Cette thèse porte sur les marqueurs de temps, de mode et d’aspect [TMA] dans deux créoles français : le mauricien et le haïtien. Deux objectifs sont visés : 1] apporter des arguments pour soutenir l’idée du caractère non exceptionnel des langues créoles et 2] mettre en lumière les différences constrastives du marquage TMA entre les systèmes verbaux des deux créoles. Premièrement, nous remettons en question le concept de « Creole Specific Reanalysis » [Detges 2000] en discutant de l’opposition entre deux mécanismes importants du changement linguistique que sont la grammaticalisation et la réanalyse et nous menons une étude diachronique sur les marqueurs TMA en créole mauricien à partir d’un corpus de textes anciens. Par son exploitation systématique, ce travail permet d’arriver à une description de l’émergence et du développement du système verbal TMA en mauricien. Deuxièmement, nous faisons une étude comparative synchronique des systèmes des marqueurs TMA du mauricien et du haïtien en nous appuyant sur un cadre théorique général de la temporalité et à partir de données contemporaines, issues entre autres d’une enquête suivant le questionnaire de Dahl [1985]. Nous présentons les éléments communs et ceux qui différencient les marqueurs TMA des deux créoles en raison de leurs fonctions communicatives et de leurs sémantismes dans leurs emplois et usages respectifs. / This study concerns the tense, mood and aspect [TMA] markers in two French Creoles: Mauritian and Haitian. The objectives of this doctoral thesis are twofold : 1] provide arguments to support the idea that Creole languages are non-exceptional and 2] highlight the contrastive differences of TMA marking between the verbal systems of the two creoles. First, we question the concept of "Creole Specific Reanalysis" [Detges 2000] by discussing the opposition between two important mechanisms in language change : grammaticalization and reanalysis, and we conduct a diachronical study on TMA markers in Mauritian Creole based on a corpus of old texts. Through its systematic exploitation, this work describes the emergence and the development of the TMA verbal system in this Creole. Secondly, a comparative analysis of the synchronic systems of TMA markers in Mauritian and Haitian is done, based on a general theoretical framework on Temporality and on contemporary data, resulting inter alia from a survey using Dahl’s [1985] questionnaire. The study presents the common elements and those that differentiate the TMA markers in the two Creoles because of their semantics and the communicative functions they fulfill.

Cette thèse sur le changement des normes communicatives en allemand contemporain se positionne dans le paradigme explicatif du changement linguistique par Rudi Keller, connu sous le nom de « théorie de la main invisible ». L’objectif de recherche est de montrer par l’analyse de cinq faits « variants » que le changement des normes communicatives a lieu sous l’impulsion d’un désir des locuteurs germanophones contemporains de plus d’authenticité et de respect de l’autre. Cette mentalité communicative, héritée de la remise en cause sociétale par les mouvements contestataires de la fin des années 1960, conditionne les attentes des locuteurs germanophones dans la réception des discours publics en terme d’ethos et de positionnement éthique. Au corpus sur lequel sont effectuées les analyses linguistiques des cinq faits variants – les « mots à charge négative » (ou « belastete Wörter »), les néologismes euphémistiques, la neutralisation du genre, l’ethos des locuteurs politiques, le tutoiement d’adresse – composé de documents prescriptifs universitaires, de discours politiques, et de supports publicitaires de l’espace public allemand, s’ajoute un corpus de réception relevant du type épilinguistique, composé de métacommentaires de locuteurs non-spécialistes. L’étude révèle la parole des locuteurs ordinaires comme signe annonçant et accompagnant le changement linguistique. / This PhD dissertation focuses upon the change of communicative norms in contemporary German and positions itself on the explanatory paradigm of language change by Rudi Keller,also known as “the theory of the invisible hand”. My research aims at pointing out – through the analysis of five “variant” facts – that the change of communicative norms is driven by the desire of contemporary German native speakers for more authenticity as well as respect for the other. The communicative mentality inherited from the counter-culture movements in the late 1960’s that challenged society order influences German native speakers’ expectations towards the reception of public discourses in terms of ethos and ethical positioning. In addition to the corpus upon which the linguistic analyses of the five variant facts are carriedout – the “negative words” (or “belastete Wörter”), euphemistic neologisms, gender neutralisation, the ethos of politicians, being on first name terms with someone – which consists of prescriptive college documents, political discourses and the advertising supports ofthe German public space – , there is a reception corpus that amounts to epilinguistic type and is composed of metacomments from non-specialist speakers. The study brings the speech ofordinary speakers to the fore as a sign that announces and goes along with language change.

