Is er een verschil aan te tonen in de taalbeheersing van meertalige tegenover niet-meertalige basisschoolleerlingen in de groepen drie en vier? En zo ja, welke factoren beïnvloeden de Nederlandse...Show moreIs er een verschil aan te tonen in de taalbeheersing van meertalige tegenover niet-meertalige basisschoolleerlingen in de groepen drie en vier? En zo ja, welke factoren beïnvloeden de Nederlandse taalbeheersing van de meertalige leerlingen? Om deze vragen te beantwoorden is in dit onderzoek een steekproef gedaan bij twee basisscholen, waarbij er is gekeken naar: de leeftijd van de leerling, de klassensamenstelling, welke talen er thuis gesproken worden, en of de leerling een voorschoolse opleiding heeft genoten.Show less
A research on the evaluation of Indian English (IE) speech by speakers of Indian English through the analysis of over 1000 Youtube comments. How these evaluations are shaped is investigated through...Show moreA research on the evaluation of Indian English (IE) speech by speakers of Indian English through the analysis of over 1000 Youtube comments. How these evaluations are shaped is investigated through an in-depth examination of the following factors: (1) Historical background of English in South Asia; (2) Current role of English in India; (3) The evolutionary linguistic perspective on group formation and use of language as a marker of group membership; (4) The perception of (presumed) non-native speakers (NNS) by speakers of Englishes that are (phonetically similar to) “global standards”, global ideologies of IE and how that interacts with the perception of IE speech by IE speakers.Show less
In this typological survey, I study the distribution of irrealis markers in a sample of nine South American indigenous languages. I do this to assess the typological validity of Reality Status, a...Show moreIn this typological survey, I study the distribution of irrealis markers in a sample of nine South American indigenous languages. I do this to assess the typological validity of Reality Status, a crosslinguistic grammatical category defined by Elliott (2000) about which there is much debate. This category assumes that a notional distinction of realized and unrealized events underlies the formal marking of the irrealis. Based on Elliott’s notional definition, and inspired by Michael (2014), I set out a group of irrealis parameters, grammatical categories which are expected to be marked for irrealis in a language which makes an RS distinction, and study which of these parameters are marked for the irrealis. I argue that assuming RS is often not adequate in explaining the distribution of irrealis markers and that this distribution should instead be explained by assuming a focal meaning of future prediction, which shows interaction with either degree of assertion or metaphorical inference from markers of deictic space. Together, these factors can account for the distribution of the irrealis markers in this sample.Show less
Korean internet discussions, especially those of teens, tend to be full of deliberate spelling errors. In this work, I tried to find out if there is any phonological way to clarify these...Show moreKorean internet discussions, especially those of teens, tend to be full of deliberate spelling errors. In this work, I tried to find out if there is any phonological way to clarify these alternative spellings by analysing a multitude of discussions on the Korean internet platform Naver Cafe. I collected spelling errors from these discussions and compared them to the official spelling of Korean. To ensure a consistent corpus of data, I only considered recent discussions about BTS, a Korean boy band that is popular among female Korean teens. All collected spelling errors could be divided into accidental spelling errors and deliberate spelling errors. Most of these deliberate spelling errors are based on the pronunciation rules of the Korean writing system, making the spellings stand closer to their actual pronunciations than their correct counterparts. A small proportion of all deliberate spelling errors is based on morphophonological rules that are usually only applied in the context of verbal morphology. All of this shows that Korean language users tend to be very creative while writing their language, usually for the sake of coming across cute or innocent. From this we can conclude that even spelling errors can be a fruitful source of information.Show less
De overeenstemming tussen fonemen en de letters die hen weergeven is niet altijd even evident en transparant. De zogenaamde orthografische diepte kan hevig variëren wanneer talen en hun...Show moreDe overeenstemming tussen fonemen en de letters die hen weergeven is niet altijd even evident en transparant. De zogenaamde orthografische diepte kan hevig variëren wanneer talen en hun schriftsystemen vergeleken worden. Voor het Standaardnederlands is meerdere malen berekend in hoeverre het orthografisch diep of ondiep genoemd kan worden. Vergelijkingen zijn gedaan met andere talen, zoals het Engels, Frans en Duits, maar een vergelijking met een Nederlands dialect ontbreekt. Daarom zal in dit werkstuk een vergelijking worden gemaakt met het Haagse stadsdialect. Dit zal een inzicht geven in de verschillen betreffende orthografische diepte tussen standaardtaal en dialect.Show less
