Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis analyzed a corpus of speeches of world leaders held at the COP conferences to the UNFCCC in the years 2013 until 2017, using a combination of the tool presented by Steen et al. (2010)...Show moreThis thesis analyzed a corpus of speeches of world leaders held at the COP conferences to the UNFCCC in the years 2013 until 2017, using a combination of the tool presented by Steen et al. (2010) for linguistic metaphor analysis, the MIPVU, and qualitative thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke (2006). The metaphors and themes found reflect a dichotomous discourse: from their speeches emerges either a scenario of great danger and threat or a scenario of a harmonious transition, allowing for the continuation of existing norms. Neither seem to incite a good incentive for action. This impacted/non-impacted dichotomy fit in a target approach of the climate change problem, with the two-degree line being the concrete realization of this target. The danger lies on the other side of this line, where climate change becomes a threat. Removing this threat will allow the world to return to a stable and balanced norm, which will be achieved through a quiet transition to a clean energy economy and sustainable development.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis investigates implicit accuracy, which is considered the ability to use structures and rules that have become internalized and can thus be uttered easily, and explicit accuracy, defined...Show moreThis thesis investigates implicit accuracy, which is considered the ability to use structures and rules that have become internalized and can thus be uttered easily, and explicit accuracy, defined as the presence of linguistic items learnt by the L2 speaker that have not yet been transferred in implicit accuracy. To investigate in what respect L1, beginning L2 and advanced L2 speakers of Dutch differ in terms of implicit accuracy, spontaneous speech was elicited by two speech tasks. Speech performances were transcribed and coded for accuracy. Types of errors were marked and by use of five measures, implicit accuracy was investigated. Two MANOVAs were run to examine how L1 and L2 accuracy differs and how lower and higher proficient L2 accuracy differs. Significant differences with respect to error density and error type density were found. Correction of error was not found to differ significantly across groups of speakers. The qualitative analysis delved into explicit accuracy, which was examined by stimulated recall sessions: participants were asked to listen carefully to their own speech and to comment on errors, hesitations and the overall process of speaking. These comments were categorized by the researcher. Chi square analyses revealed that as proficiency increases, participants report less on lexical problems but more on affined aspects as task-related issues. L1 speakers specifically report mainly on issues of focus and temporal planning. This study confirms that both implicit and explicit accuracy differs across L1 and L2 speakers and across lower and higher proficient L2 speakers.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Secondly, ^^Directionality in sound change, the phenomenon that a segment can change into a certain other segment but not vice versa, has generally been assumed, but has not been studied...Show moreSecondly, ^^Directionality in sound change, the phenomenon that a segment can change into a certain other segment but not vice versa, has generally been assumed, but has not been studied systematically. Previous studies are mainly concerned with a general discussion on the role of phonology in sound change, often attributing directionality in sound change to phonetic bias. On the basis of a sample of 5,769 historical sound changes, the current study shows that directionality in sound change is not a prominent phenomenon in absolute terms. In general, lenition is more frequent than fortition. There are two main findings. Firstly, laterals are likely to change into approximants, but not vice versa. Secondly, an asymmetry was found for segments changing into /h/ or /ʔ/. Adopting the framework of Element Theory, a phonological analysis was presented to account for those directionality patterns. Firstly, vowel elements do not add (L)Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
The present study explores the relationship between multilingualism and expressiveness, with reference to the case of ideophones in Zulu. Ideophones make up a large and productive word class in...Show moreThe present study explores the relationship between multilingualism and expressiveness, with reference to the case of ideophones in Zulu. Ideophones make up a large and productive word class in Zulu, as they do in most Bantu languages (Nkabinde, 1986; Doke & Vilakazi, 1951). However, a study by Childs (1996) found that ideophone knowledge and use is in decline among young Zulu speakers in South Africa, likely because of influence from Afrikaans and English as prestige languages which do not have ideophones. This study seeks to follow up on this and expand upon it with the inclusion of gestures and an investigation of the attitudes surrounding ideophone use. The central finding is that the results here conform to Childs’s (1996) prediction that ideophone use is decreasing among Zulu speakers; however, ideophones are generally positively perceived by urban speakers, which stands in stark contrast to what Childs (1996) found. The implications of these positive attitudes are discussed in light of South Africa’s sociolinguistic history and current context. Lastly, I posit the tentative hypothesis that many of the functions of ideophones have persisted into urban Zulu in the form of onomatopoeia and even code-switching.