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Sociolinguistic variation and regional minority language bilingualism : an investigation of Welsh-English bilinguals in North WalesMorris, Jonathan January 2013 (has links)
This thesis investigates phonetic and phonological variation in the bilingual repertoire of adolescent Welsh-English bilinguals living in North Wales. It contributes to linguistic research by, firstly, providing an account of language variation in an under-studied area (N. Wales) and context (regional minority language bilingualism) and, secondly, by examining cross-linguistic variation, and the constraints on this variation, in bilingual speech. The two variables under discussion differ in how they are realised in the two languages: /l/ is thought to be heavily velarised in both languages as a result of long-term contact and phonological convergence. Variation in the production of /r/ and realisation of coda /r/ has hitherto been reported as language-specific, though frequent transfer is said to occur from Welsh to English in predominantly Welsh-speaking areas (e.g. Penhallurick 2004: 110; Wells 1982: 390).The first aim of the study is therefore to quantify claims of phonological convergence and transfer in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals by using a variationist sociolinguistics methodology (e.g. Labov 1966), which also considers the influence of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors on variation. Particular attention is paid to differences between a majority Welsh-speaking town and a town where English is the main language. A further distinction is made between those from Welsh-speaking homes and those from English-speaking homes who have acquired Welsh through immersion education. The second aim is to make empirically-informed theoretical claims about the nature of phonological convergence and transfer, and conceptualise cross-linguistic interaction in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals in light of existing frameworks. Data (sociolinguistic interviews and wordlists) were collected in Welsh and English from 32 Welsh-English bilinguals aged 16-18. The sample was equally stratified in terms of speaker sex, home language, and area. The two towns compared in the study are Caernarfon (N.W. Wales, where c.88% of the population speak Welsh) and Mold (N.E. Wales, where c. 20% Welsh of the population speak Welsh). The results indicate that English [ɫ] tends to be lighter than Welsh [ɫ] in word-initial onset position for females, and in word-medial intervocalic position for both males and females. The data also show linguistic influences on the realisation of [ɫ] in both languages, and differences between males and females. The realisation of coda /r/ and production of [r] and [ɾ] in English are confined to the speech of those from Welsh-speaking homes in Caernarfon. In Welsh, use of [ɹ] is widespread and is constrained by a more complex interaction between area, home language, and sex. On the basis of these findings, I conclude that features which have undergone phonological convergence due to long-term language contact may be subject to language-specific constraints when implemented phonetically. In terms of transfer, I argue for a ternary distinction between interference, transfer, and transfer which is constrained by linguistic and/or extra-linguistic factors (cf. Grosjean 2012). Finally, I suggest that Mufwene’s (2001) notion of the ‘feature pool’ is the most succinct way of conceptualising Welsh-English transfer and differentiate between more focussed accents of English and a less-focussed variety of North Wales Welsh.
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La lengua española en los Estados UnidosSun, Wei 11 1900 (has links)
Speakers of Spanish in the United States are living perhaps the most interesting
linguistic experience in the entire Hispanic world. The present study deals with the theme of
the Spanish language in contact with English and the problems related with social
bilingualism.
The first part of Chapter I recounts the principal incidents in the history of Spanish
expansion, and outlines the route of the advance of the Spanish language throughout the
American continent. The second part of Chapter I presents statistical tables pertaining to
immigrants, and explains the geographic and demographic distribution of Hispanics in the
United States. Chapter II is a linguistic study of the varieties of Spanish found in the United
States, along with lexical examples from daily use, and grammatical characteristics. Chapter
III provides an academic classification according to the sociolinguistic and sociocultural
factors which affect the Spanish language. Chapter IV presents the linguistic deviations
produced by factors at the phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, semantic and
grammatical level. Chapter V concentrates on the bilingual element of U.S. society. Three
tables demonstrate the distribution of English and Spanish according to the sociolinguistic
context and the type of text involved. In addition, three studies are presented to deepen our
knowledge of bilingualism, as well as its causes and consequences.
The conclusion must take into account the fact that it will not be possible to
assimilate Hispanics as easily as has been done with people of other cultures in the United
States, since the group renews itself continuously through the presence of recently arrived
Hispanic immigrants, and those who have recently returned. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate
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Subject Pronoun Expression in an L2-only Environment: The Case of Equatorial GuineaJanuary 2020 (has links)
abstract: Subject Pronoun Expression (SPE) has been extensively studied in monolingual and bilingual varieties of Spanish using the variationist framework. The goal of these studies has been to examine the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that condition the expression and the omission of personal subject pronouns. Nonetheless, to date, there is no study of SPE in the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea, the only African country where it is an official language, and the single country where Spanish is exclusively a second language (L2). This dissertation fills this gap in the literature by accounting for SPE in Equatoguinean Spanish.
