Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Conceptual Engineering is the practice of improving the concepts we use for a specific purpose. However, despite involving words and their meanings, this practice has not been looked at from the...Show moreConceptual Engineering is the practice of improving the concepts we use for a specific purpose. However, despite involving words and their meanings, this practice has not been looked at from the perspective of linguistics. This paper takes a small, niche scientific community, namely the Royal Society, and investigates to what extent Newton’s proposed distinction between mass and weight, which can be thought of as an instance of Conceptual Engineering, was consistently used in scientific journal articles between 1700 and 1920. Before Newton’s Principia, the lemma weight referred to both the amount of matter that makes up an object and the force of gravity acting on the matter. In 1687, Newton proposed that the former concept should be referred to as mass, and the latter as weight. Success, for this project, is differentiation based on sense and not on any other extra-linguistic factors. To discover whether the project was successful, 1500 tokens of mass and weight from the Royal Society Corpus were annotated for their lemma, ‘sense’, ‘object’, ‘subfield’, ‘author’, ‘year’, ‘type’, ‘plurality’, and part-of-speech. This data was analysed by looking at the frequencies of the respective senses over time, along with Ctrees and Random Forests to identify annotations that were the most important in predicting the lemma, and Principal Component Analysis to visually inspect clustering and patterns over time. The results showed that sense was not an effective predictor of the lemma, but that the extra-linguistic factors of ‘object’, ‘author’ and ‘subfield’ had great predictive power. Furthermore, the Principal Component Analysis confirmed clustering based on ‘object’, ‘author’ and ‘subfield’ rather than based on ‘sense’. It was concluded that Newton’s Conceptual Engineering of mass and weight was unsuccessful. From the perspective of Conceptual Engineering more generally, this work showed future research on more diverse communities with less coherent language ideologies is necessary when investigating cases of Conceptual Engineering, and also that linguists can be important contributors to Conceptual Engineering research in the future.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Comparative Correlative (CC) constructions, such as “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” are a relatively understudied construction within English syntax. The existing research further...Show moreComparative Correlative (CC) constructions, such as “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” are a relatively understudied construction within English syntax. The existing research further points to a great deal of disagreement on the nature of this construction. The aim of my research was to conduct a diachronic study of the CC construction, using a corpus-based approach, in order to show that the construction has remained largely the same from its earliest attestation in Old English through to the Middle English period. Five hypotheses are explored in this work: (1) there are two terms which express the same construction; (2) CC constructions are hypotactic, not paratactic; (3) the date given for the lexical change of swa to the is earlier than previously proposed; (4) the current syntactic structure can be explained by a process (micle-deletion) that took place in the Old English period, and lastly (5) that the Latin CC construction influenced the syntax of the OE construction. The results from this analysis show that hypotheses (1), (2) and (4) are true, while (3) remains unclear and (5) proves false.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis aims to describe the noun class system and its interaction with semantics in the Tanzanian Bantu language Kimbugwe (ISO 639-3). This thesis adds to the existing literature on Kimbugwe,...Show moreThis thesis aims to describe the noun class system and its interaction with semantics in the Tanzanian Bantu language Kimbugwe (ISO 639-3). This thesis adds to the existing literature on Kimbugwe, but also has typological value, and shows the linguistic diversity of the area the language is spoken in. The main research question of the thesis is; ‘How does the noun class system of Kimbugwe interact with semantics?’. The thesis shows that the noun class system interacts with semantics on a lexical level, through the inherent semantics of the noun classes, on a morphological level, through the derivational semantics of the noun classes, and on a syntactic level, through the semantic agreement of the noun classes.