With the development of Descriptive Translation Studies (e.g. Even-Zohar, 1978; Toury, 1995), and more importantly, with the ‘cultural turn’ and the subsequent ‘power turn’ in Translation Studies (e.g. Bassnett and Lefevere, 1990; Tymoczko and Gentzler, 2002), it is now generally recognized that translation is not a mere linguistic phenomenon, but a complex social and political process involving competing values and ideologies. This thesis aims at presenting a manifold and multifaceted vision of literary translation in contemporary China, while at the same time, remaining critically aware of our own positions and perspectives. Derived from the researcher’s personal experiences in and observation of China’s highly politicised literary milieu, the current study of literary translation is carried out from two different perspectives. The first is related to the social and political dimension of translation, which is concerned with the general context of translation, translation practices, literary norms as well as the structures that support them. The second perspective focuses on the more personal dimension, which is influenced by personalities and dispositions of the individuals involved in translation. Moving along the spectrum with political coercion and pressure on one end and personal decisions and responsibilities on the other, this thesis asserts that the political and the personal are two sharply different yet intimately intertwined domains of translation. In conclusion, it is recommended that future research should place greater emphasis on the dialectical relationship between lived personal experience and structural power relations in translation. This emphasis, as is demonstrated in this thesis, will provide a base for us to recognize the centrality of human agency and the possibility of resistance through translation, to understand translation as a site of power struggle and potential change, and finally, to strive for translation research and practice that is more socially relevant and personally meaningful.

The lack of norms for speech sound acquisition and phonological error patterns in the Syrian variety of Arabic is one of the challenging aspects of diagnosing and treating speech disorders in speakers of this language. Although there are normative data which speech language therapists could use to assess the phonological skills of Syrian children, these are based on data standardized on children speaking other varieties of Arabic, such as Jordanian. This may lead to incorrect diagnosis and inappropriate treatment. In order to address this problem, a detailed study of Syrian Arabic was carried out for this thesis. This study was carried out to provide reliable normative data for speech sound acquisition and phonological error patterns in Syrian children between the ages of 2:6 and 6:5. One hundred and sixty typically developing Syrian children were recruited from Damascus to participate in this cross-sectional study. The results indicate that acquisition of the vowels in Syrian Arabic was almost complete by the age of 3. However, some errors persisted at this age and these mainly related to the production of diphthongs. The two diphthongs which were studied did not appear in the children’s speech samples until the age of 5:0-5:5, but they did not reach the acquisition criterion. For the consonants, the results suggest that there is a gradual development in their correct production: correct production started at 71.3% at the age of 2:6-3:0 and increased with age to 94.3% in children aged 6:0-6:5. All the consonants in Syrian Arabic were acquired by age 6:5, except for the affricate /ʒ/. The order of consonant acquisition in terms of sound class was: median approximants > nasals > plosives > the lateral approximant /l/ > all fricatives except/ʒ/ > the trill. The findings also showed that the order of speech sound acquisition in Syrian children is very similar to that in children from other language backgrounds. The results for consonant acquisition also indicated that 11 consonants are acquired between the ages of 2:6-4:0. These early-acquired consonants are / b, f, j, m, n, l, t, d, h, ʔ, w, h /. They include plosives, nasals, the lateral and a few fricatives. One of these fricatives has an anterior place of articulation while three are produced in the posterior portion of the oral cavity, i.e. /h, ʔ, ʕ/. Seven consonants were acquired between the ages of 4:0 and 5:0. These were /x, s, z , ʕ, tˁ, dˁ, k/. Most of which are fricatives and emphatics. The late-acquired consonants are /ʃ, r, sˁ, ɣ/ which are acquired between the ages of 5:0 and 6:5. There were clear differences in the percentage of correctly produced consonants indifferent word positions. In general, word-final consonants were produced correctly slightly more often than those in initial and medial positions. This was true for all agegroups. This difference was significant between initial and final position, and between medial and final positions; however, no significant difference was found between initial and medial positions. As far as the phonological error patterns (all phonological error patterns whatever their percentage big or small) are concerned this study identified a total of 11 phonological error patterns in Syrian children. These errors were: r-deviation, fronting, stridency deletion, de-emphasis, weak syllable deletion, stopping, backing, glottalization, devoicing and assimilation. There was also one dialectal error pattern called epenthesis, in which a vowel is inserted between consonants in order to simplify their pronunciation. Epenthesis is singled out from phonological error patterns that while it is considered a phonological error pattern in some languages, in Syria it is a dialectal error appears in normal speech and as such not consider phonological error pattern. Using a developmental criterion to define the phonological error patterns used by Syrian children, the study revealed that there are 9 typical phonological errors. These errors are: r-deviation, fronting, stridency deletion, de-emphasis, weak syllable deletion, consonant deletion, backing, glottalization, and devoicing. The results of this study showed that Syrian children no longer produce developmental errors by the age of 5:5.

