Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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The present thesis centres on languages and linguistic features encountered in the documentary texts from the Dead Sea region, focussing on the documentary texts from Wadi Murabba’at and Nahal...Show moreThe present thesis centres on languages and linguistic features encountered in the documentary texts from the Dead Sea region, focussing on the documentary texts from Wadi Murabba’at and Nahal Hever. Especially those features that might tell something about the identity of the people responsible for the production of these documents will be examined in detail. The overall aim is to detect these features and to explain them in light of their cultural background: to what extent do the formal and linguistic features visible in the documentary texts convey elements of conscious choices and unconscious linguistic patterns relating to the identity of the people who wrote these texts and how can these features be explained? It will be attempted to answer this general question through two key-objectives: 1. Through determining linguistic features and patterns of language choice in selected case studies. 2. Through explaining these features in light of their cultural-historical background.Show less
This paper sets out to investigate Lithuanians’ attitudes towards foreign languages in the light of political, cultural, and historical situation that Lithuania witnessed during the turn from the...Show moreThis paper sets out to investigate Lithuanians’ attitudes towards foreign languages in the light of political, cultural, and historical situation that Lithuania witnessed during the turn from the 20th to the 21st century. The aim of this paper is twofold: 1) to determine what type of identities Lithuanians ascribe to speakers with foreign accents and 2) to establish the motivations behind choosing Lithuanian versus foreign languages in daily life. The research that was carried out in Lithuania consisted of two parts. The first part of the research used attitudinal study and the second part used a questionnaire distributed around Lithuania. These tools were used to assess Lithuanian opinions of six speakers with various accents, and to analyse the rationale for choosing either the mother tongue or a foreign language in different situations. The results showed that the attitudes towards foreign speakers of Lithuanian differ between the capital city and the smaller town chosen for this study, and that the main reason for choosing Lithuanian over foreign languages in daily settings is more often based on the emphasis of national identity. The findings also suggest that while for the respondents in the smaller town chosen for this study, a standard Lithuanian speaker was an ultimate example of a successful person, the respondents in the capital city saw an American speaker of Lithuanian as the most prosperous individual.Show less
Elderspeak is a form of secondary babytalk that is often used by caregivers to communicate with older adults. Elderspeak frequently involves a slow rate of speaking, simplified syntax, vocabulary...Show moreElderspeak is a form of secondary babytalk that is often used by caregivers to communicate with older adults. Elderspeak frequently involves a slow rate of speaking, simplified syntax, vocabulary restrictions, and exaggerated prosody (Kemper, 2003). The language is often perceived as offensive, because it is based on a stereotype of the mental health of elderly (Draper, 2005). This research sets out to describe what previous research has found so far on the characteristics and consequences of elderspeak. There has been done little research on the occurrence of elderspeak in the Netherlands and how it is perceived by residents and nurses of Dutch nursing homes. By conducting interviews with five residents and five nurses, this research shows that elderspeak is indeed an occurring phenomenon in the Netherlands, but moreover, it also shows that elderspeak is mostly perceived as a positive speech-style. Elderspeak in the Netherlands is predominantly used to show affection or to comfort the residents. The Dutch nurses use a personalised speech-style to each of the residents and therefore the negative consequences of elderspeak are disengaged. The use of elderspeak of the Dutch nurses can perhaps be used as an example of how elderspeak can also function a positive, beneficiary speech-style. This research was performed as a small case-study in which only ten participants from one city were interviewed. Extensive research with more participants across the country would provide more insights on the findings of this research.Show less
Mother Tongue Based – Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programmes in a broad spectrum of varieties have improved access to education for millions of children, by providing them access to literacy...Show moreMother Tongue Based – Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programmes in a broad spectrum of varieties have improved access to education for millions of children, by providing them access to literacy in their home languages and ensuring a stable bridge to the official language(s) of a particular country. In Timor-Leste, a country with a complex multilingual situation, children on average need eleven years to complete up to grade 6, drop-out rates are high and levels of listening comprehension in both official languages Tetum and Portuguese are low. Recognizing these issues and aiming to improve the countries’ education system, Timor-Leste recently evaluated an MTB-MLE pilot initiative in twelve schools in three districts. As a newly independent nation with strong foreign influences as well as internal linguistic diversity, positions of different languages within society are still being negotiated with decisions on language in education being