In this thesis, I discuss the range of numerals in South American languages, the strategies that languages use to form their numerals, and what cultural and historical causes can be given to the...Show moreIn this thesis, I discuss the range of numerals in South American languages, the strategies that languages use to form their numerals, and what cultural and historical causes can be given to the range of the numerals. The Quechuan languages consistently possess an infinite decimal system. This could be the result of the preservation of the high numerals after colonization that were used to keep track of administration in the extended Inca Empire. In the Arawakan family, both the range and the internal structure of the numerals differ. Just as for the Quechuan, the Arawakan people were involved in trade and war which could indicate a need of high numerals. However, unlike for the Quechuan numerals, they have not been preserved. During colonization, Arawakan groups fled from their original settlements and adopted other groups into their communities, which indicates substratum influence and explains the diversity of the Arawakan numerals. In the Guaporé-Mamoré linguistic area, numerals are mostly concentrated around a maximum of 20. The body-part system and a connection to company or loneliness are common in the numerals in this area.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
For decades an objective within Linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic...Show moreFor decades an objective within Linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic differences of intrusion of the spatial domain within the temporal domain by comparing Native English speakers to Mandarin-English bilinguals. With deviation in linguistic construction of space = time metaphors between the two languages, the main question subject to this study is whether linguistic differences bear influence on the conceptualization of the abstract domain of time. Furthermore, an insight is given in the manner abstract concepts are concreted by the human mind with an emphasis on bilingual processing. As the processing within the bilingual mind has been subjected to much debate over recent year, an attempt to reconcile various views has been laid bare. The present study exists of two replicated tasks which yielded different conclusions in their original state. While the results of the present study remain inconclusive, one task hints at a global difference between Mandarin-English bilinguals' conception of time and English native speakers' conception of time. The other task has not revealed any implication on linguistic processing due to crosslinguistic differences.Show less
For decades an objective for linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence and/or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic...Show moreFor decades an objective for linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence and/or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic differences in observed intrusion of the spatial domain on the temporal domain by comparing English monolinguals toMan darin-English bilinguals. The main question in this study is whether the observed linguistic differences in the temporal domain between Mandarin and English bear influence on the conceptualization of this domain by the human mind. The present study comprises of two replicated experiments. When the two presently replicated experiments were conducted originally they drew deviating conclusions from one another regarding a similar question. While the results of the present study remain inconclusive, results hint at a global difference between Mandarin-English bilinguals’ conception of time and English native speakers’ conception of time based on language. This hint implicates that there might be an underlying effect of language on the mental representation of time. The second experiment has not revealed any implication on linguistic processing due to observed crosslinguistic differences.Show less
Vocalen uit canonieke babbels van Engels en Frans lerende jonge kinderen zijn geanalyseerd en vergeleken. De F1 en F2 zijn gemeten en spreidingsdiagrammen van deze formanten werden verkregen. Ook...Show moreVocalen uit canonieke babbels van Engels en Frans lerende jonge kinderen zijn geanalyseerd en vergeleken. De F1 en F2 zijn gemeten en spreidingsdiagrammen van deze formanten werden verkregen. Ook de vocaalratio is gemeten door de F1 door de F2 te delen. Zowel de verschillende vocalen als de gemiddelden van alle vocalen zijn geanalyseerd. Er zijn geen significante verschillen gevonden tussen de vocaalratio’s van de baby’s uit een Engelse taalomgeving en baby’s uit een Franse taalomgeving. Het resultaat van deze studie biedt steun voor de theorie dat babbelen vooral een universeel proces is, dat tot stand komt door de compositie van het spraakkanaal en de nog niet volledig ontwikkelde controle over taaluitingen en het spraakkanaal.Show less
