Language is part of nature, and as such, certain general principles that generate the form of natural systems, will also create the patterns found within linguistic form. Since network theory is one of the best theoretical frameworks for extracting general principles from diverse systems, this thesis examines how a network perspective can shed light on the characteristics and the learning of syntax. It is demonstrated that two word co-occurrence networks constructed from adult and child speech (BNC World Edition 2001; Sachs 1983; MacWhinney 2000a) exhibit three non-atomic syntactic primitives namely, the truncated power law distributions of frequency, degree and the link length between two nodes (the link representing a precedence relation). Since a power law distribution of link lengths characterises a hubterranean structure (Kasturirangan 1999) i.e. a structure that has a few highly connected nodes and many poorly connected nodes, both the adult and the child word co-occurrence networks exhibit hubterranean structure. This structure is formed by an optimisation process that minimises the link length whilst maximising connectivity (Mathias & Gopal 2001 a&b). The link length in a word co-occurrence network is the storage cost of representing two adjacently co-occurring words and is inversely proportion to the transitional probability (TP) of the word pair. Adjacent words that co-occur often together i.e. have a high TP, exhibit a high cohesion and tend to form chunks. These chunks are a cost effective method of storing representations. Thus, on this view, the (multi-) power law of link lengths represents the distribution of storage costs or cohesions within adjacent words. Such cohesions form groupings of linguistic form known as syntactic constituents. Thus, syntactic constituency is not specific to language and is a property derived from the optimisation of the network. In keeping with other systems generated by a cost constraint on the link length, it is demonstrated that both the child and adult word co-occurrence networks are not hierarchically organised in terms of degree distribution (Ravasz and Barabási 2003:1). Furthermore, both networks are disassortative, and in line with other disassortative networks, there is a correlation between degree and betweenness centrality (BC) values (Goh, Kahng and Kim 2003). In agreement with scale free networks (Goh, Oh, Jeong, Kahng and Kim 2002), the BC values in both networks follow a power law distribution. In this thesis, a motif analysis of the two word co-occurrence networks is a richly detailed (non-functional) distributional analysis and reveals that the adult and child significance profiles for triad subgraphs correlate closely. Furthermore, the most significant 4-node motifs in the adult network are also the most significant in the child network. Utilising this non-functional distributional analysis in a word co-occurrence network, it is argued that the notion of a general syntactic category is not evidenced and as such is inadmissible. Thus, non-general or construction-specific categories are preferred (in line with Croft 2001). Function words tend to be the hub words of the network (see Ferrer i Cancho and Solé 2001a), being defined and therefore identified by their high type and token frequency. These properties are useful for identifying syntactic categories since function words are traditionally associated with particular syntactic categories (see Cann 2000). Consequently, a function word and thus a syntactic category may be identified by the interception of the frequency and degree power laws with their truncated tails. As a given syntactic category captures the type of words that may co-occur with the function word, the category then encourages consistency within the functional patterns in the network and re-enforces the network’s (near-) optimised state. Syntax then, on this view, is both a navigator, manoeuvring through the ever varying sea of linguistic form and a guide, forging an uncharted course through novel expression. There is also evidence suggesting that the hubterranean structure is not only found in the word co-occurrence network, but within other theoretical syntactic levels. Factors affecting the choice of a verb that is generalised early relate to the formation and the characteristics of hubs. In that, the property of a high (token) frequency in combination with either a high degree (type frequency) or a low storage cost, point to certain verbs within the network and these highly ‘visible’ verbs tend to be generalised early (in line with Boyd and Goldberg forthcoming). Furthermore, the optimisation process that creates hubterranean structure is implicated in the verb-construction subpart network of the adult’s linguistic knowledge, the mapping of the constructions’ form-to-meaning pairings, the construction inventory size as well as certain strategies aiding first language learning and adult artificial language learning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-207). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Esta dissertação reserva-se à analise do conceito de intradutibilidade presente na teoria da linguagem desenvolvida por John Locke, no Livro III, das palavras, de seu Ensaio sobre o entendimento humano, de 1690. Essa teoria visa rejeitar conceitos em voga no séc. XVII, especialmente o inatismo, advogando em favor do argumento de que o entendimento é adquirido por meio da experiência sensorial, sendo esta particular a cada indivíduo. Nesse sentido, a forma como as ideias são apreendidas na mente de cada indivíduo é também particular; a linguagem, portanto, é vista pelo autor como o instrumento responsável por socializar essas ideias particulares e permitir a comunicação. Entretanto, somada à crítica ao inatismo, Locke, no Livro III, questiona i. o emprego abusivo das palavras no contexto científico, ao elencar uma série de ações realizadas por debatedores para impressionar seu ouvinte muito mais do que transmitir um conhecimento e refletir sobre a Verdade e ii. a natureza imperfeita das palavras que compõem a linguagem especialmente devido ao seu comportamento arbitrário, ou seja, sua relação com as ideias que devem representar não é natural, mas imposta pelo homem. Ademais, Locke afirma, também como contraposição às discussões da época, haver duas essências: a nominal, acessível à nossa apreensão e delimitada pelas palavras, e a real, cuja totalidade é inapreensível pela experiência e, por extensão, pelas palavras. Assim, ao defender a intradutibilidade, argumenta em favor de um novo método de investigação filosófica, que leva em consideração a particularidade do falante, a arbitrariedade na relação entre as palavras e as ideias e a impossibilidade de 7 se acessar a realidade em sua totalidade. A afirmação da intradutibilidade não exclui a prática da tradução, reconhecida por John Locke no mesmo livro III, defende apenas o supracitado. Por isso, esta dissertação também apresenta uma tradução desse Livro III para uma demonstração prática da teoria predicada por esse autor e uma reflexão das escolhas realizadas no intuito de adequar-se aos argumentos levantados e analisados ao longo de toda a dissertação. / It is intended to analyse the concept of translatability in John Lockes theory of language, which is developed in the Book III, of words, of his Essay concerning human understanding, in 1690. He rejects the 17th century scholars and the inatism theory claiming that the knowledge is apprehended by sense experiences, which are particular to each one. Hence the ideas are also particular, the language, by that means, is the main instrument used by the humans to convey their thoughts and whose chief end is communication. Locke also rejects other two things: i. the abuse of words causing obscure discourses whose only purpose is to impress the hearer, not to present the truth and ii. the imperfection inherent to the nature of words, because its relation to the ideas is arbitrary and not based on any pattern in nature. Thus, Locke arguments that there are two types of essences: a nominal defined by words and a real, which is impossible to describe, because we have only access to reality through our senses. By defending intranslatability Locke is actually defending a new philosophical method which includes the fact that language is particular to each speaker, the arbitrary relation between words and ideas and the impossibility to comprehend thoroughly reality. However it does not excludes translation itself, recognized by Locke in the same Book III; translating it portrays his theory and proposes a debate concerning the choices made to better convey his view.

