Browsing by Subject "Sociolinguistics"
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Item Audience design and code-switching in Bayside, Texas(2009-12) Dahl, Kimberly Lynn; Crowhurst, Megan Jane; Hinrichs, LarsThis study casts the code-switching patterns observed among Spanish-English bilinguals in Bayside, Texas within the framework of Bell’s (1984) theory of audience design, which is claimed to apply to both monolingual style-shifting as well as bilingual code-switching. The latter part of this claim has been little explored. The intent of this study, then, is to determine if the explanatory power of audience design, as demon¬strated in studies on style-shifting, does indeed hold when applied to cases of language alternation. Analysis of the data from Bayside generally supports Bell’s theory as it shows speakers adjusting their use of Spanish and/or English to suit their audience. The study will highlight a less frequently analyzed aspect of Bell’s model, i.e., the role of the auditor, and will call for the auditor to be classified as a primary influencer of lin¬guistic choice in bilingual contexts, alongside the addressee. The code selection patterns exhibited by a pair of Bayside residents in a series of interviews and in conversations videotaped at the local general store will be com¬pared to illustrate the effects of addressee and auditor. A qualitative analysis will dem¬onstrate that differing determinations regarding the linguistic repertoires of the auditors led to contrasting linguistic choices on the part of the study’s subjects. The data collected will show that, when selecting a language of communication, as opposed to a register, style, or dialect, a speaker may be more greatly affected by an auditor than by the addressee. The methods used in collecting the data will also support an expan¬sion of Bell’s model to include an additional participant category suitable for capturing the effect of the recording device, as per Wertheim (2006).Item Behind the Linguistic Landscape of Israel/Palestine : exploring the visual implications of expansionist policies(2014-05) Carey, Shaylyn Theresa; Brustad, KristenThe concept of the Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a relatively new and developing field, but it is already proving to illuminate significant trends in sociocultural boundaries and linguistic identities within heterogeneous areas. By examining types of signage displayed in public urban spaces such as street signs, billboards, advertisements, scholars have gained insight into the inter and intra-group relations that have manifested as a result of the present top-down and bottom-up language ideologies. This paper will apply LL theory to the current situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories through a discussion of the various policies that have shaped the Linguistic Landscape. It will begin by examining the Hebraicization of the toponymy after the creation of Israel, then discuss the conflict over the linguistic landscape, which can be seen in several photographs where the Arabic script has been marked out or covered. Moving forward, this work will address the grammatical errors on Arabic language signs, which reflect the low priority of Arabic education in Israel. Finally, this project will expand upon the LL framework by looking at the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian territories and how it is reflected in public places, such as supermarkets, which display an overwhelming presence of Hebrew. Through the use of photographic evidence of the LL from the region, which shows the prevalence of Hebrew place names, Israeli economic goods, and negative attitudes towards the use of Arabic on signage, this paper will take a multidisciplinary approach at examining the history and policies that shape the language used in public urban spaces. The relationship between the state and the Linguistic Landscape sheds light on the power dynamics of a multilingual space. As Hebrew is given preferential treatment, despite the official status of both Arabic and Hebrew, Israel continues to dominate the social space with the use of Hebrew in order to assert their claims to the land. In addition to investigating the power dynamics that are reflected on visual displays of language in this region, this work serves as a meaningful contribution to the Linguistic Landscape by expanding its methodology and units of analysis.Item Between worlds: the narration of multicultural/transnational identities of women working in a post-national space(2003) Pierce, Alice Elizabeth; Brooks, AnnThis dissertation explores the question: What does it mean to live in-between as an accelerated flow of people moves between worlds? The high-speed of Internet connections, cellular communications and air travel are redefining the traditional notion of a shared history, memory, national identity and language. By using Bakhtin’s literary tools of analysis, the author captures the complexity that characterizes