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- All Subjects: Linguistics
- Creators: Gelderen, Elly van
- Resource Type: Text
Description
This study is about Thai English (ThaiE), a variety of World Englishes that is presently spoken in Thailand, as the result of the spread of English and the recent Thai government policies towards English communication in Thailand. In the study, I examined the linguistic data of spoken ThaiE, collected from multiple sources both in the U.S.A. and Thailand. The study made use of a qualitative approach in examining the data, which were from (i) English interviews and questionnaires with 12 highly educated Thai speakers of English during my fieldwork in the Southwestern U.S.A., Central Thailand, and Northeastern Thailand, (ii) English speech samples from the media in Thailand, i.e. television programs, a news report, and a talk radio program, and (iii) the research articles on English used by Thai speakers of English. This study describes the typology of ThaiE in terms of its morpho-syntax, phonology, and sociolinguistics, with the main focus being placed on the structural characteristics of ThaiE. Based on the data, the results show that some of the ThaiE features are similar to the World Englishes features, but some are unique to ThaiE. Therefore, I argue that ThaiE is structurally considered a new variety of World Englishes at the present time. The findings also showed an interesting result, regarding the notion of ThaiE by the fieldwork interview participants. The majority of these participants (n=6) denied the existence of ThaiE, while the minority of the participants (n=5) believed ThaiE existed, and one participant was reluctant to give the answer. The study suggested that the participants' academic backgrounds, the unfamiliar notion of ThaiE, and the level of the participants' social interaction with everyday persons may have influenced their answers to the main research question.
ContributorsRogers, Uthairat (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Mailhammer, Robert (Committee member) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Despite the vast research on language carried out by the generative linguistics of Noam Chomsky and his followers since the 1950s, for theoretical reasons (mainly their attention to the mental abstraction of language structure rather than language as a performed product), historical linguistics from the start lay outside their research interest. This study is an attempt to bridge the gap between the formalism and theoretical constructs introduced by generative grammar, whose ultimate goal is to provide not only a description but also an explanation to linguistic phenomena, and historical linguistics, which studies the evolution of language over time. This main objective is met by providing a formal account of the changes hwæðer undergoes throughout the Old English (OE) period. This seemingly inconspicuous word presents itself as a case of particular investigative interest in that it reflects the different stages proclaimed by the theoretical assumptions implemented in the study, namely the economy principles responsible for what has become known as the CP cycle: the Head Preference Principle and the Late Merge Principle, whereby pronominal hwæðer would raise to the specifier position for topicalization purposes, then after frequent use in that position, it would be base-generated there under Late Merge, until later reanalysis as the head of the Complementizer Phrase (CP) under Head Preference. Thus, I set out to classify the diverse functions of OE hwæðer by identifying and analyzing all instances as recorded in the diachronic part of the Helsinki Corpus. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data have rendered the following results: 1) a fully satisfactory functional and chronological classification has been obtained by analyzing the data under investigation following a formal theoretical approach; and 2) a step-by-step historical analysis proves to be indispensable for understanding how language works at the abstract level from a historical point of view. This project is part of a growing body of research on language change which attempts to describe and explain the evolution of certain words as these change in form and function.
ContributorsParra-Guinaldo, Víctor (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Bjork, Robert (Committee member) / Nilsen, Don L. F. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Linguistic subjectivity and subjectification are fields of research that are relatively new to those working in English linguistics. After a discussion of linguistic subjectivity and subjectification as they relate to English, I investigate the subjectification of a specific English adjective, and how its usage has changed over time. Subjectivity is held by many linguists of today to be the major governing factor behind the ordering of English prenominal adjectives. Through the use of a questionnaire, I investigate the effect of subjectivity on English prenominal adjective order from the perspective of the native English speaker. I then discuss the results of the questionnaire, what they mean in relation to how subjectivity affects that order, and a few of the patterns that emerged as I analyzed the data.