This thesis is a complexity-informed case study of a language school in Greece, which provides a rich description of how language pedagogy develops in the periphery of the English-using world. In addition, this study demonstrates the feasibility and potential of using Complex Systems Theory (CST) in the study of educational settings. The thesis begins by describing English Language Teaching (ELT) in Greece, thus setting the scene for the empirical investigation. This is followed by a review of ELT literature, with particular reference to theories of language, pedagogy and society, and by an overview of CST, which pragmatically synthesises complex realism and post-modern ways of knowing, and defines a set of principles to guide complexity-informed empirical inquiry. Having conceptualised the language school as a complex system, it is suggested that activity in the school was sustained by multiple intentionalities, i.e., collective, emergent, nested and generative drivers of activity. These included: (a) an imperative to provide certification to learners, (b) some learners’ desire to integrate in transnational discourse communities, (c) the expectation that language learning should lead to increased awareness of ‘English’ culture, (d) competition against the state school system, and (e) the unstated aim of protecting the professional interests of the school’s staff and stakeholders. Intentionalities were associated with specific pedagogical outcomes and cultural outlooks, and their synthesis is defined as a dynamic of intentions. Next, the thesis looks into the learning materials used at the language school, and it is suggested that these generate affordances which impacted pedagogy. The distribution of learning activities in the books was associated with synchronic and diachronic changes in the dynamics of intentions underpinning activity in the school. Complexity-inspired conceptual instruments, such as an ‘affordance landscape’ and ‘attractors’, are developed to describe the influence of the learning materials, and it is suggested that the learning resources used at the language school made transmissive and communicative pedagogy more likely. The empirical component of the study concludes by describing prototypical instruction sequences that typified ELT in the language school, which evidenced traces of transmissive and communicative pedagogy. Some sequences (e.g., Reading and Vocabulary, and Transmissive Grammar) evidenced transmissive influences, which were associated with local pedagogical traditions, whereas others, such as Process-Based Writing, were more closely aligned with the communicative ideology that is mainstream in ELT. The thesis concludes by synthesising the findings with insights from the CST literature. In doing so, it demonstrates the theoretically generative potential of a complexity-informed inquiry, which can help to formulate understandings of ELT that are sensitive to the interface between systems and their environments, while providing ontologically coherent accounts of structure and agency, and of behaviours that are neither completely random nor entirely predictable.

