This thesis first provides a grammar sketch of Teke-Kukuya which is a Bantu language spoken in the Republic of Congo, covering the topics on its segmental phonology and prosodic system, noun... Show moreThis thesis first provides a grammar sketch of Teke-Kukuya which is a Bantu language spoken in the Republic of Congo, covering the topics on its segmental phonology and prosodic system, noun classes and noun phrases, verbal morphology and TAM conjugations, as well as some syntactic issues based on newly collected data. The second part of the thesis investigates the interaction between syntax and information structure in this language. The author discusses word order variation and expressions of information structure with particular interests in a dedicated immediate-before-verb (IBV) focus position in this language. Since the IBV focus construction shares many grammatical properties with clefts, both segmentally and tonally, the author makes the hypothesis that diachronically the IBV focus strategy originates from a basic cleft, and it has been grammaticalised towards a monoclausal focus construction. The thesis also gives a synchronic analysis on the structural representation of the IBV focus construction, discussing the subject agreement asymmetry in subject/non-subject relatives and the associated class 1 subject marking alternation in the IBV focus construction. Show less
This thesis investigates the interaction between syntax and information structure (IS) in Tunen, a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by approximately 70,000-100,000 people. Tunen has previously... Show moreThis thesis investigates the interaction between syntax and information structure (IS) in Tunen, a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by approximately 70,000-100,000 people. Tunen has previously been noted to be unusual for a Bantu language in several respects, being the only one of the 550-some Bantu languages reported to have subject-object-verb (SOV) rather than subject-verb-object (SVO) basic word order. As previous work suggested that Tunen's unusual syntax relates to IS, this thesis serves to test this relationship. The principal data source comes from fieldwork conducted by the author in Ndikiniméki/Yaoundé, Cameroon, with supplementary evidence from secondary sources and remote elicitation. The results indicate that Tunen syntax shows less influence from IS than expected from previous work on the language and the surrounding languages. Instead, Tunen's basic word order is shown to be consistent across discourse contexts, clause types, and object types. Alongside discussion of the SOV word order, the thesis investigates IS expression and the syntax of a typologically-unusual discontinuous DP construction, which is shown to be found across information-structural contexts. A first formal analysis of Tunen syntax is provided within the framework of generative syntax, and the thesis also includes an updated grammatical overview of the language and sample texts. Show less
This study examines a single English language usage problem, number agreement in the variants of the species noun phrase ; e.g. 'these kinds of errors' vs. 'these kind of errors' vs. 'errors of... Show moreThis study examines a single English language usage problem, number agreement in the variants of the species noun phrase ; e.g. 'these kinds of errors' vs. 'these kind of errors' vs. 'errors of this kind' from three perspectives: those of linguists, prescriptivists and the general public. The study, framed by the descriptions given in modern reference grammars and theoretical analyses (the linguists), is conducted within the historical perspective of the advice given in usage guides published between 1770 and 2010 and beyond (the prescriptivists). The general public is represented in an online attitude survey of the variant forms, and by an analysis of a corpus of un-copy-edited academic writing that was compiled specifically for this study. The main findings are (i) that there is a great deal of harmony between the views of the three groups studied, and that, on the basis of these analyses, the popular view of 'descriptive' linguists in conflict with 'prescriptive' usage guides is not justified; and (ii) that the innovative use of multiple contextualised examples in the attitude survey contributes to the suggestion of - a cline of acceptability - on the part of the general public, rather than a simple - acceptable- vs. - unacceptable stance- . Show less
The thesis explores Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL), the national sign language of Ghana within urban deaf communities. Using historical, linguistic and ideological data, the research discovered GSL... Show moreThe thesis explores Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL), the national sign language of Ghana within urban deaf communities. Using historical, linguistic and ideological data, the research discovered GSL is a cover term for various signing forms (e.g., ENGLISH, BROKEN, LOCAL). Tracing GSL roots back to the introduction of American Sign Language (ASL) in 1957 by an American missionary, this research unveils a lasting connection between ASL signs and GSL. The thesis presents GSL's historical journey amidst significant challenges such as discrimination and sign language bans (oralism). It sheds light on signers' resilience and contributions to GSL's evolution. This exploration also highlights the emergence of local signing varieties (e.g., school-lects) alongside foreign-based signing forms within a triglossic framework that resembles the distribution and use of spoken languages in Ghana and other African countries. The thesis unearths lexical relationships, examining variants of GSL’s connections not only with ASL but also with locally evolved village sign languages like Adamorobe SL and Nanabin SL. Moreover, the study investigates the expression of Size and Shape Specifiers (SASS) within GSL and Ghanaian gestural communication, offering valuable insights into the susceptibility of sign languages to their gestural environment throughout their life spans. Beyond linguistics, the book explores social landscapes and language ideologies of sign languages in the Ghanaian urban deaf communities. It reveals a pluridimensional continuum of GSL usage and the interplay between high- and low-prestige variants. As an invaluable resource, this thesis enhances the understanding of African national sign languages, providing essential insights for researchers, teachers, and learners Show less
