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In this paper, I consider historical periods, linguistic categories, and social theories in relation to Hindi in order to trace out the character and trajectory of the language. From sixteenth-century courtly contexts, to the adoption of the Devanagari script in the twentieth century by nationalists, Hindi has a polyvalent and yet specific history. I discuss these contexts in which social contact led to linguistic change and in which Hindi acquired many of the lexical, syntactical, and phonological characteristics by which it is recognized today. I conclude with a section that considers the motif of language and power, and I suggest that the production of knowledge and power in language use, offers both the means of distinction and expression or, in another sense, of hierarchy and communitas. A thread that runs throughout the paper is attention to the contexts in which language use enables elaboration and in which elaboration is eschewed in order to attain social unity. Pursuing a descriptive historical-linguistic project, I neither affirm nor deny the politics of such language use, but rather I indicate the ways in which actors and agents use Hindi to help articulate their agency. / text

Socio-economic processes have long underlined the value of language and ethno-linguistic categories in Canada. The Quiet Revolution, widely considered to be one such process, has resulted in the production of Quebec's English-speaking minority. Although recent studies pertaining to Quebec's English-speaking minority have largely focused on the construction of identity, little research has explored the perceived value of language. While Quebec City’s English-speaking minority is increasingly bilingual, figures suggest that its youth continues to migrate. Through a critical perspective, this thesis explores how Quebec City’s English-speaking minority is navigating the uneven distribution and rising value of bilingualism. Using a qualitative approach, I conducted 15 interviews with participants who attended an English-language high school in Quebec City. Results revealed that participants mobilized ethnic and economic language ideologies as a means to negotiate the value of their linguistic practices and that these language ideologies structured mobility and enabled participants to reposition themselves within a new linguistic market.

Drawing data from a variety of sources, this thesis compares functional evidence regarding lexical categories from a number of Salish and Wakashan languages, as well as from the Michif language. It then applies Prototype Theory to examine the structure of the lexicons of these languages. They are described in terms of prototype categories that overlap to varying extents, with each category and each area of overlap defined by a central set of prototypical features. A high degree of gradience appears to exist between categories in Salish and Wakashan languages, with no clear boundary between categories or areas of overlap, indicating that lexical categories in these languages, rather than being clearly demarcated, are instead fuzzy categories with very little distinguishing them. Categories in Michif, on the other hand, exhibit far less overlap. This variation is compared to variation in conceptual categories across languages, and challenges the notions of the universality of clearly demarcated lexical categories and the existence of separately stored language module in the human mind. In spite of the variation in lexical category demarcation observed across the languages studied, it is possible to demarcate the categories of Noun and Verb to at least some extent in all languages, as well as a category of Adjective in some languages. This supports the proposed universality of the categories of Noun and Verb, as well as the implicational universals proposed in the Amsterdam Model of Parts of Speech (Hengeveld 1992a, b). It is also possible to identify a number of defining characteristics for each lexical category that appear to hold across languages. Since similar characteristics can be identified across languages for all categories, but the categories themselves display varying degrees of overlap in individual languages, this research supports the proposal that language universals, rather than consisting of structures, rules, and categories that are identical in all languages, are rather collections of prototypical characteristics for grammatical categories that are similar across languages (Croft 2000).

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta Ústav etnologie Historické vědy - etnologie Tomáš Samek Možnosti deixe jako interpretačního principu: česky a německy mediovaný prostor The Possibilities of Deixis as a Principle of Interpretation: Mediation in Czech and German Public Space Abstrakt dizertační práce (anglicky) Vedoucí práce: Doc. PhDr. František Vrhel, CSc. 2015 Key Words and Abstract Key words: deixis; deictic perspective; linguistic categories; descriptive metalanguage; public space; social interaction; interpretive approach; mediated communication; mass media; ideologies; social identity; origo; situatedness; phatic function; Czech; German. Abstract: This thesis examines whether, and to what extent, deixis can be conceptualized as an interpretive principle of social interactions and communication. It addresses the question on both theoretical and empirical levels, analyzing samples of direct and mediated communication in Czech and German public space. In order to capture deictic phenomena by an adequate conceptual framework, I take some binary dichotomies of the descriptive metalanguage of linguistics and reconceptualize them as continuous scales. Using these scales, I explore the notional borders of the term "deixis." I further identify protosymbolic potential in deictic expressions as...