I outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one...Show moreI outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one is the Wiseguy English, which belongs to speakers who have lived in the US for a longer period of time and belong to the Italian-American culture. Three films were selected from a plethora of other films concerning the Italian-American culture. The purpose of this study was to determine whether these varieties of English exists from a linguistically stereotypical basis or whether these varieties are true-to-life representations of the features of the Italian-American English speaking culture. One monologue of every main character in the 3 films has been phonetically analysed. The phonetic analyses were then compared to the theoretical framework analysis of the aforementioned varieties of Italian-American Englishes. The hypothesis is that these three films perpetuate linguistic features in Italian-American Englishes that border among the stereotypical imagery of the Italian-American culture. The results outline the most salient features of Italian-American linguistic stereotypes.Show less
One of the common misconceptions when it comes to teaching a second language to gifted students is that teachers expect gifted students to be better at learning a second language than non-gifted...Show moreOne of the common misconceptions when it comes to teaching a second language to gifted students is that teachers expect gifted students to be better at learning a second language than non-gifted students. Expectations are usually high, and when a student does not live up to these expectations, it causes frustration; not just for the student, but also for the teacher and the parents. This misconception stems from the fact that most gifted students show an extensive knowledge of their L1 (first language) at an early age. In theory, a gifted child should therefore be faster at picking up an L2 (second language) than non-gifted students: Hayes et al (1998, p. 179) states: “there is a strong connection between language ability and learning ability.” So hypothetically, with their advanced thinking skills, their more extensive verbal skills, and with their aptitude for learning, these gifted students should have little trouble with learning a second language. In practice, however, this does not always seem to be the case; gifted students do not automatically apply their abilities in learning second languages. For example, classroom practice shows that gifted students generally have greater difficulties with learning and memorizing vocabulary than non-gifted students. The study described in this thesis has multiple aims. First and foremost it aims to examine if there is a difference in the ways gifted and non-gifted students acquire English as a second language. Secondly it explores how language pedagogy as well as taking learning styles into account could benefit gifted students. This is in turn compared to the current classroom practice at the Rijswijks Lyceum. It should finally lead to the causes of these differences or similarities along with the consequences for gifted students.Show less
After Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, confessed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his wins, one might wonder why people kept believing in his...Show moreAfter Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, confessed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his wins, one might wonder why people kept believing in his innocence for many years. This thesis examines the linguist-stylistic features that Armstrong uses to persuade the interviewer in his 2005 deposition. Additionally, it investigates to what extent assumed linguistic signs of lying are present in Armstrong’s language use. By identifying the stylistic choices through inductive and deductive stylistic analysis, this thesis attempts to determine how these choices contribute to Armstrong’s persuasiveness. The results show that Armstrong uses different stylistic choices that can be placed in the overarching categories of repetition, hedges, intensifiers and conditionals. Determining the presence of linguistics signs of lying in his language use proves to be rather difficult. In the end, there appears to be a certain a balance in Armstrong’s stylistic choices that possibly contributes to his persuasiveness.Show less