The research questions guiding this study concern the rates of Subject Pronoun Expression, its conditioning factors, and universal accounts of L2 acquisition, in particular, the Interface Hypothesis (IH). The study had 30 participants from Malabo, who took part in sociolinguistic interviews. These interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the mixed effects software Rbrul. Along the lines of the literature reviewed, the linguistic factor groups studied were grammatical person and number, reference, reflexivity, verb type, and ambiguity. By the same token, the extra linguistic factors analyzed were age, sex, education, native language (L1), and speaker as a random factor.
The results indicate that the Equatoguinean variety of Spanish has one of the lowest pronoun rates (19.1%), a finding that goes against the predictions of the IH. With regard to the linguistic factor groups that condition Subject Pronoun Expression, Equatoguinean Spanish shows an unorthodox ranking: grammatical person and number, ambiguity, verb class, and reference. Interestingly, the low ranking of reference gives support to the IH, which argues that L2 speakers have problems with constraints like the switch of the reference in subjects because it integrates discourse and pragmatic interfaces. The only significant extra-linguistic factor was education, whereas speakers’ L1 exerted no effect on SPE. Individual speaker was a significant random factor group, indicating that variation is great even in speakers with comparable education.
In sum, this study of a unique speech community provides new information on SPE of L2 Spanish. It also contributes to the fields of language contact, language variation, and second language acquisition. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2020
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Lexikální zvláštnosti mexické španělštiny, zejména hovorového jazyka / Lexical particularity in Mexican Spanish, especially in colloquial languageBelicová, Lenka January 2017 (has links)
In this thesis, we identify the fundamental terms required for the analysis of American variants of Spanish. We briefly present the geographical and social-historical context of Mexican Spanish, and address the heterogeneity of approaches used in related studies. We characterize the nature of the influence of indigenous languages on Mexican lexis, and give an overview of theoretical knowledge on the Spanish colloquial language. The key chapter is dedicated to the lexical particularities of Mexican Spanish, focusing on the colloquial language. We describe our specific findings in eleven sub-chapters structured according to two different criteria. We base our analysis of particular Mexican Spanish expressions mainly on the evaluation and mutual comparison of relevant lexicon entries provided by a set of selected lexicographical sources. Keywords: Mexican Spanish, lexis, variance, colloquial language, language contact
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Prestige terminology and its consequences in the development of Northern Sotho vocabularyMojela, Victor Maropeng 11 1900 (has links)
The thesis investigates the factors which lead to the development of 'prestige'
terminology in the Northern Sotho vocabulary. It investigates the factors which lead to
the development of 'prestige' language varieties and 'prestige' dialects, which are
sources of 'prestige' terminology. These factors include, inter alia, urbanization,
industrialization, the missionary activities and standardisation. The thesis tries to
explain the reason why most of the Northern Sotho people do not feel free to speak
their language when they are among other communitiesK__U explains the reason why the
speakers of the so-called 'inferior' dialects of Northern Sotho have an inferiority
complex while the speakers of the 'prestige' dialects have confidence when speaking
their dialects.
The people who are residents of the urban and industrialized areas have a high
standard of living due to the availability of employment opportunities, while the rural
communities are usually unemployed and, as such, their standard of living is low. This
elevates the urban community to a high status which is shared by the type of language
they speak. The rural communities start associating themselves with the urban
communities by imitating the urban varieties in order to elevate themselves. This is
one of the reasons which lead to the widespread use of urban slang and other
language varieties which are associated with the urban areas of South Africa, i.e. the PWV (Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Vereeniging). Standardisation of Northern Sotho
and the missionary activities within the Northern Sotho communities led to the creation
of 'superior' and 'inferior' dialects. The missionary societies established missionary
stations among certain Northern Sotho communities while other communities did not
have these stations, and became the vanguards of Western civilization among the
indigenous people of Southern Africa. ~The dialects among which the missionary
stations were established came to enjoy a high status since these varieties were the
first to be converted to written forms. In this case, the first varieties to be considered
during standardisation were those which had a written orthography, and this is exactly
what happened in the standardisation of Northern Sotho. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
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Past Participles in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese: A Usage-based Approach to Grammatical and Social VariationDickinson, Kendra V. 08 September 2022 (has links)
No description available.
