Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisors: Hans Boas and Mark Southern. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, August 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

<p> Within the genre of young adult literature, a growing trend is the use of epistolary messages through electronic methods between characters. These messages are set apart from the formal text of the narrative of the novel creating a break in the text features and layout of the page. Epistolary texts require a more sophisticated reading method and level of interpretation because the epistolary style blends multiple voices and points of view into the plot, creating complicated narration. The reader must navigate the narrator&rsquo;s path in order to extract meaning from the text. In this hermeneutic study, I examined the text structures of three young adult novels that contained epistolary excerpts. I used ethnographic content analysis (Altheide 1987) to isolate, analyze, and then contextualize the different epistolary moments within the narrative of the novel. The study was guided by two research questions: 1. What types of text structures and features did authors of selected young adult literature with epistolary interruptions published since 2008 use across the body of the published work? 2. How did the authors of selected young adult literature situate the different text structures of interruption into the flow of the narrative? What happened after the interruption? I used a coding system that I developed from a case study of the novel <i>Falling for Hamlet</i> by Michelle Ray (2011). Through my analysis I found that the authors used specific verbs to announce an interruption. The interruptions, though few in number, require readers to consider context of the message for event, setting, speaker, purpose and tone as it relates within the message itself and the arc of the plot. In addition, following the interruptions, the reader must decide how to incorporate the epistolary interruption into the narrative as adding to the conflict, adding detail, ending a scene, or simply returning to the narrative. . Therefore, the interruptions in epistolary young adult novels incorporated the text or literacy practices of young adults. Such incorporation reflects the changes in literacy practices in the early 21^st century that may render novels of this style a challenge to readers in creating meaning. The study further incorporates Bakhtin&rsquo;s theory of heteroglossia (1980) that a novel does not contain a single language but a plurality of languages within a single langue and Dresang&rsquo;s Theory of Radical Change (1999) of connectivity, interactivity, and access. Texts of this nature offer teachers of reading opportunities to guide students through text features to synthesize information in fiction and non-fiction texts. </p>

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

<p> This thesis investigates word order change in infinitival clauses from Object-Verb (OV) to Verb-Object (VO) in the history of Latin and Old French. By applying a variationist approach, I examine a synchronic word order variation in each stage of language change, from which I infer the character, periodization and constraints of diachronic variation. I also show that in discourse-configurational languages, such as Latin and Early Old French, it is possible to identify pragmatically neutral contexts by using information structure annotation. I further argue that by mapping pragmatic categories into a syntactic structure, we can detect how word order change unfolds. For this investigation, the data are extracted from annotated corpora spanning several centuries of Latin and Old French and from additional resources created by using computational linguistic methods. The data are then further codified for various pragmatic, semantic, syntactic and sociolinguistic factors. This study also evaluates previous factors proposed to account for word order alternation and change. I show how information structure and syntactic constraints change over time and propose a method that allows researchers to differentiate a stable word order alternation from alternation indicating a change. Finally, I present a three-stage probabilistic model of word order change, which also conforms to traditional language change patterns.</p>

<p> The effects of time and occupational prestige measured in this study had more of an impact than gender on how often witnesses hedged on the stand. A corpus of transcripts from 1893 to 2013 was assembled to test the variables of time, gender and occupational prestige on witnesses&rsquo; production of hedge constructions (e.g., <i>I think, sort of).</i> Results showed no significant differences between female and male hedge production over this 120-year period, yet significant differences were found in the production of phrases between earlier and later testimonies. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between hedge production and occupational prestige. The more prestigious a witness&rsquo;s occupation, the fewer hedges s/he used. These findings support previous research that suggests a similarity between female and male speech in other genres of discourse and emphasizes social and environmental factors as areas worthy of deeper investigation for the contextual assessment of function in language.</p>

<p> This study investigates why and how bilinguals speakers tend to code switch on social media such as; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Bilingual speakers who were born in the US, who adapted English as their second language or who have learned Spanish as their second language in school, usually tend to combine the two languages, English and Spanish, in order to get across their point of view to others. For this reason, this investigation was created to analyze how code- switching can influence people when it's exposed on media. There were three social medias with the total of 37 participants who had posted comments, status, pictures, videos in English, Spanish or mixing both where a good amount of people got influenced by. Therefore, the leading results were the following: (1) at every code switching done on any social media, users code switch or use the same style as a way to expand and influence others. (2) Users code switch as a way to expand a new culture and identity as being one big group.</p>