The dissertation investigates the role of lexical tone in spoken word recognition and production. In particular, it focuses on three groups of speakers: native speakers of Standard Chinese, bi... Show moreThe dissertation investigates the role of lexical tone in spoken word recognition and production. In particular, it focuses on three groups of speakers: native speakers of Standard Chinese, bi-dialectal speakers of Standard Chinese and Xi’an Mandarin, and bilingual speakers of Standard Chinese and English. Through a series of experiments employing the eye-tracking visual world paradigm and the picture-word interference paradigm, four key issues were explored: the role of lexical tone in Mandarin spoken word recognition; tonal interference in bi-dialectal spoken word recognition; the activation of lexical tone in bilingual spoken word production; and the influence of lexical tone on the bilingual mental lexicon. The findings of this dissertation not only showed how Mandarin listeners utilize tonal information during tone word recognition but also revealed dynamic tonal interaction between language systems. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of lexical access by highlighting the significant role of lexical tone in both monolingual and bilingual contexts, shedding light on the intricate processes involved in spoken word recognition and production across languages. Show less
Contrary to common belief, sign languages are distinct across different communities and cultures, evolving organically through interactions among deaf people, rather than being based on spoken... Show moreContrary to common belief, sign languages are distinct across different communities and cultures, evolving organically through interactions among deaf people, rather than being based on spoken languages. Each sign language has its own grammar, vocabulary, and cultural nuances, with variations even within a single country, showcasing the diverse communication methods within the deaf community. Deaf individuals often face encouragement to use spoken language techniques like lipreading or text communication, highlighting a bias towards spoken languages. This is compounded by the lack of sign languages in linguistic technologies, emphasizing the need for more inclusive research and development. This dissertation aims to address this gap using machine and deep learning to improve sign language processing and recognition. It covers six chapters, introducing methods for video-based sign annotation, webcam-based sign language dictionary search, and ranking systems for sign suggestions. It also explores tools for visualizing and comparing sign language variation, contributing valuable resources to linguistic research. Show less
This book is about three West African sign languages with different time-depths, community sizes and patterns of social interactions. Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL), Ghana, is an old village sign... Show moreThis book is about three West African sign languages with different time-depths, community sizes and patterns of social interactions. Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL), Ghana, is an old village sign language used by 33 deaf people. Langue des Signes de Bouakako (LaSiBo), Côte d'Ivoire, is a new village sign language, used by six deaf people. Língua Gestual Guineense, Guinea-Bissau, is an emerging school-based sign language used by around 500 deaf people.In the three sign languages, 45 narratives of personal experiences were analysed to better understand how the time depth, the community size and the socialisation frequency influenced the three sign languages. Four different descriptive analyses of the narratives were carried out. Study 1 analysed the structure of the narratives, following Labov & Waletzky's model (1967) and Freytag's dramatic pyramid (1894). Studies 2, 3 and 4 focus on specific narrative devices that work to make narratives more convincing, as part of Labov's (1972) "evaluation" component. These devices refer to the moments when storytellers give dramatic prominence to narratives through the incorporation of characters, such as the use of different signing perspectives (Study 2), the use of role shifting between characters and constructed dialogues (Study 3) and the use of different types of descriptions of the animal (Study 4).These studies show that AdaSL and male LGG signers use devices that reflect a greater ability to capture the audience's attention, while LaSiBo and female LGG signers tend to show similar patterns in using simpler or reduced devices.This study shows that the frequency of social interaction between deaf peers is the most crucial factor in language change over time. Show less
Scholars have contended that the challenge for translators of poems lies in achieving equal fidelity between form and content. Most of the time, a decision must be made to prioritize either form or... Show moreScholars have contended that the challenge for translators of poems lies in achieving equal fidelity between form and content. Most of the time, a decision must be made to prioritize either form or content in the translation process. This research delves into the impact on readers when poems are translated, focusing exclusively on either form or content. It explores how the humor in children's poems, translated from English into Filipino, is preserved. Furthermore, it examines the influence of culture and gender on the appreciation of humor. Despite extensive studies on children's humor development, little is known about the interplay of culture and gender in children's responses to humor in translated literature. The poetry reading sessions conducted with children uncover interesting findings about preferred language for reading and humor perception, as well mode of input and perceived humor in the text. The sessions also provide insights into children's perspectives on children's literature and the role of discussion and comprehensibility on humor response. Other aspects that the study explores are the definition of children's literature and its link to the concept of childhood, current trends in translated literature in the Philippines, theories of humor, and humor within the realm of children's literature. Show less
