This thesis identifies, compiles, transcribes, translates and analyses a previously unidentified corpus of literature: the Judeo-Spanish testimonies in the responsa of the sixteenth century. The main body of the thesis, the third chapter, presents a copy of each original text covering eighty-four responsa, a transcription into Latin characters, a translation into English and relevant notes mainly on the language. An evaluation of the relevant secondary literature is incorporated in Chapters I and 4. The first chapter discusses the aims of the thesis and also presents an overview of the responsa literature in the context of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire. The value of the Judeo-Spanish testimonies in terms of the insight they offer into the society, economy and religion of sixteenth-century Ottoman Jewry is described. The second chapter explains my research techniques, including problems encountered and decisions taken. It also lists the respondents, with brief bibliographic details, and the responsa in which Judeo-Spanish has been found. The chapter contains a guide to the transcription system used in the thesis that indicates the corresponding phonemes as well as the Spanish letters that represent each Hebrew graph. The last section in this chapter analyses the problems of textual transmission through the different editions. A discussion of the variations between the original and subsequent editions is presented through the examination of one sample text. The fourth chapter studies the Judeo-Spanish language employed in the responsa. The distinctive linguistic features of the language presented in the texts are described with reference to phonology, morphology and syntax. Borrowings by Judeo-Spanish from other languages are examined herewith and special attention is given to borrowings from Hebrew. The study of these texts from a linguistic perspective constitutes the main aim of the thesis.

This thesis is an investigation of the language situation in Gort an Choirce, County Donegal. It deals with both the sociolinguistic makeup of the area and the linguistic reality, relating to how the language is used in the contemporary social setting. An analysis has been carried out of how this situation has changed through time with specific attention being paid to social and economic changes within the area. Through this study, a corpus of spoken Irish has been collected, transcribed and edited which has then been used in the analysis of how certain linguistic features come to be used in normal discourse. Among these features are the Vocative and Genitive cases. As well as this there is an analysis of the use of the Copula and an interpretation has been given of a range of other linguistic features whose usage deviate from that of the traditional language. A detailed analysis has also been carried out in relation to the vocabulary of native Gort an Choirce Irish speakers, dealing with lexical items which are steadfast, items which can be seen to be being lost, loan words and calques from English and finally English/Irish code-switching. It can be shown, through this study, that the language of Gort an Choirce is undergoing significant changes in the areas outlined above. Some of these changes, the Vocative Case and the increase in borrowing/code switching, are more apparent and fast moving, while others, the Genitive Case and the dominance of the Substantive Verb over the Copula, are slowly taking root and the effects of which will be shown more clearly with the passing of time. It is clearly outlined that these linguistic changes and changing linguistic habits can be explained in terms of the social situation. This changing social situation has been discussed throughout as the major cause of changing language competencies, awareness and usage.

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This dissertation investigates the history of derived nominalizations in English from 1500 to the present day, with special reference to the deverbal nominalizing suffix -(t)ion and the deadjectival nominalizing suffixes, -ness and -ity. The data are drawn from two historical corpora of English texts: The Early Modern section of HCET (Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, 1500-1700), and ARCHER (A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers, 1650-1990). The case studies are situated within an integrated theoretical framework of change in derivational morphology which addresses neologising, productivity, variation, lexicalization and semantic change. Morphological productivity, a topic typically treated in synchronic morphology, is placed at the centre of this framework. The rationale for this approach is that the measurement of productivity provides a way to observe change in progress in derivational morphology. The chief task then, is to develop procedures for measuring productivity in historical corpora. The history of the suffixes will be investigated quantitatively by measuring their productivity across temporal periods and across text-type/register, and qualitatively by analysing derived nominalizations in discourse contexts to understand the effect of register and/or text type on nominalization. The result is a socio-historical account of derived nominalization, which demonstrates the ways in which neologising (and thus productivity) can be driven by contextual factors, discourse processes and stylistic considerations.