USA reality competition television series RuPaul’s Drag Race has seen a rise in popularity since it first aired in 2009 and can be watched in several countries across different platforms. This...Show moreUSA reality competition television series RuPaul’s Drag Race has seen a rise in popularity since it first aired in 2009 and can be watched in several countries across different platforms. This global interest causes the need to translate the series’ English language into other languages. The use of language that is specific to the drag community and gay community, one that is tied to both gender and sexuality, as explored in this thesis, causes the translator to have to deal with community-specific words. A fairly recent phenomenon, the concept of translating this community-specific language and its translation into Dutch has not yet been extensively discussed. This thesis aims to find patterns that are visible in the translation procedures used (based on the concept of translation procedures by Newmark) for the translation of language tied to the drag and gay community, for the Dutch Netflix subtitles of three episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Some of this language is maintained in the audiovisual translation, while other language is modified or removed. This modification or removal might possibly cause a different viewing experience for the Dutch viewer as compared to a viewer who only uses the source text, and causes a loss of meaning of cultural elements related to the drag community.Show less
The joy-term dream has a special place in Old English semantic field studies attracting the attention because of its wide range of meanings and vague etymology. However, there has been no attempt...Show moreThe joy-term dream has a special place in Old English semantic field studies attracting the attention because of its wide range of meanings and vague etymology. However, there has been no attempt undertaken yet either to determine the metaphorical conceptualisations of dream, or to explore a possible correlation between its use and the type, genre, or chronology of the texts containing it. This thesis aims to fill this lacuna and poses three research questions: 1) What feelings, states and emotions can be expressed through the Old English word dream and its collocation patterns, and what are their metaphorical conceptualisations? 2) How do Anglo-Saxon poetry and prose differ in the manner in which the word dream is used and conceptualised? 3) How do factors like genre (e.g. heroic poetry and wisdom poetry for poetry, and law texts and chronicles for prose) and religiousness of the texts (e.g., religious texts vs. secular texts) play a role in how the word dream was used and conceptualised? On the basis of a close examination of 165 occurrences of dream in DOEC in an episodic or situational context, three conceptualisations of dream are discovered – LIFE, PRIVILEGE and HEAVEN, and eleven contextual meanings of dream related to them. The analysis of their distribution throughout OE poetic and prosaic genres shows a correlation between the use of dream and the type, genre, and chronology of the texts.Show less
This thesis gives a detailed overview of the Guīshān Mandarin sound system based on several thousands of monosyllables uttered in isolation. The analyses presented are both phonetic and...Show moreThis thesis gives a detailed overview of the Guīshān Mandarin sound system based on several thousands of monosyllables uttered in isolation. The analyses presented are both phonetic and phonological, combining quantitative and qualitative methods.Show less
This papers aims to evaluate the sound changes that took place between the Proto-Indo-European stage and the Proto-Celtic stage, that is to say before this proto-language started to be divided into...Show moreThis papers aims to evaluate the sound changes that took place between the Proto-Indo-European stage and the Proto-Celtic stage, that is to say before this proto-language started to be divided into several dialects giving birth to Old Irish, Old Welsh, Old Breton, Old Cornish, Gaulish, Celtiberian, and Lepontic, and to propose a relative chronologic order of those changes.Show less
This thesis aims to investigate how critical book reviews contribute to translators’ invisibility. Lawrence Venuti (2018) presents examples of reviews of translated books from British and American...Show moreThis thesis aims to investigate how critical book reviews contribute to translators’ invisibility. Lawrence Venuti (2018) presents examples of reviews of translated books from British and American periodicals, that illustrate the invisibility of translators (pp. 2-13). Several studies (Fawcett, 2000; Schulte, 2000; Bush, 2004; Valdez, 2009; Gray, 2017; Wardle 2020) have analysed the critical reviews of literary translations in prominent newspapers to ascertain translators’ visibility and image in their respective language fields. To gain insight into the translators’ image in the Netherlands, an analogous