The dissertation argues for the following thesis: Velars to have a phonological representation where place specification may be accomodated, but this hosting site is left empty. In other words, I assume velars to be placeless in their phonological representation. This hosting site can have a number of formulations, depending on the particular phonological model. It can be conceived as a Place node, like in Feature Geometry, or an element tier as in Government Phonology, or a particular dependency relation as in Dependency Phonology. According to the thesis, velars share the presence of this hosting site in their representation with labial and coronal consonants (and with vowels, of course), while differing from labials and coronals in not having anything to occupy this hosting site. The thesis is supported by phenomena from a range of languages. The placelessness of velars goes against received assumptions where coronals are considered unmarked due to their absence of place specification. I will demonstrate that quite a number of the most frequently cited cases in support of the unmarked status of coronals do not seem to constitute firm evidence for coronal unmarkedness (and in fact for markedness in general). This suggests that if coronals are still to be considered unmarked, it will have to have a different reason.

Abstract In my study I have taken a contrastive look at Finnish and Estonian inflectional morphology as evidenced in their literary forms. In its perspective the present study differs from the contrastive linguistic research as it is commonly practiced in Finland, in which the objects of research have usually been the relations between Finnish and a morphologically poorer Indo-European language. The languages now in comparison are both morphologically rich languages, viz., Finnish and Estonian, and they also share a common historical background. The objective of my study is twofold: the primary goal is to obtain theoretical information about the relations of inflectional morphology that pertain between these two languages and, secondly, to acquire pedagogically applicable data for language teaching purposes. In order to achieve these goals, it is essential to find out how and to what extent Finnish and Estonian differ from each other morphologically, where the differences come from and how the changes have affected these languages typologically. The results show that by comparing languages it is also possible to discover such features that would not have been possible to detect by just focusing on one language. Natural morphology and markedness theory have served as the theoretical bases for this study. Even in the common grammatical categories there are differences in the markedness relations between Finnish and Estonian. Contrastive research usually deals with a synchronic comparison of languages. However, in analyses of morphological relations between Finnish and Estonian it has turned out practical to relate the synchronic phenomena to their historical background. By adopting this procedure, we are able to unveil the strategic solutions that have taken the languages in different directions. These solutions are reflected in synchronic differences and they can also be indications of typological differentiation. The reasons underlying morphological divergence between Finnish and Estonian can often be found in the developments that have taken place in Estonian: phonological changes can have led to changes in morphological structures and even to morphological innovations. The complete morphologicalization of consonantal gradation and the birth of internal inflection are two of the important processes that Estonian has undergone. To some extent, differences have also been caused by conscious development and standardization of the two languages. A comparison of inflectional morphology in Finnish and Estonian nouns shows that the singular and plural genitive forms have a more focal position in Estonian than they have in Finnish. I will also show in more detail, both diachronically and from the point of view of markedness, the nature of the relationship between the three plural types of Estonian compared to the two types in Finnish. In verb morphology there are important differences, for example, in the passive construction, the mood