the narration of identities in multicultural/transnational women living in a post-national space during the beginning of the twenty-first century. Few studies in the field of multicultural/bilingual education have applied Bakhtin’s concepts of heteroglossia and chronotope to make meaning out of the complexities in multicultural/transnational identities. Using life history methods as a means of gathering the stories of thirteen multicultural/transnational women who lived in El Cachimbazo, Guatemala, for six months during 2002, the author not only provides a qualitative, alternative perspective on bilingual education but also a new tool to understanding the multiple dimensions of identity construction in multicultural/transnational individuals.Item Cross contextual meaning making : a study of children's talk within and across literacy contexts in one multiage classroom(2014-05) Peterson, Katie Elizabeth; Roser, Nancy; Worthy, JoIn this embedded case study, I examined and documented discussions of literature across two literacy contexts within one multiage classroom. Further, I explored the experiences of four focal students within and across the two contexts, highlighting the affordances of each space and considering the implications of tacit rules of participation for individual students. I employed ethnographic data collection methods including field notes, audio and video recordings, semi-structured interviews, and student and teacher created artifacts. Data analysis drew on constant comparative methods as well as traditions of interactive sociolinguistics. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning and transactional theories of reading response, the study demonstrates the ways in which talk is used as a tool for meaning-making tasks including comprehension, argumentation, and identity construction. The study highlights the purposeful and strategic instructional moves made by the classroom teachers in discussion that facilitated more complete and complex interpretations of texts. The cases of the focal students illustrate the affordances of each context as well as demonstrating the ways in which responses to literature might be leveraged to claim identity positions within the classroom. The study cultivates deeper understanding about the importance of individual contributions within discussion contexts, as well as demonstrating the ways in which children and teachers mediate meaning making in collaborative contexts. The findings suggest implications for the ways in which educators might support and draw on individual approaches to response to facilitate divergent meaning making and expansion of repertoires of response for students. In addition, the study suggests implications for the careful design and development of contexts in which children are granted interpretive authority and encouraged to engage in collaborative meaning-making.Item The cross-cultural classroom in the context of radical language shift : humor, teasing, and the ethnolinguistic repertoire in the Blackfeet Nation(2013-05) Seifert, Nicole Rae; Woodbury, Anthony C.In this dissertation, I analyze classroom interactions between a White, nonlocal high school English teacher and American Indian students on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. I focus on the participants' strategic use of humor and distinctive linguistic features in these interactions, particularly teasing as a cultural activity among the students, the teacher's immersion and adaptation to that culture, and the affective and sociocultural importance of the ethnolinguistic repertoire to the students. I argue that the main functions of the humor and teasing are threefold: (a) to build rapport, (b) to accomplish interactional goals in the classroom, and (c) to negotiate teacher-student power struggles in a socioculturally acceptable way. I show that the students' humor and discourse is constitutive of local culture and often counterhegemonic, implicitly and at times explicitly critiquing mainstream educational practices and the marginalized status of the students. My analysis considers the data from a discourse level as well as examines the indexical and patterned use of microlevel linguistic resources from the student's ethnolinguistic repertoire--specifically, distinctive interjections and scooped-accent intonation. The primary data is naturally occurring classroom discussions, complemented by individual and group interviews and ethnographic observations. This study points to the importance of sociocultural factors in language variation and change in communities undergoing or having undergone radical language shift. It thus adds to the literature that considers how cultural practices are disrupted and may be restructured as the linguistic code changes. This research also contributes to the research that details the difficulties nonmainstream students face in public schools when their home culture and language practices are at odds with those of the school, and it