Beim Genus ist es eigentlich eine Frage, weshalb eine Sprache überhaupt einen Unterschied macht bezüglich der Art der Teilnehmer im Satz. Diese Frage macht Genus "the most puzzling of the...Show moreBeim Genus ist es eigentlich eine Frage, weshalb eine Sprache überhaupt einen Unterschied macht bezüglich der Art der Teilnehmer im Satz. Diese Frage macht Genus "the most puzzling of the grammatical categories" oder am rätselhaftesten im Vergleich zu anderen grammatikalischen Kategorien wie Numerus und Tempus. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist zu erforschen, ob Kinder mit einem Migrationshintergrund, das Niederländische bei der Zuweisung der deutschen Genera verwenden.Show less
Nous n’avons pas pu constater une évolution dans l’emploi du subjonctif en français standard pendant les deux siècles et il n’est pas question de variabilité du subjonctif. En québécois, le...Show moreNous n’avons pas pu constater une évolution dans l’emploi du subjonctif en français standard pendant les deux siècles et il n’est pas question de variabilité du subjonctif. En québécois, le subjonctif est un vestige du passé, qui s’utilise seulement après quelques gouverneurs (non) verbaux ou après quelques expressions fixes. A côté de l’emploi du subjonctif après ces gouverneurs et expressions, le subjonctif s’emploie presque jamais en québécois, surtout pas dans les phrases où il est question d’une grande distance. En français standard, par contre, l’emploi du subjonctif est stable. Les francophones français emploient spontanément le subjonctif en accord avec la grammaire prescriptive. En parlant des différences dans l’emploi du subjonctif entre le français québécois et le français standard, nous pouvons conclure que le subjonctif est un phénomène intrinsèquement variable en français québécois, tandis que le subjonctif ne l’est pas en français standard.Show less
This thesis looked for default ironic constructions in Dutch. To do so a new definition of verbal irony was proposed: Verbal irony are utterances that (1) have an argumentative force that is...Show moreThis thesis looked for default ironic constructions in Dutch. To do so a new definition of verbal irony was proposed: Verbal irony are utterances that (1) have an argumentative force that is opposed to the speaker’s evaluation, (2) are incongruent with its (co-text and) context and (3) leave the fact that they are ironic implicit. It is claimed that in Dutch an ironic interpretation can be emphasized by not. Therefore a corpus was set up with tweets containing #not. The ironic tweets in this corpus were analyzed on word frequency and remarkable patterns. This led to a list of words and patterns that were further analyzed. Through the analysis sixteen potentially default ironic constructions were found. These constructions were checked against three criteria for default ironic constructions: (1) not containing semantic anomalies, (2) not containing contextual information and (3) being ironic by default. Three constructions turned out to be default ironic constructions: lekker Adj, DP weer lekker bezig and het gaat weer lekker (deictic adverb) (PP).Show less
Amarasi nominal demonstratives ia, naan and ne are used both pro- and adnominally to refer to objects and entities in the speech situation, with ia being used for near-speaker reference, naan being...Show moreAmarasi nominal demonstratives ia, naan and ne are used both pro- and adnominally to refer to objects and entities in the speech situation, with ia being used for near-speaker reference, naan being the near-addressee term for visible referents and ne being used for distal reference. The terms ia and ne are visibility-neutral. The nominal demonstratives can be used pronominally in copular clauses to identify referents in the speech situation. In adnominal form, they can co-occur with other determiners in a noun phrase. The corresponding local adverbs are ia, naa and nee respectively. Both ia and naan can be used for endophoric reference. Addressee-based naan is used anaphorically to refer back to preceding noun phrases and preceding chunks of discourse. The cataphoric demonstrative is ia, used to introduce direct speech. Speaker-based ia can only be used for anaphoric reference when the referent has high topicality.Show less
This study provides a structural analysis of over a 100 years of wills from Jane Austen's paternal and maternal ancestors. This study provides evidence for will-making as a family tradition that...Show moreThis study provides a structural analysis of over a 100 years of wills from Jane Austen's paternal and maternal ancestors. This study provides evidence for will-making as a family tradition that has been passed from one generation to the next and offers a structural analysis for seventeenth century wills.Show less