Abstract This thesis explores the effect that vowel devoicing has on pitch accent in Tokyo Japanese as well as in the Gifu (Tarui) and Koshikijima varieties. The relation between these two...Show moreAbstract This thesis explores the effect that vowel devoicing has on pitch accent in Tokyo Japanese as well as in the Gifu (Tarui) and Koshikijima varieties. The relation between these two phenomena is understudied despite being interesting due to the apparent paradox of a high tone in a devoiced mora, which by definition cannot have pitch. The data consists of recordings of spoken language from existing databases online and of my own data from a phonetic experiment. By analyzing spectrograms in Praat and using the same methodology consistently for all data, this study aims to research how the phonological pitch accent and the phonetic process of vowel devoicing interact in all three varieties and to effectively compare the results.Show less
Within sign language poetry there is a genre that has not been the subject of scientific research yet, even though it has been around for quite some time: visual vernacular. It differentiates...Show moreWithin sign language poetry there is a genre that has not been the subject of scientific research yet, even though it has been around for quite some time: visual vernacular. It differentiates itself from other types of sign language literature in that it hardly ever uses anything but iconic signs, and this is what makes it internationally comprehensible across sign language borders. It is even understandable to audiences who do not have any knowledge of a sign language. Besides iconic signs, it uses many cinematographic techniques such as role switching from and to different subject or objects within the story. Visual vernacular is different from another type of sign language literature called classifier stories mainly in that the latter uses sign language specific lexicon which visual verancular does not. Another similar form of art, this time outside the sign language realm, is pantomime, but this is different from visual vernacular in many ways, one of the most prominent of which is that pantomime performers are only the storyteller whereas visual vernacular performers swith between the storyteller, main protagonist and any other subject or object in the story. By making a literary overview and using a dataset of different types of visual vernacular stories, this thesis provides an inter and intra sign language poetry genre comparison.Show less
Iconicity in reduplication is often considered to be a relation between form and referent, but this idea is more often than not inappropriate or too complicated. A thorough discussion about the...Show moreIconicity in reduplication is often considered to be a relation between form and referent, but this idea is more often than not inappropriate or too complicated. A thorough discussion about the nature of the sign, reduplication and its iconic nature, followed by a case study of Samoan shows that the iconicity should be seen as a relation between form and content.Show less
The Iranian practice of Taarof has been defined as “the active, ritualized realization of differential perceptions of superiority and inferiority in interaction” (Beeman, 1968:56-57). So far,...Show moreThe Iranian practice of Taarof has been defined as “the active, ritualized realization of differential perceptions of superiority and inferiority in interaction” (Beeman, 1968:56-57). So far, linguistic research on taarof has presented it as a homogenous cultural practice (Koutlaki, 2002; Miller et al., 2014), however, Izadi (2015) shows that the same use of taarof might be evaluated differently by different people. This suggests that the use of taarof may not be so homogenous as it has been presented before. People who over-use taarof are classified as ‘taarofi’ (Izadi, 2016:21), a term that is generally used to indicate that somebody uses taarof, but can now also be used with a negative connotation. Beeman (1986:57) mentioned how young Iranians complain about taarof, although they do not feel they can change this cultural practice, and Izadi (2016) writes that people who use taarof to a lesser extent are evaluated more positively in a professional context. Nanbakhsh (2011:187-188) demonstrated how the use of honorifics by young and middle-aged people has changed. Although he linked the use of honorifics to taarof, it is of course not possible to generalize his findings to other forms of taarof, beyond honorifics. Based on these observations, the aim is to take his research one step further, by researching the attitudes of young people (18-37 years old) towards taarof, first exploratively by means of interviews, followed by questionnaires.Show less
