Browsing by Subject "Dialectology"
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Item Italian metaphony in optimality theory with candidate chains(2013-12) Gaskill, Anne E.; Montreuil, Jean-Pierre; Russi, Cinzia; Donaldson, Bryan; Bullock, Barbara E; Kelm, OrlandoThe regressive (mor)phonological assimilatory process most commonly referred to as metaphony is one which is quite common in Romance: it is found in the dialects of Portugal, Spain, and Italy, with traces appearing in Rumanian and the Spanish of the Americas, as well. As a result, it has been the subject of a great deal of scholarly research both diachronically, (Hall 1950, Blaylock 1965, Leonard 1978, Papa 1981, Kaze 1989) and synchronically (McCarthy 1984, Calabrese 1985, 1998, 2008, Vago 1988, Hualde 1989, Martínez-Gil 2006, Walker 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010). What has eluded recent researchers, however, is a framework that can successfully address the myriad variations of metaphony found in these regions; there exists to date no comprehensive analysis of metaphony in Romance. This dissertation offers an analysis of Italian Metaphony that is couched in a recent variety of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004), Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (McCarthy 2007), a framework which exploits the rarely used serial capacity of OT. In exploring the myriad varieties of metaphony found in the Italian dialects, this dissertation tests the capabilities and limitations of both Traditional Optimality Theory and Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains; this exploration culminates with the analysis of a problematic variety of OT that currently lacks an acceptable solution in OT-CC. To address this shortcoming, this dissertation introduces a new constraint to the established constraint hierarchy of OT-CC: Subsequence. Subsequence builds on the theoretical premises established in McCarthy (2007) with the introduction of Precedence, which evaluated not a single output candidate but rather the order of the constraint violations found within an individual candidate chain. The resulting analyses create a unified account of Italian metaphony that demonstrates the usefulness not only of OT-CC for addressing different types of opacity, but also the need for an enhancement such as subsequence to account for types of variation that are currently impossible to address in OT-CC. This dissertation offers an analysis of Italian Metaphony that is couched in a recent variety of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004), Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (McCarthy 2007), a framework which exploits the rarely used serial capacity of OT. In exploring the myriad varieties of metaphony found in the Italian dialects, this dissertation tests the capabilities and limitations of both Traditional Optimality Theory and Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains; this exploration culminates with the analysis of a problematic variety of OT that currently lacks an acceptable solution in OT-CC. To address this shortcoming, this dissertation introduces a new constraint to the established constraint hierarchy of OT-CC: Subsequence. Subsequence builds on the theoretical premises established in McCarthy (2007) with the introduction of Precedence, which evaluated not a single output candidate but rather the order of the constraint violations found within an individual candidate chain. The resulting analyses create a unified account of Italian metaphony that demonstrates the usefulness not only of OT-CC for addressing different types of opacity, but also the need for an enhancement such as subsequence to account for types of variation that are currently impossible to address in OT-CC.Item Patterns of dialect accommodation to phonology and morphology among Sudanese residents of Cairo(2014-05) Leddy-Cecere, Thomas Alexander; Brustad, KristenThis study analyzes the accommodation strategies of Arabic-speaking Sudanese immigrants to Cairo toward the dominant Cairene Arabic variety. Accepted wisdom across much of variationist sociolinguistics views phonology in dialect contact scenarios as highly mutable and readily altered, while imputing to morphology a far greater degree of “staying power;” however, analysis of the Cairo-based fieldwork reveals a situation in which speakers freely accommodate to morphological forms, while adapting in only minimal and restricted ways to phonological differences. This finding, discussed in relation to both structural and social motivating factors, has the potential to inform conceptions of both the synchronic mechanics of dialect interaction and diachronic understandings of inheritance and stability across linguistic domains.Item Towards a sociohistorical reconstruction of pre-Islamic Arabic dialect diversity(2013-08) Magidow, Alexander; Brustad, Kristen; Epps, Patience, 1973-This dissertation develops a new framework for reconstructing the diversity of a language at a given historical time period. It applies this framework to the problem of reconstructing the diversity of Arabic dialects immediately prior to the Islamic conquests, which spread speakers of these dialects across much of North Africa and