This article employs game theory to contribute to sociolinguistics (or the economics of language). From both the synchronic and the diachronic perspective, we are interested in the conditions (of language learning and literary production) that make some languages dominate others. Two results are particularly noteworthy: (i) Translations have an ambiguous effect on domination. (ii) We offer three different explanations of how a past language like Latin or Sanskrit can develop into a standard for literary production.

No description available.

Japanese non-native English-speaking EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers in secondary education (JEFL teachers) work in a different educational context from language teachers in Europe. The purpose of this exploratory research is to identify the distinctive ways in which JEFL teachers think, know, believe and do. These concepts are subsumed under the general heading of JEFL teacher cognition, particularly as this applies to teaching and teacher education in Eigo Kyoiku (English education in Japan). The overall purpose of exploring JEFL teachers’ cognitions is reflected in four research guiding questions (RQs): 1) to identify the nature of JEFL teacher cognition; 2) to see any particular influences that might help shape JEFL teacher cognition; 3) to learn to what extent JEFL teachers’ cognitions are consistent with their actual practice of teaching; and 4) to discuss the ways in which the concept of language teacher cognition (LTC) may be understood and situated in the Japanese context. The research consisted of two studies: a) a quantitative Preliminary Study administered to 62 JEFL teachers and 81 modern foreign language (MFL) teachers in Scotland, in order to identify any areas regarding JEFL teacher cognition; and b) an in-depth Main Study based on a qualitative and ethnographic approach, featuring 10 JEFL teachers. This made use of qualitative data analysis and the applied KJ method, and also drew on complexity theory, through reflective and reflexive processes with particular reference to retrodictive qualitative modelling (RQM). The results of the Main Study are presented as 16 concept maps, each of which represents a featured aspect of JEFL teacher cognition (ATC). It represents the signature dynamics of each ATC and points to the variation and tension which JEFL teachers experienced in relation to each ATC. The research suggests that, although LTC have certain universal characteristics, it needs to be explored on the assumption that it is situated socially, culturally, locally and personally.

abstract: This qualitative study investigates the experiences of ten focal youth who came to the United States as refugees and were placed in Structured English Immersion (SEI) programs in Arizona high schools. The educational language policy for Arizona’s public schools (during the 2014-2015 school year) mandates SEI include four 60-minute classroom periods devoted to reading, writing, grammar, oral English exclusively. Students in SEI thus have restricted access to the full-range of general education courses required for graduation, as well as limited opportunities for social interaction with peers enrolled in the “mainstream” curriculum. The study investigates how youth understand and navigate the school language policy, practices and discourses that position them, and specifically seeks to learn how being identified as an “English Language Learner” interacts with youth’s construction of academic and social identities. Adopting a critical sociocultural theory of language policy (following McCarty, 2011), employing ethnographically-informed research methods, and using social-positioning as an analytic lens, I aim to learn from an emic youth perspective and to amplify their voices. Eight Somali and two Iraqi students took part in two individual in-depth interviews; five students participated in a focus group; and all engaged in numerous informal conversations during 22 researcher site visits to an ethnic community-based organization (ECBO) and a family apartment. Narratives recounting the participants’ lived experiences in the socio-cultural context of high school provide powerful examples of youth asserting personal agency and engaging in small acts of resistance to contest disagreeable positioning. The findings thus support the conceptualization of youth as creative producers of hybridity in response to their environments. This work also confirms the perennial significance of social categories and “othering” in high school. Though the institutional structure of separate classrooms and concomitant limited access to required courses hinder the study participants’ academic progress, the youth speak positively about the comfort of comradery and friendship in the shared safe space of the separate SEI classroom. The dissertation concludes with participants’ recommendations for educators, and the people refugee youth interact with in the context of high school, to improve refugee youth’s experience. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2016

