This dissertation addresses the semantics of pluractional verbs in Hausa. The notion of pluractionality is discussed and delimited with respect to related phenomena such as aspect. A detailed... Show moreThis dissertation addresses the semantics of pluractional verbs in Hausa. The notion of pluractionality is discussed and delimited with respect to related phenomena such as aspect. A detailed description of pluractionality in Hausa is provided, presenting new data based on the author’s fieldwork. This description lays the empirical groundwork for a theoretical analysis of pluractionality. The interpretation of pluractional verbs in Hausa is viewed as the result of three semi-independent meaning components: event plurality, the non-equivalence condition constraining the process of event individuation, and additional conditions on use following from the fact that Hausa pluractionals are ‘special’ plurals. These three components do not all have the same status, both with respect to each other and across speakers. This accounts for some of the specific properties of Hausa pluractionals, as well as for much of the extensive variation in the use and interpretation of pluractionals among speakers of Hausa. This thesis is of interest to both descriptive and theoretical linguists working on Hausa, pluractionality, or plurality in general. Show less
This dissertation investigates whether and how gradability is manifested in the nominal domain, as well as the implications this could have for theories of the representation of gradability. It is... Show moreThis dissertation investigates whether and how gradability is manifested in the nominal domain, as well as the implications this could have for theories of the representation of gradability. It is shown that the various gradability diagnostics proposed in the literature not only yield different results, but that they do not actually work as could be expected. In case after case, other factors turn out to underlie the noted effects: epistemicity and evidentiality (cf. the epistemic verb seem and real-type adjectives), the expression of a value judgment (e.g. N of an N constructions), the delineation of salient sub-kinds identifiable by natural consequences (cf. internal such) and abstract size modification (e.g. when a size adjective like big modifies a noun denoting an instance of a property or a set of individuals defined in terms of such an abstract object). Our investigation leads to the unexpected conclusion that,there are no grammatical contexts in the nominal domain that are exclusively reserved for a particular class of nouns that could properly be called gradable. As a result, there is no motivation for postulating a degree structure in the syntactic representation of nouns. In addition, there are no expressions performing the type of semantic operations familiar from degree modification in the adjectival domain that would indicate the existence of a grammatically accessible gradable structure in the semantics of nouns at the lexical level. The tale of this dissertation is therefore a cautionary one: arguments to reduce gradability in the nominal and in the adjectival domain to the same phenomenon are misguided. This study shows the importance of a cross-categorial perspective for a better understanding of gradability. It is of interest to a general syntactic and semantic readership. Show less
The peripheral Mongolic languages of the Qinghai-Gansu area in China comprise Eastern Yugur (Shira Yugur) and the Shirongol languages. The latter can be subdivided in a Monguor branch, consisting... Show moreThe peripheral Mongolic languages of the Qinghai-Gansu area in China comprise Eastern Yugur (Shira Yugur) and the Shirongol languages. The latter can be subdivided in a Monguor branch, consisting of Mongghul and Mangghuer, and a Baoanic branch, consisting of Baoan, Kangjia, and Dongxiang (Santa). The internal taxonomy of the Qinghai-Gansu languages will be discussed in a separate section. The Qinghai-Gansu languages are increasingly well-described. They have also been the subject of studies in language contact, mostly in the context of the Amdo or Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund. This study will approach the phonology of Qinghai-Gansu Mongolic from a comparative historical viewpoint. It provides an overview of the phonological developments of the Qinghai-Gansu languages, comparing them to the reconstructed ancestral language. At the same time it will investigate the archaic features that can be found in these languages, in order to improve the reconstructions of individual Mongolic lexemes. The book ends with a comparative supplement of about 1350 reconstructed Common Mongolic items, accompanied by the modern forms they are based on and, where necessary, arguments for the chosen reconstruction. Show less
From the second half of the eighteenth century onwards a knowledge of grammar served as an important marker of class in England. In order to enable their children to rise in society, middle-class... Show moreFrom the second half of the eighteenth century onwards a knowledge of grammar served as an important marker of class in England. In order to enable their children to rise in society, middle-class parents expected their sons and daughters to learn English grammar. Since England did not have an Academy which would produce an authoritative grammar, many individuals took it upon themselves to compose grammars, and the Baptist minister John Ash (1724?–1779) was one of them. Ash’s Grammatical Institutes (1760) was originally written for the author’s five-year-old daughter and was printed for the use of his schoolmaster friends. The grammar became available to a wide public in 1766 when it was published in London, as The Easiest Introduction to Dr. Lowth’s English Grammar. Unlike Robert Lowth, whose grammar was regarded as being too difficult for beginners, Ash fared much better in producing an elementary manual, and it consequently played an important role in the rise of the children’s grammar. Making extensive use of primary source materials such as grammars, letters, reviews and newspaper advertisements, this study contributes to existing scholarship in the field of eighteenth-century grammars and grammarians. It provides an in-depth study of Ash’s Grammatical Institutes and its influence on other popular grammars for children, such as those written by Lady Ellenor Fenn and the nineteenth-century female grammarians. Show less
The American-born Quaker Lindley Murray (1745–1826) arguably was the most influential English language grammarian; undeniably he was the best-selling one. Murray was the author of the English... Show moreThe American-born Quaker Lindley Murray (1745–1826) arguably was the most influential English language grammarian; undeniably he was the best-selling one. Murray was the author of the English Grammar (1795), and between 1795 and the middle of the nineteenth century millions of copies were sold of this grammar alone, while several of his other textbooks were no less popular. In my dissertation, I paint a comprehensive portrait of this prolific writer, and I investigate how Murray’s Quakerism influenced his language use, by analysing a corpus of 262 of his unpublished private letters. In addition, I compared his own usage to the rules that he compiled for his English Grammar, to see whether Murray practiced what he preached. Show less