examines humor and teasing as student strategies to navigate these differences. This study aims to help paint a more complete picture of the contemporary social and linguistic contexts in which American Indian speakers live, with a mind toward how this understanding can be applied to the real-world circumstances of these youth.Item A descriptive grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo)(2010-12) Lidz, Liberty A.; Woodbury, Anthony C.; England, Nora; Epps, Patience; Zhang, Qing; Thurgood, Graham; Crowhurst, MeganThis dissertation is a descriptive grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in southwestern China. The theoretical approaches taken are functional syntax and the discourse-based approach to language description and documentation. The aim of this dissertation is to describe the ways that the language's features and subsystems intersect to make Na a unique entity: analyticity; zero anaphora; OV word order; topic/comment information structure; a five-part evidential system; a conjunct/disjunct-like system that intersects with evidentiality and verbal semantics; prolific grammaticalization; overlap between nominalization and relativization and associated structures; representation of time through aspect, Aktionsarten, adverbials, and discourse context; and the Daba shamanic register.Item Explaining orthographic variation in a virtual community : linguistic, social, and contextual factors(2010-05) Iorio, Joshua Boyd; Epps, Patience, 1973-; Erk, Katrin; Hinrichs, Lars; Keating, Elizabeth; Sussman, HarveyThe purpose of this project is to investigate factors that can be used to explain orthographic variation in City of Heroes (CoH), a virtual community based in an online role-playing game. While a number of models of variation exist for speech, to date, no statistical models of orthographic variation in virtual communities exist. By combining traditional variationist methods with computational text processing, this project documents socially meaningful alternations in the linguistic code regarding two types of sociolinguistic variables, namely spelling and use of abbreviations. For each of the two variable types, two dependent variables are posited, i.e. the alternation between: 1) –ing and –in in durative verbal aspect marking in forms such as coming and comin, 2) –s and –z markers of plurality in words such as cats and catz, 3) abbreviated and full forms for referential abbreviation in terms such as Atlas Park and AP, and 4) abbreviated and full forms for conative abbreviations in terms such as looking for team and lft. The study investigates the role that the following factors play in explaining orthographic variation in CoH: 1) message length, 2) standardness of the immediate linguistic environment, 3) cognitive load, 4) relative proximity in the virtual space, 5) degree of message publicness, 6) experience in the community, 7) avatar gender, and 8) social group affiliation. Through mixed-effects, multivariate models, the study demonstrates that each of the predictors has some role in explaining the orthographic variability observed in the textual record of the community. Moreover, interactions between some of the predictors prove to be significant contributors to the models, which highlight the importance of addressing interaction terms in models of language variation. The findings from the study suggest that the socio-contextual meaning of particular structures in the CoH community lead authors to make linguistic choices, which are realized as alternations in the linguistic code. Finally, implications for the study of language variation in general are discussed.Item Expressing emotions in a first and second language : evidence from French and English(2010-12) Paik, Jee Gabrielle; Birdsong, David; Blyth, Carl; Donaldson, Bryan; Meier, Richard; Schallert, DianeThis dissertation presents results from a study on the expression of emotions in a second language in order to address two overarching research questions: 1) What does the acquisition of L2 emotion lexicon and discourse features tell us about the pragmatic and communicative competence of late learners and the internalization of L2-specific concepts, and 2) Knowing that expressing emotions in L2 is one of the most challenging tasks for L2 learners (Dewaele, 2008), what can late L2 learners do at end-state, with regards to ultimate attainment and the possibility of nativelikeness? Narratives of positive and negative emotional experiences were elicited from late L2 learners of English and French at end-state, both in their L1 and L2. First, the acquisition of L2 emotion words was analyzed through the productivity and lexical richness of the emotion vocabulary of the bilinguals. Analysis of L2 emotion concepts was also conducted through the distribution of emotion lemmas across morphosyntactic categories. Lexical choice of emotion words was also investigated. Results showed that although L2 English and L2 French bilinguals' narratives were