This thesis is an investigation into scribal method in the Older Scots period. It centres upon the practice of a single scribe, John Ramsay, and his work in a single manuscript, MS Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv. 19. 2. 2 compiled between 1488 and 1489. This manuscript contains the oldest extant copy of Bruce by the late fourteenth-century poet John Barbour and a copy of the fifteenth-century poem Wallace attributed to Blin’ Hary. In the first Chapter, the reasons for the choice of this manuscript are given and its historical context is outlined. This is done through a brief description of the manuscript, an account of the lives of the authors of the texts and an outline history of the Older Scots Language. In chapter two, an alternative context for the manuscript is suggested through a discussion of prototype theories of categorisation and how they articulate with current theories of linguistic investigation. In particular, the notions of inclusiveness, fuzziness, and focus and fixity are highlighted as being of particular importance in the study of language which is the subject of the chapter which follows. Chapter 3 is a commentary on the language of the manuscript, working from data presented in the appendices. This enables the various current methods of manuscript investigation to be studied for what they reveal of scribal practice. In particular, the concepts of variation and constraint are highlighted. Chapter 4 is an examination of the handwriting in the manuscript. Again working from data presented in the appendices, Ramsay’s range of letter forms and the contexts in which he uses them are investigated. Variation and constraint are again important concepts and the value of the study of handwriting as an aid to the identification of the work of a scribe is assessed. In Chapter 5 the codicology of the manuscript is considered. The watermarks in the paper are described and, as far as possible identified. A collation of the quires of the texts, based on the pattern of watermarks and chain-line indentations, is suggested. Ramsay’s methods of correction and abbreviation are then examined for what they reveal of his scribal practice.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive phonological and morphosyntactic overview of the dialect materials found in Devon, Dorset and Somerset during the Middle Ages. Building on methodology developed during the creation of the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, the present study involves the resurveying of sources mapped in the Atlas and, from the data gathered, an in-depth look at medieval West-Country dialect areas and diachronic dialectal changes. In particular, this study aims to develop new ways of analysing and profiling both historical dialectal and palaeographical material using computer-assisted methods. The relationship between speech and writing during the medieval period is complex. This is especially the case in a conservative and, in many ways, geographically isolated area like the West Country. A survey of spellings found in the medieval texts localised to the West Country in the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English affords valuable insights into the, often archaic, phonology of the area and also the rapidly standardising graphetic practices of scribes during this period. Proceeding from the initial collection of graphemic, phonological and morphosyntactic information, it is possible thereafter, using modern and traditional dialectological techniques, to determine dialect areas as well as areas of varying graphermic usage. A new approach to the comparison of scribal hands will also be detailed in this study and submitted on a CD-ROM

This thesis evaluated the extent to which long-term memory linguistic representations (syntactic, semantic, prosodic and lexical) affect immediate verbal repetition performance. The effects of these linguistic factors on short-term memory span were explored through an experiment with 140 English- and Czech-speaking participants. The experiment employed nine experimental conditions which varied the presence/well-formedness of linguistic information in four domains: the lexicon, morphosyntax, semantics, and suprasegmental phonology. This resulted in a spectrum of stimuli with semantically, syntactically and prosodically well-formed sentences with real lexical items at one end, through to a list of nonwords with lexical, semantic, prosodic and syntactic information removed. One hundred typically developing children (50 Czech- speaking; 50 English-speaking) aged 4-5 years and 40 adults (20 Czech-speaking; 20 English-speaking) participated in the study. In each condition, participants were asked to repeat blocks of successively longer stimuli to establish their maximum spans. The results were similar between age groups and across languages. Each linguistic factor had a significant effect on short-term memory span. The presence of nonwords and syntactic violations dramatically reduced memory span, while semantic implausibility and the removal of sentence prosody played a smaller yet significant role. Despite the typological differences between Czech and English, the same robust differences between conditions were found in both languages. The results provide further evidence that immediate verbal repetition is highly sensitive to the linguistic structures present in the stimuli. It is argued that theories which aim to account for data from immediate repetition should not be limited to lexical phonology but also need to address how syntactic, prosodic, semantic and lexical representations contribute to repetition performance. The findings of this thesis support the theoretical framework of verbal short-term memory emerging from a temporary activation of long-term memory representations and reinforce the view that language and memory are inextricable.

The present investigation analyzes critically the discursive and generic make-up, the conceptual base and educational goals of a new interdisciplinary academic field of enquiry called Intercultural Business Communication as it is pursued in the context of the Germany higher education system. Its purpose is twofold: Firstly, it attempts to bring to light and debate the actual validity claims made by these authors in respect to socio-economic changes and the educational promise of intercultural understanding through intercultural training. Secondly, it shows how aspects of context (e.g. interdisciplinary relations, disciplinary intricacies, hegemonic discourses, changes in the higher educational system and its relation to other social spheres) can impact upon the discourse and genre of social science in general and this particular field in particular. By drawing upon Critical Discourse Analysis as a theoretical stance and a methodological path, a corpus of 24 academic articles published in this area is analyzed in relation to the recontextualization of socio-economic changes (presences and absences of social actors, processes and evaluation), the legitimation of educational goals through reference to these changes, the conceptualization of key terms (like culture, the other etc.), the implications of these theoretical decisions for the possibility of increased, mutual understanding and the form of academic writing (argumentation, debate, genre change). While the thesis aims to identify specific discursive and generic patterns, open them to contestation, and to explain their presence in these texts, it is also strongly normative and discusses questions related to the changing understanding of the nature, form and function of academic knowledge production in society.