This work is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. Makalero... Show moreThis work is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. Makalero has been classified as belonging to the Trans-New Guinea family, making it one of the westernmost Papuan languages. While it retains scattered derivational and inflectional processes, it is largely isolating in structure. Underlying the organisation of discourse at a very basic level is the rigid structure of the Makalero clause, which allows for the expression of two verbal arguments at most. A characteristic feature of this clause structure is the presence of two distinct, mutually exclusive argument positions within the verb phrase, the first of which is reserved for undergoers, while the second may express either undergoers, or location and manner information. The description brought forward in this dissertation is not couched in a particular theoretical framework, although insights from several linguistic theories are adduced to support the analysis. The appendices provide transcripts of several Makalero texts as well as a Makalero-English and an English-Makalero word list. Show less
This thesis investigates the processing of words written in Japanese kanji and Chinese hànzì, i.e. logographic scripts. Special attention is given to the fact that the majority of Japanese kanji... Show moreThis thesis investigates the processing of words written in Japanese kanji and Chinese hànzì, i.e. logographic scripts. Special attention is given to the fact that the majority of Japanese kanji have multiple pronunciations (generally depending on the combination a kanji forms with other characters). First, using masked priming, it is established that upon presentation of a Japanese kanji multiple pronunciations are activated. In subsequent experiments using word naming with context pictures it is concluded that both Chinese hànzì and Japanese kanji are read out loud via a direct route from orthography to phonology. However, only Japanese kanji become susceptible to semantic or phonological context effects as a result of a cost due to the processing of multiple pronunciations. Finally, zooming in on the size of the articulatory planning unit in Japanese it is concluded that the mora as a phonological unit best complies with the observed data pattern and not the phoneme or the syllable. Show less
This thesis deals with the tone accent opposition in the so-called “Rule B area” in Franconian. Rule B is known for its reversal of tonal melodies: in 1921, Adolf Bach published a description of... Show moreThis thesis deals with the tone accent opposition in the so-called “Rule B area” in Franconian. Rule B is known for its reversal of tonal melodies: in 1921, Adolf Bach published a description of the Arzbach accents, stating that the tonal melodies in Arzbach display a reversal of those in the rest of the area (Rule A). The study at hand not only provides crucial but as yet missing empirical data on Rule B but also suggests synchronic and diachronic typological analyses of the phenomenon. Newly gathered phonetic data from the Arzbach dialect show that the tone accents in Arzbach are reversed in declaration but not in interrogation, where they strongly resemble the Rule A contours. This important observation was unreported so far. On the basis of these findings, detailed synchronic autosegmental analyses for Arzbach and three other Franconian dialects show that we can understand the tone accent opposition as one of different foot structures for the two accents. The diachronic section of the thesis explores the origin of the semi-reversed tonal contours in Rule B. It argues that Rule B and Rule A developed out of a common predecessor but adapted in different ways to declaration melodies from non-accent dialects. Show less
This is a study on the pronunciation and perception of English sounds and words by university students of English in Sudan, whose native language is Sudanese Arabic. The study aims to establish the... Show moreThis is a study on the pronunciation and perception of English sounds and words by university students of English in Sudan, whose native language is Sudanese Arabic. The study aims to establish the intelligibility of Sudanese-Arabic (SA) accented English for native English (British and American) listeners and Dutch listeners who use English as a lingua franca. The intelligibility of SA-accented English is compared with that of native English. The study also investigates how well the SA students of English identify English sounds and recognize English words in simple sentences spoken by a native English speaker. The perception tests show that the intelligibility of SA-accented English is predominantly compromised by incorrect pronunciation of the English vowels. This finding was predicted from a contrastive analysis of the Arabic and English sound inventories. The SA students of English produced the vowels consonants and consonant clusters of English in controlled materials. Acoustic analyses were carried out in order to establish the differences in pronunciation between SA-accented and native British pronunciation. The comparison revealed substantial discrepancies between the native and non-native varieties, which can be used to explain the degraded intelligibility of SA-accented English. Written questionnaires were administered in which both SA students of English and their instructors were asked to identify strengths and weaknesses in the students’ production and perception of English sounds and words, and to speculate on the underlying causes of the difficulties. The results show that the SA students as well as their instructors have clear intuitions on where the weaknesses are, and that these intuitions correspond closely to the experimental findings of the perception experiments and the acoustic analyses. This book is of relevance to (applied) linguists and language teachers in general and to specialists on the teaching of English pronunciation and listening skills to university students with an Arabic native language background. Show less
The eighteenth century was a key period in the establishment of standard modern English. This period, referred to as the Late Modern English period, witnessed the publication of an unprecedented... Show moreThe eighteenth century was a key period in the establishment of standard modern English. This period, referred to as the Late Modern English period, witnessed the publication of an unprecedented number of normative works aiming to define ‘correct’ English. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) is best known as a scientist and theologian, but his Rudiments of English Grammar, first published in 1761 is an important work in the wave of English normative grammars of the late eighteenth century. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, this book investigates Priestley’s role as a codifier of the English language. The author demonstrates that the influence of Priestley’s grammar on the language has been underestimated and merits re-evaluation. Priestley’s ideas on grammar are related to his broader philosophical thinking. It is shown that, although Priestley is usually seen as one of the few descriptive grammarians of the period, his grammar also contains decidedly prescriptive elements, and that his adherence to the force of usage should be qualified. In addition, Priestley’s usage is compared to the rules in his grammar using a corpus of Priestley’s personal correspondence, created for this study. Show less
