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- All Subjects: Linguistics
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Status: Published
Description
This is a constructed language made for fictional creatures that will be featured in a novel. The creatures are feral goblins, and they are based on Irish mythology. The novel that the goblins and the language will be featured in is titled MaddConn, and it was written by Jon Bendera. It is an urban fantasy novel. The goblins have a language in the novel because there are a number of goblin characters throughout the story. One of the main characters, Maddi, has to survive amongst the feral goblins for a portion of the novel while another main character, Connor, works his way to her. She has multiple close encounters with them, and also has to find her way around their territory, so she comes into contact with the language many times. Although the language in the story was created to have developed prior to humanity, this constructed language was made to look somewhat similar to human language. As it will be involved in fiction that will be read by humans, it needs to be easily understood by humans. The language reveals features of the goblin culture and anatomy. For instance, it can be seen in the language that their shallow, wide mouths and thin lips influence their phonology. Their physiology influences much of their language. Likewise, they have three fingers on each hand, which influences their number system. As the goblins and their language developed before humans and because they are not human creatures, the typology and word order do not follow all of the correlations found in human languages. All in all, the lexicon includes many words that have to do with three of their favorite things: violence, food, and work.
ContributorsMartinez, Randi Nicole (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis director) / Maring, Heather (Committee member) / Schreyer, Christine (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
For my creative project, I began an art press that produces small-run vinyl records and artist's books. Initially, the venture began as a means to circumvent record pressing facilities as a vinyl record-cutting service. By the end of this project, the focus shifted to encompass more visual art products than just vinyl records. The project began with vinyl records because I saw a need in the market; in the past decade, the industry has grown dramatically, but the dozen record pressing plants in the country cannot keep up with the demand. Because record pressing companies prioritize large orders, it is difficult for many small bands and independent record labels to produce work on this medium. This is due to the long lead times, high prices, and large minimum order sizes. I located a man in Germany, who invented a machine that makes high-quality, lathe-cut records. I named the project Blushing Soup, as homage to my father, who passed during my first semester of college. It is through his passing that I was able to secure funds to pursue this venture. I brought on a partner, who was more familiar with art and audio recording than myself. In the summer of 2015, we met with this inventor to learn how to use his machine. By October of 2015, a machine of our own had arrived. In early November, Blushing Soup won a grant from the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. During this time, we released two vinyl records for local bands. For a culminating project, I coordinated a Record Store Day compilation album consisting of six bands featuring. After securing all of the music, the machine started having problems, which forced me to cancel this release. Recognizing the delicacy of the machine, prompted a shift in the aim of Blushing Soup. During this process, I started learning printmaking processes, and I realized that Blushing Soup could function as more than a record cutting service; we could be an art press. In the last few month of this project, I started making artist's books. By the end of April 2016, Blushing Soup will have released vinyl records for two bands, as well as produced four handmade books. This creative project centered around the process of creating art through lathe cutting and printmaking; the objective was not to maximize profits but rather refocus the consumption of art (in a sustainable practice).
ContributorsStringer, Shelby Manning (Author) / Essig, Linda (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The rise of Italian in Sicily contrasts with a fierce regional pride that makes it difficult to determine the possible fate of Sicilian. This project focuses on a sociolinguistic analysis of the dialect of Sicilian spoken in and around Catania, Sicily. While there are programs in place to protect the language, the institutionalization of Italian in Sicily may be encroaching on Sicilian's use, especially with younger generations. The lure of the more industrialized North creates a culture of immigration in Sicily, which increasingly rewards the use of Italian. Using information from background research, a survey analyzing sociolinguistic factors and the individual's fluency in and use of Sicilian was created. The data from the survey showed that while understanding of Sicilian was fairly universal among participants, an individual's use and proficiency in Sicilian were most influenced by age and current place of residence (inside or outside Sicily). Younger people tended to know and use Sicilian less, and older participants tended to be more confident in their abilities and to use Sicilian more often. This is slightly complicated by an additional trend among participants currently living outside of Sicily towards a lower level of use and knowledge of Sicilian. All participants placed a significant emphasis on maintaining the ability to speak Sicilian, and on Sicilian language as an integral part of Sicilian culture.
