This study investigates undergraduate students’ vocabulary size, and their use of formulaic language. Using the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation 1995), it measures the vocabulary size of native and non-native speakers of English and explores relationships between this and course of study, gender, age and home language, and their academic performance. A corpus linguistic approach is then applied to compare student writers’ uses of three high-frequency verbs (have, make and take) relative to expert writers. Multiword units (MWUs) featuring these verbs are identified and analysed, focusing on delexical MWUs as one very specific aspect of depth of vocabulary knowledge. Student and expert use of these MWUs is compared. Grammatically and semantically deviant MWUs are also analysed. Finally, relationships between the size and depth of students’ vocabulary knowledge, and between the latter and academic performance, are explored. Findings reveal that Literature students had larger vocabularies than Law students, females knew more words than males, and older students knew more than younger ones. Importantly, results indicated a relationship between vocabulary size and academic performance. Literature students produced more correct MWUs and fewer errors than Law students. Correlations suggest that the smaller students’ vocabulary, the poorer the depth of their vocabulary is likely to be. Although no robust relationship between vocabulary depth and academic performance emerged, there was evidence of an indirect link between academic performance and correct use of MWUs. In bringing together traditional methods of measuring vocabulary size with an investigation of depth of vocabulary knowledge using corpus analysis methods, this study provides further evidence of the importance of vocabulary knowledge to academic performance. It contributes to debates on the value of a sound knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary and a developing knowledge of at least 5000 words to academic performance, and the analysis and quantification of errors in MWUs adds to our understanding of novice writers’ difficulties with these combinations. The study also explores new ways of investigating relationships between size and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic performance. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

This dissertation investigates the use of the subjunctive in completive clauses governed by verbs in Italian, both synchronically and diachronically, and in Vulgar Latin. By making use of the tools provided by the Variationist Sociolinguistic framework (Labov 1972, 1994), the current study sheds light on the underlying conditioning on variability using actual usage and speech-surrogate data. Contemporary actual speech data comes from LIP (De Mauro et al. 1993) and C-ORAL-ROM (Cresti & Moneglia 2005) corpora, providing spontaneous discourse in casual and careful speech as well as sub-sample divisions representative of geographical variation. In order to measure any changes in the underlying conditioning on subjunctive selection, a diachronic benchmark is established: a corpus of speech-like surrogates of 16th to 20th century Italian, COHI (Corpus of Historical Italian), and a corpus of Vulgar Latin (Cena Trimalchionis, from the Satyricon by Petronius). The subjunctives were extracted in adherence to the principle of accountability (Labov 1972), using the method developed by Poplack (1992): every complement clause governed by a matrix verb (governor) that triggered the subjunctive at least once was included. This method enables us to circumvent the issue of the lack of consensus in the literature on exactly which contexts, i.e. verbs and/or meanings, should trigger the subjunctive in discourse. This issue surfaces as well from the meta-linguistic analysis of a compendium of 58 Italian grammars and treaties (CSGI, Collezione Storica di Grammatiche Italiane), constructed for the purpose of this research. A series of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors proposed by formal and prescriptive literature are operationalized and tested against the corpora of both Italian and Vulgar Latin, in order to ascertain the nature of variability in discourse: i.e. whether the use of the subjunctive is semantically motivated, productive in speech or undergoing desemanticization and lexicalization. Despite widespread assumption of a change that occurred after the political and the subsequent linguistic unification of Italy, i.e. that the subjunctive has lost ground in favour of the indicative when it was supposedly used categorically in the past, quantitative and statistical evidence shows that subjunctive selection is largely determined by lexical identity of the governor as well as embedded suppletive forms of essere, and that this pattern has been operative at least since the 16th century. On a more socio-linguistic aspect, this study confirms the linguistic prestige that the subjunctive has acquired in contemporary speech, being selected with a wider range of infrequent and singleton governors by highly educated speakers. Also, the highly lexicalized pattern on variability was found to be largely shared amongst the four main urban centres of Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples, thus countering the assumption of divergent linguistic behaviour between northern and southern varieties of Italian. The study also shows that despite the significant time span targeted, no evidence of desemanticization has been found. Likewise, the variationist analysis on the Vulgar Latin subjunctive shows that subjunctive choice was already largely determined by, and restricted, to a few governors, identified as ‘volitive’ and ‘emotive’ matrices. These governors remained strong predictors for the selection of the subjunctive in Italian as well, suggesting that this lexical pattern has been transferred and consistently retained in the daughter language.

