Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7
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- All Subjects: Chinese
- Creators: School of International Letters and Cultures
Description
With an increasing global interest in Chinese economics and society, more and more native English speakers have started to learn Chinese as a second language (L2). While English and Chinese share a similar word order at the syntactic level, they differ significantly in ways to keep track of reference at the discourse level. There are generally three ways to keep track of reference: repeating the full noun phrase (NP), replacing the full NP with a lexical pronoun, or omitting the NP using zero anaphora. Chinese, a topic-prominent language, allows a wide use of zero anaphora to maintain reference; whereas English, a subject-prominent language, allows only a limited use of zero anaphora. Due to this difference, Chinese as a second language learners whose native language is English (CSL learners), must learn to implement the use of zero anaphora more frequently in their Chinese discourse. The purpose of this study is to investigate how CSL learners keep track of reference using zero anaphora. It is hypothesized that CSL learners at intermediate proficiency level would display a transfer effect from English to Chinese in their Chinese discourse. Specifically, they would produce fewer zero anaphora than native Chinese speakers, and they would also tend to consider discourse with many uses of zero anaphora for reference tracking as less appropriate. To test the hypothesis, a story-retelling task and multiple-choice questions task were adopted. The results of both tasks supported the hypothesis. Meanwhile, it is also evident that the CSL learners have acquired some usage of zero anaphora in their Chinese discourse as the usage of zero anaphora was more frequent when speaking Chinese than English.
ContributorsTang, Tianyu (Co-author) / Abdulla, Farzana (Co-author) / Chien, Jasmine (Co-author) / Zhang, Xia (Thesis director) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis examines the use of language and social capital in Internet communities, specifically those communities on the Deep and Dark Web that use both Chinese and English to interact. Using both individual messages and group interactions, I have compared Chinese language patterns with those of English, as well as situations in which the two languages form a compromise, in this paper dubber "hacker creole". Examples were taken from two marketplaces, one English and one Chinese, two blogs, both Chinese, and eight forums, all of which included both Chinese and English language users. One screenshot came from an English-only forum on the Tor network, for the purpose of comparison. The analysis of language included an exploration of the development of reputations on the anonymous Internet, and how building a reputation, necessary to extended interaction in the Deep Web, leaves true anonymity out of the question for users. In addition, the system by which users build or destroy their own reputations is defined under the term social credit, instead of social capital, according to Professor David Garson's definition of social capital and foundational differences in the structure of the rules of reputation online. In addition, a comparison with modern Internet language and that of classical Chinese fiction author Shi Nai'an set a foundation for the historical precedent for underdog criminals as a society, instead of an offshoot or counterculture to society. The conclusion is one that many dystopian fantasies of the modern world deem almost inevitable. Modern economies are easily on the road to systems based on social credit, currencies that no longer take physical form. This is not necessarily a communist or capitalist situation, by necessity it does not fit into the polarized definitions now used to describe political and economic situations. People leverage their way into privileges and liberties with their reputation, and the compromise of language provides the lever.
ContributorsWalcott, Khyra Amanda (Author) / Oh, Young (Thesis director) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The following paper is a translation of National Zhengzhi University Professor Li Fengmao’s original Chinese article. This translation was completed with the express approval of Professor Li, and under the direction of Professor Stephen R. Bokenkamp.
Quanzhen Daoism (“The Way of Complete Perfection”) is a sect of Daoism founded by master Wang Chongyang (王重陽 1113-1170) in the twelfth century AD. The tradition is, in essence, the systemization and formalization of traditional Daoist practices through the implementation of Confucian and Buddhist infrastructure. Synthesizing Confucian practices of study and copying of classics, proper human relationships, and master-student succession, and Buddhist chujia (出家 “to leave the household”) and large public monastic systems, Quanzhen Daoism established systematic mechanisms which facilitated the zealous advancement of practitioners.
The Quanzhen sect formalized the Daoist tradition of “famous mountains and enlightened teachers” and integrated the respective practices of residing in a monastery and participating in fangdao (訪道) as required components of personal cultivation, constituting “monastery residence” and “travel” experiences. These two components complemented each other and eventually came to form the integral experiences of Quanzhen cultivation. The establishment of a uniform “household system,” inter-monastery exchange system, “Pure Rules,” “Collection of Orthodox Chants,” “percept transmission system,” and “name assignment system” streamlined the acclimation process for both entering the household of religion and participating in required ceremonies during travel.
Ultimately, the systemized infrastructure established by Quanzhen Daoism allowed for the formation of a complete ordered society outside of the secular world. This Quanzhen world, in turn, provided the framework for large-scale, practical implementation of Daoist techniques, the most ideologically significant of which are participation in arduous travel and actualization of “an irregular accordance with the Dao.”
Quanzhen Daoism (“The Way of Complete Perfection”) is a sect of Daoism founded by master Wang Chongyang (王重陽 1113-1170) in the twelfth century AD. The tradition is, in essence, the systemization and formalization of traditional Daoist practices through the implementation of Confucian and Buddhist infrastructure. Synthesizing Confucian practices of study and copying of classics, proper human relationships, and master-student succession, and Buddhist chujia (出家 “to leave the household”) and large public monastic systems, Quanzhen Daoism established systematic mechanisms which facilitated the zealous advancement of practitioners.
