Matching Items (46)
Description
A study on the power inequity between men and women in inter-gender conversations, how it manifests linguistically, and the social ramifications thereafter. Conversations from the game show Cash Cab are used to this point.
ContributorsPirotte, Adeline Rose (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis director) / Bryant, Jason (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Nonlinguists’ attitudes towards language are a major factor in the process of language change. Therefore, linguists are interested in examining how language varieties are perceived. Several studies around the world have demonstrated that ideologies play a major role in shaping how people perceive certain dialects, how social meanings are associated with these varieties, and how linguistic communities are shaped in part by these beliefs. However, little attention has been given to language attitude in the Arab region, and in the Saudi context particularly. Moreover, none of the attitudinal studies in the region have tried to investigate Najdis’ attitudes towards their own dialects. Using a conceptually presented attitudinal approach, this study bridges the literature gap by examining 1041 Najdis’ language attitudes towards two of the main dialects there: The Najdi Urban and Najdi Bedouin varieties. The study answers the following questions: How do Najdis perceive the Najdi Urban and Bedouin dialects, and what are the frequently associated characteristics with these varieties? The results of the quantitative analysis show that Najdis’ language attitudes can be discussed with and reduced to two themes: modernity and traditionality. The Urban Najdi dialect was perceived as modern. Contrarily, the Bedouin Najdi dialect was considered traditional. Each social group tended to rate their dialect higher than the other group did in both factors, indicating in-group loyalty. Also, both groups showed high levels of linguistic security.
ContributorsAlothman, Ayoub (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The issue of women driving remains to be highly debated in Saudi Arabia. Recent developments on its legalization have sparked conversation and discourse, particularly in social media sites like Twitter. Several hashtags have been used to indicate either support or criticism towards the movement.
Examining Twitter tweets and hashtags, the study explored how the discourse on women driving had been executed, particularly in between genders. The study analyzed a sizeable number of tweets as well as their context via linguistic corpora analysis. Following Norman Fairclough’s framework, the two opposing perspectives were investigated both at a level of textual analysis. The selected tweets were representative of the three hashtags that emerged on the heat of the discourse regarding the issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia: #Women_car_driving, #I_will_drive_my_car_June15, and #I_will_enter_my_kitchen_June15.
The results showed, among others, that tweets with the hashtag #Women_car_driving presented a tremendous support towards the movement. On the other hand strong opposing reactions emerged from the hashtags #I_will_drive_my_car_June15 and #I_will_enter_my_kitchen_June15.
Examining Twitter tweets and hashtags, the study explored how the discourse on women driving had been executed, particularly in between genders. The study analyzed a sizeable number of tweets as well as their context via linguistic corpora analysis. Following Norman Fairclough’s framework, the two opposing perspectives were investigated both at a level of textual analysis. The selected tweets were representative of the three hashtags that emerged on the heat of the discourse regarding the issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia: #Women_car_driving, #I_will_drive_my_car_June15, and #I_will_enter_my_kitchen_June15.
The results showed, among others, that tweets with the hashtag #Women_car_driving presented a tremendous support towards the movement. On the other hand strong opposing reactions emerged from the hashtags #I_will_drive_my_car_June15 and #I_will_enter_my_kitchen_June15.
ContributorsAljarallah, Rayya Sulaiman (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Gelderen, Elly van (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
This dissertation thoroughly explores two of the most common Najdi Arabic discourse markers among Twitter Najdi Arabic users, namely elzibda ‘lit. the gist’ and min jid ‘lit. for real.’ Qualitatively, the dissertation scrutinizes the various pragmatic, textual, interpersonal, and cognitive functions of NA (Najdi Arabic) discourse markers and the sociolinguistic factors that appear to have an effect on the use of NA discourse markers. Quantitively, the dissertation examines the syntactic positions NA discourse markers occupy, the items NA discourse markers collocate with across various contexts, as well as the frequency of occurrence of NA discourse markers. The results show that NA discourse markers have numerous pragmatic functions, including textual, interpersonal, and cognitive. The NA discourse marker elzibda is more productive than min jid since it shows almost double the number of pragmatic functions. The NA discourse markers share a number of textual and interpersonal functions. Nevertheless, the NA discourse marker elzibda only exhibits cognitive functions. Interestingly, the NA discourse marker elzibda shows more textual functions than min jid whereas min jid shows more interpersonal functions than elzibda. The NA discourse markers collocate with various syntactic categories across different positions. Syntactically, the NA discourse marker elzibda and min jid occur predominately in the initial position. Nevertheless, the NA discourse marker elzibda and min jid occupy medial, final, and alone positions. The NA discourse marker min jid considers the alone position as one of the landing sites while this position is quite rare for elzibda. Sociolinguistically, the use of the NA discourse marker elzibda and min jid is highly associated with NA Twitter users with a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) Degree. Female and male NA Twitter users employ the NA discourse markers elzibda and min jid in varying degrees of frequencies. For instance, female NA Twitter users employ the NA discourse marker min jid almost twice the times of male NA Twitter users. Female and male NA Twitter users also show different pragmatic functions in certain instances. For instance, female NA Twitter users employ the NA discourse marker elzibda for realization while male NA Twitter users employ elzibda as a clarification device.
