This thesis examines the issue of cross-linguistic influence (CLI), i.e. language interaction, in context of the bilingual first language acquisition of French and English. It establishes itself in the current line of research that aims to refine the language-internal and language-external predictors of CLI (Hulk & Müller, 2000; Nicoladis, 2006; Serratrice, Sorace, & Paoli, 2004). A large body of research has shown that referential markers of discourse-pragmatics (i.e. determiners, pronouns, dislocations) are ideal candidates to investigate CLI (Hacohen & Schaeffer, 2007; Kupisch, 2007; Müller & Hulk, 2001; Notley, van der Linden, & Hulk, 2007; Serratrice, Sorace, Filiaci, & Baldo, 2009; Unsworth, 2012b). The study of the local and global markers of old and new information is particularly interesting in the context of French-English bilingualism as it provides a unique opportunity to examine a range of variables that may affect CLI. The first two studies investigate the role of typological differences and similarities on CLI by examining whether the contrasting distribution of determiners (i.e. presence vs. absence of definite articles in generic noun phrases), and the comparable pronominal systems (i.e. two non-null argument languages) in French and English predict this phenomenon. The analyses are based on the longitudinal corpus of two French-English children (Anne 2;4-3;4 and Sophie 2;6-3;7). At the determiner level, the results indicate the existence of bi-directional CLI that is determined by both structural overlap (Hulk & Müller, 2000) and economical considerations (Chierchia, 1998) as a function of language proficiency. At the pronominal level, the data indicates that CLI does not occur for structurally similar constructions. Aside from moving the issue of CLI from local referential expressions to the sentence level (i.e. dislocations), the third study investigates the role of input quality, language dominance, frequency, and structural complexity on CLI in the longitudinal corpus. The findings clearly show that input quality does not affect this phenomenon. In fact, the data displays a rather complex picture for CLI. It suggests that a multitude of variables interact with one another and drive this phenomenon. In particular, two measures of language dominance (i.e. children’s language exposure and their expressive skills) affect CLI differently as a function of the frequency and complexity of the structure vulnerable to this phenomenon (i.e. determiners vs. dislocations). Finally, the corpus-based analyses are supplemented by two experimental studies using the priming paradigm to investigate the role of language processing and language exposure on CLI. The findings indicate that (i) bilingual children’s mental representation of syntactic structures is affected by the simultaneous acquisition of two languages; and that (ii) language exposure plays a role on the degree of activation of a particular structure in bilingual children’s processing. Ultimately, the present research shows that CLI is caused by the interaction of a multitude of variables (i.e. language processing, language dominance, frequency, structural complexity) rather than being the consequence of a combination of two factors (e.g. structural overlap, discourse-pragmatics interface) (Hulk & Müller, 2000).

Cette thèse propose une étude de l’alternance entre do it, this and do that dans leur emploi comme anaphores verbales (Verb Phrase anaphors, VPAs), où ils renvoient à une action saillante soit évoquée précédemment dans le discours, (la plus souvent via un SV) soit, par exophore, à une action saillante dans la situation discursive mais non évoquée explicitement dans le discours précédent. Do it/this/that ont été peu étudiés dans la littérature par ailleurs conséquente sur l’anaphore and et en particulier l’ellipse du VP (VP ellipsis, VPE, par ex. Kim knows the answer and Pat does too). En effet, on a longtemps considéré que ces trois constructions sont interchangeables entre elles ainsi qu’avec do so et l’ellipse, de sorte qu’un examen détaillé de leur propriétés discursives n’a pas été jugé utile. Les exemples ci-dessous montrent que cette supposition est incorrecte: en (1), un exemple attesté tiré du BNC, do this/that/so pourraient être employés au lieu de do it, mais en (3), do that est nettement préféré. S’agissant de l’ellipse, elle est peu naturelle en (1) et préfère un contexte comme celui en (2).1. They’ve been rescuing companies for so long they do it automatically now, I expect. (AB9, ok: they do this/that/so automatically…)2. They’ve been rescuing companies for so long that whenever they do, it’s always a success.3. He closes his eyes when he speaks and I don’t trust anyone who does that. (AHF ; …anyone who #does this/#it/#so)A partir d’un échantillon d’exemples annotés du British National corpus (BNC, Davies 2004-), notre étude examinera les facteurs qui entrent en jeu dans l’alternance entre do it/this/that. Le choix entre les VPAs est déterminé entre autres par le registre, la présence d’un circonstant après l’anaphore, la mention ou non de l’antécédent avant la phrase antécédent, et dans une moindre mesure, la saillance de l’antécédent et la familiarité supposée qu’en a le destinataire. Do it renvoie en général a des actions très saillantes qui sont ensuite décrites plus en détail par le biais d’un circonstant. Do this, au contraire, dénote plutôt