Inconsistent findings in studies that have examined whether there is a bilingual cognitive advantage in comparison to monolinguals, have caused a bilingual advantage debate. In addition, the...Show moreInconsistent findings in studies that have examined whether there is a bilingual cognitive advantage in comparison to monolinguals, have caused a bilingual advantage debate. In addition, the available evidence in published work that bilinguals may have a cognitive advantage, may have resulted from publication bias. The aim of the present study was to see whether there is a bilingual advantage and whether there is a publication bias in the linguistic scientific world with regards to studies that used the Simon task to research the effect of bilingualism. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted and 40 Simon task studies were included. The findings of the meta-analysis resulted only in weak evidence for the bilingual advantage, since only a small effect size was found for bilinguals showing faster Reaction Times than monolinguals. Furthermore, evidence for a publication bias was found, but the Test for Moderators showed that studies earlier published are mostly contributing to the effect size. An explanation for this can be that these studies were conducted at the time when the common belief was that bilinguals had an advantage, resulting in the publication of only large, positive effect sizes.Show less
This thesis is a descriptive account of the form, function, and meaning of Korean verbs of perception in the modalities of SIGHT, HEARING, TOUCH, FEEL, TASTE and SMELL. I categorize the perception...Show moreThis thesis is a descriptive account of the form, function, and meaning of Korean verbs of perception in the modalities of SIGHT, HEARING, TOUCH, FEEL, TASTE and SMELL. I categorize the perception verbs by means of Viberg’s (1983) dynamic system of perception events, distinguishing ACTIVITIES, EXPERIENCES and STATES for each of the six modalities. Focussing on experiencer-based expressions, I find that Korean verbs of SIGHT, HEARING, FEEL, and SMELL do not lexically distinguish between an ACTIVITY and an EXPERIENCE. Stimulus-based verbs derive from experiencer-based basic verbs by means of middle marking. I also find that Korean obligatorily requires a perceived stimulus rather than a source in the domains of HEARING, FEEL, TASTE, and SMELL. Furthermore, an introductory review of the literature on intrafield ‘polysemy’ reveals inconsistencies in the hierarchical models of perception verbs. I put forward a new model that unifies earlier proposals and includes the extensions from SIGHT to TASTE and FEEL to TASTE found in Korean. Examples were retrieved from the highly contemporary VLIVE (2020) spoken corpus as well as various non-spoken corpora, accessed through the online NAVER Korean-English Dictionary (2020).Show less
This thesis describes the agreement patterns within the noun class system of Gĩchuka, an underdocumented Bantu language spoken in Kenya. The analyses in the thesis are based on data gathered in...Show moreThis thesis describes the agreement patterns within the noun class system of Gĩchuka, an underdocumented Bantu language spoken in Kenya. The analyses in the thesis are based on data gathered in Kenya with a native speaker of the language. The concepts of gender and noun class, in the languages of the world and in Bantu languages specifically, are explained. Then, an introduction to the language itself is given. Analyses are displayed systematically, supported by examples from the data. The thesis describes a big portion of the nominal domain and touches upon the verbal domain. The agreement morphemes that convey the noun classes are described, but also the parts of speech they attach to. Suggestions for further research are made, and finally a word list of the collected lexemes of Gĩchuka are listed.Show less
Constructed action (CA) can be defined as adopting roles of different characters in a narrative (Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova 2015). In multiple sign languages, CA is marked by the direction of...Show moreConstructed action (CA) can be defined as adopting roles of different characters in a narrative (Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova 2015). In multiple sign languages, CA is marked by the direction of the body, facial expressions and signs marking the character’s perspective. Constructed dialogue (CD), quoting a certain character, is one of the forms of CA (Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova 2015). This study will combine elements from Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova’s work (2015), who used cartoon retellings to research CA in British Sign Language, and the study by Stec, Huiskes, and Redeker (2016), who used a corpus to investigate constructed dialogue in American English. The dataset for my study consists of 10 cartoon and fable retellings from the corpus NGT (Crasborn, Ros, and Zwitserlood 2008). I have selected these video fragments by searching the dataset for the verb ZEGGEN ‘say’ in the corpus NGT, because this is an indicator for a direct or indirect quote (Stec, Huiskes, and Redeker 2016, 5). This is a new method and has yielded many cases of CD. The selected clips already contain time-aligned glosses in ELAN, but I have added annotations concerning CA using the guidelines provided by Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova (2015).Show less
