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
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
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
This dissertation provides a description and analysis of the Mandarin copula shì and copular structures containing it. On the basis of a comprehensive description of the syntactic distribution of... Show moreThis dissertation provides a description and analysis of the Mandarin copula shì and copular structures containing it. On the basis of a comprehensive description of the syntactic distribution of shì and properties of different types of copular sentences (predicational, specificational, and equative), this study proposes a unified structural analysis for predicational and specificational copular sentences in Mandarin.It is proposed that shì is a functional element in the structure of the clause. Importantly, shì is not a verb, and copular structures in Mandarin contain no verb phrase at all, which is consistent with proposals about pronominal copular elements in other languages. Specificational copular sentences are analysed as inverted predicational copular sentences, derived via predicate inversion. This analysis captures both the underlying similarities and the differences between the two types of copular sentences. It is also pointed out that the third type of copular sentences, equatives, is clearly distinct from both predicational and specificational copular sentences and should thus be analysed in a different way.The dissertation also proposes that tense is not always syntactically expressed in Mandarin copular structures. While sentences with a stage-level predicate express tense syntactically, those with an individual-level predicate do not. Show less
This thesis presents a detailed description of the phonology, the tone system and the grammar of Liko, a Bantu language spoken by about 70,000 people in the northeastern part of the Democratic... Show moreThis thesis presents a detailed description of the phonology, the tone system and the grammar of Liko, a Bantu language spoken by about 70,000 people in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides numerous examples. Liko has a nine-vowel system with ATR contrast in the mid and high vowels. Its pervasive vowel-harmony system is [+ATR] dominant, but there are dominant verbal and nominal [−ATR] enclitics which influence preceding [+ATR] non-high vowels. Liko is a tone language with both lexical and grammatical tone contrasts, depressor consonants and automatic as well as non-automatic downstep. Liko is one of the "Northern Bantu Borderland" languages. The Bantu noun-class and agreement system is present to a large extent. Nevertheless, subject agreement is limited in verbal morphology, and object agreement is obligatory for first and second persons and class 1 and 2 objects only. The Liko verbal system is complex. To encode Tense/Aspect/Mood, the language uses segmental morphemes, tone melodies as well as time adverbials. Tone and vowel-harmony rules determine the surface realization of the verb form. Topics in syntax include: verb valency and object agreement, word order, relative clauses, complex sentences and information structure, including an analysis of focus marking. Liko is a language with strict SVO word order. Relativization and left-dislocation reveal a syntactic means to differentiate between objects and adjuncts in this language. The two appendices contain ten texts as well as verb paradigms. Show less
e livre est une étude pionnière portant sur l’analyse conceptuelle et la traductibilité des termes de maladie dioula jusqu’ici non abordées par les recherches antérieures. Le Dioula est une langue... Show moree livre est une étude pionnière portant sur l’analyse conceptuelle et la traductibilité des termes de maladie dioula jusqu’ici non abordées par les recherches antérieures. Le Dioula est une langue mandé parlée au Burkina Faso. L’étude présente les représentations de la santé, de la maladie et du corps dans la culture dioula, les entités nosologiques populaires et l’étude linguistique des noms de maladies dioula. Cette étude linguistique a pour but d’analyser les termes du corpus afin de souligner leurs particularités linguistiques. Cette analyse est d’autant plus utile qu’elle permet d’une part, de s’imprégner davantage des concepts et conceptions relatifs à la maladie et d’autre part, de mettre en évidence les difficultés que les traducteurs et interprètes sont susceptibles de rencontrer dans ce domaine et de proposer des solutions. Cette analyse vise à faciliter la tâche du traducteur ou de l’interprète qui pourra se référer rapidement aux suggestions proposées en cas de difficulté ou de doute. L’étude décrit la formation des termes de maladies puis les processus sémantiques ou les figures de style rentrant dans la construction de ces termes et enfin le discours de plainte du malade. En outre, cette étude examine dans quelle mesure le relativisme culturel et linguistique peut servir dans le processus de traduction au lieu d’impliquer son impossibilité. L'auteur décrit un certain nombre de phénomènes intéressants en ce qui concerne les entités nosologiques populaires dioula : Il se peut que le terme de maladie dioula exprime un concept qui est complètement inconnu dans la culture cible. Le concept en question peut être abstrait ou concret, il peut être relié aux croyances religieuses, à une coutume sociale. De tels concepts sont souvent qualifiés de concepts « spécifiquement culturels ». Un exemple