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The development of late modern Scottish English (1700-1900) is characterized by heavy amounts of prescriptivism. This specifically took the form of a process of anglicisation which pushed the...Show moreThe development of late modern Scottish English (1700-1900) is characterized by heavy amounts of prescriptivism. This specifically took the form of a process of anglicisation which pushed the previously high-status Scots language variety into the margins. Scottish linguistic features were proscribed in favour of London-English variants, and numerous studies have attested how the writings of upper- and middle-class Scottish authors took over the higher-prestige anglicised variants at the expense of traditional Scottish forms. How these language ideologies affected the usage of lower-class Scots, though, has long remained underinvestigated, in large part due to an absence of available data. The recent publication of a corpus of lower-class Scottish writing from the nineteenth century—the Corpus of Scottish Pauper Petitions, or ScotPP corpus, which includes pauper petitions written in a variety of Scottish parishes throughout the nineteenth century—offers new possibilities for research into lower-class linguistic developments. Making use of this corpus, the present thesis investigates the occurrence of anglicisation in lower-class written language. I compare the extent to which prescriptivism has affected the ScotPP pauper petitions with the writings of upper- and middle-class Scottish people during this period, drawing on materials the Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW). By studying both overt and covert Scotticisms, drawing respectively on works by contemporaneous prescriptivists and works by modern linguists, an approach is taken that highlights not only the process of language change from above through standardisation, but also the from below aspect of developments and how they interact and co-occur with the prescriptivism of the era. In doing so, this thesis sheds light on the sociohistorical processes by which anglicisation spread through and affected the language of the nineteenth-century Scottish social classes.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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In this thesis lexical parallelism in Southeast Asia is researched, with a main focus on Rotinese and Fataluku, with additional analyses from Leti and Kambera. In this thesis two hypotheses were...Show moreIn this thesis lexical parallelism in Southeast Asia is researched, with a main focus on Rotinese and Fataluku, with additional analyses from Leti and Kambera. In this thesis two hypotheses were tested: differences in the positioning of the ‘cultural dominant term’, and the related hypothesis where the combination of words, and their positioning, are dictated by culture. As the research showed, there are strong tendencies towards orderings in which the culturally dominant term always stands in the same position. This means that the two slots within a lexical parallel are grammatical slots, where the one slot has more power than the other, and thus occupies the word which has most power in the culture. The other hypothesis showed that languages differ in the position in which the culturally most dominant term is placed. For Leti and Rotinese, this is the first position, therefore, those languages are called P1-Languages. However, Kambera and Fataluku place the culturally most important term in the second position and are therefore called P2-Languages.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This study investigates Family Language Policy (FLP) in Greek-Finnish families living in Greece and the language management methods in use in these families. Additionally, the study examines what...Show moreThis study investigates Family Language Policy (FLP) in Greek-Finnish families living in Greece and the language management methods in use in these families. Additionally, the study examines what kinds of factors influence the FLP in the families under study, if any. The research is mainly guided by Spolsky’s (2004) three-tiered language policy model: language practices, language beliefs or ideology and efforts to modify said practices through language management. The target group for this research are Greek-Finnish families living in Greece, in which at least one parent is of Finnish heritage and speaks Finnish. The research was conducted through two separate online surveys: one was intended for the Finnish-speaking parents and one for their offspring, respectively. The survey inquired about the FLP in the families through questions related to the Finnish language and culture, including multiple choice questions and open-ended questions with an option to respond with text or audio. The results showed that the one-parent-one-language (OPOL) method was commonly in use in the families. A high impact belief, which refers to the parental belief about control over their children’s language skills (De Houwer 1999), and a strong ethnocultural identity were seen as factors affecting the FLP in a positive way. This means that the family members’ attitudes are in favor of learning the heritage language and passing it on to the next generation. Some external factors to the family, such as pressure from the Greek-speaking majority community, had a negative influence on family language policy, which could manifest for example as a resistance for passing on the home language. This study contributed to a better understanding of multilingual family life and FLP in families in which two small languages, Finnish and Greek, are spoken. These languages are not often studied in tandem. Future research could focus on child agency in such families in order to understand better the role children play in maintaining the heritage language in a family.