This study examines the predictive properties of Dutch prepositions. In a self-paced reading experiment, native speakers of Dutch were presented with verb-final sentences containing five different...Show moreThis study examines the predictive properties of Dutch prepositions. In a self-paced reading experiment, native speakers of Dutch were presented with verb-final sentences containing five different spatial prepositions, combined with both predictable and unpredictable argument nouns and verbs. Results revealed that the unpredictable nouns and verbs caused processing difficulty, indicating that the parser can use information activated at the preposition to form expectations about upcoming material. These results provide support for the theory that sentence processing is incremental and occurs on the basis of constraint accrual.Show less
A number of features of the morphosyntactic alignment systems of Indo-European languages suggest that an early stage of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) originally had an ergative case...Show moreA number of features of the morphosyntactic alignment systems of Indo-European languages suggest that an early stage of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) originally had an ergative case-marking system. Opponents of this hypothesis have said that this reconstruction of PIE is typologically impossible, since it does not follow the allegedly universal Silverstein hierarchy, and that PIE thus cannot have been ergative. A concept related to the theory, which may solve the problem that Silverstein’s hierarchy poses, is the hypothesis that this stage of (pre-)PIE had a ‘gap’ in its alignment system: i.e. neuter nouns could not be used as agents of transitive verbs. In my thesis, I weigh the pre-PIE ergativity hypothesis and the ‘neuter agent gap’ against typological data regarding alignment systems and their diachronic development, to see if opponents’ arguments are valid and whether an ergative system and a neuter agent gap can be reconstructed to account for the case-marking systems found in Indo-European languages. I argue that the reconstructed alignment system does not violate Silverstein’s hierarchy, and that an earlier stage of PIE had an ergative system in both common and neuter nouns. Then, I argue that it is not necessary to assume a ‘neuter agent gap’, although a semantic dispreference for neuter agents does help to explain the development of alignment in the Anatolian languages. I then discuss two different hypotheses on what shape the neuter ergative ending may have had, and I will propose for both of them a diachronic pathway along which the Indo-European alignment system may have developed.Show less
Dutch has a caused posture system that distinguishes two placement verbs, zetten 'to set' and leggen 'lay’. This study explores this semantic distinction from a descriptive viewpoint and uses this...Show moreDutch has a caused posture system that distinguishes two placement verbs, zetten 'to set' and leggen 'lay’. This study explores this semantic distinction from a descriptive viewpoint and uses this analysis to investigates the psycholinguistic effects of it on memory for placement events in native Dutch speakers. This study questions a) what factors determine the semantic distinction between zetten and leggen, b) whether linguistic encoding in general affects memory, c) whether specific linguistic encoding affects memory (i.e. does verbalizing placement events enhance memory for these events in Dutch speakers) and d) whether the fact that a language makes its speakers think about specific features i.e. encoding specific features of placement events vs. not encoding specific features of other motion events) enhances memory for these features in general. Descriptive results show that participants use leggen ‘to lay’ for horizontal scenes and zetten ‘to set’ for vertical scenes. Contrary to earlier findings, the results show that the placement of a round symmetrical object is approached differently than those of cubic symmetrical objects. Psycholinguistic results show that linguistic encoding has a positive effect on memory in general. However, specific linguistic encoding does not result in a significant enhancement of memory for placement events. At last, the results show that the fact Dutch makes her speakers think about specific features of placement event does not affect memory for these: memory for placement events in general was not enhanced compared to memory for other motion events.Show less