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude du suffixe protoroman */-'ur-a/ et, par ce biais, à l’étude de la morphologie dérivationnelle du protoroman. D’une part, nous fournissons un examen approfondi et détaillé des unités lexicales protoromanes présentant le suffixe */-'ur-a/ et, d’autre part, nous offrons une analyse pointue des propriétés phonologiques, morphologiques et sémantiques du suffixe */-'ur-a/. La première partie de ce travail consiste en une brève introduction et en la présentation de la méthodologie dont nous nous sommes servie pour nos recherches : celle de la reconstruction comparée et celle de la reconstruction interne. Ensuite, nous jetons un coup de projecteur sur les deux domaines qui sont particulièrement intéressants dans le cadre de l’étude d’un suffixe protoroman : la reconstruction en domaine roman et la reconstruction morphologique. Cette première partie se conclut par l’explication de notre choix de nomenclature – avec une brève analyse des lexèmes rejetés –, par l’explicitation de nos processus de recherche et par la présentation de la microstructure utilisée pour les articles étymologiques. Dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse figurent les articles étymologiques des 45 étymons protoromans portant le suffixe */-'ur-a/ que nous avons pu reconstruire. Chaque article étymologique est accompagné d’une carte linguistique qui donne une vue globale sur la distribution aréologie de l’étymon en question.Enfin, la troisième partie de notre travail se veut une analyse approfondie et détaillée des propriétés phonologiques, morphologiques et sémantiques du suffixe */-'ur-a/ ainsi qu’une analyse de la variation diasystémique de la protolangue. / This thesis is dedicated to studying the Protoromance suffix */-'ur-a/ and, hence, to studying derivational morphology of Protoromance. On the one hand, we provide an extensive and detailed exam of Protoromance lexical units presenting the suffix */-'ur-a/ and, on the other hand, we produce a thorough analysis of the phonological, morphological and semantic properties of the suffix */-'ur-a/.The first part of this work consists of a short introduction and of the presentation of the methodology that we used in our research : the methodology of compared reconstruction and of internal reconstruction. Then, we focus on the two fields that are particularly interesting in the context of studying a Protoromance suffix : reconstruction in Romance studies and morphological reconstruction. This first part closes up with an explanation of our nomenclature – including a short analysis of the rejected words –, a specification of our research process and a presentation of the microstructure used for our etymological articles.In the second part of our thesis appear the etymological articles of all 45 Protoromance etymons with the suffix */-'ur-a/ that we were able to reconstruct. Each etymological article comes with a linguistic map that provides a global view of the geographical distribution of the concerned etymon.Finally, the third part of our work is a thorough and detailed analysis of the phonological, morphological and semantic properties of the Protoromance suffix */-'ur-a/ and of the diasystemic variation of the Protoromance language.

Ce travail interroge la place du français en Moldavie avant et après son indépendance en 1991, dans des contextes d’héritage historique, de tradition d’enseignement et de mondialisation. Il examine l’existence d’une politique linguistique à l’égard du français et le positionnement des citoyens par rapport à cette politique. Les acteurs de la francophonie, qu’ils soient endogènes ou exogènes (comme les institutions de la Francophonie) et leur action à l’égard du français font partie du champ de recherche. Cette étude s'appuie sur un corpus constitué de documents d’archives (1975-2010), d’une enquête sociolinguistique (2009), de textes réglementaires récents (2011-2013), d’entretiens avec des acteurs du système éducatif et de la francophonie en Moldavie, d’articles de médias et de publications statistiques. Le croisement des analyses de discours socio-éducatifs et des changements de perspective socio-économique permet d’obtenir des éléments éclairant les problématiques abordées. / This work looks at the place of the French language in Moldova before and after its independence in 1991, from the perspective of the historical heritage, teaching traditions and globalization. It examines the existence of a language policy with respect to the French language and the positioning of the citizens in relation to this policy. The actors of the French-speaking world, whether endogenous or exogenous (such as the institutions of the French-speaking world - Francophonie) and their action with respect to the French language are part of the research field. This study is based on a corpus made up of archive documents (1975-2010), a sociolinguistic survey (2009), recent regulations (2011-2013), interviews with actors in the education system and the French-speaking world (Francophonie) in Moldova, media articles and statistical publications. Cross-referencing the analysis of socio-educational discourses and changes in the socio-economic perspective provides information that helps clarify the issues addressed.