d’un concept abstrait dioula qui est reconnu comme difficile à traduire en d’autres langues relevant d’autres cultures est celui exprimé par le mot kɔnɔ. Ce dernier revêt un concept typiquement « dioula » qui est rarement appréhendé par des gens provenant d’autres cultures. L'un des problèmes théoriques soulevés concerne la traductibilité des termes médicaux dioula, culturellement spécifiques. Il est ressorti de l’analyse que des expressions qui sont profondément enracinées dans la culture dioula présentent plus de difficultés de traduction car le concept qu’ils véhiculent est inconnu du français ou de la biomédecine. Des pistes de solutions sont fournies parmi lesquelles l’on peut noter la démarche suivante : Une traduction du terme de maladie dioula par un mot français accompagnée de commentaires sémantiques et/ou métalinguistiques.Les données ont été collectées sur quatorze mois en plusieurs étapes. Au regard des problèmes théoriques et analytiques abordés dans les différentes sections du livre, il est d’un grand intérêt pour les personnels de santé, pour les spécialistes de la communication interculturelle, pour les lexicographes et les terminologues, pour les anthropologues de la santé sans oublier les traducteurs. Show less
This dissertation contributes to the research on tense and eventualities across languages. It presents the first systematic investigation and detailed theoretical analysis of the temporal... Show moreThis dissertation contributes to the research on tense and eventualities across languages. It presents the first systematic investigation and detailed theoretical analysis of the temporal interpretations of sentences with bare (aspectually unmarked) predicates in Mandarin. Traditionally considered a “tenseless” language, Mandarin lacks the morphological tense that we find in “tensed” languages such as English and French. Instead, its grammatical system displays a variety of aspectual markers giving information on the perspective on the eventuality described by the predicate. This study shows how a careful investigation of the temporal construals of sentences without overt morphological aspect can lead to novel and insightful generalizations about temporal reference in Mandarin. It attributes the contrast between stative and eventive predicates in the temporal interpretation to their argument structure, and claims that aspect must be overt in Mandarin root clauses. The interaction of past vs. future time adverbs and bare predicates provides evidence for a covert semantic tense in Mandarin, restricting the time reference of bare root clauses to non-future times. It is argued that bare sentences yielding “future” construals involve a non-future plan. Show less
The results of the studies included in this thesis suggest that the incidence of ABI in children and youth is considerable. Moreover, it was found that relatively many have long-term health... Show moreThe results of the studies included in this thesis suggest that the incidence of ABI in children and youth is considerable. Moreover, it was found that relatively many have long-term health problems, including limitations in psychosocial functioning, participation and QoL and that the impact on their families is substantial. These findings underscore the need for an increasing awareness for the impact of paediatric ABI. One study explored the effects of usage of serious gaming found that physical activity, the speed of information processing, attention, response inhibition, and parent-perceived Quality of life (QoL) were improved directly after the intervention. Participation is the most relevant outcome of recovery and main goal of rehabilitation. However, a better general understanding and improvements of assessment and treatment are required to decrease the impact of paediatric ABI on participation of youth and their families. Recommendations based on this thesis are: a) implement the ICF-model to improve comprehension of participation (problems) after paediatric ABI; b) measure and monitor participation after paediatric TBI and NTBI and c) develop and evaluate trajectories optimising participation. Show less
The use of utterance-final particles (UFPs) is a salient feature of Taiwan Mandarin, a Mandarin variety spoken in Taiwan. Despite their widespread use, Taiwan Mandarin UFPs have not attracted... Show moreThe use of utterance-final particles (UFPs) is a salient feature of Taiwan Mandarin, a Mandarin variety spoken in Taiwan. Despite their widespread use, Taiwan Mandarin UFPs have not attracted much attention in previous research. One reason for this neglect is that previous studies focus on UFPs that can be found in all Mandarin varieties and take the general validity of the findings for granted. By contrast, this study explores regional variation in the use of UFPs. Analyzing spoken Taiwan Mandarin data recorded from spontaneous conversations, it focuses on the three particles a, la and ê. It examines the core function of these particles in the interaction between the participants in various types of conversational contexts. Besides determining their core-function, this study looks into the differences with respect to UFPs between Taiwan Mandarin and in the Mandarin spoken in mainland China. The properties that are specific to Taiwan Mandarin are analyzed as resulting from long-term contact with different Sinitic varieties, especially Southern Mǐn and Jiāng-Huái Mandarin. Hypotheses about language contact influence on the use of Taiwan Mandarin UFPs are tested using actual language data, and discussed against the historical background of migration of Mandarin speakers to Taiwan in the 20th century. Show less