ContributorsSkarstedt, Luke (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Bjork, Robert (Committee member) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
ABSTRACT There are many parts of speech and morphological items in a linguistic lexicon that may be optional in order to have a cohesive language with a complete range of expression. Negation is not one of them. Negation appears to be absolutely essential from a linguistic (and indeed, a psychological) point of view within any human language. Humans need to be able to say in some fashion "No" and to express our not doing things in various ways. During the discussions that appear in this thesis, I expound upon the historical changes that can be seen within three different language branches - North Germanic (with Gothic, Old Saxon, Old Norse, Swedish, and Icelandic), West Germanic (with English), and Celtic (with Welsh) - focusing on negation particles in particular and their position within these languages. I also examine how each of these chosen languages has seen negation shift over time in relation to Jespersen's negation cycle. Finally, I compare and contrast the results I see from these languages, demonstrating that they all three do follow a distinct negation cycle. I also explain how these three negation cycles are chronologically not in sync with one another and obviously all changed at different rates. This appears to be the case even within the different branches of the Germanic family.
ContributorsLoewenhagen, Angela C (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Committee member) / Bjork, Robert (Committee member) / Gillon, Carrie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Arabic is widely known for the lack of copulas in nominal sentences in the present tense. Arabic employs a copula ‘kana’ in the past and future tenses. However, in some constructions the presence of a third person pronoun is necessary for the purpose of emphasis or ambiguity reduction. The data investigated in this thesis was from Classical Arabic, Standard Arabic, and the Western Saudi ‘Hijazi’ dialect. The thesis briefly discussed the grammaticalization of a transitive verb to a non-present tense copula in Classical Arabic. In addition, the thesis discussed the process of copularization that was a result of grammaticalization of the demonstrative third person pronoun ‘huwa’ to a present tense copula in Standard Arabic. It was shown that the pronoun went through a process of reanalysis from the specifier to the head position of PredP driven by Feature Economy and the Head Preference Principle. The result was the loss of the person feature. The new copula developed and attached to the negative particle ‘ma’ in the Hijazi dialect losing all its phi-features. These phenomena are known as the copula and negative cycles, respectively. The analysis was based on the Generative Grammar framework and the Minimalist program. This study attempted to shed light on Arabic copulas and contribute to more understanding of the use of these copulas in question and negative constructions. It may also help in typological studies, which may lead to a better understanding of the linguistic theory and the language faculty.
ContributorsAlsaeedi, Mekhlid Owaidh M (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Committee member) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Abstract
Grammaticalization theory provides a framework for analyzing language change. This thesis uses the concepts relevant to grammaticalization theory in an examination of ‘only’ and ‘just’ to determine how changes in their usage conform to the theory. After an introduction providing a sampling of the myriad ways ‘only’ and ‘just’ are used in Modern English, I provide an overview of grammaticalization theory in Chapter 2. Included in this chapter are a history of the major concepts of grammaticalization theory, an explanation of the commonly-accepted parameters and tools used to test and demonstrate grammaticalization, and a brief discussion of current arguments against grammaticalization theory. Chapter 3 presents my analysis of ‘only’ and ‘just’. I show that ‘only’ has grammaticalized from an adjective to a more grammatical adjective, from an adjective to an adverb, and from an adjective to a complementizer. I then show that ‘just’ has grammaticalized from an adjective to a more grammatical adjective and from an adjective to an adverb. Although some proponents of grammaticalization theory question the grammaticalization pathways leading from adjective to adverb and from adjective to complementizer, I argue that in the cases of ‘only’ and ‘just’ these pathways do indeed exist. I use the Oxford English Dictionary and corpora to support and demonstrate the validity of my argument.
Grammaticalization theory provides a framework for analyzing language change. This thesis uses the concepts relevant to grammaticalization theory in an examination of ‘only’ and ‘just’ to determine how changes in their usage conform to the theory. After an introduction providing a sampling of the myriad ways ‘only’ and ‘just’ are used in Modern English, I provide an overview of grammaticalization theory in Chapter 2. Included in this chapter are a history of the major concepts of grammaticalization theory, an explanation of the commonly-accepted parameters and tools used to test and demonstrate grammaticalization, and a brief discussion of current arguments against grammaticalization theory. Chapter 3 presents my analysis of ‘only’ and ‘just’. I show that ‘only’ has grammaticalized from an adjective to a more grammatical adjective, from an adjective to an adverb, and from an adjective to a complementizer. I then show that ‘just’ has grammaticalized from an adjective to a more grammatical adjective and from an adjective to an adverb. Although some proponents of grammaticalization theory question the grammaticalization pathways leading from adjective to adverb and from adjective to complementizer, I argue that in the cases of ‘only’ and ‘just’ these pathways do indeed exist. I use the Oxford English Dictionary and corpora to support and demonstrate the validity of my argument.
