In this thesis, I discuss the range of numerals in South American languages, the strategies that languages use to form their numerals, and what cultural and historical causes can be given to the...Show moreIn this thesis, I discuss the range of numerals in South American languages, the strategies that languages use to form their numerals, and what cultural and historical causes can be given to the range of the numerals. The Quechuan languages consistently possess an infinite decimal system. This could be the result of the preservation of the high numerals after colonization that were used to keep track of administration in the extended Inca Empire. In the Arawakan family, both the range and the internal structure of the numerals differ. Just as for the Quechuan, the Arawakan people were involved in trade and war which could indicate a need of high numerals. However, unlike for the Quechuan numerals, they have not been preserved. During colonization, Arawakan groups fled from their original settlements and adopted other groups into their communities, which indicates substratum influence and explains the diversity of the Arawakan numerals. In the Guaporé-Mamoré linguistic area, numerals are mostly concentrated around a maximum of 20. The body-part system and a connection to company or loneliness are common in the numerals in this area.Show less
This thesis compares the consonant inventories of constructed languages with the consonant inventories of natural languages, in an attempt to find out what natural languages are most similar to...Show moreThis thesis compares the consonant inventories of constructed languages with the consonant inventories of natural languages, in an attempt to find out what natural languages are most similar to these constructed languages in terms of consonant inventories. The main objective is to find out whether language creators are influenced by their native languages when creating their own languages. For this purpose, two programming scripts were created in order to quickly compare consonant inventories with each other. Using these programs, 7 constructed languages were each compared to 3,019 natural languages from the online database PHOIBLE. In more than half of the analysed constructed languages, the consonant inventories of the constructed language and the creator’s native language had an overlap of 70% or more, which, when compared to the overlap with other natural languages, is on the higher end of the scale, but rarely the highest end. These results point towards an influence of the native language of the creator on the consonant inventory of their created language.Show less
This thesis looks at positive and negative existentials in Finnish and Hungarian with the help of the framework of Denis Creissels’ 7 types of existentials for the positive constructions, as well...Show moreThis thesis looks at positive and negative existentials in Finnish and Hungarian with the help of the framework of Denis Creissels’ 7 types of existentials for the positive constructions, as well as Croft’s Cycle for the negative constructions. The findings are that neither language fits neatly within Creissels’ types, as both show several different constructions. Finnish has three distinct ways of forming existentials: ‘olla + locative’, ‘olla + agent participle of olla + locative’, or a ‘copula only’ construction. Hungarian has two different ways of forming existentials: with ‘lenni + locative’, as well as a ‘copula only’ construction. Not every construction is grammatical in every context. Often existentials cannot be clearly separated from locatives and possessives. Generally, word order and context work together with a specific construction to somewhat differentiate it from other constructions. However, multiple interpretations of a single construction are often possible, so this is not absolute. These findings go against multiple claims often made in conventional literature.Show less
The Dialect of Vlasotince is a Torlak variety of South Slavic spoken in and around the small town of Vlasotince in southern Serbia, between Kosovo (KiM) and Bulgaria. This grammar sketch aims to...Show moreThe Dialect of Vlasotince is a Torlak variety of South Slavic spoken in and around the small town of Vlasotince in southern Serbia, between Kosovo (KiM) and Bulgaria. This grammar sketch aims to provide a succinct description of its phonology, morphology and select syntactic features as currently used by the inhabitants of Vlasotince, supplemented with a small number of texts to illustrate its use in practice. Due to Vlasotince’s considerable growth since the end of WWII (Vukmirović 2013: 106) and the proliferation of media and schooling in the standard language, what is most commonly heard on the street nowadays is a variety with stronger influence from the standard language than is usually found in the works on Torlak dialectology from the past century, yet one that clearly retains much of its distinctive character. It is this contemporary, commonly used register, sprinkled with influences from the standard, that I have tried to describe here. It should serve as a representative snapshot of the way people from Vlasotince speak amongst themselves today.Show less
Since 2006, Mexico has experienced periods of very high levels of violence and homicide rates, product of a developing conflict between the government and drug trafficking organizations (DTOs)....Show moreSince 2006, Mexico has experienced periods of very high levels of violence and homicide rates, product of a developing conflict between the government and drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Following a shift in political regimes in 2000 which resulted in the decentralization of government power and an increased focus on combatting corruption, relations between the DTOs and the government grew tense. In 2006, President Felipe Calderón decided to militarize the drug war, resulting in a number of developments which appear to have compromised Mexico’s public security. This thesis attempts to create a timeline of the developments that have occurred since 2006 linked to this conflict. It argues that the government’s interventions against DTOs have amplified the intensity of violence in conflict through applying brute force and poorly thought out policies. The timeline is constructed through the presentation of empirical data coupled with a number of key events that I believe have played a role in the development of drug-related violence in Mexico.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
