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胡錦賢 and Kam-yin Wu. "A linguistic study of interrogation in Cantonese: comparisions [sic. comparisons] with English." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1989. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3120952X.
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Nagao, Jun. "Some difficulties in responding to negative polar interrogatives and negative declaratives in English and pedagogical implications for Japanese EFL learners." Virtual Press, 2005. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1317747.
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Traditional Japanese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are taught to respond to negative questions (e.g. Do you not like English?) with yes for positive answers (e.g. Yes, I do) and no for negative answers (e.g. No, I don't). However, this is subject to variation in native speaker usage. This study aimed to determine the conditions under which native English speakers actually respond to negative questions with yes vs. no, and to compare the usage with that of Japanese EFL learners. To this end, 22 native English speakers and 22 Japanese students were individually shown 21 TV and movie video clips containing negative questions of varied form and discourse function. After each clip, the subjects were asked to imagine whether the addressee in the video would respond with yes or no, and to fill in the blank accordingly on an answer sheet. Contrary to the traditional EFL rule, variation was found when negative questions conveyed a negative assumption, and when the pragmatic functions were 1) testing a new negative assumption or 2) seeking agreement on a negative assumption. The results also indicate that no to disagree with a negative assumption was much more common than yes to agree with a negative assumption. The Japanese group's answers followed the EFL rule significantly more often than the American group's on the same video task. This indicates that knowing the EEL rule influenced the Japanese group's performance and contributed to the gap between the two groups. Except for one instance of possible negative influence from the cross-cultural differences in politeness norms, the Japanese group showed variation from the EFL rule only where the American group did. Finally, high-advanced subjects and/or those residing in the U.S. over four years, sometimes departed from the traditional EFL rule in favor of more natural English usage. I conclude that this cannot be attributed to native language influence.Department of English
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Wat, Lok-Sze Josephine, and 屈樂思. "Cantonese-speaking students' handling of WH-questions in English." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2006. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3692264X.
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Lok, Chi-wai, and 陸志偉. "An inquiry into question formation in Hong Kong ESL learners." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31961861.
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Onditi, Tom L. S. "The acquisition of English wh-interrogatives by Dholuo L1 speakers." Thesis, University of Reading, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.239500.
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Wu, Kam-yin. "A linguistic study of interrogation in Cantonese : comparisions [sic] with English /." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1989. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B12474307.
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Bess, Dee Anne. "The Constraints of a Typological Implicational Universal for Interrogatives on Second Language Acquisition." PDXScholar, 1996. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5086.
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A typological implicational universal based on a diverse sample of the world's languages describes a hierarchy for interrogatives. The universal hierarchy states that in any given language, inversion in Yes-No questions (YNQs) implies inversion in information questions (WHQs in English), which, in turns implies the fronting of the information word pronoun to sentence-initial position. Several researchers have proposed that typological implicational universals such as this one for interrogatives may constrain not only the primary languages on which they are based, but also the interlanguages of second language learners. This study, a partial replication of one by Eckman, Moravcsik, and Wirth (1989), examined second language acquisition data to determine whether constraints of the interrogative universal were evident in the interlanguages of learners of English as a second language. It was hypothesized that learners' control of WH-word fronting would exceed their control of WHQ inversion, which, in turn, would exceed their control of YNQ inversion. Data were elicited in oral interviews with 32 Japanese-speaking learners of English. The task of the subjects during the interviews was to ask questions in order to discover the story partially told by a grid of puzzle-like drawings. The interviews were tape-recorded, the recordings transcribed, and the transcribed interrogative forms analyzed. Two methods of data analysis showed strong support for the hypothesis. A third method of analysis revealed that seven subjects produced patterns of interrogatives not predicted by the universal; six of the exceptions could be resolved using an argument also used by Eckman et al. (1989) in explaining their exceptions.
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Cunningham, Alexandra Szucs. "Conflating perspectives : Derrida and Danticat interrogate the concept of identity." FIU Digital Commons, 2009. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2692.
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The purpose of this study was to analyze the way in which multicultural studies and theory, two academic areas that traditionally have been at odds, both manifest a distinctly similar stance on the constructedness of identity in Western society and how it affects intercultural relations. Jacques Derrida’s The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe and Edwidge Danticat’s The Book of the Dead both influence the way being is perceived in society. The first is a political speech intended to open the minds of Europe’s political elite to what is perhaps the root of intercultural straggle in Europe. The second is a short story intended to shed light on the trials of a Haitian-American immigrant family as they come to terms with their homeland’s sociopolitical unrest and try to integrate into a new cultural environment. Together, these texts facilitate a protean examination of the rhetoric of the essential that permeates Western culture, and provide insight into a way of conceiving of being that is both dynamic and prismatic.
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Tang, Gladys W. L. "Second language acquisition of the English interrogatives : the effect of different learning contexts on the SLA of three groups of Chinese learners of English." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.253761.
