Do adult L2 English bilingual speakers have difficulty with cognate words whose meanings are distinct across their two languages? This study explored the extent to which variations in meaning in cross-language cognates affect translation performance in a translation task by L2 English (L1 Spanish) speakers who learned English as adults. A prep-phase experiment was conducted to test native English-speakers’ predicted completions of the study’s stimuli sentences, in order to choose the optimal stimuli for the primary experiment. The method for the primary experiment of this study consisted of a web-based translation task of 120 sentences from Spanish to English, while controlling for polysemy and frequency. The results showed that adult L2 learners of English did experience difficulty when translating cognates in sentences from their L1 to their L2. The interaction of the Spanish word’s polysemous nature, Spanish word frequency, English target frequency and English cognate frequency played a role in the participants’ performance.

The present study was designed to examine differences in the effect of the number of children in the household (also known as “parity”) on the relationship between initiating joint attention (IJA) and language development. We reasoned that infants who are only children (i.e., in uniparous homes), relative to infants who have one or more siblings (i.e., in multiparous homes), would have more opportunity to engage in IJA, and would, therefore, acquire a larger number of object labels. We tested the hypotheses that: 1) there would be a positive correlation between the number of IJA bids and language overall, and 2) parity would moderate the IJA-language relationship such that in uniparous households, the aforementioned correlation would be stronger than in multiparous homes. Joint attention was measured using the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS) Picture Book Task, and language was assessed through parental report on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MBCDI). There was no significant correlation between IJA and language on the whole, though there was a significant correlation for infants in uniparous homes between IJA and language. This finding partially supports Hypothesis 2 in terms of the IJA-language relationship being stronger in uniparous homes rather than multiparous ones, though it was only true for productive vocabulary. These null findings may provide reassurance for families with multiple children that their younger children are not at an IJA/language acquisition disadvantage.

Chinese measure words are bound morphemes that can classify nouns/verbs and form a determinative-measure-word compound with numeral, demonstrative, or specifying determinatives. Dr. Yuanren Chao distributes Chinese measure words into nine categories: individual measure words (Mc), individual measure words associated with verb-object construction (Mc’), group measure words (Mg), partitive measure words (Mp), container measure words (Mo), temporary measure words (Mt), standard measure words (Mm), quasi-measure words (Mq), and measure words of verbs of actions (Mv). The complicated measure word system is a big challenge for Chinese as a second language learners. This study investigates learners’ lexical, semantic, and syntactic characteristics of acquiring Chinese measure words. Learners’ and native speakers’ spoken and written language data are extracted from three authoritative Chinese learners corpora and three authoritative native speaker corpora. Corpus linguistic methods are used in this study. To explore the three linguistic features, this study conducts quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative analysis explores learners’ lexical diversity, sophistication, and accuracy. The findings reveal that learners’ lexical diversity of using measure words is lower than native speakers and English-speaking learners’ is lower than non-English-speaking learners’. Learners’ lexical sophistication of using measure words did not grow with proficiency levels and therefore cannot predict or indicate learners’ language proficiency levels. Likewise, learners’ lexical accuracy of using measure words vary from category to category. Advanced learners have lower accuracy than beginner and intermediate learners, and English-speaking learners are lower than non-English-speaking learners. The qualitative analysis examines learners’ semantic and syntactic behaviors with two case studies. The first case study analyzes nine specific measure words that belong to multiple categories that can reflect learners’ semantic expressions of word choices. The second case study dissects the syntactic structures of ge ‘an individual,’ zhong ‘kinds, species,’ and xie ‘some’ (they are the three most frequent measure words used by learners) and explores learners’ co-selection of determinatives, measure words, and nouns. The results of the first case study show that learners’ semantic expressions are not controlled by the frequency of semantic categories but are likely affected by a topic/genre. The second case study indicates that learners tend to overuse or underuse special grammar patterns without understanding correct usage. The whole study aims to bring attention to Chinese measure words in second language teaching and corpus linguistic methods as teaching and research tools. It will help second language teachers and linguists to gain a deeper understanding of how learners would grasp a classification system and their linguistic characteristics of acquisition. Keywords: corpus linguistics, Chinese measure words, second language acquisition

Pronominal complex predicates in colloquial Persian are periphrastic constructions with an idiosyncratic syntactic pattern. They show a peculiar behavior compared to the regular agreement system in Persian, and they are the only construction in Persian which requires the obligatory presence of a pronominal enclitic. This work is an attempt to analyze this construction in order to find its function. For this purpose, a lexical semantic classification of them was proposed, which helped in presenting a new analysis. It was found out that this construction is used to express a particular diathesis in which the topic of the sentence (determined according to Givón’s topicality hierarchy) is an indirect participant. I proposed a hybrid dual-layer agreement system which includes a morphosyntactic and a semantic layer. The pronominal enclitic was analyzed as a phrasal affix and agreement marker by reference to Givón’s (1976) and Anderson’s (2005) arguments. The construction was analyzed to be an instance of the external possessor construction proposed by Haig (2008), which is observed in Iranian languages. The classification of the data clarified the mapping of semantics onto syntax. The proposed analysis could be added to and unified with the current analysis of Persian complex predicates (Bonami and Samvelian, 2009).

