Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-329). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 104 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-98).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 1997. / BLDSC reference no.: DX205112.

This dissertation is about the acquisition of temporality in the Chinese language by adult native English speakers. The major objective is to chart the course of development of temporality by adult English-speaking learners of Chinese and explore the universals in the acquisition of temporality. The dataset used for this dissertation study consists of the Pear Story narratives produced by twenty native speakers of Chinese and the Pear Story narratives produced by twenty-one English-speaking adult second language learners of Chinese, grouped into three different proficiency levels--the low, the intermediate and the high level. It is found that both native speakers of Chinese and adult learners have available at their disposal a repertoire of explicit and implicit encoding devices in which grammatical means is among the least often used. However, in comparison with native speakers, learners' repertoire is smaller and contains less varied items. Regarding the use of a particular aspectual particle, perfective le, it is found that both native speakers and learners are constrained by multiple factors. However, some factors affecting native speakers have not been acquired by learners yet and even the same type of factors affecting both native speakers and learners have different constraining strengths for the two groups. Clear developmental patterns are found in learners' acquisition of temporality in narrative discourse. As learners gain proficiency in the target language, they grow from preferring implicit encoding to preferring explicit encoding, their use of grammatical means increases against lexical means, and their reliance on the discourse context decreases. These universal developmental patterns are observed in both the foreground and the background clauses. What is found in this analysis highlights the role of input, as most of the development tendencies reflect the grammar and language use by the native speakers. However, there is evidence that L1 transfer could additionally play a role in learners' acquisition of some temporal properties of the target language. The implications of the findings of this study for the teaching of Chinese as a second language and for the acquisition study of aspectual particles in Chinese will also be discussed.

This study examines whether grammar instruction treatment, input processing, facilitates in learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) a distinction among sets of phrasal verbs containing prepositions. Input processing emphasizes difficult grammatical forms and provides a model for the behavior of the varying roles of phrasal verb prepositions. Such instruction follows three steps: (i) explaining the relation between a grammatical form and its meaning, (ii) informing learners of language processes that adversely influence the form-meaning relation, and (iii) implementing "structured input" activities that target the form in linguistic input, facilitating form-meaning relations. Prepositions in phrasal verbs perform specific roles for exclusive purposes, for instance in verb-particle constructions eat up, clean out, send on where prepositions mark aspectual properties for "completion-of-activity" (telicity) as well as "affectedness" of phrasal verb objects. ESL students were selected for the control and treatment groups. Each group participated in a pretest and posttest. Each test included three tasks: one comprehension (yes/no multiple choice) and two production (sentence completion and written narration). Time (pretest/posttest) and instruction (informal IP/formal explanation) were independent variables. Scores were the dependent variable. Preposition use is difficult for ESL learners, yet no generalizations explain learning difficulty nor has instruction addressed this difficulty. Input Processing furnishes needed instruction and is consonant with current linguistic theory (Minimalism): Word-order phenomena obey "frame alternations" that shift meaning by varying syntactic configuration (movement to alternate sites in phrase structure). Language acquisition centers on mapping functions linking semantics with syntax; thus, pedagogical practice and linguistic theory are united. Structured input activities are likened to natural input that children are exposed to when they acquire language. Acquisition processes link meaningful items in a mental lexicon to grammatical patterns constructed by a mental computer. Second language learners create links between meaning and form because they make decisions about meaning in input structured to highlight the form in which meaning is conveyed. Statistical analyses show treatment effect for input processing instruction on the comprehension task, so subjects' ability is improved through attention to mapping. Production task data were inconclusive yet revealed significance of frequency of prepositions' functions.

The distribution and reference of Chinese anaphors are not predetermined by their inherent binding features or by a set of rules from one particular module; rather they are determined by the discourse context in which the anaphor in question occurs. The two most important parameters of discourse context are the discourse topic NP and discourse relations. The discourse topic NP is a unique discourse entity in that it is the only accessible antecedent for such anaphors as exempt reflexives, null subjects and null objects. A discourse topic NP derives its discourse dynamics (i.e., its ability to bind an anaphor beyond its syntactic binding domain) from the structural prominence accorded to it by its syntactic position. The relevance of discourse relations is two-fold. On one hand, the status of an NP as discourse topic is determined relative to the discourse relation underlying the discourse context in which this NP occurs. On the other, discourse relations are a decisive factor in defining the domain of discourse binding. More specifically, a discourse topic NP alpha is accessible to an anaphor beta only when alpha and beta are within a discourse of Continuation. The dynamics of the discourse topic NP and the effect of discourse relations on binding can be satisfactorily treated by Dynamic Montague Grammar with its two formal features: dynamic conjunction and the state switcher. The application of dynamic conjunction to the constituent sentences of a discourse of Continuation reveals associative nature of such a discourse while the state switcher provides a formal means of making a discourse topic NP an available antecedent for the appropriate anaphors within the desired domain of dynamic binding.

