ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4
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- All Subjects: Language, Linguistics
- Creators: Gelderen, Elly van
Description
The historical study of sentence adverbs has, before now, been based mostly on models that emphasize the pragmatic and discourse-based motivations of processes of grammaticalization. This dissertation breaks from such tradition by exploring diachronic adverb development through syntactic and morphological lenses. A generative, feature-based approach is used that incorporates the cartographic architecture developed by Cinque and combines it with a more phenomenological approach to both grammaticalization and lexicalization. Cinque's hierarchy of speech-act, evaluative, evidential, and epistemic adverbs is analyzed. It is determined (through corpus data) that these subcategories have grown in use primarily during the Modern English era, and particularly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These four subcategories can be divided into two groups that are more general: speech-act adverbs, which arise from a (conditional) speech-act clause that undergoes ellipsis, and the other three types, which all arise from copula clauses. Each of these two groups is considered, and different methods of reanalysis by speakers are proposed for each. In addition, a revised model for categorizing adverbs is proposed. This model is based on morphological lexicalization (or univerbation) processes, thus accounting for the wide variety of adverbial source materials. Such lexicalization offers a pattern for sentence adverbial formation. Finally, Standard Chinese adverbials are briefly examined, with results indicating that they show very similar signs of lexicalization (within the limits of the writing system).
ContributorsBerry, James Andrew (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Mailhammer, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT For this study, I chose to look at the influence that linguistics has on the publishing industry, both in writing and editing literary fiction. Both sides of publishing deal with the words and language of a novel, which is what the study of linguistics entails. Throughout this study, I researched the different areas of the publishing industry, academic programs that focus on publishing, and how-to guides on writing literary fiction in order to find out to what extent--if any--linguistics is involved. Also, through editors that I have worked with, and recommendations from various acquaintances, I interviewed two authors--one published and one unpublished--to see if they used any aspects of linguistics in their writing techniques. I found that linguistics was never specifically mentioned in the descriptions of publishing courses, in the how-to guides, nor in the answers from the authors on different writing techniques used; however, linguistics may be used or studied unintentionally.
ContributorsMoeser, Amy (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Major, Roy (Committee member) / Szuter, Christine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
I investigate how complementizers, which connect subordinate clauses to the main sentence, develop from other parts of speech, namely prepositions and adverbs. This occurs by the process of grammaticalization, in which a word loses lexicality and gains grammatical function instead. I use computer-based corpus analysis to determine how often certain words are used as each part of speech in my selected texts, and whether they are accompanied by other grammatical words. I use two Old English glosses of the Latin gospels, the Rushworth and Lindisfarne glosses, in order to analyze possible diachronic and geographical differences between the texts. I demonstrate that prepositions develop into adverbs and thence into complementizers with the assistance of certain grammatical accessory words which are later lost. This occurs by the process of reanalysis, in which the language user interprets a word or phrase differently than before.
ContributorsMackowski, Catherine (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Bjork, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Codeswitching, or the bilingual practice of switching between two languages, is a frequently misunderstood phenomenon in many fields, including education. Given the growing number of bilingual students and English Language Learners in U.S. schools, it is imperative that the field of education be informed by current research in bilingualism and language acquisition, including codeswitching. Codeswitching that occurs within a sentence is subject to specific rules derived from the languages involved in the switching. Furthermore, a codeswitcher's intuitions about the grammatical acceptability of certain switches over others, called grammaticality judgments, provide linguists with a unique window into how the language systems interact. In current codeswitching research, it is sometimes claimed that simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals provide more accurate grammaticality judgments than late sequential bilinguals. Although this claim is largely motivated by Critical Period Hypothesis research, the grammaticality judgments of the three groups of bilinguals have yet to be systematically compared to determine if there is indeed a difference in judgments. This dissertation investigates potential differences in intrasentential codeswitching patterns of simultaneous, early sequential and late sequential Slovak-English bilinguals (N = 39) through a comparison of grammaticality judgments. Analysis of potential differences is grounded in generative approaches to first and second language acquisition. Grammaticality judgments from Slovak-English bilinguals were elicited through a survey of constructed items. Chi square results are analyzed to determine variation in judgments attributable to bilingual group based on age of onset of exposure to English. In addition, a sub-study of data from the Welsh-English Siarad Corpus (http://www.siarad.org.uk/siarad.php) is presented. Normed token means for English and mixed tokens for simultaneous, early sequential, and late sequential bilinguals are compared using ANOVA tests, and variability is discussed in light of relevant theoretical considerations. Results from this study indicate that there are few differences attributable to age of onset of exposure, thus helping to clarify current practices in codeswitching research methodology, particularly in terms of identifying characteristics of participants. The study also addresses issues surrounding the critical period hypothesis and the effect of age of onset of exposure in bilingualism, topics which are both directly relevant to the field of education.
ContributorsMcAlister, Kara Tiffany (Author) / Macswan, Jeff (Thesis advisor) / Faltis, Christian (Committee member) / Gelderen, Elly van (Committee member) / Rolstad, Kellie (Committee member) / Sipka, Danko (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010