This thesis focuses on the analysis of a conversation between 3 students based in Rotterdam (including the author). It aims to describe the use of 'Straattaal' by these individuals and includes...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the analysis of a conversation between 3 students based in Rotterdam (including the author). It aims to describe the use of 'Straattaal' by these individuals and includes meta-commentary from the students who were part of this conversation.Show less
The popular musical genre known as hip-hop was introduced in the Netherlands in the 1980s; over the years the Dutch developed their own particular type of hip-hop known as Nederhop. According to...Show moreThe popular musical genre known as hip-hop was introduced in the Netherlands in the 1980s; over the years the Dutch developed their own particular type of hip-hop known as Nederhop. According to Gazzah (2008), Nederhop is merely the 'regular' variant of Dutch hip-hop, as immigrants of Moroccan descent participating in the Nederhop scene have created a new subgenre called Maroc-hop using elements from Moroccan traditional music. This work provides information on these musical genres as well as an overview of the languages and processes involved in the creation of Nederhop and Maroc-hop. By investigating the way lyrics are set to music, and how rhyme is used in both subgenres I attempt to identify the linguistic components that distinguish Nederhop from Maroc-hop.Show less
The phonetic-pragmatic interface has provided linguistics with an interesting question that the literature has not yet been able to answer conclusively: Does intonation directly communicate meaning...Show moreThe phonetic-pragmatic interface has provided linguistics with an interesting question that the literature has not yet been able to answer conclusively: Does intonation directly communicate meaning? This thesis describes an exploratory elicitation experiment in which the effects of two pragmatic dimensions on the production of Dutch intonation is examined within three core meanings: “testing”, “selection”, “selection plus”. The productions of native speakers – realised on two-syllable proper names – were recorded in four pragmatic dimension combinations: default or vocative (orientation), and formal or informal (politeness). The meanings and pragmatic dimensions were embodied in situational contexts that served to elicit individual intonation contours for each meaning configuration. Additionally, the effect of word length was considered in a secondary experiment by employing one- and three-syllable proper names in a constant pragmatic environment. Results show a main effect of orientation across core meanings caused by different contextual variables. Politeness yielded only one main effect as a result of the configuration of speaker-hearer relations. Productions were found to be consistent across word lengths. The effects of the pragmatic dimensions are of definite influence on the production of Dutch intonation contours, but they could not be generalised across core meanings due to context discrepancies, indicating the importance of situational background.Show less
A common belief in Western societies is that the sense of smell is of lesser value than, for example, our sense of sight. This belief however is not reflected in many cultures of the world and more...Show moreA common belief in Western societies is that the sense of smell is of lesser value than, for example, our sense of sight. This belief however is not reflected in many cultures of the world and more in-depth research into the sense of smell should not be cast aside based on these beliefs. There are several ways to describe smells and not all languages and cultures describe and use smells or describe smells in a similar manner. Studies show that smell can be described in various manners (Wilson and Stevenson 2006; Majid 2014; Wnuk and Majid 2013; Hombert 1992). Smells can be described by either using abstract terms, source-based descriptions or by using descriptive terms with the use of other perceptions. The focus in this thesis is on researching and describing the terms of smell in Hamar in order to determine how the Hamar describe smells. It is of importance to understand how the Hamar describe and use smells as this plays an important factor in understanding the culture. If the Hamar use a unique way of describing smells, then this knowledge gives us unique insight into the human faculty of language. This research is based on data collected during eight elicitation sessions with a native speaker of Hamar, Gele Hailu, at either the Leiden University Faculty of Humanities or in Gele’s home in Rotterdam. This thesis includes a grammatical analysis to determine in what word category the smell words occur and how these smell words are used. The eight elicitation sessions that are conducted with the use of physical stimuli and the grammatical analysis supplies us with a preliminary inventory of the smell terms of Hamar which in turn contributes to the framework of possible manners to index smell in languages of the world. Hamar uses source-based descriptions in combination with reduplication when describing smells; moreover, it uses an interesting construction which literally translates into English “it tells X” but has the meaning of “it smells like X”.Show less