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Discussions concerning syntactic aspects of code-switching (CS) phenomena are currently ongoing. This thesis looks at two such phenomena, nominal ellipsis (NPE) and linear adjacency, and shows how...Show moreDiscussions concerning syntactic aspects of code-switching (CS) phenomena are currently ongoing. This thesis looks at two such phenomena, nominal ellipsis (NPE) and linear adjacency, and shows how empirical investigation of CS contexts helps inform linguistic theory. This was accomplished by presenting 23 Belgian Dutch/French (BD/FR) bilinguals with a two-alternative forced choice judgment task and comparing their choices through t-tests to check for significance. Experiment 1 examines whether the choice of grammatical gender on adnominal ellipsis remnants reveals a morphosyntactic link between a FR elided noun with a BD antecedent. The results show that no such link can be observed for NPE in this language pair; this is contra González-Vilbazo and Ramos (2015), Merchant (2015) and Nee (2012), who have found evidence of a such a link between elided elements and antecedent in code-switched clausal and VP-ellipsis, as well as general evidence against structural theories of ellipsis (e.g., Merchant, 2001; 2004). Experiment 2 explores the Matrix Language Framework (MLF) (Myers-Scotton, 1993; 1995), a popular model that predicts that the determiner language will match the matrix language (ML) in code-switched DPs. However, effects of linear adjacency between the determiner and the inflection on the main verb (which determines the ML) have not yet been considered within the MLF. The DP was given as a post-verbal complement (adjacent), and as a post-verbal adjunct and a pre-verbal complement (non-adjacent). The results show that linear adjacency has no effect on determiner language. Moreover, the results also do not fit into the MLF. This thesis is the first empirical study to examine NPE theory in a code-switched environment, as well as the first to investigate linear adjacency effects on code-switched DPs. This work also provides insight into CS patterns in the BD/FR language pair, a relatively understudied bilingual population that frequently employs CS but is not a close-knit community. Taken together, these findings show that gathering empirical CS data from distinct bilingual populations is crucial, adding new and contrary insights and aiding the construction of linguistic theory.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The basis of this study is an observation of a Mandarin expression, which was heard in a Chinese television programme. The expression is qí le guài le, which I tentatively translate as ‘how strange...Show moreThe basis of this study is an observation of a Mandarin expression, which was heard in a Chinese television programme. The expression is qí le guài le, which I tentatively translate as ‘how strange’. Double le is well-described for verb–object (VO) compounds, as in nà le mèr le ‘have been perplexed’. However, qíguài is listed in dictionaries as an adjective meaning ‘strange’ and as a verb meaning ‘to find strange’. It is not documented as a VO, raising questions about its syntactic status. In this study, I investigate what qí le guài le means, what each instance of le contributes to its meaning, and whether qí and guài should be analysed as two different syntactic elements. The second paragraph contains an overview of the methodology. Here, it is explained that I understand syntax primarily as the study of relations between meanings. This contravenes a popular view of syntax as primarily concerning relations between forms. I also make a fundamental distinction between meaning and interpretation. In the following paragraphs, the analyses are presented step by step, and any linguistic jargon is explained and illustrated with examples. The reader is not expected to have prior knowledge of either Mandarin or linguistics.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Metaphors effectively explain a complex (scientific) topic in terms familiar to the non-expert audience. However, metaphors also affect attitude. This thesis investigated the effects that the path...Show moreMetaphors effectively explain a complex (scientific) topic in terms familiar to the non-expert audience. However, metaphors also affect attitude. This thesis investigated the effects that the path metaphor and the wildfire metaphor have on the personal control people experience over the further course of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, participants received a text about the ongoing yet hidden threat of COVID-19, in which a new outbreak was either described as a wrongly taken path, as a wildfire flaring up, or without a metaphor. To measure the experienced amount of personal control, the participants were asked about their feelings of fear and control of the virus and the measures, and how they would bring these feelings into practice by reacting to multiple scenarios involving the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Statistical testing revealed no significant effect of the metaphors on the participants’ responses, potentially due to (amongst others) the time frame of the research. It is necessary to research in which circumstances a metaphor does and does not affect attitude. Then, it can be determined how and when a metaphor can best be employed in daily life to influence the hearer’s perception of a message, for example in the contexts of climate change, disease, and politics.