumed. I also analyze two unique properties of these reportative complementizer constructions, indexical shift and logophoricity. In Tigrinya, indexical shift can be accounted for by allowing these reportative complementizers to quantify over contexts, rather than worlds, and by introducing a contextshifting operator. From a morphosyntactic perspective, I find evidence from indexical shift that person features must be assigned throughout the course of the derivation, rather than at the point of lexical insertion. I also find that these constructions create contexts for matrix clause indexical shift in Tigrinya, something that has not previously been observed. Evidence from Ewe and other languages suggests a correlation between logophoric domains and the presence of a complementizer with reportative properties. Based on this distinction, I argue that Condition A-violating reflexives in languages like French and English are not reducible to logophors, based on their distribution, as well as other syntactic properties.
by Carolyn Spadine.
Ph. D. in Linguistics
Ph.D.inLinguistics Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Bachrach, Asaf. "Imaging neural correlates of syntactic complexity in a naturalistic context." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45900.
Full textIncludes bibliographical references (p. 253-280).
The aim of this thesis, and the research project within which it is embedded, is to delineate a neural model of grammatical competence. For this purpose, we develop here a novel integrated, multi-disciplinary experimental paradigm that endorses the fundamental premise of generative grammar, that the study of language is in essence, the study of the mind. We use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activation while subjects listen to short narratives. The texts have been written so as to introduce various syntactic complexities (relative clauses, embedded questions, etc.) not usually found (in such density) in actual corpora. We have calculated a number of complexity measures (both at the level of the single word and at that of the phrase) based on current linguistic and psycholinguistic theory and with the use of a computationally implemented probabilistic parser. By correlating these measures with observed brain activity, we are able to identify the different brain networks that support linguistic processing and characterize their particular function. Conversely, we use the rich brain data to inform our cognitive, and linguistic, theory. We report here the neural correlates of surprisal (based on contextual predictions), syntactic complexity, structural ambiguity and disambiguation, Theory of Mind and non-local dependencies. This work made use of novel solutions to compute numerical predictions for these linguistic dimensions, which are often tested only qualitatively, and of a novel parametric fMRI design that allowed for the use of single subject unaveraged data as the dependent variable. The thesis ends with a synthesis of the results in the form of a blue print for a neural model of grammatical competence.
by Asaf Bachrach.
Ph.D.
Nguyen, Dung Thi. "Vietnamese Students' Translanguaging in a Bilingual Context: Communications within a Student Organization at a US University." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1248528/.
Full textBateman, John A. "Utterances in context : towards a systemic theory of the intersubjective achievement of discourse." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/19207.
Full textPhillips, Aaron B. "Modeling Relevance in Statistical Machine Translation: Scoring Alignment, Context, and Annotations of Translation Instances." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2012. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/134.
Full textTriano-López, Manuel. "The attitude-behavior relationship in the context of lexical purification." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3177638.
Full textTitle from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 8, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-05, Section: A, page: 1745. Director: Albert Valdman.
Wang, Long Qi. "Translation accuracy comparison between machine translation and context-free machine natural language grammar–based translation." Thesis, University of Macau, 2018. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b3950657.
Full textGhio, Marta Virginia. "A cognitive and pragmatic approach to meaning : behavioral and neural correlates of concept processing." Doctoral thesis, Scuola Normale Superiore, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11384/86017.
Full textPeet, Andrew. "Testimony, context, and miscommunication." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7705.
Full textMitchell, Alison. "Failure of substitutivity in intensional contexts : a linguistic solution." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59418.
Full textNdenguino-Mpira, Hermanno. "Pragmatic aspects of making and responding to complaints in an intercultural university context." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2186.
