Throughout the years a lot of research has been done on the acquisition of pronunciation in a second language (L2). But on the other hand, relatively little research has been done regarding the...Show moreThroughout the years a lot of research has been done on the acquisition of pronunciation in a second language (L2). But on the other hand, relatively little research has been done regarding the acquisition of pronunciation of Dutch as a second language (Neri, Cucchiarini & Strik, 2006). In addition there is also relatively little knowledge on how pronunciation can be trained by means of education or pronunciation training. Research by Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson and Koehler (1992) showed that especially the prosodic features of a language (e.g. aspects such as melody, loudness and tempo) determine whether a L2-speaker sounds “foreign”. The (international) literature suggests that there has been minimal attention on the acquisition of the pronunciation of a L2 in language classes. In some cases, it is assumed that language teachers have too little knowledge to train pronunciation systematically. Leiden University has been working on a solution to this problem by the development of modern technology, namely the computer program Lorre. This is a computer program, developed within Leiden University, which helps L2-learners train their pronunciation and also supplies with visual feedback. It is desired to expand this program with new language training material. My research explores the possibilities concerning extensions of the computer program Lorre and will focus on the prosodic level of pronunciation. In this thesis I investigated what kind of exercises can be implemented in Lorre to train prosodic features of Dutch as a second language. My research hypothesis is that many aspects of pronunciation can cause problems for L2 learners of Dutch and that it is possible to develop exercises to train all aspects of prosody. My goal was to examine the (international) literature to determine what prosodic problems occur when learning Dutch as a second language. Subsequently I developed practical exercises suitable to implement in Lorre.Show less
Over the years, English interrogative tags (isn’t it? wouldn’t they? right?) have received quite some scholarly attention. However, the same cannot be said of their French counterparts: oui? non? n...Show moreOver the years, English interrogative tags (isn’t it? wouldn’t they? right?) have received quite some scholarly attention. However, the same cannot be said of their French counterparts: oui? non? n’est-ce pas? and hein?. In order to find the interpretative differences between those four tags, we decided to examine the matrix sentences they could combine with. We argued that the incompatibilities of these tags with certain matrix sentences were caused by their intrinsic differences. With that in mind, we used various tests to determine those differences. We found that the polarity distribution within the tag question played an important part in their interpretation. That is, tag questions with reversed polarity (positive matrix, negative tag or vice-versa) clearly conveyed a meaning of doubt on the speaker’s part, whereas those with constant polarity hardly showed any uncertainty at all. We claimed that oui?, a tag that only occurs in constant polarity questions, expresses the dominance of the speaker over the hearer, by means of orders, rhetorical questions and questions that are strongly biased towards a positive answer. Furthermore, we hypothesized that hein? expresses neither doubt nor dominance, which distinguishes it from the other tags we discussed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Au fil des années, les tags interrogatifs en anglais (isn’t it ? wouldn’t they ? right ?) ont reçu beaucoup d’attention dans la littérature scientifique. Cependant, cela n’est pas vrai pour les tags interrogatifs en français : oui ?, non ?, n’est-ce pas ?, et hein ?. Afin de mieux cerner les différences interprétatives entre ces tags, nous avons examiné les matrices avec lesquelles ils se combinaient. Nous avons avancé que les différences intrinsèques entre les tags provoquent leurs différences de compatibilité. Aussi avons-nous employé différents tests dans l’objectif de mieux comprendre ces différences. Nous avons trouvé que la distribution de polarité dans la question-reprise joue un rôle important dans son interprétation. C’est-à-dire, les questions-reprise de polarité inversée (une matrice positive, un tag négatif ou vice-versa) indiquent un certain degré de doute de la part du locuteur, tandis que celles de polarité constante n’expriment aucun sentiment de doute. Nous avons proposé que oui ?, qui ne figure que dans les contextes de polarité constante, exprime la domination du locuteur par rapport à son interlocuteur. Cette domination se manifeste par des injonctions, des questions rhétoriques et des questions présuppositionnelles. Finalement, nous avons formulé l’hypothèse que hein ? n’exprime ni le doute ni la domination, ce qui le distingue des autres tags que nous avons discutés.Show less