Much research has been dedicated to the difficulties LGBTQ individuals face. Further, school counselors have been challenged to assist LGBTQ individuals in the school setting. Being aware of the specific issues and being educated about specific ways to assist these individuals enable school counselors to be more effective clinicians (DePaul, Walsh, & Dam, 2009). This article will address three components of counselor preparation and affirmative school counseling interventions: counselor self-awareness, LGBTQ sexual identity development, and LGBTQ-affirmative school climate. For each component, an activity is presented to assist professional school counselors become more LGBTQ-affirmative.

This thesis examines the ideal of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish ciuitas, c. 500-1050, by considering what Anglo-Saxon and Irish ecclesiastics understood a ciuitas to be, how they used the term in their own writings and what terms were its vernacular equivalent. When looking at early Insular history, there can be no doubt that the locations that were called ciuitates by Anglo-Saxon and Irish ecclesiastics are some of the most important sites in forming a better understanding of the time period. Ciuitates like Armagh, Canterbury, Clonmacnoise, Iona, Kildare, London and Winchester were settlements that attracted large numbers of people, as well as being centres of both secular and religious power. These ecclesiastical centres had a diversity of individuals within their boundaries, from the ecclesiastics of the sacred centre to monastic tenants and various types of visitors. The importance of Anglo-Saxon and Irish ciuitates cannot only be seen in the frequency of the term's use in primary sources, but also in the great extent to which these sites are mentioned in secondary sources on the time period. Although these communities are often used by scholars to prove or disprove different points of history, the term ciuitas has not been examined in a study devoted to the subject. This thesis has been divided into three chapters. Chapter one considers biblical inspiration in the ideal of the ciuitas, chapter two analyzes the Anglo-Saxon ciuitas and word usage, while chapter three reviews the Irish ciuitas and word use. By the end of this study it will become clear what Anglo-Saxon and Irish ecclesiastics thought a ciuitas to be, as well as the different definitions they understood to apply to these sites.

This dissertation analyses the formation of Swedish cultural policy in the twentieth century and the emergence of a modern concept of cultural policy. The aim is to historicise this concept by opening up the process through which it was established. The dissertation explores different aspects of this process: the use of the word cultural policy (kulturpolitik), the ambitions in the 1960s to establish a form of knowledge production relevant in cultural policy making and the attempts made by various official authorities in the 1960s and early 1970s to identify and manage the field of concerns defined as belonging to cultural policy, thus demarcating culture as a formal area of policy making. I view these as examples of practices where the category of cultural policy was elaborated and established in a form widely recognized today. Accompanying my attempts to historicise the modern concept of cultural policy is an interest in how the history of cultural policy has generally been conceived. In previous research devoted to the history of cultural policy an analytical sense of cultural policy has tended to overrule the understanding(s) of cultural policy found in the historical sources. As a consequence, the histories of cultural policy have left out what historically was identified as cultural policy, thus leaving the historical grounds for the modern concept of cultural policy partly hidden. In the first empirical chapter I examine the uses of the word cultural policy when it was introduced in the Swedish language in the late nineteenth century until the 1950s. From a multitude of usages, I suggest that it was in the mid-twentieth century that a more consistent vocabulary developed, with “cultural policy” referring to political endeavors aiming at a nation’s domestic cultural life. In the second empirical chapter I investigate how scientific conceptualisations and operationalisations rendered culture available for scientific, political and administrative undertakings, and in the third chapter I study how culture was demarcated as a formal area of policy making. The chapters reveal different aspects of the historical process through which the category of cultural policy was established in its present shape.