Phraseological units notoriously pose challenges for both translators and language learners. However, the presence and nature of phraseological units in lower language proficiency levels have... Show morePhraseological units notoriously pose challenges for both translators and language learners. However, the presence and nature of phraseological units in lower language proficiency levels have received very little attention. Could Children’s Literature contribute to identifying a core phraseological inventory? Both authors and translators of children’s books base their linguistic choices, and their phraseological choices specifically, on the assumptions they have of the still limited linguistic, phraseological, and cultural knowledge of their young receivers.This dissertation investigates Dutch and Italian phraseology in Children’s Literature. In the first part, theoretical aspects concerning Phraseology, (Contrastive) Linguistics, Translation Studies and Children’s Literature are addressed, as well as methodological issues regarding the empirical studies presented in the second part of this work. The detailed contrastive, bidirectional analysis of phraseological units and their translatants (original Dutch ↔ translated Italian), including the mapping of similarities and differences between phraseological inventories, and the examination of the translational equivalence between phraseological units and their translatants, have offered numerous intra- and interlinguistic insights. Show less
The resting state connectivity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with the left primary somatosensory cortex and the functional association of the inferior parietal cortex (IPC) with the right... Show moreThe resting state connectivity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with the left primary somatosensory cortex and the functional association of the inferior parietal cortex (IPC) with the right primary somatosensory cortex indicate better and poorer performance in cognitive control of language, respectively. Besides, the task based connectivity profiles of the clusters of the IPC elucidate that it is not the whole part of this brain area that is involved in cognitive control, in the fronto-parietal network, but only the rostral cluster of the IPC. Moreover, the unique functional associations of the middle and the caudal IPC evidence that the traditional categorization of brain areas does not accommodate the functions of these parts of the cortex; the connectivity patterns of the middle and the caudal IPC have highlighted another brain functional category beyond the classic definitions, as modulating cortical areas, the functional connectivity of which are disparate from parts of the cortex involved in task performance and brain areas related to the resting state functionality of the brain. Show less
This dissertation examines the Malayic varieties spoken in Kelantan and Terengganu, two Malaysian states located on the northeast coast of the Malay Peninsula. It focuses on three varieties, namely... Show moreThis dissertation examines the Malayic varieties spoken in Kelantan and Terengganu, two Malaysian states located on the northeast coast of the Malay Peninsula. It focuses on three varieties, namely Kelantan Malay, Coastal Terengganu Malay and Inland Terengganu Malay, all belonging to the Malayic subgroup within the Austronesian language family. On the basis of data gathered through linguistic fieldwork undertaken by the author, this dissertation provides the most comprehensive description of these languages to date and offers an analysis of their historical developments.The three Malayic varieties under investigation display notable similarities in their phonological and morphosyntactic patterns, characterised by significant phonological and morphological reduction. Despite these common features, however, it is concluded that these varieties do not form a discrete subgroup within the Malayic languages. The common changes observed in their consonant systems must have followed distinct developments in the vowel systems. Furthermore, the morphological reduction was primarily driven by internal phonological changes, and no clear traces of substrate influences have been found.It is proposed that Inland Terengganu Malay represents a separate variety, distinct from Kelantan Malay and Coastal Terengganu Malay. A two-wave migration pattern is suggested: speakers of Inland Terengganu Malay likely arrived in the region earlier, whereas the speakers of Kelantan Malay and Coastal Terengganu Malay arrived at a later stage. Show less
The book analyzes the manuscript on the Dutch language attributed to the Japanese scholar of Dutch Shizuki Tadao (1760 – 1806). It is often argued that the Japanese scholars’ knowledge of Dutch was... Show moreThe book analyzes the manuscript on the Dutch language attributed to the Japanese scholar of Dutch Shizuki Tadao (1760 – 1806). It is often argued that the Japanese scholars’ knowledge of Dutch was not particularly advanced, as they were mostly limited by their broken understanding of the contents of Dutch grammatical handbooks and dictionaries. The present book questions and investigates this claim with the goal of understanding the actual role played by Dutch sources in the learning of Dutch grammar.Shizuki can be considered as the first Japanese who studied the European theory of grammar. His representation of it is highly relevant within the history of linguistic thought. In the analysis of Shizuki’s manuscripts, this book concentrates on the representation of the categories of the parts of speech and of morphosyntactic phenomena related to verbs. While describing Dutch grammar, Shizuki often mentions other Japanese authors, like Ogyū Sorai and Motoori Norinaga. This book analyzes their works in relation to Shizuki’s manuscripts and his Dutch sources, contextualizing Shizuki’s theories and demonstrating their relationship to his sources. The book argues in favor of a new positioning of Shizuki and the other rangakusha within the scholarly environment of Early Modern Japan. Show less
