English abstract: The text looks into the working of the 6th person possessivity exponence on the base of the analysis of two concrete paradigms - paradigms SUUS and ILLORUM. Its proposal is to comprend and to describe all changes of the semiosis of both of the two paradigms on their transition from the Latin diasystem to the Protoromance and the Romance one. These changes will be mesured and described on the base of the eight parameters of semiotic and semiologic description as changes of (1) formal aspect, (2) conceptual aspect, (3) reference, (4) extension, (5) intension, (6) differential value, (7) paradigmatic relations, (8) syntagmatic relations. On the base of the analysis of the individual diasystems we try to identify the connection, the relationship among the Romance centres, with the objective to identify the sources of the importation of linguistic innovations. English keywords: 6th person possessivity, reflexive possessivity, non-reflexive possessivity, possessives, ILLORUM, SUUS, semiosis, grammaticalization, suppletion, linguistic innovation, exportation of linguistic models, endophoricity, logophoricity, exophoricity, vulgar Latin, classical Latin, Romance languages

El presente trabajo abarca el estudio de la variación en las construcciones adverbiales locativas. Esta variación se manifiesta en dos niveles: (1) la alternancia entre la construcción estándar ADVERBIO + preposición de + PRONOMBRE PERSONAL (por ejemplo, delante de mí), y su variante normativamente no recomendada ADVERBIO + PRONOMBRE POSESIVO (por ejemplo, delante mío); y (2) la alternancia entre la construcción posesiva con el sufijo -o (por ejemplo, delante mío), y la construcción posesiva con el sufijo -a (por ejemplo, delante mía), variante normativamente aún más disuadida. El objetivo fue estudiar estas dos variables lingüísticas y sus posibles predictores sociolingüísticos. Con esta finalidad, se han analizado datos provenientes de Twitter. La recolección de datos se llevó a cabo en febrero del 2017. Se recogieron 2357 observaciones de construcciones adverbiales locativas de 21 países de habla hispana (incluyendo los Estados Unidos), de las cuales 1006 eran de la variante posesiva. En cuanto a la variación entre construcciones preposicionales y posesivas, se clasificaron los datos según cuatro variables independientes: el género (o sexo) del tuitero, la procedencia geográfica del tuit, el tipo de adverbio precedente y el número gramatical del referente. Con relación al uso del sufijo -a del posesivo, las observaciones fueron clasificadas según dos variables adicionales: la vocal final del adverbio y el género del referente gramatical. Se ha construido un modelo estadístico de regresión logística que mide el efecto de las variables independientes investigadas sobre el uso de (1) la construcción con el posesivo y (2) la construcción con el posesivo del sufijo -a respectivamente. Referente a (1), la alternancia en los complementos, el análisis revela que la zona dialectal del tuitero, el tipo del adverbio precedente y el número gramatical son los factores estadísticamente significativos para predecir el uso de la construcción posesiva. En lo que concierne a (2), la alternancia en los sufijos del posesivo, los datos apuntan a que tanto la zona dialectal del tuitero como el género del referente gramatical condicionan el uso del posesivo con la desinencia -a. / The present thesis studies the morphosyntactic variation in adverbial locative phrases in Spanish. This variation occurs at two levels: (1) the alternation between the standard construction ADVERB + the preposition de + PERSONAL PRONOUN (as in delante de mí) and the normatively nonstandard construction ADVERB + POSSESSIVE PRONOUN (as in delante mío); (2) the alternation between the possessive construction with the suffix -o (as in delante mío), and the possessive construction with the suffix -a (as in delante mía), the last variant being normatively highly discouraged. The goal of this study was to investigate these two linguistic variables and their possible sociolinguistic predictors. The data was obtained by API searches of Twitter data in February of 2017 and yielded material from 21 Spanish-speaking countries (including the US). 2357 tweets containing the constructions of interest were gathered, of which 1006 were possessive constructions. Concerning the alternation between constructions with prepositions and possessives, the data was coded according to four independent variables: the gender (or sex) of the Twitter user, the location of the user, the type of adverb used in the phrase, and the grammatical number of the referent. As to the use of the suffix -a with possessives, two additional variables were coded for, the final vowel of the preceding adverb and grammatical gender of the referent. A statistical model was constructed in order to measure the effect of the independent variables on the use of (1) the possessive construction, and (2) the possessive construction with the suffix -a, respectively. The results of the first analysis indicate that the geographical region of the Twitter user, as well as the preceding adverb and the grammatical number of the referent, were statistically significant in predicting the use of the possessive construction. Furthermore, with regards to the variation in the suffix of the possessive pronoun, the analysis supports the view that the geographical region of the user and the grammatical gender of the referent are predictors that condition the use of the possessive pronoun with the suffix -a.

South African indigenous language teaching and learning materials do not provide sufficient information to help additional language learners learn the target languages effectively. While there are institutions that are tasked with developing and sharpening the skills of students in speaking South African indigenous languages, such students hardly, if at all master the art of speaking them eloquently. Students who study these languages in order to converse proficiently with their mother-tongue speakers experience insurmountable difficulties, in spite of various efforts made by the teachers who train them to read books on their own. Passing their examinations does not mean that the students’ ability to communicate with mother-tongue speakers will improve to the extent of eliminating the prevailing misunderstanding between the two groups. The persistence of this problem reveals a discrepancy between the studies of indigenous languages in South Africa and the way of speaking them, whereby important linguistic elements that make communication more authentic are excluded in language materials. This study analyses the use and significance of CIFWs in daily interactions by investigating the two Xhosa CIFWs words wethu and bethu. The overall aim of this study is to explore the use of a corpus in the examination of CIFWs in general, and wethu and bethu in particular. Both a quantitative approach based on the Gothenburg-Unisa spoken corpus and a qualitative approach based on Allwoods’ ACA theoretical framework were used in the analysis and description of the functions and significances of wethu and bethu as communicative and interactive function words. / Linguistics / MA ((Applied Linguistics)

South African indigenous language teaching and learning materials do not provide sufficient information to help additional language learners learn the target languages effectively. While there are institutions that are tasked with developing and sharpening the skills of students in speaking South African indigenous languages, such students hardly, if at all master the art of speaking them eloquently. Students who study these languages in order to converse proficiently with their mother-tongue speakers experience insurmountable difficulties, in spite of various efforts made by the teachers who train them to read books on their own. Passing their examinations does not mean that the students’ ability to communicate with mother-tongue speakers will improve to the extent of eliminating the prevailing misunderstanding between the two groups. The persistence of this problem reveals a discrepancy between the studies of indigenous languages in South Africa and the way of speaking them, whereby important linguistic elements that make communication more authentic are excluded in language materials. This study analyses the use and significance of CIFWs in daily interactions by investigating the two Xhosa CIFWs words wethu and bethu. The overall aim of this study is to explore the use of a corpus in the examination of CIFWs in general, and wethu and bethu in particular. Both a quantitative approach based on the Gothenburg-Unisa spoken corpus and a qualitative approach based on Allwoods’ ACA theoretical framework were used in the analysis and description of the functions and significances of wethu and bethu as communicative and interactive function words. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)