Most researchers agree that frequency plays a role during the processing or accessing of words. Hay (2001) argues that there is a type of frequency called relative frequency which has an important...Show moreMost researchers agree that frequency plays a role during the processing or accessing of words. Hay (2001) argues that there is a type of frequency called relative frequency which has an important effect on the processing of derived forms through a two-route model of morphological processing. She argues that complex forms with a frequency lower than the frequency of their base forms (e.g. uncommon) are more likely to be perceived as decomposable than a complex form with a higher frequency than the frequency of their base words (e.g. uncanny). She reports the results of an experiment which provides evidence for this view. Since it is reasonable to assume that these relative frequency effects also occur in other languages, I replicated her experiment for Dutch. The results of my experiment suggest that relative frequency effects are observed in the processing of Dutch derived forms.Show less
In this thesis, two film adaptations of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kenneth Branagh (1993) and Joss Whedon (2013), are analysed, each film representing a particular cinematic...Show moreIn this thesis, two film adaptations of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kenneth Branagh (1993) and Joss Whedon (2013), are analysed, each film representing a particular cinematic tradition within the history of cinema. I argue that the main force at work in both adaptations is a complex nostalgia, one intrinsic to the very notion of 'heritage film' and likewise implicit in Whedon's indebtedness to American screwball comedy.Show less
This thesis explores the web-series Frankenstein, MD, an adaptation for YouTube of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein set in contemporary times. This provides the opportunity for a modern-day...Show moreThis thesis explores the web-series Frankenstein, MD, an adaptation for YouTube of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein set in contemporary times. This provides the opportunity for a modern-day interpretation of the story in which the themes of Shelley's critique on her society, the position of women in that society, the dangers of knowledge, and the idea of the 'monster' are still relevant. Although the series and its critique appears flawed, it shows that Shelley's story is still relevant today.Show less
This paper contains a detailed analysis of the use and non-use of biased language amongst students of the BA English Language & Culture at the Leiden University. To be more precise, it...Show moreThis paper contains a detailed analysis of the use and non-use of biased language amongst students of the BA English Language & Culture at the Leiden University. To be more precise, it discusses the reasoning behind the use and non-use of biased language, as well as the contexts and manners in which they occur alongside the targeted groups of such biased language. There was a general tendency to abstain from using biased language in general with the exception of camaraderie forms among the subjects. Still, the participants reacted very differently to the instances of biased language pertaining to different groups of people, with religion being treated the least careful, and race the most careful.Show less
The turbulent past of the women’s suffrage movement is a well known part of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. As Gail Cunningham points out, women had barely any rights before the reign of...Show moreThe turbulent past of the women’s suffrage movement is a well known part of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. As Gail Cunningham points out, women had barely any rights before the reign of Queen Victoria, but the women’s suffrage movement made big steps forward during her reign (1-5). It is therefore interesting to look at literature published in the beginning of the Victorian period, and to compare the way women are portrayed in those novels to their representation in literature published later on in the Victorian period. According to recent research, comparing novels from the beginning of the Victorian period and the end shows that women gradually become represented in a more emancipated way (Williams 43). Indeed, this might at first seem like it is true. However, as Nancy Schumann argues, when analysing the different female characters in these novels, it might also come to show that society’s views on women have not changed as much as we might like to believe (109). To test this theory, this dissertation will discuss the representation of women in Gothic fiction published during and after the Victorian period, as this was a widely read genre at the time (Calder 16). Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, published in 1847, early on in the Victorian period, will be compared to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), published later on in the Victorian period, and to Shirley Jackson’s modern Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). There is a gap of over a hundred years between the publication of Jane Eyre and the publication of We have always Lived in the Castle, so the latter should show a considerable change in the representation of its female characters. Yet, contrary to what is suggested in current research (Williams 43), Gothic fiction does not mirror this change.Show less
The claim to female slave agency is compared in the narratives of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Jacobs, in which the claim that slavery is immoral, is presented as the main argument.