ContributorsALASWAD, IBRAHIM (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Gelderen, Elly (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Grammaticalization is viewed as a progressive process by which words are altered over time from a lexical status to a grammatical status. Verbs with posture, motion, and volition meanings are crosslinguistically prone to grammaticalize into tense, mood, and aspect markers (TMA), making for a particularly interesting topic of study. In Arabic dialects, the active participle of posture verbs (APPVs) jaalis/qaaʕaɪd ‘sitting’ and gaayem ‘standing’, the motion verbs raħ ‘he went’, and the b-imperfective are commonly referred to as instances of grammaticalization. Yet, there is very limited research that supports this argument. APPVs are sometimes regarded as grammaticalized auxiliaries or Aktionsart markers, while raħ and the b-imperfective are both viewed as future tense markers. There is, however, evidence from Saudi Najdi Arabic (SNA) that challenges these findings. This dissertation describes the grammaticalization process of the APPVs, the motion verbs raħ, and the b-imperfective in SNA. It also proposes a new precise syntactic analysis for the three elements and their sources of grammaticalization, using two approaches. First, to account for the evaluation of the three elements’ grammaticalization in SNA, I focus on four universal grammaticalization principles and mechanisms: namely, desemanticization, extension, decategorialization, and erosion. I follow Hopper and Traugott’s (2003) Cline theory to provide a description of the reanalysis stages. To account for the syntactic analysis for these elements and their sources of grammaticalization, I use the Cartography Program.
The data examined reveal that SNA is most grammatically related to other Arabic dialects and not Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), allowing me to trace the grammaticalization process of the APPVs, the b-imperfective, and the motion verb rah from their original function as lexical verbs to TMA markers of progressivity or futurity. I show that the APPVs have undergone semantic extension, semantic bleaching, and decategorialization, but not phonological reduction (erosion). Syntactically, the findings indicate that the future irrealis b-imperfective occupies the head of MP, the prospective future raħ occupies the head of ProspP, and the APPVs in pseudocoordination constructions have two syntactic structures: (i) progressive aspect markers in the head of ProgP and (ii) light verbs base-generated in the head of vP.
ContributorsAltamimi, Mansour Ibrahim (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / Seely, T. Daniel (Committee member) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The dynamic and rich expressions in social media such as Twitter are regarded as instigators of social change. The tweets from the debates on the Saudi royal decree granting women the right to drive in Saudi Arabia provide a platform for examining the public’s role in shaping national ideologies and societal changes. These tweets are subjected to Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies, guided by the theories of Critical Discourse Analysis. Twitter’s Application Programming Interface, Hashtag selection, and Sketch Engine, is utilized to analyze a corpus comprising of 6,000 tweets from the supporters and opponents of the royal decree on women driving. The corpus includes tweets posted when the ban lifted in September 2017 and when licenses were issued in June 2018. The researcher further supplemented the computer processing of text with manual examination. The outcomes revealed discursive strategies and themes of opponents and supporters discourse. The Findings show that the anticipated negative and positive outcomes from the decree are used to justify the tweeters positions. Furthermore, the analysis shows that while the conservative oppositions’ pleas are from a protectionist stance, the supporters’ excitement are from the initiation of societal change that will advance the welfare of women. The major two themes of the anti-decree tweeters are (a) disappointment of the decree through supplication and (b) negation of visible presence of woman drivers. On the other hand, the major two themes of the pro-decree tweeters are a) analogy comparisons and b) celebrations. The findings further indicate the classification of tweeters to an in-group and out-group membership which justifies the referential and predicational strategies used by tweeters.