This thesis examines spoken academic L2 English. It looks at the spoken language of Dutch university lecturers in their L2 English spoken lectures, against the background of the...Show moreThis thesis examines spoken academic L2 English. It looks at the spoken language of Dutch university lecturers in their L2 English spoken lectures, against the background of the internationalisation of higher education, high ambitions of Dutch universities, and the emergence of the English language as the common academic spoken language, the quality of which receives criticism and is under-researched. The study focuses on the differences in linguistic richness between the L1 Dutch spoken language and the L2 English spoken language of nine Dutch university lecturers, lecturing in the Humanities and in the Social Sciences. Three methods are applied: a corpus analysis focused on the linguistic variety of the L2 English lecture language compared to the linguistic variety of the L1 Dutch lecture language, interviews with the participating lecturers aimed at complementing the corpus analysis data, and an expert analysis focused on the non-L1 English features of the L2 English spoken lecture language. Both quantitative and qualitative data are presented. Special attention is paid to the adjectives and the verbs used, i.e., their variety, frequency of usage, sophistication, and correct or incorrect usage specifically in the L2 English lecture language. The study shows the linguistic complexities of studying L2 English academic lecture language. In the epilogue it is argued that L2 English academic lecture language deserves more attention.Show less
This study explores the dating of Romance lenition using the information provided by Gothic loanwords introduced in Ibero-Romance between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is based on the notion that...Show moreThis study explores the dating of Romance lenition using the information provided by Gothic loanwords introduced in Ibero-Romance between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is based on the notion that Romance lenition is a natural internally motivated process (rafforzamento sintattico as the catalyst of restructuring) that came from an early allophonic stage (since the 1st c. A.D.) into a phonological fact (Cravens 1991; 2000) much time later. The linguistic testimony of the Visigothic period in the Iberian Peninsula demonstrates that Romance lenition, at least for the sonorization of the voiceless velar stop, was active by that period and endured until the 9th and 11th centuries. This is corroborated with brief reviews on the Latin evidence and the Hispano-Arabic loanwords.Show less
L’immigration nord-africaine a été étudiée par de nombreux auteurs , d’un point de vue historique et social. En revanche, nous avons essayé de combiner ces aspects avec un autre point de vue :...Show moreL’immigration nord-africaine a été étudiée par de nombreux auteurs , d’un point de vue historique et social. En revanche, nous avons essayé de combiner ces aspects avec un autre point de vue : celui de la presse écrite. Aussi la question de recherche traite-t-elle de la manière dont l’immigration maghrébine en France a été perçue par la presse française dans l’entre-deux-guerres. Nous voulons savoir s’il y a eu des signes d’une polémique autour du mouvement migratoire et ses conséquences pour la France et si les Nord-Africains ont été représentés plutôt d’une manière positive ou davantage d’une façon négative, quand et par qui.Show less
Since the anime boom of the 1990s and 2000s, the popularity of anime (Japanese animation) in the Western world has increased tremendously. Even though Western localization companies used to view...Show moreSince the anime boom of the 1990s and 2000s, the popularity of anime (Japanese animation) in the Western world has increased tremendously. Even though Western localization companies used to view anime as ‘just another form of Saturday morning children’s cartoons’ at first, as popularity increased, they came to the realization that it is a wholly different genre and business entirely. And as fans started demanding localizations that stayed as true as possible to the original versions, localization companies started paying closer attention to the way they translated these shows. But just how much does the audience influence the localization of anime? This research attempts to shed some light on that matter by comparing three anime series aimed at different audiences and looking at the different approaches localization companies have when tackling these shows.Show less