shorter than the monolinguals' and the proportion of emotion word tokens were fewer than that of monolinguals', bilinguals showed greater lexical richness than the monolinguals. In terms of morphosyntactic categories, bilinguals behaved in a nativelike pattern such that L2 English bilinguals favored adjectives and L2 French bilinguals preferred nouns/verbs. This pattern was held constant across the first languages of the bilinguals. With respect to lexical choice, bilinguals used the same emotion lemmas used the most by monolinguals. On occasion, non-nativelike patterns also emerged, suggesting both L1 transfer on L2 (L2 English bilinguals favoring nouns/verbs) and L2 transfer on L1 (L1 English bilinguals favoring nouns/verbs). However, these rare instances could be explained by individual and typological variability. The findings suggest that late L2 learners can achieve nativelike levels of attainment in L2, providing evidence against the existence of a critical period for the acquisition of L2 pragmatics and culture-specific L2 lexicon. In a separate analysis, the L2 discourse of emotion was investigated under a corpus linguistic framework, in order to shed some light into the ways late L2 learners of English and French talk about emotions in narratives of personal stories. The use of stance lemmas and tokens, and the distribution of these stance markers across categories of certainty and doubt evidentials, emphatics, hedges, and modals, as well as lexical choice of stance were analyzed. This was followed by an analysis of discourse features, such as figurative language, reported speech, epithets, depersonalization, and amount of detail. Results showed that although bilinguals produced significantly less stance lemmas and tokens than monolinguals, in terms of the distribution of stance categories, the French group (L2 French and L1 French bilinguals) behaved in a nativelike pattern, favoring emphatics, certainty evidentials, doubt evidentials, hedges, and modals. The English group's results, on the other hand, were somewhat inconsistent, in that neither L2 English bilinguals, nor L1 English bilinguals followed the distribution pattern of English monolinguals. In terms of nativelike performance, we conclude that the L2 French bilinguals did perform nativelike with regards to stance marking, and that L2 English bilinguals also performed nativelike, but only for certain categories of stance. Also, L2 English transfer on L1 French was evidenced for L1 French bilinguals. Analysis of discourse features revealed between 1 up to 10 bilinguals (L2 English or French) out of 31 who used those features which were only evidenced in native speech in previous research. The findings here, once again suggest that late L2 learners can acquire aspects of L2 discourse to a nativelike degree.Item Greeting and leave-taking in Texas : perception of politeness norms by Mexican-Americans across sociolinguistic divides(2014-05) Michno, Jeffrey Alan; Koike, Dale AprilThe present study sheds light on how 16 Mexican-Americans residing in Texas perceive and follow politeness norms (e.g., Brown & Levinson, 1987; Fraser, 1990; Terkourafi, 2005) related to greetings and leave-takings in different cultural and linguistic contexts. Data from online questionnaires identify a significant difference in perceived level of social expectation (i.e. politeness) for employing the speech acts with Spanish- versus non-Spanish speakers. The data support previous research in identifying a sense of solidarity among Mexican-American extended families, but go further in suggesting that this bond extends to other Spanish-speaking acquaintances. Better understanding of these norms should facilitate inter-cultural exchanges between linguistic in- and out-group members.Item The impact of social factors on the use of Arabic-French code-switching in speech and IM in Morocco(2015-05) Post, Rebekah Elizabeth; Bullock, Barbara E.; Blyth, Carl; Wettlaufer, Alexandra K; Brustad, Kristen; Toribio, Almeida JacquelineThe use of French in code-switching (CS) with Moroccan Colloquial Arabic (MCA) has been explored qualitatively in a number of studies, but quantitative methods have rarely been applied to CS in this language pair. Research on CS patterns as a function of extra-linguistic factors has similarly received little attention, despite the implication in many studies that these factors are significant in the use of CS. This dissertation seeks to address these gaps in the literature by quantitatively examining the use of Arabic-French CS by young adult speakers of MCA in spoken and written information communication. This study examines three extra-linguistic factors in speech and Instant Messaging (IM): Sex, French Proficiency, and Language Attitude. The analysis reveals that male speakers are significantly more French in written IM. Positive attitude toward French and MCA-French CS has a highly significant impact on the rate of French employed in spoken conversation. Meaningful results