Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Leipzig, 1903. / Cover title. Includes vita.

Ganwyd yn ardal Ffair-rhos yn ystod yr ugeinfed ganrif bedwar o feirdd y gellid eu hystyried yn enghreifftiau nodweddiadol o draddodiad y bardd gwlad yng Nghymru ar ei orau. Daeth Dafydd Jones a W.J. Gruffydd yn brifeirdd cenedlaethol ac enillodd Evan Jenkins yntau lawryfon y Brifwyl. Er na bu i Jack Oliver gystadlu ar lefel genedlaethol, diau iddo ennill statws cenedlaethol fel prydydd poblogaidd, colofnydd papur newydd ac fel cymeriad lliwgar a gwreiddiol. Yn rhannu'r un agenda lenyddol ac yn cydoesi a hwy yn ardal Llangrannog, yr oedd brawdoliaeth farddol y daethpwyd i'w hadnabod yn ddiweddarach fel Bois y Cilie. Fel amaethwyr ymhyfrydai'r beirdd yn y cylch hwn yn y datblygiadau technolegol diweddaraf ym myd amaeth a hiraeth diddagrau, disentiment sydd ganddynt am y doe hamddenol a lliwgar a gollwyd. Ar y Haw arall, rhydd Beirdd Ffair-rhos bortread angerddol o dlodi eu pentref heddiw o'i gymharu a'i ffyniant diwydiannol a diwylliannol yn banner cyntaf yr ugeinfed ganrif. Yr oedd yn Ffair-rhos, adeg magwraeth y Beirdd, gymdeithas a goleddai safonau crefyddol ymneilltuol a safonau bucheddol pendant. Gellir dweud mai o blith y bobl feddwl-f laenllaw, asgwrn cefn y capel a'r diwylliant lleol, yr hanai Beirdd Ffair-rhos. Yn ogystal a'r beirdd gwlad, gellir sylwi i'r arlunwyr naif a'r arlunwyr gwlad yng Nghymru yn y ganrif ddiwethaf roddi mynegiant clodwiw i'r diwylliant Cymreig gwledig, yn arbennig yn eu portreadau o hoelion wyth y Methodistiaid a'r cymeriadau lleol a anfarwolwyd ganddynt ar gynfas. Cyflawnai rhai o'r arlunwyr hyn swyddogaeth debyg i un y bardd gwlad yn eu gwahanol ardaloedd, ac iddynt hwy 'roedd arlunio, fel barddoni, yn offrymu mawl i gymwynaswyr y ffydd ac i arwyr lleol. Swyddogaeth y canu mawl a marwnad yn y traddodiad llenyddol drwy'r canrifoedd fu delfrydu arwyr a diddori cynulleidfaoedd yn hytrach na beirniadu a cheryddu. Yn yr un modd/ rhoddi parhad i enw da' r gwrthrych oedd nod y beirdd a'r arlunwyr gwlad, a chyfetyb penillion y bardd gwlad i ddarlun yr arlunydd gwlad ar fur neu garreg goffa ym mur capel neu eglwys. Dylanwadwyd ar y beirdd gwlad, yn arbennig ar eu cerddi i fyd natur, gan y Mudiad Rhamantaidd. Ni chanfu'r mwyafrif ohonynt unrhyw brofiad cyfriniol ac ysbrydol yn y byd o'u cwmpas, ond yr oedd natur yn ffenomen weladwy iddynt. Ymatebai Beirdd Ffair-rhos i'w bro enedigol yn oddrychol ac yn deimladwy. Telynegol a hiraethus yw llawer o'r cerddi lie y dirmygir y presennol ar draul y gorffennol paradwysaidd. Nid oes yma chwerwder namyn galaru tawel ac wylo uwch adfeilion yr hen gymdeithas dduwiolfrydig. Ymwrthodir H realaeth heddiw a bodlonir ar ddarlun idyllic o'r pentref traddodiadol. Mae'r portreadu hwn yn wrthgyferbyniad llwyr i fformwla Caradoc Evans yn My People a Dylan Thomas yn Under Milk Wood, ac yn debycach i'r hyn a geir gan O.M. Edwards a D.J. Williams. Ffrwyth atgof dethol yw cynnyrch Beirdd Ffair-rhos. Bro wledig plentyndod fu Ffair-rhos i'w beirdd ac ymrithiodd yn rhyw Dir na n'Og o le, a ystyrid yn arwydd o'r gwerthoedd ysbrydol parhaol sydd yn drech na threigl amser. Disgrifir y pentref cyn iddo gael ei anrheithio gan chwyldro'r peiriant petrol a chyn iddo gael ei ddifwyno gan y pibellau a'r peilonau sydd heddiw'n cyfrodeddu'r lie. Pa faint bynnag o newidiadau a welir yn y dyfodol, erys Beirdd Ffair- rhos yn dyst i'r profiad dynol, crefyddol a chymdeithasol mewn bro neilltuol ar adeg arbennig yn ei hanes.