The importance of 'deixis' is that it is anchored to the immediate interactive context and resists a pre-given formulation of truth-value without taking into account such factors as when, where, to whom and even how it is said. This fact serves as an acute reminder for linguists that language use fundamentally concerns face-to-face communication and is not solely based upon the biological construals of the linguistic faculty. In this study, I will exclusively focus on spatial deixis and also closely examine spatial expressions such as coordinate terms, locative phrases, and (deictic) motion verbs. The selection of these elements largely depends on the current interest among cognitive linguists/anthropologists in preferred 'lexicalization' patterns and spatial motions/configurations, which promote image-schematic projection of the source concept. These phenomenological extensions of space will most palpably be embodied in stretches of discourse which particularly incorporate somatic descriptions and mental imageries. The novelty of the research is thus characterized by exclusive attention to 'vertical' space realized in 'on-going discourse' about spatial experience. The data types are mainly audio-(and occasionally video-)taped conversation and narration. I look at the utterance by the people who are experientially familiar with the concepts of verticality, rock climbers. They routinely and intensively exploit spatial notions for various purposes such as body-movement instructions, negotiation of geographic locations, and narration of 'danger-of-death' experience. There, multiple frames of reference and coordinate systems emerge and compete for the most suitable perspective which the speaker prefers to assume in accordance with cognitive, linguistic, and experiential constraints. I specifically ask the following questions: (1) is the vertical dimension conceptualized as the source or target domain for the image-schematic projection of the horizontal plane?, (2) are the orders of spatial descriptions constrained by language-specific 'lexicalization' patterns and/or habitualized cognitive styles?, (3) how are experientially salient portions in 'danger-of-death' narratives (e.g., Climax/Peak) related to particular modes of perspective-taking (e.g., intrinsic or extrinsic)?, and finally, (4) what is the role of 'experience' in achieving spatial coherence in the 'way-finding' negotiation? I conclude that verticality may be a more complex concept than has been previously conceptualized and has covert but influential consequences on cognitive processes and linguistic representations.

Morphology and syllable weight have both been shown to affect stress patterns, but these effects are analyzed in different ways. The theoretical goal of this dissertation is to propose a Optimality Theoretic model to account for how morphology influences stress, and to do this in a way that parallels the influence of weight upon stress. Prince (1990) lays out the W scEIGHT- scTO-S scTRESS P scRINCIPLE, formalizing the principle by which heavy syllables attract stress in quantity-sensitive systems. I argue for the M scORPHEME- scTO-S scTRESS P scRINCIPLE, a constraint that forces morphemes to attract stress in morphological stress systems. The W scEIGHT- scTO-S scTRESS P scRINCIPLE has a counterpart, the S scTRESS- scTO-W scEIGHT P scRINCIPLE, which forces stressed syllables to be heavy. The counterpart of the M scORPHEME- scTO-S scTRESS P scRINCIPLE is the S scTRESS- scTO-M scORPHEME P scRINCIPLE, which forces stressed syllables to belong to morphemes. This accounts for systems where epenthetic vowels resist stress assignment.

Ryukyuan, the Indigenous language of Okinawa, Japan, is in danger of being lost within a generation or two. There has been a rapid shift from Ryukyuan to Japanese and Uchina-Yamatoguchi, consisting of both Ryukyuan and Japanese. This linguistic situation has been brought on by many years of colonization by foreign nations and most recently by massive wave of globalization and modernization. This research examines language loss and shift in one Okinawan village, Henna, through an examination of its history and by exploring the people's language attitudes and ideologies. This study seeks to understand the multidimensional factors that contribute to language choice of the Okinawan people. In the case of Okinawa, it may be said that one's perspective toward Okinawan culture is a key to the future of the Ryukyuan language. With this understanding, it is hoped that the Okinawans can then determine themselves what their futures may be and what language they embrace.