In linguistics, coming up with a certain continuation in a sentence before even reading or hearing that sentence is called prediction. People pre-activate upcoming possibilities when reading...Show moreIn linguistics, coming up with a certain continuation in a sentence before even reading or hearing that sentence is called prediction. People pre-activate upcoming possibilities when reading earlier words in a sentence. In this study a sentence completion study, a likelihood scale questionnaire and a reading time experiment are conducted to test this effect called prediction in a semantically constrained context. That participants can be lead to a certain semantic expected word is found in the sentence completion task. The likelihood scale questionnaire gave us insight in how likely the most frequent and less frequent given instrumental noun continuations were and provided us with the sentences for the reading time experiment. In this reading time experiment, there is found a significant effect, given a same specific constrained semantic contexts, that expected logical semantic instrumental nouns are read faster than unexpected illogical instrumental nouns in Dutch.Show less
This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, I go over some of the difficulties in representing semantic structures, including a discussion of the characteristics of syntactic and semantic...Show moreThis thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, I go over some of the difficulties in representing semantic structures, including a discussion of the characteristics of syntactic and semantic structures, syntax-semantics correspondence, and two types of semantic underspecification. In the second part, I offer a design for the visualization of semantic structure as derived by the Delilah parser, as well as a software tool for drawing these structures automatically.Show less
Vowel length in Iraqw has a high functional load in verbs. Quantity is used to distinguish third person singular masculine and third person singular feminine agreement on verbs, for example (Mous...Show moreVowel length in Iraqw has a high functional load in verbs. Quantity is used to distinguish third person singular masculine and third person singular feminine agreement on verbs, for example (Mous 1993:156). Nominal (near-)minimal pairs have illustrated that vowel length is a distinctive feature in nouns as well. However, vowel length seems to have less of a grammatical function in the nominal domain of the language. This thesis aims to give an overview of the use of vowel length in the nominal domain of Iraqw, in order to find out whether vowel length is a relevant contrastive feature in noun roots, and if so, what the scope is of vowel length as a distinctive feature. I will examine several aspects which are intertwined with the use of vowel length in the Iraqw language, such as the syllable structure, tone, vowel height, and morphophonological processes.Show less
This thesis examines the functions of the Malayo-Polynesian stative markers *ma- and *ka- reflected in the Central-Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken in the are spanning from Timor to the Aru...Show moreThis thesis examines the functions of the Malayo-Polynesian stative markers *ma- and *ka- reflected in the Central-Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken in the are spanning from Timor to the Aru-Islands. It contributes something new to a history of scientific literature on both the topic and area by examining these morphemes in a comparative typological study. Trends in the way these morphemes are reflected gives insight into the historical developments of CMP languages, genealogical relationships in the area alongside a better understanding of how these morphemes function within each individual language by comparing it with the larger context of the area. This thesis compared ten individual languages alongside wordlist data from the languages of the Babar archipelago to determine the functions of *ma- and *ka- reflexes and discover notable trends. The languages discussed are Rotinese, Uab Meto, Amarasi, Tetun Terik, Tetun Dili, Letinese, Luang, Kisar, Selaru and Dobel. It found three common functions: (1) either morpheme forming predicates or equative clauses, (2) either morpheme deriving adjectives from another word class, and (3) *ma- forming a relativising pronoun maka, prefix mak-, or circumfix ma- -k(a) in combination with a definiteness marker -ka. These findings suggest historical relations and grammatical developments within this area.Show less
This thesis describes ideophones in the Bantu language Kikamba (E55). The concept of ideophones and iconicity in (African) linguistics is introduced and a typological overview of Kamba is given. A...Show moreThis thesis describes ideophones in the Bantu language Kikamba (E55). The concept of ideophones and iconicity in (African) linguistics is introduced and a typological overview of Kamba is given. A description of the Kamba ideophone is provided, as well as semantic descriptions and example sentences. Moreover, findings on phonology, syntax, and the implicational hierarchy (Dingemanse 2012) are presented.Show less
