Recent discussions on African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) have focused on the linguistic divergence and convergence hypotheses. Some linguists (Ash and Myhill 1986; Bailey and Maynor 1987, 1989; Graff, Labov, and Harris 1986; Labov 1983, 1987; Labov and Harris 1986; Luthin 1987; Myhill and Harris 1986; Thomas 1989) claim that AAVE is diverging from White Vernacular English (WVE) on a national level. However, other linguists (Butters 1987, 1988, 1989; Vaughn-Cooke 1986, 1987; Wolfram 1987) have challenged the divergence hypothesis, and have argued that AAVE is actually converging with WVE. They point out that the data in most of the studies supporting the divergence hypothesis were incomparable and manifested age-grading. In addition, these studies investigated only a few linguistic features. Most importantly, most of these studies lack the time-depth data which are essential to investigate language change.This study analyzed the time-depth data of speech samples from thirty-two African-American subjects, sixteen from 1980 and sixteen from 1993, in Muncie, Indiana. The subjects were both males and females, equally divided into young adult and elderly speakers. The analysis of the study focused on twenty-three syntactic and five phonological features.The results from the study have found no innovative features, either syntactic or phonological, in the speech of Muncie AAVE subjects. More importantly, the findings of the study, based on the time-depth data, have shown that Muncie AAVE was not divergent with WVE, but convergent with it, at least from 1980 to 1993. Thus, the findings of the study do not support the divergence hypothesis. / Department of English

This thesis investigates the function of number marking in Persian, within the framework of principles and parameters (P&P), and its relationship to inflectional and derivational number marking. Following the assumption in Distributed Morphology that inflectional and derivational morphology are not distinct, the distribution and properties of number marking in Persian provide evidence for both inflectional and derivational number marking. Assuming the two parameters of number marking (Wiltschko, 2007, 2008), number marking as a functional head and number marking as a modifier, I propose that number marking in Persian is mainly inflectional while number functions as a functional head; moreover, I propose that number marking in Persian can be derivational while number functions as a modifier. This explains that number morphology in Persian is not split to either inflectional or derivational. Rather, following Booij’s (1993, 1995) claim that inflectional morphology can be used contextually as well as inherently, I propose that number morphology in Persian is inflectional while number is a functional head; however, it has inherent residues as a modifier. Considering the functions of inflectional plural morphology in Persian, I argue that the functional category Number Phrase (NumP) is projected in Persian, and number is generated in the head of this functional category. Besides, Persian is a classifier language in which classifiers are in complementary distribution with plural marking. Following Borer’s (2005) discussion of the complementary distribution of plural marking and classifiers in Armenian, I argue that the head of NumP in Persian is either occupied by the plural maker or by full/empty classifiers. Moreover, I show that the presence of bare singulars/plurals in certain syntactic positions in Persian is related to the projection/non-projection of NumP.

Thesis (M.A.B.S.)--Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-90).

