MAAS / MER Mathivha Centre for Languages Arts and Culture

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

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 thesis explores educator beliefs, attitudes and practices in teaching First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Ethnic students in Canada, including Muslim and Arabic students. Research supports evidence of on-going systemic racism toward the First Nations, Métis and Inuit, and New Canadians in society, and therefore, within our schools and our classrooms. Evidence also exists regarding how racism, invisibly instilled in educators as societal norms, permeates classrooms and helps continue to perpetuate marginalization and Othering of students. The research question was: How can teachers begin to deconstruct Euro-Centric, White Dominant beliefs, practices, attitudes and expectations in order to positively impact all students and their academic well-being? I examine the questions: What are some teachers doing which positively impacts learning for all students? What can be done to help teachers realize that some of their teaching practices and ways of dealing with students are disrespectful to the individual children and contribute to systemic racism?

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) self-ratings and student Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores. The study assessed the relationship between LoTi ratings and TAKS scores of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students as reported in student records at Alamo Heights Independent School District (AHISD), San Antonio, Texas. The study determined the degree to which teacher LoTi self-ratings were a predictor of success on student TAKS exam scores for English Language Arts and Math, as reported in student records at Alamo Heights Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas. Further, the study examined whether teacher self-reported LoTi ratings were a predictor of success on student TAKS exam scores for the variable of socioeconomic status as reported in student records at Alamo Heights Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas. For the purpose of this study, school and student performance analysis was restricted to the Alamo Heights Junior School in the Alamo Heights Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas. The student data in the study derived from approximately 825 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who took the math TAKS test in 2009 and approximately 946 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who took the English Language Arts (ELA) TAKS test in 2009. The research findings for this study included: 1. In English Language Arts (ELA), a difference in achievement may be inferred between teacher LoTi levels and ELA TAKS scores. 2. In math, a difference in achievement may be inferred between teacher LoTi levels and math TAKS scores. 3. There was not a statistically significant difference between the teacher LoTi level and student mean scores on ELA TAKS for students in the low SES category. 4. There was not a statistically significant difference between the teacher LoTi level and student mean scores on math TAKS for students in the low SES category.

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.

This essay deals with the issue of readability, the term readability referring to what it is that makes a reader perceive a text as difficult or easy. Some factors are related to the reader but there are also those which depend on the text as such, one such factor being style which is the one that will be focused on in this essay. The investigation is based on the analysis and comparison of a complete version and an abridged version of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and the questions to be investigated are whether the author of the abridged version has succeeded in making it less complicated, and if he or she has done so by considering stylistic features said to be affecting readability. Further, this essay is divided into four chapters. The first chapter contains the background for the analysis and is divided into 4 parts dealing with the following aspects: the definition of readability, early research on readability, later research on readability, and difficult and easy language. Chapter two describes the limitations made and the method used for the analysis which involves looking at the noun phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. Chapter three gives a detailed description of the corpus investigated. Moving on to chapter four, this is where the results of the investigation are presented. This is done by dividing it into four different subchapters, each of them dealing with issues related to the different areas described in the method. Each of the subchapters then begins with the presentation of the results for each edition which is then followed by a comparative discussion. The essay ends with a conclusion part where conclusions regarding the four areas presented in the analysis are made along with the answering of research questions.