My thesis treated the lemmas hasta ‘spear’, vastus ‘vast, desolate’, aestās ‘summer’, ‑us ‘heat’, custōs ‘guard’, cēdō ‘to go, cede’, crēdō ‘to believe’, and audiō ‘to hear, understand’. Three...Show moreMy thesis treated the lemmas hasta ‘spear’, vastus ‘vast, desolate’, aestās ‘summer’, ‑us ‘heat’, custōs ‘guard’, cēdō ‘to go, cede’, crēdō ‘to believe’, and audiō ‘to hear, understand’. Three reflexes of dental clusters in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *dh are recognized in Latin: A) ‑ss‑ (iussus < PIE *Hi̯ou̯dh‑to‑); B) ‑st‑ (hasta < PIE *ǵhasdh‑eh2‑); C) ‑V̄d‑ (crēdere < PIE *ḱred‑dhh1‑). The question arises what the distribution is of these reflexes. Cluster A) confirms the usual development of dental clusters ending in *t in Latin (clusters in PIE show an epenthetic *‑s‑, thus *‑TT‑ > *‑TsT‑). Clusters B) and C) are both claimed to be the outcomes of clusters ending in *‑(z)dh‑. However, this was questioned by Lubotsky (2004), who argued that the etymology of the B) clusters either points at a non-PIE origin, or that they underwent a later reanalysis. Szemerényi (1952) claims that the development of ‑st‑ argues for a medial devoicing and that PIE voiced aspirates first lost voicing in Latin (thus, 1) *dh‑ > *th‑ > *þ‑ > f‑, and medially *‑dh‑ > *‑þ‑ > *‑ð‑ > ‑d‑ (cf. Ascoli 1868). However, if the cluster in question does not yield ‑st‑, but rather ‑V̄d‑, Szemerényi’s claim will lose its strength. If so, the loss of occlusion (thus, a trajectory like 2) *dh‑ > *ð‑ > *β‑ > f‑, and medially *‑dh‑ > *‑ð‑ > ‑d‑ (e.g. Hartmann 1890; Rix 1957; Kortlandt 1978, p. 109) will be a more likely development. Although there is more evidence for 2) (e.g the formīca (βormīkā < *mormīkā‑ < PIE *moru̯‑o/ī̆‑ ‘ant’) argument by Meillet 1918), Szemerényi’s argument for 1) cannot be ignored. I looked into the probability of the reconstruction of the lemmas. Since Szemerényi, many new insights have surfaced on the lemmas in question. My survey showed that the evidence is much more in favour of an outcome of ‑V̄d‑, rather than ‑st‑.Show less
The concatenation of fully lexical verbs within a predicate, or verb serialisation, is prevalent in all Alor-Pantar languages (Klamer 2014: 27-9). This study provides a comparative overview of this...Show moreThe concatenation of fully lexical verbs within a predicate, or verb serialisation, is prevalent in all Alor-Pantar languages (Klamer 2014: 27-9). This study provides a comparative overview of this serialisation in two parts: (i) it describes the functions that may be carried out by Alor-Pantar serial verbs and (ii) it investigates the function and grammaticalisation of participant-introducing verbs. The functions carried out by Alor-Pantar serial verbs were compared to Aikhenvald’s (2006) function hierarchy. It was found that Alor-Pantar serial verbs do not fit Aikhenvald’s hierarchy particularly well, as it shows numerous breaches. Furthermore, it was found that stages of grammaticalisation exclude verbs from being classified as serial verbs, which would otherwise fit the hierarchy well. It was also found that the hierarchy is non-exhaustive, as Alor-Pantar serial verbs show myriad other functions. Verbs that serve to introduce clausal participants, as noted by (Schapper 2014a: 15), are prone to grammaticalisation. The second part of this study provides an overview of these verbs, with a focus on their degree and direction of grammaticalisation as well as the kinds of clausal participants they may introduce. It was found that the degree of grammaticalisation varies greatly both within and across languages, and that grammaticalisation occurs in two directions, resulting in the formation of postpositions with a nominal complement and the formation of VP-incorporated postpositions and applicatives. It was also found that VP-internal postpositions have different functions from postpositions heading their own PP, and that these functions tend to become more idiosyncratic in time.Show less
The processes involved in second language phonology have been long researched, yet the research is not always easy to apply in real-life teaching situations. Considering the dynamics of learning a...Show moreThe processes involved in second language phonology have been long researched, yet the research is not always easy to apply in real-life teaching situations. Considering the dynamics of learning a second language and respecting the innate processes that are involved in phonology acquisition the method of this thesis steps away from a traditional lengthy formal instruction: participants were given a very short instruction on their pronunciation. The differences before and after instruction were measured both phonetically (in F1 and F2 frequencies) and audibly (survey). One participant is successful at changing his output both phonetically and audibly, while the others are less successful. Their results, however, inform us about learners’ aptitude, the interconnectedness between vowel output and learner proficiency, transfer processes, and draws comparisons with dynamic systems theory and the effect that psychological tension may have on language output.Show less
This thesis investigates the persuasion methods used by ISIS in several propaganda videos and how these methods psychologically appeal to western male youths.