L’objectif de ce travail est de montrer que l’énonciation joue un rôle essentiel dans l’institution et l’interprétation des noms propres.La définition du nom propre comme signe linguistique contient, outre le signifiant et le signifié, le référent, c’est-à-dire un renvoi à l’actualisation du signe dans le discours, ce qui explique la marginalité du nom propre dans la linguistique structuraliste ; d’autre part, le sens d’un nom propre – “x appelé N par S” – est défini comme une relation de dénomination entre un individu (x) et un nom propre (N) exprimée par un sujet énonciateur (S), qui dépend d’un acte de nomination associant tel nom à tel individu et initiant ainsi l’usage du nom.La valeur des variables x, N et S est déterminée pour une occurrence de nom propre donnée, en fonction de la situation d’énonciation et d’un acte de nomination logiquement préalable. La notion linguistique de personne permet précisément de rendre compte de ce rapport entre référent du nom propre et énonciation et du rôle du contexte dans l’interprétation du nom propre. Elle se révèle notamment indispensable pour l’analyse du nom propre hors phrase qui se caractérise à la fois par son indépendance vis-à-vis du cotexte et par une forte dépendance au contexte non verbal. La comparaison des noms propres avec les embrayeurs et déictiques, traditionnellement définis comme impliquant un renvoi à la situation d’énonciation, conduit également à considérer que l’interprétation d’un nom propre est entièrement déterminée par le contexte et en particulier par l’identité des personnes de l’énonciation. / The purpose of this work is to show that acts of utterance play an important role in the institution and the interpretation of proper names.The definition of proper names as signs contains, in addition to the signifiant and the signifié, the referent, that is to say a reference to the actualization of the sign in discourse. That is why proper names are on the margins of structuralist linguistics. Moreover, the meaning of a proper name – “x named N by S” – is defined as a denominative relation between an individual (x) and a proper name (N) expressed by an utterer (S), depending on an act of naming which associates a name with an individual and initiates the use of this name.The value of the variables x, N and S is defined for a given occurrence of a proper name according to the situation of utterance and to a logically prior act of naming. The linguistic notion of person precisely allows to account for this relation between the referent of the proper name and the act of utterance and for the role of the context in the interpretation of the proper name. This notion appears to be essential for analysing out of sentence proper names which are linguistic context-free but extralinguistic context-dependent. The comparison between proper names and shifters and indexicals, which are traditionally defined as involving a reference to the speech situation, leads also to consider that the interpretation of a proper name is entirely determined by the context and especially by the identity of the enunciative persons.

Cette thèse étudie le fonctionnement des déterminations définie et indéfinie au sein des syntagmes nominaux génériques en anglais contemporain à partir d’un corpus essentiellement composé de textes encyclopédiques et scientifiques. La catégorisation générique peut relever de processus cognitifs et de niveaux d’abstraction distincts signifiés par les déterminations définie et indéfinie. La première partie décrit successivement le cadre référentiel de cette étude, la formalisation morphosyntaxique de la généricité nominale, la spécification dont sont porteurs les articles définis et indéfinis, ainsi que les contraintes déterminatives liées à la classe lexico-grammaticale des substantifs et au contexte prédicatif. La deuxième partie étudie les possibilités et impossibilités déterminatives au regard des contextes prédicatifs lorsque le syntagme nominal est associé à un prédicat d’espèce. Nous considérons plus spécifiquement l’interaction entre la classification des espèces, le nombre singulier ou pluriel et la détermination définie ou indéfinie en nous intéressant aux espèces conçues dans leur pluralité interne. La troisième partie examine le fonctionnement de l’article défini comme opérateur d’abstraction. L’étude des spécialisations de the montre qu’il est lié à une visée référentielle externalisante et synthétique. La quatrième partie traite du fonctionnement des syntagmes nominaux génériques définis et indéfinis au sein des textes génériques eu égard à la structuration du discours. L’article défini sous-tend une dimension anaphorique au générique également, et reste la marque de la saillance cognitive du référent. / This dissertation deals with the use of definite and indefinite determiners in generic noun phrases in contemporary English, using a corpus based on encyclopedic and scientific texts mainly. The categorization which genericity is based on results from various cognitive processes and levels of abstraction which are signified in the use of definite and indefinite determiners. The first part successively describes the referential framework of our study, the morphosyntactical forms of generic noun phrases, the values of definite and indefinite articles, as well as the pattern of constraints on definite and indefinite articles established by the lexico-grammatical features of nouns and the predicative context. The second part examines determiner possibilities and