Matching Items (37)
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- Creators: Department of English
- All Subjects: Linguistics
- All Subjects: Short Stories
Description
In recent years, immigration, especially concerning those individuals immigrating from Central America and Mexico, has become increasingly controversial. Within the last five presidents, policies concerning immigration have shifted. Under President Bill Clinton in 1997, the Flores Settlement, an agreement between immigration activist organizations and the government that created standards for detaining accompanied and unaccompanied minors was made. Following 9/11, in 2005, President George W. Bush increased the amount of money spent on immigration enforcement in an effort to deport more immigrants. President Barack Obama increased the number of deportations from President Bush during his first term. However, in 2014, an already imperfect immigration system was disrupted by an influx of child immigrants. As a result, detention centers were at capacity and unable to accommodate the increasing numbers of immigrants. Child migrants were placed in caged-areas, immigration lawyers and courts quickly became overwhelmed with cases, and children were alone and could barely communicate. This thesis explores the various relationships between accompanied and unaccompanied minors from Central America, the American legal system, and the media and broadcast news outlets’ rhetoric concerning child migrants. Focusing on the ways in which immigrant minors are objectified by the legal system and the framing of immigrants in the media, it is evident that their complex interaction allows for the oppression of the child migrants. Since the American legal system and the media influence and respond to each other, the responsibility of the child migrants’ dehumanization is on both the legal system and the rhetoric of the media and broadcast news outlets.
ContributorsValli-Doherty, Francesca (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Agruss, David (Committee member) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The use of discourse markers (DMs) is present in speech to both structure and organize the discourse (Fung & Carter, 2007). However, despite the different studies about the use of DMs, less attention has been paid to specific Spanish DMs such as pues, ‘so, well’ luego, ‘then, therefore’ and entonces ‘so, then’ about their reduction. The focus of this study is on the phonetic variation of these DMs from a corpus of speakers of Mexican Spanish from Salinas, California (Brown & Alba, 2017). This paper analyzed dependent and independent variables to show their influence on the reduction of DMs. Also, chunking phenomena and special reduction were part of the study as they can reflect patterns of change in the language.
ContributorsQuimbaya, Yazmin (Author) / Gradoville, Michael (Thesis director) / Fernández, SofÃa (Committee member) / Brown, Earl Kjar (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The purpose of this study is to explore the syntax and pragmatics of subject doubling in spoken French. Many prescriptivists have considered it a redundant and ungrammatical form, but over the years, it has gained more interest from syntacticians. It is widely acknowledged that dislocations involve topics, but the position of these structures is very disputed. Some linguists believe in base generation while others state there is movement. The status of subject clitics also comes into play and their role as arguments or agreement markers is crucial to understanding the issues at stake with a topic analysis. It is often argued that the clitics are undergoing a linguistic cycle whereby they lose their function of argument, and need to be reinforced by disjunct pronouns. In this study, I examined which analyses support my data and I attempted to determine what structures tend to be most dislocated by looking at the environment of the discourse in a corpus of spoken French.
ContributorsBlanquart, Eleonore (Author) / Ossipov, Helene (Thesis advisor) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Thesis advisor) / Gelderen, Elly van (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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
For this project, I have written a trilogy of interrelated short stories. The three stories are entitled "The Blue Bike," "Heartbeat," and "Elevators." Each of these three stories relate to each other both through the featured characters and the core themes. The little girl from the first story, Amy, is the little sister of the narrator Emma from the second story. The narrator from the third story is the son of Charles (Helen's husband) from the first story, who is also a major character in "Elevators." The gym in the second story also appears in the third story. On a thematic and poetic level, I have used the word "lift" as the inspiration behind and connecting thread between my stories. I have played with the various meanings of connotations of the word, using them to construct the plots of each story. For example, I have used it in the sense of face lifts in the first story, as well as alluded to the idea of planes lifting into the air through making Charles a pilot. There is also the idea of lifting a child into your arms, and lifting yourself or someone else up both physically and emotionally. In the second story, I use shop-lifting, weight-lifting, and the idea of giving someone a lift as in giving someone a ride. The idea of giving someone a lift also occurs in the last story, alongside the connotations of lift with elevators. There are a multitude of other instances in which I have tried to make the word "lift" resonate throughout these stories, though the over-arching theme for me would be the idea of lifting other people up. It is the exploration of meaningful connections between people and the way those connections can heal and "lift." This collection is thus an exercise in creative interconnectivity as well as an exploration of the way people can connect meaningfully to each other.