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Two widely used reference points in Translation Studies are the notions of source and target, indicating a point of departure and a point of arrival in the translating process. This thesis takes the notion of source as a starting point and observes what happens when one introduces a variation in the early stages of the process. Specifically, it argues that by modifying the perception of the source, i.e. the way one sees and consider the source, the resulting translation changes as well. By "perception" one wants to stress that the source in question is a constant and does not actually change; what varies is the way one conceives of it. The framework chosen to verify this hypothesis is the translation of orality into different media, i. e. paper, magnetic, electronic or digital media. Translation is here not merely intended as the act of transferring material from one language into another, but has been expanded to include the intralingual passage from oral to a different form. The source is examined from two different perspectives. One, located in 19th century England and Italy, identifies the source of orality in a collective entity, called "folk" in England and "popolo" in Italy. The other perspective, taking place in current times and drawing inspiration from performance-oriented approaches to orality, focuses on individuals and their personal performances. Taking into account linguistic, historical, political, social and economic factors, the thesis argues that these two perspectives have affected the translations of oral material, giving space alternatively to the voice of a collectivity or that of an individual. Translating orality thus emerges as a process influenced by the attitude of translators, whose "perceptions" underscore their decision-making role.

Around the age of fourteen months, infants start to use and understand others' uses of words in communicative interaction. What cognitive abilities must one attribute to them in order to explain this? In this thesis, I set out a variety of features – including knowledge of reference, of (Gricelike) communicative intentions, and of (Lewis-like) linguistic conventions - of which one would need some grasp in order to be able to use and understand words in communicative interaction. I develop an account of the cognitive abilities that grasping such features would require, and defend the plausibility of attributing such abilities to infants around the beginning of their second year of life. I argue that prior to their first uses of words, infants already have some grasp of others' minds – in particular, of when others are trying to communicate with them, and of what it is that they are trying to communicate. On the account that I sketch, infants learn how to use and understand words because they grasp the ends to which those words can be used as means, and because they are able to imitate the purposive communicative actions of their caregivers, and thereby produce utterances of their own.

The aim of this thesis is to further our understanding of the processes which control the sequencing of phonemes as we speak: this is an example of what is commonly known as the serial order problem. Such a process is apparent in normal speech and also from the existence of a class of speech errors known as sound movement errors, where sounds are anticipated (spoken too soon), perseverated (repeated again later), or exchanged (the sounds are transposed). I argue that this process is temporally governed, that is, the serial ordering mechanism is restricted to processing sounds that are close together in time. This is in conflict with frame-based accounts (e.g. Dell, 1986; Lapointe & Dell, 1979), serial buffer accounts (Shattuck-Hufnagel, 1979) and associative chaining theories (Wickelgren, 1969). An analysis of sound movement errors from Harley and MacAndrew's (1995) corpus shows how temporal processing bears on the production of speech sounds by the temporal constraint observed in the pattern of errors, and I suggest an appropriate computational model of this process. Specifically, I show how parallel temporal processing in an oscillator-based model can account for the movement of sounds in speech. Similar predictions were made by the model to the pattern of movement errors actually observed in speech error corpora. This has been demonstrated without recourse to an assumption of frame and slot structures. The OSCillator-based Associative REcall (OSCAR) model, on the other hand, is able to account for these effects and other positional effects, providing support for a temporal based theory of serial control.

While learner autonomy is often lauded as an important goal in language education, applied linguists have debated if it is a construct that has been given proper attention in terms of definition and assessment. In order to address this debate the researcher implemented a two-phase study within the context of higher education. Theories of learner autonomy, sustainable assessment and transformative learning guided the study design. In the research design, the nexus between language learner autonomy and assessment as learning was first explored in phase one of the study. Here survey methodology was used on a global scale: Findings from 45 respondents in 13 countries indicate that indeed language learner autonomy is being widely assessed, and, further that a variety of tools, evidence and people are implemented in this task. In phase two of the study, the most important stakeholders of learner autonomy - language learners - participated in Q-methodological study of their perceptions of the non-linguistic outcomes of learning in an autonomous environment: A total of 30 participants from Hong Kong, Japan and the UK completed a Q sort and interview. The findings of the Q study showed that there were six different ways of being autonomous, and these were interpreted as 'modes of autonomy'. These modes of autonomy were lastly used to devise a tool for the formative self-assessment of learner autonomy.

This thesis examines the interconnection between the linguistic forms of reactive tokens and their associated conversational actions in Mandarin conversation. It aims to show how reactive tokens are produced and interpreted by participants themselves as the display of an awareness of being a recipient in longer sequences. The central argument of the thesis is that participants display overt recipiency through variation and selection of reactive tokens in longer sequences in Mandarin conversation. This thesis shows that a consideration of the sequential organization of reactive tokens is as important as a consideration of their forms and functions in order to understand their prominent role in longer conversational sequences. Through sequential analysis, the investigation of reactive tokens shows that participants orient to and design a diversity of reactive tokens to construct and maintain mutual understanding and to create and secure recipient engagement. Through quantitative analysis, the frequency and distribution of six types of reactive tokens demonstrate their significant roles in first and second language interaction. Through deviant case analysis, the examination of miscues of reactive tokens reveals that reactive tokens might be a potential “barrier” in second language interaction, in contrast to being a “facilitator” in first language interaction. I propose a framework for displaying levels of recipiency through the selection of reactive tokens in longer conversational sequences in Mandarin. The framework proposed here implies that the selection of one particular reactive token over another is more a question of varying degrees of recipient engagement, than of different linguistic forms. The use of reactive tokens in interaction is shown to be systematic, conversationally strategic, sequentially and socially organized. It can be concluded that seemingly trivial and random reactive tokens are more significant and orderly in Mandarin conversation than one may assume.