In this thesis, I analyse and discuss palatalisation of the consonant sequence /tj/, particularly within the context of Dutch diminutives. First, an overview is provided of Dutch diminutive...Show moreIn this thesis, I analyse and discuss palatalisation of the consonant sequence /tj/, particularly within the context of Dutch diminutives. First, an overview is provided of Dutch diminutive allomorphy, palatalisation in general, and about frequency and productivity and their possible effects on sound change. Based on a detailed review of the literature within this topic, the expectation was that frequency would be a major influencing agent of this palatalisation process. In respect of the specific sequence of /tj/, data was elicited by means of a small-scale production experiment, in which I used beetje (a very frequent diminutive) and weetje (a low-frequency diminutive) as target words. The findings indicate that the alternation of what was perceived as the unmarked [tɕ] and the frequency-conditioned, palatal [ç] is no longer sensitive to frequency, and that [ç] is more recurrent than it was expected to be.Show less
Donald Trump was a highly controversial figure in the 2016 and 2020 elections. He presented himself as America’s hero (Mercieca, 2020). Trump's 2016 campaign was marked by an unique and...Show moreDonald Trump was a highly controversial figure in the 2016 and 2020 elections. He presented himself as America’s hero (Mercieca, 2020). Trump's 2016 campaign was marked by an unique and idiosyncratic rhetoric and campaigning style in which social media play a large role and especially his use of Twitter was remarkable (Polak, 2018). Trump’s rhetoric was full of pathos-driven techniques like: America first exceptionalism, hyperboles, repetition, fear appeals, ad populum and ad hominem arguments (Mercieca, 2020) while his rhetoric lacked complexity (Skinnel, 2018). Furthermore, Trump was known to distort facts (Skinnel, 2018). Although Trump was suspended from Twitter, begin January 2021, shortly after losing the election and the storming of the capitol took place, he has recently made a re-entrance on Twitter. The author of this paper wishes to contribute to the current research on Trump’s unique rhetorical style which continues to have a strong influence in America and do so by analysing Trump’s Twitter use during the 2020 elections, making use of a corpus based approach supplemented by a qualitative analysis of his rhetoric.Show less
In this thesis, I will research the frequency of English loan words in K-pop songs that were released between 2010 and 2021. With this research I will attempt to answer three questions. Firstly:...Show moreIn this thesis, I will research the frequency of English loan words in K-pop songs that were released between 2010 and 2021. With this research I will attempt to answer three questions. Firstly: Has the average amount of English words in K-pop songs increased between 2010-2021? Secondly: How can English loans in Korean be linguistically classified? Thirdly: Why has the use of English words in Korean increased, if it is the case that it did? The found loan words will be distributed into five different categories laid out in Grant (2019) and Kim (2012), based on the identifying linguistic features. Furthermore, I will attempt to provide a sociolinguistic explanation for the reasons for the use of English words in Korean. Both broad societal factors, as well as factors specific to the K-pop industry will be taken into account to arrive at a conclusion.Show less
This thesis is a historical and comparative linguistic research on Norwegian stress assignment. It discusses the history of Germanic stress assignment and compares the development of Norwegian...Show moreThis thesis is a historical and comparative linguistic research on Norwegian stress assignment. It discusses the history of Germanic stress assignment and compares the development of Norwegian stress assignment to that of English stress assignment to establish the current state of Norwegian stress assignment as well as discuss the possible future for Norwegian stress assignment.Show less
This study analyzes the swearing practices of men and women using the reality television gameshow Wie is de Mol? ‘Who is the Mole?’ (WIDM) as a corpus for natural spoken language. The aim of the...Show moreThis study analyzes the swearing practices of men and women using the reality television gameshow Wie is de Mol? ‘Who is the Mole?’ (WIDM) as a corpus for natural spoken language. The aim of the study was to determine whether (1) there was a difference in the swearing practices of the male and female candidates, (2) if the situational context has an effect on these swearing practices, and (3) if these swearing practices have changed over the past decade (from 2011 to 2021). Additionally, this study hopes to contribute to the complex postmodern identity theory. The uttered swearwords during the WIDM episodes were then categorized according to gender, several characteristics of the swearword, and the situational context in which the swearword occurred. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in the overall swearing practices of the male and female candidates and that these practices have not changed over the past decade. However, an effect was found that the swearing rate increases in emotionally charged situations. Furthermore, four candidates’ swearing practices were individually analyzed and indicated that (1) the swearing practices were idiosyncratic, and (2) the fact that they swore more than the average candidate can be linked to their social identity.Show less