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The Proto-Indo-European long vowels *ē and *ō occupy a remarkable position within the phonemic system. Although these vowels are phonemic, they are limited to very specific morphological categories...Show moreThe Proto-Indo-European long vowels *ē and *ō occupy a remarkable position within the phonemic system. Although these vowels are phonemic, they are limited to very specific morphological categories. This distribution has been explained by several theories, of which there are three which propose a phonetic origin for these long vowels and that nowadays find supported by various scholars, viz. Wackernagel’s lengthening in monosyllables, Szemerényi’s Law, and Kortlandt’s lengthening before word-final resonant. These three theories have in common that they derive the long vowels from their short counterparts *e and *o, whereas they differ from each other in the phonological environments under which the short vowels would have become long. It is, however, still controversial which theory is the most likely to be correct, since all theories have counterexamples. This thesis examines the question which of the three phonetic theories on the origin of the Proto-Indo-European lengthened grade can be proven correct or incorrect. This question will be addressed by discussing the evidence and counterevidence of the nominal system and comparing the counterexamples to the three theories. By attempting to provide alternative explanations for the counterevidence, as well as discussing the strengths and weaknesses of existing alternative explanations, it is possible to examine which theory or theories can be kept up and which one(s) must be rejected. It will be concluded, that monosyllabic lengthening probably works for the nominal system, that Kortlandt’s lengthening before word-final resonant can only work when it is reformulated(i.e. leaving out the nasals as a conditional factor), and that Szemerényi’s Law is best to be given up.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis consists of two interconnected parts: a synchronic section dealing with Lio phonology, and a diachronic section dealing with the internal relations of the Central Flores language group,...Show moreThis thesis consists of two interconnected parts: a synchronic section dealing with Lio phonology, and a diachronic section dealing with the internal relations of the Central Flores language group, of which Lio is a member. The first section is a description of the phonetics and phonology of Lio (Austronesian), a language spoken in Flores, an island in the Lesser Sunda island chain of eastern Indonesia. I describe the phonemic inventory, phonotactics, stress system and adaptation of loanwords into Lio. This is based on fieldwork carried out in Central Flores in July-August 2017 which focused mainly on Lio. This is a contribution to the state of linguistic documentation in Central Flores, which remains relatively poorly documented. This will also set the stage for the second part of the thesis, because Lio is an important language for reconstructing aspects of Proto-Central Flores. The second section is a historical analysis of the relations of the Central Flores languages, and a reconstruction of Proto-Central Flores. I present evidence that the Central Flores languages form a valid innovation-defined subgroup, which underwent a period of splitting and isolation at the level of Proto-Central Flores. Then I address the internal relations of the Central Flores group and the process of differentiation from Proto-Central Flores to the modern Central Flores languages. Lio is one of the more conservative members of the Central Flores group, and is crucial for distinguishing the reflexes of certain Proto-Central Flores phonemes. The Central Flores group forms a linkage, with patterns of intersecting isoglosses which are not easily captured in a tree diagram. Therefore, the findings of this section will be cast in the framework of Historical Glottometry, a wave model-based methodology which is better equipped to represent and model the relations holding between linkages.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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In this thesis I evaluate the phonology of the Malberg glosses to see whether the language of the glosses is Old Dutch, as is oftentimes claims. Due to the impenetrability of the data and its early...Show moreIn this thesis I evaluate the phonology of the Malberg glosses to see whether the language of the glosses is Old Dutch, as is oftentimes claims. Due to the impenetrability of the data and its early date, this question is hard to answer. However, I have found evidence to suggest that the language of the glosses is not the same as Old Dutch.