This dissertation investigates the relationship between linguistic factors and speaker-dependent information in speech sounds, with a particular focus on the Dutch language and on fricative and... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the relationship between linguistic factors and speaker-dependent information in speech sounds, with a particular focus on the Dutch language and on fricative and nasal consonants. Using spontaneous telephone speech corpora, this work provides an empirical contribution to forensic speech science by aiming to answer the question of whether acoustic-phonetic features from consonants should be extracted from and compared across different linguistic environments, also considering the recording condition.This thesis reports the results of a number of studies on the sources of variation in consonant acoustics. First, it analyses the role of phonetic context and syllabic position for speaker variation that is present in fricative and nasal consonants, which have previously been shown to be useful sounds in forensic speaker comparisons. Second, the interactions between linguistic effects and recording conditions (telephone versus microphone) are investigated. Finally, forensic strength-of-evidence was derived using Bayesian likelihood-ratio modelling to determine the practical consequences of these findings to forensic speaker comparisons. Show less
Over the centuries, the French language has had a lot of influence on the Dutch language. Thousands of words from French entered Dutch and apart from that, Dutch has borrowed morphological... Show moreOver the centuries, the French language has had a lot of influence on the Dutch language. Thousands of words from French entered Dutch and apart from that, Dutch has borrowed morphological elements such as suffixes from French. Moreover, it is assumed that the popularity of certain Dutch morphosyntactic constructions can be attributed to language contact with French. Despite the fact that histories of Dutch often speak of so-called ‘Frenchification’ because of these French influences, hardly any empirical research has been carried out so far on the actual influence of French on Dutch. The aim of this thesis is to provide insight into the influence that French had on the Dutch language between 1500 and 1900. This is done by means of corpus analyses with the diachronic Language of Leiden corpus, which comprises texts from Leiden from different social domains. The corpus analyses aim to trace the language changes in Dutch as a consequence of language contact with French on three language levels: lexicon, morphology, and morphosyntax. In this way, this thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the historical language contact between Dutch and French. Show less
This thesis describes the Ashéninka language as it is spoken in the Gran Pajonal plateau and the upper Ucayali River in Peru, an area where the last Andean foothills give way to the Amazonian... Show moreThis thesis describes the Ashéninka language as it is spoken in the Gran Pajonal plateau and the upper Ucayali River in Peru, an area where the last Andean foothills give way to the Amazonian lowlands. The number of speakers is estimated at around 10,000. This language forms part of the so-called Ashé-Ashá dialect continuum, which is part of the group of Campan languages, a subgroup of the Arawak language family. The Ashéninka people live in so-called 'comunidades nativas', indigenous settlements with official authorities that are legally recognised in Peru.The thesis presents a description of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language. The discussion of the morphology is by far the longest, with the description of verbs comprising roughly half of the thesis due to the complex verbal morphology. Furthermore, the text discusses the relations within the Ashé-Ashá dialect continuum, compares the reality status systems of the different Campan languages and shows the partial loss of this system in Ucayali-Pajonal Ashéninka. Other relevant findings include the probable origin of the word 'campa', the non contrastive but distinctive affricates, the long adjectives denoting forms, the discussion of the subject cross-referenced with a suffix instead of the usual prefix, the proposal of the existence of a future suffix in all Ashé-Ashá varieties, and some suffixes that have not been mentioned in the literature on other Ashé-Ashá varieties.Moreover, the thesis contains annexes with 11 glossed texts from different genres and a vocabulary of 625 words. Show less
This book is about the speech habits of young people from the Qassim region in central Saudi Arabia. It focuses on the way they speak when addressing people who are not from their home region. This... Show moreThis book is about the speech habits of young people from the Qassim region in central Saudi Arabia. It focuses on the way they speak when addressing people who are not from their home region. This way of speaking is referred “White Dialect”. While this term is used more generally in Saudi Arabia, it may not always refer to the same type of entity. In this book, the term “White Dialect” is used exclusively in the way it is used by the young Qassimi speakers that participated in this research. This book investigates the “White Dialect” used by the young Qassimi Arabic speakers and answers three main questions: what is the “White Dialect”? when it is used and why it is used. Besides the “White Dialect”, this book also highlights some of the differences between old and young Qassimi Arabic. The “White dialect” is not a dialect in the common linguistic sense, with relatively stable forms and a clear grounding in one or another group. However, the term “White Dialect” is retained in this book, because it is the term used by the speakers themselves, and thus implies a certain awareness of it as a variety different from other varieties. Results show that the “White Dialect” is a linguistic strategy for Arabic speakers to adopt linguistic features from the range of different Arabic varieties available to them, to produce a spontaneous and fluid form of Arabic that serves their desired communicative motives. Show less