This book presents an in-depth linguistic description of one Papuan Malay variety, based on fifteen hours of recordings of spontaneous narratives and conversations between Papuan Malay speakers.... Show moreThis book presents an in-depth linguistic description of one Papuan Malay variety, based on fifteen hours of recordings of spontaneous narratives and conversations between Papuan Malay speakers.‘Papuan Malay’ refers to the easternmost varieties of Malay (Austronesian). They are spoken in the coastal areas of West Papua, the western part of the island of New Guinea. The variety described here is spoken along West Papua’s northeast coast.After a general introduction to the language, its setting and its history, this grammar discusses the following topics, building up from smaller grammatical constituents to larger ones: phonology, word formation, noun and prepositional phrases, verbal and nonverbal clauses, non-declarative clauses, and conjunctions and constituent combining. Of special interest to linguists, typologists and Malay specialists are the following in-depth analyses and descriptions: affixation and its productivity across domains of language choice, reduplication and its gesamtbedeutung, personal pronouns and their adnominal uses, demonstratives and locatives and their extended uses, and adnominal possessive relations and their non-canonical uses.This study provides a point of comparison for further studies in other (Papuan) Malay varieties and a starting point for Papuan Malay language development efforts. Show less
The Feature Co-occurrence Constraint theory proposed in this dissertation provides a means to capture the development of the language-learning child's segment inventory. It does this by combining a... Show moreThe Feature Co-occurrence Constraint theory proposed in this dissertation provides a means to capture the development of the language-learning child's segment inventory. It does this by combining a growing set of features with constraints that are automatically activated as soon as these features are acquired. Representation and derivation go hand in hand, and develop together during acquisition. The Feature Co-occurrence Constraint theory builds on a minimal view of phonology, where the inventory is seen as epiphenomenal rather than a mentally ‘real’ object, features are few and monovalent, and the constraint set is limited to no more than two types. The theoretical consequences of the proposal for both feature theory and constraint theory are worked out in detail and a thorough discussion of phonological acquisition is provided, making this book of interest to both theoretical phonologists as acquisitionists. Show less
This book presents a description of Konso, a Cushitic language spoken by about 250,000 speakers in South-West Ethiopia. It presents analyses of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language.... Show moreThis book presents a description of Konso, a Cushitic language spoken by about 250,000 speakers in South-West Ethiopia. It presents analyses of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language. Aspects of pragmatics including greetings and leave-taking expressions, interjections and ideophones as well as the link between naming of week days and how these relate to the distribution ofbig markets in the Konso area are discussed. A sample of two texts and a list of singular-plural pairs of nouns with their corresponding gender values is included.The data underlying the analyses are based on the author’s native speaker intuition and fieldwork in Konso area where other native speakers are consulted.Konso phonology is characterised by having a full set of labial, alveolar, palatal and uvular implosives but no ejectives which contrasts with what is observed in geographically and some genetically related languages. The language has a rich morphology as evidenced in its nominal and verbal inflection. The work accounts the intricate link between gender and number marking in nominals,it explicates variation in number- and person-marking in affirmative and negative verb paradigms and presents analyses of nominal and verbal derivation.Various clause-linking strategies and the way these relate to person markingof the subject are examined. Word order in simple as well as complex clausesis discussed.A Grammar of Konso is of interest to specialists in Cushitic and Afroasiatic languages for historical-comparative purposes. It will be a valuable source for typological comparison and for testing theoretical claims Show less
Words may have multiple interpretations. Generally, native speakers do not perceive this as a problem, because the context provides enough clues as to what is meant. For non-native speakers and... Show moreWords may have multiple interpretations. Generally, native speakers do not perceive this as a problem, because the context provides enough clues as to what is meant. For non-native speakers and students of dead languages, however, the existence of multiple interpretations sometimes does raise problems. This suggests that the context is not the only clue native speakers use to interpret words.In this dissertation, it is studied what types of context Dutch speakers need to interpret the poly-interpretable word ergens ‘somewhere/anywhere’, modal particle. The results of this investigation were used to find out more about the Ancient Greek form που ‘somewhere, anywhere’, modal particle.This thesis shows that the study of contextual cues that allow native speakers to interpret their language provides insights that may be used in the study of dead languages. The modal interpretations of ergens and που turned out to be quite different, but the context of both words clearly showed recurring (albeit different) patterns. Knowledge of the common interpretation of words in specific contexts seems crucial for their interpretation, suggesting that it is not words themselves that carry meaning, but words-in-context. Show less