A key part of what made both media and people talk about Trump seems to be his effective use of metaphors. Trump’s promises to ‘drain the swamp’ and end the ‘flood of refugees’ made for excellent...Show moreA key part of what made both media and people talk about Trump seems to be his effective use of metaphors. Trump’s promises to ‘drain the swamp’ and end the ‘flood of refugees’ made for excellent newspaper headlines. Despite this potent use of metaphors, it has been stated that Donald Trump “rarely uses live metaphors in his speeches”. In this thesis, I disprove this claim by analysing three of Trump's speeches, and provide empirical data on Trump's use of metaphors by applying the MIPVU method on said speeches.Show less
This thesis explores the ways in which gendered language related to love and marriage can illuminate aspects concerning the themes of love and marriage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma...Show moreThis thesis explores the ways in which gendered language related to love and marriage can illuminate aspects concerning the themes of love and marriage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma. A literature review has been provided in order to support the investigations conducted in this thesis, and it summarises the areas of gendered language which have been selected for analysis. In the subsequent sections, a study of the data collected with the use of the application WordSmith focuses on the ways in which patterns of gendered language uttered by various characters highlight fundamental features of different ages and classes. Key elements of age and class differences were uncovered, with extremely varying perspectives on love and marriage by the older generations and those of the higher upper classes, as opposed to the younger generations and members of lower positions in society. A reading of the two novels together has allowed for a wide analysis of Austen’s themes across her works, and it has led to the discovery of interesting parallels between Pride and Prejudice and Emma.Show less
This thesis intended to find must-have features and the added value of digital language learning applications (DLLAs) based on the opinions and attitudes of both high school teachers and students....Show moreThis thesis intended to find must-have features and the added value of digital language learning applications (DLLAs) based on the opinions and attitudes of both high school teachers and students. This information was obtained through qualitative interviews. These results were then compared to the findings of the literature review. Ultimately, four must-have features and two main elements of added value were found. It is important that (1) DLLAs are free, (2) they need to be adjustable, (3) their interface needs to be user-friendly and (4) there needs to be an element of control for the teachers. Most of these must-have features have been considered by researchers, although they have not always been implemented thoroughly. The added value of DLLAs can be found in (1) time-saving and (2) the personalisation of language learning. It is important that developers take these findings into account when developing new DLLAs, for their products to be practical in use and to have added value besides merely replacing paper notepads.Show less
During the first half of 2016, politics in the United Kingdom were taken over by the upcoming referendum about whether to leave the European Union, the so-called Brexit referendum. While there were...Show moreDuring the first half of 2016, politics in the United Kingdom were taken over by the upcoming referendum about whether to leave the European Union, the so-called Brexit referendum. While there were many campaign groups, only two of them were designated the official ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ side: Vote Leave Take Control (VoteLeave) supported leaving the EU, whereas Britain Stronger In (StrongerIn) campaigned for the UK to remain part of the EU. This battle resulted in a narrow victory for the Leave campaign, with 51.9 percent of the voters supporting Leave. There has been a lot of speculation on what the future brings for the United Kingdom. Bremmer for example, worries about how Britain’s financial world will be impacted after leaving the European Union and the difficulties in negotiating new (trade) relationships with current EU partners (16). However, nothing has been written so far on the role of persuasion strategies in this outcome. This thesis will bridge this gap by analysing the persuasion strategies used by both sides and measure how well they suited their audience of British voters.Show less
This thesis will focus on persuasive non-factual rhetoric within three history plays (Julius Caesar [1599], Henry V [1599], and Richard III [1592]) as means to legitimise the characters‟ violent...Show moreThis thesis will focus on persuasive non-factual rhetoric within three history plays (Julius Caesar [1599], Henry V [1599], and Richard III [1592]) as means to legitimise the characters‟ violent behaviour. The main characters persuade other players, or are themselves persuaded, through private and public speeches, laced with fabricated rhetoric, into murderous actions. This non-factual rhetoric is masterfully applied in William Shakespeare‟s plays. Particularly in the historic plays written by Shakespeare, the reader can discern political manipulation to achieve personal goals throughout three different periods of time, demonstrating a pattern of false rhetoric through history.Show less