the Middle East. The study first establishes a theoretical framework for reconstructing historical speech communities, defined as groups of speakers linked by shared allegiance. It then analyzes the tribal and non-tribal social organization in Pre-Islamic Arabia, and provides a detailed historical overview of how the Islamic conquests contributed to the Arabization of the conquered territories. Finally, the dissertation reconstructs the linguistic history of the Arabic demonstratives, using them as a variable to determine which speech communities existed in pre-Islamic Arabic, where they were located in time and space, and how the diversity of those communities is related to the diversity of modern Arabic dialects.Item Tož, tak to bylo, anyway : the borrowing and adaptation of the discourse marker 'anyway' in Texas Czech(2011-05) Tomeček, John Michael; Rappaport, Gilbert C.; Boas, Hans C.This thesis addresses the borrowing and adaptation of the English discourse marker (DM) anyway into the speech of the Czech-speaking diaspora in Texas, known widely as Texas Czechs (TC). The primary goal of the thesis is to assess which subtypes of 'anyway', according to the schema of Ferrara (1997), are borrowed into TC, and to what extent. Chapter one addresses the sociolinguistic history of the TC community. The historical origins of the people and cultural background are provided. Late in the chapter, I provide a discussion of previous scholarship in the field of TC linguistics over the last half-century. Chapter two addresses the theories of borrowing and code-switching in language. The two are disambiguated, and a basic set of conditions which define the two are proposed. From this, I address Serra's (1998) theory of a mixed-code system, which relies on the knowledge of two separate codes for understanding, but also utilizes borrowings. The works of Fuller (2001) and Weilbacher (2007) in Pennsylvania and Texas German communities are addressed, as is Johnson's (1995) work on Tejano. The chapter concludes with a brief description of DMs. Chapter three describes the subtypes and features of 'anyway' in English according to Ferrara's (1997) schema, as well as surveys a number of possible counterparts for 'anyway' in standard European Czech. Chapter four analyzes borrowed 'anyway' in TC speech as a Ferraran subtype. I disambiguate the uses of various types of anyway, proposing that only anyway, Ferrara's only true DM, is borrowed in TC. I demonstrate that possible functions of native TC DMs similar to 'anyway' function inherently differently than those of Ferrara. I show that 'anyway' is borrowed into TC to fulfill a pragmatic gap in the form of 'anyway', whereas the two adverbial subtypes are not borrowed. In older data, these two were borrowed, but no examples exist in modern speech. I propose that this is indicative of the TC's existence as a mixed-code system, in that knowledge of both English and TC are required to properly choose the appropriate DM and to understand borrowed DMs from the other code.Item Voseo to Tuteo Accommodation among Two Salvadoran Communities in the United States(2011-08-08) Sorenson, Travis DougThis study documents and accounts for maintenance and change in dialectal features of Salvadoran Spanish in the United States, especially voseo, as opposed to tuteo, terms signifying the use of the second person singular familiar pronouns vos and tu, with their corresponding verb forms. It compares two distinct Salvadoran populations, one in Washington, D.C., and the other in Houston, Texas. Salvadorans constitute the largest Hispanic group in the nation's capital, while in Houston they are outnumbered by other Hispanics, particularly Mexicans. It was predicted that Salvadorans in Washington, D.C. would maintain voseo more and employ tuteo less than those in Houston. This sociolinguistic phenomenon is accounted for by Accommodation Theory. Based on previous studies, it was also predicted that male participants would maintain voseo more than females due to the covert prestige of this form. To test these hypotheses, data were gathered using three protocols. The first was a questionnaire, with over 100 respondents in each city, on second person singular address forms and social variables. In the second protocol, 10 pairs of subjects in each city engaged in different verbal activities aimed at eliciting direct forms of address. The third protocol involved unstructured home visits with two married couples to observe spontaneous speech. The results supported the hypotheses in some regards more than others. When considering all the protocols, the levels of voseo were much lower and those of tuteo much higher in both cities than what had been predicted. As expected, voseo usage rates in Washington, D.C., were higher than in Houston in the second and third protocols, but voseo claiming rates in the first protocol were slightly higher in Houston. Also as expected, in both the first and second protocols there was a significantly higher rate of accommodation to tuteo among women than men. The most salient finding from the home visit participant observations was that while there was voseo use in Washington, D.C., there was none in Houston, even among those who had previously used it.