M.A. (Applied Linguistics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Litt. et Phil. / The current political dispensation in South Africa has, as was the case in the past, undoubtedly had a major influence on the language patterns of the country. The 1996 Constitution now provides official recognition of the main indigenous languages. Despite this entrenchment, there is evidence of a marked shift in language allegiance in favour of English. This study focuses on the language attitudes and perceptions of grade 12 learners in three Afrikaans medium high schools in Johannesburg. In order to achieve the task, a “triangulation approach” was adopted. A literature study was done to provide a backdrop to the understanding of the present language situation. Interviews were conducted with the Afrikaans language teachers of the respondents. Questionnaires were then completed by the learners, as well as by the said teachers. The objectives of the empirical study were threefold, firstly to establish the perceptions of the learners with regard to their mother tongue and language in general. Secondly, the possible consequences of the learners’ negative perceptions about their mother tongue on the future of the language, their culture and the community, was investigated. Lastly, to make recommendations as to how these language attitudes can possibly be changed, from the data. The findings of this study confirm the influence of English on the language and cultural patterns of the learners. It is imperative to change the perceptions that the English language provides the only key to success, lest irrevocable damage be done to our country’s unique language and cultural variety.

Introdução: Essa pesquisa averiguou a utilização de estruturas estar + a + infinitivo e estar + gerúndio no português brasileiro de cinco regiões e suas relações com a construção da identidade linguística brasileira. As estruturas acima descritas são tomadas como variantes altamente representativas de seus respectivos dialetos do português, o europeu e o brasileiro. Objetivo: Analisar o uso das referidas formas no português brasileiro oitocentista em relação ao discurso linguístico então vigente. Método: Se iniciou o trabalho pela observação do discurso linguístico do período através da leitura de textos sobre história e língua portuguesa publicados no período imperial. Tendo sido essa parte feita, dados foram extraídos de romances de quinze autores nascidos no período imperial, três de cada uma das cinco regiões de interesse (Bahia, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo). Uma vez extraídos, os dados foram classificados de acordo com critérios linguísticos e sociais e analisados estatisticamente. Resultados: O uso das variantes se mostrou altamente diverso, com taxas de uso significativamente diferentes sendo apresentadas por autores da mesma região ou afiliação política. Aspectos geográficos, por outro lado, apresentaram uma correlação significativa com o uso da variável, ocorrendo um maior emprego de estar + a + infinitivo no sudeste, e particularmente no Rio de Janeiro, do que no nordeste. Fatores linguísticos como a presença de interpolação e a presença de certos tipos de palavras nos arredores do termo também apresentaram uma correlação significativa com o uso da variável. Conclusões: Em termos gerais, o discurso e a prática linguística parecem diferir, sendo o uso da variável mais fortemente ligado a aspectos regionais e linguísticos. / Introduction: This research dove into the variation between estar + gerund and estar + a + infinitive in the 19th century Brazilian Portuguese of five major Imperial Provinces (Bahia, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo) and its relations with the Imperial nation building project. The two aforementioned constructions are understood by native speakers to be highly pronounced markers of the Brazilian and European varieties of Portuguese, respectively, a situation which was at least partially mirrored during the Brazilian Empire era. Objectives: To investigate whether the above mentioned constructions where as strongly associated with a \"Brazilian identity\" during Imperial Times as they are now. Methodology: A conceptualization of the XIXth century mindset on nationhood and language was built through the Reading of contemporary discourses on history, culture and language published by key figures of Brazilian intellectuality. From this, fifteen of authors split among the five regions where elected as \"model speakers\" and some of their work taken as material basis for the corpus. The data acquired from this was then categorized according to social and linguistic criteria and the results were then analyzed statistically analyzed. Results: The actual usage of the two variants has shown itself to be highly diversified, its usage rates varyingly significantly even among author of the same region or political affiliation. Regional variation, however, when taken by itself was found out to be significant both when taken in the larger macro regional level (southeast versus northeast) but also among provinces, with a higher rate of usage of estar + a +infinitive in the southeast and especially in the province of Rio de Janeiro. Linguistic factors like the presence of interpolation or certain types of surrounding words have also been be significantly correlated to the variable albeit the reason for that remains inconclusive. Conclusions: In a general sense, linguistic discourse and linguistic praxis strongly differ from each other and the variation between the two constructions appears to be more strongly tied to regional and linguistic factors than social factors.

