This essay presents a study on gender differences with a focus on mild and strong swearwords and their pre-modifying adjectives when describing a person, based on findings from the BNC2014. Previous research implies that men and women use different types of swearwords, suggesting that men tend to use stronger language than women. The aim of this study is to investigate the usage of strong versus mild swearwords to analyze if there are differences in frequency and use of pre-modifying adjectives across gender. A set of mild swearwords (cow, git) and strong swearwords (dick, cunt) from Ofcom’s scale of offensiveness (Ofcom, 2016) was used to manually compare how men and women tend to differ in the way they use these words. Previous research on swearing in connection to gender, offensiveness, and pre-modifying adjectives is presented as well as a definition of the swearwords. The results show that the usage of mild and strong language is equally used in male and female speakers and that negative and other pre-modifying adjectives are most used together with these words. Hopefully, the findings in this study could shed more light on the topic of gender differences and swearing.

The ideological divide in contemporary American politics is at a historic high. In this regard, many social scientists have documented the recent trends of political polarization in American politics and found robust evidence that political polarization has far-reaching consequences. While this kind of work is immensely important and revealing, significant lacunae still remain in our understanding of where political polarization comes from and how it could be lessened with what mechanisms. Prior studies of political polarization also have been largely concerned with numerically measuring ideology and polarization using voting records or survey instruments, but how deeply this polarization has filtered into political discourse with what kind of historically specific textual structure is less well known as well. In this dissertation, I bring the theory of cognitive schema and other micro-and-macro sociological accounts as sensitizing guides, and the tools of the natural language processing models to identify the mechanisms and origins of political polarization in America. I leverage the newly digitized Congressional Record for exploring the modern political landscapes and discourse emergence dynamics and examining policy implications for how our results relate to broader pragmatic issues concerning interpersonal conflict and opinion compromise. In addition, I also aim to contribute to the sociological literature on shared cognitive schema, co-evolutionary dynamics of languages and structures, and political agency, respectively. Based on the textual details traced in raw congressional speech records along with the deep-learning-based word embeddings models of language, I extract the pairwise similarity of relational schematic configurations among the U.S. Senators from the texts and propose that the dyadic schematic similarity has direct positive consequences on ideological convergence. I also aim to shed new light on the co-constitutive nature of social ties and political languages and argue that interaction patterns within and across political parties are contingent on the structure of the social ties and on the language patterns that a pair of legislators have produced over time. Finally, through a short case study, I develop measures of political agency in conversational texts. To our knowledge, this is one of the first comprehensive sociological studies that examines relational and discursive dynamics from the crucial modern moments of American politics. Because expressing conflict and making coordination in political domains are present in virtually all human contexts and constitute one of the fundamental bases of macro-level phenomena, a close understanding of the mechanisms behind intensified partisanship will also help policymakers understand the ramifications that merely micro-level political actions have on our social life during the very periods of "polarized America."

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the synchronic variation in usage of the word bro in English speaking TV shows that aired 2017, by extracting data from The TV Corpus. In today’s society bro is becoming more and more frequent in use and the increase seems to be partly due to the high level of nuance the word has. It can be used in several situations. This is shown in the results where the categories of gender, age, race/ethnicity, relationship and context are presented. Combined, the examined material shows that the most common situation for the usage of bro is a white adult male saying it to his white adult male friend in a work-related context. This suggests a trend where bro has developed from only meaning brother to also mean friend or more specifically, male friend, nowadays. This kind of development is not unusual for clipped words, that is, shortened words that retain a meaning similar to the original word.  The results of this study suggest that bro is becoming more integrated into the language and that bro seems to be a word tied to a masculine stereotype. However, further studies are needed to determine all the nuances of the word bro and how it will continue to evolve in the future.