able to strengthen or weaken positions of speakers. Although the debate on MTB-MLE in Timor-Leste is about what would be best for children’s education, political motives are involved as well. At this stage between experimentation and implementation, the short term results and practical application of the programme in selected locations are visible, giving an introduction to a story of which the remainder is still subject to imagination. For both those who support and oppose the programme this imagination lies in the application of the programme in Timor-Leste’s rural areas. Challenging and multilingual as they are, they are used as arguments for both success and failure of national implementation. No studies however, connect these arguments to local data and sociolinguistic information about the areas referred to. This study makes a start with that, connecting arguments of both sides to sociolinguistic data of one district, Lautém, and the literature available on multilingual education and Timor-Leste.Show less
In 1956, the Chinese government began to encourage people all over the country to speak Mandarin in accordance with government policy. This policy was regarded as an effective way to remove...Show moreIn 1956, the Chinese government began to encourage people all over the country to speak Mandarin in accordance with government policy. This policy was regarded as an effective way to remove linguistic barriers among the different provinces, but later it was found that it was also one of the most important reasons behind the vanishing of dialects. Shanghainese 上海话 (Shanghaihua), is the indigenous language in Shanghai. It developed rapidly in the first half of the last century and is regarded as a cultural symbol by the local people of Shanghai. It enjoyed a dominant position in the area until the implementation of the national language policy. After 2000, more and more local people in Shanghai have begun to speak Mandarin in daily life. This thesis aims to study political, social and cultural factors which have led to this kind of linguistic change. I will explore the social function of Shanghainese and give an analysis on why and how people speak specific languages in various social domains. After demonstrating that the social function of Shanghainese is at present rather limited, I will investigate the prevalence of the awareness that favors saving the language and promoting local culture in Shanghainese for the goal of retaining local uniqueness. The thesis will consist of five chapters. The first chapter will include the introduction of Shanghainese, the interdependent relationship amongst languages, society and people and the central question and research methods. The second chapter will be the literature review. Then, I will discuss about how the social context has impacted peoples’ attitudes to Shanghainese and Mandarin and explore incentives behind the switching of languages. Different public and private space, including schools, governmental institutions, media, work places, home and so on, will be analyzed respectively in the third chapter. In ‘Chapter Four’, I will sketch how people consider Shanghainese to be a key part of their cultural identity. The last chapter will be the conclusion of thesis.Show less
This thesis will attempt to provide a short analysis of a test conducted among Dutch and RP speakers of English, a test that mainly considered the ways in which the word “yes” could be interpreted...Show moreThis thesis will attempt to provide a short analysis of a test conducted among Dutch and RP speakers of English, a test that mainly considered the ways in which the word “yes” could be interpreted by both groups of speakers. This study aimed to analyse the ways in which intonation is understood, and how this differs between English native speakers and Dutch speakers of English. Based on work and research by Hoorn, Mitrofanova, Hewings, So and Best, and Grabe, Rosner, Garcia-Albea and Zhou—from which one may gather that non-native speakers will find it both more problematic to distinguish between different intonation patterns as well as understand them see the following chapter for an elucidation on these theories—it was hypothesised that native speakers would have less difficulty with understanding intonation in general, and that Dutch speakers would have a more ambiguous understanding of certain types of intonation patterns.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
Discourse markers and tag questions have garnered much attention in present-day discourse analysis, but research into their ways in the past has only been conducted recently. The present study...Show moreDiscourse markers and tag questions have garnered much attention in present-day discourse analysis, but research into their ways in the past has only been conducted recently. The present study looks at discourse markers and tag questions from a socio-historical perspective, with as its focus the Late Modern English period. The study investigates five discourse markers (oh, ah, well, why, and you know) and tag questions by analyzing their distribution across four variables (gender, social class, intimacy, and setting). The corpus was created by the author by way of a selection of Jane Austen’s fictional works during a twenty-five year period (1792–1817) and has been analyzed by manual text-based analysis and by lexical analysis software. The findings indicate that there are significant correlations regarding discourse marker use and the variables gender (i.e. female speakers) and social class (i.e. lower-middle class). Furthermore, the analysis of the tag questions has demonstrated that the function of tag questions differ regarding the gender of the speaker. The study also discovered that the use of both discourse markers and tag questions are particularly a feature of the speech of silly or manipulative characters.Show less