Aus der Literatur zur Genuszuweisung bei Vereinsnamen kann der Schluss gezogen werden, dass bei Vereinsnamen ohne Sportvereinskürzel ein feminines Default-Genus angewendet wird. Enthält der...Show moreAus der Literatur zur Genuszuweisung bei Vereinsnamen kann der Schluss gezogen werden, dass bei Vereinsnamen ohne Sportvereinskürzel ein feminines Default-Genus angewendet wird. Enthält der Vereinsname ein Sportvereinskürzel, wird anhand dieser Abkürzung das Genus zugewiesen. In der Praxis werden jedoch Fußballklubs oder Ballspielvereine mit Beinamen wie „Borussia“ als weiblich betrachtet. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Masterarbeit war es deshalb, die Genuszuweisung bei Vereinsnamen mit und ohne Sportvereinskürzel zu untersuchen und sie empirisch anhand eines Fragebogens zu überprüfen. Dazu wurden deutsche Muttersprachler gebeten, einen Lückentext auszufüllen. Insgesamt waren 468 Fragebogen vollständig ausgefüllt und verwendbar. Zur statistischen Analyse der Ergebnisse wurde ein Chi-Quadrat-Anpassungstest angewendet. Aus den Ergebnissen dieser Studie lässt sich schließen, dass es im Deutschen kein feminines Default-Genus für Sportvereine gibt. Den meisten Vereinsnamen mit Sportvereinskürzel wurde das Genus anhand des Kürzels zugewiesen. Die Position des Vereinskürzels innerhalb des Vereinsnamens kann dabei einen Einfluss auf die Genuszuweisung haben, sie ist jedoch nicht entscheidend. Möglicherweise haben sich Testteilnehmer bei der Genuszuweisung von einem maskulinen Oberbegriff wie „Fußballklub“ oder „Verein“ leiten lassen, da Vereinsnamen ohne Kürzel und mit weiblichem Beinamen sowie Namen mit femininem Kürzel das feminine Genus prozentual weniger häufig zugewiesen wurde als Namen mit männlichem Beinamen oder männlichem Kürzel. In zukünftigen Studien zur Genuszuweisung bei Fußballvereinsnamen im Deutschen wäre es deshalb ratsam, diese Annahme eines Oberbegriffs zu untersuchen.Show less
This paper researches tone in Bobo Madare North, a Niger-Congo, Mande language (ISO 639-3: bbo), spoken in Mali and Burkina Faso, closely related to Sya. After examining its basic principles...Show moreThis paper researches tone in Bobo Madare North, a Niger-Congo, Mande language (ISO 639-3: bbo), spoken in Mali and Burkina Faso, closely related to Sya. After examining its basic principles regarding tone, a limited overview of tone in the verb system is given. The paper proceeds to investigate tone in the noun system. Morphologically simple nouns, inflection (pluralisation), some compounding and derivation, as well as tone processes happening across word boundaries (definite and possessive constructions) are investigated. The author makes use of her own research data, applying principles of autosegmental phonology for her analysis. Bobo Madare North has three underlying tones with automatic and non-automatic downstep, tone spreading and (local?) upstep.Show less
This thesis provides a syntactic explanation of the object placement issue of three buyu-structures, i.e. resultative buyu-structure, degree buyu-structures and potential buyu-strucutres, by re...Show moreThis thesis provides a syntactic explanation of the object placement issue of three buyu-structures, i.e. resultative buyu-structure, degree buyu-structures and potential buyu-strucutres, by re-examining their syntactic structures respectively. As a result, the reason why no object is allowed in the degree buyu-structure is ascribed to another projection occupying the complement position of V, which never moves up. On the contrary, without the extra projection, resultative and potential structures display a simpler sentence formation: [NP+VP+NP], where the second NP looks like the object of a sentence. However, contraints on the syllable numbers of the resultative buyu dues to the existence of vP in transitive resultative buyu-structures, and v0 cannot take a huge chunk, which reflects the crucial property of the so-called ‘light verb’ ------ LIGHT. Apart from solving this object placement issue, the current study also applies Xuan’s (2008, 2011) TelicP Hypothesis to the analysis of both degree constructions and potential forms, revising Sybesma’s (1999) Small Clause analysis in several aspects. A relative unified skeleton of these three buyu-structures is built: [vP [v’ v [AspP [Asp’ Asp [Mod2P [Mod2’ Mod2 [TelP [Tel’ Tel [VP [V’ V (…) ]]]]]]]]]] The derivations of these three categories of buyu-structures also share some common processes. First, the main verb moves up to Tel0 to check its telic feature and incorporates with buyu; then the combination