This Perceptual Dialectology study of three dialects spoken in the South of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands (Roosendaals, Oudenbosch, and Ruchpens) explored to what degree people from these towns...Show moreThis Perceptual Dialectology study of three dialects spoken in the South of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands (Roosendaals, Oudenbosch, and Ruchpens) explored to what degree people from these towns are aware of the dialect features that make up their dialect, what these dialect features are and if these people are aware of the differences and similarities between their own dialect and that of the other two towns. The participants were thirty dialect speakers who are born, raised and still residential in one of the three studied towns. Interviews were held with these participants in which they were asked about their views on and knowledge about their own dialect and that of the two other towns. From these interviews it has become clear that, although Roosendaals, Oudenbosch and Rucphens have similarities, they do differ from each other on a lexical and a phonetic level. Most importantly, the results suggest that one’s level of sociophonetic awareness of their dialect relates to what degree they are capable of speaking Standard Dutch.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Although there have been many studies looking into the integration process, likelihood and types of loans, the position of loans in the recipient language is less clear. They seem to be part of a...Show moreAlthough there have been many studies looking into the integration process, likelihood and types of loans, the position of loans in the recipient language is less clear. They seem to be part of a grey area, between the lexicon and incidental language use, bordering on code-switching. Through the analysis of a Dictionary Project, a Survey Project and Language Expert Interviews, this study attempts to map the factors that influence the perceived Dutchness of English loans in Dutch and attempts to narrow the grey area that loans are part of. The results show that the Linguistic Aspects, Age and Semantics of loans most strongly influence the perceived Dutchness. Moreover, the loans should not be a niche concept or be rarely used. Subsequently, the results make it possible to create a tentative blueprint for the characteristics a loan should have to be perceived as part of Dutch, in effect slightly narrowing the grey area loans are part of.Show less
This thesis aims to research the way L1 pronunciation transfer occurs and how this could potentially be employed in order to improve pronunciation teaching. Dutch ESL learners were chosen for the...Show moreThis thesis aims to research the way L1 pronunciation transfer occurs and how this could potentially be employed in order to improve pronunciation teaching. Dutch ESL learners were chosen for the research and their pronunciation errors were analysed. Afterwards, the learners were offered two ways of instruction, one that explained how English sounds are made and one that compared Dutch sounds to English sounds. Finally, the learners were asked to explain which instruction type they ought to be more beneficial and their pronunciation was examined once more.Show less
The current study provides insight into how Dutch students react to two different didactic methods used to learn English vocabulary. In order to investigate this, students at a high school in The...Show moreThe current study provides insight into how Dutch students react to two different didactic methods used to learn English vocabulary. In order to investigate this, students at a high school in The Hague voluntarily participated. The participants were divided over two classes which were split into two groups. One group memorized 15 words with help of visualization while the other group memorized the words with plain memorization in silence. Results showed that the group who memorized the words with plain memorization did better on the questionnaires they had to fill out to test their retainment. The same questionnaire had to be filled out again a week later and showed that the students did not remembered much, as they now made more mistakes. To see how this pattern arose, opinions of students were asked on how they felt about the method they had to use.Show less
The present study explored the attitudes of secondary school teachers and non-teachers towards different degrees of Dutch-accented English and whether there was a difference in attitudes between...Show moreThe present study explored the attitudes of secondary school teachers and non-teachers towards different degrees of Dutch-accented English and whether there was a difference in attitudes between these groups. In addition to this, it investigated whether there were certain pronunciation features that would lead to a lower grade. This was tested through an online survey consisting of two parts, namely a listening task and an open-ended question. The listening task asked the participants to grade a total of twelve recordings on a scale from 1 to 10 and to motivate their answer as to why they gave a certain grade. The recordings consisted of two native speakers and ten speakers with different degrees of Dutch accentedness. The degree of accentedness was determined by three people who had listened to the recordings beforehand and these recordings were then categorized into three different groups based on the degree of accentedness. These three groups consisted of (1) native speakers/light Dutch-accented English, (2) medium-Dutch accented English, and (3) heavy Dutch-accented English. The survey ended with an open-ended question which asked the participants wat they thought was the most important aspect to be taught when teaching a foreign language. The results showed that teachers graded most of the recordings (77.8%) higher than the non-teachers, though there was only a small difference. Furthermore, the results showed that both the teachers’ and non-teachers’ grades were lower for the medium- and heavy-accented Dutch Englishes than they were for the native speakers/lightly-accented Dutch Englishes. When asked why a certain grade was given, however, pronunciation only came up 25.8% of the time in the teachers’ answers and only 16.4% of the time in the non-teachers’ answers. A similar pattern was found in the open-ended question, where pronunciation as an important aspect of language learning came up 21.4% of the time in the teachers’ answers and 26.8% in the non-teachers’ answers.Show less
This study focuses on the way Spanish ESL speakers pronunce the English phonemes /v/ and /w/. It parts from the hypothesis that the issue starts with language interference from the speakers’ mother...Show moreThis study focuses on the way Spanish ESL speakers pronunce the English phonemes /v/ and /w/. It parts from the hypothesis that the issue starts with language interference from the speakers’ mother tongue (Ellis, 2008). In order to find whether the mispronunciation comes from the mother tongue, the two phonetic systems of English and Spanish were analysed in relation to /v/ and /w/. By doing so, the results showed some overlap between both language systems and possible language transfer. Consequently, the speech of five participants was analysed through two tasks to see whether the theory matched the practice. This research concludes with the statement that indeed there is language transfer at stake, in addition to possible overgeneralization of English rules. These results show the relevance for English teachers of ESL students to spend more time and give more attention to raising awareness of the manner of pronunciation of these phonemes. This can be done by showing the different environments the phonemes can be found and how they can be realized respectively.Show less
