Slang is a nonstandard informal vocabulary peculiar to a group. In this digital age, the reproduction and evolution of slang words has become faster due to the digital platforms that they are often...Show moreSlang is a nonstandard informal vocabulary peculiar to a group. In this digital age, the reproduction and evolution of slang words has become faster due to the digital platforms that they are often used in. Research has been done on the lexical aspects of slang and slang in general (Sornig (1981); Metcalf (2002)), and on forms of digital slang (McCulloch (2019)), but none view slang as a mode of translation and applied it to to other types of text besides messages on social media. This thesis will address where digital slang terms come from, and if their origins can help explain how likely they are to be understood by someone who speaks regular English. To do so I will annotate a slang translation of Harry Potter, and research the etymological origins of the slang to try to discover - using Metcalf’s (2002) FUDGE theory - which slang terms are more likely to be understood. I expect to find that the slang terms that more closely resemble regular English words are more likely to be understood.Show less
Merchant’s (2004) work on fragment answers has been groundbreaking in how clausal ellipsis is discussed today. In the article, Merchant defends the notion that in fragmented utterances, an...Show moreMerchant’s (2004) work on fragment answers has been groundbreaking in how clausal ellipsis is discussed today. In the article, Merchant defends the notion that in fragmented utterances, an interpretable syntactic structure is present but elided on the surface; a view that has been much contended with (see e.g. van Riemsdijk 1978; Hausser and Zaefferer 1978; Ginzburg and Sag 2000; Jackendoff 2002; Barton 1990; Stainton 1995, 1997, 1998; Jackendoff and Culicover 2005). His main argument boils down to the fact that fragments in fragment answers are part of a generated structure, and are proven to undergo movement (p. 664). Ever since, movement has been a crucial element in the discussion on ellipsis. Consequently, Ott and Struckmeier (2017) published an article on why the theory by Merchant is false, using gapping, a type of clausal ellipsis, in German for their prime examples. This thesis aims to further tackle Merchant’s approach using gapping in Dutch and showing that particles in gapping propose significant problems for Merchant’s theory.Show less
This thesis explores vowel mergers in the South Asian community of East Lancashire and the social factors affecting these realisations. Possible (non-)mergers north/force and face/goat are examined...Show moreThis thesis explores vowel mergers in the South Asian community of East Lancashire and the social factors affecting these realisations. Possible (non-)mergers north/force and face/goat are examined for a total of seven speakers by means of a word list reading, and sociolinguistic interviews with all speakers provided data on social factors such as socioeconomic background, social mobility, and identity. Like Standard British English, there is a merge of the lexical sets north and force, following what has been described as the first force merger. However, face and goat present a non-merger that behaves differently compared to the known northern English standard. Unlike a northern, monophthongised realisation of both vowels, all speakers gravitate towards a more southern, diphthongised realisation of face. Goat, however, remains a monophthong for all within this small dataset. The deviation found in the face lexical set might be explained through the social factor of social mobility, as all speakers express a desire to rise above the lower to working-class environment they have grown up in. At the same time, if the maintenance of monophthongised goat is an indication of loyalty to their identity, an argument can be made for the lacking desire of the younger second-generation British South Asians to give up their distinguishing dialectal features.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
In this thesis, the following research question is answered: What is the reliability of Jan Danckaert’s Dutch description of seventeenth-century Muscovy? The methodology used is comparative...Show moreIn this thesis, the following research question is answered: What is the reliability of Jan Danckaert’s Dutch description of seventeenth-century Muscovy? The methodology used is comparative philology, through a close reading analysis a comparison is made between different texts to study whether one makes use of the other as a source. Only a preliminary answer can be given to the research question. On the one hand, since the work is not purely written by Danckaert, but makes use of information given by both Herberstein and Massa without mentioning these sources, it is not reliable as a source of how a Dutchman perceived Muscovy at the beginning of the seventeenth century. On the other hand, if you purely look at the ratio between chapters that are demonstrably copied and those that seem to be purely written by Danckaert, one could conclude that this work written by Danckaert is fairly reliable to see how the Dutch perceived the Russian people at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The negative image of the Russians that is conveyed in this work influences the way the Dutch perceive them, who at that time did not have many different sources on which they could base their opinion.Show less