This dissertation discusses the convergence of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, the language acquisition and development of young children who are minimally verbal or nonverbal who acquire their native language while simultaneously learning to use an aided AAC system, and explicit and implicit elements that influence language outcomes. Factors investigated include those related to language acquisition universals, the AAC system, the young aided AAC user, and practices, philosophies, and beliefs of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Further examined were: (a) language acquisition parallels in atypical populations who do not possess the full range of senses who have been shown to develop language, and (b) analogies between the linguistic structures of pidgins, interlanguages, and the syntax of young aided AAC users. This dissertation employed a survey methodology to capture the practices and beliefs of SLPs as a means of identifying potential contributing factors to the reduced linguistic outcomes of these children. Quantitative findings revealed statistically significant differences in SLPs’ perceptions of confidence and qualification with the two populations of children with language impairments who use an oral modality and young aided AAC users. Descriptive trends across all constructs measured suggested differences in SLPs’ practices, belifes, and perspectives in their work with these two populations. The analysis of the syntactic structures of the language of young aided AAC users revealed definitive parallels with the construct of interlanguages.

The research studies the Southern Appalachian dialect present in five poems in Melissa Range’s Scriptorium: Poems. The linguistic phenomena characteristic of Southern Appalachian English observed and analyzed in the poems include lexicon, grammatical features, and phonological aspects. The research seeks to bring attention to this Appalachian woman writer as well as to bring understanding of her reasoning behind incorporating the dialect in her poetry. It establishes that the five poems by Range contain the lexicon, grammatical features, and phonological aspects of the SAE dialect. It holds meaning both grammatically and pragmatically within the context of the poem and Appalachia.

Many Chinese classifiers are nearly synonymic – they can be used with the same head nouns without changing the meaning of the sentence, in other words, such classifiers can be used interchangeably or almost interchangeably. This poses a challenge for Chinese language learners, especially those who lack such a grammatical category in their own native language. Another complication arises from the ambiguous English translations of many classifiers. In this paper we investigate the collocation behavior of near-synonymous Chinese classifiers, focusing on their semantic nuances and interchangeability. Analyzing 6 pairs of classifiers — 栋 and 幢, 匹 and 头, 批 and 派, 颗 and 粒, 辆 and 台, and 根 and 支— drawn from the HSK exam glossary, the dataset for this study encompasses 1200 samples (100 per each variable) and 416 distinct head nouns. Through a corpus-based approach we analyze collocation behavior of each classifier on its own and as a part of the pair. The results showcase that not all pairs exhibit complete interchangeability. The collocation behavior of 批 and 派 differ significantly, where 批 primarily quantifies batches with a 'first' connotation, while 派 is used more in artistic expressions. The interchangeability of 栋 and 幢 varies with context. 幢 emerges as the least fre¬¬quent morpheme in the corpus, emphasizing its specific contextual usage. While both are used in address lines, 栋 predominantly quantifies standalone buildings, whereas 幢 is more aligned with larger architectural complexes. The analysis of 匹 and 头 highlights their distinctiveness, with 匹 counting horses and wolves and 头 being more versatile with various animals. 颗 and 粒 appear partially interchangeable, particularly with 珠-related head nouns and items associated with plants, fruits, and trees. The research also underscores that 辆 is primarily linked to car-related nouns, while 台 is used more versatile as a classifier for machines and electronic devices, including computers, printers, phones, cameras. 根 and 支 only overlap in the head noun 笔, and their roles diverge, with 根 being a versatile classifier and 支 also appearing as part of medical terms.

Among Urdu’s many verb+verb constructions, this thesis focuses on those constructions, which combine the stem of a main content verb with another inflected verb which is used in a semantically bleached sense. Prior work on these constructions has been focused on their structural make-up and syntactic behavior in various environments. While there is consensus among scholars (Butt 1995, Hook 1977, Carnikova 1989, Porizka 2000 et al.) that these stem+verb constructions encode aspectual information, to date no clear theory has been put forward to explain the nature of their aspectual contribution. In short, we do not have a clear idea why these constructions are used instead of simple verbs. This work is an attempt to understand the precise function of these constructions. I propose that simple verbs (henceforth SV) in Urdu deal only with the action of the verb whereas (regardless of the semantic information contributed by the second inflected verb,1) the stem+verb constructions essentially deal with the action of the verb as well as the state of affairs resulting from this action. The event represented by these constructions is essentially a telic event as defined by Comrie (1976), whose resultant state is highlighted from the use of these constructions. The attention of the listener is then shifted to the result of this telic event, whose salience in the discourse is responsible for various interpretations of the event; hence my term ‘resultive construction’ (henceforth RC). When these constructions are made using the four special verbs (rah ‘stay’, sak ‘can’, paa ‘manage’ and cuk ‘finish’), the product is not resultive. Each of these verbs behaves differently and is somewhere between a resultive and an auxiliary verb construction. This work can be extended to other verb-verb construction in Urdu and other related and non-related languages as well. The analysis of the precise function of the RCs can also help in developing a model for them in various functional grammars. The proposed properties of RCs can be utilized in the semantic analysis of the Urdu quantifiers. This work should aid in identification and explanation of constructions in other languages, particularly those that are non-negatable under normal contexts. [1] All second inflected verbs with the exception of four special verbs rah ‘stay’, sak ‘can’, paa ‘manage’ and cuk ‘finish’. These four special verbs are either auxiliaries or modals as identified in prior literature.