Het Helmonds is een taal (ook wel dialect genoemd) gesproken in de stad Helmond, gelegen in het oosten van de provincie Noord-Brabant. Het behoort tot de Peellandse tak van het Oost-Brabants. Deze...Show moreHet Helmonds is een taal (ook wel dialect genoemd) gesproken in de stad Helmond, gelegen in het oosten van de provincie Noord-Brabant. Het behoort tot de Peellandse tak van het Oost-Brabants. Deze scriptie beschrijft zijn fonologie, morfologie en morfofonologie. In deze domeinen verschilt het Helmonds het sterkst van het Standaardnederlands (SN). Zo heeft de taal veertien monoftongen, één meer dan de dertien die Booij (1995: 5) voor het SN beschrijft. Dit is ook typologisch opvallend. Maddiesons (2013) sample van 564 talen bevat bijvoorbeeld maar één taal met veertien klinkers. Daarmee is het Helmonds een zeldzaamheid onder de talen van de wereld. Naast de grotere klinkerinventaris verschilt het Helmonds van het SN op het gebied van flexie. Het heeft affixen die niet voorkomen in het SN. Ook wordt modificatie van de wortel van een woord veelvuldig gebruikt om bepaalde morfologische functies uit te drukken. Verder heeft de toevoeging van morfologie vaak invloed op de realisatie van de wortel, waardoor de fonetische realisatie van de taal vaak afwijkt van haar onderliggende structuur. De morfofonologie is daarmee erg complex. Ondanks deze complexiteit is deze scriptie toch een erg volledige beschrijving van de eerdergenoemde domeinen. De data waar deze beschrijving zich op baseert is door de auteur zelf verzameld in Helmond. Hierbij heeft hij rekening gehouden met sociolinguïstische factoren als gender en plaats van geboorte binnen Helmond. Uit dit onderzoek is daarmee ook gebleken dat er twee variëteiten in Helmond gesproken worden, hier Perifeer Helmonds (PH) en Centraal Helmonds (CH) genoemd. Deze variëteiten zijn te verbinden met de plaats van geboorte van de spreker. Deze beschrijving is de eerste volledige beschrijving van de fonologie, morfologie en morfofonologie van het Helmonds. Het is daarmee een onmisbare bron voor eenieder die geïnteresseerd is in het Helmonds, maar ook in Noord-Brabantse dialectologie in het algemeen. Verder is de sectie over fonologie ook interessant voor het vakgebied van de taaltypologie.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
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
20% of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested to date; this threatens the provisioning of vital ecosystem services, some of which are of relevance internationally. This thesis analyzes how...Show more20% of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested to date; this threatens the provisioning of vital ecosystem services, some of which are of relevance internationally. This thesis analyzes how neoliberalism has influenced the development of deforestation and agri-business in the Brazilian Amazon. The implementation of neoliberal policies in the 1990’s has been instrumental in the exponential growth of agri-business sectors such as cattle and soy within the Brazilian Amazon. Neoliberalism also reconfigured the primary driver of deforestation from the national government to private enterprise, Brazilian agri-business currently represents the primary driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. In addition, federally directed development and conservation policies have also been influential in terms of deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon. Neoliberalism, deforestation, agri-business, development policy and conservation policy will all be engaged in order to assess how neoliberalism has impacted agri-business and deforestation within the Brazilian Amazon.Show less
The Mapuche community is an indigenous group in Chile and Argentina and can be considered a cross-border nation. Since the establishment of national borders and nationalization programs by the...Show moreThe Mapuche community is an indigenous group in Chile and Argentina and can be considered a cross-border nation. Since the establishment of national borders and nationalization programs by the Chilean and Argentinian governments, the group has diminished. There are less Mapuche in Argentina and only a small amount of speakers of Mapudungun (the Mapuche language). Chile has a larger Mapuche community and is well known for its activism, such as political participation and protests. This thesis analyses the differences between the Chilean and Argentinian Mapuche and what the reasons are behind those differences. The main focus is on the indigenous rights, including land rights and the offer of bilingual education. The most important reasons lined out for the differences can be traced back to historical events, and are often a result of the nationalization processes and governmental policies towards indigenous groups.Show less
The following thesis is an in-depth analysis of the extent to which the male gaze constructs female identity in 21st century Brazilian society. In the light of post-modern discourse, the concept of...Show moreThe following thesis is an in-depth analysis of the extent to which the male gaze constructs female identity in 21st century Brazilian society. In the light of post-modern discourse, the concept of gender identity has been hotly debated and deconstructed, leading to the conclusion that there is nothing inherently natural about gender; it is instead the byproduct of social, cultural, political, and economic factors. The following thesis analyzes the ways in which feminine identity is crafted through the powerful impact of the male gaze, biopower through the media, and voyeuristic desire. Through an in-depth analysis of two case studies − one focusing on the carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and another one on Brazilian magazine covers − the thesis assesses the extent to which the male gaze impacts feminine identity in 21st century Brazilian society. The main findings suggest that feminine identity in Brazil is created and reaffirmed through the male gaze and voyeuristic pleasure, as exemplified by events such as the carnival in Rio as well as an analysis of Brazilian magazine covers. The thesis concludes that the male gaze and biopower have repercussions on gender norms in Brazilian society, as they present feminine and masculine identities in oppositional terms, thus reinforcing them as separate categories: masculine as active and feminine as passive.Show less