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de mettre en évidence le caractère original des langues française (hypotactique) et chinoise (paratactique) et la raison profonde des différences entre elles. Relevant de la linguistique contrastive, plutôt théorique, cette étude porte sur les comparaisons sous trois aspects. En premier lieu, les comparaisons diachroniques générales du français et du chinois nous permet de mieux comprendre les filiations entre le latin et le français, entre le chinois archaïque et le chinois contemporain. En deuxième lieu, afin de montrer leur caractère original – hypotactique en latin et en français, paratactique en chinois archaïque et contemporain, les comparaisons sont effectuées entre le français et le chinois, ainsi qu’entre leurs origines immédiates – le latin et le chinois archaïque – sous trois aspects syntaxiques : l’ordre des mots, la correspondance entre les classes de mots et les fonctions syntaxiques dans la phrase simple et le rapport entre les propositions structurant la phrase complexe. Finalement, la comparaison des réflexions philosophiques sur le langage entre l’Antiquité grecque et l’Antiquité chinoise et la présentation de la divergence culturelle entre l’individualité et la globalité, en montrant les originalités intellectuelles occidentale et chinoise, nous permet de détecter dans une perspective philosophique et culturelle la raison profonde de leurs caractères originaux divergents. / This thesis aims to highlight the originality of French (hypotactic) and Chinese (paratactic) languages and the reasons of their differences. Falling within contrastive linguistics mostly theoretical, this study focuses on the comparisons with regard to three aspects. Firstly, the general diachronic comparisons of French and Chinese allow us to better understand the affiliations between Latin and French, between archaic Chinese and contemporary Chinese. Secondly, to show their original character – hypotactic in Latin and French, paratactic in contemporary and archaic Chinese, the comparisons are implemented between French and Chinese, and between their origins, Latin and archaic Chinese, on three syntactic aspects: the word order, the correspondence between word classes and syntactic functions in the simple sentence and the ratio of proposals in the complex sentence. Finally, the comparison of philosophical reflections on language between the Greek antiquity and the Chinese antiquity, and the presentation of cultural divergence between individuality and global nature showing the Western and Chinese intellectual originality, allow us to detect from a philosophical and cultural perspective the underlying reason for their different original characters.

La langue azerbaïdjanaise, comme toutes les langues vivantes, n’échappe pas aux échanges linguistiques. L’azerbaïdjanais moderne fait également preuve de sa capacité de s’adapter aux changements sociaux, économiques, politiques, technologiques ou scientifiques. Pour pouvoir servir efficacement à la communication dans des contextes donnés et dénommer avec précision les nouvelles réalités, il crée mais aussi emprunte de nouvelles unités lexicales. L’emprunt des mots d’origine française dans le vocabulaire azerbaïdjanais est donc un processus actuel puisqu’il est toujours en cours et devient plus fréquent à l’heure de la globalisation. Cette thèse étudie le fond français dans le lexique azerbaïdjanais tout en insistant sur les possibles adaptations, assimilations ou modifications : sémantiques, grammaticales, graphiques, phonologiques. La moitié de ces mots qui s’installent dans la langue, l’enrichissent et deviennent simplement indispensables pour la parole, fait partie de la vie de tous les jours. C’est donc grâce à l’enquête réalisée auprès des locuteurs de la langue azerbaïdjanaise que nous pouvons voir les divers aspects de la circulation de ces mots voyageurs. / Azerbaijani language, like all living languages, does not escape the linguistic exchanges. The modern Azerbaijani also demonstrate its ability to adapt to social, economic, political, technological or scientific. To serve effectively in communicating in specific contexts and styling with precision the new realities, it creates but also borrows new lexical units. Borrowing the words of French origin in the Azerbaijani vocabulary is an ongoing process since it is still ongoing and is becoming more common in the age of globalization. This thesis explores the background in the French lexicon Azerbaijani while insisting on possible adaptations, modifications or assimilation : semantic, grammatical, graphic, phonological. Half of those words that settle in the language, enrich and simply become necessary for speech are part of everyday life. This is thanks to the survey of users of the Azerbaijani language we can see various aspects of the use of these words travelers.