This thesis sets out to explore workplace communication of a multinational organization, through electronically transmitted messages (emails) involving employees in three power distance...Show moreThis thesis sets out to explore workplace communication of a multinational organization, through electronically transmitted messages (emails) involving employees in three power distance relationships, namely superiors to subordinates, subordinates to superiors and equals to equals. To carry out this study a corpus of 107 primary, work-related internal emails, written in English as a lingua franca by twelve participants, was gathered. Importantly, the participants belong to different nations, thus they have different linguistic backgrounds. This study aimed to examine the language use in the informants’ email and to shed more light on how people of various levels within a company, communicate in different ways. Therefore, intercultural communication is used as the principal analytical framework, so as to describe the communication between different employees, from various ethnicities and with various cultural backgrounds while performing a discursive and socio-pragmatic study using speech act and politeness theories. In this study, speech act theory, in an adapted version, is used for allocating the email messages gathered based on their communicative functions. Further, in order to investigate important pragmatic aspects of language use the theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) concerning universal politeness strategies is employed. The study further considered significant factors, which may influence the linguistic choices people make when communicating through email in the workplace, namely ethnicity, social distance and gender. The findings revealed that hierarchy played the most significant role in the composition of email messages, amongst the three power distance relationships. Likewise, social distance and cultural background were influential factors, however, the study found that gender differences did not play a crucial role in the politeness level displayed in workplace email communication. Interestingly, the study provided evidence that workplace culture plays a critical role and can affect the language use in email communication amongst employees at all hierarchical levels.Show less
This paper describes a language evolution experiment trying to reproduce how the choice of construal that precedes the choice of form in language can conventionalize. It is similar to previous...Show moreThis paper describes a language evolution experiment trying to reproduce how the choice of construal that precedes the choice of form in language can conventionalize. It is similar to previous language evolution experiments, but is the first to focus on testing conventionalization on the meaning side instead of the form side of language.Show less
Chinese students studying in UK Universities contribute significantly to the UK economy (Leedham, 2011). There are other non-economic potential benefits to both UK universities and Chinese students...Show moreChinese students studying in UK Universities contribute significantly to the UK economy (Leedham, 2011). There are other non-economic potential benefits to both UK universities and Chinese students which are not currently efficiently utilised. These include academic skills, cultural competency and the knowledge base of domestic students (Arthur, 2015). Students’ success at university depends on their ability to write academic English however, some UK academics report that Chinese students’ writing is not at a sufficient level for academic success. Previous studies have examined Chinese students written errors in their home countries or during their pre-sessional course, but have not examined the main grammatical errors affecting students’ in-course writing. A corpus of Chinese students academic writing in UK universities was accessed and examined to identify the main grammatical writing errors following the procedure for Error Analysis proposed by Corder (1967). The main errors were examined using Lado’s 1957 Contrastive Analysis procedures to determine the difficulty of the grammatical forms for Chinese students. Previous strategies for redressing Chinese students’ grammatical errors are reviewed and the importance of the link between academic success and cross cultural communication competence in the efficient utilization of the non-economic benefits of Chinese students studying in the UK is highlighted.Show less
I outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one...Show moreI outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one is the Wiseguy English, which belongs to speakers who have lived in the US for a longer period of time and belong to the Italian-American culture. Three films were selected from a plethora of other films concerning the Italian-American culture. The purpose of this study was to determine whether these varieties of English exists from a linguistically stereotypical basis or whether these varieties are true-to-life representations of the features of the Italian-American English speaking culture. One monologue of every main character in the 3 films has been phonetically analysed. The phonetic analyses were then compared to the theoretical framework analysis of the aforementioned varieties of Italian-American Englishes. The hypothesis is that these three films perpetuate linguistic features in Italian-American Englishes that border among the stereotypical imagery of the Italian-American culture. The results outline the most salient features of Italian-American linguistic stereotypes.Show less
