Turkish improvised lament songs, also known as 'Ağıt', have a rich history within Turkish oral poetry. All the way from complete improvisation during a funeral to full standardization within...Show moreTurkish improvised lament songs, also known as 'Ağıt', have a rich history within Turkish oral poetry. All the way from complete improvisation during a funeral to full standardization within popular music, Ağıt are found everywhere within Turkish culture. By using a musicolinguistic and semiotic approach this thesis uncovers the formal structures that lie beneath the improvised lament songs.Show less
Constructed action (CA) can be defined as adopting roles of different characters in a narrative (Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova 2015). In multiple sign languages, CA is marked by the direction of...Show moreConstructed action (CA) can be defined as adopting roles of different characters in a narrative (Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova 2015). In multiple sign languages, CA is marked by the direction of the body, facial expressions and signs marking the character’s perspective. Constructed dialogue (CD), quoting a certain character, is one of the forms of CA (Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova 2015). This study will combine elements from Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova’s work (2015), who used cartoon retellings to research CA in British Sign Language, and the study by Stec, Huiskes, and Redeker (2016), who used a corpus to investigate constructed dialogue in American English. The dataset for my study consists of 10 cartoon and fable retellings from the corpus NGT (Crasborn, Ros, and Zwitserlood 2008). I have selected these video fragments by searching the dataset for the verb ZEGGEN ‘say’ in the corpus NGT, because this is an indicator for a direct or indirect quote (Stec, Huiskes, and Redeker 2016, 5). This is a new method and has yielded many cases of CD. The selected clips already contain time-aligned glosses in ELAN, but I have added annotations concerning CA using the guidelines provided by Cormier, Smith, and Sevcikova (2015).Show less
This thesis attempts to give a clear outline of the distribution of case in Australian languages and thereby aims to clarify the common divsion between Pama-Nyungan and non-Pama-Nyungan languages....Show moreThis thesis attempts to give a clear outline of the distribution of case in Australian languages and thereby aims to clarify the common divsion between Pama-Nyungan and non-Pama-Nyungan languages. That is, Australianists have not always agreed about which cases and core cases occur in which language groupings and what the alignment looks like in each language. On the basis of a representative sample of 12 Australian languages, I give an overview of the core cases and the alignment of these languages. The initial outcome shows a mixture of features, like a widespread ergative case and multiple forms of split ergativity, which not necessarily define the difference between the Pama-Nyungan and the non-Pama-Nyungan language family. As Pama-Nyungan and non-Pama-Nyungan are valid terms, one can, strictly speaking, still make the distinction between these two language families, yet not convincingly on the basis of case.Show less
Jippie, bah en wauw lijken simpele non-woorden die slechts gebruikt worden als uitroepen. In het Nederlands noemen we dit tussenwerpsels. Deze woorden geven echter een heleboel informatie over de...Show moreJippie, bah en wauw lijken simpele non-woorden die slechts gebruikt worden als uitroepen. In het Nederlands noemen we dit tussenwerpsels. Deze woorden geven echter een heleboel informatie over de staat van de spreker weer: iemand is blij, vindt iets vies of is geschokt of verbaasd. Deze drie voorbeelden zijn interjecties, uitingen die de emotie van de spreker weergeven. Interjecties komen veelvuldig voor in de spreektaal van alle talen, en dus ook in het Quechua. Het Quechua is een zelfstandige taalfamilie die vanouds wordt gesproken door de oorspronkelijke bewoners in de Andes in de landen Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili en Argentinië. Het Quechua is een taalfamilie, maar verdeeld over verschillende vertakkingen die weer eigen talen kennen. Tussen verschillende talen zijn er verschillen en overeenkomsten te vinden in interjecties, zowel in betekenis als in vorm. Het doel van deze studie is om vast te stellen hoe interjecties tot uiting komen in de talen van het Quechua. Hierbij stel ik mijzelf de vragen wat een definitie van een interjectie is, of interjecties gekenmerkt worden door een specifieke structuur, wat de functies zijn van interjecties, en of er een verband is tussen de functie en de structuur van interjecties.Show less