are also found for the French constituents employed in CS with regard to each of the extra-linguistic factors. Notable differences are found between sexes in the types of French constituents used in both communication modes, as well as for speakers of different French proficiency levels. The categorization of French-origin nouns as instances of CS or borrowing is also explored by considering multiple aspects of use of these lexical items. A number of French-origin nouns, absent from dictionaries of MCA, are proposed to now be borrowed into the dialect. The analysis also reveals a number of French-origin words that are used by a number of speakers, but remain instances of CS. The results of this investigation highlight the importance of quantification in studies of CS and provide data for comparison with other corpora from this and other language pairs. The differences identified in CS by communication mode indicate that there is a need for a model of written CS that accounts for the unique characteristics of this mode. Finally, little work has been published on the relationship between extra-linguistic factors and structural patterns in CS, but the current results suggest that the impact of social factors should not be ignored when considering structural aspects of CS.Item Is That What I Sound Like When I Speak?: Attitudes Towards Spanish, English, and Code-Switching in Two Texas Border Towns(2013-08-28) Rangel, NatalieThe present study observes and compares the language attitudes towards standard English, standard Spanish, and code-switching in two U.S. and Mexico border cities (Laredo and Edinburg) by employing the matched-guise technique Three attribute dimensions (solidarity, status, and personal appeal) were used by participants to evaluate the three varieties in question. Situated just 150 miles from one another, Laredo and Edinburg are both border cities with a majority Hispanic-origin population. Yet, the histories of Laredo and Edinburg differ: while Laredo was a fully established community before the arrival of the Anglos in the 19^(th) century and succeeded in protecting its lands from Anglo encroachment, the Hispanic population where Edinburg is located suffered land loss during the same time . The present study examined if these historical differences have had consequences on the contemporary linguistic attitudes in these two cities. For the matched-guise experiment, an original code-switching recording was produced in Spanish and English versions. These three texts went through grammaticality testing and were then recorded by four Mexican American bilingual speakers, two males and two females. Ninety-six participants from Laredo and ninety-one participants from Edinburg answered a demographic questionnaire and then were told to listen and evaluate each voice on a list of characteristics grouped into the three dimensions mentioned above (solidarity, status, and personal appeal), unaware that they were in fact listening to bilingual speakers speaking in different language varieties. Code-switching received the lowest evaluations in all three dimensions. Also, Spanish and English were judged relatively the same in status and personal appeal, but Spanish ranked much higher than both code-switching and standard English in solidarity. When the variables of speaker and student gender were considered, differences emerged in the evaluations within and between both cities. In regards to the differences found between locations, female students from Edinburg appear to be more tolerant towards code-switching than female students in Laredo, particularly when the speaker is male. Edinburg males also appear to evaluate females who speak English higher than Laredo male students. Yet at the same time these same male students evaluate males who use English less favorably in solidarity and higher in personal appeal, while the Laredo males display the inverse tendency. The fact that differences between locations were found upon considering the speakers? and students? gender indicates that differing linguistic attitudes exist among residents in the South Texas region and deserves further investigation.Item Language Attitudes and Linguistic Profiling among Micro-Enterprisers in Mexico(2013-05-21) Brewer, Rebecca AnnThis study examines the language attitudes of entrepreneurial students enrolled in the Academy for Creating Enterprise (ACE) in Mexico City toward six rural and urban varieties of Mexican Spanish to consider whether their attitudes towards these varieties influence their decisions about hiring. A verbal guise test and focus groups were used to determine the current attitudes held by 98 ACE students towards the popular and upper-class dialects of Mexico City; the urban dialect of M?rida, Yucatan; the urban dialect of Ciudad Ju?rez, Chihuahua; the urban dialect of Monterrey, Nuevo Le?n; and the rural dialect of San Jeronimito, Guerrero. It was determined that the ACE students, who are current and future entrepreneurs and