Etudiées par la phraséologie, les locutions verbales sont des composantes de la structure du langage naturel qui expriment une idée ou un concept. Ces structures linguistiques sont des unités lexicales composées par plusieurs mots. Elles sont formées par un verbe et une ou plusieurs variables, dont le signifié global n'est pas nécessairement déduit du signifié de chacun de ses composants.Dans ce travail de recherche, nous proposons une méthodologie informatique permettant l’identification semi-automatique des locutions verbales de l’espagnol mexicain. Cette méthodologie contribue tant au domaine de la linguistique qu’à celui de l’informatique. Nous introduisons des méthodes informatiques supervisées et non supervisées pour l’identification et la validation des “locutions verbales candidates” en corpus des différents domaines.Les contributions de cette thèse sont principalement de quatre ordres : a) des corpus manuellement annotés pour les locutions verbales, en incluant leurs contextes, b) un lexique qui estime la probabilité d’occurrence de ces structures linguistiques dans le corpus du genre journalistique, c) diverses hypothèses pour la validation et/ou identification des locutions verbales en textes bruts, et d) l’analyse de la polarité de celles-ci.Les résultats obtenus, en incluant les hypothèses envisagées dans cette thèse, auront un impact futur sur des différentes tâches, tels que la traduction automatique, la construction des dictionnaires et l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère, pour ne citer que quelques exemples. / Verbal phraseological units are components of the natural language structure, studied by phraseology, which express a concept or an idea. These linguistic structures are multi-word lexical units, made up of one verb and one or more variables, having a meaning which cannot be predicted from the sum of the expression component meanings. In this PhD thesis we proposed a computational methodology for the semi-automatic identification of verbal phraseological units written in Mexican Spanish that aims to contribute in both, the linguistic and computational fields. We introduce unsupervised and supervised computational methods in order to identify and validate “candidate verbal phraseological units” in corpora of different genre.The contributions of this research work are mainly four: a) corpora manually annotated for verbal phraseological units and contexts associated, b) a lexicon in which it is estimated the probability of occurrence of such linguistic structures in a corpus of news genre, c) a number of hypotheses for the automatic validation and/or identification of verbal phraseological units in raw texts, and d) analysis of their polarity.The obtained results, including the hypotheses proposed in the PhD document, will have a future impact in different tasks such as machine translation, dictionaries construction, foreign language learning, among others.

The central claims of this study are that Maria Schneider relies on normative rhythmic structures from the jazz tradition, and that her expressive deviations from those norms are comprehensible to experienced listeners in real time. The study proposes a non-recursive model of hypermeter wherein the measure is formed through entrainment, the four-bar sub-unit is formed through recognizable qualia at the measure level, and the eight-bar level is formed through the expectation for sub-units to group into pairs. I introduce the “structural phrase” as a unit that, while normatively hypermetrical, is distinct from the issue of hypermeter in its formal aspects and its ability to diverge from hypermetrical organization. Structural phrases mediate our sense of place in the music, and they most often begin with an audibly clear attentional peak that I call the “structural phrase onset.” I posit that experienced listeners understand how structural phrases operate in Schneider’s compositional style through awareness of the relative frequency of each structural phrase type. Based on data gathered from a corpus of twenty-four pieces, comprised of 1,105 structural phrases, I find that 61% of Schneider’s structural phrases are normative. Further, the influence of the normative structural phrase supersedes its literal appearance on the surface of an acoustic signal, serving as the conceptual background for nine dialogic deviations: 31% of structural phrases are deviational yet operate in direct dialogue with the norm. Only three deviation types, accounting for 8% of structural phrases, are entirely independent of the normative organization. Structural phrases function as shallow-level formal units that group into deeper levels. This study categorizes Schneider’s formal approach as a hybrid between two practices: (1) traditional big band arranging, in its emphasis on improvised solos and idiosyncratic features such as the “ensemble feature” section; and (2) sonata form, in its motivic-thematic emphasis, freely unfolding sectional organization, and broadly three-part design. I refer to the three parts at the deepest structural level as “three-Spaces,” including Exposition, Solo, and Recapitulation Spaces. These Spaces are comprised of seven types of sections at a lower structural level: introduction, expositional, transition, soloistic, ensemble feature, recapitulative, and coda sections. Three “formal division criteria” specify how these sections audibly signal divisions between the deeper-level Spaces. An in-depth analysis of Hang Gliding explores how rhythm at multiple structural levels interacts with other parameters such as pitch, orchestration, and dynamics, to shape a composition’s dramatic arc.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy