<p> This thesis aims to study stand-up comedies as an oral and humoristic performance in today&rsquo;s French society. In the sense that these shows are mainly produced by minorities, often from Maghrebi descendants, this work asks the ethno racial question within France&rsquo;s boundaries. Based on oral tradition and humor theories, the author wondered in what ways stand-up comedies as oral productions could unveil the realities and concerns of modern French society.</p><p> The author chooses to focus her analysis on the current show <i> Comte de Bouderbala</i> by Sami Ameziane, a young French comedian of Algerian descendants and whose show addresses current issues, such as immigration, identity, or the political and educational French systems.</p><p> To answer her original question, the author divides this work in two main parts: &ldquo;Performance&rdquo; and &ldquo;Humor&rdquo;, both of which are the two main components of stand-up comedies. These elements are analyzed separately, sometimes from the perspective of the performer and the production, other times from the perspective of the spectators and the reception.</p><p> After isolating the performance aspect from the humoristic one, the author concludes that several analysis points overlap, such as the statements and messages transmitted during those performances, as well as the temporary reversal of the social power and the social recognition obtained thanks to those representations. Stand-up comedies, and more specifically <i>Comte de Bouderbala,</i> can be seen as a reflection of and about modern French society. A society that seems to refuse to admit the controversial situation, at its heart, in which ethno racial minorities &ndash; especially the Beur minority &ndash; find themselves.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2559. Adviser: Douglas A. Kibbee. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-182) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

abstract: Research in foreign language (FL) acquisition has shown that connectives, a key linguistic element contributing to cohesion and sentence complexity, pose a great challenge for FL learners at all proficiency levels. In spite of the importance of connectives in foreign language acquisition, little research has been conducted to explore how connectives are taught and presented in foreign language classrooms and textbooks. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the presentation and introduction of connectives as well as the pedagogical activities provided for learning connectives in Chinese textbooks for novice to intermediate FL learners. To achieve the purpose of the study, three different sets of widely-used Chinese textbooks were selected and compared. The results show that while the amount of coverage varies greatly among the three sets of textbook, the sequence of presenting connectives in each series of textbooks closely follows the ranks suggested in the HSK Grading Standards and Grammar Outline (HSK is the shortened form for Chinese Proficiency Test). As for the activities, although all three textbooks claim to adopt a communicative approach to FL teaching, they differ considerably in the type of activities provided. In addition, it is evident that more traditional form-focused exercises are included in those textbooks than meaning-focused communicative tasks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Asian Languages and Civilizations 2015

abstract: ABSTRACT This qualitative study used a survey to investigate the attitudes and experiences of 44 Heritage learners (HLL) and non-Heritage learners (NHLL) in beginning-level Spanish courses with a mixed population (HLLs and NHLLs) in the same classroom. Specifically, the survey elicited data on their attitudes and experiences towards their own language skills in Spanish and English, their mixed beginning-level Spanish course, their personal reactions to mixed classes, and their attitudes toward classmates that belong to the other group (e.g., HLLs view of NHLLs). The findings of this study indicated that HLLs perceived their listening and speaking skills to be better than their literacy (reading and writing) skills, while NHLLs self-assessed their receptive skills (reading and listening) to be higher than their productive skills (speaking and writing). In addition, both groups expressed a positive attitude toward mixed beginning-level Spanish classes and noted specific advantages to learning in such an environment (e.g., the opportunity to learn about each other’s cultures, the fact that each group felt appreciated and valued by the other group) with very few disadvantages (e.g., HLLs had mixed opinions on the effect that a mixed class might have on a teacher’s expectation for how much material is covered and how thoroughly, while NHLLs mostly agreed that a teacher’s expectations would affect the breadth and depth of material covered; NHLLs thought the presence of HLLs in their class might negatively affect their grades). However, both groups indicated they would prefer to be in Spanish classes with members of their own group instead of in mixed classes (NHLLs affirmed this more than HLLs). This study concludes with a discussion of pedagogical implications, limitations of the study, and ideas for future research on this topic. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Spanish 2015

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.

Designed as an introduction to some concerns of the postmodern moment--a moment which demands an awareness of 'being-within' language as well as a particular historical, social, and cultural framework--this text reads selected contemporary theory and contemporary fiction as a means of interrogating their shared discursive space. Neither is privileged over the other: the theory is not used to explicate the fiction, and the fiction is not presented as proof of the theory. Neither is the site of Truth; rather, the theory and the fiction use varying narrative strategies to express similar critiques and concerns of the postmodern moment. Poststructuralism's use (and critique) of the tenets of structuralism is introduced in a chapter which reads Italo Calvino's "A Sign in Space" as a fabulous tale which discovers and then dismantles the Saussurean understanding of linguistic signs. The deconstruction of the linguistic sign continues in a larger critique of representation in the following chapter, which brings together J. M. Coetzee's novel, Foe, and Jacques Derrida's essays, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" and "Differance," to discuss the shift from a mimetic confidence in the referentiality of language to an awareness of the unstable function performed by any semiotic sign. The subject is then looked at as an historically specific construct, and in its relationship to power, with Michel Foucault's essay "The Subject and Power" and Michel Tournier's novel Friday providing the primary texts. The following chapter uses Roland Barthes' essay "From Work to Text" and Foe and Friday as a means of discussing intertextuality. The final chapter brings the theoretical tools gathered thus far to the discussion of history within the postmodern moment. The counter-memory of three novels (Christa Wolf's Cassandra, Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children), each an example of 'historiographic metafiction', is highlighted, along with Michel Foucault's essay, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History."

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.

This research aims at examining the influence of modern English on the lexicon of the press of areas representative of the major Hispanic groups in the U.S.: Chicanos, Puerto Ricans and Cubans. With this goal in mind, a classification and comparative study of all the loanwords from English found in the Spanish language press of the three areas was carried out, as well as an analysis of the morpho-orthographic adaptation of these same loanwords in all three linguistic varieties. This research focused only on what in the field of languages in contact are called loanwords or prestamos, which consist in an outright transfer of a lexical element from one language into another. These loanwords, of course, change to adapt themselves to the morphology of the recipient language. Since the data was taken from written sources, the loanwords also had the ortographic adaptations that the recipient language generally demands. The sources for data used in this study were two issues each of the major newspaper from the largest metropolitan area of each group: Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. All the loanwords in these three newspapers were classified according to area, thematic field, users of the language, and parts of speech. A comparative analysis was carried out with the resultant classification, as well as an analysis of the morpho-orthographic adaptation of the loanwords in the three recipient lingustic varieties. The results of this research show that there are differences between the three varieties as far as lexical borrowing from English is concerned. While the morpho-orthographic processes that the loanwords in this study undergo in all three linguistic varieties are basically the same, in Mimai the number of verbs taken as loans was significantly smaller. All other differences are non-linguistic in nature. They occur in the thematic fields which are more receptive to loans, or in parts of the newspapers writen by types of users of the language with different degrees of receptivity, i.e., journalists, advertising professionals, or general readers of the newspapers.