employers, do engage in ?linguistic profiling? (Purnell et al., 1999), preferring the northern varieties of Spanish and the variety spoken by the upper class of Mexico City in all three dimensions of attractiveness, status, and hireability. These results indicate that speakers of the popular variety of Mexico City and the southern varieties of Yucat?n and Guerrero are less likely to be hired. In addition, the students? ratings of hireability were also influenced by the students? age, gender, business owner status, and exposure to the dialect in question. The students? level of income was found to be the most likely to influence the ratings of speaker attractiveness and status. This case study of current and future employers enrolled at ACE responds to a call for the application of language attitudes research (Edwards, 1982; Garrett, 2010) and provides a model for working with an organization. Based on these findings, it was determined that ACE should modify its curriculum to include explicit training regarding linguistic attitudes and hiring practices.Item Language, culture and ethnicity : interplay of ideologies within a Japanese community in Brazil(2011-05) Sakuma, Tomoko; Hancock, Ian F.; Epps, Patience L.; King, Robert D.; Nishida, Chiyo; Traphagan, John W.This dissertation is a sociolinguistic study of the ideologies about language, culture and ethnicity among Japanese immigrants and descendants in Brazil (hereafter, Nikkeis) who gather at a local Japanese cultural association, searching for what it means to be “Japanese” in Brazil. This study focuses on how linguistic behaviors are ideologically understood and associated with cultural activities and ethnic identities. Using the language ideologies framework, it seeks to describe the ways in which Nikkeis negotiate and create social meanings of language in both local and transnational contexts. Nikkeis are an overwhelmingly celebrated minority group in Brazil. In this context, the cultural association serves as a site where symbolic cultural differences are constructed by those Nikkeis who strive to identify themselves as a prestigious minority. This study demonstrates that the Japanese language is one of the important resources in performing the Nikkei identity. At the same time, due to an on-going language shift, Portuguese as a means of communication is becoming increasingly more important for cultural transmission. Thus, the members of the association, which include both Japanese monolinguals and Portuguese monolinguals, are in constant negotiation, trying to strike a balance between symbolic values of Japanese, pragmatic values of Portuguese, as well as their own language competencies. The goal of this project is to answer the following three research questions: 1) What social meanings do Nikkeis assign to Japanese and Portuguese, and how does this perception affect Nikkeis’ identity formation? 2) What are the characteristics of linguistic practices in the association and how do the speakers use available linguistic resources to construct identities? 3) How can this study inform us about the transforming reality of the Japanese Brazilian community in this global age? Contributions of this study include furthering of the sociolinguistic research on language ideologies, linguistic practices and identity construction in an immigrant community. It also contributes to the study of language shift, by underscoring the role of language ideologies in rationalizing language choices. This project is also significant for the study of Japanese diaspora in Latin America, providing the first sociolinguistic investigation of a Japanese cultural association in Brazil.Item Linguistic differences in personal and social communication contexts in dramatic literature(Texas Tech University, 1977-08) Jones, Nancy JuneNot availableItem 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 Pourquoi 'pas' : the socio-historical linguistics behind the grammaticalization of the French negative marker(2008-12) Boerm, Michael Lloyd, 1977-; Bauer, Brigitte L. M., 1961-; Montreuil, Jean-PierreThis study is an examination of the role of sociolinguistics in the process of grammaticalization. The modern French negative pas outlasted its competitors among postverbal negators to be selected for inclusion in the modern language. This dissertation seeks to explain why that is so by using the sociolinguistic framework of social network theory. Social network theory postulates that linguistic variables are spread by means of weak, uni-dimensional social links between individuals. Using this framework, it is postulated that medieval Jewish merchants from southern France were responsible for the spread of pas from its area of dialectal predominance in the south to other regions of the country. Dialectological, historical and sociological support for that hypothesis is presented as evidence of the plausibility of the hypothesis.Item Reevaluating diglossia: data from Low German(2006) Wiggers, Heiko; Boas, HansEver