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
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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“Eating meat is wrong”. Discussions about the consumption of animal products appear to be dominated by such all-or-nothing statements. As soon as someone says the words ‘meat’ or ‘vegetarian’, each...Show more“Eating meat is wrong”. Discussions about the consumption of animal products appear to be dominated by such all-or-nothing statements. As soon as someone says the words ‘meat’ or ‘vegetarian’, each side is sharpened, ready to defend its position against personal attacks by the opponent. While some argue that eating less meat will improve public health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, others consider the consumption of animal products a matter of personal choice. Whichever way you look at it, the issue of meat consumption gives rise to a great deal of disagreement and ongoing debate. The ‘eat less meat’ debate can be defined as a public debate. Public debates are confrontations of different opinions, accessible to a broad group of people, on issues related to a problem that affects many people. The problem somehow requires action and is characterised by a sequence of practical consequences (Walton 2007:217). Such debates shape public attitudes and social norms based on different values (RMO 2011:13). A public debate is thus an exchange of different opinions and a reflection of what is happening in society. The above highlights that public debate covers a broad range of activities. By analysing the term ‘public debate’, this broad range can be clarified somewhat: it is a debate and it is public. That it is a debate means that it is about advancing arguments, but what does it mean that it is public? On the one hand, it indicates that the discussion is held in public: it must be possible for everyone to have access to the arguments put forward and the arguments must therefore be easily disseminated to the citizens. On the other hand, it points out that the debate is a discussion of the public: in the case of democracies, this means that all citizens, who are the public of their elected representatives, must be able to participate in the debate. In a public debate, therefore, not only must the arguments put forward be accessible to everyone, but the debate must also be accessible to everyone in terms of participation. The above points out that public debates take place in the ‘public sphere’: an imaginary community that exists not necessarily in an ‘identifiable space’ but should rather be understood as a place in social life where people can come together to freely identify and discuss social problems and, through that discussion, influence political action (Habermas 1962/1991:176). Under the influence of technological developments, the contemporary public sphere often takes place online. This ‘online public sphere’ is characterised by the coexistence of many different public actors who freely express their opinions: individual citizens, political parties, trade unions, companies, (government) institutions, the mass media, and so on. With the emergence of new media in the last two decades, the way in which discussions about common interests are conducted has changed radically. The new media have given people the means to play an active role in public debates: to protest against policy or to mobilise others and to put topics on the agenda. These developments have transformed public debates such as the ‘eat less meat’ debate into large-scale, complex political and ideological discussions in which opinions are defended and criticised from many different perspectives. This thesis focuses specifically on these large-scale complex public debates that take place in the online public sphere. Because these online large-scale complex public debates have a clear argumentative function, the analysis and evaluation of the discourse can be based on argumentative theories. From a pragma-dialectical perspective on argumentation, a public debate is a clearly distinguishable argumentative activity type: a conventional argumentative practice in which the possibilities for strategic maneuvers are predetermined (Van Eemeren & Garssen 2010:505). The fact that the way in which people participate in public debates has changed and, in particular, that in the kind of debates central to this thesis many different actors become protagonists of argumentatively-relevant moves, leads to challenges when analysing these online large-scale complex public debates from a pragma-dialectical perspective. This is because in dialectical models of argumentation, such as the model used in pragma-dialectics, argumentation is typically theorised as a dyadic exchange between two parties occupying two basic positions (Lewiński & Aakhus 2013:161). The new media, and other changes in public debates, thus pose a challenge for practice and theory on pragma-dialectical argumentation analysis and the reconstruction of argumentative activity types. This calls for an elucidation of the way in which this type of debate can be characterised and analysed in terms of pragma-dialectics. This research thus aims to find out how online large-scale complex public debates can be characterised and analysed in pragma-dialectical terms.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis is based on my foundings during a visit to Gebe Island, North Maluku, Indonesia. Throughout my visit, I learned about the endangered Gebe language and culture. In my thesis, I firstly...Show moreThis thesis is based on my foundings during a visit to Gebe Island, North Maluku, Indonesia. Throughout my visit, I learned about the endangered Gebe language and culture. In my thesis, I firstly provide a geographical, societal, historical and sociolinguistic background to the Gebe Island and people. Secondly, I describe Gebe phonology, including phonotactics, phonetic and morphophonological processes, and suprasegmental phonology. Thirdly, I explain the differences between the word classes, among which nouns, verbs, adverbs, adpositions, demonstratives and quantifiers. Fourthly, I explain how nouns and verbs function in a clause, including how they form phrases, and how and by which units these phrases can be modified.