impossibilities with regard to the predicative context when a generic noun phrase is combined with a kind-predicate. More specifically, we correlate species classification, singular/plural number marking and definite/indefinite determination as we examine the plural structure of generic referents. The third part studies the use of the definite article as an abstraction operator. As we consider cases in which the use of definite noun phrases is favored, we show that its reference involves an externalizing and synthetic dimension. The fourth part deals with the way generic definite and indefinite noun phrases combine in generic texts with regard to the discourse structure. The use of the definite article presupposes an anaphoric dimension in generic reference also and indicates that the referent is salient in a cognitive perspective.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:42:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 parte1.pdf: 1866723 bytes, checksum: 115126c4e58d138bd6eb992ca2fa90a2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / It is well known that there is no linguistic uniformity in the Portuguese spoken in Brazil. The Northeastern region of the country, for instance, is large and there is still lack of knowledge about its dialectal aspects, especially those related to intonation. In fact, there are still few research studies on dialectal prosody in our country. The aim was to describe the behavior of the fundamental frequency (F0), acoustic parameter responsible for the perception of the pitch, in declarative and interrogative sentences in the dialects of Salvador, Recife, João Pessoa, Fortaleza and São Luís. It is a descriptive and comparative research study based on the methodological procedures of Project AMPER. Disjunctive and Wh-questions, as well as its correspondent declaratives, were added to the original AMPER Corpus, which is made of declarative sentences and yes-no questions. The elicitation of sentences was achieved through visual stimuli which conducted the informant to produce the utterance as naturally as possible, avoiding the prosodic marks present when the speaker is reading. Four informants were contacted, in each city, with the following features: male-female (homogeneous distribution), over 30 years old, basic and superior education. The recording was made by a digital recorder Microtack II plugged into a directional microphone Samson C02. For the melodic contours (F0) analysis the software Praat was used. The results show that the declarative intonation does not offer a substantial difference among the cities; the yes-no questions, on the other hand, basically have two patterns, depending on the pause of the utterance: the stressed syllable and the post-stressed syllable. Three different patterns were observed as for the intonation of disjunctive questions, with relevant differences between those in São Luis-Fortaleza from those in Recife-João Pessoa and Salvador. Finally, as for Wh-questions, a more relevant variation was observed: four different patterns, one to each city, except for Recife and João Pessoa, which share the same pattern. / É fato indiscutível que, no português falado no Brasil, não há uma uniformidade linguística. A região Nordeste é imensa, assim como o é o desconhecimento sobre seus aspectos dialetais, sobretudo no que diz respeito à entoação. Os estudos, em nosso país, sobre prosódia dialetal ainda são escassos. Este estudo teve como objetivo descrever o comportamento da frequência fundamental (F0), parâmetro acústico responsável pela percepção das modulações melódicas, em frases assertivas e interrogativas, nos falares de Salvador, Recife, João Pessoa, Fortaleza e São Luís. Trata-se de um trabalho de cunho descritivo e comparativo, baseado nos procedimentos metodológicos do Projeto Internacional AMPER. Ao corpus do AMPER, constituído de frases assertivas e interrogativas (questão total), foram acrescentadas frases interrogativas parciais e disjuntivas, assim como as asserções correspondentes. A evocação das frases é feita a partir de estímulos visuais, que devem conduzir o informante a produzir o enunciado desejado da forma o mais natural possível, evitando-se, assim, as marcas prosódicas características da leitura. Por capital, participaram quatro (04) informantes de ambos os sexos (distribuição homogênea), com idades acima de 30 anos, com escolaridade básica e com nível superior. As gravações foram feitas por meio de um gravador digital Microtrack II, acoplado a um microfone direcional Samson CO2. Para a análise dos contornos melódicos, foi utilizado o programa Praat. Os resultados mostram que, ao contrário da entoação assertiva, que não oferece uma variação notável entre as cidades, a da questão total assume basicamente dois padrões, a depender de o ponto no final do enunciado apresentar um nível melódico mais elevado: a tônica ou a pós-tônica. A entoação da questão disjuntiva assume três padrões, diferenciando as áreas de São Luís-Fortaleza das de João Pessoa-Recife e da de Salvador. Por fim, na questão parcial, observa-se uma variação ainda maior, havendo quatro padrões, um para cada cidade, exceto Recife e João Pessoa, que compartilham um mesmo padrão.