This study aims to investigate the proposed complementary relationship between impoliteness (as a form of aggression), and humour (as a form of entertainment). Taking the fictional film As Good As It Gets, I draw from a number of scenes involving the main protagonist Melvin Udall. Although this character is extremely offensive to others, the film is classified as a romantic comedy. As such, it offers a good basis on which to test out my ideas regarding the proposed relationship between impoliteness and humour, and more importantly, how and why we may feel the need to laugh at what is essentially socially proscribed and disturbing behaviour. My work, then, contributes to two main academic fields of interest: with regards the field of impoliteness I demonstrate why offensiveness can be entertaining by making specific links with humour theory, and within the field of stylistics I show how a multi-disciplined approach to character analysis can offer us richer observations and interpretations of behaviour, than would otherwise be available through analysis of models in isolation.

Muslims across the world memorize the Quran in Arabic for verbatim recall. Memorizers can be native speakers of Arabic, non-native speakers of Arabic, or non-Arabic speakers. The last category of speakers constitutes an unusual learner population, in that they cannot draw on primary linguistic knowledge to assist their memorization. Research on memorization suggests that memorization may instil sensitivity to patterns that can be used to bootstrap learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate if memorization of the Quran by non-Arabic speaking memorizers leads to pattern recognition in Classical Arabic. Memorizers of the Quran with no knowledge of Arabic were tested on their awareness of language patterns through a grammaticality judgement task (study 2). Contrary to implicit predictions in the research literature, findings from the language tests indicated that the participants had not developed any sensitivity to the morphological patterns of Classical Arabic. These results are discussed in the light of expert Quran memorizers’ reflections on their memorization practices (study 1), including what they brought to the act of memorization and what, according to them, underlay their success in memorization. It is proposed that memorizers’ extreme risk aversion in memorization stands in their way of developing awareness of the language patterns. This interpretation is further evidenced by results from a follow up study on native speakers of Arabic, who also did poorly on the grammaticality judgement task. The conclusion drawn is that Quran memorizers recite accurately because they don’t learn the language. It is further concluded that Quran memorization is a special case, in which a range of extra linguistic factors such as identity, motivation and intention play an important role.

Field-names in Scotland are part of the oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation of farmers. Despite the valuable holdings at the Scottish Field Name Survey (University of Edinburgh), work to collect these names has been patchy and many areas of Scotland remain uncovered. The introduction of a new numbering system for tax purposes has resulted in a marked decline in the use of field-names, and generally only older members of the community can recall the names. There are few written records that preserve early forms, and little systematic study of the topic. Therefore, time is running out to collect the names of Scottish fields. The focus of this thesis is a corpus of 1552 field-names from the north-east of Scotland which I collected using a socio-onomastic approach. Spoken interviews were used as the main tool for data collection drawing on practices from the discipline of sociolinguistics. A key aspect of this research is the social aspect of naming and the combination of sociolinguistic methods with more traditional onomastic methods.

