Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The laryngeal specification of obstruents, especially in Germanic, has been the subject of extensive study. However, most work has focussed on the laryngeal contrast in stops, while fricatives have...Show moreThe laryngeal specification of obstruents, especially in Germanic, has been the subject of extensive study. However, most work has focussed on the laryngeal contrast in stops, while fricatives have received comparatively little attention. This thesis presents a detailed examination of fricatives in Germanic languages from the perspective of Element Theory (ET), which, following the ‘laryngeal realism’ approach, distinguishes between H-languages (‘aspiration languages’) and L-languages (‘voicing languages’). The results of this examination show that fricatives do not always show the same behaviour as stops. First, in laryngeal contrasts, stops can always be distinguished by a laryngeal specification, whereas this is not always the case for fricatives, as voiced fricatives are sometimes not laryngeally specified. This is particularly true in North Germanic languages, since many voiced fricatives are better described as approximants, i.e. sonorants. Furthermore, while the stops in German and Dutch employ a laryngeal contrast, fricatives are argued to possibly differ in length instead. Second, the distribution of fricatives in syllable structure does not always parallel that of stops. Fricatives are pervasive in rhymal adjunct positions, whereas stops are primarily favoured in onsets. Of the fricatives, sibilants are the most ubiquitous in the rhymal adjunct position, and can in some cases even occur in the rhymal adjuncts of empty-headed syllables.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis sets out to explore relationships between attitudes to language learning and context as influential factors on the production, and perceived offensiveness and acceptability of L2...Show moreThis thesis sets out to explore relationships between attitudes to language learning and context as influential factors on the production, and perceived offensiveness and acceptability of L2 English swearwords. Using a sample of 111 L1 Dutch, L2 secondary school learners of English, this study uses a three-part approach to further understand L2 English swearing behaviour. The participants first completed a production task. In this task they replied to six hypothetical text- messages following a DCT approach that were manipulated on speaker (authoritative/non- authoritative). Following this, they completed an attitudes task consisting of 24 stimuli to be able to shed further light on attitudes to L2 English learning and swearing as possible influential variable on L2 swearing behaviour. Lastly, based on previous studies by Dewaele (2004, 2016, 2017) and Jay & Janschewitz (2008), the participants completed a perception task in which they rated the perceived offensiveness and acceptability of four swearwords in 4 different contexts. These contexts were manipulated on speaker (authoritative/non-authoritative) and location (formal/informal). For the production task, the findings suggest that participants are more likely to use swearwords in a closed-DCT design. Further, an effect of speaker is found as significantly more swearwords were used when the participants were in conversation with a friend rather than a parent. Swearing, however, occurred rather infrequently, which is partly explained by the negative attitudes of the participants to the use of swearwords. Continuing, the results of the perception task revealed significant effects of speaker (p = 0.001) and location (p = 0.005) on offensiveness ratings, and a significant effect of speaker on acceptability ratings (p = 0.001). Further, a strong negative correlation was revealed between offensiveness and acceptability. Lastly, a comparison between the ratings of offensiveness by the participants and native speaker scales of offence (Millwood-Hargrave, 2000; McEnery, 2006; OFCOM, 2016) show that the non-native participants significantly rate offensiveness lower than native speakers. These results re-affirm findings by other researchers such as Dewaele (2004, 2016, 2017) and Jay & Janschewitz (2008), and indicate that ratings of acceptability are largely dependent on ratings of offensiveness.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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In Italian complement clauses, the use of subjunctives can often alternate with the use of indicatives. While the phenomenon is well documented in the literature, little is known about the...Show moreIn Italian complement clauses, the use of subjunctives can often alternate with the use of indicatives. While the phenomenon is well documented in the literature, little is known about the mechanisms operating behind mood selection in choice contexts. It is consensus that subjunctive choice is triggered by both language internal and sociolinguistic factors. Multiple studies have suggested that the power of each language internal factor to predict subjunctive choice is not stable across different sociolinguistic varieties. However, this has never been object of investigation, and the value that speakers attribute to subjunctives in different sociolinguistic varieties remains a confused matter. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overarching understanding of the function that speakers’ attribute to subjunctives in complement clauses across different diaphasic and diachronic varieties of Italian. A corpus study was carried out in order to gain insight into this issue. This research is conducted following the probabilistic grammar framework (Bresnan 2007), which investigates cross-lectal changes in the probabilistic constraints shaping linguistic variation through the usage of multifactorial statistical techniques. The results of this corpus study indicate that subjunctive selection in Italian responds to slightly different mechanisms in different sociolinguistic varieties. This is particularly evident from a diachronic point of view, as subjunctives in Italian are nowadays correlating with new semantic values with respect to the past.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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It has often been found that bilingualism has a negative effect on children’s nonword repetition (NWR) performance (e.g., Kohnert et al., 2006; Windsor et al., 2010; Engel, 2011). There are two...Show moreIt has often been found that bilingualism has a negative effect on children’s nonword repetition (NWR) performance (e.g., Kohnert et al., 2006; Windsor et al., 2010; Engel, 2011). There are two types of NWR tasks: language-specific tasks based on the phonology of a specific language and tasks based on a more universal phonology. Previous studies have found some evidence of phonological transfer in bilingual children on language-specific NWR tasks (see Lee & Gorman, 2013; Sorenson Duncan & Paradis, 2016). Performance on a quasi-universal task relies less on language-specific knowledge. Therefore, we would expect less phonological transfer in this task. The present study extends previous research by comparing 22 monolingual and 81 bilingual children (aged 2-4) on two NWR tasks: a language-specific task based on the phonology of Dutch and a task based on a quasi-universal phonology. The present study examines the effects of bilingualism on performance and error patterns in the two NWR tasks. This study also aims to discover whether the additional errors made by bilingual children on either task can be explained by phonological transfer. The most important finding was that there are clear differences between the performance and error patterns of the two groups of children. Bilingual children produce more errors in general, and particularly more vowel substitutions and omission errors. Some of the additional errors produced by bilingual children may indeed be attributed to phonological transfer, but only on the language-specific NWR task. This highlights the benefits of using a quasi-universal NWR task in the assessment of bilingual children.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis is the first descriptive work on Shan-Ni, a Tai-Kadai language spoken in Kachin state and Sagaing region of Northern Myanmar. Being a Tai language in longterm close contact with several...Show moreThis thesis is the first descriptive work on Shan-Ni, a Tai-Kadai language spoken in Kachin state and Sagaing region of Northern Myanmar. Being a Tai language in longterm close contact with several Tibeto-Burman languages, Shan-Ni has several features that are not common in other Tai languages, but do show similarities with Tibeto-Burman languages. The frequency of disyllabic words, the presence of different grammatical markers including TAM markers, and the variation in word order distinguishes Shan-Ni in particular. This thesis does not only describe these features, but also connects them to their presence in other languages, including both Tai-Kadai and Tibeto-Burman languages, Shan-Ni is in contact with. Some features of Shan-Ni are partially present in other Tai languages, but have developed further or in a different direction from certain points in history, which correspond with periods of migration. Through its grammar, Shan-Ni indicates relations with other Southwestern Tai languages of the Northern tier spoken both at the Myanmar-Chinese and Myanmar-Indian border. The expression of Tibeto-Burman-like constructions is made possible through the addition or different usage of grammatical markers, which nonetheless do have a Tai etymology.Show less
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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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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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)
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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