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis has two aims: (1) find a speaker-specific feature or combination of features of filled pauses that is the same for speakers’ first and second languages and (2) test the robustness of...Show moreThis thesis has two aims: (1) find a speaker-specific feature or combination of features of filled pauses that is the same for speakers’ first and second languages and (2) test the robustness of this feature or combination of features over time. Some studies have shown language-specific characteristics of filled pauses, while other studies have shown that these characteristics are carried over from the first language to the second. Research has focused on the similarities and differences of the filled pause type (uh and um) and the duration of filled pauses between two languages. It has focused on the phonetic content of filled pauses within a language but has not compared the phonetic content between languages. Therefore, this thesis researched the distribution (number of filled pauses) and phonetic features (the total duration of the filled pause, the vowel duration, the nasal duration, the mean F0, the mean and SD of F1, F2 and F3, the static midpoint of F1, F2 and F3 and the dynamic trajectories of F1, F2 and F3). ANOVAs were conducted to test for significant effects of both language and speaker and interactions between language or speaker and filled pause type. ANOVAs revealing low language-specificity and high speaker-specificity were pursued in order to find the optimal language-independent speaker-specific feature. Linear discriminant analyses were conducted to determine which individual feature and combinations of features could best classify the speakers. Almost all features showed some speaker-specificity, but the mean F0 returned the highest classification rate. The ideal feature combination was mean F0, vowel duration, nasal duration, the mean and SD of F1, F2 and F3. Linear discriminant analyses conducted using only information from one language returned high classification rates. More importantly, linear discriminant analyses done across two languages returned moderate to high classification rates. In addition, a linear discriminant analysis conducted with features taken from the first recording session to classify features from the recording session three years later revealed moderate classification rates. These results mean that (1) filled pauses contain language-independent speaker-specific information and (2) these speaker-specific features remain robust and consistent over time. In addition to other factors, these features in filled pauses can be used effectively in forensic speaker comparisons.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
Previous studies have found that non-standard language varieties are at risk of discrimination in legal contexts. Additionally, slow speech has been shown to be less credible than normal speech....Show morePrevious studies have found that non-standard language varieties are at risk of discrimination in legal contexts. Additionally, slow speech has been shown to be less credible than normal speech. However, little is known about how accent and speech rate interact. In order to investigate this phenomenon further, this thesis examines how Dutch listeners judge utterances on a seven-point scale when presented with auditory stimuli in two accents of Dutch (Standard Dutch and Moroccan Dutch) and two speech rates (normal and slow). Contrary to previous studies indicating that non-standard language is perceived as less credible, the results of this study revealed that listeners generally perceive both accents as equally credible at a normal speed. Slower speech was judged as less credible in both varieties, but Standard Dutch was given lower ratings overall. The results suggest that what has previously been established for slow speech in languages such as English also holds true for Dutch, and may have adverse consequences for individuals in contact with the law.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Optimality Theory has been the dominating theoretical framework in phonology. Experimental research has found supporting evidence for the psychological reality of its parameters. This study...Show moreOptimality Theory has been the dominating theoretical framework in phonology. Experimental research has found supporting evidence for the psychological reality of its parameters. This study proposes a combination of an artificial grammar learning task and a grammaticality judgement task to explore the mental representation of the constraint hierarchy in more detail. 19 Native Dutch speakers participated in this study, of which two were excluded. During the artificial grammar learning task participants implicitly learned a grammar. The stimuli were constructed using an OT-analysis of reduplication. During the GJT task, participants were asked to rate non-optimal and optimal candidates. By looking at the gradient judgement of the candidates, the learned constraint hierarchy can be analysed. After further investigation, a correction on the constructed OT-analysis was necessary. The reanalysed data revealed a relation between the responses and the simplified strata hierarchy. This relation showed similarities to the previously researched acquisition of initial state grammar. A multitude of challenges had to be overcome during the completion of this experiment. These challenges might contribute to the development of a well-defined methodology to further explore the psychological reality of OT.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
closed access