Full textENGLISH ABSTRACT: The broad topic of this study is the nature and the effects of making and interpreting complaints in intercultural interactions involving international students and South African administrative staff in two Stellenbosch University residences. It appears that during these interactions, the international students are often frustrated by the way their complaints are handled. As a speech act, the effectiveness of a complaint depends on the way it is expressed and understood and also on the social context in which it is performed. In this regard, the study examines the influence of cultural differences on the way complaints are made and responded to in the above-mentioned intercultural interactions. The study aims to analyse intercultural situations involving the making and understanding of complaints that may result in misunderstandings. The complaints data were collected through a discourse completion task, performed by 24 international students belonging to six cultural groups, namely American, Chinese, Dutch, Gabonese, German and Libyan. All the students were residents in one of two student residences of Stellenbosch University. The social acceptability judgments data were elicited from three Afrikaans-speaking South African staff members of these residences, and from an additional six Afrikaans-speaking South African students who served as informants. All the data were analyzed within the pragmatic framework of the CCSARP (Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project), as developed by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989). The main findings of the analysis indicate that the six cultural groups differed in the way they made their complaints. Moreover, these differences influenced the manner in which some complaints were understood by the staff members. It was also found that the staff members’ responses to the complaints were influenced by their social acceptability judgments of the international students’ utterances. These findings lead to three main conclusions: (i) the way in which complaints are made and understood is influenced by factors that relate to cultural differences; (ii) such cultural differences may lead to misunderstandings; and (iii) conscious efforts to create greater awareness of cultural differences will lead to a better understanding of the way in which people of different cultural groups make and respond to complaints.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie handel breedweg oor die aard en effek van klagtes, soos uitgedruk en geïnterpreteer tydens interkulturele interaksies tussen internasionele studente en Suid-Afrikaanse administratiewe personeel in twee koshuise van die Universiteit Stellenbosch. Dit blyk dat die studente dikwels gefrustreerd voel oor die manier waarop hulle klagtes in sulke interaksies gehanteer word. Die effektiwiteit van ’n klagte, as ’n taalhandeling, word bepaal deur die manier waarop dit uitgedruk en verstaan word, asook deur die sosiale konteks waarbinne dit uitgevoer word. Die studie ondersoek in dié verband die invloed van kulturele verskille op die manier waarop klagtes uitgedruk en op gereageer word in die bogenoemde interaksies. Die doel van die studie is om ’n analise te maak van interkulturele situasies waar misverstande kan ontstaan by die uitdruk en interpretasie van klagtes. Die klagte-data is ingesamel deur die voltooiing van ’n diskoers-taak waarby 24 studente van ses verskillende kultuurgroepe betrek is: Amerikaans, Chinees, Duits, Gabonees, Libies en Nederlands. Al die studente was inwoners van een van twee koshuise van Stellenbosch Universiteit. Die data oor sosiale aanvaarbaarheidsoordele is verkry van drie Afrikaanssprekende Suid-Afrikaanse personeellede, en van ’n verdere ses Afrikaanssprekende Suid-Afrikaanse studente wat opgetree het as informante. Al die data is ontleed binne die pragmatiekraamwerk van die CCSARP (“Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project”), soos ontwikkel deur Blum- Kulka, House en Kasper (1989). Die hoofbevindings van die analise dui daarop dat die ses kultuurgroepe van mekaar verskil wat betref die manier waarop hulle hul klagtes uitgedruk het, en dat hierdie verskille ’n invloed het op die manier waarop sommige klagtes geïnterpreteer is deur die personeellede. ’n Verdere bevinding is dat die personeellede se reaksies op die klagtes beïnvloed is deur hulle beoordeling van die sosiale aanvaarbaarheid van die internasionale studente se uitings. Drie hoofgevolgtrekkings kan op basis van dié bevindings gemaak word: (i) die manier waarop klagtes uitgedruk en geïnterpreteer word, word beïnvloed deur faktore wat verband hou met kulturele verskille; (ii) sulke kulturele verskille kan lei tot misverstande; en (iii) daadwerklike pogings om ’n groter bewussyn van kulturele verskille te skep, sal lei tot ’n beter begrip van die manier waarop klagtes uitgedruk en op gereageer word deur mense van verskillende kultuurgroepe.
Huck, Anneline. "An eye tracking study of sentence reading in aphasia : influences of frequency and context." Thesis, City University London, 2016. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/14516/.
Full textMokhathi-Mbhele, Masechaba Mahloli M. L. "Independent clause Sesotho personal names as texts in context: a systemic functional linguistics approach." Thesis, University of Western Cape, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3348.