Slur reclamation is a linguistic process wherein a community reclaims words intended to hurt them. This paper focuses on the sociolinguistic factors behind LGBTQ+ slur reclamation in French. Hence...Show moreSlur reclamation is a linguistic process wherein a community reclaims words intended to hurt them. This paper focuses on the sociolinguistic factors behind LGBTQ+ slur reclamation in French. Hence the research question: What are the sociolinguistics factors behind the reclamation process of anti-LGBTQ+ slurs in French? The research was conducted under the hypothesis that French reclamation would only differ from English in people’s objections which would be based on a prestige-appealing ideology. An online questionnaire was used, which participants completed on a voluntary basis. From the results, it appears that LGBTQ+ slur reclamation in French operates in a similar manner as in English. Prestige, however, was less often a factor in French than the hypothesis assumed. Instead, those against reclamation cited the following reasons: derogation too deeply encoded in the slur (always has the potential to hurt anyone, could contribute to internalised oppression), refusal to be defined by your label, pointlessness of the reclamation process. Those in favour of slur reclamation stated the following reasons in the questionnaire: reinforcement of an ingroup feeling, erosion the derogation, humour, unintentionally (part of their lexicon), provocation, secret queer language, ignorance of the insulting nature.Show less
This papers aims to evaluate the sound changes that took place between the Proto-Indo-European stage and the Proto-Celtic stage, that is to say before this proto-language started to be divided into...Show moreThis papers aims to evaluate the sound changes that took place between the Proto-Indo-European stage and the Proto-Celtic stage, that is to say before this proto-language started to be divided into several dialects giving birth to Old Irish, Old Welsh, Old Breton, Old Cornish, Gaulish, Celtiberian, and Lepontic, and to propose a relative chronologic order of those changes.Show less
Es ist kein reiner Zufall, dass das Deutsche und Niederländische sich in vielerlei Hinsicht ähnlich Verhalten, denn sie sind schließlich Schwestersprachen. Reflexive Verben scheinen ein gutes...Show moreEs ist kein reiner Zufall, dass das Deutsche und Niederländische sich in vielerlei Hinsicht ähnlich Verhalten, denn sie sind schließlich Schwestersprachen. Reflexive Verben scheinen ein gutes Beispiel dieser Ähnlichkeit. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden reflexive Verben im Deutschen und Niederländischen miteinander verglichen. Reflexive Verben werden mittels einer Wortliste, in der deutsche und niederländische Verben analysiert werden, in verschiedene Klassen unterteilt, die anschließend miteinander verglichen werden können. Es ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit um herauszufinden, ob deutsche und niederländische reflexive Verben sich systematisch voneinander unterscheiden. Ist es nur Zufall, dass verkouden worden ‘sich erkälten’ auf Deutsch reflexiv verwendet wird und im Niederländischen nicht, oder gehört das Verb zu einer größeren Gruppe der reflexiven Verben, die im Niederländischen nie reflexiv ist? Es hat sich ergeben, dass es tatsächlich systematische Unterschiede zu entdecken sind. Einige Klassen der Reflexiva, die im Deutschen reflexiv sind, sind das im Niederländischen nicht: die Klassen der Positions-, benefaktiven & malefaktiven Verben und die dekausativen inhärent reflexiven Verben mit belebtem Subjekt. Dekausative Reflexiva werden im Niederländischen überhaupt beschränkter als im Deutschen verwendet. Auch ist es bei manchen dekausativen Verben und agentiven Verben, die eine Körperbewegung ausdrücken, im Niederländischen möglich, das Reflexivpronomen weglassen. Im Deutschen ist das nicht der Fall. Wenn ein Verb für reflexiv markiert wird, wird die Betroffenheit des Subjekts betont. Das Deutsche betont diese Betroffenheit am meisten. Das Deutsche markiert semantische Rollen generell mehr als das Niederländische. Das sollte erklären, wieso das Deutsche die meisten Reflexiva aufweist und die Markierung auch nicht einfach weglassen will. Das Niederländische markiert semantische Rollen wiederum mehr als das Englische. Im Niederländischen werden Reflexiva auch mehr als im Englischen verwendet. Das Niederländische befindet sich daher zwischen dem Deutschen und Englischen. Sprecher des Niederländischen scheinen es einfach manchmal unnötig zu finden, die Betroffenheit des Subjekts zu betonen, deswegen kann das Reflexivpronomen bei manchen Verben weggelassen werden. Verben, deren Reflexivpronomina auch weggelassen werden können, gehören zu reflexiven Klassen, die dem Englischen fehlen. Das Niederländische scheint daher momentan dem englischen Weg zu folgen.Show less
