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Gender in the romance languages: an evolutionary approachHarmon, Sarah Elizabeth, 1974- 28 August 2008 (has links)
This investigation tests the validity of three theories of languages applied to data on lexical gender in the Medieval period of the Romance languages. By analyzing and comparing data from the Miracles of Our Lady, in combination with data from various other researchers, certain patterns of regularity and irregularity can be observed. The primary focus addresses the lexical gender assignment of nouns in the various Romance languages, in particular in the merger of the Latin neuter gender with the masculine and feminine genders. The overall changes and stasis of the history of lexical gender in the Romance languages, can be applied to various theories of language change in order to analyze and understand various phenomena. The phenomena examined in this investigation include the topics of lexical gender change and stasis, 'undecided' and ambiguous lexical gender assignment, and mass-gender elements. In addition, the theories of Lightfoot (1979, 1991), Keller (1994) and Croft (1996, 2000) are used to eludidate contemporary theoretical understanding of this topic. Lightfoot and Keller are chosen as representatives of Formalism and Functionalism, respectively, as they are often used in order to describe and discuss historical language change; the theory of Croft is a new theory which can benefit from further research. It is found that the theory of Croft (2000) best explains the research questions, but more work is recommended in order to fully understand the various phenomena of lexical gender in the history of the Romance languages, and in order to ensure the veracity of the theory, Croft's (2000) Evolutionary Theory must be tested further.
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Language and intelligenceHolloway, John January 1947 (has links)
No description available.
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The verbal complex in classic-period Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions : its implications for language identification and changeWald, Robert F. (Robert Francis), 1941- 16 August 2011 (has links)
Not available / text
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Vowel harmonies of the Congo Basin : an optimality theory analysis of variation in the Bantu zone CLeitch, Myles Francis 05 1900 (has links)
A central claim of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince
1993a) is that phonological variation can be modeled through the variable ranking of
universal constraints. In this thesis, I test this claim by examining variation in the tongue
root vowel harmony system in a number of closely related yet distinct Bantu languages of
Congo and Zaire. The twenty-odd languages are drawn from each of Guthrie 1967's eight
Bantu C. subgroups and are shown to vary along a number of dimensions. One is
morphological, related to whether or not the harmonic element in the lexical root extends
to prefixes and suffixes. This variation is shown to follow from the variable ranking of
constraints that seek to ALIGN the harmonic feature, [retracted tongue root] ([rtr]) with
the edges of the morphological domains STEM and WORD. A second parameter of
variation concerns the relationship between high vowels and [rtr]. A third dimension
involves the interaction of [rtr] with the low vowel [a] under harmony. Here, three
patterns involving (i) low vowel assimilation, (ii) low vowel opacity, or (iii) low vowel
transparency under harmony are shown to follow from the variable ranking of a few
constraints. A significant theme that emereges in the study is recognizing and
characterizing the distinct morphological and phonological domain edges involved in
vowel harmony. An important contribution of this study is in bringing to light a language
family where phonological tongue height, in this case expressed by the feature [low], is
shown to be incompatible with tongue root retraction, as expressed in the feature [rtr].
Although the gestures of tongue body lowering and tongue root retraction are
sympathetic in the articulatory dimension and in their acoustic effect, they are seen to be
phonologically hostile, in fact, because of the redundancy relation between them. This
redundancy-based phonological incompatibility is implemented via licensing-failure:
[low] fails to "license" [rtr] because lowness implies retraction (Ito, Mester and Padgett
1994).
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Theoretical issues in comparative Ethio-Semitic phonology and morphologyRose, Sharon, 1965- January 1997 (has links)
This thesis explores three fundamental issues in the phonology and morphology of Ethiopian Semitic languages: mobile morphology, reduplication and epenthesis. In each chapter I draw on comparative evidence from different Ethiopian Semitic languages, an approach which provides greater insight into how the languages vary with respect to these three issues, and how the issues themselves are best analyzed. / The first issue is that of 'mobile morphology' a term I coin to describe the ability of a particular morphological category to be realized on various segments within a stem. The two major types in the South Ethio-Semitic languages are palatalization and labialization. I develop an analysis of palatalization in five different languages which relies on a hierarchy of preferred targets, along with a number of constraints regulating the appearance of palatalization within the stem. / Ethio-Semitic languages have several different types of reduplication. I draw a distinction between phonological and morphological reduplication and argue that phonological reduplication should be viewed as copying rather long-distance geminate structures created by spreading. I also examine the interaction of reduplication with mobile morphology and I present an analysis of double reduplication, showing how languages will avoid the creation of double reduplication relationships. / I develop an analysis of epenthesis which contrasts the behaviour of one set of languages which epenthesize following final consonant clusters with other languages which epenthesize between consonant clusters. I show that while all Ethio-Semitic languages follow the same general pattern, this may be overridden by templatic constraints and more importantly, by sonority considerations holding of adjacent syllables in coda-onset sequences. This last observation is important because it shows that while languages may on the whole violate heterosyllabic contact constraints, in particular circumstances, the constraints will be obeyed, giving rise to an emergence of the unmarked scenario.
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A pragmatic and semantic study of Chinese modal particle AWang, Y. Unknown Date (has links)
No description available.
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A pragmatic and semantic study of Chinese modal particle AWang, Y. Unknown Date (has links)
No description available.
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A pragmatic and semantic study of Chinese modal particle AWang, Y. Unknown Date (has links)
No description available.
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Individual differences and second language acquisition among low-income preschoolersRichard, Erin. January 2007 (has links)
Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 21, 2008). Thesis director: Adam Winsler. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology. Vita: p. 65. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-64). Also available in print.
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Topics in the grammar and documentation of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Central Vanuatu /Thieberger, Nicholas Augustus. January 2004 (has links)
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, 2004. / Typescript (photocopy). Title on cover and spine: Topics in grammar and documentation etc... Includes bibliographical references (leaves [497]-508).
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