The aim of this thesis is to gain insight into the attitudes of native speakers of Dutch toward Dutch English used in different social contexts. To investigate these attitudes, an online survey was...Show moreThe aim of this thesis is to gain insight into the attitudes of native speakers of Dutch toward Dutch English used in different social contexts. To investigate these attitudes, an online survey was distributed among native speakers of Dutch. The participants were first asked to judge four fragments of speakers of Dutch English according to various features: pleasantness, acceptability, intelligibility, comprehensibility and seriousness. The participants also gave their opinions about the English language, Dutch English and the acceptability of speaking Dutch English in specific professions. The results indicate that attitudes differ depending on the social context, such as formality, field of work, humoristic intentions and professional rank. The results were also used to assess whether Dutch English can be considered a variety of English.Show less
This thesis examines the status of whether in Generative Grammar. There is no consensus in the existing literature on the syntactic status of whether. Some linguists (Haegeman, 2006; Huddleston ...Show moreThis thesis examines the status of whether in Generative Grammar. There is no consensus in the existing literature on the syntactic status of whether. Some linguists (Haegeman, 2006; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Van Gelderen, 2013; among others) argue that whether is a complementiser, on a par with that and if. The example in (1) illustrates this position: (1) I don’t know whether/if I’ll go to the party. Other linguists (Newson et al, 2006; Radford, 1997, 2004, 2009; among others) have posited that whether is a wh-phrase, on a par with who and when. The example in (2) illustrates this position: (2) I don’t know whether/when I’ll go to the party. In this thesis, I aim to find out which of these positions is to be preferred: is whether a complementiser or a wh-phrase? I will attempt to answer this question through synchronic and diachronic research, using data from the existing literature. I will analyse the present-day syntactic behaviour of whether, its historical development and its morphology and critically evaluate the evidence for the two positions as presented in the existing literature.Show less