This study examines the status of isiZulu from the perspective of English L1, isiZulu L1 learners and educators at former House of Delegates high schools in the greater Durban area. South Africa's Language in Education Policy appears to be very progressive because it identifies 11 official languages of the Constitution. Although isiZulu has been accorded official status in the Constitution it continues to remain peripheral to English and Afrikaans at many schools. In order to research the topic of this study a combination of quantitative and qualitative research designs were used. A questionnaire, which is a quantitative data collection technique, was used to conduct a language survey. A semi-structured interview, which is a qualitative data collection technique, was used to complement data collected from the closed-ended questions. Grade 10,11 and 12 learners returned 371 copies of the questionnaires. Educators returned 51 copies of questionnaires. An important finding of this study was that the majority of isiZulu L1 learners use isiZulu as their home language while English L1 learners use English as their home language. On the issue of which two languages learners and educators prefer as subjects of study, a majority of isiZulu L1learners and educators opted for English and isiZulu, while majority of English L1 learners opted for English and Afrikaans. Although a majority of isiZulu L1 learners stated that they use isiZulu extensively when .communicating with their parents, older people, siblings and their peers outside the classroom, a significant percentage of these learners stated that they are not allowed to use isiZulu in the classroom. The majority of isiZulu L1 and English L1 learners however, stated that they wanted their educators to use English in the classroom because English is regarded as an international language with enormous economic advantages. Although isiZulu L1 learners have considerable regard for English in their education there is also strong support for their home language because the majority of these learners are in favour of bilingual education, which they regard as being important to their academic progress. Another important finding was that the majority of English L1, isiZulu L1 learners and educators have a positive attitude towards isiZulu which they would like to learn if it is offered, albeit optionally. On the basis of the findings the following recommendations are made • The role of governing bodies needs to be revisited • Review of language policy • Government support • Pre- service and in-service educator training • The provision of books and education material in indigenous African languages. It is fervently hoped that the above recommendations will contribute towards the elevation of the status of isiZulu at former House of Delegates high schools in the greater Durban area. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

<p> Cajun and Creole traditional music evolves, as does any living tradition. Taking this music into consideration from the perspective of &laquo; oral poetry, &raquo; a concept defined by Ruth Finnegan and Paul Zumthor, this thesis studies the aspect of singing in Cajun and Creole traditional music through transformations affected by recording technology (Zumthor&rsquo;s notion of &laquo; mediatized orality &raquo;) with respect to the actual sociolinguistic context in Louisiana. First, we study the transformations occuring in songs from the traditional repertoire, through various audio renderings of the same songs. Second, we look at the way new songs, created in the traditional frame, address the lyrical content through old and contemporary themes, including the use of French language and bilingualism. This discussion is informed by interviews conducted with targeted musicians concerning their linguistic perceptions and respective artistic approaches. Thus, we eventually discover how, in addition to being a dance genre, Cajun and Creole music plays an essential role in the continued existence of French language in Louisiana.</p>

<p> The basis of this investigation is the concept that identity is an emergent, or <i>performative</i> (Butler, 1990), process rather than a stable set of characteristics. Rituals such as weddings are moments when many, as individuals and as couples, socially construct identities through their interactions with others, and reflecting on one's wedding is also an event of intense identity construction. </p><p> This dissertation examines how language is used in the social construction of identity through the analysis of couples' wedding narratives. It is situated within the research domains of language and identity (Bucholtz &amp; Hall, 2004) as well as language and ideologies (Fairclough, 1992; Gee, 2014). Interviews were conducted in English, Spanish, or bilingually with 12 mixed-sex couples and 3 same-sex couples (a total of 30 participants) about their weddings in order to identify how couples performed identity and how such performances are connected to beliefs and attitudes. </p><p> Understanding that processes of identity construction are at times deliberate and planned, such as when one plans a wedding, and at others spontaneous and unconscious, such as when one reflects on her wedding, the analysis focuses both on the wedding event as reported by couples as well as on the interview as an event. This event is one in which couples and the interviewer interact to produce identity dialogically (Bakhtin, 1981) through relative position and stance (Wortham, 2004) via indexical labeling, presupposition, orientation to stereotypes, conversation structure, narrative structure, and evaluation during social interaction. </p><p> This study demonstrates how, in interviews about weddings, individual semiotic acts that contribute to the construction of identity may reproduce prior acts, giving a sense of cohesion, belonging, legitimacy, and authenticity to our identities, or may add another layer to a partial picture of who we are. These acts might even contradict the identities that we have constructed in the past, showing that identity is always complex and incomplete in a given moment. The analysis concludes that social change, especially regarding gender roles and attitudes toward same-sex relationships, occurs through performativity at macro- and micro-levels as participants both aligned with and pushed the boundaries of social expectations about how weddings should be and who should be in them in order to locate themselves and others within the social order. </p>