I investigate the phonology of prosodic clitics—independent syntactic words not parsed as independent prosodic words—in Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian. I ask, first, how clitics are organized into prosodic structures, and second, how this is determined by the grammar. Following Zec (1997, 2005), I look at several clitic categories, including negation, prepositions, complementizers, conjunctions, and second-position clitics. Based on a reanalysis of word accent (Browne and McCawley 1965, Inkelas and Zec 1988, Zec 1999), I argue that in some cases where a preposition, complementizer, or conjunction fails to realize accent determined by a following word, it is not a proclitic—that is, prosodified with the following word—but rather a free clitic parsed directly by a phonological phrase. Conversely, the second-position clitics are not always enclitic—that is, prosodified with a preceding word—but are sometimes free. Their second-position word order results not from enclisis, but from the avoidance of free clitics at phrase edges, where they would interfere with the alignment of phonological phrases to prosodic words. Regarding the determination of clisis by the grammar, I argue for an interface constraint approach (Selkirk 1995, Truckenbrodt 1995), whereby prosodic structures are built according to general constraints on their well-formedness, and on their interface to syntactic structures. I contrast this with the subcategorization approach, which sees clisis as specified for each clitic (Klavans 1982, Radanovic-Kocic 1988, Zec and Inkelas 1990). The comparison across clitic categories provides key support for the interface constraint approach, showing that their prosody depends on their syntactic configurations and phonological shapes, rather than on arbitrary subcategorizations. Prosodic differences across categories are a derivative effect of their configuration in the clause, and of the division of the clause into phonological phrases. The relevance of phonological phrases consists in how their edges discourage some kinds of clisis, blocking, for example, proclisis of complementizers and conjunctions to their complements. Free clisis is disfavored at phrase edges, producing the second-position effect. Thus, the interface constraint approach leads to a unified account of word, phrase, and clitic prosody.

Modal Particles (MPs) are uninflected words with little semantic value in modern German and are used mainly in spontaneous spoken language, where the same words with a specific semantic value can also be found as adverbs, particles, or conjunctions. Their identification in an MP function can be done only by syntactic analysis. The usage of some of these MPs can be documented in texts of Early New High German, a time which was crucial for the establishment of the "sentence frame" in German syntax. This dissertation is an investigation of Luther's usage of MPs in his translations of the four gospels. The MPs DOCH, DENN, JA, AUCH and NUR can be found in sentences where there is not necessarily an equivalent lexeme in the Greek and Latin source texts. Luther aimed to produce a text that was linguistically suitable for all groups of readers. The hypothesis is that Luther makes ample use of MPs in direct speech in his translation to make the text more natural according to his effort to use language as spoken by the people. Using syntactic and semantic analysis, it can be shown which of the words in question actually function as MPs or have another function. Luther's distribution system for the MPs DOCH, DENN, JA, AUCH, and NUR shows similarity to current use, but not in such a wide range. It can be shown that DENN, for example, is in transition from the function as adverb to a MP, but many examples are ambiguous and could be interpreted either way. It can be shown that certain translation patterns existed between certain Greek particles, their Latin counterparts, and the German MPs. According to a coincidence rate of maximally 4 %, it is apparent that Luther was only sporadically and inconsistently inspired by the occurrence of particles in the source texts, but followed instead German patterns of spoken language when inserting a MP in his translation text. Luther's bible translation, Modal particles, Sentence patterns, direct speech, Early New High German

The purpose of this study is twofold: to explore the social and linguistic factors that influence the variable application of some phonological processes of Central Asturian, and to test the hypothesis that establishes a relation between the structure of society and the hierarchical structure of phonological segments. This hypothesis predicts that processes that operate at a higher level in the segmental structure will be socially less acceptable than processes that affect the segmental structure at a lower level. Chapter one outlines the socio-historical circumstances that have led to the present linguistic situation of Asturias. It describes the origins of Asturian and Castilian, the two languages in contact in the area, and the relation between these languages up to the present day. The most representative characteristics of the pronunciation of Central Asturian are also presented in this chapter. In chapter two, the treatment of post-nuclear stop and nasal segments, and the processes that affect stressed and unstressed vowels in Asturian, are interpreted within the theoretical framework provided by autosegmental phonology. The processes that affect stop segments are viewed as processes triggered by sonority restrictions of the Asturian syllable. All processes operate on a structure in which segmental features are hierarchically organized by delinking and spreading features, plus some language-specific default rules. The third chapter presents the results of a sociolinguistic study conducted in the industrial city of Langreo, in Central Asturias. This study employs the methodology developed in quantitative sociolinguistic studies. Speech data from the city of Langreo were obtained in a series of recorded interviews conducted by the author with a representative sample of residents. The results of the variational analysis determine the actual degree of use of Asturian features among the different sectors of the population, and address questions of the status and stability of the local language. The results partially support the hypothesis that there is a relation between the segmental structure and the structure of society.