This dissertation provides an account of polar questions in Italian dialects from a typological, theoretical and empirical perspective. Both data from the existing literature and new data from the... Show moreThis dissertation provides an account of polar questions in Italian dialects from a typological, theoretical and empirical perspective. Both data from the existing literature and new data from the author’s fieldwork are included in this study. It is shown that Italian dialects display a relatively large number of typologically diverse yes/no question-marking strategies, as opposed to Standard Italian and Romance. The variation found in Italian dialects is surprising, given that they are closely related from a typological point of view. Furthermore, Several Tuscan, Central and Southern Italian dialects display a specific construction that poses a challenge for standard typological classifications of polar questions in the world’s languages. A theoretical analysis is proposed in order to account for the syntactic properties of this yes/no question-marking strategy. Although this construction includes two fully-inflected verbs, it is argued that it should be analyzed as a monoclausal utterance. A number of syntactic tests are developed to shed some light on its underlying structure. Further evidence for the proposed analysis comes from the results of empirical testing. A production experiment was carried out to investigate the phonetic realization of this construction. The results of the experiment show that this constructions patterns with specific phonetic cues, which unambiguously signal its monoclausal status. This study is of relevance to anyone interested in descriptive typology, theoretical syntax and experimental phonetics, as well as Italian dialectology. Show less
This book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning,... Show moreThis book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning, which do not bear overtly expressed features to indicate grammatical functions. Linguistic tools traditionally used to distinguish between word classes do not work satisfactorily for this language. Certain lexical items and their position in a string of words serve as indicators of relationships between the words and determine the meaning they express. The preference for particular types of constructions and other combinatory abilities serve to limit the number of plausible interpretations and facilitate the determining of meaningful word constructions. The linguistic context and the non-linguistic situation determine the most appropriate interpretation of structures and the meaning they express. Various kinds of constructions are analyzed, described, and illustrated with examples from stories, told by a young Ternate Malay speaker. The word order, different types of possessive constructions, spatial orientation, and other linguistic topics of interest are described and discussed. The grammar aims to complement linguistic descriptions of Malay varieties in general, and particularly those in eastern Indonesia. The Ternate Malay texts and examples display spontaneous and naturally spoken Malay used as the daily language of communication in Ternate. The accompanying CD-rom contains texts with sound files and a Ternate Malay-English wordlist. Show less
This thesis investigates the grammar of Gaahmg, a Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Blue Nile Province of North Sudan. The comprehensive description provides an analysis of the... Show moreThis thesis investigates the grammar of Gaahmg, a Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Blue Nile Province of North Sudan. The comprehensive description provides an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax. Ten texts of various genre are given to help illustrated the grammar in context. Gaahmg is morphologically rich, employing many suffixes and clitics on nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Tone and [ATR] quality distinguish a significant number of lexemes and grammatical functions. Several specific processes of consonant weakening, vowel elision, [+ATR] spreading, [+round] spreading, and morphological tone rules, account for the vast majority of alternations when morphemes are combined. The syntax is equally interesting. Agentive passive, agentless passive, antipassive, and causative verb forms are syntactically and morphologically distinct and combine in nearly all possible ways. All pronouns use vowel features to represent the person referred to, the three persons coinciding with the language's three vowel harmony pairs. Body part locatives are similar in form and meaning to inherently possessed body part nouns, but are a distinct lexical category in form and function. These and other features make the description a valuable resource for Nilo-Saharan linguists as well as those interested in the typology of African languages. Show less