Variationist research in the Labovian paradigm has traditionally looked at the structured heterogeneity found in first language (L1) speech. More recently this quantitative methodology has been applied to speakers acquiring a second language (L2), usually in immigrant settings. This research has shown that alongside well documented L2 acquisition processes, sociolinguistic patterns are also found, just as in native speech. This dissertation examines the speech of native speakers of Spanish acquiring English in Chile, extending traditional quantitative methodology to L2 contexts, specifically to English as a foreign language (EFL) situations. I examine the variation of four phonetic variables: voiceless alveolar fricative (ʃ), voiceless alveolar affricate (ʧ), and postvocalic (r), which range from stigmatised to prestigious in both Spanish and English; and voiced dental fricative (ð), which has been extensively documented in English, mainly constrained by linguistic factors. Through the analysis of the speech of eighteen university students, I seek to test, firstly, whether the patterns of variation characteristic of Chilean Spanish are transferred to English and secondly, whether the variation exhibited by native speakers of English is replicated in EFL contexts. The results suggest that: (1) the expected transfer of patterns from Chilean Spanish to English does not occur for the variables (ʃ) and (ʧ), and (2) the patterns found in non- native speech in EFL contexts replicates the patterns found in native speakers of English for the variables voiced dental fricative (ð) and postvocalic (r). Amongst the social factors considered, the effect of social class is shown to contribute to the variation of postvocalic (r) and (ʃ), as years of instruction in English did to the variation of (ʃ); in relation to the contribution of internal factors, it is found that phonetic environment and position have an effect on the varying use of (ʃ) and (ð). As predicted for (ð), the effect of purely linguistic factors is confirmed. Thus this study demonstrates that the notion of structured heterogeneity can be extended to contexts of EFL, especially in relation to the effect of internal constraints.

This study investigates the beliefs and practices of writing tutors regarding written corrective feedback (WCF) in a Saudi Arabian university. The central focus of this work is threefold: (a) the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding the provision of WCF on students’ L2 writing, (b) the factors that prevent teachers from enacting their beliefs into practices, and (c) the relationship between students’ preferences and teachers’ practices regarding WCF. Ten writing tutors and their thirty students at the English language and Literature department at the University of Dammam participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to understand teachers’ beliefs and students’ preferences. In order to understand teachers’ actual WCF practices, teachers were observed while teaching writing over almost a full semester. The think-aloud protocols of teachers while providing feedback on their students’ writing were examined and teachers’ feedback on student writing was analysed. Finally, stimulated-recall interviews were conducted to understand the factors that influence teachers’ WCF practices. The study showed both congruence and tensions between teachers’ beliefs and practices. Teachers’ beliefs were greatly congruent with their practices regarding the amount and focus of WCF. Conversely, teachers’ beliefs were incongruent concerning the explicitness of WCF, the use of positive feedback, and the source of WCF. Several contextual factors related to the university overall context (e.g. time allocated to cover the syllabus), teachers (e.g. teaching experience), and students (e.g. proficiency levels) were found to affect teachers’ practices. As for the relationship between students’ preferences and teachers’ practices, complete congruence was found in terms of teachers being the key providers of feedback. Conversely, students’ preferences were incongruent with teachers’ practices regarding the explicitness of WCF, the focus of WCF, and the provision of positive feedback. Finally, although students valued teachers’ WCF and placed a great importance to it, they faced difficulties understanding some of their teachers’ comments. This study concludes by providing some implications which could serve more than one purpose by creating knowledge which will be useful for researchers in the field of language teacher cognition and WCF.

