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The purposes of this study were (a) to examine two groups of healthy older Dutch English bilingual migrants in a New Zealand setting to investigate whether they were showing signs of L2 attrition with accompanying L1 reversion post-retirement, and (b) to identify possible factors which might play a role in the incidence of any L2 attrition and concomitant L1 reversion. Previous research has focused on similar groups of migrants in the Australian context, while New Zealand based research has focused on language shift and maintenance amongst three generations of migrants. The research design involved an analysis of sociolinguistic life, using questionnaires. These included self-assessments of L1 and L2 proficiency at three key times: on arrival in New Zealand, at time of ultimate attainment and post-retirement. Further, an analysis of assessments of respondents’ L1 and L2 proficiency pre-and post-retirement completed by interviewees’ adult children moderated respondents’ self-reports. The findings revealed a considerable overlap between participants’ self-reports and assessments by their adult children. The study also revealed a relationship between participants’ level of prior education and their ultimate attainment in the L2, with those who had come to New Zealand having learned English at Secondary School English very likely to have achieved a “good” or “very good” level of L2 proficiency. Conversely, those who had not learned the L2 at secondary school prior to arriving in New Zealand, were less likely to have achieved a “very good” level of ultimate attainment as evident both from self-reports and assessments by adult children. The design also included a linguistic analysis of elicited free speech. Data focused on key indicators of age, gender, social class, prior education, occupation and predominant linguistic environment pre- and post-retirement. Free speech was examined for code-switching, response latency and L1 structure in respondents’ spoken L2. Results indicated that a majority of respondents showed minimal if any signs of L2 attrition with concomitant L1 reversion, both as evidenced by their spoken L2 and as indicated by self-reports and assessments by adult children. Any signs of L2 attrition which were found appeared linked to respondents’ level of prior education and L2 proficiency on arrival in New Zealand. Being exposed to a predominantly L1 social environment post-retirement also appeared to result in a lifting of the threshold for L2 lexical items, resulting in a slightly increased response latency in the spoken L2. Three participants said they experienced some problems expressing their healthcare needs to medical professionals, to the extent that they were searching for words. All stated they “got there in the end” but needed more time to paraphrase their health needs. Two subjects avoided the use of the L2 during the interview, even when prompted in English. Three respondents engaged in significant codeswitching from L2 to L1 and vice versa, with two engaging in what Muysken (2000) terms “congruent lexicalisation”. Adult childrens’ reports indicated that the respondents in question had always spoken in this manner, but to a greater extent now, post-retirement. Overall, a number of the healthy older subjects interviewed for the study were showing some signs of increased response latency and lexical retrieval problems when expressing themselves in the L2, but none to the degree that they were no longer able to communicate in that language.

This study concerns itself with a linguistic contrastive analysis of one particular characteristic of grammar and vocabulary in both English and Arabic languages. That is, combinations of proper verbs with adverbial and/or prepositional particle(s), which are commonly known as: phrasal verbs. In addition, the thesis attempts to approve the fact that there are fundamental similarities and dissimilarities between English and Arabic phrasal verbs. Such similarities and dissimilarities are investigated at length through a theoretical comparison of these combinations in both languages. The main hypothesis of the study is that there are wide ranges of difficulties posed to Arabic professional translators and Arabic translation students when translating idiomatic English phrasal verbs into Arabic. Exploring such difficulties is the principle aim of the study. The other aim is to propose a number of recommendations for professional translators, lexicographers and pedagogues. Such recommendations are based on a range of findings arrived at from the empirical research carried out in the study. A linguistic contrastive analysis model for the analysis and translation of idiomatic English phrasal verbs into Arabic is devised in order to establish a yardstick by which the