The present thesis investigates how West-Frisian expresses low quantities or amounts. The thesis provides evidence in favor of a claim made in Hoekstra, J. (2000) in a reaction to Doetjes (1998)....Show moreThe present thesis investigates how West-Frisian expresses low quantities or amounts. The thesis provides evidence in favor of a claim made in Hoekstra, J. (2000) in a reaction to Doetjes (1998). This claim states that the West-Frisian quantity expression in bytsje ‘a bit’ is compatible with mass nouns as well as count plurals. This is due to an ambiguity inherent to this West-Frisian quantity expression such that it can have a meaning similar to a bit as well as few/little. Similar to counterparts of this quantity expression in related languages such as English, Dutch and German (resp.: a bit, een beetje and ein bisschen), the mass-only restriction applies to West-Frisian in bytsje in its reading similar to a bit as well. In the reading similar to few/little on the other hand, West-Frisian in bytsje does not adhere to the mass-only puzzle as proposed by Doetjes (1998), instead, in bytsje is compatible with count plurals as well as Hoekstra, J. (2000) states. In those cases, as Hoekstra, J. (2000) states and data collected for the present paper shows, the West-Frisian quantity expression in bytsje seems to range from being ambiguous between having a negative and a positive reading and having only a probable negative reading. This compatibility of in bytsje (a bit) with count plurals is hypothesized to be related with the disappearance of the simplex low-degree quantifier min (few/little) in contemporary West-Frisian. Furthermore, through comparing the properties of three distinct West-Frisian quantity expressions (in bytsje ‘a bit’, net folle ‘not many/much’ and in pear ‘a few’) the ambiguities for substituting min for in bytsje are laid bare. Based on these arguments, the present thesis claims that the simplex quantity expression min has been replaced not only by in bytsje and net folle as Hoekstra, J. (2000) proposes, but also by in pear to account for these ambiguities. A language analysis seems to indicate that each quantity expression in West-Frisian has its own distinct role in the quantity system of this language which provides evidence that while in bytsje is compatible with count plurals, this compatibility shows a highly limited distribution.Show less
For decades an objective for linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence and/or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic...Show moreFor decades an objective for linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence and/or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic differences in observed intrusion of the spatial domain on the temporal domain by comparing English monolinguals toMan darin-English bilinguals. The main question in this study is whether the observed linguistic differences in the temporal domain between Mandarin and English bear influence on the conceptualization of this domain by the human mind. The present study comprises of two replicated experiments. When the two presently replicated experiments were conducted originally they drew deviating conclusions from one another regarding a similar question. While the results of the present study remain inconclusive, results hint at a global difference between Mandarin-English bilinguals’ conception of time and English native speakers’ conception of time based on language. This hint implicates that there might be an underlying effect of language on the mental representation of time. The second experiment has not revealed any implication on linguistic processing due to observed crosslinguistic differences.Show less
De invloed van de factor tijd op het gebruik van anglicismen door Franse jongeren is tweeledig, zowel op kwantitatief als taalkundig vlak. De analyse van twee vergelijkbare steekproeven uit het...Show moreDe invloed van de factor tijd op het gebruik van anglicismen door Franse jongeren is tweeledig, zowel op kwantitatief als taalkundig vlak. De analyse van twee vergelijkbare steekproeven uit het ESLO-corpus ondersteunt deze conclusie. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat Franse jongeren relatief veel meer Engelse termen gebruiken, de corpora uit 2010 en 1969 met elkaar vergeleken. Het grote verschil is te wijten aan de verbetering van communicatietechnologie door de verengelsing en het vreemdetalenonderwijs. Hierdoor hebben jongeren een meer technische woordenschat ontwikkeld. Daarnaast toont het gebruik van ‘foute anglicismen’ aan dat Engelse leenwoorden vaak worden aangepast aan de Franse grammatica.Show less
Dutch has a caused posture system that distinguishes two placement verbs, zetten 'to set' and leggen 'lay’. This study explores this semantic distinction from a descriptive viewpoint and uses this...Show moreDutch has a caused posture system that distinguishes two placement verbs, zetten 'to set' and leggen 'lay’. This study explores this semantic distinction from a descriptive viewpoint and uses this analysis to investigates the psycholinguistic effects of it on memory for placement events in native Dutch speakers. This study questions a) what factors determine the semantic distinction between zetten and leggen, b) whether linguistic encoding in general affects memory, c) whether specific linguistic encoding affects memory (i.e. does verbalizing placement events enhance memory for these events in Dutch speakers) and d) whether the fact that a language makes its speakers think about specific features i.e. encoding specific features of placement events vs. not encoding specific features of other motion events) enhances memory for these features in general. Descriptive results show that participants use leggen ‘to lay’ for horizontal scenes and zetten ‘to set’ for vertical scenes. Contrary to earlier findings, the results show that the placement of a round symmetrical object is approached differently than those of cubic symmetrical objects. Psycholinguistic results show that linguistic encoding has a positive effect on memory in general. However, specific linguistic encoding does not result in a significant enhancement of memory for placement events. At last, the results show that the fact Dutch makes her speakers think about specific features of placement event does not affect memory for these: memory for placement events in general was not enhanced compared to memory for other motion events.Show less