Bilingual adults are faster at reading cognates than non-cognates in both their first (L1) (Van Assche et al., 2009) and second language (L2) (Duyck et al., 2007). This cognate effect has been...Show moreBilingual adults are faster at reading cognates than non-cognates in both their first (L1) (Van Assche et al., 2009) and second language (L2) (Duyck et al., 2007). This cognate effect has been shown to be gradual in the L1: recognition was facilitated when words had higher degrees of cross-lingual similarity (Van Assche et al., 2009). Many studies on bilingual language processing have used this effect to indicate a co-activation of lexical representations in two languages. Recent research has shown that the gradual cognate facilitation effect can also be found in bilingual children’s receptive vocabulary (Bosma et al., 2016). However, it is still unknown to what extent it can be found in bilingual children’s reading. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether cognate facilitation can also be observed in bilingual children’s reading. To answer this question, Frisian-Dutch bilinguals (n = 18) between 9 and 12 years old performed a reading task in both of their languages. All children had Dutch as their dominant reading language, but most of them spoke mainly Frisian at home. Identical cognates (e.g., boek-boek ‘book’), non-identical cognates (e.g., beam-boom ‘tree’), and non-cognates (e.g., beppe-oma ‘grandmother’) were presented in a sentence context, and eye-movements were recorded. The results showed a non-gradual cognate facilitation effect in Frisian: identical cognates were read faster than non-identical cognates and non-cognates. In Dutch, however, no cognate facilitation effect could be observed. These results show that bilingual children use their dominant reading language when reading in their non-dominant one.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The current thesis investigates the preference of Dutch monolingual infants for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Our study is a contribution to the ManyBabies 1...Show moreThe current thesis investigates the preference of Dutch monolingual infants for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Our study is a contribution to the ManyBabies 1 project (Bergmann et al., 2018), which is the first large-scale replication project in infant research. We use the head-turn preference procedure and test all the infants at the age of 8-12 months with the stimuli in North American English. We hypothesize that the infants in the present study prefer IDS to ADS because of IDS exaggerated prosodic properties. The linguistic content of the stimuli is not available to the infants because the stimuli are in English, a language they have not been exposed to before. Moreover, we want to find out if there is any difference between younger (8-month-olds) and older infants (11-month-olds). Previous research has demonstrated that younger infants show a more reliable preference for IDS over ADS in comparison with older infants. We statistically analyze the results using a linear-mixed effects model because of its advantages such as taking into consideration random variables and dealing well with non-normal data.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The aim of this study is to analyze the variation of the first-person object pronoun, and its variants mij and mijn in historical Dutch, based on the Letters as Loot corpus. The corpus contains...Show moreThe aim of this study is to analyze the variation of the first-person object pronoun, and its variants mij and mijn in historical Dutch, based on the Letters as Loot corpus. The corpus contains letters written in the 17th and the 18th centuries. In contemporary Dutch, mij (‘me’) is the standard variant for the object pronoun of ik (‘I’). In Early New Dutch, this variant was competing with mijn. The aim is to pinpoint and interpret the patterns that determined the variation of the first-person object pronoun and the choice of the variant mij as the standard one, and to extend the small survey of van der Wal (2007) with a larger dataset. This research is conducted following the Historical Sociolinguistics framework, that uses low language varieties and registers and correlates language internal and sociodemographic variables to describe and explain sociolinguistic variation (Hernández-Campoy and Conde-Silvestre 2012, 5). Therefore, diachronic, language-internal and language external variables have been taken in account. The results show that in the seventeenth century the morphological alternation was tendentially determined by the syntactic function of the pronoun (mij as a direct object, mijn as indirect object). This pattern is not found in South Holland where mijn is preferably used regardless of syntactic function. Diachronically, by the 18th-century mij takes over all the syntactic functions, and it is the preferred variant in all the regions. However, 30% of instances of the pronoun are encoded by mijn. The retention of some variation is due to the language usage of lower ranks, that do not exhibit diachronic differences. The shift toward mij as the object pronoun is a change from above, i.e. led by higher ranks of the society.