Thesis--Tübingen. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1970. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 309-312).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-335).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-173).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-270).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-165). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

An intriguing aspect of the French language is its complex system of interrogative structures; there exist many question variants to express the same content. For example, Où est-ce que tu vas? Où tu vas? C'est où que tu vas? Où c'est que tu vas? and Tu vas où? are potentially all ways of expressing "Where are you going?" In this dissertation, I examine the use of WH-questions from the Barnes-Blyth Corpus (1984) of Spoken French. Coveney (2002) contributed one of the first truly comprehensive studies on variation of interrogatives in Spoken French. This dissertation builds upon his work by contributing more in depth pragmatic analyses plus a more complete investigation of the system at play. My study begins with a WH-question inventory, categorization and description of structures found in the corpus and elsewhere when appropriate. In contrast to studies attributing variation to socio-stylistic choices, according to the data in this study, there is structural diversity of French interrogative structures within a single socio-stylistic context explainable by pragmatic differences. Therefore, Lambrecht's (1994) information structure framework is applied to the interrogatives in the corpus. Interrogatives prove to be a complicated case for information structure analysis; only the activation of the open proposition serves as a useful indicator of question structure choice. Highly active open propositions are often realized with in situ structures whereas inactive open propositions are often realized with fronted structures. These findings are consistent with initial observations by Coveney. Further, I examine the system involved in interrogative choice, which incorporates many areas of grammar including pragmatics, socio-stylistics, syntax and semantics. I propose the concept of answerability as an umbrella term to explain several seemingly diverse factors affecting WH-questions use. I explore the application of Optimality Theory to contextualized interrogative choices since it permits a complete analysis by allowing a combination of constraints from the various pertinent components of grammar. In conclusion, by implementing this combination of analyses, I not only contribute to the long-standing discussion regarding interrogative structure usage in French, but I also clarify the explanatory power of pragmatics and Optimality Theory for this particularly complex system. / text

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

In this thesis, a comparative linguistic investigation of morphological deficits in two English-speaking and two Greek-speaking agrammatic aphasic patients is presented. Adopting the Strong Lexicalist Hypothesis, the study focuses on the subjects' ability to repeat, comprehend and produce nominal and verbal inflections. The hypotheses investigated concern the effects of language-specific features in agrammatic performance and the role of morphological principles in the two languages. Finally the implications of the data for linguistic theory are investigated. / The data show that language-specific features are crucial in determining aphasic performance. Principles of well-formedness of lexical items appear to remain unaffected. Morphological deficits are found to manifest themselves at different levels: the lexical and the postlexical. A Storage Hypothesis which reflects the word structure of complex lexical items in the brain is proposed. Finally, it is proposed that only through a Strong Lexicalist framework can one achieve uniform interpretations of morphological deficits in aphasia.