since Ferguson published his seminal paper “Diglossia” in 1959 it has been the subject of much discussion. There has been wide agreement among researchers (Fishman, 1967; Britto, 1986; Hudson, 2002) about the necessity of the concept of diglossia in sociolinguistics as a term that defines two varieties of the same language spoken in the same language community. Yet, in spite or maybe because of the general acceptance of Ferguson’s concept it has been more often modified, redefined, and extended than almost any other idea in sociolinguistics. In fact, as Kaye (2001: 121) points out, no other topic has generated such prodigious research in sociolinguistics over the last five decades. Much of the discussion centers around the fact that the concept of diglossia is used rather liberally in sociolinguistics and is often extended to language situations that are not truly diglossic in the Fergusonian sense. Furthermore, diglossic research of the past and present has not yet produced a definite, contemporary theoretical outline of diglossia (Hudson, 2002: 2), thus leaving the field open to both new impetus and overuse. The purpose of this work is to reassess Ferguson’s original definition of diglossia by examining the results of a sociolinguistic field study on Low German (Platt) that I conducted in spring 2003 in the Grafschaft Bentheim (northwest Lower Saxony). Different researchers, such as Sanders (1982), and Stellmacher (1990) have pointed out that the coexistence of Low German and High German in many communities in northern Germany constitutes a diglossic situation that corresponds closely to Ferguson’s four original case studies. Although Low German research has gone to great lengths to document the many different varieties of Platt in northern Germany, there does not yet exist a comprehensive, contemporary sociolinguistic study in this field. Moreover, no study on Low German has ever extensively taken the concept of diglossia into account. This dissertation discusses how the results of my 2003 survey on Platt fit into diglossic theory but also how they diverge from it. In fact, diglossia in my target area, the Grafschaft Bentheim, is quite a unique phenomenon because several of Ferguson’s original nine rubrics diagnostic of diglossia either do not apply to the Grafschaft Bentheim or they have been reversed there. The relevance of a sociolinguistic field study on Low German becomes clear if one considers that the only major study in this field (GETAS study 1984) dates back more than two decades and has been the subject of much controversy due its methods of evaluation. My 2003 study is also one of the first attempts, both in Low German and diglossic research, to address the language competence and language attitudes of three different speaker groups: (1) Platt speakers (L-speakers, 88 participants), (2) Non-Platt speakers (H-speakers, 35 participants), and (3) children and young adults (573 participants). Most studies in diglossic research are exclusively concerned with speakers of the Low Variety (e.g. Britto, 1986) and thus often give an incomplete or slanted representation of the respective speech community. By including three different speaker groups my 2003 survey presents a more complete and representative, overall picture of the current sociolinguistic situation of Platt than other surveys. This study also goes beyond Low German research and diglossic theory by setting the massive erosion of Platt into the context of the world-wide erosion of minority languages and by discussing ways and means to revitalize the language. In fact, the alarming pace at which Platt has been eroding in the last couple of decades makes this work not only relevant but necessary to the fields of sociolinguistics, in particular diglossic studies, Low German research, and studies in endangered languages.Item Setting a new standard: a sociolinguistic analysis of the regional Italian of Sicily in Andrea Camilleri’s Commissario Montalbano mystery series(2009-12) Andrighetti, Traci Lee; Russi, Cinzia, 1966-The purpose of this study was to conduct a sociolinguistic analysis of the regional Italian of Sicily in Andrea Camilleri’s Un mese con Montalbano (A Month with Montalbano). The lexical portion of a model developed by Sgroi (1990) to examine the use of regional Italian in literature was applied to the thirty short stories in Camilleri’s text to isolate the components of this variety. The study also attempted to identify the socio-economic features of the characters who speak regional Italian, the contexts of use of this variety and what the regionalisms in the stories indicate about Italy and the speech of Italians. The model revealed that Camilleri utilizes three main types of language to regionalize his prose: Sicilian Italian regionalisms; phonological adaptations of Sicilian dialect terms; and, hyperfrequent Italian words. The regional terms comprise only 24.4% of the lexemes identified by the model, while 40.4% represent Italianizations of