Intéressée par la situation sociolinguistique de notre pays d'origine, la Pologne, où l'argot carcéral finit par pénétrer dans d'autres sociolectes, nous nous sommes aussi intéressée au cas français en vue d'explorer la même question. Pour ce faire, notre étude a été réalisée dans deux milieux de référence, à savoir celui des détenus d’une part et celui des non détenus d’autre part. Dans le cadre de la méthode d’enquête sociolinguistique nous avons soumis à ces deux milieux de référence un questionnaire comportant un ensemble choisi d’argotismes carcéraux. Notre travail de recherche nous a permis d’examiner la fiabilité du lexique recueilli et de confirmer l’existence d’une pratique langagière essentiellement carcérale, ce qui nous amène à définir la spécificité de l'argot des prisons utilisé dans un cadre carcéral. Par ailleurs est étudiée la perméabilité de la langue familière française au vocabulaire argotique carcéral, ce qui aboutit à mettre au jour les fonctions remplies par l'argot des prisonniers en milieu carcéral. De plus, la confrontation des deux publics permet de dégager les similarités et les différences dans les résultats, ainsi que d'établir une correspondance entre leur profil social et leur pratique linguistique. / The interest in the topic arose by dint of inspiration drawn from observing a sociolinguistic situation in my native country, Poland, where prison slang proves to permeate other sociolects, in particular youth slang, which turned out to be an excellent point of departure for embarking on a similar survey in France. The research was carried out in two different groups: prisoners and non prisoners. Within the framework of a sociolinguistic study, both of them were requested to complete a questionnaire containing 40 units of prison slang vocabulary. First of all, the research was designed to examine the reliability of a selected lexicon and to confirm a genuine prison slang usage in this particular environment. Furthermore, the paper was supposed to define the degree of permeability of the French colloquial language to prison slang vocabulary as well as to shed some new light on different roles played by this specific language within a prison community. Moreover, the comparison of two groups' performance revealed important similarities and differences and brought to light the correlation between social and linguistic variables.

L'espagnol est une langue internationale constituée de plusieurs variétés qui disposent de caractéristiques particulières. Il existe une tradition qui prétend maintenir une identité linguistique totale, mais sur un critère normatif prescriptif considérant tout ce qui n'est pas espagnol péninsulaire comme une « corruption ». Ce dernier est considéré comme l'espagnol « commun » ou « général », et l'espagnol des pays américains est perçu comme une « déviation » par rapport « au noyau » de la langue (l'espagnol de la péninsule).Plusieurs chercheurs s'accordent maintenant à donner la même valeur aux variétés de l'espagnol. Néanmoins, une bonne partie des études portant sur les variétés américaines ne sortent pas encore de cette tradition prescriptive : ce sont des descriptions de particularités, des différences par rapport à la norme établie par l'Académie Royale Espagnole. Cela est dû au manque d'une description de l'espagnol commun à tout le monde hispanophone qui servirait de modèle pour la comparaison. Ce manque (théorique et pratique) doit être compensé au fur et à mesure par les nouvelles recherches. L'espagnol doit donc être reconnu comme diasystème, tous les sous-systèmes ou variétés doivent être acceptés, étudiés d'une manière plus objective et avoir la même valeur axiologique.Pour dépasser cette tradition établie, on propose dans cette recherche, une caractérisation de l'une des variétés de l'espagnol suivant une approche globale et autonome. Plus précisément, une caractérisation de l'espagnol de Colombie et non pas des « colombianismes » comme il est d'usage. Il doit être possible d'arriver à une description nationale de cette variété au niveau lexical en réalisant des descriptions partielles dans des endroits stratégiques comme les grandes villes (capitales départementales du pays). / Spanish is an international language made of several varieties, each variety with particular characteristics. There has always been the tradition of maintaining a total linguistic identity, based on prescriptive normative criteria that consider the Spanish of non-peninsular origin "corrupted". Peninsular Spanish is considered "common" or "general" Spanish. Spanish spoken in American countries is seen as a "deviation" from "the core" language (the peninsular Spanish).Many researchers now agree to give the same value to all Spanish varieties. However, many of the studies on American varieties do not come out from prescriptive tradition. They describe particularities, or differences compared to the norm set by The Royal Spanish Academy. This is due to the lack of a description of the common Spanish in the Spanish-speaking world, which could serve as a pattern for comparison. This lack (theoretical and practical) must be compensated gradually by new research. Spanish should be recognized as a diasystem; all subsystems or varieties must be accepted, studied in a more objective way and have the same axiological value.To overcome this established tradition, in this piece of research, we propose the characterization of one of the varieties of Spanish following a global and autonomous approach. More specifically, a characterization of the Spanish of Colombia and not of the "colombianisms" as is done traditionally. We prove possible to reach a national description of this variety at the lexical level by making partial descriptions in strategic places like big cities (departmental capitals of the country).