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The present thesis will deal with the proto-Indo-European anaphoric and relative pronouns, and their possible shared origin. The discussion will be based on a large repertoire of relevant lexical...Show moreThe present thesis will deal with the proto-Indo-European anaphoric and relative pronouns, and their possible shared origin. The discussion will be based on a large repertoire of relevant lexical entries from the whole Indo-European family, to reconstruct the most accurate pronominal paradigm and its phonology. This overhauled paradigm will be studied to extrapolate a relative chronology that will help to clarify the steps of its creation in pre-Proto-Indo-European and its differentiation between the relative and anaphoric pronoun. In the final chapters, the anaphoric pronoun will be analyzed under the lenses of the ergative theory and will be compared with the verbal augment, to determine whether they derive from the same hypothetical deictic particle. Finally, the pre-Proto-Indo-European reconstruction of the anaphoric pronoun will be compared with the Proto-Uralic pronominal repertoire to determine whether it was inherited from Proto-Indo-Uralic.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
2023-01-31T00:00:00Z
All Tukanoan languages have gender markers and classifiers, and both can be reconstructed to the proto-language to some degree. In this thesis, I provide a reconstruction of the development of the...Show moreAll Tukanoan languages have gender markers and classifiers, and both can be reconstructed to the proto-language to some degree. In this thesis, I provide a reconstruction of the development of the classifier system in the Tukanoan family, where I argue that it developed out of the older gender system morpho-syntactically, but that many of the synchronically found classifiers can morphologically be analysed as grammaticalized nouns. My arguments for this, as elaborated in this thesis, are as follows: i) all Tukanoan languages have similar gender markers which can probably be reconstructed for Proto-Tukanoan (Chacon 2021; in prep.); ii) the gender markers seem to have undergone grammaticalization at an early stage in the family; iii) many classifiers in the family are language-internal developments or can only be reconstructed for a sub-branch; iv) a few classifiers are widely found in the family and can be reconstructed for the proto-language, but these seem to be developments of either Proto-Tukanoan gender markers or originally complex forms. I analyse these complex forms as consisting of a gender marker in combination with some other marker. I furthermore provide an analysis of the development of the Proto-Tukanoan gender system, based on Chacon (2021; in prep), where I suggest that some of its morphological material may indicate borrowings from an Arawakan source. Lastly, by contributing to the reconstruction of the Proto-Tukanoan classifier system, this thesis may contribute to a reconstruction of classifiers in the wider area, as classifiers are a pervasive feature in non-Tukanoan languages as well, where the relatively gender-like morpho-syntactic characteristics of classifiers have been the subject of much discussion (e.g. Payne 1987; Aikhenvald 2000a, 10; Grinevald 2000, 81-82, 87).Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The Slavic proto-language was subject to a tendency commonly referred to as the “Opening of Syllables”, which is somehow connected to a number of sound changes that all had an opening effect, e.g....Show moreThe Slavic proto-language was subject to a tendency commonly referred to as the “Opening of Syllables”, which is somehow connected to a number of sound changes that all had an opening effect, e.g. nasalization and loss of various coda consonants. The nature of the phenomenon is not quite understood and no language-internal explanations have proven to be successful. This thesis explores the possibility that the Opening of Syllables was due to contact, specifically with the (unknown) language of the Avars, spoken in and around Pannonia during the Migration Period. In order to find out, the relative and absolute chronology of syllable-opening sound changes is examined and mapped onto the spread of the Slavs and the Avars, and the sound changes themselves are compared to possible phonological traits of Avar. Based on this it is argued that contact with Avar was possibly responsible for only two sound changes (monophthongization and the certain developments of consonant clusters), but that this was not the result of a contact-induced tendency toward open syllables. In general, the Opening of Syllables as a whole was not induced by contact with Avar or with any other language.Show less