This study investigates undergraduate students’ vocabulary size, and their use of formulaic language. Using the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation 1995), it measures the vocabulary size of native and non-native speakers of English and explores relationships between this and course of study, gender, age and home language, and their academic performance. A corpus linguistic approach is then applied to compare student writers’ uses of three high-frequency verbs (have, make and take) relative to expert writers. Multiword units (MWUs) featuring these verbs are identified and analysed, focusing on delexical MWUs as one very specific aspect of depth of vocabulary knowledge. Student and expert use of these MWUs is compared. Grammatically and semantically deviant MWUs are also analysed. Finally, relationships between the size and depth of students’ vocabulary knowledge, and between the latter and academic performance, are explored. Findings reveal that Literature students had larger vocabularies than Law students, females knew more words than males, and older students knew more than younger ones. Importantly, results indicated a relationship between vocabulary size and academic performance. Literature students produced more correct MWUs and fewer errors than Law students. Correlations suggest that the smaller students’ vocabulary, the poorer the depth of their vocabulary is likely to be. Although no robust relationship between vocabulary depth and academic performance emerged, there was evidence of an indirect link between academic performance and correct use of MWUs. In bringing together traditional methods of measuring vocabulary size with an investigation of depth of vocabulary knowledge using corpus analysis methods, this study provides further evidence of the importance of vocabulary knowledge to academic performance. It contributes to debates on the value of a sound knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary and a developing knowledge of at least 5000 words to academic performance, and the analysis and quantification of errors in MWUs adds to our understanding of novice writers’ difficulties with these combinations. The study also explores new ways of investigating relationships between size and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic performance. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / La competencia pragmática es un componente de la competencia comunicativa. Para que un hablante sea competente en una lengua, no sólo debe tener el conocimiento lingüístico, sino que, además, debe entender las normas, valores y estructuras sociales de la comunidad de habla. Al aplicar estos conceptos al campo de adquisición de segunda lengua (L2) o de lengua extranjera (LE), nos damos cuenta de que la enseñanza de pragmática de L2 es fundamental para ayudar a que el aprendiz establezca las similitudes y diferencias entre las normas, valores y estructuras sociales de su L1 y las de la lengua en estudio. Como no hay un modelo único a seguir en la enseñanza de pragmática para alcanzar los mejores resultados en cuanto a la adquisición de esta competencia, este estudio describe algunos modelos eficaces de enseñanza de la pragmática en el aula de español como lengua extranjera (ELE), y analiza la manera como los libros de texto examinados incluyen y tratan los temas de la pragmática. Este estudio sobre la adquisición de pragmática en segunda lengua aportará al campo de la enseñanza de pragmática, mediante una unidad didáctica que implementa los hallazgos de varios investigadores en el área de adquisición de segunda lengua, con énfasis en la adquisición de interlengua pragmática, es decir, de pragmática en segunda lengua (L2) o lengua extranjera (LE).

Teaching ESL continues to pose a big challenge in most schools in Zambia. This is due to the paucity of teaching resources. While the number of schools has increased, there has not been a corresponding increase in funding due to economic reasons. This study arose from the desire to find alternative resources to teach English as a second language effectively within the communicative language teaching (CLT) framework. A review of available literature has shown that literature can help students to acquire the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. / English Studies / M. A.

Teaching ESL continues to pose a big challenge in most schools in Zambia. This is due to the paucity of teaching resources. While the number of schools has increased, there has not been a corresponding increase in funding due to economic reasons. This study arose from the desire to find alternative resources to teach English as a second language effectively within the communicative language teaching (CLT) framework. A review of available literature has shown that literature can help students to acquire the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. / English Studies / M. A.

In this study a linguistic investigation of the traditional colour terms of Northern Sotho was carried out. The research comprised three separate phases. In all three phases two aspects were emphasised, namely, the nature of the concept underlying each colour term and the nature and extent to which the selection requirements of the term affected the antecedent. In the first phase, the definitions of selected colour terms, as given in three standard Northern Sotho dictionaries, were studied and compared. These dictionaries included: Pukuntšu, The New Sesotho Dictionary and the Groot Noord-Sotho Woordeboek. Special reference was made to (a) the description of colour as given in the definition, and (b) the selection requirements with regard to the antecedent. The concept “colour term” itself is problematic as the definitions of these terms encompass more than mere references to colour. When comparing the definitions of these terms in Northern Sotho dictionaries, however, little unanimity could be found regarding: (a) the the concept underlying the colour terms, and (b) the selection requirements of these terms in respect of the antecedent. In phase two, six mother-tongue speakers of Northern Sotho were interviewed. The descriptions of the colour terms provided by these respondents were then analysed in the same manner as that of the dictionaries. The informants were all professional people with notable linguistic ability and knowledge of livestock. An Electronic Data Base (compiled by the Department of African Languages, University of Pretoria) was consulted in the third phase of study. The objective of this phase was to collect data on the frequency of use of these colour terms and in light of this to make deductions on their selection requirements. Finally, a synthesis was made of the information collected during the three phases. As indicated above, this is a practical study falling within the ambit of the science of language-usage. At most it can be claimed that the conceptualisation of colour and the manner in which it is reflected in language, has a psycho-linguistic basis. As a result of the nature of the study, it could not always be carried out within a strict theoretical framework. / Dissertation (M A (African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / African Languages / unrestricted