This dissertation investigates subject expression patterns in Dominican Spanish (DS). In this variety, the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish co-exist with the widespread use of overt subjects, which are found in specific constructions that are either rare or unattested in other Spanish varieties. Interestingly, these structures co-exist in the Dominican grammar with the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish. While subject expression has been studied in a number of Spanish dialects within the generative and the variationist paradigms, monolingual Dominican Spanish, to the best of my knowledge, has not been investigated in previous variationist work. This study covers this gap by examining a large corpus of spontaneous speech (N=6005) gathered in the capital city of Santo Domingo and a rural area in the northwestern Cibao region. Furthermore, in line with the cohesive approach to syntactic variation developed in recent work (Adger and Smith 2005), theoretical implications are drawn from quantitative results. The results obtained in this study show that null and overt subject patterns in DS are regulated by the same constraints that have been found relevant in previous variationist work, i.e. discourse-related factor groups and Person (Otheguy, Zentella and Livert, 2007). These results depart from previous work in that evidence for language change in progress has been found in subject position patterns, rather than in null and overt subject distribution. When this phenomenon is examined, urban, young, high-middle class and female speakers arise as the social groups leading grammatical restructuring. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is taken into account for testing previous syntactic-theoretical proposals on DS. Taking the cartographic approach to syntactic structure (Rizzi 1997) as a point of departure, it will proposed that multiple specifier positions are available within the TP and CP fields to host strong and weak subjects. This proposal, in turn, makes it possible to account for the Null Subject Parameter profile displayed by synchronic DS without resorting to competing grammars in the minds of the speakers.

In 2004, the Institut für Deutsche Sprache published the neologism dictionary "Neuer Wortschatz: Neologismen der 90er Jahre im Deutschen", which contains new words that entered the German language during the 1990s (for example "Elchtest" and "Handy"). Based on this dictionary this master's thesis examines to what extent those new words have reached the vocabulary of German speakers in the German language island of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Moreover, it describes the attitudes of the local speakers of German towards these new words. <br /><br /> First, the term <em>neologism</em> is defined, different types of neologisms are presented and a review of research on German neologisms in general is given. Second, the historical background of the German speakers in Kitchener-Waterloo is described. The focal point of this thesis, however, is on the methodology of the study and on the results of the actual research coming from a data collection amongst German speakers of Kitchener-Waterloo. On the one hand, the focus of the analysis is on the question to what extent this language change in the German language in Europe has reached them. Hence knowledge and usage of the neologisms are examined. On the other hand, the focus is on the attitudes the interviewees have towards these new words. Both aspects are compared to the result of the same study administered to German speakers, who lived during the 1990s in Germany. Hence knowledge and attitudes of the Canadian German speakers can be compared to those of speakers in Germany. <br /><br /> The results show that the participants from Germany knew more neologisms than those from Kitchener Waterloo. Concerning attitudes, both groups showed a slightly positive attitude towards the neologisms with interesting differences regarding certain types of neologisms.

Research in the Caribbean often links global phenomena (e.g. increased tourism) to changes in lifestyles and mindsets taking place in this part of the world (Curtis, 2009). I examine the direction, intensity, and motivations of language changes among adolescents in three communities in Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) considering the socio-economic transformations affecting the island. Data for this study was obtained using a combination of sociolinguistic interviews and conversations between Bequia adolescents and their grandparents recorded in the course of several fieldwork trips. Three villages in Bequia were considered, Hamilton, Paget Farm and Mount Pleasant, characterised by different patterns of settlement and socioeconomic development. I investigate variation between: (i) creole verb stems vs. Standard English verb inflections (e.g. I go yesterday vs. I went yesterday), and (ii) verb stems and verb inflections vs. creole preverbal markers (e.g. I bin play yesterday). A variety of grammatical, discoursespecific, functional, and cognitive constraints are tested to determine which factors condition the variable patterns across different communities and age groups, and how linguistically similar/different these communities are. Results of the quantitative multivariate analysis of variation between bare verbs and inflected verbs show dialect levelling (Kerswill, 2003) among adolescents in Hamilton and Paget Farm and a transmission of the system (Labov, 2007) from the older generation to the younger in Mount Pleasant. In addition, adolescents in Paget Farm have recycled (Dubois and Horvath, 1999) a stigmatised creole form, preverbal bin, and are using it significantly more than any other group on the island. The study points to several important conclusions. Firstly, it emphasises the necessity for a multidisciplinary perspective in accounting for the factors which condition language change, especially in such a diverse and fast developing setting as the present-day Caribbean. Secondly, it supports the research on language and globalisation emphasising the relationship between the local and the global (e.g. Meyerhoff and Niedzielski, 2003). Finally, the study attempts to determine the nature of variation in creole languages as e.g. a creole continuum or co-existing systems, and establish replicable methods for measuring linguistic similarities/differences between communities.

