This paper investigated discourse on the use of the English language in Dutch pop music. An important term in this research was societal treatment. Societal treatment studies deal with the explicit...Show moreThis paper investigated discourse on the use of the English language in Dutch pop music. An important term in this research was societal treatment. Societal treatment studies deal with the explicit manifestations of beliefs, feelings and behavioural intents present in a wide range of communications (Santello 2015). The questions which were researched in this thesis were: What are the language attitudes of the people of the Netherlands towards Dutch and towards English in pop music? Do they have a language preference? Three methods were used to look at the societal treatment of English and Dutch in pop music: content analysis, indirect measurement, and direct measurement (Van Meurs 2010). In the content analysis, Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) was gathered about the use of Dutch and English in pop music from different forums. All this data was categorized into twenty-three different categories. The indirect measurement consists of a questionnaire which focused on the four tendencies which were found in the content analysis. These four tendencies were the connection to the song, the understanding of the song, the thoughts on the lyrics, and the enjoyment of the song. The goal of this questionnaire was to define if there were differences in the treatment of Dutch and English in these tendencies by letting people evaluate different video clips. In all the video clips Dutch artists were present but half of the video clips were sung in Dutch and the other half was sung in English. The direct measurement was the creation of two discussions online which focused on upcoming new Dutch music genres and the language attitudes of the Dutch towards the Dutch language. Overall, the results show that most of the Dutch have a negative language attitude towards their first language and have a language preference for English in pop music.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis is a synchronic study of the derivation of ordinal numerals from cardinal numerals in several different dialects of Dutch, combining a dialectological and a formal linguistic approach....Show moreThis thesis is a synchronic study of the derivation of ordinal numerals from cardinal numerals in several different dialects of Dutch, combining a dialectological and a formal linguistic approach. Ordinals are formed with one of two ordinal suffixes, -de or -ste, both of which occur in all Dutch varieties. However, there is variation among several dialects in Flanders (Belgium): they exhibit stem-suffix combinations which differ from those in Standard Dutch (SD), giving forms like zeven-ste and twaalf-ste for SD zeven-de and twaalf-de. The thesis investigates the patterns of this variation and offers motivations for those patterns. Novel data acquired through an online questionnaire show that there are three patterns: SD, a core Flemish pattern and a transitional pattern in between. These patterns show a clear geographical distribution. I propose that the distribution of the two suffixes can be largely explained by syllable weight in the transitional system and that an analysis in terms of the final stem consonant or in terms of foot weight cannot capture all the facts.Show less
Australia and New Zealand have been known for their British Child Migrants Programme (1920-1970). The Netherlands stimulated emigration after the Second World War as well. Considering overseas...Show moreAustralia and New Zealand have been known for their British Child Migrants Programme (1920-1970). The Netherlands stimulated emigration after the Second World War as well. Considering overseas demand for child migrants was high in the British context, this thesis explores the Dutch perspectives on the phenomenon of child migration. Following a governance perspective the thesis sets out to identify contributing factors and actors in order to explain the rejection of child migration from The Netherlands. The research is built on various primary sources including newspaper articles, personal publications, radio interviews and letter exchanges between governments and NGOs. These sources have identified both the Australian/New Zealand perspectives and the Dutch situation regarding children in The Netherlands during the post-war period. Ultimately establishing that the Australian and New Zealand governments were certainly interested in taking in Dutch children, but that the Dutch government were mostly apprehensive due to perceived Australian inexperience, a lack of parentless children and a lack of adoption regulations.Show less
The aim of this research is to gain insight in how futurity is expressed within English and Dutch legal contracts and to define the relation between modality and temporality. It is hypothesized...Show moreThe aim of this research is to gain insight in how futurity is expressed within English and Dutch legal contracts and to define the relation between modality and temporality. It is hypothesized that futurity is not unequivocally expressed in contract language. Also, it is expected that not only within futurity but also within modality a potential degree of ambiguity can be found considering expression of epistemic, dynamic, and deontic modality.Show less