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This study is an attempt to investigate the interlanguage (IL) development of Cantonese learners of English whose exposure to the target language (TL) is mainly from the classroom context and with little or no informal exposure outside the classroom. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research to date suggests that naturalistic SL learners largely follow a universal route of development. The issue of concern of the present research is whether acquiring the TL in a classroom context involves the same or different processes of SLA and how the learning context shapes the qualitative development in terms of the degree of analyticity and automaticity of IL knowledge. An equally important issue in relation to SLA in the classroom situation is the development of metalinguistic knowledge and in what principled way this type of knowledge assists or hinders the learner's development. Within this framework of investigation, an empirical distinction is drawn between the learner's development of IL knowledge and the extent to which he is able to retrieve this knowledge in production. In the present study, three groups of learners were identified. Two groups of subjects were sampled from the Hong Kong learning context, where English is regarded by and large as a second language. One of the two groups was chosen from the English medium environment, and the other was from the Chinese medium environment. The third group of subjects was drawn from Guangzhou, one of the southern provinces of China, where the medium of instruction is Chinese while English is treated as a foreign language. Although these three groups of subjects share the same Li background, they are differentiated by the availability of informal exposure and the degree of explicitness of grammar teaching received. The English interrogatives were chosen as the target language structure for investigation because they represent one of the taught language items commonly found in the syllabus. Four elicitation tasks were administered: an oral elicitation task, a written dialogue completion task, a grammar correction task and a timed grammaticality judgment task. From the perspective of the general theory of second language acquisition, the results suggest that the classroom learners as identified in the present study largely conformed to the universal `sequence of development' and exhibited similarities in their orders of development. However, it was found that certain features of the learner's order of development at the level of knowledge did not necessarily coincide with that established in his production. Furthermore, an adequate explanation for IL development, as far as this study is concerned, needs to take into account the learner's Li as well as the other types of knowledge at his disposal, as differences were found in the present study which may be traceable to these parameters. In terms of the effect of learning context on second language development, the results suggest that (i) the different learning contexts as identified leads to certain differences in the subjects' IL development as well as the qualitative development of their IL knowledge, (ii) the provision of explicit instruction seems to be more beneficial for more advanced learners than beginners; and when informal exposure is not available in the learning context, and (iii) the availability of informal exposure of the kind found in the present study seems to promote initial IL development at a faster rate than that found in learning contexts in which informal exposure is not usually available.
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Maier, Astrid [Verfasser], Dieter [Akademischer Betreuer] Stein, and Alexander [Akademischer Betreuer] Bergs. "The Structure of Interlanguages : The Acquisition of Simple English Interrogatives in Guided Second Language Acquisition / Astrid Maier. Gutachter: Alexander Bergs. Betreuer: Dieter Stein." Düsseldorf : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 2011. http://d-nb.info/1015363377/34.
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Mills, Mark Spencer. "Interrogating History or Making History? Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, DeLillo's Libra, and the Shaping of Collective Memory." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2006. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1524.pdf.
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Riou, Marine. "The grammar of topic transition in American English conversation. Topic transition design and management in typical and atypical conversations (schizophrenia)." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015USPCA115/document.
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Cette thèse analyse la transition topicale en anglais américain à l’aide d’un corpus audio de conversations spontanées entre proches. L’objet d’étude principal est l’action interactionnelle qui consiste à changer de topique discursif, ainsi que les diverses stratégies linguistiques que les participants ont à leur disposition. Trois modalités de marquage sont prises en compte : les questions, les marqueurs de discours, et le registre de la voix. Chaque modalité est analysée pour sa contribution individuelle, ainsi que pour les associations avec d’autres modalités qu’elle peut occasionner. Se pencher sur différentes modalités de marquage crée une vue d’ensemble composite de l’influence que la trajectoire topicale d’une conversation a sur sa grammaire et sa prosodie. Dans le cadre d’une approche mixte mêlant analyses qualitatives et quantitatives, cette étude se situe à la croisée de plusieurs cadres théoriques, empruntant tant à l’analyse conversationnelle et à la linguistique interactionnelle pour l’analyse qualitative située, qu’à la linguistique de corpus de par ses méthodes quantitatives telles que le codage systématique des données et le recours aux statistiques. Ce projet multi-domaines est complété par une comparaison entre conversations typiques et atypiques. Les personnes schizophrènes peuvent connaître des difficultés dans la gestion des topiques d’une conversation, ce qui peut occasionner des transitions non-canoniques. Comparer ce type de données à celles de participants typiques apporte un éclairage supplémentaire sur certaines des attentes, préférences et standards, par ailleurs moins visibles lorsque la transition topicale est plus aiséeThe research presented in this dissertation analyzes topic transition in American English interaction, focusing on audio recordings of spontaneous conversations between friends and relatives. The main object of inquiry is the interactional action of transitioning to a new discourse topic, as well as the different linguistic strategies that participants have at their disposal. Three main types of cues are investigated: questions, discourse markers, and pitch register. Each type of cue is analyzed for its individual contribution to topic transition design, as well as for the way it can combine with, supplement, or contradict other cues. Analyzing different types of cues – verbal and prosodic – creates a composite picture of the various ways in which the topic trajectory of a conversation shapes its grammar – including its prosody. This study uses a mixed-methods approach which draws on the qualitative-oriented theoretical frameworks of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics, combining them with quantitative methods used in Corpus Linguistics, such as systematic coding and statistics. This multi-domain account is completed by elaborating a comparison between typical and atypical interactions. Persons suffering from schizophrenia can experience difficulties in managing the topics of a conversation, and they can produce non-canonical transitions. Comparing their data with that of typical participants thus sheds light on some of the expectations, preferences and standard formats which can otherwise remain hidden when topic transition goes smoothly
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Lasfer-Kedad, Sandra. "Étude syntaxique des Wh-questions en vue de leur traduction automatique de l’anglais vers l’arabe." Thesis, Paris 4, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014PA040011.
