Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Ann K. Brooks. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [172]-177).

No description available.

<p> This thesis empirically asks whether Cajun English, a variety of American English spoken in South Louisiana, is an accent or a dialect. Because dialects are phonologically and syntactically and/or semantically different from a language&rsquo;s standard form, this thesis examines one feature within each of those domains: the realization of interdental fricatives as stops, the use of perfective aspect on past tense verb phrases, and manner salience in descriptions of motion. In each domain, I ask if Cajun English is different from Standard English and, if it is, if that difference could be attributable to influences of Cajun French.</p><p>

<p> This study contextualizes the explosive valorization and commodification of dialect in Japan since the 1980s, known as the &ldquo;dialect boom&rdquo;, in terms of Japanese social and economic issues and the growing public interest in diversity within Japan. While the dialect boom has been widely studied in sociolinguistics, little work has related it to the growing valorization of diversity, and most recent work has focused primarily on the Kansai dialect. To these ends, I analyze the enregisterment of six Japanese dialects, those of Osaka, Hakata, Nagoya, Aomori, Okinawa, and K?sh?. I analyze a corpus of YouTube comments responding to videos of dialect usage, using stance (DuBois 2007) to break down the social acts that produce enregisterment (Agha 2003). I draw on the theories of indexicality (Johnstone and Kiesling 2008, Eckert 2008) and the discourse analytic concept of dialect performance (Schilling-Estes 1998, Coupland 2007) as guides to interpreting the micro-social interactions I observe, connecting them to a macro-social context through the theories of Standard Language Ideology (Lippi-Green 1997), identity construction (Bucholtz &amp; Hall 2005), and folklorization (Fishman 1987). </p><p> I examine evaluations of dialect based on attractiveness, humorousness, intelligibility, folklorization, and country-ness, evaluate their relative prestige by investigating the willingness of speakers to debate dialect performances&rsquo; fidelity, and finally examine the political conflicts dialects are implicated in by looking at how they are related to questions of diversity and nationalism. The similarities between evaluations of the dialects of Okinawa and Aomori, particularly in the category of folklorization, suggest that the dialects of Aomori have accrued affective traits of an Indigenous language (such as nostalgia or sentimentality) despite being spoken by members of the ethnic majority. However, the conflicts that arise over the cases of Okinawa and Osaka suggest that the use of dialect as a marker of regional identity is now being integrated into a nationalist Japanese self-image as a country with rich internal diversity. This provides a means by which Japan can engage with the discourses of liberal multiculturalism and diversity without seriously threatening the hegemony of Japanese ethno-nationalism, suggesting a need to reevaluate the past focus on <i>nihonjinron</i> in building critiques of Japanese nationalist ideology.</p><p>

<p> This study examines lexical borrowing, code switching, and polylanguaging in Valencian Spanish to better understand how each is used differently in oral conversation in comparison with online communication on Twitter. This study compares data collected from three published corpora of oral interviews of speakers of Valencian Spanish with data collected from Twitter profiles of individuals residing in Valencia. In each of the sources Spanish is the preferred code into which Valencian material is inserted. A unique feature of data from the published corpora is the high frequency of code switching (CS) into Valencian in instances of reported speech. With regard to frequency, Twitter users switch from Spanish into Valencian, followed by from Valencian into Spanish and then from Spanish into English. On Twitter, the most frequent type of switch found is the tag switch, which includes exhortatives, greetings and farewells, happy birthday wishes, and a variety of other types of tags and other idiomatic expressions used in a highly emblematic fashion as a way of preforming identity. Both intrasentential and intersentential switches also appear online and reflect how discourse might be organized differently online than offline. In looking at lone vs. multiword insertions, the importance of turn taking is noted and instances where speakers are not in a naturalistic conversation evidence traits which influence patterns of CS and polylanguaguing. Additionally, lexical economy is suggested as a motivating factor for CS on Twitter given the platform&rsquo;s technological limitation of 140 characters per tweet.</p><p>

Abstract not available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 419-456).

abstract: The largest scholarship program of its kind worldwide, the King Abdullah Scholarship Program, which began in 2005, allowed any Saudi Arabian citizen admitted into an approved higher education institution worldwide to receive a full scholarship, allowing more than 200,000 students to study abroad. A large portion of the Saudi scholarship students commonly study abroad with their families; either they have young children or are newly married and have children while they are in the United States. Since these children are primarily exposed to English environments in their communities, daycare centers and schools during their time in the United States, they often face challenges to learn Arabic other than at home with their parents. This dynamic can pose many challenges for the children and their families when returning to and adapting back to life in Saudi Arabia, linguistically, educationally and culturally. This research aims at: 1) investigating the language context of the Saudi mothers and children abroad, 2) understanding Saudi mothers' attitudes towards their children’s bilingualism in the United States and, 3) highlighting Saudi mothers’ roles in supporting language skill and the development of their children while living outside of Saudi Arabia. To achieve this, data was collected using three qualitative methods: interviews and brief surveys with Saudi mothers, and observation of their children in their playrooms. The findings suggest that educators in Saudi Arabia should be aware that those returning may sometimes need assistance to be able to fit linguistically in the community. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Linguistics and Applied Linguistics 2018

No description available.