English and Farsi are languages that maintain a plosive voicing contrast in word-final position, unlike Dutch, a language that neutralizes this contrast in word-final position, while maintaining it...Show moreEnglish and Farsi are languages that maintain a plosive voicing contrast in word-final position, unlike Dutch, a language that neutralizes this contrast in word-final position, while maintaining it in word-initial and word-medial position. With the use of an online questionnaire, I wanted to find out whether native speakers of Farsi are better at categorizing the English word-final plosive voicing contrast than native speakers of Dutch, because native speakers of Farsi have native-language experience with the same contrast in the same position. The results show that both the Dutch and the Farsi group were relatively successful in distinguishing this contrast, but the Farsi group categorized it significantly better. The results of the Dutch group are in line with previous literature that indicate that perception of an L2-contrast is supported by native-language experience with the same contrast in other positions. Additionally, the results of the Farsi group imply that perception of an L2-contrast becomes even better when there is native-language experience with the same contrast in the same position.Show less
Dutch speakers have difficulty distinguishing such Russian sounds as /tj/ and /tjj/, or /tj/ and /tʃ/. The Perceptual Assimilation Model stipulates that we analyse sounds in a second language in...Show moreDutch speakers have difficulty distinguishing such Russian sounds as /tj/ and /tjj/, or /tj/ and /tʃ/. The Perceptual Assimilation Model stipulates that we analyse sounds in a second language in terms of those from the first based on articulatory similarities. It predicts that if two sounds in a speaker’s second language are analysed as the same sound in the first, they will be difficult to distinguish. Proposing that Dutch speakers analyse Russian /tj/, /tʃ/, and /tjj/ as Dutch [tʃ], I used an AXB-task to systematically investigate Dutch speakers’ ability to distinguish the Russian sounds /t/ and /d/, the coronals /t/, /tj/, /tʃ/, and /tjj/, and the sibilants /ʃ/ and /ʃj/. Since stress affects the vowel quality of the vowel following plain and palatalised consonants differently, I also investigated the effect of stress. Last, participants indicated how easy it was to distinguish the contrast. Analyses revealed that the Dutch participants performed worse than the Russian speakers on /tj/-/tʃ/, /tj/-/tʃ/, /tʃ/-/tjj/, and /ʃ/-/ʃj/, while still having an accuracy of well above .50. Initial stress was only found to negatively influence discrimination of /tj/-/tjj/. The Russian speakers also performed worse on the /tj/-/tjj/ contrast, meaning results on this contrast are to be interpreted with caution. These results show that, while Dutch speakers experience difficulty with perceptually distinguishing sounds not available in Dutch, this difficulty is attenuated. This is important, because it confirms that Dutch learners of Russian should focus on these sounds, while at the same time suggesting that they already have a good head start.Show less
This paper investigates how well adult Spanish-Dutch bilinguals have acquired grammatical gender agreement in Dutch and whether individual speakers apply specific strategies to resolve difficulties...Show moreThis paper investigates how well adult Spanish-Dutch bilinguals have acquired grammatical gender agreement in Dutch and whether individual speakers apply specific strategies to resolve difficulties associated with gender in Dutch. Both Spanish and Dutch have two-fold gender systems: Spanish differentiates between a feminine and a masculine gender; and Dutch distinguishes between a common and a neuter gender. In Spanish each gender is marked on the determiner and the adjective with a distinct morphological marker (e.g. the indefinite articles un – amasc and una - afem). In Dutch the indefinite article converges into one form for both genders (i.e. een) and the rules of adjectival agreement are less straightforward than the rules in Spanish. To examine how adult bilinguals handle the opaque Dutch gender system, data from four late Spanish-Dutch bilinguals (L1 Spanish, L2 Dutch), seven early Spanish-Dutch bilinguals and six monolingual Dutch speakers were collected by means of elicited production and analyzed for grammatical gender agreement on definite determiners and adjectival inflection. It was found that the four highly proficient late speakers of Dutch show non-target-like performance in their data involving agreement on both definite determiners and adjectives, regularly overgeneralize to the common gender, and tend to produce fewer indefinite than definite phrases in comparison to the monolinguals and early bilinguals. The findings in this study are discussed in light of previous research regarding the different mechanisms of child and adult (second) language acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch (Blom et al., 2006, 2008; Prevost and White, 2000; White, 2003). The evidence from the current experiment suggests that: a. adults use two different routes for acquiring gender agreement in Dutch - a lexical route for agreement at the determiner, and a rule-based route for agreement at the adjective (Blom et al., 2006, 2008); b. adult speakers may have the knowledge of the rules of gender agreement in Dutch but are not successful in applying the rules consistently in their production (Prevost and White, 2000; White, 2003).Show less
This paper presents a study of article omission in two types of headlines, focusing on the differences between article omission in printed headlines and article omission in digital headlines. The...Show moreThis paper presents a study of article omission in two types of headlines, focusing on the differences between article omission in printed headlines and article omission in digital headlines. The study is carried out on a corpus of 120 news items collected from ‘De Volkskrant’, with half of the material from the physical paper and the other half from the corresponding digital news items. The research reflects on earlier findings in the field of article omission and presents new findings regarding the differences between article omission in physical and digital headlines and regarding other determiners that can be omitted as well. A theory about shifting the focus of investigation to the realization of articles instead of the omission thereof, initiated by Oosterhof and Rawoens (2017), is further elaborated.Show less
