Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: 1.1 AIM OF THE RESEARCH Relational nouns are those nouns which have the characteristic of being related in some other way. These nouns also show us that there is always equality and inequality in status amongst the people. It is in this research where I am going to show this difference amongst tshivenda nouns. At the end of this study tshivenda relational nouns, with the involvement of vertical relations of dependency and horizontal relations with no dependency, will be explained. Focus on this issue will be paid to different kinship terms with dependency and no dependency. 1.2. ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY Chapter 2 is going to focus on the tshivenda relational nouns. In this chapter vertical relations of dependency and horizontal relations with no dependency will be clearly explained. Kinship terms and non-kinship terms are also going to be illustrated. In the illustration of non-kinship terms, different situations in which they occur are also given. Venda antonyms and synonyms as words that occur in horizontal relations with no dependency are distinguished and classified. Chapter 3 will basically be doing with the kikinship terms. Anthropological views on kinship will also be looked at. Anthropologists Radcliffe – Brown and Fortes give their different views on the concept of kinship. This chapter goes further by showing the linquistic views on kinship. Here Doodenough comes with two relationships that lead to lineal descent. Lounsburry also shows the structural analysis of lexical set of covers and partitions a semantic field. The chapter proceeds by defining marriage and also shows how the Vhavenda boys choose their partners, pay lobola and marry. A Venda lineal descent has also been illustrated. Different generations, from the fourth ascending generation to the third descending generation are explained. Chapter 4 will be showing the outcome of the research. This will be based on chapters 2 and 3.

This paper is a study of the noun phrase construction in L2 learner language and the base for the study are the tools for measuring syntactic maturity presented by Kellog W. Hunt (1966). Hunt and other scholars have used T-units, the smallest terminable unit in language, to analyze L2 learner language. This study however, analyzes the construction of the noun phrase instead of T-units. Although the focus differs there are many similarities between the method used in this study and in those analyzing T-units. This means that the study tries to create indexes which we can use as tools for measuring syntactic maturity and complexity among L2 learners, by measuring consolidation and postmodification. The outcome of the study shows that it is possible to measure consolidation of the noun phrase and that this figure may very well function as a tool for measuring language development. Furthermore this paper investigates opportunities for teachers to teach syntax and concludes that there are ways of improving L2 teaching by utilizing knowledge about L2 learner syntax.

This dissertation explores, within the general framework of Distributed Morphology, the licensing conditions of empty nouns in Persian, a Western Iranian language, and the issues that arise within this context for the distribution of plural marking and the insertion of the Ezafe vowel. With respect to the licensing of the empty noun, the proposal made in this thesis is along the lines of those that link ellipsis to information structure (e.g. Rooth 1992a, 1992b; Gengel 2007, among others). It is suggested that the Empty Noun Construction (ENC) is derived through the interaction between the following two information-structural features: (i) the E(llipsis)-feature, which ensures that the head noun is identical with its counterpart in the antecedent and specifies the head noun for non-pronunciation; (ii) the F(ocus)-feature, which specifies the remnant modifier as an element which is in some kind of contrastive relationship with its corresponding element in the antecedent. The interaction between these two features is implemented in the syntax in a phase-based derivation. Plural marking and Ezafe insertion in the ENC are accounted for within an articulated derivational model of PF (Embick & Noyer 2001; Embick 2003 et seq.; Pak 2008). It is proposed that the displacement of the plural marker in the ENC is motivated by the non-pronunciation of the head noun and is handled early in the PF derivation by Local Dislocation operation. Adopting Pak's (2008) model of syntax-phonology interface, the rule responsible for the insertion of the Ezafe linker -e is argued to be a phonological rule that applies at the Late-Linearization stage to connect [+N] heads to their following modifiers/complements.

This dissertation explores, within the general framework of Distributed Morphology, the licensing conditions of empty nouns in Persian, a Western Iranian language, and the issues that arise within this context for the distribution of plural marking and the insertion of the Ezafe vowel. With respect to the licensing of the empty noun, the proposal made in this thesis is along the lines of those that link ellipsis to information structure (e.g. Rooth 1992a, 1992b; Gengel 2007, among others). It is suggested that the Empty Noun Construction (ENC) is derived through the interaction between the following two information-structural features: (i) the E(llipsis)-feature, which ensures that the head noun is identical with its counterpart in the antecedent and specifies the head noun for non-pronunciation; (ii) the F(ocus)-feature, which specifies the remnant modifier as an element which is in some kind of contrastive relationship with its corresponding element in the antecedent. The interaction between these two features is implemented in the syntax in a phase-based derivation. Plural marking and Ezafe insertion in the ENC are accounted for within an articulated derivational model of PF (Embick & Noyer 2001; Embick 2003 et seq.; Pak 2008). It is proposed that the displacement of the plural marker in the ENC is motivated by the non-pronunciation of the head noun and is handled early in the PF derivation by Local Dislocation operation. Adopting Pak's (2008) model of syntax-phonology interface, the rule responsible for the insertion of the Ezafe linker -e is argued to be a phonological rule that applies at the Late-Linearization stage to connect [+N] heads to their following modifiers/complements.