Mandarin Chinese has long been known to possess a category of words known as ‘coverbs’ in the literature, which sit in the gray area between verb and preposition. Li and Thompson (1974) describe the historical origins of Mandarin coverbs to be full transitive verbs, despite their modern state being decidedly less verbal. They also note that coverbs are a non-homogenous class. This thesis works to establish categories of coverbs in Mandarin Chinese and their distance from true verbhood in order to understand the diachronic shift that coverbs are currently undergoing before our very eyes. I will draw on the work of scholars of Atlantic-Congo languages, Oceanic languages, and other languages of mainland Southeast Asia, to create semantic, syntactic, and morphological testing for Mandarin coverbs. Using the results of this three-pronged testing approach, I will map the results on a six-pointed verb-preposition matrix in order to visualize the space between verb and preposition and how Mandarin coverbs inhabit it. I will then use these diagrams to create a numerical score for each category of coverb and place them on a linear progression between verbhood and prepositionhood. Lastly, this work will analyze the theta roles assigned by Mandarin coverbs in each category and propose stages of diachronic development for Mandarin coverbs.

[pt] O presente estudo sobre palavras tabus focaliza o uso de palavrões em nove episódios de Porta dos Fundos como forma de desvendar as práticas discursivas dos residentes do Rio de Janeiro (cariocas) por meio das teorias, principalmente, de: Lexicultura (Galisson, 1988); Semântica e Pragmática (Goffman, 1967; Camara Jr., 1981; Jay, 2008, Carretero, 2011); Interculturalismo (Bennett, 1998; Lewis, 2006; Hofstede, 2010; Ting-Toomey e Chung, 2012); e Didática das Línguas Estrangeiras (Bennett, 1998; Byram, 2000; Liddicoat, 2005, 2013). Através de metodologia qualitativa interpretativa, palavras tabus são analisadas em nove episódios da popular comédia situacional da série online Porta dos Fundos. Sete palavras tabus usadas muito frequentemente nas práticas discursivas dos cariocas, nomeadamente buceta, cu, caralho, foder, pau, porra e puta, são analisadas e interpretadas. O uso semântico e pragmático dessas palavras de ofensa demonstra que se situam nos campos da anatomia sexual, da atividade sexual, da escatologia, do sexo ilícito e dos nomes dos animais – estes, não classificados como palavrão. Onde considerado relevante faz-se uma comparação com palavras tabus em hindi. Observa-se que o uso frequente das palavras tabus em comédias, sátiras e outras formas de entretenimento, assim como em outras situações comunicacionais, não é percebido, como acontece no emprego geral da língua, como atos de ataque à face (Goffman, 1967) em português, em oposição ao que ocorre em Hindi. A análise mostra ainda que os cariocas, brasileiros multi-ativos (Lewis, 2006), a depender de variáveis pragmáticas, usam as palavras tabus também como atos expressivos de fala para comunicar emoções, nem sempre com valor ofensivo, como é o caso do seu uso como interjeição. Ao final, apresenta-se uma proposta didática de palavras tabus para os professores e alunos do Português do Brasil como Língua Estrangeira na Índia. / [en] This study on taboo words focuses on the observation of use of palavrões in nine episodes of the comedy series Porta dos Fundos (PdF) as portrayal of discursive practices of residents of the city of Rio de Janeiro (Cariocas), primarily through theories of: Lexiculture (Galisson, 1988); Semantic and Pragmatics (Goffman, 1967; Camara Jr., 1981; Jay, 2008; Carretero, 2011); Interculturalism (Bennett, 1998; Lewis, 2006; Hofstede, 2010; Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012); and Foreign Language Teaching (Bennett, 1998; Byram, 2000; Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012; Liddicoat, 2005, 2013). Through a qualitative interpretative methodology taboo words are analysed in nine episodes of the popular situational comedy online series Porta dos Fundos. Seven more frequently used taboo words by Cariocas, namely buceta, cu, caralho, foder, pau, porra and puta, are analysed and interpreted. The semantic and pragmatic use of taboo words demonstrates that they belong to the themes of sexual anatomy, sexual activity, scatology, illicit sex and animal names – although the latter ones are not classified as taboo words. They are compared with Hindi taboo words wherever applicable. The frequent use of taboo words in comedies, satires and other forms of entertainment, as well as in different types of communicative situations, is not, as generally perceived, i.e., a face threatening act (Goffman, 1967) in Portuguese, opposed to what happens in Hindi. The analysis also shows that the Cariocas, as multi-active Brazilians (Lewis, 2006), depending on the pragmatic variables, use taboo words as expressive speech acts to communicate emotions, not always carrying an offensive tone, as when used as interjections. A TbWs didactic proposal is presented for the teachers and students of Brazilian Portuguese as a Foreign Language in India.