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
In linguistic research, present-day Dutch has been characterized as a pluricentric language, meaning that there are multiple centers from where language norms spread. Within the Dutch language area... Show moreIn linguistic research, present-day Dutch has been characterized as a pluricentric language, meaning that there are multiple centers from where language norms spread. Within the Dutch language area, we can discern a center in the Northern Netherlands (the Randstad area) and the Southern Netherlands (around the province of Brabant). Traditional histories of the language suggest that pluricentricity for Dutch is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. However, based on findings from empirical historical-linguistic research, we could expect to situate pluricentricity at least 100 years earlier in time. This dissertation therefore provides an in-depth study in which pluricentricity is put into a broader historical perspective.Through systematic corpus analyses, this dissertation aims to assess the usefulness of the modern concept of pluricentricity in Dutch language history. A total of six linguistic features is examined in the Historical Corpus of Dutch (HCD), a new multi-genre, diachronic corpus, involving central and peripheral regions in both the North and the South. Moreover, by integrating Northern and Southern varieties of Dutch in the study, and by mapping the interactions between the different regions, we want to lay the foundation for an integrated history of Dutch. Show less
This book provides a description of Cuvok, a language spoken by about 10,000 people in the far north of Cameroon. The study of the linguistic elements addresses and provides an analysis of the... Show moreThis book provides a description of Cuvok, a language spoken by about 10,000 people in the far north of Cameroon. The study of the linguistic elements addresses and provides an analysis of the language through the examination of phonological and morphological aspects, as well as some notes on syntax and a bilingual lexicon.The issue of prosodies is central to the discussion of vowel segments. The harmonic domain of the word has a prominent place in the morpho-phonological discussion. The noun and the verb are the only grammatical categories that exhibit harmonic domains within which the features +palatalization and -palatalization are observed. All satellite elements of these two categories are either palatalized or non-palatalized depending on the opposition between the two phonemic vowels in the final position of the nominal or verbal complex. The perception of the Cuvok world is revealed through the study of prepositions, markers of temporal and spatial location. The expression of the four cardinal points shows a fixed orientation of the Tchouvok people.Particular emphasis was placed on the ethnolinguistic aspect, which deals with the role of the blacksmith as a key actor in the development of the society. This monographic section examines the role of the blacksmith in a society that is undergoing rapid change and is prey to new ideas and habits.The Cuvok grammar is a work that constitutes a decisive step towards the development and standardization of this language and hence of the central Chadic languages in general. Show less
Dit promotieonderzoek heeft tot hoofddoel de mogelijke cognaten te analyseren voor bepaalde antiloopsoorten in de Bantoe gemeenschappen. Door enerzijds de fundamentele principes van de Historisch... Show moreDit promotieonderzoek heeft tot hoofddoel de mogelijke cognaten te analyseren voor bepaalde antiloopsoorten in de Bantoe gemeenschappen. Door enerzijds de fundamentele principes van de Historisch-Vergelijkende Taalkunde (vergelijkende methodologie) en anderzijds een maximum aantal bibliografische bronnen te gebruiken, zijn een groot aantal woorden uit een aanzienlijk aantal Bantoetalen verzameld. 174 protovormen betreffende de woordenschat specifiek voor de antilopen in Bantoe zijn uitgelicht. Van deze vormen waren 62 stammen al voorgesteld in de database Bantu Lexical Reconstructions (BLR) (2003) en 14 via andere bronnen. Sommige veelvoorkomende lexicale creatieprocessen in de Bantoetalen zijn semantische uitbreiding, reduplicatie, metathese en de metafoor. Bovendien heeft dit onderzoek het mogelijk gemaakt de betekenis te verfijnen van meerdere reeds voorgestelde reconstructies in de BLR. De semantische velden van de nomenclatuur van dieren zijn onderhevig aan heel wat verschuivingen, wat voornamelijk wordt verklaard door de veranderingen van de nominale klassen, maar ook door problemen met de betrouwbaarheid van bepaalde bronnen. In sommige gevallen is men erin geslaagd de oorsprong van de betekenis van gereconstrueerde stammen te achterhalen en hun semantische motivaties te begrijpen. Show less
This thesis offers a description of the Bouakako Sign Language (LaSiBo, Langues des Signes de Bouakako in French), that has emerged within a community comprising a majority of hearing members.... Show moreThis thesis offers a description of the Bouakako Sign Language (LaSiBo, Langues des Signes de Bouakako in French), that has emerged within a community comprising a majority of hearing members. LaSiBo is a young language that has developed within a group of hearing-impaired community members to fulfill their communication needs, but is also used by other members of the village. The aspects studied here are firstly the formal properties of LaSiBo and inter-personal variation in sign usage; as well as semantic domains such as kinship, colors and time. The size of the community, the age of the language, the influence of the spoken language and the absence of use in education are among the factors that influence the formation of LaSiBo. The comparisons carried out in this work highlight similarities and differences not only between sign languages (used in small communities in particular) – which, however different they may be, share the same modality (visio-gestural) –, but also between languages that are in contact with each other (the Dida language and LaSiBo) but use different modality (respectively audio-oral and visio-gestural). 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