This dissertation investigates subject expression patterns in Dominican Spanish (DS). In this variety, the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish co-exist with the widespread use of overt subjects, which are found in specific constructions that are either rare or unattested in other Spanish varieties. Interestingly, these structures co-exist in the Dominican grammar with the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish. While subject expression has been studied in a number of Spanish dialects within the generative and the variationist paradigms, monolingual Dominican Spanish, to the best of my knowledge, has not been investigated in previous variationist work. This study covers this gap by examining a large corpus of spontaneous speech (N=6005) gathered in the capital city of Santo Domingo and a rural area in the northwestern Cibao region. Furthermore, in line with the cohesive approach to syntactic variation developed in recent work (Adger and Smith 2005), theoretical implications are drawn from quantitative results. The results obtained in this study show that null and overt subject patterns in DS are regulated by the same constraints that have been found relevant in previous variationist work, i.e. discourse-related factor groups and Person (Otheguy, Zentella and Livert, 2007). These results depart from previous work in that evidence for language change in progress has been found in subject position patterns, rather than in null and overt subject distribution. When this phenomenon is examined, urban, young, high-middle class and female speakers arise as the social groups leading grammatical restructuring. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is taken into account for testing previous syntactic-theoretical proposals on DS. Taking the cartographic approach to syntactic structure (Rizzi 1997) as a point of departure, it will proposed that multiple specifier positions are available within the TP and CP fields to host strong and weak subjects. This proposal, in turn, makes it possible to account for the Null Subject Parameter profile displayed by synchronic DS without resorting to competing grammars in the minds of the speakers.

Those who work with older people frequently report that people who have learned a second language appear to lose facility in that language as they age. This phenomenon has also been observed by the friends and relatives of those older persons who have learned more than one language. However, there is very little research investigating changes in second (or other) languages across the lifespan. In contrast, extensive research exploring first language change in ageing has provided ample evidence of patterns of change in first language abilities across the lifespan. There is also much research linking these patterns to age-related cognitive change. The question addressed in the first study of this project was whether patterns of age-related change in second language abilities are similar to patterns of change in first language abilities. The performance of English first language and English second language (Chinese first language) participants aged 20 to 79 was compared on four language ability tasks. Information relating to language background, language use, and education was also collected. In general, the patterns of first and second language change across the lifespan were similar with facility in one ability, verbal fluency, decreasing with increased age. Background variables were also found to affect second language ability within the English second language group. The second study investigated whether those processes associated with age-related cognitive decline, and therefore age-related changes in first language, also influence changes in second language verbal fluency in ageing. English second language (Chinese first language) participants aged 20 to 79 performed a number of tasks designed to measure the cognitive constructs of speed of processing, inhibitory efficiency, and working memory capacity. The effect of age on verbal fluency in second language was mediated by speed of processing. There was no evidence of reduced inhibitory efficiency with increased age. Scores from the working memory capacity tasks could not be analysed due to the involuntary and unexpected intrusion of their Chinese language for some bilingual participants. The results were interpreted in terms of fluid and crystallised intelligence, and also the differences in bilingual compared to monolingual language processing. Implications for testing and assessment of individuals in their non-native language are discussed, and both the limitations of the research and also possible future research directions are identified.

abstract: Scholars have long debated whether Old and Middle English (ME) are different diachronic stages of one language, or whether they are two closely related languages that have different historical roots. A general assumption is that Middle and Modern English descend from Old English (OE), similar to the way Middle and Modern German descend from Old High German. Traditional scholarship places English into the West-Germanic language subgroup (which includes Old English, and continental Germanic languages) Historically, criteria used by linguists to establish genealogy of languages involve sound change from parent to daughter languages and the sharing of core vocabulary. Until recently, consideration of the influence of contact-induced change, except in the lexical domain, has been minimized, favoring generative language-internal factors. While it is generally accepted that internal motivation shapes the outcome of language change, contact may provide the catalyst for the change. The syntax of ME emerged with linguistic variation that distanced it from its Germanic relatives. In order to understand how the grammar of ME evolved and differs from its West-Germanic cousins, the syntax and morphosyntactic properties of ME, evident in The Orrmulum, an early ME work written in the Danelaw region of England, are analyzed in comparison to Old English (OE), Old Norse (ON), and Celtic, and in relation to formal grammaticalization theory, social factors and historical events. An analysis of the grammar in The Orrmulum supports current research regarding Scandinavian influence on the syntax of OE and ME, because there is extensive historic evidence regarding effects of language tangency of the relevant cultures; the properties of a grammatical lexicon influence retention of syntactic patterns, despite additions/changes in lexical categories; and The Orrmulum is a revealing source of the transition of OE to ME regional dialect variations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2017