The Quanzhen sect formalized the Daoist tradition of “famous mountains and enlightened teachers” and integrated the respective practices of residing in a monastery and participating in fangdao (訪道) as required components of personal cultivation, constituting “monastery residence” and “travel” experiences. These two components complemented each other and eventually came to form the integral experiences of Quanzhen cultivation. The establishment of a uniform “household system,” inter-monastery exchange system, “Pure Rules,” “Collection of Orthodox Chants,” “percept transmission system,” and “name assignment system” streamlined the acclimation process for both entering the household of religion and participating in required ceremonies during travel.
Ultimately, the systemized infrastructure established by Quanzhen Daoism allowed for the formation of a complete ordered society outside of the secular world. This Quanzhen world, in turn, provided the framework for large-scale, practical implementation of Daoist techniques, the most ideologically significant of which are participation in arduous travel and actualization of “an irregular accordance with the Dao.”
ContributorsMarin, Zachary Mark (Author) / Bokenkamp, Stephen R. (Thesis director) / Spring, Madeline (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
A Foreigner's Guide to China, a creative project, is a short novel that blends cultural analysis and linguistic study in a collective investigation of modern China. As China grows at an unprecedented pace, many Americans still remain ignorant of life and development in a foreign place on the other side of the world. The project is an attempt to help mesh cultural lines and aid students, travelers, and businesspeople travelling to China for the first time. Therefore, the main goal of the entire project is to provide an actual guidebook that can be read prior to going to China or while in the country. The project is divided into two main types of chapters: cultural analysis and advice giving on day to day life in China, and linguistic study that adopts a more academic approach. Both types of chapters use my personal anecdotes to give both context and a sense of reality to the advice I include in the project. While very different in their styles, the two types of chapters ultimately work towards the same end: explaining differences and similarities between Chinese and American cultures, and giving a cultural opening from which to expand understanding. The novel is written in a lighthearted and humorous tone that attempts to soften the often seemingly offensive overtone that appears when analyzing cultures side by side. Topics include landing advice, transportation, cuisine, working life, and school life, as well as Mandarin Chinese tones, politeness, and dialects. Overall, the project has a more cultural outlook with a heavier focus on those sections.
ContributorsDaliere, Andrew John (Author) / Oh, Young (Thesis director) / Lyon, Mich (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The creative project titled “Culture and Business: Exploring the Etiquette Behind a Chinese Business Meal” focused on defining what is proper dining etiquette targeted at doing business with China. Through the use of 10 informational interviews with seasoned professionals who have experience working overseas in China, this project explored the key aspects of building relationships over a meal. Furthermore, online research was taken into account in order to provide a more up-to-date and well-rounded view. Trends that were discovered across categories include seating arrangements, gift giving, conversation topics, drinking culture, gender roles, and the actual act of eating. The goal of this project was to create an infographic and short video with the intention of educating American business students who are interested in working in China. It was found through the study that many Chinese professionals find the rules of business dining etiquette to be common sense. With globalization making developing relationships between American and Chinese businesses more accessible, providing established descriptions of how to properly conduct a business meal is essential to rising American professionals in order to ensure success in closing the business deal with their Chinese counterparts.
ContributorsLe, Athena (Co-author) / Ponce-Moreno, Jazmin (Co-author) / Hom, Peter (Thesis director) / Schoenfeld, Robert (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
For typological and historical reasons, the category of prepositions in Modern Chinese
has been long debated in terms of its distribution, its classification, and even its very existence. This paper defends the existence of a prepositional category in Chinese as well as offers means to identify the category and distinguish prepositions from verbs by analyzing their distribution and syntactic capabilities. The research for this paper is based on existing literature on Chinese prepositions, Chinese syntax, and linguistic theories as well as on corpus analysis.
has been long debated in terms of its distribution, its classification, and even its very existence. This paper defends the existence of a prepositional category in Chinese as well as offers means to identify the category and distinguish prepositions from verbs by analyzing their distribution and syntactic capabilities. The research for this paper is based on existing literature on Chinese prepositions, Chinese syntax, and linguistic theories as well as on corpus analysis.
ContributorsKennedy, Mary Kathryn (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis director) / Oh, Young (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
When singing in tonal languages, there seems to exist a natural conflict between the pitch of a song’s prescribed melody and the tonal pitch demands of its lyrical content. How does a tonal language adapt to one of the defining characteristics of the adopted western musical tradition: a strong melody developed without regard for linguistic tonal features of its lyrical content? This paper reviews the existing literature on the topic and proposes a research design to further explore this question for Standard Mandarin Chinese. Overall, existing literature demonstrates that the tonal features of some languages such as Cantonese are not only negotiated by songwriters during the composition of a musical piece but also negotiated by singers while performing these songs. One notable and one-of-a-kind study by Murray Schellenberg and Brian Gick, specifically, finds evidence that Cantonese singers use microtonal pitch contour variation to reflect the rising contours of Cantonese linguistic tones. This paper discusses and evaluates the strengths of Schellenberg and Gick’s research model and proposes that future research into microtonal variation within songs of other tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese follow their example.
ContributorsByrd, Noah (Author) / Liao, Jianling (Thesis director) / Zhang, Xia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2022-05