Magister Artium - MA / Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical issues involved in the study of language as a social phenomenon. It traces the development of the sub-discipline of sociolinguistics and the contribution of sociologists and anthropologists to the study of the relation between society and language.

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This study explores how native and nonnative English speakers understand and perceive directness types in written teacher feedback (WTF). Currently research suggests that indirect speech in WTF will encourage students to think and maintain politeness between teacher and student (Benkendorf, 2001; Riley, 2003; Thonus, 1999; Vassileva, 2000). However, research also indicates that indirect speech may be more difficult to interpret than direct speech (Champagne, 2001; Holtgraves, 1999), which suggests that indirect speech used in WTF may be difficult for students to interpret and use to improve their compositions (Ferris, 2007; Hyland & Hyland, 2001). This difficulty may be even more acute for second language (NNS) learners (Ferris, 2002; Mackiewicz & Riley, 2002, 2003). This thesis will test and propose refinements to this study. In this study, native (NS) and nonnative (NNS) English speaking university students, were given two essays directness of the WTF. These participants had three main tasks: 1. to identify whether or not WTF requests a correction, 2. to make the correction if requested, 3. to identify perceptions of the teacher and paper based on the WTF. For the first two tasks, accuracy and response times were calculated. Results showed that directness type affects the speed and accuracy of both NS and NNS learners. Direct speech in WTF was more quickly identified than indirect speech (indirect speech acts and hedging). Indirect speech was the slowest and least accurate for both NS and NNS learners in relation to positive WTF. Surprisingly, both NS and NNS were slowest for making corrections on direct WTF. In addition, directness type also affected the perception on the teacher and paper. For example, NS were likely to perceive indirect speech as being from a female teacher. NNS were more likely to give papers with hedged WTF an A and those with indirect WTF a C grade. This study suggests that the directness type of WTF affects how quickly and how well it is understood by both NS and NNS learners. It also suggests that the pragmatic theory may explain why direct speech is processed more quickly than indirect speech (indirect speech acts and hedging).

History, discourse analysis, and corpus linguistics show the green movement (humankind's response to issues affecting the environment) to have proliferated both ecological ideologies and the linguistic tools to discuss them, (R. J. Alexander, 2002; Bang, Døør, Steffensen, & Nash, 2007; Carvalho, 2007; Mahlberg, 2007; Wang, 2009) showing the development of green or environmental language in the lexicon. The topic has also left its mark on the market, and green market research has shown effects of messages on perceptions of green brands (Phau & Ong, 2007) and profiles of m (J. A. Roberts, 1996). However , surprisingly little research has been done on how these terms are used, whether some words are more green than others, nor how effective these terms are in persuading consumers to buy green. Thus, the goal of this study is to identify the use of green terms, what consumers see as green terms and how they perceive products advertised using green language. Experiment one examined the development of environmental terms using Google Book's NGram Viewer (Google, 2011) and the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) (M. Davies, 2010) and Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (Davies, 2008). Results revealed changes in the use of several green terms over time, including the creation of several following the 1960s, as well as increased collocation with other terms associated with the environmental movement. Experiment two examined green terms for levels of perceived greenness. Different levels of greenness for several words were identified, with words like environmentally friendly rating positively and industrial rating negatively. Experiment three examines the effects of a word's level of greenness on participants' perceptions of automobile, personal care, and cleaning products' attractiveness, effectiveness, buyability, and environmental friendliness. . Green words were shown to have a significant effect on participants' values of attractiveness and buyability for personal care and cleaning products, effectiveness for cleaning products, and environmental friendliness for both aforementioned products. Significant differences between automobile types were also found. Implications include an affirmation of the link between world view and language, the use of large corpora to view semantic shift, and application of the data in green marketing.

The purpose of this study is to map secondary school students’ perception of male andfemale language. The study was performed in two classes in 7th grade and two classesin grade 9. The survey consisted mainly of categorization questions of differentlinguistic behaviours as female or male, but also gave the students the opportunity tofreely describe differences. The responses were then processed through a quantitativeand qualitative analysis.The students perceived the male language as more dominant, curt and offensive, andthought that men took more place through language. Women’s language wasunderstood to be used to seek contact, to be eloquent, to indicate uncertainty and to becorrect and polite.

Many creole languages have been studied by linguists and anthropologists alike in order to gain a better understanding as to their formations and social status within their respective cultures. Theories such as the Language Bioprogram hypothesis created by Derek Bickerton researched explicitly the genesis of creoles, primarily the creoles in Guyana and Hawaii. Although many creole languages are the main vernaculars of many cultures, they are often seen as having a lower status than the official language, usually a European language. Papiamentu, a language spoken in Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, has carried a prestige that many other creoles do not possess; it is spoken by everyone on the islands. There are no class divides that determine what, when, and where the language can be used. It is accepted by the majority on the islands and has gained the status as an official language in March 2003 in Aruba and in March 2007 in Curacao and Bonaire. Although it encompasses this status, Papiamentu is still not accepted in every faction on the islands. It is not the language of instruction in the educational system and official government documentation is still written in Dutch. This research explored the issues of Papiamentu's social status on the islands and has correlated it to its use in several sectors in Aruba and Curacao. Primary research was carried in Aruba and Curacao for six weeks. Interviews along with participant-observation tackled issues such as Papiamentu's presence in education, how Papiamentu was used during childhood, Papiamentu in relation to other languages on the islands, and the use of Papiamentu within the media. This research was executed to acquire a better insight into the perceptions of Papiamentuss social status and whether these perspectives have a profound effect on its usage.