Orientador: Maria Luiza Braga / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T11:31:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_AngelicaTerezinhaCarmo_D.pdf: 984053 bytes, checksum: f94d5eae89d1cdc7fe011f57d04b952c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Na presente tese, investigo as ¿construções do tipo foi fez¿, doravante CFFs, presentes na modalidade falada do Português do Brasil (PB). Essas construções apresentam propriedades morfossintáticas bem definidas, além de desempenharem um papel particular na situação de fala. Esta tese, desenvolvida sob o paradigma do funcionalismo lingüístico (vertente americana), se baseia em dados oriundos de amostras reais de fala, coletadas a partir do banco de dados constituído por pesquisadores e bolsistas do Projeto PEUL da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Para sustentar minhas hipóteses e examinar alguns fatores tradicionalmente utilizados nas pesquisas sociolingüísticas, trabalhei com 16 grupos de fatores que foram operacionalizados através do pacote VARBRUL, principalmente dos programas MAKECELL e CROSSTAB. As CFFs se formam a partir de uma seqüência mínima de V1 e V2, em que V1 corresponde a um dos verbos ir, chegar e pegar e V2 é relativamente livre. Essas construções podem ocorrer sob a forma de dois tipos distintos. No tipo 1, V1 e V2 são interligados pela conjunção e. No tipo 2, V1 e V2 apenas se justapõem. Ademais, V1 e V2 partilham flexões de tempo e pessoa e têm sujeitos correferenciais. Quanto à sua função, as CFFs atuam no nível discursivo-pragmático, dramatizando ou enfatizando os eventos descritos em V2. Uma vez que, além das propriedades exclusivas de sua categoria, apresentam ainda outras que são compartilhadas por diferentes tipos de construções, as CFFs não se encaixam no modelo clássico de categorização. Propus que apenas um modelo mais flexível, como aquele que prevê a existência de semelhança de famílias e de protótipos, é adequado para dar conta dos dados. Embora as CFFs possam ser concebidas como um membro de um continuum de construções de predicação complexa, com ocorrência em várias línguas, no que se restringe ao PB, as CFFs permanecem distintas de todos os outros tipos de construções. Tendo em vista as mudanças sofridas por ir, chegar e pegar que levaram ao desenvolvimento das CFFs, atesto que esses verbos percorrem os mesmos estágios iniciais previstos nos processos de gramaticalização, sem que, no entanto, tenham adquirido uma função gramatical prototípica, como tempo, aspecto e modo, mas sim uma função pragmática. Ao considerar que os verbos ir, chegar e pegar se gramaticalizaram, dando origem às CFFs, deixo claro que esses verbos exercem, nessas construções, uma função diversa daquelas originalmente previstas nos estudos de gramaticalização / Abstract: The present thesis examines the ¿foi fez constructions¿ (Lit. ¿Went Did constructions¿), henceforth FFCs, in spoken Brazilian Portuguese. FFCs exhibit definite morphosyntactic properties associated to the uses of the verbs ir (go), chegar (arrive) e pegar (take) and they also play a specific role on the speech situation. This thesis is developed under the functionalism paradigm (American version) and is based on data, collected from the PEUL Project database. In order to support my hypothesis and analyze some traditional sociolinguistics features, I adopted the methodological principles from the Theory of Linguistic Variation to make a quantitative analysis, using the VARBRUL, mainly the programs MAKECELL and CROSSTAB. FFCs consist minimally of a sequence of V1 and V2, where V1 and V2 share inflections for verb tense and subject. V1 is one of the verbs ir ¿go¿, chegar ¿arrive¿, and, pegar ¿take¿ and V2 is relatively open. V1 and V2 can be contiguous, type 1, or can be connected by e ¿and¿, type 2. The chief function of V1 in FFCs appears to be a discourse-pragmatic one, dramatizing or emphasizing the events codified by V2. FFCs do not constitute a sharply bounded grammatical category. As they share a number of resemblances with some other major construction, they cannot be analyzed in terms of discrete classical categories. I suggested that only a more flexible kind of categorization, as family resemblance and prototypic approaches, is appropriate to account for the data. Notwithstanding FFCs are understood here as a member of a group of complex predicates crosslinguistically observed, as far as Portuguese is concerned, they remain a distinctive class of grammatical construction. Furthermore I verified that ir, chegar e pegar have undergone changes, which result on the development of FFCs and concur with the first stages of grammaticalization. However, I stress that FFCs do not developed a prototypical grammatical function, like tense, aspect and mood, traditionally used to account for grammaticalization. Rather they developed a pragmatic one. Although I consider the development of FFCs as a result of a grammaticalization process, it is necessary to emphasize that they acquire a function different from those expected for grammaticalized items / Doutorado / Sociolinguistica / Doutor em Linguística