Research indicates that the application of syntactic stylistic devices and syntactic complexity in slogans comes with cognitive advantages and, hence, support the strategies of persuasion that...Show moreResearch indicates that the application of syntactic stylistic devices and syntactic complexity in slogans comes with cognitive advantages and, hence, support the strategies of persuasion that slogans entail. The current study set out to assess the extent to which syntactic stylistic devices and complexity are displayed in English cosmetic brand slogans. In addition, it sought to determine which syntactic stylistic devices are used most commonly, and how cosmetic brand slogans vary in terms of their length (number of words), number of modifiers, i.e. adjectives and adverbs, and levels and types of syntactic complexity. Through content analysis, twenty-five English slogans from twenty-three different cosmetic brands were investigated. The results indicate that the most common syntactic stylistic devices displayed in English cosmetic brand slogans are repetitions, omissions, and changes in the logical syntactic order. With respect to syntactic complexity, the results suggested that both simplicity and moderate complexity occurred frequently within cosmetic brand slogans. Whether moderate syntactic complexity was applied purposefully, could not be concluded with certainty.Show less
This thesis investigates the morphological status of COVID-related splinters. It examines whether the splinters cov(i)-, -demic, and quaran- are in the process of becoming combining forms, in...Show moreThis thesis investigates the morphological status of COVID-related splinters. It examines whether the splinters cov(i)-, -demic, and quaran- are in the process of becoming combining forms, in similar vein to forms like -(a)holic, a splinter which has developed into a combining form. Corpus-based investigation and feature-based analysis have shown that cov(i)- and -demic indeed behave like combining forms in word formation processes, while quaran- does not. However, an analysis of its lexical structure has indicated that it is not impossible for quaran- to become a combining form eventually.Show less
Discourse markers can provide various insights into the thought processes of the speaker producing them. For instance, previous research (see Maschler & Shapiro, 2016; Yeh & Huang, 2016;...Show moreDiscourse markers can provide various insights into the thought processes of the speaker producing them. For instance, previous research (see Maschler & Shapiro, 2016; Yeh & Huang, 2016; Othman, 2010 for markers of certainty; see Jucker, 1993; Urizar & Samuel, 2014 for markers of uncertainty) has demonstrated how specific discourse markers can reflect an epistemic stance of (un)certainty to the statement made. At the same time, certainty can be related to expertise, including the ability to provide more details in certain scenarios or, alternatively, provide only the most concise correct answer to a question (Tenbrink, 2020). We address the relation between the presence of markers of (un)certainty and the level of detail (granularity) in the linguistic data by qualitatively analysing eight think-aloud protocols collected while participants arranged place names from memory on a blank sheet functioning as a map. Because certain areas were more familiar to the participants than others, this scenario led to ample and varied use of discourse markers of (un)certainty. The transcripts were segmented and analysed based on CODA (Cognitive Discourse Analysis; Tenbrink, 2020) principles by means of systematic annotation, identifying qualitative patterns of linguistic features on the basis of relative frequencies and analysis of specific instances. Discourse markers were annotated based on previous literature, whilst keeping in mind that certain markers of certainty (e.g. ‘right’) can also fulfil a role as merely a ‘filler-word’. The level of detail (granularity) within utterances was measured by operationalising precision of placement descriptions in the think-aloud task, as well as taking into account relevant contextual data, which reflected, for instance, how well and/or why the participants knew a certain place. This linguistic data was consequently cross-referenced with an accuracy score calculated on the basis of a grid map of the area involved as compared to the spatial placements by the participants. Results indicate that discourse markers of uncertainty tend to be employed far more often, which corresponds to our expectations for a complex task with a potential for evaluation (face saving acts; Brown & Garland, 1971; Mirzaei Jegarlooei & Allami, 2018). However, despite the high number of instances where discourse markers were used, statistical analysis revealed no significant correlation between the use of discourse markers (neither of certainty nor of uncertainty) and the accuracy scores of the location placements. On the other hand, granularity level did have a significant negative correlation with accuracy scores in our data set (so; the higher the level of granularity, the lower the accuracy score would be). This would indicate that experts tend to provide concise but correct answers, opening up various pathways for further investigation. It must be noted that the corpus employed for this exploratory study was relatively small (N=8), so these results should only be taken as an indication for potential further research rather than conclusive evidence.Show less