research was undertaken by analysing the critical reviews that were published between 1 January and 31 December 2020 in the Dutch newspaper NRC. This study has found that the majority of reviews that discussed translated books (60%), did not indicate what source language they were translated from. Additionally, in 73% of the reviews the name of the translator or translators was provided in a sidebar, but the translation was not discussed in the review itself. A tentative conclusion is that the trend in Dutch critical reviews is to take a translation for granted and to merely discuss the content and the style of the author, frequently supported by using ‒ paradoxically enough ‒ quotes in Dutch (86%). Translators are relegated to a subservient role and rarely receive acknowledgment for quotes that are used in critical book reviews, nor for their contribution towards the success (or failure) of the author.Show less
A number of different studies has demonstrated that animal expressions, often with metaphors as their basis, are a widespread phenomenon across the world’s languages, and that they can be used to...Show moreA number of different studies has demonstrated that animal expressions, often with metaphors as their basis, are a widespread phenomenon across the world’s languages, and that they can be used to convey a wide variety of positive and negative meanings. This study investigates the negative connotations and metaphorical associations of five animals from a comparative and cross-linguistic perspective, to see if there are noticeable patterns among different languages. The factors influencing the development of metaphors and connotations are also explored. The data was collected from previous publications on the subject and compiled in an overview showing negative animal expressions from 61 languages. The results showed that genealogical relations increase the chances of connotations being shared between languages, and that geography and religion can also be of influence. The amount of internal variation also indicates that there is a degree of arbitrariness with regard to the development of metaphors.Show less
This thesis addresses verbal and non-verbal aspects of Russian identity, namely word order and smiling. It aims at investigating whether Russian national identity is shifting and can be qualified...Show moreThis thesis addresses verbal and non-verbal aspects of Russian identity, namely word order and smiling. It aims at investigating whether Russian national identity is shifting and can be qualified as ‘Western’. In order to examine these aspects, the Matched Guise Test was used, which proved its efficiency in measuring verbal and non-verbal sociolinguistic aspects that existed in a particular language community. For this experiment, native Russian speakers (n=22) were offered to participate in two tests that focused on common and uncommon word order use and use of a sincere smile in a situation where it was not commonly used. In the first task, native Russian speakers were asked to evaluate two equivalent Russian phrases produced by a guise. The phrases were different in their word order. During the second task, a video scene was shown to participants where a stranger smiled sincerely when making eye contact with another stranger. Participants were supposed to assess both tasks across seven characteristics on Likert scales. The results of the first task were compared and correlated with gender and age, as were the findings of the second task. Overall, participants pointed out that uncommon word order and a genuine smile to a stranger could not be regarded as a Russian way of verbal and non-verbal behaviour. This led to the conclusion that participants were sensitive towards these aspects. Also, their responses supported the idea that both aspects contributed to Russian identity formation. Apart from that, the study revealed that female participants were more conservative concerning uncommon word order use, and younger participants were more sensitive towards the sincerity of a smile received from a stranger. However, according to previous research, more studies are needed in order to outline a clear-cut sociolinguistic situation in Russia, especially in measuring attitudes of its population by means of the matched-guise technique.Show less