des actions qui n’ont pas été évoquées avant la phrase antécédent, et son emploi avec un circonstant est moins fréquent que pour do it. Do that est employé le plus souvent sans circonstant, et son usage présente parfois de grandes similarités avec l’ellipse. / The present thesis offers a corpus study of the alternation between do it, do this and do that in their use as ‘Verb Phrase anaphors’ (VPAs), in which they refer to a salient action mentioned in previous discourse, typically by means of a VP, or exophorically to a salient action in the speech situation that is not explicitly mentioned in previous discourse. Do it/this/that have been little studied in the otherwise extant literature on anaphora and especially VP ellipsis (VPE, e.g., Kim knows the answer and Pat does too). This is because it has long been assumed that they are largely interchangeable with each other as well as with do so and VPE, so that detailed analysis of their discourse properties was not deemed worth pursuing. The examples below show that this assumption is flawed : in (1), an attested example from the BNC, do this/that so could be used instead of do it, but in (3), do that is strongly preferred. As for VPE, it is unnatural in (1) and prefers a context of the type in (2).1. They’ve been rescuing companies for so long they do it automatically now, I expect. (AB9, ok: they do this/that/so automatically…)2. They’ve been rescuing companies for so long that whenever they do, it’s always a success.3. He closes his eyes when he speaks and I don’t trust anyone who does that. (…anyone who #does this/#it/#so)Based on a sample of annotated data from the British National corpus (BNC, Davies 2004-), our study will examine the factors driving the alternation between do it/this/that. Amongst others, VPA choice is influenced by register, the presence of an adjunct after the VPA, whether or not the antecedent has already been mentioned prior to the antecedent clause, and, to a lesser extent, the saliency of the antecedent and its presumed familiarity to the addressee. Do it typically refers to highly salient actions which are then further described by means of an adjunct. Do this, by contrast, denotes actions that have not been mentioned before the antecedent clause, and does not co-occur with adjuncts as often as do it. It also allows for much less salient antecedents. Do that typically occurs without an adjunct, and sometimes bears much resemblance to VPE in its usage.

The potential of community building through computer-mediated communication (CMC) in virtual learning environments has received increasing attention in recent years, yet little empirical research has been conducted in this field in Middle Eastern countries particularly based on a social constructivist approach as in this case. This research is concerned with the processes of community building as experienced by university students in computer-mediated distance education classes in Iran. Its overarching concern was to see if convergence happens in an on-line university discussion forum in a Middle Eastern cultural context, and if so, to explore how it happens and with what strategies it can be supported in such environment. The research addressed the role of collaborative interaction as the process of co-construction of knowledge and identities, by looking at: (i) the students’ beliefs as reflected in a survey; (ii) patterns and outcomes of interaction derived from an analysis of on-line transactions; (iii) students’ perspectives based on interviews and their responses to a survey. The participants came from four different Middle Eastern cultural and linguistic backgrounds and were all students studying at Masters Level. The academic context was an Iranian university that has a large face-to-face student population as well as a large number of distance students. The participants’ common meeting ground was primarily a virtual environment created for the students to share their learning experience and to communicate with each other and the tutors. The participants’ beliefs and ideas in terms of choice, opportunity, culture and expectations were examined through a survey in the first phase of the study. Then, to investigate their roles in shaping the on-line community, an additional university e-forum was designed and implemented by the researcher in the second phase of the study. In this forum the participants were free to contact each other without pre-planned tasks or interventions by the class tutors. Social constructivist approaches were used to analyse interactions between students and the outcomes of these interactions. The findings suggest that participants moved their communicative competence from tangible topics towards shaping new beliefs and ideas; creating the VSD-Virtual Social Development- model. These developments are regarded as something unique for an area such as the Middle East where gaining confidence is hard especially when there is no face-to-face contact with other participants, and individuals often have concerns about revealing their real personalities in untried situations. The findings of the interviews support the findings of the second phase of the study and show what strategies the participants used in community building. The research also highlighted many issues for further study, one of which is the various interpretations of the concept of community building in on-line contexts.