This thesis presents a preliminary theory on the occurrence of rising declaratives in Dutch. The analysis consists of a series of hypotheses that were tested in a pilot experiment. The most...Show moreThis thesis presents a preliminary theory on the occurrence of rising declaratives in Dutch. The analysis consists of a series of hypotheses that were tested in a pilot experiment. The most important claim in the theory is that the element of surprise plays an important role in the licensing of the rising declarative in Dutch. This claim was partially supported by the data.Show less
A comparative study attempting to explain the occurrence of non-V2 in Dutch comparative correlatives ("Hoe A-er, hoe B-er"). The presented theories (from previous studies) described in the thesis...Show moreA comparative study attempting to explain the occurrence of non-V2 in Dutch comparative correlatives ("Hoe A-er, hoe B-er"). The presented theories (from previous studies) described in the thesis are based on non-V2 phenomena in Dutch and Northern Norwegian. The research question ("Can theories about non-V2 in the Tromsø Norwegian wh-questions be applied to the Dutch non-V2 comparative correlative constructions with wh-elements?") is answered by using analyses in comparative syntax, phonology, information structure and psycholinguistics.Show less
In order to find out more about figure-ground relationships in motion events, the central question for this study was whether describing a figure-ground motion event influences the degree to which...Show moreIn order to find out more about figure-ground relationships in motion events, the central question for this study was whether describing a figure-ground motion event influences the degree to which participants remember a video. Choi, Goller, Hong, Ansorge and Yun (2018) found a difference between German and Korean speakers with regard to how they encode different aspects of figure-ground relationships in their speech. This study aims to build on the findings of Choi et al. (2018) and make a small contribution to the question how figure-ground relationships are encoded in speakers’ minds in different languages. To investigate this, 54 target videos were created, divided over 9 different categories that all depicted a different motion type. Two versions of each video were created, one depicting a canonical direction of motion and the other a reverse direction. In the first part of the experiment, the description task, two groups of participants were given a different task. The motion description group (18 participants, L1 Dutch, 16 participants L2 English, 2 participants L2 French, Bulgarian and/or Japanese) was asked to describe the motions they saw in a video, the object description group (24 participants, L1 Dutch, L2 English, 10 participants L2 French, German, Italian and/or Swedish) got the task to describe the objects. Participants filled out a language background questionnaire during part two, the intermission, and in part three, the recall task, participants from both groups had to judge whether they had seen a video during the first part or not. For each category in the recall task there were 2 true videos (videos participants had seen before in the description task) and 4 deviant videos (videos they had not seen before in the description task). A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted for which proportion correct, category type, exposure status (true or deviant), canonicity (canonical or reverse) and participant group (motion or object description) were entered as variables. The results showed that while there was no difference between the groups, there were differences between the put over/under category and the hook category, the put on loose support and the put through category, the put on tight attachment and put through, and the put through and hook category, and whether the videos were true or deviant. I conclude that these factors influence the amount of correct judgments the participants make and discuss what the implications for these conclusions might be in the context of the influence of language on cognition.Show less
The popular musical genre known as hip-hop was introduced in the Netherlands in the 1980s; over the years the Dutch developed their own particular type of hip-hop known as Nederhop. According to...Show moreThe popular musical genre known as hip-hop was introduced in the Netherlands in the 1980s; over the years the Dutch developed their own particular type of hip-hop known as Nederhop. According to Gazzah (2008), Nederhop is merely the 'regular' variant of Dutch hip-hop, as immigrants of Moroccan descent participating in the Nederhop scene have created a new subgenre called Maroc-hop using elements from Moroccan traditional music. This work provides information on these musical genres as well as an overview of the languages and processes involved in the creation of Nederhop and Maroc-hop. By investigating the way lyrics are set to music, and how rhyme is used in both subgenres I attempt to identify the linguistic components that distinguish Nederhop from Maroc-hop.Show less
The phonetic-pragmatic interface has provided linguistics with an interesting question that the literature has not yet been able to answer conclusively: Does intonation directly communicate meaning...Show moreThe phonetic-pragmatic interface has provided linguistics with an interesting question that the literature has not yet been able to answer conclusively: Does intonation directly communicate meaning? This thesis describes an exploratory elicitation experiment in which the effects of two pragmatic dimensions on the production of Dutch intonation is examined within three core meanings: “testing”, “selection”, “selection plus”. The productions of native speakers – realised on two-syllable proper names – were recorded in four pragmatic dimension combinations: default or vocative (orientation), and formal or informal (politeness). The meanings and pragmatic dimensions were embodied in situational contexts that served to elicit individual intonation contours for each meaning configuration. Additionally, the effect of word length was considered in a secondary experiment by employing one- and three-syllable proper names in a constant pragmatic environment. Results show a main effect of orientation across core meanings caused by different contextual variables. Politeness yielded only one main effect as a result of the configuration of speaker-hearer relations. Productions were found to be consistent across word lengths. The effects of the pragmatic dimensions are of definite influence on the production of Dutch intonation contours, but they could not be generalised across core meanings due to context discrepancies, indicating the importance of situational background.Show less