system and past tense relations as well as in the selection and morphology of the infinite forms. A characteristic feature of Estonian is the weakening of the category for person: many finite verb forms are without the person suffix altogether, or it is optional. The present analysis shows that the relations between Finnish and Estonian paradigm types are quite complex. For instance, many Finnish two-stem word-types are parallel to an Estonian type that has evolved into a single-stem type. However, Estonian can have developed a secondary consonant stem type, which has no equivalent in the Finnish paradigms. There is also ample evidence for one Finnish paradigm having its parallels in two or more types in Estonian. This is the case, for instance, in the two-syllable e contracted nouns and contracted verbs. In addition, a path of development in Estonian may also have led to merging of two paradigm types, such as the coalescence of us quality terms and action terms. / Tiivistelmä Tarkastelen tutkimuksessani kontrastiivisesti suomen ja viron taivutusmorfologiaa niiden kirjakielisen edustuksen pohjalta. Lähtökohdiltaan työni poikkeaa Suomessa yleensä harjoitetusta kontrastiivisesta tutkimuksesta, jossa kohteina ovat olleet tavallisesti suomen ja jonkin usein morfologialtaan köyhemmän indoeurooppalaisen kielen suhteet. Nyt vertailtavina ovat paljolti yhteisen taustan omaavat läheiset sukukielet, suomi ja viro, jotka ovat morfologialtaan rikkaita. Tutkimukseni päämäärä on kahtalainen: ensisijaisena tavoitteena on saada teoreettista tietoa kielten taivutusmorfologisista suhteista, mutta toiseksi myös pedagogisesti hyödynnettävissä olevaa tietoa kielenopetuksen tarpeisiin. Keskeistä on sen selvittäminen, miten ja missä määrin suomi ja viro poikkeavat toisistaan morfologisesti ja mistä erot johtuvat sekä miten muutokset ovat vaikuttaneet kieliin typologisesti. Tulokset osoittavat, että kieliä vertailemalla niistä voidaan saada selville sellaisiakin seikkoja, jotka eivät olisi havaittavissa vain yhteen kieleen keskittymällä. Tutkimukseni teoreettisena viitekehyksenä on luonnollinen morfologia ja tunnusmerkkisyysteoria. Suomen ja viron välillä ilmenee yhteisissäkin kielioppikategorioissa eroja tunnusmerkkisyyssuhteissa. Kontrastiivisen tutkimuksessa on tavallisesti kyse kielten synkronisesta vertailusta. Suomen ja viron morfologisten suhteiden selvittämisessä on osoittautunut tarkoituksenmukaiseksi synkronisten ilmiöiden suhteuttaminen historialliseen taustaan. Tällöin näkyvät kieliä eri suuntaan vieneet strategiset ratkaisut, jotka nyt kuvastuvat synkronisina eroina ja voivat olla osoituksena typologisesta erilaistumisesta. Suomen ja viron morfologisten erojen syynä on usein etenkin virossa tapahtunut kehitys: äänteenmuutokset ovat voineet johtaa kielen muotorakenteessa muutoksiin, myös morfologisiin innovaatioihin. Tärkeitä prosesseja ovat virossa olleet astevaihtelun täydellinen morfologistuminen ja sisäisen taivutuksen synty. Niin ikään eroja on jossain määrin aiheuttanut kielten tietoinen kehittäminen ja normittaminen. Suomen ja viron nominien taivutusmorfologian vertailu osoittaa, että virossa erityisesti yksikön ja monikon genetiivimuodoilla on järjestelmässä huomattavasti keskeisempi asema kuin suomessa. Esitän myös lähemmin, millainen on viron kolmen monikkotyypin suhde suomen kahteen tyyppiin sekä diakronisesti että tunnusmerkkisyyden kannalta. Verbimorfologiassa kielten kesken on tärkeitä eroja muun muassa passiivissa, modusjärjestelmässä, imperfektityyppien suhteissa sekä infiniittimuotojen valikoimassa ja morfologiassa. Virolle leimallista on persoonakategorian heikkeneminen: monet finiittiset verbimuodot ovat vailla persoonapäätettä tai sellainen on valinnainen. Suomen ja viron paradigmatyyppien suhteet osoittautuvat varsin kirjaviksi. Monia suomen kaksivartaloisia sanatyyppejä vastaa virossa yksivartaloiseksi kehittynyt tyyppi. Toisaalta viroon on voinut syntyä sekundaaria konsonanttivartaloisuutta, jollaiselta suomen paradigmoista puuttuu vastine. On myös useita esimerkkejä siitä, että yhtä suomen paradigmatyyppiä, esimerkiksi kaksitavuisia e-supistumanomineja sekä supistumaverbejä, vastaa virossa kaksi tai useampia tyyppejä. Kehitys on virossa voinut johtaa myös kahden paradigmatyypin, kuten us-ominaisuudennimien ja -teonnimien, yhdistymiseen.