ContributorsAljarallah, Rayya Sulaiman (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Van Gelderen, Ely (Committee member) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to identify the ways neurodivergent people engage with tone and intent, in spaces where the expression of such things is missing the audible and visual cues that exist in face-to-face communications. Interviews were conducted with four participants who self-identify as neurodivergent, with each of the interviews seeking to understand their experiences with the written expression of tone and intent. The interviews shed light on how direct, semi-direct, and indirect tone indicators are used as tools for understanding the intent and tone of a message, as well as which of the three types of tone indicators are the most helpful in practice. The interviews also touched on how social interactions in digital spaces are often viewed through a neurotypical lens, and thus make understanding the sociolinguistic rules of digitally-based interactions difficult for neurodivergent individuals who are expected to know said rules without being told. Through the course of the interviews, participants expressed a desire for people as whole to be clearer about their tone and intent when communicating in digital spaces, and that tone indicators are vital for communicating such things.
ContributorsHadden, Sydney (Author) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Peterson, Tyler (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This study explores the development of negation and the Negation Phrase (NegP) in bilingual children learning both English and Spanish. I analyze the speech of four children growing up in the United States who are learning English and Spanish simultaneously in order to establish steps of parameter setting for negation. The transcripts have been taken from Pérez-Bazán’s bilingual corpus from CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System). The thorough analysis of the selected corpus data gathered from children ages 2;0 and 3;3 determines the steps children follow in order to develop mastery of negation and the NegP.
This study is an addition to the body of research surrounding language acquisition and the concept of Universal Grammar’s Principles and Parameters framework. The bases for this study is Klima & Bellugi’s (1968) established three steps for acquisition of negation by children in English, as well as Zeijlstra’s (2004) analysis of languages in regards to phases of the Jespersen cycle. The data of this study suggest that there are five basic steps to parameter setting, and that as utterances become syntactically more complex, children value uninterpretable features with interpretable ones. This is seen in both languages studied. The parameters categorized based on the data available for this study are the following: 1) negative particle outside of the VP, 2) NegP creation and development with preverbal negative marker, 3) Negative Concord (NC), 4) True Imperatives (banned or not), and 5) Negative Polarity Items (NPI).
Also important is the placement of the NegP, as it is above the TP in Spanish and c-commanded by the TP in English. The development of the NegP and uninterpretable negation [uNeg] valuation by interpretable negation [iNeg] is also explored in the utterances of the four children studied.
This study confirms Klima & Bellugi’s account of steps and further defines child negation in English as well as in Spanish. The focus on [iNeg] and [uNeg] features is further explained using Zeijlstra’s Phases of the Jespersen cycle as a springboard. I add salient information regarding parameter setting and how negation and the NegP are developed across two languages.
This study is an addition to the body of research surrounding language acquisition and the concept of Universal Grammar’s Principles and Parameters framework. The bases for this study is Klima & Bellugi’s (1968) established three steps for acquisition of negation by children in English, as well as Zeijlstra’s (2004) analysis of languages in regards to phases of the Jespersen cycle. The data of this study suggest that there are five basic steps to parameter setting, and that as utterances become syntactically more complex, children value uninterpretable features with interpretable ones. This is seen in both languages studied. The parameters categorized based on the data available for this study are the following: 1) negative particle outside of the VP, 2) NegP creation and development with preverbal negative marker, 3) Negative Concord (NC), 4) True Imperatives (banned or not), and 5) Negative Polarity Items (NPI).
Also important is the placement of the NegP, as it is above the TP in Spanish and c-commanded by the TP in English. The development of the NegP and uninterpretable negation [uNeg] valuation by interpretable negation [iNeg] is also explored in the utterances of the four children studied.
This study confirms Klima & Bellugi’s account of steps and further defines child negation in English as well as in Spanish. The focus on [iNeg] and [uNeg] features is further explained using Zeijlstra’s Phases of the Jespersen cycle as a springboard. I add salient information regarding parameter setting and how negation and the NegP are developed across two languages.
ContributorsWalton-Ramírez, Anne L (Author) / vanGelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Renaud, Claire (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This qualitative study follows an instructor and four Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners in an elementary-level, mixed Spanish course at a community college over the course of 11 class visits. In studying how language ideologies shape oral corrective feedback (oral CF) practices, data were collected through ethnographic observations (field notes, researcher memos), classroom audio recordings, and semi-structured interviews (student, teacher). Specifically, this study analyzes (1) language ideologies prevalent in the classroom context in relation to the conceptualization of errors, (2) the instructor’s goals for oral CF, (3) how the instructor provides oral CF and in what contexts, and (4) how the mixed class environment relates to oral CF.