This dissertation is concerned with how pragmatic particles interact with sentential force and with general pragmatic constraints to derive optimal dynamic interpretations. The primary empirical focus of the dissertation is the Japanese sentence final particle yo and its intonational associates. These right-peripheral elements are argued to interact semantically with sentential force in specifying the set of contextual transitions compatible with an utterance. In this way, they semantically constrain the pragmatic interpretation of the utterances in which they occur. These conventional constraints on interpretation are wedded with general pragmatic constraints which provide a further filter on the road to optimal interpretation.

When people are listening to others they are not just interpreting the speech in order to understand and participate in a communicative act. While interpreting the linguistic information, listeners are attentive to extralinguistic information about the speaker about which they make assumptions based on the accent and content that they hear. Many researchers have studied language attitude to see how different accents compare to each other for different speakers and listeners. Although this research has been done for many different accents, none have been done comparing standard and non-standard accents of Canadian English, or that account for the native accent of the listener. A number of university students from South-Western Ontario were surveyed to elicit general language attitude scores on a series of 11 measures for 8 different voice clips differing in terms of standardness (Standard vs. Non-Standard), content (Academic vs. Colloquial), and accent (British vs. Canadian). A comparison of the mean scores on the accents revealed a general preference for British and standard accents, and a general dislike of Canadian and non-standard accents. A Principal Component Analysis identified a difference in response pattern between native Canadian English and non-native Canadian English speakers. When combined with general qualitative descriptions of the voice clips offered by participants it appears that language attitude is greatly influenced by perception of prestige and familiarity with the accent. Listeners prefer readily identifiable accents that are held in esteem by the greater speech community, while they dislike accents which are less clearly intelligible and lack prestige. Listeners were also more critical of accents with which they were more familiar. Such findings are important because they can help us to identify potential sources of unequal access to opportunity in society as influenced by how people speak. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Whenever we listen to other people speak we are not just taking in information and trying to understand what they are saying. People will tend to pass judgement on other speakers for a number of reasons, including what they are saying, and how they are saying it. Many studies have studied this phenomenon, known as language attitude by linguists, to see how different accents compare to each other for different speakers and listeners. Although this research has been done for many different accents, none have been done comparing standard and non-standard accents of Canadian English. This research project involved surveying a number of Canadian university students to find out which Canadian and British accents they liked and disliked, and in what ways. I found that Canadians tend to prefer Standard Academic British English over less-educated sounding Canadian accents. Since there was a difference in preference between Canadian English speakers and non-Canadian English speakers, it appears that familiarity might allow people to be more critical of the accents or dialects they are hearing. These findings are important because they can help us to find possible sources of unequal opportunity in society as influenced by how people speak.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate attitudes towards swear words among students and teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school. The aim has also been to investigate their attitudes towards swear word usage in media. In total 132 student and 13 teachers from two different upper secondary schools have participated in this survey. The questionnaire has been analyzed both with a quantitative and a qualitative method and the results have been analyzed through gender theory, but also from a sociolinguistic viewpoint. The survey shows that the students have a more relaxed attitude towards the usage of swear words in general. The survey also indicates that boys more often use swear words and they do not perceive the words as “ugly” as the girls do. Girls more often than boys describe themselves having been violated by words of abuse. Teachers have yet to find a more efficient way to prevent the usage of words of abuse in school surroundings.

Latin America holds a diverse array of people and language. Even regions and countries that speak the same language tend to speak it differently. This leads to interesting variations in language and speech. Most people of Latin American origin are able to note that Mexican Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish are different in terms of intonation, speech pattern, vocabulary, and more. Most popular theories that section Latin America off by dialects group the entirety of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean into a single dialectical community. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic each hold unique histories and are home to a fascinating array of different cultures and people. Using previously conducted linguistic investigations and research, the goal of this thesis is to make a case which acknowledges the linguistic diversity that exists in the Hispanic Caribbean which will be further supported by theories of sociolinguistics and the historical linguistic model.