ContributorsScaduto, Leah Christine (Author) / Dal Martello, Chiara (Thesis director) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The goal of this thesis research was to figure out if there were tangible differences between the way men and women speak on Twitter, a micro blogging social media site, and to see if there ways to apply it to strategizing marketing campaigns. AntConc, a free concordance software by Lawrence Anthony, was used to help organize and analyze a corpus created from the Tweets that were collected form the public accounts of twelve different popular public figures. These individuals were chosen based on their profession or the industry that they are associated with, as well as their general popularity. The research focused on three main industries or professions that can be viewed as ‘gendered;’ which were ‘Modeling,’ ‘Fashion Publications,’ and ‘Sports.’ The data was then analyzed across five different main categories which included, ‘Additional Media,’ ‘Adjective Usage,’ ‘How are they talking?,’ ‘Who are they talking about?, and ‘What are they talking about?’ The primary data, along with secondary research was used to see if they words and language use of men and women aligned with stereotypical patterns or if there were patterns that were unique and overlooked.
What was found was that although gender did play a large part in the way men and women spoke, there were more similarities when comparing individuals of the same industry or profession, than there were if they were simply analyzed just based on gender. Additionally, there were many factors that made it difficult to say whether these were qualified patterns or simply tendencies. More research into this would be able to help marketing companies and individuals, better target the audience they want for social media campaigns, by taking into account the importance in contemporary differences in language use by men and women. However, this research would have to be done on data from sites like Twitter to provide an accurate depiction of the way men and women, on these very unique mediums, speak.
What was found was that although gender did play a large part in the way men and women spoke, there were more similarities when comparing individuals of the same industry or profession, than there were if they were simply analyzed just based on gender. Additionally, there were many factors that made it difficult to say whether these were qualified patterns or simply tendencies. More research into this would be able to help marketing companies and individuals, better target the audience they want for social media campaigns, by taking into account the importance in contemporary differences in language use by men and women. However, this research would have to be done on data from sites like Twitter to provide an accurate depiction of the way men and women, on these very unique mediums, speak.
ContributorsChan, Kayla Rose (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis director) / Shinabarger, Amy D. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Theory Jam is a series of online, education videos that teach music theory in a fun, engaging way. Our project is a response to the growing need for successful online education content. It incorporates strategies for creating effective educational video content and engages with contemporary debates in the field of music theory surrounding the purpose of a music theory education.
ContributorsCannatelli, Joshua Bryce (Co-author) / Daval, Charles Joseph (Co-author) / Miller, April (Thesis director) / Scott, Jason (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Contributing to the small but growing body of research on linguistic discrimination in legal settings, this thesis conducts a sociolinguistic investigation of the impact of an individual's accent on juror perceptions of defendant favorability and innocence. The study used an online questionnaire in which sixty mock jurors were each asked to evaluate the audio testimony of a defendant representing one of three English ethnolects: African American, British South African, or Caucasian American. In addition to rating the defendant's persuasiveness, honesty, credibility, trustworthiness, and guilt, participants were also asked to determine an appropriate punishment (if any) for the defendant. Results indicate a preference of participants to issue an unsure or caveat opinion for the African American speaker but not to the British South African or Caucasian American speaker. The implications of these findings, as well as the correlations between each variable are discussed. The paper concludes with a recommendation for legal training and a revision of courtroom practices.