Metaphors are linguistic, rhetorical devices that have the ability to increase effectiveness of the perception by adding comprehensibility and relatability, thus boosting persuasion. Strategic...Show moreMetaphors are linguistic, rhetorical devices that have the ability to increase effectiveness of the perception by adding comprehensibility and relatability, thus boosting persuasion. Strategic manoeuvring by means of metaphor in political speeches is quite common, yet, only little awareness exists on the subject, especially in the political realm, which is why it is crucial to increase knowledge on this subject. The general purpose of this study is to increase knowledge of the strategic use of metaphors of US Republican and Democratic presidents’ inaugural speeches in the past 20 years, employing Critical Discourse Analysis to address how the strategic use of metaphors compares between the (first) inaugural addresses of President G.W. Bush, President Obama, President Trump, and President Biden, and how these metaphors function. The metaphors in the speeches were identified using existing literature and Lakoff’s Master Metaphor List (1991). Findings revealed that all four presidents’ most frequent conceptual metaphors were the journey, object, building, and war metaphors, which may be explained by both their high rate of conventionalisation and their exceptional rhetorical properties. Furthermore, the Democratic presidents used more different types of metaphors than the Republican presidents did. The Democratic and Republican Presidents used roughly the same number of metaphors relative to their speeches’ word counts. A follow-up analysis may help gain insights on whether voters’ perceptions of presidents are influenced by the inaugural addresses and the role of metaphors and other rhetorical tools in the political genre.Show less
Trust is an important aspect of daily-life communication. We decide whether to trust someone based on just a face or a voice. Trust is part of credibility and is invariably connected to expertise....Show moreTrust is an important aspect of daily-life communication. We decide whether to trust someone based on just a face or a voice. Trust is part of credibility and is invariably connected to expertise. Previous research on credibility, expertise and trustworthiness has shown the impact of disfluencies on all three aspects. However, it has often focused only on native speech, and never used the duration of empty pauses as a fluency measure. The current study investigated the effect of empty pause manipulations in both native and non-native speech on perceived competency-based trustworthiness in two scenarios, differing in the level of expertise. Recordings of a native and a non-native speaker were manipulated phonetically, which resulted in two conditions: long empty pauses (LongPauses) and no empty pauses (NoPauses). The perceived competency-based trustworthiness of the speakers was measured using a 5-point likert-scale, based on McCroskey’s (1966) authoritativeness scale. Results indicated a significant effect for scenario and an interaction effect between scenario and nativeness. Post-hoc t-tests showed that the native speaker was perceived as significantly less trustworthy than the non-native speaker in the non-expert scenario. Second post-hoc t-tests showed that the native speaker was perceived as significantly more competency-based trustworthy in the expert scenario, than in the non-expert scenario. This same effect was not found for the non-native speaker. Follow-up questions showed that listeners in the native group indicated that the implied expertise in the scenarios did affect their judgements of the speaker, while the listeners in the non-native group indicated it did not.Show less
Les jeunes utilisent une forme de langage qui leur est propre et en perpétuelle mutation, qualifiée souvent de langage jeune. Ce faisant, ils constituent un facteur important de changement...Show moreLes jeunes utilisent une forme de langage qui leur est propre et en perpétuelle mutation, qualifiée souvent de langage jeune. Ce faisant, ils constituent un facteur important de changement linguistique. Les études existantes démontrent l’existence de ce phénomène en se concentrant sur les jeux sur le lexique comme le verlan, la troncation ou l’emprunt à d’autres langues. Ce mémoire porte sur ce qui semble constituer un jeu morphosyntaxique très présent dans le langage jeune contemporain, celui de la recatégorisation, et plus particulièrement la recatégorisation de l’adjectif en adverbe. On rencontre en effet fréquemment l’emploi de certains adjectifs à la place des adverbes en - ment leur correspondant (j’ai total planté à la place de j’ai totalement planté). J’identifie dans ce travail 15 adjectifs autorisant cet emploi. Je démontre qu’il s’agit de cas de recatégorisation et non d’apocopes et classe les 15 adjectifs en 2 groupes en fonction de leur rôle dans la phrase. Pour 8 d’entre eux, utilisés comme adverbes d’intensité, et sur lesquels porte la majeure partie de ce travail, je propose que la recatégorisation soit le moyen choisi par les jeunes pour se créer de nouveaux marqueurs d’intensité percutants, selon le besoin constant, largement reconnu dans la littérature, de renouvellement de cette classe de mots. Pour les 7 autres adjectifs adverbialisés, dont les correspondants en -ment sont des adverbes de manière verbaux, je suggère que leur emploi (se laver rapide ou faire quelque chose tranquille) engendre un transfert de modification du verbe vers le sujet et que cela pourrait s’insérer dans une dynamique plus large de besoin d’expression par le locuteur de son attitude face à l’action, besoin créé par un emploi intensif des émoticônes.Show less