Emphasizing on the key role of polysemy in forming the lexicon is the main goal to be achieved in this dissertation. The paper suggests a qualitative evaluation of polysemy in comparing it with... Show moreEmphasizing on the key role of polysemy in forming the lexicon is the main goal to be achieved in this dissertation. The paper suggests a qualitative evaluation of polysemy in comparing it with other relations that form the lexicon. The research confirms that the polysemic links must not be modeled independently from derivation or conversion. This evaluation leads us to reveal that the boundary between polysemy and conversion is porous. The properties of analogy has been used to compare the relations. They are the links that connect lexis which form the objects of a comparison. Wolof, an Atlantic language in West-Africa, is studied. This language provides a fertile breeding ground for the explorations. A large scale of different morphological processes form the lexicon (like suffix derivation, derivations from consonant alternation and conversion by changes in nominal class morphemes). The descriptive contribution of this research is to explore the semantic fields of artifacts and emotions in Wolof lexicon. The methodology applied here is to describe both the meanings of the lexical units and the semantic links by which they are connected by a unique metalanguage. That unique metalanguage is called the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), which is applied here to Wolof. Show less
This descriptive and analytical study is based on two corpora of audiovisual data of monolingual and multilingual children’s babbling and first words gathered in Mali during a period of nearly a... Show moreThis descriptive and analytical study is based on two corpora of audiovisual data of monolingual and multilingual children’s babbling and first words gathered in Mali during a period of nearly a year. It is concerned with fundamental discussions about the development and acquisition of language such as the issue of the presence or absence of evidence of early specialization in children at the babbling stage, the continuity between babbling and first words, and the emergence and development of phonology in children Show less
How did common people write in the late eighteenth century? Little is yet known on this topic, since our knowledge is mainly based on printed texts written by a small part of the (male) elite... Show moreHow did common people write in the late eighteenth century? Little is yet known on this topic, since our knowledge is mainly based on printed texts written by a small part of the (male) elite population. This dissertation __ written from a sociolinguistic point of view __ gives us new insights into late-eighteenth-century language use. For this purpose a large number of Dutch private letters has been used. These letters were captured by the English in times of warfare between the Dutch and the English and are still preserved at the National Archives in Kew (London). The research is based on a selection of approximately 400 letters, written between 1776 and 1784 by Dutch male and female letter writers from all social ranks. This study into late-eighteenth-century language variation can be regarded as a first broad exploration of this valuable material. Therefore various linguistic phenomena have been examined: forms of address, negation, reflexivity and reciprocity, schwa-apocope, deletion of final -n, diminutives and the genitive and alternative constructions. The case studies clearly establish more variety in eighteenth-century written language than previous studies suggested. Almost every linguistic feature under discussion appears to show social variation, and gender and social class, in particular, are influential factors. Show less
Hypertexts are special. Every text segment has to be written in such a way that it can be read independently. This is necessary because the text segments are not presented in a single standardised... Show moreHypertexts are special. Every text segment has to be written in such a way that it can be read independently. This is necessary because the text segments are not presented in a single standardised sequence. Instead, they are mutually connected through hyperlinks. The actual order of the segments only arises in the process of reading. In this setting, the hyperlinks do not only connect text parts, but also play a role with respect to the content. The word that is marked as a hyperlink predicts the content of the linked text segment. Looking at hypertexts from a text linguistic point of view shows that you can build a new hypertext with text segments from different existing hypertexts. The reader would not even notice that these segments actually belong to different texts. Apparently, the text itself cannot mark its own borders. In a network-like environment, this is the task of the paratext, e.g. layout, title or menu. This dissertation focuses on the question how text and paratext contribute to the way that text in a network-like environment is clearly bordered and at the same time can easily be linked to other texts. Looking at hypertexts from a text linguistic point of view shows that you can build a new hypertext with various text segments from different existing hypertexts. The reader would not even notice that these segments actually belong to different texts. Apparently, the text itself cannot mark its own borders. In a network-like environment, this is the task of the paratext, e.g. layout, title or menu. If you click on a hyperlink, the layout for example tells you immediately if you are still reading the same hypertext. This dissertation focuses on the question how text and paratext contribute to the way that text in a network-like environment is clearly bordered and at the same time can easily be linked to other texts. Show less
The Dutch prefix ge- in historical perspective gives first of all a general account of the development of the word formation processes involving ge- in which special attention is paid to the... Show moreThe Dutch prefix ge- in historical perspective gives first of all a general account of the development of the word formation processes involving ge- in which special attention is paid to the participial ge-. The main point of the book is a comprehensive analysis of the ‘ge-+verb stem’ derivation of the type geblaf. The diachrony of these ge-derivations, which are very productive in modern Dutch has hardly been investigated up to now. The research focuses on the development of this type of ge-derivation in the period 1200-1900. Three different sources are used: contemporary grammars, dictionaries and a digital text corpus composed for this purpose. This varied approach provides a clear picture of the development of this ge-derivation in the history of Dutch and of the factors which have played an important role therein. Show less