Typescript (photocopy) / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1980. / Bibliography: leaves 263-269. / Microfiche. / xvi, 269 leaves, bound ill. 28 cm

Due to a long history of contact with other tongues, Algerian Arabic and Maltese have massive borrowings from French and Italian respectively. In the aim of exploring the influence of linguistic contact on the types of loan adaptation in these two historically related dialects, this study analyzed a linguistic corpus of noun loans. The effect of language contact is better observed through a comparative study of the phonological and morphological change each language has undertaken. The study investigated French noun loans in Algerian Arabic, and Italian noun loans in Maltese. It specifically focused on gender, number (singular and plural) and the definite article as a means of defining the noun loans. The analysis has revealed that Maltese and Algerian Arabic both adapted the loans phonologically but also borrowed new foreign phonemes. Morphologically, they mostly preserved the noun loans genders, used the native patterns to make them plural and the article -al in the case of Algerian Arabic ,-il in the case of Maltese to make them definite. Algerian Arabic used the native patterns / a:t/, the broken plural or the collective /-ja/ plural. Maltese used the native /-jiet/ and the broken plural, however, contrary to Algerian Arabic, Maltese has also borrowed Italian plural patterns making the loan plural patterns unpredictable. The linguistic consequences of borrowing on these languages have made of Algerian Arabic a case of diffusion and of Maltese a case of diffusion and loss. Maltese has borrowed new phonemes but has lost a few native ones, notably the emphatic and velar fricative sounds, still in use in the other Arabic dialects. Algerian Arabic borrowed new phonemes but retained the native phonemes. Borrowing could not be the only factor that has ultimately rendered Maltese to be no longer considered an Arabic dialect and has made Algerian Arabic not obvious to other Arabic speakers, yet it has reinforced it. Contact with the foreign language Italian and loss of contact with the mainstream Arabic dialects was another major factor that rendered Maltese a unique Semitic variety alien even to the closest North African dialect.

This study is about the structure of the noun phrases used with with signalling nouns, which are abstract nouns that are hard to understand without a context. The inspiration for the study comes from work by John Flowerdew. The aim is to investigate in what type of noun phrases (NP) the signalling nouns are used by L2 English students and if the structures of these NPs tell us something about the meaning of the nouns. The material of the study is from the pioneering learner corpus the International Corpus of Learner’s English (ICLE). In general, it was found that the chosen signalling nouns thing, argument, possibility, chapter, kind and fact, are frequently used in complex NPs. There were some differences in the distribution of nouns, with thing, kind and fact having rather high frequencies in comparison to the other nouns. For this reason, samples of these nouns were selected for the analysis. The findings indicate that these signalling nouns rarely appear alone but are most often used in complex NPs. Furthermore, the results also show that a large proportion of these nouns is used in fixed phrases.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universitetet i Uppsala, 1986. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-206).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universitetet i Uppsala, 1986. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-206).

Notre travail est consacré à l’élément LA (< fr. là) en guyanais, langue créole française pour laquelle il n’existe que peu de données linguistiques accessibles. Nous fournissons un nouveau corpus du guyanais qui inclut une vaste gamme de textes anciens de 1799 à 1893 et des données du guyanais parlé. En nous basant sur notre corpus, nous proposons une analyse diachronique et synchronique de LA, élément extrêmement polyfonctionnel en guyanais. Nous commençons notre étude par distinguer ses différentes fonctions : adverbe/marqueur de discours, élément du pronom déictique-démonstratif, LA en fin de proposition subordonnée ou interrogative, ainsi que LA marqueur postnominal. Pour l’analyse du dernier, nous proposons une approche théorique de la référence nominale qui tient compte de l’usage de l’élément en question en discours, et donc aussi des fonctions interactionnelles et sociales du langage. Notre analyse de corpus nous permet de classer LA comme marqueur dont l’emploi est non seulement incomplètement généralisé dans les contextes définis, mais dont l’usage dépend d’une interaction complexe de différents facteurs d’ordre sémantico-pragmatique, ontologico-cognitif et informationnel-syntaxique. LA dénote en outre une certaine variation graduelle en fonction de la tradition discursive, ou bien des conditions/intentions communicatives respectives. LA est enfin un élément qui laisse toujours entrevoir à un certain degré son enracinement initial dans la deixis et l’oralité. De ce lien témoigne également le rôle joué par là/LA non seulement dans les autres créoles français, mais également dans les variétés orales du français en Afrique ou au Canada. / Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich dem Element LA (< fr. là) im Guayanakreol, einer französischen Kreolsprache für die bisher kaum Untersuchungen vorliegen. Unsere Arbeit legt ein neues Korpus vor, das sich aus Texten von 1799-1893 sowie aus eigenen Sprachaufnahmen zusammensetzt. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Untersuchung liegt auf einer detaillierten synchronen und diachronen Beschreibung der Verwendungskontexte des im Guayanakreol stark polyfunktionalen LAs. Hierfür nehmen wir zunächst eine Abgrenzung zwischen LA als Adverb/Diskursmarker, LA als Teil des Demonstrativpronomens, LA am Ende von Neben- oder Fragesätzen sowie dem postnominalen Marker LA vor. Für die Analyse des postnominalen LAs entwickeln wir anschließend einen umfangreichen theoretischen Unterbau zur Nominalreferenz, wobei ein semantisch-pragmatischer und kognitiver Ansatz verfolgt wird. Die Korpusanalyse zeigt schließlich, dass das postnominale LA allenfalls als definiter Marker auf einer niedrigen Grammatikalisierungsstufe eingeordnet werden kann, dessen Auftreten durch ein komplexes Zusammenspiel semantisch-pragmatischer, ontologisch-kognitiver sowie informationell-syntaktischer Faktoren bestimmt wird. Unsere diachrone Analyse zeigt zudem, dass in unserem Korpus der Gebrauch von LA weitgehend stabil bleibt, dass aber eine gewisse graduelle Variation je nach Diskurstradition und Kommunikationsintentionen vorliegt. Die Funktionalität von LA zeugt außerdem bis heute von einer gewissen Verankerung in der Deixis und in der Nähesprache, die auch in anderen Frankokreols sowie in gesprochenen Varietäten des Französischen, wie etwa in Afrika oder Kanada, zutage tritt.