One of the common misconceptions when it comes to teaching a second language to gifted students is that teachers expect gifted students to be better at learning a second language than non-gifted...Show moreOne of the common misconceptions when it comes to teaching a second language to gifted students is that teachers expect gifted students to be better at learning a second language than non-gifted students. Expectations are usually high, and when a student does not live up to these expectations, it causes frustration; not just for the student, but also for the teacher and the parents. This misconception stems from the fact that most gifted students show an extensive knowledge of their L1 (first language) at an early age. In theory, a gifted child should therefore be faster at picking up an L2 (second language) than non-gifted students: Hayes et al (1998, p. 179) states: “there is a strong connection between language ability and learning ability.” So hypothetically, with their advanced thinking skills, their more extensive verbal skills, and with their aptitude for learning, these gifted students should have little trouble with learning a second language. In practice, however, this does not always seem to be the case; gifted students do not automatically apply their abilities in learning second languages. For example, classroom practice shows that gifted students generally have greater difficulties with learning and memorizing vocabulary than non-gifted students. The study described in this thesis has multiple aims. First and foremost it aims to examine if there is a difference in the ways gifted and non-gifted students acquire English as a second language. Secondly it explores how language pedagogy as well as taking learning styles into account could benefit gifted students. This is in turn compared to the current classroom practice at the Rijswijks Lyceum. It should finally lead to the causes of these differences or similarities along with the consequences for gifted students.Show less
After Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, confessed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his wins, one might wonder why people kept believing in his...Show moreAfter Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, confessed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his wins, one might wonder why people kept believing in his innocence for many years. This thesis examines the linguist-stylistic features that Armstrong uses to persuade the interviewer in his 2005 deposition. Additionally, it investigates to what extent assumed linguistic signs of lying are present in Armstrong’s language use. By identifying the stylistic choices through inductive and deductive stylistic analysis, this thesis attempts to determine how these choices contribute to Armstrong’s persuasiveness. The results show that Armstrong uses different stylistic choices that can be placed in the overarching categories of repetition, hedges, intensifiers and conditionals. Determining the presence of linguistics signs of lying in his language use proves to be rather difficult. In the end, there appears to be a certain a balance in Armstrong’s stylistic choices that possibly contributes to his persuasiveness.Show less
My thesis treated the lemmas hasta ‘spear’, vastus ‘vast, desolate’, aestās ‘summer’, ‑us ‘heat’, custōs ‘guard’, cēdō ‘to go, cede’, crēdō ‘to believe’, and audiō ‘to hear, understand’. Three...Show moreMy thesis treated the lemmas hasta ‘spear’, vastus ‘vast, desolate’, aestās ‘summer’, ‑us ‘heat’, custōs ‘guard’, cēdō ‘to go, cede’, crēdō ‘to believe’, and audiō ‘to hear, understand’. Three reflexes of dental clusters in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *dh are recognized in Latin: A) ‑ss‑ (iussus < PIE *Hi̯ou̯dh‑to‑); B) ‑st‑ (hasta < PIE *ǵhasdh‑eh2‑); C) ‑V̄d‑ (crēdere < PIE *ḱred‑dhh1‑). The question arises what the distribution is of these reflexes. Cluster A) confirms the usual development of dental clusters ending in *t in Latin (clusters in PIE show an epenthetic *‑s‑, thus *‑TT‑ > *‑TsT‑). Clusters B) and C) are both claimed to be the outcomes of clusters ending in *‑(z)dh‑. However, this was questioned by Lubotsky (2004), who argued that the etymology of the B) clusters either points at a non-PIE origin, or that they underwent a later reanalysis. Szemerényi (1952) claims that the development of ‑st‑ argues for a medial devoicing and that PIE voiced aspirates first lost voicing in Latin (thus, 1) *dh‑ > *th‑ > *þ‑ > f‑, and medially *‑dh‑ > *‑þ‑ > *‑ð‑ > ‑d‑ (cf. Ascoli 1868). However, if the cluster in question does not yield ‑st‑, but rather ‑V̄d‑, Szemerényi’s claim will lose its strength. If so, the loss of occlusion (thus, a trajectory like 2) *dh‑ > *ð‑ > *β‑ > f‑, and medially *‑dh‑ > *‑ð‑ > ‑d‑ (e.g. Hartmann 1890; Rix 1957; Kortlandt 1978, p. 109) will be a more likely development. Although there is more evidence for 2) (e.g the formīca (βormīkā < *mormīkā‑ < PIE *moru̯‑o/ī̆‑ ‘ant’) argument by Meillet 1918), Szemerényi’s argument for 1) cannot be ignored. I looked into the probability of the reconstruction of the lemmas. Since Szemerényi, many new insights have surfaced on the lemmas in question. My survey showed that the evidence is much more in favour of an outcome of ‑V̄d‑, rather than ‑st‑.Show less