The purpose of this thesis is to discern whether Dutch gamers and non-gamers want to play games in Dutch and if so, what they think of existing translations. In order to investigate the research...Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to discern whether Dutch gamers and non-gamers want to play games in Dutch and if so, what they think of existing translations. In order to investigate the research question, an online survey was created and distributed amongst a Dutch sample audience consisting of five different types of gamers, including non-gamers; questions involved the subject’s opinions on several areas of videogame translation and localisation, with a focus on subtitling and dubbing. My hypothesis was that the target group would be willing to play more games if a higher number of them were translated into Dutch in the first place, or if current videogame translations were improved upon in some way. Only the first part of the hypothesis turned out to be false.Show less
This thesis will discuss the differences between professional and non-professional Dutch and English texts informing the readers of the dangers of sugar and tobacco consumption. While the hazards...Show moreThis thesis will discuss the differences between professional and non-professional Dutch and English texts informing the readers of the dangers of sugar and tobacco consumption. While the hazards of smoking are widely known, the anti-sugar lobby is a fairly recent phenomenon. The thesis demonstrates how this has affected the articles written about either subject. The analyses in the first chapter reveal several differences between professional and non-professional texts as well as Dutch and English texts, especially where the use deixis and modal verbs are concerned. It pays special attention to the various persuasion strategies used by the authors, which are not only influenced by the manner in which the author is involved in the issue, but also by the audience’s culture. The second chapter indentifies and attempts to solve the various translation problems which occur on pragmatic, cultural, linguistic and text-specific levels when translating articles into the Target Language. Chapter three contains a critical analysis of the translation tool used to identify the articles’ text type: the Text Type Triangle by Dr. Chesterman, which is based on the nowadays outdated text typology developed by Katharina Reiss. Reiss’s text typology, and in extension the Triangle, was developed long before the Internet, which has a profound effect on the manner in which people communicate, became available to the average person. This chapter introduces an updated version of the Triangle, which does take the Internet as a means of communication into account. Finally the conclusion will summarise the questions answered and the data presented in the thesis and will also ask several questions which were raised by the analyses, but which could not be answered.Show less
Speaker normalization is a process during speech perception through which the vocal tract variabilities of different speakers are minimized while preserving the phonemic and sociolinguistic...Show moreSpeaker normalization is a process during speech perception through which the vocal tract variabilities of different speakers are minimized while preserving the phonemic and sociolinguistic variation, prior to the recognition of linguistic categories. This study aims at deciphering the underlying mechanisms through which listeners are able to cope with speaker and dialect differences. Using an event-related potential (ERP) oddball experiment, the present study examined whether listeners treat between-speaker variability in vowel acoustics differently than they treat between-dialect variability. In contrast to the results of a previous experiment, results from the present ERP study show a higher mismatch negativity (MMN) for gender variation than for speaker changes indicating that listeners do not normalize gender differences while changes in speaker are more easily normalized.Show less
This thesis summarises some of the research done on fansubbing. Most of this research is anime-centred. However, another genre where fansubbing has become common practice is the focus of this...Show moreThis thesis summarises some of the research done on fansubbing. Most of this research is anime-centred. However, another genre where fansubbing has become common practice is the focus of this thesis, namely Korean drama. One of the characteristics of fansubbing discussed in this thesis is that many fansubbers have appropriated a foreignizing style of subtitling, instead of domesticizing. I suspected that this was true for the fansubbers of Korean drama as well. To investigate whether this was the case, I focussed on one specific aspect of the Korean language, which is the intricate system surrounding Korean honorifics. I chose to focus my analysis on four Korean age-related honorifics, hyung, oppa, noona, and unni and I compared the translation procedures applied to these terms by both amateur and professional subtitlers. I followed Henrik Gottlieb’s method on extra-linguistic entities to classify the translation procedures found in the subtitles as either foreignizing or domesticizing. The fansubs of the first drama, Coffee Prince, contained many foreignizations, while the fansubs of the second drama, Reply 1997, contained fewer foreignizations. This difference may be the result of the increasing amount of legal online streaming sites where fansubbers subtitle Korean dramas for free or it could be coincidence. More research is needed on fansubbing as it cannot yet be said with certainty that the conclusions drawn from anime-related research apply to other genres as well.Show less
In the present study I expand on existing studies on syllabic patterns in babbling in two ways. First, I present two large-scale studies of babbling patterns from, respectively, eight and nine...Show moreIn the present study I expand on existing studies on syllabic patterns in babbling in two ways. First, I present two large-scale studies of babbling patterns from, respectively, eight and nine different languages. Second, I analyse babbling patterns – the “phonetic syntax” of babbling (Lipkind et al., 2013) – beyond the terms ‘reduplicated’ and ‘variegated’; a sequence “babadi”, for example, could be an example of either reduplicated or variegated babbling, and possible subpatterns become even more complex when considering four-syllable utterances. The conclusion is that that full variegation is preferred over any other form of reduplication in 0-24-months-olds – XY, XYZ, and XYZW. When infants do reduplicate they prefer to do so at the end of the utterance. From a cross-linguistic point of view it can be concluded that Polish and Germanic speaking infants use variegated patterns more frequently than infants of other languages. As regards to reduplicated patterns, languages such as French, Portuguese and Romanian have the highest distribution of reduplication. With regard to development of distribution of the syllabic patterns within the first two years of life, variegated utterances are produced at the very beginning of babbling and the frequency in which they occur increases while the infants grow older.Show less