Qu'y a-t-il de commun entre F. Cheng, écrivain français d'origine chinoise, H. Bianciotti, enfant d'immigrés italiens en Argentine, G. Macé, dilettante du voyage, attiré par l'anthropologie, Rome ou encore l'Asie, et C. Magris, un Italien de Trieste qui a consacré sa vie à la littérature et à la géographie des frontières ? Au-delà de leurs divergences, on rencontre chez ces quatre auteurs une telle sensibilité à l'espace et aux déplacements qu'ils peuvent tous être définis comme des « écrivains non sédentaires ». La non-sédentarité n'est pas un nomadisme : très concernée par les frontières, avec tout ce qui en découle d'interférences et d'inquiétudes quant au sentiment et à la pratique de la langue, fascinée par les seuils et attirée par les refuges, cette posture non assise est issue d'un rapport aux lieux marqué par la volonté de se tenir debout tout en refusant l'errance. Il en résulte une écriture façonnée par tout ce qu'elle relie. Ainsi, notre corpus, constitué d'essais, de récits et de poèmes, entraîne une réflexion sur le langage à partir de l'appétit, à la fois avide et soucieux, de nos auteurs pour l'espace-monde. Il aborde les thématiques de la voix et du corps en tant que seuils pour l'existence, et situe l'homme en ses évolutions intérieures et historiques à partir de la représentation de jardins et de villes, dans lesquels se logent moins des histoires que des aspirations. La notion d' « écriture non sédentaire » nous a menée à définir son lieu par un néologisme, l' « antrait », par lequel nous désignons des espaces qui sont à la fois « antre » et « entre », qui contiennent le repli et l'ouverture, qui engagent l'hospitalité comme accueil et comme partir. / What do François Cheng, a French writer of Chinese origin, Hector Bianciotti, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, Gérard Macé, a dilettante traveller, with a penchant for anthropology, Rome or Asia, to name but a few of his interests, and Claudio Magris, an Italian from Trieste who has devoted his life to the literature and geography of frontiers have in common ? Above and beyond their differences, these four authors share such a sensibility to spaces and movements that they can be defined as "non-sedentary writers". Non-sedentarity is not nomadism : very much concerned by frontiers, with all the interferences and worries that these entail regarding the feeling and the practice of language, fascinated by thresholds and attracted by refuges, this restless posture is the result of a relationship with places characterised by the wish to remain standing while refusing to wander. Thus ensues a writing that is shaped by all that it binds together. So our corpus, made up of essays, narratives and poems, initiates a reflection on language from the appetite - avid and anxious at the same time - of our authors for the world-space. It tackles the themes of voice and body as thresholds for existing, and positions mankind within its inner and historic evolutions, according to the representations of gardens and cities, where aspirations matter more than stories. The notion of "non-sedentary writing" has led us to define its locus through a neologism, the "antrait" (prounounced like "entrée", entrance) by which we designate spaces that are both "antre" (den) and "entre" (between), that contain retreat and openness, that make hospitality both a welcome and a leavetaking.

Research on clear speech has shown that the type of clear speech produced can vary depending on the speaker, the listener and the medium. Although prior research has suggested that clear speech is more intelligible than conversational speech for normal-hearing listeners in noisy environments, it is not known which acoustic features of clear speech are the most responsible for enhanced intelligibility and comprehension. This thesis focused on investigating the acoustic characteristics that are produced in clear speech to foreigners and infants. Its aim was to assess the utility of these features in enhancing speech intelligibility and comprehension. The results of Experiment 1 showed that native speakers produced exaggerated vowel space in natural interactions with foreign-accented listeners compared to native-accented listeners. Results of Experiment 2 indicated that native speakers exaggerated vowel space and pitch to infants compared to clear read speech. Experiments 3 and 4 focused on speech perception and used transcription and clarity rating tasks. Experiment 3 contained speech directed at foreigners and showed that speech to foreign-accented speakers was rated clearer than speech to native-accented speakers. Experiment 4 contained speech directed at infants and showed that native speakers rated infant-directed speech as clearer than clear read speech. In the fifth and final experiment, naturally elicited clear speech towards foreign-accented interlocutors was used in speech comprehension tasks for native and non-native listeners with varying proficiency of English. It was revealed that speech with expanded vowel space improved listeners’ comprehension of speech in quiet and noise conditions. Results are discussed in terms of the Lindblom’s (1990) theory of Hyper and Hypoarticulation, an influential framework of speech production and perception.