In the definite form an adjective in Swedish can end in either -a or -e, with the e-form being used in writing especially with masculine reference together with nouns of the n-gender. For a long time, however, there has been some variation in usage, so that the e-form is sometimes also employed with female reference or together with nouns of t-gender. Widmark shows in a study from 1992 that there is uncertainty among Swedish speakers about how the forms should be used. The aim of the present study is to investigate the extent to which speakers accept different uses in writing of the e-form of the adjective in the definite singular form, and to see whether the sociolinguistic vari­ables age, sex, dialect, education and familiarity with writing are of any significance in this. Another aim is to conduct a comparison with Widmark’s study to see whether there has been any change in usage in the last few decades. The study proceeds from sociolinguistic theory of linguistic variation and changes and uses a quantitative method. In a questionnaire the respondents were asked to judge a number of examples with the e-form of the adjective in different linguistic contexts. The number of respondents was 181; they constitute a convenience sample. To find material for the examples in the questionnaire, a corpus study was undertaken first. The result shows that acceptance of expressions that do not follow the norms of written language is in most cases low. A majority of the respondents think that the e-form should be used primarily with masculine or general reference. Younger respondents are more uncertain about usage, while older respondents follow the written standard to a higher extent. Women take a more negative view of non-standard uses; on the other hand, more men than women are positive towards examples where the e-form is used according to the norm. Dialect is significant in that respondents from parts of Sweden where final ‑a has become ‑e are more willing to accept non-standard uses. Respondents with a university education reply to a higher extent in accordance with the written norm. The result found no difference in usage compared with Widmark’s study.