Students are human beings; they, like all of us, make mistakes. In the language classroom, these mistakes may be written, spoken, and even thought. How, if, when, under what conditions and to what degree these errors are treated is of current concern in research regarding language acquisition. In their metaanalysis of interactional feedback, Mackey and Goo (2007) report that the utilization of feedback is beneficial and find evidence that feedback within the context of a focus on form environment is also facilitative of acquisition, echoing Norris and Ortega’s (2000) positive findings regarding focus on form research. Thus, the role of feedback has found a somewhat limited, very informative and equally persuasive niche in current theory building and research. There is lack of research specifically addressing the role and effects of forms of feedback, other than recasts, namely prompts, in the second language classroom where the focus in on language use as a means of communication rather than the objectification of it. This context employs focus on form, a brief pedagogical intervention that momentarily shifts the focus of the class from meaning to linguistic form (See Long, 1991). Because prompts withhold correct forms (Lyster, 2004; Lyster & Saito, 2010), encourage students to simultaneously notice and self-correct (Lyster & Ranta, 1997), and push modified, student-generated output (de Bot, 1996; Lyster & Izquierdo, 2009; Lyster & Saito, 2010; Swain & Lapkin, 1995), they may be theoretically more appropriate for a focus on form context. This study examines this role in its function and efficacy comparing an implicit prompt, the clarification request, with an explicit prompt, metalinguistic feedback on students’ spoken errors in the use of a very complex target structure, the subjunctive in nominal clauses in Spanish. Efficacy of the feedback is measured through successful student uptake, that is, whether or not students are able to self-repair as a result of the intervention and then through development operationalized as mean gains in a pre-test/post-test design. Statistical significance is shown for uptake with metalinguistic feedback only, however no development is shown as a result of any feedback due to the target structure’s acquisition complexity.

This thesis develops a model of Spanish intonation designed to account for all possible melodic contours of the language, from a phonetic and phonological point of view. The principles and methods used are mostly derived from the Pierrehumbert (1980) theory of English intonation. The empirical foundation for the model is based on the fundamental frequency contour, which is considered to be the phonetic representation of the underlying tonal structure. The underlying representation consists of sequences of only two tones, High and Low, which conform two tonal categories: pitch accents and boundary tones. These are considered to be on a separate autosegmental tier from the syllables and other suprasegmental elements. A set of rules associate the tones to the texts according to the stress patterns. By means of these elements and principles the phonological organization of some recurrent intonational patterns in Spanish is described, and a repertoire of pitch accents is proposed. The notation used is abstract, as only underlying units and their alignment to the text is represented. This analysis also accounts for the important intonational distinctions that occur between Spanish dialects. It is shown here that the most important differences can be described in terms of underlying tones. This suggests that these differences are not only phonetic but also phonological in nature.

Framed within a Sociocultural Theory of Mind (SCT) in the field of Second Language Acquisition (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), this dissertation explores the role of verbalizing in the internalization of grammatical categories through the use of Concept-based Instruction (henceforth CBI) in the second language (L2) classroom. Using Vygotsky's (1986) distinction between scientific and spontaneous or everyday concepts applied to L2 development (Negueruela, 2008), this study focuses on the teaching and potential development of the grammatical concept of aspect in the Spanish L2 classroom, and the role of verbalizing in its internalization. It is proposed that verbalizing mediates between the learners' initial understandings of the grammatical concept of aspect, the development of conscious conceptualizations, and students' written and oral production of preterite and imperfect grammatical forms. This study presents and analyzes data from one of the thirty-two adult college students enrolled in an advanced Spanish conversation course. Data is analyzed through a clinical analytic approach, which has its roots in Vygotsky's (1978) genetic method of analysis. The study was carried out over a 12-week period and collected multiple sets of developmental data, including learners' definition of the grammatical concept of aspect, written performance protocols, and verbalization data recorded during two oral interviews. The study interprets learner performance in these three complementary, and dialectically connected types of L2 conceptual data. A close analysis of this participant's data provides critical insights to understand the role of verbalizing in L2 conceptual development. Findings confirm that learners' verbalizations are key factors to ascertain L2 conceptual development, as well as a mediational tool that fosters learners' internalization of the grammatical concept of aspect. It is proposed that verbalizing notably contributes to research on L2 development. Not only does it allow the researcher to have a more comprehensive picture of L2 development, but it also helps learners develop a more sophisticated semantic understanding of the grammatical concept of aspect and fosters their ability to understand and control relevant grammatical features in L2 communication.