of [V+buyu] moves up to inner Asp0 or Mod0. For resultative buyu-structures, there is no inner ModP, thus the movements within vP are V-to-Tel0 movement and then Tel0-to-Asp0 movement. If the structure is transitive, one more operation is applied: an Asp0-to-v movement or an insertion of ba. For degree buyu-structures, a DegP occupies the complement position of the main verb to predicate on the main verb, denoting the degree property of a verbal event. The Tel0 is filled with de and the main verb moves up and incorporates with de. In transitive structures, the combination of [V-de] further moves up to v. For potential buyu-structure, de occupies Mod20, and no inner AspP is involved. Similarly, the main verb moves up and incorporates with buyu first, and then their combination moves up to Mod20 and incorporates with potential de. Lastly, the incorporated potential construction would further moves up to Mod10 at IP domain to fully realize the potential modality.Show less
In this research I have investigated the application of request strategies and application of force-mitigating or -strengthening constructions in requests for any kind of action performed in...Show moreIn this research I have investigated the application of request strategies and application of force-mitigating or -strengthening constructions in requests for any kind of action performed in English by Dutch and Israeli institutions towards their clients. In this setting, these non-native English speakers need to pragmatically adapt their linguistic performances to the untrained hierarchical setting of polite requesting towards subordinate addressees. It challenges them to conceal threats to the addressee’s face (Watts, 2005) even though no actual warmth of bond (positive politeness) or freedom to reject (negative politeness) is given. Due to the lack of formal language-training in this hierarchical setting I expected the Dutch and Israeli performances of the speech act to be influenced pragmatically by their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The analytic approach was inspired from different fields of research: Second Language Acquisition, Linguistic Anthropology, Interlanguage and Intercultural Pragmatics. The analysed data is a collection of official letters sent out by different large institutions (universities, embassies and a hotel), of which I collected 32 letters (50 pages) in total, of which 14 letters were from Dutch sources (25 pages) and 18 letters were Israeli ones (25 pages). The letters were written solely for purposes in the work-environment and were sent in at a later moment in time, therefore the language was not affected by the speakers’ awareness of being linguistically analysed. I made use of Critical Discourse Analysis in order to investigate which linguistic features are variable in the pragmatic (illocutionary) force of requests, focussing on different request strategies (Blum-Kulka, 1987), mitigating efforts, coercives and types of reference to the interlocutors. The variations were validated by means of a statistical test for significance (z-test) and explained against the countries’ cultural backgrounds, making use of Hofstede’s method for cultural profiling with regard to power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The analysis showed that overall, the Dutch and Israeli use of request strategies and efforts in force-mitigation were surprisingly similar. The predominantly used strategy is characterised by the use of an imperative verb. Most other request utterances showed very explicit but variably less forceful strategies. Mitigators were used in relatively equal frequency, although less by the Dutch in the imperative construction. Remarkable differences were found in the overtness of speaker-reference among the Israelis, especially in more commercial settings (evoking higher politeness). In especially face-threatening situations, for instance in requesting the addressee for money without certainty the product/service being delivered, the Dutch showed a deviating strategy which converted the request into a construction of the addressee’s acceptation. The underlying processes which caused relative directness were primarily related to linguistic borrowings for the Dutch. The predominantly used strategy to request showed application of an imperative force with less mitigation efforts than the Israelis did. This suggests that the Dutch were not strongly aware of the force of their requests, which supports the idea that they adopted the imperative strategy as a direct translation (with strong syntactic similarity) of the Dutch standard question- formation, based on the verb’s stem in the clause-initial position. For the Israelis the larger variety in request strategies and lack of similarity between the predominantly encountered constructions and the Hebrew request constructions revealed no strong tendency for linguistic transfer in this untrained pragmatically-challenging setting. Although linguistic transfers are found rarely, the Israelis do demonstrate higher transfer of their cultural values, by which they strongly cherish unambiguity (by adopting relatively direct strategies) and prefer an approach of social connectedness over hierarchical deference in contexts of increased necessity for politeness.Show less