This thesis investigates aspects of phi-features in non-standard and minority West Germanic languages. Phi-features play a role in several parts of the grammar, and the West Germanic languages... Show moreThis thesis investigates aspects of phi-features in non-standard and minority West Germanic languages. Phi-features play a role in several parts of the grammar, and the West Germanic languages display a wealth of variation related to phi-features. Investigating phi-features in West Germanic therefore gives us a unique view on the relationship between the different components of the grammar, in particular syntax and morphology.Based on new empirical data and generalisations, this thesis presents a novel analysis of three empirical phenomena. First, it analyses position dependent agreement in Dutch dialects as the result of a phi-defective agreement head. Second, it argues that complementiser agreement in Frisian and Limburgian is clitic doubling. Finally, it shows that word order variation in Dutch and German imperatives is the result of morphological variation of verb stems. The analyses provide insight into the representation of phi-features in syntax and morphology, the syntactic and morphological requirements on clitic doubling, and the syntactic consequences of the distribution of phi-features on lexical items. Show less
Speaking more than one language has a profound impact on both the mind and the brain. But how does the multilingual brain manage a native language as well as a non-native language, specifically... Show moreSpeaking more than one language has a profound impact on both the mind and the brain. But how does the multilingual brain manage a native language as well as a non-native language, specifically when the non-native language was acquired later in development? In this thesis, we aimed to characterise the multilingual experience of late language learners in three ways. First, we examined how the cross-linguistic influence (CLI) between the native language and the non-native language influenced non-native comprehension and production. Second, we compared different multilingual populations to quantify the impact of language similarity on CLI and non-native comprehension and production. Third, we examined whether language similarity played a modulating role beyond language processing in terms of domain-general inhibitory control. These are critical issues because they speak directly to the notion of how the native language and the non-native language co-exist in the brain. Further, they help us characterise the functional organisation of these languages in the multilingual brain. Across several studies, we systematically explored these three issues by using several experimental paradigms and a combination of behavioural and electroencephalographic measures. Subsequently, we pushed the theoretical boundaries of the issues in question and contributed novel evidence to this area of research. Show less
This dissertation investigates the phonetic and phonological characteristics of Danish stop consonants, with particular focus on their diachronic origin and synchronic variation. Using data... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the phonetic and phonological characteristics of Danish stop consonants, with particular focus on their diachronic origin and synchronic variation. Using data-oriented and statistical methods, it fills empirical gaps in phonetic research on Danish stops and in doing so contributes to our understanding of the overall sound system of the language.The dissertation reports the results of a number of studies which combine spontaneous speech corpora with state-of-the-art techniques in statistical modeling. Topics considered include intervocalic voicing, which is shown to be rare in all stops and in almost all phonetic contexts, and affrication of aspirated stop releases, which is shown to be strongly dependent on place of articulation. The dissertation also investigates a range of phonetic parameters in a legacy corpus of traditional varieties of Jutland Danish, with the results showing systematic regional variation even in minute acoustic details. Show less
This dissertation centers around the question whether syntactic differences between languages can be detected automatically, and if so, how. With the enormous number of natural languages and... Show moreThis dissertation centers around the question whether syntactic differences between languages can be detected automatically, and if so, how. With the enormous number of natural languages and dialects, the very high level of variation they exhibit between one another, and the technically infinite number of possible sentences per language or dialect, systematic manual comparison is a hugely daunting task. The field would therefore significantly benefit from the (partial) automatization of the process, as it would increase the scale, speed, systematicity and reproducibility of research.Over the course of five chapters it is shown through case studies involving English, Dutch, German, Czech and Hungarian that correct hypotheses on syntactic differences between languages can be generated automatically from parallel corpora through the use of the minimum description length principle, counting mismatches between part-of-speech pattern occurrences, word alignment and mapping annotation from an annotated language onto another unannotated language. The tools developed for the purposes of this research work well and can aid a linguist significantly in their search for differences or similarities, but do not replace the human researcher. Show less