This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

The purpose of this master's project was to write a resource book that demonstrates how teachers can use data-driven learning methods to teach vocabulary. First, a brief overview of corpus linguistics, data-driven learning, and the corpus used in this book (COCA) is given. Then, the book presents different aspects of vocabulary learning in the context of a corpus. Topics included are frequency knowledge, part of speech knowledge, morphological knowledge, synonym knowledge, collocational knowledge, and register knowledge with a chapter on each topic. For each aspect of vocabulary learning there is a section that introduces the topic to the teacher, followed by instructions on performing topic related searches in the corpus. Each chapter also includes examples and ideas for application to the vocabulary classroom. Additional chapters provide information on individual language learning, and an evaluation of the project. The goal of this project was to provide teachers with specific knowledge of vocabulary and corpus-linguistics to be able to teach less-frequently addressed aspects of vocabulary instruction and to encourage more use of corpora in the language classroom. It is hoped that after reading this book, teachers will be able to improve their vocabulary teaching and ability to use the Corpus of Contemporary American English and DDL methods in the ESL/EFL classroom. The evaluation of this project will consist of teacher reviews of the book after reading. Specifically, the questionnaire addresses readers' feelings of increased knowledge and understanding of these areas and desire to use them in the classroom.

Metalinguistic awareness (MA) in the context of the present study is the ability to deconstruct and analyze a language's intricate systems, and by doing so, better understand how these systems work. More specifically for the present study, the investigation focused on preservice teachers' MA in relation to grammar and its importance for their future students' understanding of language. Language is at the core of any content area in students' academic lives and it will continue to permeate all aspects of their studies at all ages. As such, language-related issues should be at the front and center of preservice teachers' preparation. The present study, a quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest (Shadish, Cook & Campbell, 2002) investigated the metalinguistic awareness of preservice teachers who were enrolled in a face-to-face, undergraduate applied linguistics course at an urban research university in the United States. The metalinguistic awareness in the scope of the present study was directly related to the grammar knowledge of participants, and it was measured by an adapted instrument called ALAT. The results of the current study demonstrate that overall increase of MA is feasible (as attested by the results from research question 1). Nevertheless, further investigations (research questions 2, 3, 4, and 5) demonstrated that teachers' levels of metalinguistic awareness vary significantly. These results echoed previous findings that demonstrated that preservice teachers are not language-knowledgeable enough to deal with myriad issues that involve language, both in relation to students who are native speakers of English and also concerning ELs (Kolln & Hancock, 2005; Nutta et al., 2012; Pappamihiell, 2007). Preservice teachers' lack higher level metalinguistic awareness, as evidenced by their limited ability to explain grammar errors and use proper metalanguage while doing so. The main implication of the present study lies in the recommendation that more can and should be done in order to ensure that preservice teachers are receiving the appropriate amount of language-oriented preparation during their college years. The present study offers a confirmatory perspective to previous research findings which found that preservice teachers are not knowledgeable enough in relation to language. Previous studies also pointed out to this lack of preparation as a generator of feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in preservice teachers while foreseeing their future students' language struggles. Nonetheless, the present study also demonstrates that improvement can be achieved in regard to MA teacher preparedness in relatively little amount of time, especially for recognition of grammatical items such as parts of speech and parts of sentence. However, the findings demonstrate that more time is needed to ensure better results for complex grammar analyses such as explanation of grammatical errors.

No description available.

Магистерская диссертация посвящена изучению гармонизации речевого общения. При возникновении сложностей в речевом общении, когда взаимодействие адресата и адресанта переходит в зону конфликтной коммуникации, функцию гармонизации речи нередко выполняет метаязыковая рефлексия. Цель диссертации – выявление метаязыковых операторов, гармонизирующих общение, указывающих на единицы, которые способствуют либо смягчению, либо огрублению информации. / Master thesis is devoted to the study of harmonization of verbal communication. If you experience difficulties in speech communication, when the interaction of the addressee and the addresser transferred to the zone of conflict communication, the function of harmonization of speech often performs metalinguistic reflection. The purpose of the thesis is to identify metalinguistic statements that harmonize the communication and indicate units, which contribute to either mitigation, or hard information.

Research has shown that theory of mind tends to develop in typically-developing children at about the age of 4 years. However, language appears to play a great role in this, particularly as deaf children, particularly those born to hearing parents, display extreme delays in theory of mind development, while bilinguals have been found to develop at a somewhat faster rate than monolinguals. Additionally, effects of culture on theory of mind development remain somewhat unclear, as there have been mixed results in past research. Theory of mind has also been correlated with metalinguistic ability and executive functioning skills, leading to multiple hypotheses regarding what drives theory of mind development. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to examine the relationships between theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning, as well as to evaluate how language and culture play a role in these relationships. Four studies were conducted in an attempt to seek answers to six research questions surrounding this aim. Study1 evaluated theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning among hearing nursery children in Central Scotland. Study 2 was aimed at evaluating these same skills among deaf children in the U.S. and U.K., as well as developing a scaling of theory of mind abilities among deaf children. Study 3 assessed these skills among deaf Ghanaian children, as well as evaluating theory of mind abilities among a group of hearing Ghanaian children. Finally, Study 4 compared monolingual and bilingual children on theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning. Results show that there is a strong link between theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness among hearing children that is not explained by executive functioning skills. This relationship was not apparent among deaf children, who struggle more with theory of mind than metalinguistic awareness. The deaf children in Ghana were delayed compared to their Western peers; hearing Ghanaian children were delayed compared to their Western peers as well, but only slightly. Bilingual children and monolingual children performed similarly on false belief and set-shifting tasks; however, monolingual children outperformed bilinguals on metalinguistic awareness and inhibition tasks, possibly due to low verbal mental age among the monolinguals. Results of the four studies suggest that language does play a part in the relationship between theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness. Due to limited data, cultural effects remain unclear. It is proposed that deaf children’s struggle with theory of mind stems from their difficulty with abstract concepts.