In this thesis, I will be examining rendaku in the context of second language acquisition. Specifically, I will focus on students attending Japanese language classes at Leiden University and...Show moreIn this thesis, I will be examining rendaku in the context of second language acquisition. Specifically, I will focus on students attending Japanese language classes at Leiden University and examine how they acquire rendaku proficiency. Earlier research has been done on rendaku acquisition in second language speakers of Japanese, but it is limited and mostly restricted to areas that are either in or close to Japan. For instance, the projects that this thesis draws inspiration from have focused on students whose first language was Chinese or Korean. The present study uses questionnaires targeted at participants with a very different first language: Dutch, which has different etymological roots and shares fewer typological features with Japanese. Not only should this add some more data to the relatively sparse existing pool, but it should also provide a different angle to which existing research can be compared. It is my hope that this will help give a clearer picture of rendaku acquisition in second language speakers as a whole.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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The thesis argues that the language of Aeneas Tacticus, writer of the earliest Greek manual on warfare, can be better understood when studying it as a 'technical treatise', accordingly written in a...Show moreThe thesis argues that the language of Aeneas Tacticus, writer of the earliest Greek manual on warfare, can be better understood when studying it as a 'technical treatise', accordingly written in a technical register.Show less
Rotinese parallelism is an extensively researched feature from an anthropological perspective. This thesis, however, is a research from a linguistic perspective. Linguistic features of Rotinese...Show moreRotinese parallelism is an extensively researched feature from an anthropological perspective. This thesis, however, is a research from a linguistic perspective. Linguistic features of Rotinese parallelism are described on multiple levels. The structure of the parallels is described by means of analysis of the parallels, and statistical data gained from it. The grammatical, semantic and lexical parallelism is described by means of analysis of the relation between the words in a word pair, or the lines in a parallel. Most features of Rotinese parallelism agree with the parallelism in other Central-Eastern Indonesian languages. In contrary to these languages, Rotinese parallelism shows no strict order in lexical parallel pairs. Some parallel pairs do show a strict order, they seem to be pairs denoting strong cultural constructs. In conclusion, this thesis has been the first linguistic exploration of Rotinese parallelism. First steps are taken into understanding its extensive use and richness of features.Show less
This study aimed to provide a clearer understanding of the phonetic influence a native speaker of Arabic can experience during the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL), specifically...Show moreThis study aimed to provide a clearer understanding of the phonetic influence a native speaker of Arabic can experience during the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL), specifically for the consonants /p/ and /v/ in spelling and pronunciation. In a small-scale experiment, Arabic speakers of English were asked to translate an Arabic story to English by hand to create an authentic product of their spelling abilities. Afterwards, the same participants read a short story in English, which was recorded with audio equipment to later evaluate their pronunciation through the program PRAAT. Contrary to existing literature, the small-scale experiment conducted for this study found no significant effect for the influence of Arabic on English spelling despite this being hypothesised and proven in previous research. Along with this, no effect was found for the experiment based on the pronunciation of /p/ and /v/. Whereas the results did show that Arabic speakers of English had a Voice Onset Time (VOT) of /p/ that was considerably lower, they did not realise a [b] instead of the target [ph] as hypothesised. Speakers did not significantly devoice their /v/ to an [f], which does not directly coincide with the literature that has hypothesised the influence of native language phonology on the pronunciation of English as a second language. When evaluating the results as a whole, two things are implied: (1) there is a possible focus in ESL learning on spelling and therefore no issues were found, and (2) pronunciation is a difficult aspect of ESL learning due to the unfamiliar articulatory processes involved and Arabic learners experience difficulties when faced with the unfamiliar /p/ and to a lesser degree also /v/. However, they are able to make the distinction between the phoneme pairs. These implications may help ESL learners in the future to focus on problem areas, further improve their skills, while simultaneously providing the research niche of phonology with new material to investigate.Show less