本篇論文檢視台灣華語為母語之正常幼童以及構音異常幼童之滑音[j],[w], [ɥ]發展與產製表現，採長期觀察之方式，詳細描述正常幼兒滑音產製之出現及穩定年齡、頻率、正確率和發展順序，並且比較此三滑音於各音節位置之產製表現，進而比較兩組幼童之台灣華語滑音產製及音韻歷程之使用行為。本研究以標記理論及位置層級理論來檢驗幼兒滑音之發展與表現。 本研究總共觀察了四位幼童，將其分為兩組，第一組為兩位正常幼童，年齡在九個月至二十八個月和十個月至二十九個月，為期十九個月的觀察，另一組為兩位構音異常幼童，年齡在三歲十個月至四歲三個月和四歲三個月至四歲九個月，為期六個月的觀察。每兩週收錄一次長達一小時之語料，並利用錄製之高規格影音檔做譯寫及分析。 研究結果顯示，正常幼兒之滑音出現順序和穩定順序皆符合標記理論之預測，無標音早於有標音，其滑音產製之穩定度與音節位置相關，音節首位之滑音表現較音節中與音節末之滑音表現來的穩定，這與位置層級理論之推測相符合。構音異常幼童組中發現了有別於正常幼童之特殊取代模式，由較晚習得語音取代較早習得語音，其所產製的語音中會違反華語的音法限制。音韻歷程之表現在兩組幼童中皆偵測到刪除、換位、取代三種模式，其中皆以刪除為主要策略。 / The purpose of the present study is to report the developmental process of three Mandarin glides [w, j, ɥ] in terms of three word positions by examining the age of emergence and stabilization, the order of stabilization, and accuracy rate of thechildren’s production, and further compare the normative data with phonological disorder data in order to explore the possible phonological processes. This study alsoaccounts for the developmental process of glides on the basis of markedness theory and positional prominence hierarchy. A longitudinal study was carried out for the investigation of two normally-developing children, aged between 0;9-2;4 and 0;10-2;4, and two phonologically-disordered children, one of whom is between 4;3 and 4;9, and the other between 3;10 and 4;3. The data were collected at two-week intervals. The results showed that the order of glide emergence and stabilization of the normally-developing group is in accordance with the markedness theory. The unmarked [j], [w] precede marked [ɥ]. Moreover, the stabilization order of the three glides in terms of the three syllable positions was found to reflect the interaction between markedness constraint and positional prominence hierarchy. The unmarked glide in the initial position is the first to stabilize and the marked glide in the non-initial position is the last to stabilize. On the other hand, the children in the phonologically-disordered group were found to consistently replace the presumably earlier-developing glide with a presumably later-developing one, which differs from the process used in the normally-developing group. Furthermore, this group of children produced the combination that violates the phonotactic constraints of Taiwan Mandarin. In addition, there are three phonological processes, including deletion, metathesis, and substitution detected in children’s data. The most commonly used process is deletion in both groups of children.

The term equivalence describes the relationship between a translation and the text from which it is translated. Translation is generally viewed as indeterminate insofar as there is no single acceptable translation - but many. Despite this, the rationalist metaphor of translation equivalence prevails. Rationalist approaches view translation as a process in which an original text is analysed to a level of abstraction, then transferred into a second representation from which a translation is generated. At the deepest level of abstraction, representations for analysis and generation are identical and transfer becomes redundant, while at the surface level it is said that surface textual features are transferred directly. Such approaches do not provide a principled explanation of how or why abstraction takes place in translation. They also fail to resolve the dilemma of specifying the depth of transfer appropriate for a given translation task. By focusing on the translator�s role as mediator of communication, equivalence can be understood as the coordination of information about situations and states of mind. A fundamental opposition is posited between the transfer of rule-like or codifiable aspects of equivalence and those non-codifiable aspects in which salient information is coordinated. The Translation Salience model proposes that Transfer and Salience constitute bipolar extremes of a continuum. The model offers a principled account of the translator�s interlingual attunement to multi-placed coordination, proposing that salient information can be accounted for with three primary notions: markedness, implicitness and localness. Chapter Two develops the Translation Salience model. The model is supported with empirical evidence from published translations of Arabic and English texts. Salience is illustrated in Chapter Three through contextualized interpretations associated with various Arabic communication resources (repetition, code switching, agreement, address in relative clauses, and the disambiguation of presentative structures). Measurability of the model is addressed in Chapter Four with reference to emerging computational techniques. Further research is suggested in connection with theme and focus, text type, cohesion and collocation relations.