ContributorsMaerowitz, Max Robert (Author) / Prior, Matthew (Thesis director) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
21st Century Breakdown: The Influence of Social Media on New Bands in the 21st Century is a creative project that explores the development of social media in its relation to music and how, over time, it has impacted the music industry. More specifically, the documentary explains the significance of social media to new bands at this moment in time (2017), which is seen through the development of local Phoenix band The Breaking Pattern. The documentary follows The Breaking Pattern for a year from the release of their debut album to the early stages of their second album. The documentary reveals that social media is essential to new bands, allows smaller bands to stay competitive in the industry and allows artists to present a certain identity, genuine or cultivated, to the public. Keywords: social media, identity, music, internet, documentary
ContributorsBosselman, Haley Erin (Author) / Jacoby, Jim (Thesis director) / Russell, Dennis (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This study observes two fanfiction speech communities, Danny Phantom and Detective Conan. The members of these communities write stories based upon the canon within these two animated cartoons and interact with one another through reviews, author's notes, and story summaries. Using the speech community model, this community's unique practices and communicative repertoire will be identified and analyzed. Both of these fandoms show similarities with the overarching general fanfiction speech community, but they also possess key differences that define them as their own separate community. Fan jargon is used frequently in author's notes, reviews, and summaries to indicate fan expertise and membership within the fandom as well as exclude newcomers from understanding the information. This jargon remains largely the same across languages, and using it properly is important to being considered a true fan. Furthermore, many stories share similar elements that are not present within the source material, indicating that the fandoms possess a shared communicative repertoire. Review practices also show strong cultural norms that demand that reviewers offer praise and encouragement to the writers. Most criticism is phrased extremely kindly to avoid breaking cultural norms. Those who do not follow these cultural norms are shunned by the community, and required to apologize to maintain proper fan membership. Fan hierarchy is also examined, including the ways that big name fans and reviewers exert centripetal and centrifugal forces upon the language, simultaneously pushing it towards standardization and variation. Authors also use many face saving techniques to demonstrate their own lack of knowledge within the community, especially if they are new or inexperienced. The members of these communities share a deep cultural connection that is strengthened by their practices and repertoires.
ContributorsDial, Ashtyn Nicole (Author) / Friedrich, Patricia (Thesis director) / O'Connor, Brendan (Committee member) / Computing and Informatics Program (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The purpose of this study is to document and analyze three women's English language learning journeys after moving from various parts of Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona. The study explores the effects of English as a Second Language (ESL) education on the social and cultural development of Mexican women students at Friendly House, whose mission is to "Empower Arizona communities through education and human services". The literature review section explores such topics as the complications and history of Mexican immigration to Phoenix and of state-funded ESL education in Phoenix. The consequent research study will entail a pair of interviews with the three beginner ESL students about their lives in Mexico compared to their lives in Phoenix, with a specific focus on aspects of their language acquisition and cultural adjustment to life in Arizona. Photos of and by the consultants add to their stories and lead to a discussion about the implications of their experiences for ESL teachers. By documenting the consultants' experiences, this study finds many gaps in ESL education in Phoenix. Suggestions about how ESL programs and teaching methods can be modified to fit student's needs form the basis for the conclusions.
ContributorsDriscoll, Ashley Marisa (Author) / Horan, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / O'Connor, Brendan (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
What is it like to create your own language? This creative project is an amalgamation of several paper, visual, and online media and is divided into two sections. The first section is the creation of an original fantasy constructed language ("conlang") called Dieva, including setting and background, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, language rules, an alphabet and writing system, and vocabulary. The second section is an exercise in applied linguistics, wherein the conlang was shared with the public via media including an online Wikia.com webpage; figures including charts and a map; the development of classroom materials for a hypothetical Dieva language class such as introduction worksheets, practice worksheets, and quizzes on the alphabet and numbers; and a "linguistic challenge" logic puzzle. All materials were then shared with volunteers who gave feedback from a myriad of teaching and non-teaching as well as linguist and non-linguist points of view. Volunteers also attempted to take the quizzes and to solve the "linguistic challenge," and their feedback was integrated into the final versions of the language, worksheets, online webpages, and other work.
ContributorsLambert, Allison Mary (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis director) / Shinabarger, Amy (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12