Sicilian dialect that may be artistic adaptations of the author. A surprising 33.4% of the terms are standard Italian words that appear to have been chosen by Camilleri due to their similarity to equivalent Sicilian dialect terms. With respect to the sociolinguistic aspects of the study, the findings were somewhat problematic owing to the nature of the mystery genre. Specifically, middle-aged policemen and police-related contexts of use are disproportionately represented in the stories. Nevertheless, it was determined that regional Italian is spoken by male and female characters who represent a wide range of ages and occupations. Furthermore, results illustrated that regionalisms are uttered most frequently in professional, public and formal contexts. The requisites of the mystery genre also affected the findings in regard to Camilleri’s portrayal of Italy and Italian speech. Much of the regional language used in the text exaggerates the criminal aspects of Italian society and the expressive quality of this variety. In a more realistic vein, however, many regionalisms emphasize the multi-cultural makeup of the country and the intangible facet of Italianness. In general, the textual analysis indicates that regional Italian is a complex variety which may enjoy a broader usage in contemporary Italy than the traditional dialects.Item Sexual harassment discourse in Egypt : a sociolinguistic analysis(2012-05) Anderson, Kristine Ellen; Brustad, KristenIn recent years, the issue of sexual harassment in Egyptian society has attracted a significant amount of media attention in the form of newspaper articles, academic studies, television discussion programs, social media campaigns, and blog posts. In this thesis, I examine the language used in samples taken from television discussion programs and videoblogs in which Arabic speakers directly address the topic of sexual harassment, which I term sexual harassment discourse. I analyze the linguistic characteristics of this discourse, with the aim of discovering how speakers make use of various linguistic tools to achieve a targeted reaction or desired response in their audience. I will demonstrate how these tools allow speakers to both achieve an emotional connection with their audience, which I term empathy, or to place themselves within a power hierarchy, which I term legitimacy. Ultimately, I will show that sexual harassment discourse is indicative of an emergent and innovative new kind of public discourse in Egypt.Item Sign and speech in family interaction : language choices of deaf parents and their hearing children(2008-08) Pizer, Ginger Bianca, 1972-; Meier, Richard P.; Walters, Keith, 1952-Hearing children whose parents are deaf live between two linguistic and cultural communities. As in other bilingual families, parents and children make choices in their home language use that influence the children’s competence in the minority language--ASL--and language maintenance across generations. This dissertation presents 13ethnographic interviews of hearing adults with deaf parents and case studies of three families, two with two deaf parents and three hearing sons (ages 3-16) and one with a deaf mother and her hearing 2-year-old daughter. Analysis of the adult interviews reveals that--despite variation in community affiliation and sign language ability and practice--these adult children of deaf parents share a functional language ideology in which family communication potentially involves effort; putting in such effort is appropriate only to the degree that it overcomes communication barriers. Analysis of the family members’ code choices in two hours of videotaped naturalistic interaction at home was supplemented by observation and interviews. The families’ children behaved in a manner consistent with the interviewed adults’ functional language ideology, restricting their signing to times of communicative necessity. Using an analytical framework based on Bell’s (1984; 2000) theory of audience design, I coded every communicative turn for the role of each family member (speaker/signer, addressee, participant, bystander) and for the communication medium (sign, gesture, mouthing, speech, etc.). The children consistently adjusted their code choices to their addressees, occasionally signing to their siblings, but always for an obvious purpose, e.g., keeping a secret. Only the oldest brother in each family showed any tendency to accompany speech to a sibling with signing when a deaf parent was an unaddressed participant. Between these fluent bilingual children, signing was available as a communicative resource but never the default option. Given that the hearing children even in these culturally Deaf families tended toward speech whenever communicatively possible, it is no surprise that children whose deaf parents have strong skills in spoken English might grow up with limited signing skills--as did some of the interviewed adults--and therefore restricted access to membership in the Deaf community.