Deze scriptie bevat een groot theoretisch gedeelte, waarin de leerprocessen van grammaticaal geslacht in een eerste taal en in een vreemde taal worden beschreven. De factoren die hierbij van...Show moreDeze scriptie bevat een groot theoretisch gedeelte, waarin de leerprocessen van grammaticaal geslacht in een eerste taal en in een vreemde taal worden beschreven. De factoren die hierbij van invloed zijn worden uitvoerig besproken, zoals moedertaal, leeftijd, aanwezigheid, transfer, uitleg en instructie. Verschillen tussen talen komen aan bod en daarna wordt dieper ingegaan op de leerprocessen van grammaticaal geslacht in het Nederlands en in het Frans. De taalspecifieke eigenschappen worden uiteengezet: de woordsoorten die onderhevig zijn aan grammaticaal geslacht worden van beide talen beschreven en daarna vergeleken. Er wordt gekeken naar de aanwezigheid van grammaticaal geslacht in het Nederlands en het Frans. Ten slotte is er een klein onderzoek gedaan naar de manier waarop twee middelbare schoolmethodes van Frans 1 havo/vwo grammaticaal geslacht aanbieden en proberen aan te leren aan de brugklasleerling. Uit de twee theoretische hoofstukken zijn aspecten afgeleid waarmee de lesmethodes bij het leren van een nieuwe vreemde taal rekening mee zouden moeten houden. De methodes worden aan de hand daarvan geanalyseerd en daarna met elkaar vergeleken.Show less
This thesis attempts to find explanations for the longus in brevī (LIB) syllables, heavy syllables in light positions, encountered in the Ṛgveda. After an introduction to the Ṛgvedic text and its...Show moreThis thesis attempts to find explanations for the longus in brevī (LIB) syllables, heavy syllables in light positions, encountered in the Ṛgveda. After an introduction to the Ṛgvedic text and its metre, the data consisting of LIB syllables in the second syllable of the break of trimeter verses with late caesura are discussed. The research points out that there are no phonological environments that can explain the LIB syllables. Furthermore, it shows that there is no correlation between age and percentage of LIB syllables. Next, the findings of the research are presented. A portion of the data is explained by Bhārgavī verses, a metrical variation marked by a jagatī cadence although containing only 11 syllables, in hymn 77 and 78 of Book 10. The research proceeds to show that verses in other hymns containing a similar cadence cannot be seen as Bhārgavī verses because of a different pattern of the break. A number of them are solved by adding a pause after the caesura. At last, the thesis reveals two textual corrections that explain a number of verses. Two verses contain verbs with the -āyá-suffix in the second syllable of the break. These forms have been attracted into the larger category of -áya-causatives at the time of composing and have later been restored in their original forms, which did not accord with the metre anymore. The last textual correction is in the -e- of the word jyeṣṭha-, that is etymologically made up of two syllables. Some occurrences can be counted as disyllabic, others as monosyllabic. This is explained as either a handy poetic tool, or a difference between the archaic family books and the more modern books.Show less
The aim of this thesis is to describe the functions of the particle 'ka' in Alorese, an Austronesian language of eastern Indonesia, and the sentence constructions in which it is found. This thesis...Show moreThe aim of this thesis is to describe the functions of the particle 'ka' in Alorese, an Austronesian language of eastern Indonesia, and the sentence constructions in which it is found. This thesis is an empirical study that makes use of real language data. In order to investigate the functions of ka, a FLEx and ELAN Alorese language corpus was used. The data used in this study consists of six recordings of the Frog Story collected from six participants from the Alorese villages Alor Kecil, Alor Becar, and Dulolong. Though the results are still preliminary, this thesis provides a base for more research on the particle ka and contributes to the description of the Alorese language.Show less
In dit onderzoek wordt een kwalitatieve vergelijking gemaakt tussen twee Nederlandse talkshows: Jinek en RTL Late Night. Jinek en RTL Late Night worden in de media verschillend beoordeeld. Jinek...Show moreIn dit onderzoek wordt een kwalitatieve vergelijking gemaakt tussen twee Nederlandse talkshows: Jinek en RTL Late Night. Jinek en RTL Late Night worden in de media verschillend beoordeeld. Jinek zou meer diepgang hebben en RTL Late Night zou meer gericht zijn op vermaak. De shows worden in dit onderzoek vergeleken op het gebied van topic-organisatie om mogelijk meer inzicht te kunnen geven in het verschil in diepgang tussen de twee shows.Show less