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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In The Netherlands, the objection procedure (or ‘bezwaarprocedure’) is considered one of the top-10 bottlenecks in public administration. Hence, four municipalities in the Leiden area redesigned...Show moreIn The Netherlands, the objection procedure (or ‘bezwaarprocedure’) is considered one of the top-10 bottlenecks in public administration. Hence, four municipalities in the Leiden area redesigned their objection procedure. The new way of working is based on mediation skills. Yet, it is unclear what these mediation skills signify in this context. And how are they applied by the objection committee (known as mediation style)? Likewise, how do the conflicting parties react to this new way of working (known as conflict style)? And, last but not least – what causes all these styles? In order to answer these questions, qualitative data from 12 hearings is presented in a linguistic corpus. Excerpts are taken out and assessed to offer a comprehensive answer. The results were as follows. Generally, objectors maintained a competing, defensive style; authority representatives retreated to the law, failing to make their contributions relevant for the objector; interested third parties were resentful; and the committee had a facilitative mediation style – for the benefit of the conflicting parties. One probable cause of these conflict styles is the existence of four types of asymmetry between the objector and the remaining parties. Furthermore, it is possible that mental association with contexts of fighting is a cause of said conflict styles. The consequence of these styles was that the objector often put in extra effort, whereas the authority representative took a step backwards in effort. As a small-scale study, this papers offers incentives for larger studies into the government-citizen relationship; into power in negotiation; and into face negotiation theory.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis focuses on the relation between preference and particles. It researches the modal particles 'even', 'maar' and 'misschien', used in informal telephone conversations. I analyse all...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the relation between preference and particles. It researches the modal particles 'even', 'maar' and 'misschien', used in informal telephone conversations. I analyse all occurrences of these particles in a second pair part that answers a question, to be able to see if these mitigating particles are used to mitigate the non-preference, as expected.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis explores the abstract rule learning mechanism as proposed by Marcus et al. (1999). While Marcus et al. (1999) indicated that 7-month-old infants can recognize and generalize rule-like...Show moreThis thesis explores the abstract rule learning mechanism as proposed by Marcus et al. (1999). While Marcus et al. (1999) indicated that 7-month-old infants can recognize and generalize rule-like patterns (i.e., ABA or ABB patterns) in linguistic input, Saffran et al. (2007) showed that infants can also learn rules from visual input. This thesis aims to investigate whether visual rule learning is still connected to language in the form of lexical knowledge, as rule learning could be facilitated by familiarity with the label pertaining to a visual object. To explore this notion, Saffran et al. (2007) is replicated with 12- to 14-month-old infants, using socks with different colour schemes as the stimuli, since the word sock should be familiar to the participants. Furthermore, the role of within-stimulus variety between A and B items is explored by comparing the results from the current study to Van Leeuwen (2016), who used entirely different objects as A and B items in a similar experiment.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The current study is an acoustic investigation of the three-way obstruent contrast between voiceless aspirated, voiceless unaspirated and voiced stops in the medial position of tone sandhi domains...Show moreThe current study is an acoustic investigation of the three-way obstruent contrast between voiceless aspirated, voiceless unaspirated and voiced stops in the medial position of tone sandhi domains in Lili Wu Chinese, a language that has an aspiration-induced tonal split in lexical tones. The main focus of the thesis was to examine the acoustic realizations of the three-way stop contrast. By analyzing acoustic data from twenty old-generation Lili Wu native speakers, we found that f0 perturbation was employed by speakers to contrast phonological voicing: voiced stops introduced lower f0 contours to the following vowels than the voiceless ones. Durational data on consonant release (c/v ratio) and difference in phonation types (H1*-H2*) were adopted as two cues to contrast aspiration: voiceless aspirated stops tend to be associated with greater c/v ratio and H1*-H2* differences than voiceless unaspirated ones.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Many sociolinguistic studies see a difference in the language of men and women. This study explores the differences in gendered language use in the letters written by Marian Evans and those written...Show moreMany sociolinguistic studies see a difference in the language of men and women. This study explores the differences in gendered language use in the letters written by Marian Evans and those written under her better-known male pseudonym, George Eliot. By combining gender theory, social history, and computational linguistics, this study argues that Marian Evans took up a pseudonym and a more masculine writing style to succeed in the male-dominated literary world. Machine learning indeed shows that the letters signed as George Eliot were classified as belonging to a male-writing style.Show less
