For decades an objective within Linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic...Show moreFor decades an objective within Linguistics as a study field has been to assess the existence or strength of a link between language and thought. The present study focuses on crosslinguistic differences of intrusion of the spatial domain within the temporal domain by comparing Native English speakers to Mandarin-English bilinguals. With deviation in linguistic construction of space = time metaphors between the two languages, the main question subject to this study is whether linguistic differences bear influence on the conceptualization of the abstract domain of time. Furthermore, an insight is given in the manner abstract concepts are concreted by the human mind with an emphasis on bilingual processing. As the processing within the bilingual mind has been subjected to much debate over recent year, an attempt to reconcile various views has been laid bare. The present study exists of two replicated tasks which yielded different conclusions in their original state. While the results of the present study remain inconclusive, one task hints at a global difference between Mandarin-English bilinguals' conception of time and English native speakers' conception of time. The other task has not revealed any implication on linguistic processing due to crosslinguistic differences.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
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the origin, evolution, and implication of the Mandarin word tóngzhi from 1911 to 2017. This particular word is interesting to investigate, because over...Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the origin, evolution, and implication of the Mandarin word tóngzhi from 1911 to 2017. This particular word is interesting to investigate, because over the past century the word tóngzhì has undergone progressive change. This change is primarily due to deliberate language planning. Therefore, it is very important to increase understanding of the conceptual and practical usage of tóngzhì.Show less
Er komen continue nieuwe woorden in het Mandarijn terecht vanuit andere talen. Er zijn verschillende manieren waarop een woord in het Mandarijn terecht komt. De verschillende mogelijkheden die in...Show moreEr komen continue nieuwe woorden in het Mandarijn terecht vanuit andere talen. Er zijn verschillende manieren waarop een woord in het Mandarijn terecht komt. De verschillende mogelijkheden die in dit eindwerkstuk uitgelicht worden zijn, merknamen, grafische leenwoorden uit het Kantonees, Japans en Engels, leenvertalingen, fonetische leenwoorden, fonetische leenwoorden met betekenis aanduidend suffix, semifonetische semisemantische leenwoorden en combinatievormen.Show less
In Mandarin the suffix -zi is often used to free +count bound morphemes. However, in Cantonese this suffix is rarely used. This paper seeks to explain the discrepancy between these two Sinitic...Show moreIn Mandarin the suffix -zi is often used to free +count bound morphemes. However, in Cantonese this suffix is rarely used. This paper seeks to explain the discrepancy between these two Sinitic languages in the usage of this suffix. In the existing literature this discrepancy is often attributed to homophony: since homophony isn't as frequent in Cantonese as in Mandarin, the suffix -zi isn't necessary. However, in this paper I argue that homophony is not only a problem in Mandarin, but in Cantonese as well. Therefore both languages require a different method of disambiguation. In Mandarin this is done by affixation, of which the suffix -zi is one example, and in Cantonese this is done by an elaborate system of classifiers. These different methods of disambiguation explain the discrepancy in the usage of -zi.Show less