With respect to its troubled past Northern Ireland has constantly been a field of interest, academic research and discourse. Certain periods in this past, like for example the “Troubles” (a time of violent struggle that began in 1969/70), sooner or later tend to create a particular approach towards language usage. As research has already been carried out on the “Troubles” and its language usage the question now remains in how far the application of lexical items would be changing through the impact of the so called peace process. Examining the language use surrounding this process a wide range of phenomena in the field of politics and social affairs but also in society could be analysed and discussed, assuming that change for some reason developed here. Investigating such circumstances further this empirical interdisciplinary study in the shape of a corpus analysis addresses the presumed language change in Northern Ireland by employing news texts (Belfast Telegraph, BBC Northern Ireland and An Phoblacht) of the period from 1995 to 2009 (i.e. before and after the Good Friday Agreement a negotiated settlement between Catholics and Protestants in 1998) for the analysis to attempt to establish a link between changing semantic and lexical units, and to some extend to even find a relation to alleged gradual social change. The evaluation is based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of thematically pre-selected keywords in the areas of politics, social affairs, and society. Generally it could therefore be concluded that change – though marginal in numbers – appears perceivable. Despite a detailed examination and evaluation (qualitative and quantitative) it needs to be pointed out, however, that the findings of correlating social and linguistic variables could in the end only imply a kind of relation – contrary to the expectations in the beginning. Perhaps, in some cases, gradual change could be illustrated like for example with the name change of the police (RUC to PSNI) or changed social terminology. Nevertheless this study created an important contribution of research on post-“Troubles” Northern Ireland as it brings this statelet back into focus on the one hand and in addition prompts questions on the challenges of future language usage in societies that experienced violent conflict on the other. Corpus and Appendix on CD-Rom for printed copy available at University Library Chemnitz and German National Library

Cette recherche vise à élucider les facteurs influençant l’implantation terminologique d’un terme en proposant une nouvelle typologie des facteurs et une méthode qui révèle les mécanismes entraînant la variation terminologique en français dans le domaine des TIC à travers une analyse dans quatre communautés francophones, la France, le Québec, la Belgique et la Suisse. Après avoir établi une nouvelle typologie qui englobe quatre facteurs terminologiques, socioterminologiques, psychoterminologiques et extraterminologiques, nous proposons un modèle hypothétique, en introduisant trois concepts statistiques, les variables dépendante, indépendante et modératrice pour élucider la relation entretenue par ces quatre facteurs. La vérification du modèle est effectuée en deux étapes. Pour l’analyse des facteurs terminologiques et socioterminologiques, nous examinons la relation entre chacun d’eux et l’implantation terminologique. Pour ce faire, les termes ont tout d’abord été codifiés selon un critère établi et une analyse de corrélation a ensuite été effectuée. L’analyse des facteurs psychoterminologiques et extraterminologiques consiste, quant à elle, à examiner les réponses de notre questionnaire par des tests statistiques montrant la différence significative des réponses entre les communautés linguistiques. Cette analyse nous permet de confirmer une différence significative entre les trois pays européens et le Québec dans le mécanisme des facteurs d’implantation terminologique et de conclure que les facteurs psychoterminologiques et extraterminologiques jouent un rôle décisif dans cette différence diatopique. / Our research aims to elucidate the factors that influence the terminological implantation of a term by proposing a new typology of those factors with a method revealing how their mechanism causes terminological variation in French-language ICT. We accomplish this through an analysis of four Francophone communities: France, Quebec, Belgium, and Switzerland. After establishing a new typology, which encompasses the terminological, socio-terminological, psycho-terminological, and extra-terminological factors, we propose a hypothetical model of their mechanism by introducing three statistical concepts—dependent, independent, and moderator variables—to elucidate these factors’ relationships. We verify our model in two steps. First, for the analysis of terminological and socio- terminological factors, we examine the relations between each factor and terminological implantation of 256 French ICT terms. For this, we begin by coding the terms according to a criterion established for each factor. We then carry out a correlation analysis with Spearman’s rank correlation. Second, we analyse the psycho-terminological and extra-terminological factors with statistical tests on the answers to our questionnaire, which show significant differences between these four linguistic communities. Our analysis confirms a significant difference between the three European countries and Quebec in the mechanism of the terminological implantation factors and we conclude that the psycho-terminological and extra-terminological factors play a decisive role in this difference, which we identify as diatopic.