This dissertation investigates subject expression patterns in Dominican Spanish (DS). In this variety, the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish co-exist with the widespread use of overt subjects, which are found in specific constructions that are either rare or unattested in other Spanish varieties. Interestingly, these structures co-exist in the Dominican grammar with the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish. While subject expression has been studied in a number of Spanish dialects within the generative and the variationist paradigms, monolingual Dominican Spanish, to the best of my knowledge, has not been investigated in previous variationist work. This study covers this gap by examining a large corpus of spontaneous speech (N=6005) gathered in the capital city of Santo Domingo and a rural area in the northwestern Cibao region. Furthermore, in line with the cohesive approach to syntactic variation developed in recent work (Adger and Smith 2005), theoretical implications are drawn from quantitative results. The results obtained in this study show that null and overt subject patterns in DS are regulated by the same constraints that have been found relevant in previous variationist work, i.e. discourse-related factor groups and Person (Otheguy, Zentella and Livert, 2007). These results depart from previous work in that evidence for language change in progress has been found in subject position patterns, rather than in null and overt subject distribution. When this phenomenon is examined, urban, young, high-middle class and female speakers arise as the social groups leading grammatical restructuring. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is taken into account for testing previous syntactic-theoretical proposals on DS. Taking the cartographic approach to syntactic structure (Rizzi 1997) as a point of departure, it will proposed that multiple specifier positions are available within the TP and CP fields to host strong and weak subjects. This proposal, in turn, makes it possible to account for the Null Subject Parameter profile displayed by synchronic DS without resorting to competing grammars in the minds of the speakers.

Traditional prescriptive grammar for English states that the epicene or gender neutral pronoun for third person singular use is he. Research into speaker perceptions has clearly demonstrated that he is not perceived as neutral. Research has also shown traditionally proscribed epicene pronouns such as he or she and singular they to be commonly used, despite the long-standing proscriptions against them. The author examines the endurance of such proscribed options through the lens of markedness theory, considering the impact of cultural values on speakers' epicene pronoun choices. Gender in language is also considered, as well as Kuryłowicz‘s 4th Law of Analogy as a means for understanding patterns of language change. Second person pronoun change is considered as a model for understanding third person pronoun changes currently underway in Modern American English. The author conducts and reports on a corpus study designed to assess the current usage of three epicene pronouns in Modern American English, namely he or she and its variant she or he; one; and singular they. The results of the study are considered in terms of medium, spoken or written, and register, colloquial, standard, or formal. The study suggests that they is generally the preferred epicene pronoun, particularly in spoken language, but that one is the preferred epicene pronoun for formal writing.

In the individual grammars of time-bound speakers, as well as in the historical transmission of a language, prosodic and morphological domains are forced to interact. This research focuses, in particular, on stress, and its instantiation in different domains of the morphological structure. It asks what factors are involved in prioritising one system – morphology or stress assignment – over the other and how radical the consequences of this may be on the overall structure of the language. The data comes from two typologically distinct languages: Mapudungun (previously 'Araucanian'), a polysynthetic and agglutinating language isolate from Chile and Argentina documented for over 400 years; and English, far further into the isolating and fusional spectra, and documented from the 7th century onwards. In both languages, we focus on morphologically complex words and how they evolve in relation to stress. In Mapudungun we examine the entire historical period, while in English we focus on the changes from Old to Middle English (8th -14th centuries). The analyses show how different types of data (from acoustics, to native and non-native intuitions; from historical corpora, to present-day experimentation techniques), can be used in order to assess whether the prosodic system will accommodate to the demarcation of morphological domains or whether morphological structure is to be shoehorned into the prosodic system's rhythmic pattern. Original contemporary field and experimental work on Mapudungun shows stress to fall on right-aligned moraic trochees in the stem and word domains. This contradicts claims in the foot-typology literature, where Araucanian stress goes from left to right, building quantity-insensitive iambs. A reconstruction of the history of the stress system suggests a transition from quantity insensitivity to sensitivity and the establishment of two domains of stress, which ultimately facilitates the parsing of word-internal structure, emphasising the demarcative function of stress. In the case of Early English, the focus is on the prefixal domain. Here the optimisation of the stress system – also trochaic – is shown to reduce the instances of clash in the language at large. As a result, a split in the prefixal system is identified, where prefixes constituting heavy, non-branching feet are avoided – and are ultimately lost – due to clash with root-initial stress, while light and branching feet remain in the language. In this case, it is the rhythmic or structural role of stress that is emphasised. Language internal factors are evaluated – in particular morphological type and stress properties – alongside external factors such as contact (with Chilean Spanish and Norman French), in order to provide a more general context for the observed changes and synchronic structure of the languages. A key concept in the analysis is that of 'pertinacity', the conservative nature of transmission in grammars, which leads learners to perpetuate perceived core elements of the system.