ContributorsKang, Verity Grace (Author) / McNally, T. M. (Thesis director) / Duerden, Sarah (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
There are no words for the trauma of death when it strikes unexpectedly. What to say when a mother dies in childbirth? When a father figure contracts an unknown disease for no apparent cause? When a beloved pet, long mourned, may still be alive and hidden by estranged family? Generations may pass, and children may grow up, but the pain leaves marks that echo across time and the other borders we construct between our past and present. We may find strength on solitude, or prayer, or the words of a song written by someone else. In these four stories, spanning almost half a century, the marks of death and attempts to soothe or hide them are everywhere. Children on the cusp of adulthood grapple with the lives and the lies of their parents. Musicians examine the relationship of their music to the world. Legends and myths lurk in the shadows, tempting with false hope and rationalizing the unexplainable.
In “Playing the Changes,” we meet two men stranded in a small desert town in 1972, a time when their attraction to each other is still dangerous. Nile Walker is a jazz musician, running from a spurned lover and the law. Benji Garza is a once-devout Catholic, fixing cars and caring for his orphaned nephew, Hector. Walker and Garza’s affair will spin both lives and their heredity into sweeping tragedies that characters battle with lust and melody. Walker has a son he never meets, a drifter who finds connection with another lost soul at an airport in “La Petite Mort.” Hector is forced into early adulthood in “The Words,” when his ailing uncle’s health fails due to a mysterious disease not yet called AIDS. Later Tre—a young man struggling with the weight of his own lineage—meets him in “PHX.” These stories examine questions of death’s causes and its myriad effects, and offer this solution: Knowing that we cannot know everything, and living, loving, and singing anyway.
In “Playing the Changes,” we meet two men stranded in a small desert town in 1972, a time when their attraction to each other is still dangerous. Nile Walker is a jazz musician, running from a spurned lover and the law. Benji Garza is a once-devout Catholic, fixing cars and caring for his orphaned nephew, Hector. Walker and Garza’s affair will spin both lives and their heredity into sweeping tragedies that characters battle with lust and melody. Walker has a son he never meets, a drifter who finds connection with another lost soul at an airport in “La Petite Mort.” Hector is forced into early adulthood in “The Words,” when his ailing uncle’s health fails due to a mysterious disease not yet called AIDS. Later Tre—a young man struggling with the weight of his own lineage—meets him in “PHX.” These stories examine questions of death’s causes and its myriad effects, and offer this solution: Knowing that we cannot know everything, and living, loving, and singing anyway.
ContributorsCohen, Michael Lawrence (Author) / Bell, Matt (Thesis director) / Pearson, Dustin (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
In this thesis, I conduct a preliminary analysis of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham's travel manual-cum-propaganda ebook Hijrah to the Islamic State, which has been used by people from various parts of the world attempting to enter Syria and join the terrorist organization. Using techniques from discourse and propaganda analysis I examine how the author of the text uses discursive resources to construct the reader of the text, the author's expectations for the reader, and the act of traveling to Syria. I then use news articles from varying organizations as well as the Islamic State-produced periodical magazine Dabiq to locate the document within the context of Islamic State affairs and propaganda. Subsequently, I show that the use of discursive resources is consistent with the ethos espoused in Dabiq, and in addition to serving as a guide to entering Syria Hijrah to the Islamic State is also a soft introduction into the radical belief systems of the terrorist group itself.
ContributorsDelmonico, Edward Peter (Author) / Prior, Matthew (Thesis director) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
As my year abroad in France was vastly approaching, it became apparent that the accessibility of certain resources would prove beneficial in the pursuit of my honors thesis in French. Thus, even before my departure it was decided that I would focus on the French texting language. While the specifics were not yet fully developed, it was certain that the subject was relevant as the use of communication technologies were becoming more prevalent amongst younger generations. Upon my arrival in Lyon, the objective of my thesis was realized as I began to slowly understand the descriptive nuances of both spoken French and the ever-changing texting language. As a language student, it felt necessary to understand and analyze both the prescriptive and descriptive facets of the French language, including those of the text shorthand. Therefore, it was my intention to learn the vocabulary and linguistic traits that were most frequented in this distinct jargon, not solely for myself, but also for my fellow students of French. This task was accomplished by reading and recording the text messages from ten native speakers. These texts were then compiled into a proper corpus, which was primarily used as the resource for the further applied projects I wished to create. Given this research, a type of dictionary was organized from the words that I found to be most exemplary of the French texting language. In addition, an analysis was also written concerning the common linguistics traits found in the corpus. It was my intent to provide the students of Arizona State University with relevant resources that could assist in the immersion process during or before their study abroad experience. In pursuit of any language, it seems that it is integral to maintain a sense of understanding of all common elements of a language, as they are constantly evolving. Thus, it was important for me in my attempt to master French that I understood all the nuances of the vernacular that were being used by the native speakers.
ContributorsMarquez, Monique Evangeline (Author) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Thesis director) / Danton, Naomi (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-12
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
DescriptionShort fiction revolving around the Y2K scare, written from three perspectives. Explores the fear and uncertainty prevalent during the time and how it affected actions and relationships.
ContributorsMoore, Matthew Robert (Author) / Dalton, Kevin (Thesis director) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2014-05