To do so, the data were analyzed via a bifocal approach in coding interview and classroom discourse (Razfar, 2003) and engaging in Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk, 2016) informed by frameworks in Linguistic Anthropology (Irvine, 1989; Kroskrity, 2004, 2010; Leeman, 2012) and Second Language Acquisition (Ellis, 2009; Li, 2017; Lyster & Ranta, 1997). The findings demonstrate how oral CF becomes ideologically charged in a classroom context primarily designed to impart foreign language instruction. Under the guise that SHL learners’ varieties represent negative characteristics (e.g., low socioeconomic strata, Mexicaness, immigration), oral CF is used to eradicate their Spanish varieties. Findings also illustrate the (in)congruency of the instructor and learners’ perceptions of oral CF and what takes place in the classroom. In some cases, SHL learners demonstrated language pride and resisted the imposition of a foreign variety but reported hegemonic beliefs about their own varieties.
Exemplifying how the instructor and SHL learners contribute to the complex dynamics of ideologization of oral CF, this study advocates for the adoption of Critical Language Awareness frameworks (Martínez, 2003; Leeman, 2005) in mixed language classrooms that encompasses this practice (e.g., focus-on-form instruction). Additionally, in acknowledging that teachers and educational institutions play a key role in the (re)production of dominant language norms, this study calls for the creation of instructional guidelines for oral CF as a pedagogical practice. Such guidelines must include critical discussions with students about the relationship between “correct,” “correcting,” and “being corrected” and asymmetrical power relationships.
To do so, the data were analyzed via a bifocal approach in coding interview and classroom discourse (Razfar, 2003) and engaging in Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk, 2016) informed by frameworks in Linguistic Anthropology (Irvine, 1989; Kroskrity, 2004, 2010; Leeman, 2012) and Second Language Acquisition (Ellis, 2009; Li, 2017; Lyster & Ranta, 1997). The findings demonstrate how oral CF becomes ideologically charged in a classroom context primarily designed to impart foreign language instruction. Under the guise that SHL learners’ varieties represent negative characteristics (e.g., low socioeconomic strata, Mexicaness, immigration), oral CF is used to eradicate their Spanish varieties. Findings also illustrate the (in)congruency of the instructor and learners’ perceptions of oral CF and what takes place in the classroom. In some cases, SHL learners demonstrated language pride and resisted the imposition of a foreign variety but reported hegemonic beliefs about their own varieties.
Exemplifying how the instructor and SHL learners contribute to the complex dynamics of ideologization of oral CF, this study advocates for the adoption of Critical Language Awareness frameworks (Martínez, 2003; Leeman, 2005) in mixed language classrooms that encompasses this practice (e.g., focus-on-form instruction). Additionally, in acknowledging that teachers and educational institutions play a key role in the (re)production of dominant language norms, this study calls for the creation of instructional guidelines for oral CF as a pedagogical practice. Such guidelines must include critical discussions with students about the relationship between “correct,” “correcting,” and “being corrected” and asymmetrical power relationships.
ContributorsLoza, Sergio (Author) / Beaudrie, Sara (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Lowther Pereira, Kelly (Committee member) / Gradoville, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This dissertation provides an account of evidentiality of a number of selected verbs of perception in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The verbs are divided into three categories: activity, experiential, and source-based, following Viberg (1983). The data shows that the activity P.Vs in MSA are rarely used evidentially whereas the experiential and the source-based ones are commonly used to indicate evidential meaning. It also shows that while the source-based verb is mostly used with an inferred evidential meaning, the evidentiality encoded by the experiential perception verbs is determined by the complementation pattern and the person of the subject (first or third person subject). With the non-finite complement, these verbs indicate a direct evidentiality when having a first person subject, and a reported evidentiality when having a third person subject. With the finite CP complement, they indicate an indirect evidentiality. This corpus-based study also examines the grammaticalization of these verbs when used evidentially. I argue that only the verb ra’aa of the selected experiential verbs is fully grammaticalized, but only when it is in the past tense and followed by a verbal non-finite complement. In this usage, it becomes a light verb. The source-based verb badaa/yabduu when indicating an evidentiality, it is grammaticalized into copulative verb when followed by an adjectival predicate, and modal verb when followed by a finite complement.
ContributorsHarthi, Jaber (Author) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Gebhardt, Lewis (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019