Cette recherche se penche sur l’organisation post-migratoire de la communauté turque de Montréal et sur l’influence de cette organisation sur l’utilisation de la langue turque. La recherche a pour but de vérifier deux hypothèses interdépendantes. La première hypothèse est que la communauté turque de Montréal, loin d’être monolithique, est hautement structurée. La deuxième hypothèse est que la structuration de la communauté se reflète dans le discours et se manifeste dans l’utilisation de la langue turque. Afin de vérifier ces deux hypothèses, nous avons utilisé une triple méthodologie. D’abord, les caractéristiques et les dynamiques sociales de la communauté immigrante ont été notées et décrites selon la méthode d’observation participante. Par la suite, des entrevues semi-dirigées ont été réalisées auprès de quarante immigrants turcs (17 femmes et 23 hommes, âgés de 18 à 70 ans et à Montréal depuis au moins 5 ans). Les entrevues ont été structurées en trois modules thématiques : le premier portait sur l’histoire personnelle ; le deuxième traitait de la langue, et le troisième était consacré à l’organisation de la communauté turque et à l’actualité. Finalement, des variables linguistiques pouvant révéler les différences d'utilisation de la langue des groupes de la communauté turque ont été étudiées : 1- le choix lexical pour parler des femmes et des conjoints, et 2- la variété et la fréquence des marqueurs métadiscursifs. Notre étude ethnographique démontre que les Turcs de Montréal forment une communauté immigrante divisée en au moins deux communautés de pratique (CP), traditionnaliste et progressiste, chacune avec ses propres lieux d'interaction sociale, son propre discours et son propre style. L'affiliation des participants à l’une ou à l’autre est tributaire de leurs orientations politiques et de leurs pratiques religieuses. Notre étude a permis d’identifier parmi les participants un troisième groupe, périphérique, n’appartenant à aucune des deux CP. L’analyse du choix lexical a montré que la caractérisation lexicale de la conjointe variait considérablement entre les CP. Il a été observé que les hommes de la communauté traditionnelle préféraient le mot hanım (fr. dame) lorsqu'ils parlaient de leurs femmes, tandis que ceux de la communauté progressiste choisissaient le mot eş (fr. épouse). Ce résultat vient confirmer notre 4 hypothèse selon laquelle les membres de la communauté indexent leur identité sociale à travers la variation lexicale dans les vocables liés au genre. L’analyse a aussi montré que l’identité sociale des individus influence l’utilisation des marqueurs métadiscursifs selon le thème de discussion. Même si l’utilisation des supporteurs semble favorisée par les membres périphériques, les tests statistiques n’ont pas montré de différence significative entre les groupes. Dans le cas des atténuateurs, leur utilisation est significativement favorisée par les membres périphériques, ce qui reflète leur neutralité sociopolitique. L’utilisation des marqueurs métadiscursifs varie également en fonction des thèmes abordés. Si l’utilisation de marqueurs métadiscursifs atténuateurs et supporteurs des participants est équilibrée lorsqu’ils parlent de leur histoire personnelle d’immigration ou de la langue, l'utilisation d'atténuateurs augmente et l'utilisation de supporteurs diminue lorsqu’ils parlent de l’organisation de la communauté turque et de l’actualité. C’est surtout parmi les membres progressistes et traditionnels que cette différence est plus évidente. Cette tendance des participants peut s’expliquer par la volonté d’éviter de marquer son identité en lien avec des enjeux sociopolitiques sensibles en contexte d’entrevue sociolinguistique. / This research examines the post-migration organization of the Turkish community in Montreal and the influence of this organization on the use of the Turkish language. The research aims to test two interrelated hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that the Turkish community in Montreal, far from being monolithic, is highly structured. The second hypothesis is that the structuring of the community is reflected in the discourse and manifested in the use of the Turkish language. In order to test these two hypotheses, we used a triple methodology. First, the characteristics and social dynamics of the immigrant community were noted and described using the participant observation method. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 Turkish immigrants (17 women and 23 men, aged 18 to 70 and in Montreal for at least 5 years). The interviews were structured in three thematic modules: the first dealt with personal history; the second with language; and the third with Turkish community organization and current events. Finally, linguistic variables that may reveal differences in language use among groups in the Turkish community were studied: 1- the lexical choice to talk about women and spouses, and 2- the variety and frequency of metadiscursive markers. Our ethnographic study shows that Montreal Turks form an immigrant community divided into at least two communities of practice (CP), traditionalist and progressive, each with its own sites of social interaction, its own discourse and its own style. Participants' affiliation to one or the other is dependent on their political orientations and religious practices. Our study identified a third, peripheral group of participants who do not belong to either CP. The analysis of lexical choice showed that the characterization of the spouse in particular varied considerably between the CPs. It was observed that men from the traditional community preferred the word hanım (eng. lady) when talking about their wives, while those from the progressive community chose the word eş (eng. spouse). This result supports our participant observation that community members index their social identity through lexical variation in gender context. The analysis also showed that individuals' social identity influences the use of metadiscursive markers according to the topic of discussion. Although the use of boosters appeared to be favored by peripheral members, statistical tests did not show a significant difference between groups. In 6 the case of hedges, use was significantly favored by peripheral members, reflecting their socio political neutrality. The use of metadiscursive markers also varied by topic. While participants' use of hedge and booster is balanced when talking about their personal immigration history or language, the use of hedge increases and the use of booster decreases when talking about Turkish community organization and current events. This differentiation is most evident among progressive and traditional members. This tendency of participants may be explained by the desire to avoid the risk of marking one's identity in connection with such sensitive socio-political issues in the context of a sociolinguistic interview.

This study aimed to examine the frequent use of intra-sentential and inter-sentential code-switching during classroom interactions among Swedish-speaking students. The focus of this research also aimed to examine the motives as to why Swedish-speaking students code-switch during their English lessons and what word classes are affected by code-switching the most. The study took place in an upper secondary school and the English levels 5, 6, and 7 were observed during their open discussions and presentations. A total of 74 students participated in this study, where 15 participated in a semi-structured interview to share their thoughts on code-switching and their backgrounds, and 47 students participated in a survey anonymously. The results demonstrated that most students code-switch within sentences rather than between sentences. Most students demonstrated that they felt nervous and stressed when speaking in English due to their limited vocabulary skills in the spoken language, which resulted in them code-switching to Swedish.