<p>This dissertation examines direct and subordinate questions, as well as verb morphology in L2 Swedish, from a developmental perspective. The study is cross-sectional, containing data from Iraqi Arabic, Persian and Somali adolescent learners representing three different levels of proficiency. The data are analysed on the basis of two theories: The Markedness Differential Hypothesis and Processability Theory. Data elicited through four different techniques are examined with the aim of examining the possible impact of different data types on the results. The different elicitation techniques used in the study are: oral production, written production, grammaticality judgement and a receptive skills task. Two of the elicitation techniques, written production and grammaticality judgement, include all three structures in focus in the study, whilst the oral production and the receptive task is centred on direct questions.</p><p>The results suggest that there are implicational relationships regarding the order in which the grammatical structures are acquired. On the whole, predictions based on the two theories used as a basis for the analyses find support in the material. Having a wide scope for predictions at the morpho-syntactical level, the results meet the claims in particular of Processability Theory. The predictions and the results do not contrast the two theories with each other. A comparison of the different data types clearly indicates that the grammaticality judgement task substantially diverges from the other data types providing less consistent data and exhibiting trends that are in conflict with the data obtained through the three other elicitation techniques.</p>

This dissertation examines direct and subordinate questions, as well as verb morphology in L2 Swedish, from a developmental perspective. The study is cross-sectional, containing data from Iraqi Arabic, Persian and Somali adolescent learners representing three different levels of proficiency. The data are analysed on the basis of two theories: The Markedness Differential Hypothesis and Processability Theory. Data elicited through four different techniques are examined with the aim of examining the possible impact of different data types on the results. The different elicitation techniques used in the study are: oral production, written production, grammaticality judgement and a receptive skills task. Two of the elicitation techniques, written production and grammaticality judgement, include all three structures in focus in the study, whilst the oral production and the receptive task is centred on direct questions. The results suggest that there are implicational relationships regarding the order in which the grammatical structures are acquired. On the whole, predictions based on the two theories used as a basis for the analyses find support in the material. Having a wide scope for predictions at the morpho-syntactical level, the results meet the claims in particular of Processability Theory. The predictions and the results do not contrast the two theories with each other. A comparison of the different data types clearly indicates that the grammaticality judgement task substantially diverges from the other data types providing less consistent data and exhibiting trends that are in conflict with the data obtained through the three other elicitation techniques.

中國電影的發展長時間受制於中共的政治意識形態，中共建政後，表面上來看中國婦女的確是解放的，然實際上卻是性別消溶於轟轟烈烈的革命運動之中；文革時期，「樣板戲電影」中的女性被塑造成革命的女性形象，她們有明顯的「男性化」傾向，作為階級政治、男性界定的符號而存在，缺乏該有的女性特徵，更遑論有自身的女性意識；文革結束後，直到1978年12月十一屆三中全會召開確立了「實事求是，解放思想」，中國電影創作才逐漸回到了現實主義創作的道路上，此外該時期的中國女性導演人數較前期增加許多。本文以符號學「標出性」理論為基礎，並將電影創作者的切入視角區分為「正常視角」及「標出視角」來分析男、女導演的性別視角，結果發現本文研究對象中，女導演彭小蓮、胡玫、李少紅作品的「標出視角」（即女性獨立自主、追求自我價值、不為人所重視的空間等）較明顯，而「正常視角」則相對缺乏，僅於少數作品發現有服從紀律（《女兒樓》）、男尊女卑（《紅色清晨》）、男性尊嚴（《紅西服》）等「正常視角」；至於男導演張藝謀則兩者兼具，然而其作品雖可見女性獨立、倔強、大膽的「標出視角」，惟「正常視角」（即封建社會、大家庭權力結構、傳宗接代觀念、著重婚喪儀式、沉重的歷史感等）卻更加明顯。張藝謀早期的電影雖以女性為主角，但他在書寫女性時，仍舊受制於男權中心主義，這些女性是以一個「被看」的客體存在，是為滿足男導演和觀眾的觀看期待，而這些女性形象承載的是超出其自身之外更宏大的社會歷史意涵；反觀女導演，她們電影中的女性除具有明確的自我獨立意識外，她們對於女性心理狀態和真實情感等層面，更能細膩地表述，特別是在表現女性不為人所重視的空間上。