This thesis analyzes the ongoing debate to what extent Mexico can be considered a failed state. There are different points of view about the concept of the failed state, on the one hand it is...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the ongoing debate to what extent Mexico can be considered a failed state. There are different points of view about the concept of the failed state, on the one hand it is commonly accepted; and on the other hand it is mainly seen as a Western paradigm. Mexico has longstanding problems with violence and the failure of the government to provide internal security, both a result of the democratization of this century and the war on drugs by the government. The government cannot address the violence effectively because of the dysfunction of institutions like the police. Another longstanding problem that influences the country are the human rights abuses, in relation to the war on drugs. However, despite these longstanding problems, the Mexican state overall is not failed and will not fail in the near future because it functions effectively on other levels. Economically the country has a strong position in the region. Moreover, the government is able to perform its daily tasks effectively. The failed state paradigm does not take into account the specific cultural and historic characteristics of state development, which is different in every region. The structural problems in Mexico can pose a threat to democracy in the country, but will not lead to state failure.Show less
In this typological survey, I study the distribution of irrealis markers in a sample of nine South American indigenous languages. I do this to assess the typological validity of Reality Status, a...Show moreIn this typological survey, I study the distribution of irrealis markers in a sample of nine South American indigenous languages. I do this to assess the typological validity of Reality Status, a crosslinguistic grammatical category defined by Elliott (2000) about which there is much debate. This category assumes that a notional distinction of realized and unrealized events underlies the formal marking of the irrealis. Based on Elliott’s notional definition, and inspired by Michael (2014), I set out a group of irrealis parameters, grammatical categories which are expected to be marked for irrealis in a language which makes an RS distinction, and study which of these parameters are marked for the irrealis. I argue that assuming RS is often not adequate in explaining the distribution of irrealis markers and that this distribution should instead be explained by assuming a focal meaning of future prediction, which shows interaction with either degree of assertion or metaphorical inference from markers of deictic space. Together, these factors can account for the distribution of the irrealis markers in this sample.Show less
In 1989, after 17 years of state terrorism and authoritarianism, Chile transitioned back to democracy. Since then, many scholars have studied and attempted to delegitimize Pinochet’s dictatorship...Show moreIn 1989, after 17 years of state terrorism and authoritarianism, Chile transitioned back to democracy. Since then, many scholars have studied and attempted to delegitimize Pinochet’s dictatorship by focusing on its excessive violence. Not only have they furthered the quasi-axiomatic incompatibility between legitimacy and violence, these scholars have also participated in the creation of an immense literature on Pinochet’s violent practices. Yet, in contrast, the literature explaining the longevity of the regime is disproportionately small. In light of this imbalance, this paper examines how violence allowed this authoritarian regime to be one of the longest and latest dictatorships in Latin America. The nature of violence must be reconsidered in an effort to uncover hidden perpetrators who contributed to the dictatorship’s longevity. To do so, Pinochet’s regime is analysed through a Weberian lens. That is, Weber’s three sources of leadership legitimacy: charisma, traditions and legality. This paper exposes the theoretical weaknesses of the conceptualization of legitimacy and of violence. As long as a theoretical shortcoming of these concepts exists, difficulties to evaluate, judge and react appropriately to authoritarianism in practice will persist. This will, in turn, come with additional pernicious effects such as political and social polarization in post-authoritarian societies.Show less
This Bachelor’s thesis analyzes the influence of the ideologies marianismo and machismo on society in Mexico. By analyzing the country’s past, from pre-Hispanic times until after the conquest, it...Show moreThis Bachelor’s thesis analyzes the influence of the ideologies marianismo and machismo on society in Mexico. By analyzing the country’s past, from pre-Hispanic times until after the conquest, it is safe to say that the past continues to have a significant influence on present day Mexico. Marianismo and machismo were used by the Spaniards, as tools for controlling the indigenous people of Mexico, and this has led to the subordinate social position of women. As marianismo and machismo continue to be deeply embedded in Mexican culture, it is important to detect the main institutions that perpetuate these traditions, and cause them to live on in the present. Even though we can see the presence of marianismo and machismo throughout the whole of Mexican society, this work will focus on the economic position and political participation of women. Generally speaking, the family can be considered the main institution that keeps these ideologies alive, doing so by means of traditional norms and values. This thesis will show that, besides the impact on the family unit, marianismo and machismo also have significant effects on the labor market and the political sphere.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