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseLC.pdf: 910090 bytes, checksum: 4d440a102e87fad24d4f6bb764003622 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-07 / This work aims at under the cognitive-functional perspective describing, inside the vast domain of the linguistic prefabs, the structure and the functioning of the Idiomatic Verb Phrases (SVIs), produced by speakers of the Portuguese from Brazil, located in Natal (RN). From the functionalist presupposition that the language is used essentially to assist to communicative demands, it is observed that its morphologic-syntactic structure is conditioned to the inherent pragmatic vicissitudes to the verbal interaction of subjects, socially heterogeneous and historically established. It is focalized, in the composition of SVIs, the relationships VT + OD (transitive verb + direct object), characterizing the syntactic-semantic nature of the verb and of the respective verbal complement. Those verb combinations + complement can be interpreted as lexical structures, reflexes of the idiomaticity inherent to conventional constructions already systematized in the users' of the language cultural repertoire. It is sought, still, to glimpse the cognitive and discursive motivations pertinent to that linguistic phenomenon. In the investigative process, are analyzed exclusive data of speech collected in Corpus Discurso & Gram?tica a lingua falada e escrita na cidade do Natal, organized by Furtado da Cunha (1998). The adopted methodological procedures configure as methods of empiric analysis and use of the intuition, being emphasized the qualitative approach (explanatory) of the data with quantitative support of statistical indicators. It shows, finally, a grating of didactic suggestions on SVIs, for Portuguese's classes, as subsidies to the educational practice in the Medium Teaching and in the course of Letters. / Este trabalho objetiva sob a perspectiva cognitivo-funcional descrever, no interior do vasto dom?nio dos pr?-fabricados ling??sticos, a estrutura e o funcionamento dos sintagmas verbais idiomatizados (SVIs), produzidos por falantes do portugu?s do Brasil, situados em Natal (RN). Partindo do pressuposto funcionalista de que a l?ngua ? usada essencialmente para atender a demandas comunicativas, observa-se que a sua estrutura morfossint?tica est? condicionada ?s vicissitudes pragm?ticas inerentes ? intera??o verbal de sujeitos, socialmente heterog?neos e historicamente estabelecidos. Focaliza-se, na composi??o dos SVIs, as rela??es VT + OD, caracterizando a natureza sint?tico-sem?ntica do verbo e do respectivo complemento verbal. Essas combina??es de verbo + complemento podem ser interpretadas como estruturas lexicalizadas, reflexos da idiomaticidade inerente ?s constru??es convencionais j? sistematizadas no repert?rio cultural dos usu?rios da l?ngua. Procura-se, ainda, entrever as motiva??es cognitivas e discursivas pertinentes a esse fen?meno ling??stico. No processo investigativo, s?o analisados dados exclusivos de fala coletados no Corpus Discurso & Gram?tica a l?ngua falada e escrita na cidade do Natal, organizado por Furtado da Cunha (1998). Os procedimentos metodol?gicos adotados se configuram como m?todos de an?lise emp?rica e uso da intui??o, enfatizando-se a abordagem qualitativa (explicativa) dos dados com suporte quantitativo de indicadores estat?sticos. Apresenta-se, por fim, uma grade de sugest?es did?ticas sobre SVIs, para as aulas de portugu?s, como subs?dios ? pr?tica docente no Ensino M?dio e no curso de Letras.

Les sens complémentaires en arabe sont multiples et variés. Outre les aspects syntaxiques, nous relevons des aspects sémantiques propres à chaque complément. L’introduction de l’un de ces sens dans la phrase l'enrichit et entraîne des précisions qui se rattachent au verbe. Les grammairiens classiques parlent des (mafûîät) ou encore des (manûübät) noms au cas accusatif, ils s'intéressent ainsi au traits formels des compléments. Les rhétoriciens soulignent les traits sémantiques. Ils insistent sur le sens de la restriction déterminative qu’exerce le complément sur le verbe. Une approche critique démontre que les compléments en arabe jouent un rôle important dans l'éclaircissement du sens de l’action. C’est donc le verbe qui sélectionne le sens complémentaire convenable. En arabe moderne (dans les écritures contemporaines) l’usage des compléments ne s’écarte pas loin de l'usage classique. Les auteurs sont soumis aux règles de la théorie grammaticale des premiers siècles. Toutefois, il existe certains aspects d'évolution qui reviennent, soit au choix libre de l’écrivain, soit à l’évolution interne de la langue elle-même. / The complements in arabic are multiple and various. Besides syntactic aspects, we put a spot light on the Semantic aspects of each complement. The insertion of such complement to the sentence enriches the meaning by adding precisions related to the verb. The classical grammarians talk about (mafülät) or (manlïlübäù) nouns that finish by the short vowel (a). They are also interested by the formal character of these complements. The rhetoricians highlight the Semantic character. They emphasize on the meaning of the deeming restriction that the complement exerts on the verb. A critical approach shows/proves that the complements in Arabic have an important role in the understanding of the action meaning. Consequently, it is the verb that selects the adequate complementary meaning. In modem Arabic, like in contemporary writings, the usage of complement does not differ from the traditional and classical usage. The authors are subject to the rules of grammatical theory of the early centuries. However, there are some aspects of evolution that are back either at the discretion of the writer, or at the internal evolution of the language itself.