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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In this thesis, the finite verb in Lycian is described. All verbal endings and stems are analysed and given both a synchronic description and, to the maximum possible extent, a diachronic...Show moreIn this thesis, the finite verb in Lycian is described. All verbal endings and stems are analysed and given both a synchronic description and, to the maximum possible extent, a diachronic explanation. First, all verbal endings are gathered and described both generally and individually. Subsequently, the verbal stems are categorised into types according to stem formant (last segment(s) before the ending) and ending allomorphy (e.g. lenited vs. unlenited). The last sections are devoted to a detailed individual treatment of all attested Lycian verbal stems. A schema is presented in which the established Lycian stem types are mapped to their original Proto-Indo-European types (section 4.6), e.g. Lyc. s-stems < PIE sḱé/ó-presents. Thereby, a comprehensive model is provided by which the Lycian finite verb may be understood in both its Anatolian and Indo-European context.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The current study aimed to pinpoint some of the factors underlying the communication difficulties faced by Arabic-speaking immigrants learning Dutch as a second language (L2). To this end, six...Show moreThe current study aimed to pinpoint some of the factors underlying the communication difficulties faced by Arabic-speaking immigrants learning Dutch as a second language (L2). To this end, six classrooms where Dutch is taught as L2 were selected in order to investigate the level of the communicative orientation they foster. Part A of the COLT coding scheme (Fröhlich et al., 1985) was slightly modified and used for the classroom observations. That part of the scheme describes classroom events at the level of activity and contains categories related to participant organization, student modality, content and materials. The materials that seemed to highly control the classroom activities were also analysed in terms of their communicative orientation and in terms of the type and length of output they require from students. The results of the classroom observations revealed that that the communicative orientation was different among the six classes observed. It was minimal at some classes where the teacher was the dominant speaker and the sole controller of the topics discussed. Contrastively, students were passive learners who provided short, prescribed answers without involving in any kind of discussion. Classes with a minimal level of communicativeness were also characterized by being form-focused with minimal integration of meaning and by being highly controlled by the course materials. Other classes fostered the communicative competence at a moderate level. At these classes students were limitedly active, the integration of meaning was higher and group/pair discussion was present. The third type of classes observed was highly communicative. At these classes teachers and learners alike involved in open discussion and they both determined the topics to be discussed. Most of these topics were of broad reference. The analysis of the materials ascertained that the course books used were not communicatively oriented as they stimulate limited output from learners; both in terms of type and length. Nevertheless, a shift in the communicative orientation towards the more communicative end was traced throughout the two books.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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This thesis aims to describe topics in the grammar Binumarien, a Papuan language (Kainantu) spoken in Papua New Guinea. The study provides a basic analysis of Binumarien phonology and nominal...Show moreThis thesis aims to describe topics in the grammar Binumarien, a Papuan language (Kainantu) spoken in Papua New Guinea. The study provides a basic analysis of Binumarien phonology and nominal morphology. Moreover, it contributes to the understudied topic of tone in Papuan languages with a description of tone in the Binumarien NP according to the latest developments in tonal typology. In addition, the switch reference marking system of Binumarien is described and placed in typology. The data for this thesis were collected during fieldwork, which took place from September 2018 to January 2019.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
2023-08-31T00:00:00Z
In this thesis, I study loanwords of unknown origin in Proto-Indo-Iranian and early Post-Proto-Indo-Iranian. According to the Central Asian Substrate Hypothesis, Indo-Iranian speakers migrated to...Show moreIn this thesis, I study loanwords of unknown origin in Proto-Indo-Iranian and early Post-Proto-Indo-Iranian. According to the Central Asian Substrate Hypothesis, Indo-Iranian speakers migrated to Central Asia around 2000 BCE and came into contact with the agricultural BMAC civilization, which resulted in a body of loanwords into Proto-Indo-Iranian, borrowed from the language of the BMAC people. Following a methodology for identifying non-Indo-European vocabulary in Indo-European languages, I argue that 74 out of 103 previously suggested loanwords can plausibly be analyzed as loanwords (chapter 3). Only a handful of these may have been borrowed from known languages. After establishing the relative chronology of Proto-Indo-Iranian sound changes (chapter 2), I divide the 74 early Indo-Iranian loanwords into chronological layers based on when they were borrowed (chapter 3-4). I argue that 21 words were borrowed after the disintegration of Proto-Indo-Iranian. Moreover, I argue that many of the remaining 53 loanwords that are reconstructable to Proto-Indo-Iranian were borrowed towards the end of this stage. Finally, I integrate the chronological layers into my analysis of structural characteristics of early Indo-Iranian loanwords and describe two new phonological patterns of loanwords (chapter 5). The fact that many loanwords are shown to have been borrowed in late PII or Post-PII, i.e. after Indo-Iranian speakers migrated to Central Asia, is consistent with the timeline of the Central Asian Substrate Hypothesis. Second, the newly discovered phonological characteristics provide additional support for the Central Asian Substrate Hypothesis, since they increase the likelihood that most loanwords originate in the same language.Show less
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