In this study, the grammar and basic lexicon of the Sayan languages (Turkic), spoken in Russia and Mongolia, are compared by means of the features found in WALS (Dryer & Haspelmath 2013). The...Show moreIn this study, the grammar and basic lexicon of the Sayan languages (Turkic), spoken in Russia and Mongolia, are compared by means of the features found in WALS (Dryer & Haspelmath 2013). The main goal of this thesis is to provide a comparative study on four Sayan languages, namely Tuvan, Tofa, Soyot, and Dukha. Tuba, the fifth Sayan language, became extinct before it was described and studied and, therefore, it is excluded from the linguistic study. The data in this study came from the grammars by Anderson & Harrison (1999 and 2006, Tuvan), Rassadin (1971, 1978 and 2010, Tofa and Soyot) and Ragagnin (2011, Dukha). Another question that will be discussed in this thesis is the reason why Tuvan is not moribund, while its sister and daughter languages are. To answer this question, I looked at the history of the Sayan peoples and their current social status. Of all Sayan languages, Tofa showed the least Mongolian influences. This is probably because the Tofa people moved away from the Tuva Basin before the Mongols had a linguistic influence on the Tuvan language. Together with data from the grammars and historical information, a Sayan tree diagram is reconstructed. From the history and the current social status of the Sayan peoples could be concluded that the number of speakers and isolation together form the reason why Tuvan is not extinct and flourishes, while the other Sayan languages struggle to survive.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis proposes a sketch description of Brazilian Bergamasch, a Gallo-Italian language spoken in the town of Botuverá, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Brazilian Bergamasch...Show moreThis thesis proposes a sketch description of Brazilian Bergamasch, a Gallo-Italian language spoken in the town of Botuverá, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Brazilian Bergamasch is a non-standard variety of Bergamasch, an Italian language currently spoken in the Italian region of Lombardy, which was brought to Brazil by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. This thesis has two main goals. Firstly, it aims to provide a grammatical and sociolinguistic sketch of the language, since Brazilian Bergamasch is currently undescribed. The description focuses on the analysis of the sociolinguistic situation present in the community, as well as on the main linguistic structures of the language (lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax). In both cases, emphasis is given to the features that diverge from the standard variety spoken in Italy. On the basis of numerous discrepancies due to the geographic origins of the community founders on the one hand, and language internal and contact induced change on the other hand, it is argued that Brazilian Bergamasch can in fact be classified as a linguistic system independent from Standard Bergamasch. Secondly, the thesis provides a short wordlist of the basic lexicon of the language. The wordlist, which counts around 770 items, is organized by semantic fields and aims to contribute to projects of language maintenance that are currently being discussed and implemented by the community.Show less
This MA thesis provides the first description and discussion of three temporal predicative particles (aɬta, ɬke and hata) found in Sanapaná, an underdocumented and underdescribed Enlhet-Enenlhet...Show moreThis MA thesis provides the first description and discussion of three temporal predicative particles (aɬta, ɬke and hata) found in Sanapaná, an underdocumented and underdescribed Enlhet-Enenlhet language of the Paraguayan Chaco. Furthermore, it compares the form and function of these particles in Sanapaná to that of their cognates in the other Enlhet-Enenlhet languages: Angaité, Enxet, Enlhet, Guaná and Enenlhet. As such, this thesis has three main objectives. Firstly, it aims to be a contribution to the descriptive literature on an understudied indigenous language of South America, since it is based on primary data gathered during my own field work. Secondly, it hopes to provide insights into the genetic relations between the languages of the Enlhet-Enenlhet language family. Thirdly, this work hopes to provide data for possible areal or typological studies of the phenomena manifested by these particles: tense-aspectmodality systems, and (nonverbal) predication. It is argued that aɬta, when it follows a verb, functions as a prehodiernal past marker. When it follows a word from a different word class, it can locate the referent of a noun in the past (but is not a nominal tense marker), and it makes the inherent predicativity of this word explicit, just as Kalisch (2009) argues that these particles do in Enlhet. ɬke, secondly, is argued to be an immediate aspect marker when it follows a verb, and has the same predicative force when following a word from a different class. Furthermore, it can locate the previous mention of a referent or its previous presence in the extralinguistic context in the past. Lastly, hata functions as an indefinite future marker when combined with a verb, and also has this aforementioned predicative force. Based on these (admittedly limited) Sanapaná data and that of its sister languages, it seems that Unruh & Kalisch’ (2003) hypothesis of a Western and an Eastern branch of the family is warranted: Guaná, Sanapaná and Enenlhet cluster together, while Enlhet shares fewer features with these languages. Within the former group, Guaná and Sanapaná seem to be most similar.Show less