This thesis investigates prepositions in Melanesian Pidgin, consisting of the varieties Tok Pisin, Bislama and Pijin. It provides a systematic overview of the different types of simple prepositions...Show moreThis thesis investigates prepositions in Melanesian Pidgin, consisting of the varieties Tok Pisin, Bislama and Pijin. It provides a systematic overview of the different types of simple prepositions, as well as a discussion of some complex prepositions. Full Bible translations of all three varieties have been used as a corpus. It is argued that the category of simple prepositions consists of basic prepositions and verbal prepositions. The latter category is divided into prepositions with verbal charachteristics and bifunctional forms. In taking all three varieties into account, existing theories are either affirmed or debated, the latter especially counting for the prepositional use of bifunctional forms in relation to serial verb constructions. A continuum on which the simple prepositions appear is proposed. Complex prepositions are shown to occur in all three varieties, with variation in the occurrence of the locative preposition and word order in Pijin. Additionally, a quantitative comparison is made between the varieties to learn more about the preferred prepositional strategies, concluding that Bislama prefers complex prepositions over similar bifunctional forms, Pijin displays the opposite, and Tok Pisin may use different lexical items.Show less
De overeenstemming tussen fonemen en de letters die hen weergeven is niet altijd even evident en transparant. De zogenaamde orthografische diepte kan hevig variëren wanneer talen en hun...Show moreDe overeenstemming tussen fonemen en de letters die hen weergeven is niet altijd even evident en transparant. De zogenaamde orthografische diepte kan hevig variëren wanneer talen en hun schriftsystemen vergeleken worden. Voor het Standaardnederlands is meerdere malen berekend in hoeverre het orthografisch diep of ondiep genoemd kan worden. Vergelijkingen zijn gedaan met andere talen, zoals het Engels, Frans en Duits, maar een vergelijking met een Nederlands dialect ontbreekt. Daarom zal in dit werkstuk een vergelijking worden gemaakt met het Haagse stadsdialect. Dit zal een inzicht geven in de verschillen betreffende orthografische diepte tussen standaardtaal en dialect.Show less
Dit onderzoek richt zich op het gebruik van modale partikels door enerzijds een moedertaalspreker en anderzijds een tweedetaalsprekr van het Nederlands. De frequentie van modale partikels en de...Show moreDit onderzoek richt zich op het gebruik van modale partikels door enerzijds een moedertaalspreker en anderzijds een tweedetaalsprekr van het Nederlands. De frequentie van modale partikels en de gebruikswijze door beide sprekers worden met elkaar vergeleken.Show less
In this thesis I will be looking at complex predicates of Dutch, Jaminjung, Saramaccan and Japanese. The approach will be to part from Dutch and investigate which semantic types of complex...Show moreIn this thesis I will be looking at complex predicates of Dutch, Jaminjung, Saramaccan and Japanese. The approach will be to part from Dutch and investigate which semantic types of complex predicates are also present in the other languages. I found that, although they differ greatly in the combination of word classes in forming complex predicates, they show a great amount of similar semantic types. Each language has complex predicates which are in meaning predictable from the combination of their parts, and those which are not. Both in the predictable and in the non-predictable types they have similar functions, among which one part expresses a causative, inchoative, directional, quantificational, aspect or resultative.Show less
Ameka en Levinson (2007) hebben de verschillende locationele constructies die voor kunnen komen in talen van de wereld opgedeeld in vier types. Bij twee types kan er gebruik worden gemaakt van de...Show moreAmeka en Levinson (2007) hebben de verschillende locationele constructies die voor kunnen komen in talen van de wereld opgedeeld in vier types. Bij twee types kan er gebruik worden gemaakt van de positiewerkwoorden ‘liggen', ‘zitten’ en ‘staan’, zoals het Nederlands dat doet. Maar, hoe maken talen in de rest van de wereld gebruik van positiewerkwoorden in locationele constructies met onbezielde objecten? Aan de hand van literatuur onderzoek en een questionnaire afgenomen onder moedertaalsprekers van het Zweeds is er in deze scriptie gekeken worden naar het gebruikt van (positie)werkwoorden in locationele constructies in talen van de wereld. De talen die aan bod komen zijn het Zweeds (Indo-Europees, Noord-Germaans), Seri (isolaat), Gurenɛ (Niger-Congo, Gur), Tzeltal (Maya, Yucatecan-Core Maya), Ese Ejja (Tacana), Yélî Dnye (isolaat) en het Galo (Tibeto-Birmees, Tani). Deze talen maken ruwweg op dezelfde manier gebruik van positiewerkwoorden: ‘liggen’ wordt vooral gebruikt bij horizontaal georiënteerde objecten, ‘staan’ bij verticaal georiënteerde objecten en ‘zitten’ wanneer het object in of vast zit aan de ondergrond. Ook ‘hangen’ wordt in enkele talen gebruikt bij onbezielde objecten. Er zijn enkele uitzonderingen te vinden in de locationele constructies van het Galo, Tzeltal, Ese Ejja, en GurenɛShow less