Southern Sotho verbal relative clauses are, on discourse-pragmatic grounds, categorised as direct and indirect. The pragmatic factors that govern the occurrence of these two types of relatives within a particular discourse context are investigated. An analysis of relative clauses occurring in live conversations as well as in the dramas Bulane (Khaketla, 1983) and Tjootjo e tla hloma sese/a (Maake, 1992) reveals that direct relative clauses usually modify the reference of predicate nouns (i.e. nouns used as the complements of copulative predicates), while indirect relative clauses modify the reference of object nouns. Theories which suggest that both predicate as well as object nouns generally convey new information, but that the reference status of predicate nouns is non-specific indefinite, while that of object nouns is specific indefinite, are discussed. A hypothesis suggesting that there is an interrelationship between the reference status of a head noun and the type of relative by means of which it is qualified, is proposed. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This dissertation is about the nature of perspectival thoughts and the context-sensitivity of the language used to express them. It focuses on two kinds of perspectival thoughts: ‘subjective' evaluative thoughts about matters of personal taste, such as 'Beetroot is delicious' or 'Skydiving is fun', and first-personal or de se thoughts about oneself, such as 'I am hungry' or 'I have been fooled.' The dissertation defends of a novel form of relativism about truth - the idea that the truth of some (but not all) perspectival thought and talk is relative to the perspective of an evaluating subject or group. In Part I, I argue that the realm of ‘subjective' evaluative thought and talk whose truth is perspective-relative includes attributions of knowledge of the form 'S knows that p.' Following a brief introduction (chapter 1), chapter 2 presents a new, error-theoretic objection against relativism about knowledge attributions. The case for relativism regarding knowledge attributions rests on the claim that relativism is the only view that explains all of the empirical data from speakers' use of the word "know" without recourse to an error theory. In chapter 2, I show that the relativist can only account for sceptical paradoxes and ordinary epistemic closure puzzles if she attributes a problematic form of semantic blindness to speakers. However, in 3 I show that all major competitor theories - forms of invariantism and contextualism - are subject to equally serious error-theoretic objections. This raises the following fundamental question for empirical theorising about the meaning of natural language expressions: If error attributions are ubiquitous, by which criteria do we evaluate and compare the force of error-theoretic objections and the plausibility of error attributions? I provide a number of criteria and argue that they give us reason to think that relativism's error attributions are more plausible than those of its competitors. In Part II, I develop a novel unified account of the content and communication of perspectival thoughts. Many relativists regarding ‘subjective' thoughts and Lewisians about de se thoughts endorse a view of belief as self-location. In chapter 4, I argue that the self-location view of belief is in conflict with the received picture of linguistic communication, which understands communication as the transmission of information from speaker's head to hearer's head. I argue that understanding mental content and speech act content in terms of sequenced worlds allows a reconciliation of these views. On the view I advocate, content is modelled as a set of sequenced worlds - possible worlds ‘centred' on a group of individuals inhabiting the world at some time. Intuitively, a sequenced world is a way a group of people may be. I develop a Stalnakerian model of communication based on sequenced worlds content, and I provide a suitable semantics for personal pronouns and predicates of personal taste. In chapter 5, I show that one of the advantages of this model is its compatibility with both nonindexical contextualism and truth relativism about taste. I argue in chapters 5 and 6 that the empirical data from eavesdropping, retraction, and disagreement cases supports a relativist completion of the model, and I show in detail how to account for these phenomena on the sequenced worlds view.

Southern Sotho verbal relative clauses are, on discourse-pragmatic grounds, categorised as direct and indirect. The pragmatic factors that govern the occurrence of these two types of relatives within a particular discourse context are investigated. An analysis of relative clauses occurring in live conversations as well as in the dramas Bulane (Khaketla, 1983) and Tjootjo e tla hloma sese/a (Maake, 1992) reveals that direct relative clauses usually modify the reference of predicate nouns (i.e. nouns used as the complements of copulative predicates), while indirect relative clauses modify the reference of object nouns. Theories which suggest that both predicate as well as object nouns generally convey new information, but that the reference status of predicate nouns is non-specific indefinite, while that of object nouns is specific indefinite, are discussed. A hypothesis suggesting that there is an interrelationship between the reference status of a head noun and the type of relative by means of which it is qualified, is proposed. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)