translation quality of such idiomatic expressions can be analysed, compared, evaluated and assessed. Translation tests are conducted to identify types of errors and translational pitfalls made by Arabic professional translators and Arabic translation students when handling the most problematic and challenging idiomatic English phrasal verbs. The results revealed that there are in fact lots of difficulties encountered by Arabic professional translators and Arabic translation students when dealing with the phenomenon of idiomatic English phrasal verbs. The most important aspect of such difficulties is the failure to achieve functional-pragmatic equivalents of such verbs. Overtly erroneous errors such as: literal translation, mistranslating, reducing idioms to sense and breaching of the Arabic language system, along with covertly erroneous errors, such as wrong Arabic collocation, shift of register, incorrect delivery of speech acts, usage of paraphrasing and usage of Arabic colloquial and regional dialects, were the major reasons behind the failure of delivering the appropriate functional pragmatic equivalents of the idiomatic English phrasal verbs listed in the translation tests.ABSTRACT / (PhD)

<p>Döva personer i Sverige och världen lever nästan uteslutande i ett hörande majoritetssamhälle och har således på ett eller annat sätt en fortlöpande kontakt med hörande människor i såväl privat- som arbetsliv. De flesta döva i arbetslivet arbetar som enda eller som en av få döva på en hörande arbetsplats och ofta anlitas tolk för möten mellan hörande och döva kollegor. Föreliggande uppsats är en etnografisk studie av tolksituationen på en arbetsplats där en döv samt ett tjugotal hörande kollegor arbetar tillsammans. Med hjälp av fältanteckningar, intervjuer och videofilmning har en bild av tolksituationen genererats. I resultaten visas tecken på att den döva deltagaren till stor del lider av informationsbrist på olika plan. Därtill verkar det finnas en stor kunskapslucka hos de hörande kollegorna gällande teckenspråk och dövas villkor i ett hörande samhälle. Resultatet visar även tendenser till att den döva deltagaren genom det omgivande majoritetsspråkssamhället själv medverkar till sin egen underordning. I den komplexa tolksituationen verkar tolken fungera som en grindvakt. Tolken kan ha en svår och inte alltid definierad roll att översätta och samordna turer mellan hörande och döva och föra samtalet framåt i en gemensam riktning. Det verkar även som att den döva deltagaren och hennes hörande kollegor har olika uppfattning om tolkens roll. Tolkens arbete verkar härigenom kunna försvåras, något som i sin tur skulle kunna påverka relationen mellan den döva deltagaren och hennes hörande kollegor. Resultaten har diskuterats utifrån ett poststrukturalistiskt perspektiv för att visa på samband mellan mikro- och makronivå med kopplingar till språkideologi, språkpolitik, maktrelationer samt teorin om Deafhood.</p> / <p>Deaf people in Sweden and worldwide live with few exceptions in a hearing society, and thereby in one way or another they have connections with hearing people in their private and professional lives. Most Deaf people in working life have no or few Deaf co-workers at hearing workplaces and hence a Sign Language interpreter is often hired to facilitate the communication between deaf and hearing co-workers. This thesis is an ethnographic study of the interpreting situation at a workplace where one Deaf and about 20 hearing co-workers work together. With field notes, interviews and video recording an illustration of the situation has been generated. The results show a tendency that the Deaf participant to a great extent suffers from information loss in several areas. In addition, the hearing co-workers seem to have a gap in knowledge about Sign Language and the conditions of Deaf people. Also, the Deaf participant seems to participate in her own subordination through the surrounding majority society. In the complexity of the interpreting situation, the interpreter seems to serve as a gatekeeper. She also has a challenging and not always easily definable role in translating and coordinating turns between Deaf and hearing participants, thus moving the conversation forwards in a mutual direction. Nevertheless, the Deaf participant and her hearing co-workers often seem to have different views of the responsibilities of the interpreter, something that might make the interpreter’s job even more challenging. This, in turn, can influence the relationship between hearing and Deaf co-workers. The results of the thesis have been discussed from a poststructural perspective to show a connection between the intimate workplace situation and language ideology, language policy, power relations and the theory of Deafhood.</p><p> </p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Portuguese