This scientific work is an attempt to re-evaluate Western notions of possession by embedding the debate into an ontological framework which takes into account the existence of multiple ontological...Show moreThis scientific work is an attempt to re-evaluate Western notions of possession by embedding the debate into an ontological framework which takes into account the existence of multiple ontological worlds. By analysing Western linguistic expressions of possession and contrasting them with possessive relationships from native Amazonian languages, presented data will not only promote the acknowledgement of foreign modes of thinking and challenge what is often seen as ‘natural’ or ‘inherent’, but also substantiate the concrete effect of ontological differences on linguistic possessive constructions. To this effect, this thesis will offer readers a foundational definition of conceptual possession which should enable them to get a clearer view of possessive relationships and their interplay between people, animals and other non-human entities.Show less
This thesis explores the translation of cultural references in the novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It looks at the translation procedures used to tackle references in the Dutch translation of the...Show moreThis thesis explores the translation of cultural references in the novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It looks at the translation procedures used to tackle references in the Dutch translation of the novel by Ine Willems, using the model by Molina & Albir (2002), and attempts to see how the translation procedures used differ from what literature suggests would be the most common procedure for a certain type of reference, differences which stem from the fact that Wolf Hall belongs to the genre of historical fiction in which cultural references are of increased importance in comparison to regular fiction, yet play a different part in the narrative than in typical texts with a high rate of cultural and historical references, such as non-fiction works of historiography. I will argue that the precise nature of the genre has its effects on the ways references can and ought to be translated, and expound on cases in the Dutch translation in which the translator has or has not used the available procedures to their best advantage in order to prove that the translation of cultural and historical references in historical fiction, as opposed to in other genres, is a different beast entirely and should be more widely recognised as an issue for translators to be aware of.Show less
The study investigates conditionals in Chinese within the framework of English conditional construction, developed by Sweetser and others. Its central concern is to find out in what ways Chinese...Show moreThe study investigates conditionals in Chinese within the framework of English conditional construction, developed by Sweetser and others. Its central concern is to find out in what ways Chinese conditional construction differs from the English one. The study is situated in a Chinese diplomatic discourse. Based on a qualitative analysis, it is found that four main forms of Chinese conditionals occur in the corpus in a way that might be influenced by the strategic way of delivering information in the discourse. Meanwhile, the contrast between Chinese conditionals and English conditionals has been concluded, regarding syntactic differences. This study sheds light on the cross-culture use of conditionals and offers valuable suggestions for further research into this domain.Show less
For persuasion, attitudes are targeted through the transmission of a message. This message is usually transmitted through the medium of language, with all its cultural meanings. Additionally,...Show moreFor persuasion, attitudes are targeted through the transmission of a message. This message is usually transmitted through the medium of language, with all its cultural meanings. Additionally, attitudes are also connected to culture, and thus persuasion is culture specific. This has implications for translation, as the translator finds him- or herself in the perfect spot for intercultural mediation. If we want the persuasive message to have the same effect on the target audience as it does on the source audience, then the message needs to be adapted to the target culture. There is still a debate on how much translators should be allowed to intervene in these persuasive messages, and the commissioner seems to have the biggest influence on the way the message is translated. In practice, we don’t see much cultural colouring in speeches by Mark Rutte and David Cameron, rendering these speeches relatively culture neutral.Show less
This thesis will discuss how the final vowel of the subject concord has merged with the TAM paradigm in shiYeyi (R.40). In addition, shiYeyi expresses merely aspect and modality on the verb phrase,...Show moreThis thesis will discuss how the final vowel of the subject concord has merged with the TAM paradigm in shiYeyi (R.40). In addition, shiYeyi expresses merely aspect and modality on the verb phrase, where absolute tense is expressed lexically. In contrast to previous research, the final vowel of the subject concord is not determined by prefix-to-stem vowel harmony, nor does it express the notion of past versus non-past. The subject concord’s final vowel shows a discrete aspectual or modal function and occurs in discrete environments. At the same time, the final vowel of the verb phrase expresses modality, rather than a reduplication of the stem vowel to express absolute tense. For this analysis a previously published data set was used (Sommer, 1995).Show less
The current report is an examination of language and identity in the context of Brussels. Brussels is sociolinguistically interesting as an official bilingual city with great diversity in languages...Show moreThe current report is an examination of language and identity in the context of Brussels. Brussels is sociolinguistically interesting as an official bilingual city with great diversity in languages and cultures. Theoretical notions of language attitude, accommodation and social identity are linked in the multilingual context of Brussels. To investigate a possible relation between language and identity, the language choice preferences of speakers of Dutch are mapped, as well as identifications they make on different levels. The link between language choice and identification is examined by investigating three small groups of speakers of Dutch in Brussels. An attitudinal online survey, expert interviews and a rapid and anonymous survey offer data that provide insights in the language, and identifications the speakers make. Qualitative analyses imply that speakers of Dutch in Brussels show a tendency to be flexible towards language switch and being addressed in another language. The Dutch language tends not to be a distinctive feature to the speakers’ identity, but multilingualism and positive traits attributed to multilingualism are part of the identity of the speakers of Dutch in Brussels.Show less