This master’s thesis focuses on comparing and contrasting Property Concept Words (PCWs) in six Amazonian languages. PCWs are usually referred as ‘adjectives’ in Indo-European languages, words that...Show moreThis master’s thesis focuses on comparing and contrasting Property Concept Words (PCWs) in six Amazonian languages. PCWs are usually referred as ‘adjectives’ in Indo-European languages, words that have a semantic denotation of properties or features. However, they vary in different languages regarding whether they belong to a morphosyntactically distinct word class or not. In other words, whether these PCWs should all be included in an adjectival class (if exist) or some may be categorized in subclasses of nouns or verbs. In my sample of six Amazonian languages: Panare, Hup, Karajá, Jarawara, Kwaza and Cavineña, PCWs are found behaving differently in each language. When discussing whether adjectives should be classified as a separate syntactic class or not, semantics is quite often involved. Moreover, the introduction of copula clauses complicates this discussion. Payne & Payne (2013) argues for a separate word class of AD-forms instead of adjectives in Panare to represent words that are usually characterized as either ‘adjectives’ or ‘adverbs’ in Indo-European languages. However, AD-forms are quite similar to nouns in Panare. Epps (2008) agrees on a closed set of adjectives in Hup that is quite similar to verbs regarding their TAM-marking, and similar to bound nouns when occurring postnominally. According to Ribeiro (2012), Karajá lacks an independent part of speech for ‘adjectives’ where PCWs are considered a subclass of nouns without much difference from other types of nouns. Dixon’s (2004) grammar distinguishes a small closed class of adjectives from other word classes in Jarawara and at the same time argues that PCWs can also be expressed through possessed nouns and stative verbs. In Kwaza, Van der Voort (2004) claims that it is unnecessary to exhibit a distinct class of adjectives whereas PCWs behave quite similar to verbs. Lastly, Guillaume (2008) introduces two distinct subclasses of adjectives, predicative and attributive adjectives in Cavineña, where the former function as copula complements and the latter are postnominal modifiers. The six languages vary in whether adjectives should be identified as a distinct word class or not. Even though these analysis may be of different approaches, PCWs show certain similarities across languages: they can both modify nouns and function in predicative constructions; they usually can take TAM-markers; the noun-modifier construction most likely parallels possessive construction. In a nutshell, these Amazonian languages are different from prototypical Indo-European languages regarding the syntactic distribution of PCWs. However, within Amazonian languages, syntactic variability of PCWs is large but possibly limited.Show less
In this thesis I explore several translation theories and strategies in the context of a translation of parts of volume IV of the English Atlas into the modern Dutch language. This volume of the...Show moreIn this thesis I explore several translation theories and strategies in the context of a translation of parts of volume IV of the English Atlas into the modern Dutch language. This volume of the English Atlas concerns the Low Countries, which provides an interesting cultural and historical angle for translation into the Dutch languageShow less
Are there a difference between the translations made for subtitling and dubbing, and if so, what is the result of these differences? This thesis contains an overview of theory on subtitling,...Show moreAre there a difference between the translations made for subtitling and dubbing, and if so, what is the result of these differences? This thesis contains an overview of theory on subtitling, dubbing, and wordplay, and applies this in a case study on the audiovisual translations of wordplay in Disney films in order to determine which translation form shows more retention of wordplay and humour.Show less