[pt] O presente estudo propõe uma metodologia para medir graus de bilingualidade. A proposta é tentar quantificar esse conceito. Considerando que o comportamento bilíngüe não deve ser descrito como um aspecto universalista ou essencialista do indivíduo bilíngüe, os conhecimentos objetivos de estatística ou de probabilidade e as metodologias formais de coletas de dados, por exemplo, não contemplam os aspectos subjetivos e contextuais de manifestações bilíngües. A ortodoxia e inflexibilidade das metodologias disponíveis não conseguem apreender a fluidez de um conceito como bilingualidade. Nossa questão é mostrar que a lógica fuzzy apresenta-se como uma possível ferramenta de medida porque leva em consideração as percepções individuais e as experiência culturais do observador/pesquisador quando este tenta definir o que constitui o fenômeno observado. A verdade de qualquer afirmação se torna uma questão de gradação. A metodologia usada foi: 1) gravação e transcrição de entrevista com indivíduos bilíngües; 2) seleção das narrativas de histórias de vida presentes nas entrevistas; 3) identificação das variáveis relevantes para a análise; 4) análise das bilingualidades dos indivíduos usando a Fuzzy Logic Toolbox do software MATLAB. As bilingualidades dos indivíduos são analisadas nos contextos familiar, social e profissional. Um aspecto importante a ser considerado é que, devido à fluidez da bilingualidade, fatores diferentes e variáveis múltiplas concorrem para configurar uma análise de manifestações de bilingüismo. Assim, conseguimos mostrar matematicamente, através do uso da lógica fuzzy, o que conhecemos com base em nossa experiência de vida: um mesmo indivíduo apresenta diferentes graus de bilingualidade em diferentes contextos sociais. Da mesma forma, comprovamos que em um mesmo contexto social, um mesmo indivíduo pode apresentar diferentes graus de bilingualidade, dependendo do estágio de vida em que se encontra. / [en] This study proposes a methodology to evaluate degrees of bilinguality. The objective is to quantify the concept bilinguality. Considering that the bilingual behavior should not be taken as one`s universalist or essentialist aspect, objective knowledge of statistics and probability, and formal methodology of data gathering, for example, do not cope with the subjective and contextual aspects of the bilingual manifestations. The orthodoxy and inflexibility of the available methodologies can not apprehend such a fluid concept as bilinguality. The propose of this study is to present Fuzzy Logic as a possible tool to measure bilinguality for it takes into account the observer/researcher`s individual perceptions and cultural experience for defining what constitutes the observed phenomenon. The truth of any affirmation is a matter of gradation. The methodology used was: 1) recording and transcription of interviews with bilingual individuals; 2) selection of life story narratives inside these interviews; 3) identification of the relevant variables for the analysis; 4) analysis of bilinguality using Fuzzy Logic Toolbox in MATLAB. The bilinguality of the individuals is analyzed in real everyday life situations, in contexts such as: familiar, social and professional. An important aspect to be considered is that, due to the fluidity of bilinguality, different factors and multiple variables compete to set up an analysis of bilingualism manifestations. Thus, we could prove mathematically, using fuzzy logic, what we might previously know based on our life experience: one individual presents different degrees of bilinguality, depending on the moment of their life they are.