As global social networks expand, couples are increasingly comprised of partners from divergent sociocultural backgrounds (e.g. Piller, 2007; Dervin, 2013). This unfolding trend inspires research into complex identification processes in such transnational relationships. To explore these processes, I conduct a qualitative discourse analysis of interactions in five UK-based Polish-British families. The data include the families’ interactions during celebratory meals, which they video-recorded, and my semi-structured interviews with the participants, which were audio-recorded. The study focuses on how the participants’ food-related interactions project ‘stance’ (Du Bois, 2007), that is, how talk about food and food practices can discursively and semiotically index the speakers’ positioning towards their own and others’ sociocultural fields. The analysis reveals that as the speakers negotiate their foodscapes, they constantly engage with various sociocultural repertoires and appeal to multiple ‘centres’ of normativity (Blommaert et al., 2005). This negotiation at times occasions contrasting positioning acts, highlighting the dynamism of the speakers’ stancetaking, and thus of their identities. On one hand, the participants reproduce and exoticise what they imagine as their ‘traditions’, ‘cultures’ and ‘nations’, on the other, they echo postmodern discourses of ‘choice’ (Giddens, 1991), individualism and post-national cosmopolitanism. Following the theories of ‘reflexivity’ (Giddens, 1991; Urban, 2001), I demonstrate how in postmodernity even food interactions surface as reflexive spaces. Through culinary performances and meta-talk, the speakers reinterpret cultural signs, creating ‘third spaces’ (Bhabha, 2004 [1994]) – discursive zones with ever-evolving cultural meanings. These reflexively co-constructed ‘third spaces’ display the participants’ identity as hybrid and cosmopolitan families. The family members successfully negotiate the perceived differences between them, which challenges the ideologies of problematic intermarriage (see also Piller, 2002; Gonçalves, 2013). Their complex sociocultural repertoires do not ignite a ‘cultural clash’. They rather offer the speakers versatile vistas for identification and constitute ‘symbolic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1977), thus reflecting the increasing commodification of hybrid forms and pursuit of transcultural identities.

Three central topics that have been at the heart of research into second language (L2) acquisition over the past 30 years are the extent to which properties of a speaker’s first language (L1) transfer into their L2 mental grammars, the extent to which L2 learners’ mental grammars are constrained by an innate language faculty (Universal Grammar (UG)), and the nature of the development of grammatical knowledge. Much of the evidence bearing on these topics has come from the investigation of the acquisition of syntactic properties. There have been comparatively fewer studies of these topics in other domains of the grammar. This thesis investigates the role of L1 transfer and UG in the acquisition of two pre-syntactic properties in English by L1 speakers of Libyan Arabic: noun compounding (a lexical operation) and argument structure realization (a property at the semantics-syntax interface). The participants were selected at different stages of learning English in the classroom to provide a measure of possible development. Using elicited production and a grammaticality judgement task, results suggest some possible evidence of L1 influence on plural marking in noun compounds and knowledge of the morphological marking of constructions realizing argument structure. But in the latter case L1 influence appears to lead to a general problem with the realization of intransitive verbs, rather than direct transfer of L1 properties into the L2. There is also some evidence of the influence of UG on the representation of unaccusative versus unergative verbs, but no evidence of UG influence in other areas investigated (constraints on number marking in noun compounds and on the the linking of thematic arguments to syntactic positions). Little development was observed across the two groups investigated. Broadly, the results are consistent with iii an L1 transfer/access to UG view of the L2 acquisition of pre-syntactic properties, without providing strong support for this position.

This thesis explores the mixed language and dialect setting of an international school in Spain across two age groups, young children and adolescents. It aims to investigate the impact of frequent and sustained interaction between Anglo and Non-Anglo informants, and if within such a turbulent, fluid and messy speech community, processes of dialect contact can be traced. Dialect contact research to date has usually focussed upon two distinct varieties coming together in a melting pot situation, with eventual stability. This speech community is fluid and turbulent. People are joining and leaving the community constantly. The study aims to reveal that despite previous research claims that the process of koinéisation takes two or three generations (see Kerswill and Williams 2000; Trudgill 1986; 2004), a speech community such as the one in the present study shows that processes of koinéisation can be demonstrated in a shorter time span. Through the analysis of the BATH vowel and the (t) variable across the two age groups and three broad ethnic groups, the study finds evidence of focussing over time in this highly diverse speech community. It also reveals that certain social factors which have been shown to influence new dialect formation in other studies, have an impact upon variation in this rather unique speech community.