ContributorsBrubaker, Heidi (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the acceptability of a new variety of English among the English teaching community in Germany. A number of linguists claim there is a new variety of English developing in continental Europe, also known as Euro-English. Their research has surfaced multiple features that are unique to European speakers of English. Twenty-one teachers participated in a survey. They answered a questionnaire consisting of two parts. Part one investigates the background of the teachers, their attitudes towards different varieties of English, and their awareness of the research regarding Euro-English. Part two tests the acceptability of ten features that have been claimed to be specific for mainland Europeans. Results of this study reveal that there is little awareness of non-native varieties and many find it hard to accept the features of Euro-English. However, the teachers show a genuine interest in this topic. Where there is a general preference in holding on to the guidelines of standard norms, many comments indicate that teachers think about issues of identity and how their teaching could be affected by a broader scope that exceeds traditional methods.
ContributorsRaack, Christine (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Ghanem, Carla (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The primary topic of this dissertation is the grammaticalization of negation in three Sinitic language varieties: Hakka, Mandarin, and Southern Min. I discuss negative morphemes that are used under different modality or aspect contexts, including ability, volition, necessity, and perfectivity. Not only does this study examine Southern Min affirmative and negative pairs, but it also highlights the grammaticalization of negation and parametric differences in negation among the languages under investigation. This dissertation also covers the reanalysis of negatives into interrogatives. I approach the investigation of Southern Min negation from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. I analyze corpus data in addition to data collected from fieldwork for the contemporary linguistic data. For my diachronic research of Chinese negation, I use historical texts and etymological dictionaries. Diachronically, many of the negative morphemes originate from full-fledged verbs and undergo an analogous grammaticalization process that consists of multiple stages of reanalysis from V to T (aspect; modality), and then T to C (interrogative; discourse). I explain this reanalysis, which involves head-to-head movement, using generative frameworks that combine a modified cartographic approach and the Minimalist Economy Principles. Synchronic data show that Southern Min affirmative modals are characterized by a certain morphological doubling. These doublings consist of two near synonyms used in sequence, resulting from the loss of features in a verb and a second verb added as a renewal. In the negation paradigm, some negatives project a negative phrase, while the others serve a dual function, occupying a modal/aspect head as well as a negative head. The latter system is gradually shifting to the former. This study uncovers evidence to counter the long-established paradigm, where negation is tied to its independent modality (abilitive, volitional and necessitive) or aspect (perfective and perfect). I observe a mismatch between the use of interrogatives and their modality/aspect and attribute this phenomenon to feature loss during their reanalysis from negatives to interrogatives. Results however show that consistency occurs in the grammaticalization of negation within Southern Min and intra-linguistically among the three Sinitic languages, and that parametric differences are found at the morphological level.
ContributorsYang, Huiling (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Gillon, Carrie (Committee member) / Sun, Chaofen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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
The nature of imperative syntax has remained an elusive, yet ever-present, subject in syntactic research, spanning several decades of linguistic inquiry and analysis, and it is therefore unsurprising that current views on the subject continue to be somewhat divided. This thesis examines the syntactic evidence from imperatives in Old English and ultimately seeks to develop a picture of the possibilities for imperative clauses in OE alongside an overall framework for imperative syntax within contemporary theoretical models of syntactic structure. The general, perceived pattern for OE imperative clauses (e.g. Millward 1971) is “verb−first,” and statistical data from the corpora confirm this perception, with the majority of imperative clauses exhibiting the verb in clause−initial position. Imperative constructions with post− and preverbal overt subjects are also examined at length, and postverbal subjects are found to be the majority case. These results are further expanded by examinations of data from verb−second and verb−third contexts, which include possibilities for topicalized constituents and adverbs. Ultimately, the relative position of both the verb and the subject and the relationship between these and other elements in the totality of the data provide essential clues for constructing a clearer model of OE imperative syntax. Within a relatively rich cartographic framework (Rizzi 1997), I therefore argue that the imperative verb is standardly fronted to the head of ForceP, with the overt subject remaining in spec−FinP, in parallel with other models for imperative syntax and OE syntax. Exceptions to this pattern for imperatives which suggest lower positions for the imperative verb (e.g. verb−second and verb−third constructions) are also accounted for, all with the central goal of demonstrating a consistent pattern underlying the realization of imperative syntax in Old English.
ContributorsKruger, William Wriley (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Major, Roy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012