This paper examines through an empirical research whether Dutch students exhibited the pronunciation issues mentioned by sources in the field of applied phonetics such as Collins and Mees (2003),...Show moreThis paper examines through an empirical research whether Dutch students exhibited the pronunciation issues mentioned by sources in the field of applied phonetics such as Collins and Mees (2003), and Swan and Smith (2001). In addition, the students’ opinions were tested to see how they judged aesthetic appreciation for another speaker who exhibited the pronunciation features in an exaggerated way. After reviewing the literature, the ten most significant problems that could complicate mutual intelligence were collected, and a list of ten sentences with each five tokens of the same phenomena were used to test if 30 students in the South-West part of the Netherlands exhibited these ten specific pronunciation difficulties. The students read the ten sentences aloud and their speech was recorded and analysed. Additionally, the students filled in a questionnaire grading a native Dutch speaker who consciously exhibited these problems on a scale from 1 (ugly) to 5 (beautiful), and accounted for their reasoning. Only five out of these ten problems were distributed by the students, namely, final devoicing of [z], [d] to [s] and [t], [ae] realised as [a] or [e], the [ð] becomes [d], the voiced fricative [v] is realised as the voiceless counterpart [f] , and lastly, voiced [b], [d] and [g] for aspirated [pʰ], [tʰ] and [kʰ]. This paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study and suggestions for further study.Show less
Computer-Mediated-Communication is bereft of any intonation markers usually found in face-to-face conversations. As a result, how a sender meant to send out a message versus how their addressee...Show moreComputer-Mediated-Communication is bereft of any intonation markers usually found in face-to-face conversations. As a result, how a sender meant to send out a message versus how their addressee reads it sometimes differ. This can lead to uncooperative and confusing online communication. This paper set out to examine if (and what) effects different punctuation types have on the interpretation of meaning in WhatsApp communication, and whether one’s age or native language influences the perception of these markers. The punctuation types were the exclamation mark, ellipsis, periods, and no punctuation. Unlike previous studies conducted on this topic which focussed only on students, this study was conducted among 123 respondents from a wide variety of ages and countries. Through an online survey, participants were asked for their opinions and thoughts to different types of punctuation used in recurring but otherwise identical messages. Results indicated that different punctuation types elicit strong and differing views, based on what punctuation type is used, and that these types influence their feelings towards the message as well as to the personal state of their interlocutor. The most significant findings were found for ellipsis points and messages lacking any punctuation: ellipses can lead to very negative interpretations in respondents, and a lack of punctuation can lead to respondents feeling sidelined. Interpretations of certain punctuation types are influenced by a reader’s age and native language. Using Yus’ theory of a phatic internet and cyber literacy, this paper posits that the reason respondents assign these meanings to different types of punctuation is to avoid misunderstandings, form identities, and stay on good terms with people in a world in which most daily conversation happens online.Show less
This study aims to investigate whether subtitles have a beneficial effect on incidental L2- vocabulary acquisition among students in the first grade of secondary school aged 12-13 years old....Show moreThis study aims to investigate whether subtitles have a beneficial effect on incidental L2- vocabulary acquisition among students in the first grade of secondary school aged 12-13 years old. Previous studies seem to indicate that subtitles have a beneficial effect on L2-vocabulary acquisition in adults, and so a case study was devised to investigate the effects of subtitles on children. These children were subjected to a cartoon YouTube clip of approximately 3 minutes recounting Aesop’s fable ‘The Frogs Who Desired a King’; half of the children viewed this clip with subtitles in their native language, or L1, the other half with captions in their non-native language, or L2. This clip contained a total of 15 words that were assumed the children would not yet know. After having seen the clip, the children were asked to provide accurate translations of these words to test the possible effects of the subtitles. The eventual conclusion was that subtitles seemed to have no effect on incidental L2-vocabulary acquisition, while captions may actually prove beneficial.Show less
In film and television, actors are sometimes expected to speak in a particular accent in order to convey their character’s identity as accurately as possible. A term in sociolinguistic research...Show moreIn film and television, actors are sometimes expected to speak in a particular accent in order to convey their character’s identity as accurately as possible. A term in sociolinguistic research fields that describes this connection between identity and language is indexicality: it “refers to the way an observable linguistic fact can be indexical of social identities in the same way, for instance, that clothing can. Language features can thus be semiotic signs associated with such identities.” (Smakman 2018: 57). Filmmakers make use of this fact when they include a specific dialect in their films: “film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly, building on established preconceived notions associated with specific loyalties, ethnic, racial or economic alliances” (Lippi-Green 1997: 81). However, as the actors in film may be required to speak in an accent that is different than their own, inaccuracies can occur in their pronunciation, which may lead to linguistic stereotyping, appropriation or even racism. In this thesis, I examined this phenomenon in relation to the Birmingham (or, ‘Brummie’) accent, which is spoken in the series Peaky Blinders. I first established the most prototypical accent features of the Birmingham accent by comparing several sources, after which I analysed the use of these features in the speech of native speakers and actors. I then juxtaposed the differences in frequency and consistency between the pronunciation of the native speakers and actors, and several patterns emerged. These patterns could all be related to four sociophonetic processes detected by Bell and Gibson in a similar study: selectivity, mis-realisation, overshoot and undershoot (2011: 568). It was then found that these sociophonetic processes can account for the inaccuracies that may occur in actors’ accent use, which ultimately pointed out that there is, in fact, a correlation between dialect use in film and linguistic stereotyping.Show less