The term equivalence describes the relationship between a translation and the text from which it is translated. Translation is generally viewed as indeterminate insofar as there is no single acceptable translation - but many. Despite this, the rationalist metaphor of translation equivalence prevails. Rationalist approaches view translation as a process in which an original text is analysed to a level of abstraction, then transferred into a second representation from which a translation is generated. At the deepest level of abstraction, representations for analysis and generation are identical and transfer becomes redundant, while at the surface level it is said that surface textual features are transferred directly. Such approaches do not provide a principled explanation of how or why abstraction takes place in translation. They also fail to resolve the dilemma of specifying the depth of transfer appropriate for a given translation task. By focusing on the translator�s role as mediator of communication, equivalence can be understood as the coordination of information about situations and states of mind. A fundamental opposition is posited between the transfer of rule-like or codifiable aspects of equivalence and those non-codifiable aspects in which salient information is coordinated. The Translation Salience model proposes that Transfer and Salience constitute bipolar extremes of a continuum. The model offers a principled account of the translator�s interlingual attunement to multi-placed coordination, proposing that salient information can be accounted for with three primary notions: markedness, implicitness and localness. Chapter Two develops the Translation Salience model. The model is supported with empirical evidence from published translations of Arabic and English texts. Salience is illustrated in Chapter Three through contextualized interpretations associated with various Arabic communication resources (repetition, code switching, agreement, address in relative clauses, and the disambiguation of presentative structures). Measurability of the model is addressed in Chapter Four with reference to emerging computational techniques. Further research is suggested in connection with theme and focus, text type, cohesion and collocation relations.

The study is an in-depth examination of code-switching in the Logoli speech community in the cosmopolitan Kangemi informal settlement area on the outskirts of the city of Nairobi. The aim of the study is to investigate the sociolinguistic and structural developments that result from urban language contact settings such as Kangemi. The main objective is to identify and illustrate the social motivations that influence the tendency of the Logoli speakers to alternate codes between Lulogoli, Kiswahili and English in the course of their routine conversations as well as the structural patterns that emerge in the process of code-switching. Various methodological techniques were used in the gathering of data, including questionnaire surveys, oral interviews, tape recordings and ethnographic participant-observation techniques are highlighted. Extracts from the corpus were analysed within a theoretical framework based on two models, namely the Markedness Model and the Matrix Language Frame Model, both developed by Myers-Scotton. The study identified and interpreted, within the Markedness Model framework, the key social variables that determine code-switching behaviour among the Logoli speech community. These include age, education, status and the various social domains of interaction. In the light of these factors, the researcher was able to explain the tendency to switch codes in different settings and confirm the study’s assumption that urban-based social factors largely determine the motivations for and the patterns of code-switching. This lead to the conclusion that code-switching is not a random phenomenon but a strategy and a negotiation process that aims at maximizing benefits from interaction. Structural features of the corpus were also identified and analysed within the Matrix Language Frame Model. The assumptions of the model were tested and found to be supported by numerous examples from the data. A number of recommendations were made for further research on minority languages in Kenya and the need for language policy in Kenya to be formulated to take these language groups into consideration. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Sociolinguistics)

Production errors made by second language (L2) learners of English have been attributed to markedness, L1 transfer or input frequency (cf. Major, 2001; Edwards & Zampini, 2008; Baptista, Rauber, & Watkins, 2009). This thesis examines the production of 17 English initial consonant clusters (e.g., /pr/ in “pray”) in a markedness relationship, whereby clusters with greater sonority distance between the first and second consonants are unmarked and clusters with smaller sonority distance between the first and second consonants are marked, by two groups of Saudi Arabian L2 English learners. It also explores the effect of input frequency and L1 transfer. Participants were asked to read 60 sentences and their reading was recorded for acoustic analysis. Analysis showed that “prothesis” was always used to simplify the clusters, and that, the duration of the prothetic vowel tended to get longer when clusters become more marked. Intermediate participants had greater degree of difficulty in producing the clusters and tended to insert a longer prothetic vowel in general. Markedness explained the performance on #sC clusters; however, performance on non #sC clusters was best explained by L1 transfer. Results further indicated that input frequency was irrelevant to this study.