Full textThis study sought to examine independent clause Sesotho personal names as authentic social discourse using the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory. It sought to analyze their structure and map them to social functions to demonstrate that they are enacted messages in socio-cultural context of Basotho. It used a form-meaning approach to interpret Sesotho names in socio-cultural contexts of use (cf. Halliday 1994, 2001, Eggins, 1996, 2004 and Martin & Rose 2007) as an alternative to the current formalist approach to onomastica interpretation. The SFL analysis was compared and contrasted mainly with the formalist syntactic specific and semantic specific analyses currently in use by Guma, Sesotho Academy and subsequent authors of Sesotho grammar and other linguists. The purpose of displaying these names as texts in social context enfolded the intent to reflect a systemic interface of lexico-grammar and social activity. The study used the clause-text-culture paradigm to explore Sesotho names as texts or semantic units. The idea was to access their ‘meanings beyond the clause’ (Martin & Rose 2007). Data was collected from national examinations pass lists, admission and employment roll lists from Public, Private, Tertiary, Orphanage institutions. Other data was identified in Telephone directories and Media. The purely linguistic lexico-grammatic analysis of the structure of names was supplemented by interview data from real interpretations from families, owners and senior citizens who have social and cultural knowledge of the meanings of some names. The study has established that Sesotho personal names can present as an independent clause feature. Sesotho personal names can also be described as lexico-grammatical properties and are meaningful in social contexts. They are used to exchange information as statements, demands and commands, and as questions and as exclamations. This means that these names can be categorized according to Halliday’s Mood types which make them function as declaratives, imperatives, interrogatives and exclamatives depending on the awarder’s evaluation. The study also finds that in negotiating attitudes, modality is highly incorporated. The study concludes that Sesotho names conform to the logical structures of the nominal group and the verbal group and these groups reciprocate in use. The verbal group is the core constituent in these names and it serves as a foundation for the nominal and verbal groups particularly because they function as reciprocating propositions. This includes the names with the sub-modification features. This extends the formalist description of Sesotho independent clause in that the identified sub-modifications which are opague and taken for granted by formalist analysts of Sesotho, are explicated as essential elements embedded in the formmeaning relation in SFL. The main contribution is that this is the only study on SFL and onomastica. There is no study that has been conducted using SFL to describe African names. It presents that Sesotho personal names are texts that have been negotiated in socio-cultural contexts. It provides a major departure from most studies that have used the Chomskian formulations or other sociolinguistic theories to describe the naming systems. It displays the art and importance of language use based on experience and culture in the naming system. The study also contributes to fields such as education, history, and others. Lastly, the study has established a new relation of onomastica and SFL theory and onomastica can now be added to the areas “being recognized as providing a very useful descriptive and interpretive framework for viewing language as a strategic, meaning-making resource.” (Eggins 1996:1).
McGarry, Theresa. "The Acquisition of French in Different Contexts: Focus on Functional Categories, by Philippe Prévost and Johanne Paradis." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2007. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/6159.
Full textYou, Huiling. "Unsupervised Lexical Semantic Change Detection with Context-Dependent Word Representations." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-444871.
Full textHilliard, Amanda. "Using cognitive linguistics to teach metaphor and metonymy in an EFL and an ESL context." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7830/.
Full textSlembrouck, Stefaan G. G. "The study of language use in its societal context : pragmatics and the representation of Parliamentary debates in newspaper discourse." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.357003.
Full textYoung, 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/.
Full textLanglois, Laurent Chevalier. "Parallel parsing of context-free languages on an array of processors." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6612.
Full textANDO, Yumi, and 有美 安藤. "性差の観点からみたアサーション研究の概観." 名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/16143.
Full textKang, Soyoung. "Effects of prosody and context on the comprehension of syntactic ambiguity in English and Korean." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1166827417.
Full textMüller, Daniela. "Developments of the lateral in occitan dialects and their romance and cross-linguistic context." Phd thesis, Université Toulouse le Mirail - Toulouse II, 2011. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00674530.
Full textMarriott, Stephanie Markman. "Deixis in context : a study of the distribution of the English demonstratives this, that, here and there in naturally-occurring discourse." Thesis, University of Essex, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302946.
Full textMafu, S. T. A. "The role of the English language in the context of national development vision 2025 with specific reference to agriculture in Tanzania." Thesis, Aston University, 2001. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/14838/.
Full textBorresly, Dhyiaa. "Natural translators and trainee translators in the context of societal bilingualism." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2016. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/102314/.
Full textClarke, Benjamin Peter. "Do patterns of ellipsis in text support systemic functional linguistics' 'context-metafunction hook-up' hypothesis? : a corpus based approach." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2012. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/36518/.
Full textGibbs, Simon James Colville. "Phonological awareness : influences and associates in the context of the development of word reading in young children." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1997. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13256/.
Full textKerr, Nicholas Brabazon. "Saved or not? speaker meaning attributed to salvation and Ukusindiswa in a church context." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2742.