This thesis reports on a quantitative and qualitative study on the introduction of new words by means of different translation methods in three languages, namely Dutch, Russian and Turkish, aimed...Show moreThis thesis reports on a quantitative and qualitative study on the introduction of new words by means of different translation methods in three languages, namely Dutch, Russian and Turkish, aimed at identifying different processes and their possible motivations. With the help of a database consisting of 179 original English terms and their respective counterparts in Dutch, Russian and Turkish, a quantitative and qualitative analysis has been carried out in order to identify the different translation processes and word formation patterns. As a result of this study I found that different factors can influence the behavior of a language with regard to the creation of terminology. First of all, the available word formation strategies of the language grammar and semantics are of importance; how many ways there are for a language to create new words. Second, the relation and similarities in grammar, semantics and pronunciation between the original language and the target language. Third, the sociolinguistic aspect regarding the attitude of language users on foreign (lexical) influence.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis concerns the semantic relations between coordination, conditionality and interrogativity. Some aspects of these relations have been noted in work concerning grammaticalization, typology...Show moreThis thesis concerns the semantic relations between coordination, conditionality and interrogativity. Some aspects of these relations have been noted in work concerning grammaticalization, typology and formal semantics. A notable example is the Russian question marker li, which is also found in the form for the disjunctive marker ili 'or' and the form for the conditional marker esli 'if'. While aspects of these relations have been examined in the past, this thesis fills out the gap in the study of the relations between coordination, conditionals and questions by putting them together in a semantic map. To examine the possible universality of these relations, the use of these concepts is investigated in three unrelated languages: Dutch, Macedonian and Wolof. The relations are indicated per language in separate semantic maps and finally plotted together in a single one to examine the overlap and differences between them. The most similarities are expected between Macedonian and Dutch, as they are both from the same family, namely Indo-European, while Wolof is an Atlantic language from the Niger-Congo family. This turns out to indeed be the case. Some of the relations are language specific, but there are universal cross-linguistic patterns, such as the relation between propositional questions and disjunction, which is found in all three of these languages. Thus, this contributes to the insight of the cross-linguistic universality of these concepts.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
The conceptual link between space and time is accounted for by two different theories: Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT, Lakoff and Johnson 1980) and A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM, Walsh 2003). Within...Show moreThe conceptual link between space and time is accounted for by two different theories: Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT, Lakoff and Johnson 1980) and A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM, Walsh 2003). Within a linguistic framework, CMT provides evidence for an asymmetric conceptual link between space and time, opposed to the symmetric link predicted by ATOM. Casasanto and Boroditsky (2008) and Casasanto (2010) presented evidence in favour of CMT from non-linguistic psychophysical tasks. Longer lines appeared to positively affect participants’ estimation of duration, analogous to metaphors for duration using spatial words such as long and short, but duration did not influence the perception of space (Casasanto and Boroditsky 2008). A subsequent study revealed language specific differences in effects of different stimulus types, parallel to the typical duration metaphors found in these languages (Casasanto 2010). The present investigation of Dutch shows that the relation between duration metaphors and the perception of space and duration is less straightforward than what might be expected on the basis of the accounts of Casasanto and Boroditsky (2008) and Casasanto (2010). The results of an experiment with speakers of Dutch reveal a symmetric link between space and duration in the case of space presented in the form of one-dimensional length, but an asymmetric link is reported in case of more-dimensional size. Overall, this provides evidence for ATOM rather than CMT.Show less
This thesis is focussed on the pronunciation and acquisition of second language phonology. More specifically, the acquisition of Dutch vowels in native Japanese speakers. A lot of research on...Show moreThis thesis is focussed on the pronunciation and acquisition of second language phonology. More specifically, the acquisition of Dutch vowels in native Japanese speakers. A lot of research on phonology acquisition, especially with Japanese, tends to look at consonants. However, in this paper vowel acquisition is addressed. Dutch has an extensive vowel system with twelve monophthongs and three diphthongs while Japanese has only five vowels. Japanese learners of Dutch were recorded and formant analysis was used to determine which phonological processes influence the pronunciation of target language phonemes.Show less
For adult learners, one’s first language (L1) can and does influence the acquisition of a second language (L2). This thesis is focussed on the transfer of the progressive aspect from Japanese L1...Show moreFor adult learners, one’s first language (L1) can and does influence the acquisition of a second language (L2). This thesis is focussed on the transfer of the progressive aspect from Japanese L1 speakers of L2 Dutch. The Aspect Hypothesis, Prototype theory and the theory of crosslinguistic influence were used as a theoretical framework. Eight Japanese speakers of L2 Dutch were shown videos showing Accomplishment and Activity scenes, and the participants were asked to describe in Dutch the actions as they saw them taking place. Although hypothesised, no significant transfer on progressive aspect was found from L1 Japanese to L2 Dutch.Show less
This research looks at Dutch and Japanese newspapers describing Donald Trump’s victory and possible consequences, focusing on the use of evaluative language. The parameter approach of Bednarek ...Show moreThis research looks at Dutch and Japanese newspapers describing Donald Trump’s victory and possible consequences, focusing on the use of evaluative language. The parameter approach of Bednarek (2006) and Bednarek and Caple (2012) was used to look at the evaluative language. Differences and similarities were found while comparing the news articles. This result could be due to several aspects, however more research is necessary to explain this.Show less