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Japanese EFL teachers' perceptions of nonnative varieties of English : are they ready to include other Englishes in their classrooms?Miyagi, Kazufumi. January 2006 (has links)
No description available.
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Sociolinguistic variation in spoken and written Sesotho : a case study of speech varieties in QwaQwaSekere, Ntaoleng Belina 30 June 2004 (has links)
This work has taken the region of Qwaqwa as a case study. Through this study, the researcher attempted to join in the debate around language varieties that occur as a result of contact between different language groups. To achieve this objective, the factors that have an impact on Sesotho spoken in the Qwaqwa area and, in particular, in schools, have been assessed.
The researcher provides a broad and general picture of the language situation and patterns of language use in the Qwaqwa area. A brief overview of the geographical description, historical background and economic development of Qwaqwa is given. Some of the linguistic phenomena that play a role in language variation in this area fall under the spotlight.
Language contact, i.e. language and dialect, regional and social dialect, the use of language and the impact of language contact between languages is discussed. Patterns and the extent of language contact and the resultant effects of interference, codeswitching and borrowing as well as the processes and points at which these processes occur are identified.
The major similarities and relationships between spoken and written Sesotho, as used by learners in Qwaqwa schools, is highlighted with the discussion focussing on the linguistic description of the similarities and relationships between the two forms. / African Languages / (M.A.(Afican Languages))
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Learners’ texts : a portrayal of the influence of certain varieties of isiXhosa on English texts and vice versaSpofana, Dumisani Godfrey 10 1900 (has links)
This thesis is about certain varieties of isiXhosa and their apparent influence on English and vice versa. IsiXhosa is a language mainly spoken in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of the Republic of South Africa. The study concentrates on certain varieties of isiXhosa that are spoken in the Eastern Cape Province. These varieties are isiBhaca, isiHlubi, isiMpondo, isiThembu and isiGcaleka. IsiGcaleka happens to be the standard variety. A map is provided to illustrate where these varieties are spoken.
The study looks at the learners’ texts which are written in isiXhosa and English. The learners who wrote these texts are in Grades 8 and 9 from selected schools in the areas of Mzimkhulu, Matatiele, Mbizana, Ngcobo and Butterworth. It is worth mentioning that Mzimkhulu has since been moved from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu/Natal. The learners’ texts are analyzed and comments are provided for each analysis. The study also looks at how educators in selected schools relate with their learners when teaching both isiXhosa and English. Observations are made from the relationship between the educators and learners when the learners are taught isiXhosa and English.
The study also looks at the debate between standard and non-standard variety. Based on the discussion of both the standard variety and non-standard variety it is the view of the researcher that this notion of “standard” and “non-standard” needs to be challenged on all fronts. This is so because standardization occurs as a result of historical coincidence. The study further looks at the Language and Planning issues in the Republic of South Africa. It is important to note that language is the key to the heart of any nation and therefore whatever that is discussed about language should be sensitive to the people speaking that language.The study concludes with the fact that there is a need to train educators especially those who are going to teach African Languages. There is also a need to undertake studies on learners’ needs so that those who design the school curricula must do so knowing what is relevant to the learners in general. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
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Sociolinguistic variation in spoken and written Sesotho : a case study of speech varieties in QwaQwaSekere, Ntaoleng Belina 30 June 2004 (has links)
This work has taken the region of Qwaqwa as a case study. Through this study, the researcher attempted to join in the debate around language varieties that occur as a result of contact between different language groups. To achieve this objective, the factors that have an impact on Sesotho spoken in the Qwaqwa area and, in particular, in schools, have been assessed.
The researcher provides a broad and general picture of the language situation and patterns of language use in the Qwaqwa area. A brief overview of the geographical description, historical background and economic development of Qwaqwa is given. Some of the linguistic phenomena that play a role in language variation in this area fall under the spotlight.
Language contact, i.e. language and dialect, regional and social dialect, the use of language and the impact of language contact between languages is discussed. Patterns and the extent of language contact and the resultant effects of interference, codeswitching and borrowing as well as the processes and points at which these processes occur are identified.
The major similarities and relationships between spoken and written Sesotho, as used by learners in Qwaqwa schools, is highlighted with the discussion focussing on the linguistic description of the similarities and relationships between the two forms. / African Languages / (M.A.(Afican Languages))
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