Full textMembers of churches commonly use the English terms salvation/saved and their isiZulu equivalents insindiso/ukusindiswa. Implied meanings seem to have become attached to these terms, especially in isiZulu, which could cause miscommunication due to the attitudes of superiority of the so-called “saved ones” (abasindisiwe) and consequent antagonism amongst certain ecclesiastical groupings. The question addressed by this study was whether or not the meaning of the term to be saved and its isiZulu translation ukusindiswa, as understood by a selection of isiZulu-speaking Christians, is unambiguous. A further question was whether – should it be the case that these terms are found to be ambiguous – to be saved and its isiZulu translation ukusindiswa could be rehabilitated. Nine people from various denominational backgrounds, both lay and ordained, were interviewed in order to discover how they understood the terms in question. The interviewees were asked ten question, including questions on the influence of cultural practices on the meaning of the terms. These cultural practices were in connection with ancestors, as experienced in Zulu culture, and the influence of their understanding of the terms on the permissibility of ancestral practices. The answers given by the interviewees revealed certain trends. One of them was that, for some isiZulu speakers, the meaning of the terms included the aspect of laying aside of all contact with the ancestors. Those who understood the terms in this manner were seen by the interviewees as having an attitude of superiority and as condemning members of more traditional churches for their adherence to Zulu culture. A sociolinguistic analysis of the terms salvation/insindiso and to be saved/ukusindiswa is presented based on the interviewees’ responses. A conclusion is that the terms are often used in a biased and/or “loaded” way, which is a principal cause of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Ways of reducing this misunderstanding are proposed, including the “rehabilitation” of the terms linguistically and theologically. Greater sensitivity to different ecclesiastical cultures should be shown, involving the use of inclusive language and the exercising of the skills of intercultural communicative competence. This study reveals that the church needs to work at the issues surrounding the terms in question, the use of which can cause a breakdown in intercultural communication.
Williams, Jake Ryland. "Lexical mechanics: Partitions, mixtures, and context." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/346.
Full textBridle, Marcus. "Error correction through corpus consultation in EAP writing : an analysis of corpus use in a pre-sessional context." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2015. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/24848/.
Full textAhmed, Yunana. "Language, Rhetoric, And Politics in a Global Context| A Decolonial Critical Discourse Perspective on Nigeria's 2015 Presidential Campaign." Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10267894.
Full textIn this dissertation, I conceptualize a rhetorical and linguistic analysis of politics from a decolonial framework (Mignolo, 2011; Smith, 2012). My analysis draws on classical rhetoric (Aristotle, 2007), cultural rhetoric (Mao, 2014; Powell, et al., 2014; Yankah, 1995), and linguistics (Chilton, 2004) to reveal the different ways ideological and hegemonic struggles are discursively constructed in Nigerian political campaign discourse. The data for this study come from two speeches delivered by former President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 electoral campaign. This includes his declaration-of-intent speech and his speech marking the commencement of his formal campaign activities. My research demonstrates the richness of conceptualizing political discourse within its immediate and larger contexts and the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary approach—which I call an integrationist approach—in unmasking the different forms of hegemonic struggle in discourse. Analysis of linguistic elements such as tenses, indexicals, and cultural metaphors and the rhetorical elements of apologia, apologies, enthymemes, call-and-response, and fictive kinship terms such as “my brother and sister” reveals that hegemonic discourse in a Nigerian context is neither autonomous, nor flowing from a single dominant power, but constituted by multiple, heteroglossic and complex processes that connect the local and the global. To this end, my analysis focuses on a dual critique of local and colonial forms of hegemonic powers that are now codified in the overall discourse of globalization. This dual orientation is necessary because the social struggles below and above the nation-state are strategic spaces of political intervention that might be ignored when the focus of the analysis privileges just the nation-state. The findings present the merits of combining decolonial epistemologies with the perspectives of linguistics and rhetoric in the analysis of politics. Particularly, such approaches have the potentials to open up ways of knowing that would otherwise be taken for granted or completely marginalized based on our positionality as academics. The awareness of the diversity of cultural ways of knowing and theorizing encourages us to learn not only from dominant Western systems of knowledge, but more inclusively from culturally different, historically marginalized ways of thinking and knowing.
Davis, Shanna Dee. "The role of decontextualized narrative discourse in the development of general spoken language /." view abstract or download file of text, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3055683.
Full textTypescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-130). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
Nuttall, Christopher. "A Self-Regulated Learning Inventory Based on a Six-Dimensional Model of SRL." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2016. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6581.
Full textPoon, Yee-wah Lynda, and 潘綺華. "The effect of context cue instruction on intermediate EFL students' ability to infer word meaning from context." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1995. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31958229.
Full textLyons, David J. "Context and complexity : a longitudinal study of motivational dynamics among South Korean university students." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6711/.
Full textCalzada, Perez Maria. "Transitivity in translating : the interdependence of texture and context : a contrastive study of original and translated speeches in English and Spanish from the European parliament." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/1294.
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