This thesis is focused on the analysis of phrasemes and idioms in Spanish and Czech journalistic texts. In its theoretical part, we discuss the definition of phraseology and idioms as linguistic disciplines within Czech and Spanish linguistics. The practical part contains a sample corpus of phrases and idioms based on selected excerpts from newspaper articles during a specific time period. These linguistic units are divided into thematic groups by their base words, their meaning is explained and formal and substantive similarities between Czech and Spanish are observed. We do not aim at presenting a set of idioms of the language, only to point out the currently used idioms in journalistic texts. Key words phraseology, set phrase, idiom, Czech language, Spanish language, journalism, semantics, equivalent

La grammaire - longtemps considérée comme routinière, ennuyeuse et formaliste - est un objet de réflexions au centre de nouvelles préoccupations en matière d'enseignement. En témoignent les programmes mettant en avant l'importa,ce de notions relatives à l'énonciation, à la cohésion textuelle, à côté des études relatives à la grammaire de phrase. Ce travail vise à contribuer aux réflexions sur l'acquisition de cette discipline. Il se matérialise autour de la phrase et de la ponctuation. Qu'est-ce que la phrase ? La ponctuation ? Une connaissance spontanée ? Un savoir appris à l'école ? Comment donner du sens à cet enseignement ? Comment le penser ? L'organiser ? C'est autour de ces questions que s'organise ce travail : une première partie regroupe les principaux courants grammaticaux "classiques" et "contemporains" qui ont eu un impact durable sur l'enseignement de la phrase et de la ponctuation ; une deuxième porte sur une synthèse des fondements de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage de la grammaire, mis en lumière par les recherches récentes dans les domaines de la psychologie cognitive et de la didactique ; une troisième s'attache à analyser les manuels d'enseignement et autres documents didactiques utilisés dans les salles de classe ; une quatrième enfin livre les conclusions auxquelles nous sommes parvenus au terme de plusieurs expériences menées dans des classes de CP et de CE1 : l'une sur l'approche de la phrase en contexte, l'autre sur l'approche du système de ponctuation. De ce travail, nous retenons que nos propositions didactiques peuvent réconcilier les élèves avec la grammaire, et plus particulièrement avec la ponctuation, bête noire de la production écrite. / Grammar - regarded a long time as routine, tedious and formal - is an object of reflexions in the center of new concerns as regards teaching. In the programs testify proposing the importance to concepts relating to the stating, with textual cohesion, beside the relative studies with the grammar of sentence. This work aims at contributing to the reflexions on the acquisition of this discipline. It materializes around the sentence and of the punctuation. What the sentence ? The punctuation ? A spontaneous knowledge ? A knowledge learned at school ? How to give direction to this teaching ? How to think it ? To organize ? It is around these questions that this work is organized : a first part gathers the principal grammatical currents "traditional" and "contemporaries" who had a durable impact on the teaching of the sentence and the punctuation ; a second door on a synthesis of the bases of teaching and training of the grammar, clarified by recent research in the fields of cognitive psychology and the didactic one ; a third attempts to analyse handbook of teaching and other didactic documents used in classrooms ; a fourth finally delivers the conclusions to which we arrived at the end of several experiments undertaken in classes of CP and CE1 : one on the approach of the sentence in context, the other on the approach of the system of punctuation. Of this work, we retain that our didactic proposals can reconcile pupils with grammar, and more particularly with the punctuation, pet peeve of the written production.