This thesis studies the current differences in lexical choice in male and female speech in Dutch in order to find out which Dutch language features are indicative of the gender of a speaker and...Show moreThis thesis studies the current differences in lexical choice in male and female speech in Dutch in order to find out which Dutch language features are indicative of the gender of a speaker and which Dutch language features laypersons associate with a certain gender. While the field of language variation due to gender has increased in popularity, there is still little research available about the differences between male and female speech in languages other than English. This thesis was written in order to add to this currently underrepresented subject within the field of language variation due to gender. Furthermore, this thesis also focuses on the subject of lexicality, which is a subject that is often overlooked in favour of other parts of language variation, such as the variation in the use of certain language acts, the variation in voice and the frequency of interruptions. Social indexicality and previous studies about the differences between male and female speech are discussed in this thesis, before the methodology is explained. The data used in this thesis consist of fifty transcribed conversations from Dutch television programmes such as Van de Kaart, and these data were scrutinized for the presence of various gendered language features, such as the use of negation or locatives. Furthermore, twenty-five participants were asked to read three transcriptions and to indicate what they thought the gender of the speaker was. While the data showed that all analysed language features are used by both men and women, there is often a difference in the frequency of use, which means the feature is either feminine or masculine. For example, the use of negation is more frequent in female speech, while men use more quantities. Laypersons, on the other hand, determined the gender of speakers both through contextual clues and the lexical choices made by the speakers.Show less
Yanesha is claimed to be heavily influenced by Quechua, especially in the lexical and phonological domain. The neighbouring Campa languages have probably also been in contact with Quechua. In this...Show moreYanesha is claimed to be heavily influenced by Quechua, especially in the lexical and phonological domain. The neighbouring Campa languages have probably also been in contact with Quechua. In this thesis the influence of Quechua on Yanesha on the one hand and on Campa languages on the other hand are compared, with the focus on structural features of the languages. It becomes clear that Quechua influence on the grammar of Yanesha is meagre. In Campa languages the inclusive-exclusive distinction is probably due to Quechua influence, but this seems to be the only major change in Campa structure because of Quechua. This case study challenges most of the existing theories about structural changes that follow lexical influence (Campa) and those theories who claim that the situation that causes heavy lexical influx, would also cause influence on the structure (Yanesha).Show less
This MA thesis consists of an annotated translation of the short story “How I Found America,” written by the Jewish American author Anzia Yezierska (1881?–1970). The story was published in her...Show moreThis MA thesis consists of an annotated translation of the short story “How I Found America,” written by the Jewish American author Anzia Yezierska (1881?–1970). The story was published in her first collection of short stories, Hungry Hearts (1920). Yezierska’s work, which is not well known and has never been translated into Dutch, offers an inside into the lives of Jewish immigrants at the start of twentieth century. Within the framework of a three-act structure, "How I Found America" tells the story of a young Russian-Jewish woman who immigrates with her family to America, the Golden Land. She quickly becomes disillusioned by her surroundings. Depressed, she goes in search for the true nature of America. After long years of hard struggle, the narrator finally finds her answer that she is the one who creates America: “We go forth all to seek America. And in the seeking we create her. In the quality of our search shall be the nature of the America that we create” (Frank qtd. in Yezierska, 1920). The translation of Yezierska’s short story is accompanied by a discussion of the work of the French translator, theorist and philosopher, Antoine Berman (1992-1991) and features an analysis of his translation model in the form of a retrospective review of the translation of Yezierska’s text.Show less