The current study addressed several questions about the use of language intermingling in child-directed speech and its influence on children's English and Spanish language acquisition on children's language code-switching, Participants were 65 children (Mean age=30.93 months, SD=0.44, 28 boys and 37 girls) who had been exposed to English and Spanish from birth and for whom at least one parent was a native Spanish speaker.... Measures of the children's lexical, grammatical, receptive, and productive language development in English and in Spanish were collected concurrently.... Consistent with sociolinguistic theories that propose that language separation is necessary for heritage language maintenance, children who were exposed to more language intermingling were more English-dominant. Both sensitivity to the language context and children's language dominance were related to children's production of mixed utterances. Children code-switched more when speaking in their less proficient language and when in the context of minority language use. / by Silvia Place. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Esta Tese de Doutorado apresenta um estudo da variação das formas pronominais você, ocê e cê no português oral do centro-oeste mineiro, especificamente da cidade de Arcos, adotando-se os pressupostos teóricometodológicos da Sociolingüística Variacionista e da Sociolingüística Interacional. A alternância do uso dessas variantes é influenciada por fatores lingüísticos e sociais. Os dados foram submetidos ao tratamento estatístico do Programa GoldVarb 2001. O objetivo geral da pesquisa é, a partir dos estudos já realizados sobre o uso da forma você e suas variantes, investigar os fatores lingüísticos e sociais, que condicionam a variação e a função interacional do pronome você. Foi analisado um total de 510 dados, obtidos em narrativas individuais orais espontâneas com 40 informantes de Arcos (MG), sendo 20 da área urbana e 20 da área rural, de ambos os sexos, agrupados em três faixas etárias (15-30 anos, 31-59 anos, 60 anos ou mais). Os principais resultados encontrados indicam que o perfil da variação é de variação estável e que, segundo a abordagem interacional, a forma você se comporta como um pronome de poder e as formas ocê e cê, como pronomes de solidariedade. / This Doctorate Dissertation presents a study regarding the variation of the pronominal forms você (you), ocê and cê in oral Portuguese from the Midwest of the Minas Gerais state, specifically the city of Arcos. For such, I have worked with the theoretical-methodological presumptions from Variational Sociolinguistics and Interactional Sociolinguistics. The alternation in use of these variants is influenced by linguistic and social factors. The data were statistically treated with the GoldVarb 2001 Program. The general objective of this research is, from the studies already made on the use of the você form and its variants, to investigate the linguistic and social factors, which condition the variation and the interactional function of the pronoun você. A total of 510 data, obtained in spontaneous oral individual narratives with 40 informants from Arcos (MG), was analyzed. Twenty of them were from the urban area and the other 20 informants were from the rural area. There were informants from both genders, grouped into three age ranges (15- 30 years old, 31-59 years old, 60 years or older). The main results found in this research indicate that the variation profile is stable and that, according to the interactional approach, the você form behaves as a pronoun of power and the ocê and cê forms as solidarity pronouns.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo descrever, em sincronia, os padrões de variação de preenchimento do sujeito por pronomes pessoais, encontrados na variedade popular do Português falado na cidade de São Paulo, especificamente, das favelas da zona Norte (Jardins Carombé e Paulistano). O corpus de análise é constituído por 15 inquéritos de 30 minutos cada, gravados na segunda metade da década de 1980, estratificados por sexo, escolaridade e idade do informante. Buscou-se, sobretudo, explicar a variável realização/ não-realização do pronome subjetivo, levando-se em conta os pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da Sociolinguística Variacionista de William Labov e da Linguística Funcional de Michael Halliday, no intuito de identificarmos os fatores linguísticos e sociais que estão condicionando a variável dependente. Os resultados obtidos, através do estudo em tempo aparente, não nos possibilitam afirmar que está ocorrendo mudança linguística em progresso, ou seja, que a língua esteja caminhando em direção às línguas não-pro-drop. O Status Informacional demonstrou ser o fator mais significativo, prevalecendo sobre os demais fatores e que condiciona a realização/ não- realização dos pronomes subjetivos. / This research aims to describe, in synchrony, the variation patterns of filling of the subject by personal pronouns found in the popular variety of Portuguese spoken in São Paulo, specifically, the slums of the North (Jardins Carombé and Paulistano). The corpus of analysis consists of 15 surveys of 30 minutes each, recorded in the second half of the 1980s, stratified by sex, age and education of the informant. It´s above all explain the variable occurrence of the subjective pronoun, taking into account the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Sociolinguistics Variationist by William Labov and Functional Linguistics by Michael Halliday, in order to identify linguistic and social factors conditioning that are the dependent variable. The results obtained, through the apparent time study, do not allow us to assert that linguistic change in progress is occurring, ie, that language is moving in a direction to the \"non-pro-drop\" languages. The Information Unit proved to be the most significant factor, prevailing over other factors, that is conditioning the occurrence of subjective pronouns.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo uma análise dos pronomes reflexivos no português popular falado na cidade de São Paulo. Partimos da hipótese principal de que estes pronomes, de uso variável no português popular, encontram-se em pleno processo de mudança, em direção ao seu desaparecimento. Procuraremos, sobretudo, observar as maneiras pelas quais esta provável mudança se processa, e identificar os fatores lingüísticos, cognitivos e sociais que favorecem ou desfavorecem seu desenvolvimento, tomando por base os pressupostos teórico- metodológicos da Sociolingüística Variacionista Laboviana, da Lingüística Funcional e da Lingüística Cognitiva. / This research presents an analysis of reflexive pronouns in Popular Portuguese spoken in the city of São Paulo. Our main hypothesis is that these pronouns, which show variable use in Popular Portuguese, are in a process of change towards its extinction. Our goal is to observe the ways in which this probable change takes place, and identify the linguistic, cognitive, and social factors that favor or disfavor its development, using the theoretic and methodological tools of Labovian Variationist Sociolinguistics, Functional Linguistics, and Cognitive Linguistics.