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Contemporary media audiences expect to be able to interact with content, but in a minority language context, audience participation presents challenges related to audiences’ linguistic confidence. This thesis focuses on Wales, where media producers have suggested that audiences are often reluctant to interact with broadcast and online content in Welsh. To begin to understand this unwillingness, and how it might be overcome, the concept of willingness to participate (WTP) is coined as an extension of willingness to communicate (McCroskey & Baer 1985). First, interviews with producers are analysed qualitatively to identify potential influences on audiences’ WTP. The analysis aims to assess the relative importance of various factors: audiences’ feelings of apprehension, self‐perceived competence, language background and Welsh language ability, as well as the modality of participation (oral/written) and the level of demand placed on the audience. Second, a questionnaire is designed and administered to 358 Welsh speakers, to examine audiences’ perceptions of different opportunities to participate in media content. A path model of WTP is proposed and tested using quantitative data from the survey. The results support the hypothesis that audiences’ apprehension and self‐perceived competence predict WTP and that audience response varies according to the media context. While audiences’ Welsh language skills are important in explaining their WTP, other aspects of language background, such as Welsh language acquisition context, are found to be less important. Third, the survey sample is grouped according to common patterns of WTP, to test whether the above effects are consistent across the population or whether different ‘types’ of audience exist. Using a combination of cluster analysis and thematic analysis of audience comments, four types of audience are proposed and described in detail. Finally, implications for sociolinguistic theory, language maintenance and media production practice are considered and recommendations made.

In this dissertation I discuss the phenomenon of initial consonantal mutation in modern Welsh, and explore the syntactic structure of this language: I will concentrate on the syntax of Colloquial rather than Literary Welsh. It transpires that mutation phenomena can frequently be cited as evidence for or against certain syntactic analyses. In chapter 1 I present a critical survey of previous treatments of mutation, and show that mutation in Welsh conforms to a modified version of the Trigger Constraint proposed by Lieber and by Zwicky. It is argued that adjacency of the mutation trigger is the criterial property in Welsh. Chapter 2 presents a comprehensive description of the productive environments for mutation in modern Welsh. In chapter 3 I give a short account of Government and Binding theory, the framework used for several recent analyses of Celtic languages. I also discuss proposals that have been made concerning the underlying word order of Welsh, a surface VSO language. Although I reject SVO underlying order, I conclude that there is nonetheless a VP constituent in Welsh. Chapters 4 and 5 concern the role of NPs as triggers for Soft Mutation: both overt and empty category NPs are considered. In chapter 5, which centres on wh-traces, it is shown that the variable appears in a wider variety of construction types in Welsh than had previously been suggested. A pre-head relativization site for extractions from VP and NP is posited. Chapter 6 develops the theme of the role of wh-traces in unbounded dependencies, and it is argued that all relative clauses in Welsh are formed by wh-movement. The final chapter, chapter 7, looks at the wider variety of relative clause types found in Colloquial Welsh, and presents an analysis of the patterns of mutation and pronoun retention in the light of the NP Accessibility Hierarchy.

This thesis undertakes to refine our understanding of the syntactic properties of sentential negation. The proposed analyses operate at the juncture of recent innovations to Case, Agreement, and X-bar theories, within a Government and Binding framework. Case is checked in a Specifier/Head configuration whenever possible, and agreement is analyzed as the reflex of a Case-checking operation at S-structure. The proposal that the inventory of functional categories available in Universal Grammar includes a Negation Phrase (NegP) is adopted as a point of departure. / In the context of this investigation, certain syntactic properties are attributed to the head and specifier of NegP. It is proposed that the specifier of NegP provides an A-position in which NPs may be Case-checked. S-structure Case-checking is reflected in agreement marking on the negative head. Evidence for LF Case-checking in this position is derived from the Case-licensing of direct objects in negated clauses in Colloquial Welsh and Russian. Definiteness effects are analyzed as due to constraints on an additional Case-licensing option required if negation blocks Case assignment under government. Variations in agreement patterns in affirmative and negative relative clauses in Literary and Colloquial Welsh are attributed to the barrier status of the head of NegP.

Thesis--University of Basle. / Bibliography: p. 336-339.

Thesis--University of Basle. / Bibliography: p. 336-339.

Concern for the maintenance of the Welsh language has increased since the middle years of the twentieth century and the demand for educational provision is a reflection of this. The use of education as a means to promote the status of a minority language in a bilingual community is a social phenomenon which is paralleled in other places and has considerable research interest. Minority groups often invoke the development of schools which work in the medium of their local language. Such programmes attempt to reverse language shifts which affect the status of minority groups adversely. They have a significant cultural and political dimension as the resulting schools offer a protected linguistic domain for children and young people and tend in consequence to increase the vitality of the given language. These matters have been widely researched in Wales and elsewhere, though few studies of the educational and social development of the bilingual child have considered the contribution of these programmes to the sociological status of the language concerned even though it is recognised that increased use of a minority language in natural daily communication is an effective empowerment of its users in the surrounding community. This study begins to address this omission. It examines a critical phase in the emergence of Welsh medium schools in the anglicised region of south eastern Wales between 1949 and, when the first Welsh medium schools was established in the old county of Glamorgan, and 1962, when the first secondary school was established. The establishment of the schools is discussed in relation to concurrent economic, social, and educational developments and the linguistic trends which permeated the local environment. The study considers the first stages of development in south eastern Wales which reflects aspects of a developing consciousness of the language issue which has become a significant feature of public debate some forty years later. It is noted that the movement began at a late stage of a complex historical process in the attempt to preserve the immediate family and cultural values and that it has since expanded to a wider section of the community. The eventual success of the Welsh medium school movement has contributed to subsequent changes in official and public attitudes to the Welsh language. While the political and legal changes embodied in the Welsh Language Act of 1994 lie well beyond the scope of this discussion, its argument suggests that the early phase of the schools movement embedded a factor which has contributed critically to the shaping of contemporary Welsh awareness.