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on language variation and language change in judicial protocols from the municipal court in Stockholm during the period 1476−1626. These documents provide a unique insight into late medieval and early modern use of written vernacular. The main material consists of 700 courtroom notes from seven different periods of time, a hundred documents from each year: 1476, 1499, 1525, 1550, 1575, 1600, and 1626. The study draws theoretically on functional linguistics; more specifically, it utilizes Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, Ulf Teleman’s (1985) theoretical model of language change, as well as dialogism. The results are presented in four analytical chapters. In the first of these, the aim is to systemize the somewhat heterogeneous material, and the corpus is divided in two different ways: one due to judicial content (‘categories of matter’), and one due to textual structure (‘discourse levels’). These systemizations also serve as a methodological foundation for the lexicogrammatical analysis in the following chapters. A main result is that multi-party cases over time develop a functional need for new communication strategies, while unilateral cases already from the beginning seem to bear a more deep-rooted textual stability. In addition, there is a significant increase of discourse level 3, representing communicative events outside the courtroom, in multi-party cases found in texts from 1600 and 1626. In the two following chapters, lexicogrammatical resources of ‘personal reference’ and ‘time and tense’ are analysed. The texts realize different patterns of anaphora, where individuation explains much of the variation: texts with high degree of individuation (criminal cases) materialize a high degree of pronouns, whereas texts regarding property issues materialize low individuation with few pronouns and many full NPs. Regarding the use of tense, the past tense is the most common tense. Still, the study shows an diachronic increase in the use of present tense. The last analytical chapter examines the use of three lexical features: judicial pronouns; word pairs; and nominalizations. The results show that judicial pronouns and word pairs typically occur in registrations matters; nominalizations occur throughout the genre. In the last chapter, the results and implications of the thesis are summated and discussed. The results point towards a pragmatic use of the written language. Although the lexicogrammatical resources are the same during the period, the usages vary. Hence, linguistic variation and change are highly motivated by an intercommunion of contextual factors such as a more solid administrative literacy, a changing litigation, and an increase of legal demands for linguistic precision and documentation. It is argued that the language variety in the genre can be understood as instantiations of different registers.

Mandarin Chinese has long been known to possess a category of words known as ‘coverbs’ in the literature, which sit in the gray area between verb and preposition. Li and Thompson (1974) describe the historical origins of Mandarin coverbs to be full transitive verbs, despite their modern state being decidedly less verbal. They also note that coverbs are a non-homogenous class. This thesis works to establish categories of coverbs in Mandarin Chinese and their distance from true verbhood in order to understand the diachronic shift that coverbs are currently undergoing before our very eyes. I will draw on the work of scholars of Atlantic-Congo languages, Oceanic languages, and other languages of mainland Southeast Asia, to create semantic, syntactic, and morphological testing for Mandarin coverbs. Using the results of this three-pronged testing approach, I will map the results on a six-pointed verb-preposition matrix in order to visualize the space between verb and preposition and how Mandarin coverbs inhabit it. I will then use these diagrams to create a numerical score for each category of coverb and place them on a linear progression between verbhood and prepositionhood. Lastly, this work will analyze the theta roles assigned by Mandarin coverbs in each category and propose stages of diachronic development for Mandarin coverbs.

We are constantly surrounded by language, which affects our view of ourselves and the world around us. Children are especially affected by their language environment and will often adapt their speech to fit in among their friends. Nowadays it seems like cursing and insults has become more common among young students in the school environment, which worries us. This study presents our research on what we call problematic language, it is specified on students in middle school and their experience of the use of curses and insults around them. Our research was done by qualitative interviews with both students and teachers as the aim was to get different perspectives on how the students are affected. We have chosen to take the social perspective of language in our study together with the perspectives of previous research in the field of offensive language. What we discovered was that the students have a different view of the language use than teachers do. How words are perceived is very individual, it depends on the situation and the relations to those around. What is clear is that students get affected by their language environment and therefore need support and guidance in order to understand the effects of problematic language use. With this study we intend to bring awareness and knowledge that can benefit a healthy language environment for students in school and after school care