Recently, Buizza and Plug (2012) researched one particular allophone of the phoneme /t/ in RP English. This particular pronunciation of /t/, in which the /t/ receives an s-like secondary...Show moreRecently, Buizza and Plug (2012) researched one particular allophone of the phoneme /t/ in RP English. This particular pronunciation of /t/, in which the /t/ receives an s-like secondary articulation, has received little scholarly attention to date. B&P conclude that this variant of /t/ can be regarded as fortition, in the sense that this pronunciation makes the /t/ more prevalent in strong positions in the syllable. The main element of this thesis is an empirical study based on the study carried out by Buizza and Plug (2012). It consists of a small-scale reproduction of their research in which I analyse spontaneous speech using the speech-analysis programme Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2017). The goal of this thesis was twofold: (i) to see whether I obtained similar results as B&P and (ii) to extend our knowledge on this variant of the RP English /t/, which could in turn deepen our understanding on developments of the RP English /t/. In doing so, I help investigate how the distinction between fortition and lenition can be researched. I conclude that my results partly reflect the results in B&P, although the distribution of [ts] over the positions considered is slightly different. This can in part be explained by the smaller scale and by the choices that I made during the categorization of the data. I also add that, in researching sound changes such as fortition and lenition, it might be worth looking at the influence of surrounding words.Show less
In 1986, Zohar Shavit claimed in her Poetics of Children’s Literature that children’s literature’s position may cause translators to neglect the beauty and structure of a source text and focus more...Show moreIn 1986, Zohar Shavit claimed in her Poetics of Children’s Literature that children’s literature’s position may cause translators to neglect the beauty and structure of a source text and focus more on the readability of the target text. According to Shavit, the lower position of children’s literature leads to the fact that a translator of children’s literature is permitted to take greater liberties in a translation, leading to what Antoine Berman would call a “textual deformation”. Among translators and translation theorists, disagreement exists on whether staying close to the source text, which would lead to a foreignizing effect, or bringing the text to the reader, creating a domesticating effect, is the most desirable strategy. Lawrence Venuti and Antoine Berman are strongly in favor of foreignizing translations, and do not deem the readability of a translation as most important, but instead advocate exposing the reader to foreign concepts from the source text and language. In order to test Zohar Shavit’s claim that children’s literature is translated rather freely and link it to Lawrence Venuti’s accusation that Anglo-American translations are predominately domesticating, I will analyze six children’s books and their translations by means of a selected number of Antoine Berman’s deforming tendencies, i.e. rationalization, expansion, clarification, and the destruction of expressions and idioms.Show less
The genre of the captivity narrative is closely connected both historically and ideologically with the colonization of the Americas. The genre emerged in the 1550s, when Hans Staden published an...Show moreThe genre of the captivity narrative is closely connected both historically and ideologically with the colonization of the Americas. The genre emerged in the 1550s, when Hans Staden published an account of his Brazilian captivity in True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America in 1557 (Michaela Schmolz-Haberlein 745). In 1575, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda published Memoir on the Country and Ancient Indian Tribes of Florida, in which he describes his captivity with the Calusa Indians. The first example of a captivity narrative in colonial North America is Mary Rowlandson’s The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682), which became the prototype of the genre in American literature. These three early autobiographical narratives and the fictional captivity narratives that were produced in their wake offer the colonizer’s perspective on the often violent conflicts and cultural encounters between European colonizers and the indigenous population that are a central theme in the genre. In this thesis I will focus on the ideological and cultural work that the captivity narrative performs, both in Mary Rowlandson’s prototypical narrative and Kevin Costner’s 1990 film Dances with Wolves, which presents itself as a kind of counter-captivity narrative. I will do so by providing a comparative close reading of the text and the film in their cultural context.Show less
According to Nicholas Tucker, “it is too much of a child to expect him to see life in the raw as it really is” (53). It is this very notion that Philip Pullman has explored thoroughly in his...Show moreAccording to Nicholas Tucker, “it is too much of a child to expect him to see life in the raw as it really is” (53). It is this very notion that Philip Pullman has explored thoroughly in his trilogy His Dark Materials. However, Pullman did present his highly critical message regarding the Church and religion to the reader, while employing conventions of children’s literature. His decision to share his polemical thoughts on the Church via children’s literature thus might be seen as a way of influencing children, but the question remains whether this was his intention.Show less
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