Shibatani & Pardeshi (2002) have argued that there is a continuum from direct to indirect causatives and that there is a connection between that continuum and the productivity of the causative...Show moreShibatani & Pardeshi (2002) have argued that there is a continuum from direct to indirect causatives and that there is a connection between that continuum and the productivity of the causative form. They have also proposed a hypothesis on causative-applicative syncretism. Meanwhile Dixon (2012) has found a correlation between the ‘compactness’ of causative forms and how those forms score on nine parameters. This thesis analyses causative constructions in a geographically and genetically balanced sample of nine languages to check whether these hypotheses hold. This thesis concludes that there is no evidence against these hypotheses and that any possible counterevidence encountered in the sample can be explained on the basis of one these hypotheses.Show less
This thesis attempts to establish an adequate framework to describe question words. On the basis of this framework some universal tendencies within the constructions of question words will be...Show moreThis thesis attempts to establish an adequate framework to describe question words. On the basis of this framework some universal tendencies within the constructions of question words will be established and some new insights will be exposed. Through the analysis of the question words of several languages an implicational hierarchy of the semantic categories of question words will be postulated. Furthermore, it will become clear that general question words need to be treated differently from question words which have a specified meaning regardless of the context. When looking at the internal constructions of question words, I conclude that all question words consist of a Q-element (QE), which indicates the interrogative mood and a Semantic Indicator Element (SIE), which specifies the exact content of the interrogative mood. The order of these two elements appears to be similar to the order of the head and dependent of nominal constructions. Finally I discuss the fact that this division between QE and SIE is also to be found in sign languages, and therefore universally applicable. Also, from a historical point of view the order of QE and SIE within submorphemes can be an indication of the head and dependent order in Proto-languages.Show less
This research attempts to give a description of the verbal morphology of the moribund Mawayana language from the Arawakan language family. Little has been written about Mawayana, but there is a...Show moreThis research attempts to give a description of the verbal morphology of the moribund Mawayana language from the Arawakan language family. Little has been written about Mawayana, but there is a corpus of stories and elicited texts. That corpus has been used for this research. Several suffixes have been found, including valency marking suffixes and TAME-markers. Also quite a few clitics may occur on verbs, including the typical Arawakan pronominal elements. Other clitics do not have clear cognates in related languages and may or may not be innovations of Mawayana. In general, quite some restructuring of the verbal morphology has taken place in Mawayana and/or the closest related language Wapishana since the two split apart. The result in Mawayana seems quite chaotic, but this may be due to the limited size of the corpus. Still, there is some clear structure that becomes more clear once the many clitics have been divided on morphosyntactic or semantic grounds.Show less
According to Miestamo (2005:18), a lot of cross-linguistic research has been undertaken on what is called standard negation (Dahl 1979; Payne 1985; Forest 1993; Honda 1996). However, in these works...Show moreAccording to Miestamo (2005:18), a lot of cross-linguistic research has been undertaken on what is called standard negation (Dahl 1979; Payne 1985; Forest 1993; Honda 1996). However, in these works, little attention is paid to the negation of existential clauses. Recently, a typological study of negative existential clauses was carried out by Vesselinova (2013), who focuses on how this special type of negation relates to standard negation. Since affirmative existential clauses are often related to possessive and locative clauses (Lyons 1967; Clark 1978; Payne 1997), this thesis examines negative existential clauses according to their relation with negative possessive and locative clauses in a geographically and genetically balanced sample of 12 languages. This relation is compared to the way their affirmative counterparts relate to each other. The data used in this study comes from descriptive grammars, linguistic articles on the languages, and personal communication with speakers. It appears that in the majority (66,67%) of the sample languages negative existential, possessive and locative clauses are related to each other in the same configuration as their affirmative counterparts, while a minority of the sample languages is asymmetric in this respect. The pattern that is found in most of the sample languages is that in which all three clause types are related to each other. None of the sample languages follows a pattern in which negative existential clauses are not related to either negative possessive or negative locative clauses.Show less