Text in Afrikaans / In this dissertation the ideology behind the debate on the position of Standard Afrikaans in the new, multilinguistic South African dispensation with eleven official languages is examined from a psycholinguistic perspective. The study concentrates on how ideology and power played and are still playing a role in the formation of the variety Standard Afrikaans. The study points out how historical and present-day philosophical, social and language-political considerations influenced the natural development of Afrikaans by advancing it in respect of status on the one hand and prejudicing it in respect of lexicon and corpus on the other hand. The mutual bond of Afrikaans and English as Germanic languages and the inherently hybrid nature of Afrikaans are highlighted. The study points out the artificial role of Eurocentrism and the ideal of "pure language" on perceptions and myths about Afrikaans, as well as the historical influence of the European heritage on Afrikaner thinking and the direct influence thereof on the appropriation of Afrikaans as a symbol and product of an exclusive, ethnical group. Classical perceptions and myths in respect of the origin of Afrikaans and the status of creole languages as opposed to so-called "pure" languages are queried. With reference to the results of the research the author reflects on the possibility of a paradigmatic shift in respect of Standard Afrikaans in its present format. Actual Afrikaans ("aktuele Afrikaans") as a basis for a generally accepted standard language is presented as a new concept. The author reflects on the internal and external desirability of a new approach to Afrikaans as the stimulus behind the survival and acceptance of Afrikaans as an intranational and international language of, inter alia, science, technology, philosophy and social interaction. Scientific arguments in respect of language change, language influencing, language diffusion and language fusion are advanced in this respect. / In hierdie proefskrif word die ideologie agter die debat oor Standaardafrikaans se posisie in die nuwe, multilinguistiese Suid-Afrikaanse bestel met elf amptelike tale vanuit 'n psigolinguistiese perspektief ondersoek. Daar word gekonsentreer op hoe ideologie en mag 'n rol in die vorming van die varieteit Standaardafrikaans gespeel het, en dit steeds doen. Daar word aangetoon hoe historiese en hedendaagse filosofiese, maatskaplike en taalpolitiese oorwegings die natuurlike ontwikkeling van Afrikaans bemvloed het deur dit onder andere enersyds statusgewys te bevoordeel en andersyds leksikaal en korpusgewys te benadeel. Die gemeenskaplike band van Afrikaans en Engels as Germaanse tale en die inherente hibridiese aard van Afrikaans word uitgelig. Daar word gewys op die kunsmatige rol wat Eurosentrisme en die strewe na "taalsuiwerheid" in opvattinge en mites oor Afrikaans gehad het, asook op die historiese invloed van die Europese erfenis op Afrikanerdenke en die indirekte invloed daarvan op die toe-eiening van Afrikaans as simbool en produk van 'n eksklusiewe, etniese groepering. Klassieke opvattinge en mites oor die ontstaan van Afrikaans en die status van kreoolse tale vergeleke met sogenaamde "suiwer" tale word bevraagteken. Na aanleiding van navorsingsresultate word daar besin oor 'n moontlike paradigmaverskuiwing ten opsigte van Standaardafrikaans in die huidige gedaante daarvan. Aktuele Afrikaans as 'n basis vir 'n algemeen aanvaarbare standaardtaal word as nu we konsep aangebied. Daar word besin oor die inteme en eksteme wenslikheid van 'n nuwe benadering tot Afrikaans as die stukrag vir die voortbestaan en aanvaarding .van Afrikaans as 'n intranasionale en intemasionale taal van, onder andere, die wetenskap, tegnologie, filosofie en sosiale omgang. Hiervoor word wetenskaplike argumente. / Afrikaans / D.Lit. et Phil.(Afrikaans)

This project uses corpus linguistics and geostatistics to test the sociolinguistic typological theory put forward by Peter Trudgill on the history of Norwegian. The theory includes several effects of societal factors on language change. Most discussed is the proposal that ‘intensive’ language contact causes simplification of language grammar. In the Norwegian case, the claim is that simplificatory changes which affected all of the Continental North Germanic languages (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian) but not the Insular North Germanic Languages were the result of contact with Middle Low German through the Hanseatic League. This suggests that those simplificatory changes arose in the centres of contact with the Hanseatic League: cities with Hansa trading posts and kontors. The size of the dataset required would have made it impossible for previous scholars to test this prediction, but digital approaches render the problem tractable. I have designed a 3.5m word corpus containing nearly all extant Middle Norwegian, and developed statistical methods for examining the spread of language phenomena in time and space. The project is made up of a series of case studies of changes. Three examine simplifying phonological changes: the rise of svarabhakti (epenthetic) vowels, the change of /hv/ > /kv/ and the loss of the voiceless dental fricative. A further three look at simplifying morphological changes: the loss of 1.sg. verbal agreement, the loss of lexical genitives and the loss of 1.pl. verbal agreement. In each case study a large dataset from many documents is collected and used to map the progression of the change in space and time. The social background of document signatories is also used to map the progression of the change through different social groups. A variety of different patterns emerge for the different changes examined. Some changes spread by contagious diffusion, but many spread by hierarchical diffusion, jumping first between cities before spreading to the country at large. One common theme which runs through much of the findings is that dialect contact within the North Germanic language area seems to have played a major role: many of the different simplificatory changes may first have spread into Norwegian from Swedish or Danish. Although these findings do not exactly match the simple predictions originally proposed from the sociolinguistic typological theory, they are potentially consistent with a more nuanced account in which the major centres of contact and so simplifying change were in Sweden and Denmark rather than Norway.

Text in Afrikaans / In this dissertation the ideology behind the debate on the position of Standard Afrikaans in the new, multilinguistic South African dispensation with eleven official languages is examined from a psycholinguistic perspective. The study concentrates on how ideology and power played and are still playing a role in the formation of the variety Standard Afrikaans. The study points out how historical and present-day philosophical, social and language-political considerations influenced the natural development of Afrikaans by advancing it in respect of status on the one hand and prejudicing it in respect of lexicon and corpus on the other hand. The mutual bond of Afrikaans and English as Germanic languages and the inherently hybrid nature of Afrikaans are highlighted. The study points out the artificial role of Eurocentrism and the ideal of "pure language" on perceptions and myths about Afrikaans, as well as the historical influence of the European heritage on Afrikaner thinking and the direct influence thereof on the appropriation of Afrikaans as a symbol and product of an exclusive, ethnical group. Classical perceptions and myths in respect of the origin of Afrikaans and the status of creole languages as opposed to so-called "pure" languages are queried. With reference to the results of the research the author reflects on the possibility of a paradigmatic shift in respect of Standard Afrikaans in its present format. Actual Afrikaans ("aktuele Afrikaans") as a basis for a generally accepted standard language is presented as a new concept. The author reflects on the internal and external desirability of a new approach to Afrikaans as the stimulus behind the survival and acceptance of Afrikaans as an intranational and international language of, inter alia, science, technology, philosophy and social interaction. Scientific arguments in respect of language change, language influencing, language diffusion and language fusion are advanced in this respect. / In hierdie proefskrif word die ideologie agter die debat oor Standaardafrikaans se posisie in die nuwe, multilinguistiese Suid-Afrikaanse bestel met elf amptelike tale vanuit 'n psigolinguistiese perspektief ondersoek. Daar word gekonsentreer op hoe ideologie en mag 'n rol in die vorming van die varieteit Standaardafrikaans gespeel het, en dit steeds doen. Daar word aangetoon hoe historiese en hedendaagse filosofiese, maatskaplike en taalpolitiese oorwegings die natuurlike ontwikkeling van Afrikaans bemvloed het deur dit onder andere enersyds statusgewys te bevoordeel en andersyds leksikaal en korpusgewys te benadeel. Die gemeenskaplike band van Afrikaans en Engels as Germaanse tale en die inherente hibridiese aard van Afrikaans word uitgelig. Daar word gewys op die kunsmatige rol wat Eurosentrisme en die strewe na "taalsuiwerheid" in opvattinge en mites oor Afrikaans gehad het, asook op die historiese invloed van die Europese erfenis op Afrikanerdenke en die indirekte invloed daarvan op die toe-eiening van Afrikaans as simbool en produk van 'n eksklusiewe, etniese groepering. Klassieke opvattinge en mites oor die ontstaan van Afrikaans en die status van kreoolse tale vergeleke met sogenaamde "suiwer" tale word bevraagteken. Na aanleiding van navorsingsresultate word daar besin oor 'n moontlike paradigmaverskuiwing ten opsigte van Standaardafrikaans in die huidige gedaante daarvan. Aktuele Afrikaans as 'n basis vir 'n algemeen aanvaarbare standaardtaal word as nu we konsep aangebied. Daar word besin oor die inteme en eksteme wenslikheid van 'n nuwe benadering tot Afrikaans as die stukrag vir die voortbestaan en aanvaarding .van Afrikaans as 'n intranasionale en intemasionale taal van, onder andere, die wetenskap, tegnologie, filosofie en sosiale omgang. Hiervoor word wetenskaplike argumente. / Afrikaans / D.Lit. et Phil.(Afrikaans)