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Premièrement, ce travail de recherche a pour objet d’esquisser une étude syntaxique des wh-questions, et d’analyser les aspects de la formation des wh-questions dans deux langues différentes : l’anglais et l’arabe , dans le cadre de la Grammaire Générative et de l’Approche Minimaliste. Il sera démontré et allégué que dans les deux langues respectives, le wh-mot qui se trouve au début de la phrase interrogative est déplacé vers le [Spec, CP] et que le wh-movement est visible.Deuxièmement, cette thèse tente d’examiner et d’analyser la traduction des wh-questions de l’anglais vers l’arabe par trois systèmes de traduction automatique, employant différentes méthodes de traduction selon trois méthodes d’évaluation. Nous décrirons les problèmes liés aux différences linguistiques entre les deux langues. Ces problèmes ont une grande influence sur la qualité et l’acceptabilité de l’output. L’évaluation de l’output nous permettra de présenter les informations concernant les aspects positifs à conserver et les aspects négatifs à faire évoluer des systèmes. En se basant sur l’étude syntaxique préalable des wh-questions, nous fournirons une étude comparative qui déterminera le meilleur système quant à la qualité de la traduction et à la performance de ce système. A travers l’analyse des résultats de l’évaluation, nous spécifierons les raisons pour lesquelles le système produit des traductions de mauvaise qualité. Enfin, nous proposerons quelques recommandations qui pourraient être nécessaires aux concepteurs et aux développeurs de systèmes de traduction afin de résoudre les problèmes linguistiques et opérationnels susceptibles d’entraver le processus de traductionFirstly, this research aims to outline a syntactic study of the wh-questions, and analyse aspects of wh-question formation in typologically two different languages: Arabic and English within the framework of Generative Grammar and Minimalist Approach. It will be shown and argued that in both languages, the wh-phrase, which is in initial position, is moved to [Spec, CP] and that wh-movement applies overtly.Secondly, the thesis attempts to discuss and analyse the translation of English wh-questions into Arabic by three machine translation systems using different methods of translation through different methods of evaluation. We describe a set of important problems related to linguistic differences between the two languages. These problems have great influence not only on the quality of the output but also on its acceptability. The evaluation of the output will help us to present a diagnostic information about where a given system succeeds or needs improvement, relative to its intended users and use based on the syntactic study of wh-questions, to provide a comparative information which allows identifying the best system with respect to the translation quality and performance, to specify through the analysis of the results of evaluation the sources of problems that are responsible for producing ill-formed translations and inadequate systems’ performance and finally to outline some recommendations that are useful for system’s designers and developers to overcome various linguistic and operational problems that might impede the translation process
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Kim, Seongchan. "The acquisition of Wh-questions in English and Korean." Thesis, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/9953.
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"Acquisition of wh-questions by a Cantonese-English bilingual child." 1999. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5889852.
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by Ling Ling Peng.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112).
Abstract also in Chinese.
Abstract --- p.ii
Acknowledgement --- p.iv
Contents --- p.v
Tables and charts --- p.vii
Abbreviation --- p.viii
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction and theoretical considerations --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- One unitary language system、or two separate language systems? --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- The autonomous development hypothesis vs. the interdependent development hypothesis --- p.6
Chapter 1.3 --- Language dominance --- p.12
Chapter 1.4 --- The research goal and outline of the thesis --- p.15
Chapter Chapter 2 --- The development of wh-questions in monolingual English and Cantonese Children --- p.19
Chapter 2.1 --- The syntax of English wh-questions --- p.19
Chapter 2.1.1 --- The landing site of wh-expressions --- p.19
Chapter 2.1.2 --- Types of wh-questions --- p.22
Chapter 2.2 --- The acquisition of wh-questions by monolingual English-speaking children --- p.23
Chapter 2.2.1 --- The acquisition order of wh-questions --- p.24
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Development of wh-questions in monolingual English-speaking children --- p.26
Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- Developmental stages --- p.26
Chapter 2.2.2.2 --- Overall course of development --- p.27
Chapter 2.2.2.2.1 --- UG and language acquisition --- p.27
Chapter 2.2.2.2.2 --- General patterns of development of wh-questionsin monolingual English-speaking children --- p.32
Chapter 2.3 --- The syntax of interrogative wh-questions in Cantonese --- p.39
Chapter 2.4 --- The acquisition of wh-questions by monolingual Cantonese children --- p.43
Chapter 2.5 --- Summary --- p.45
Chapter Chapter 3 --- Methodology
Chapter 3.1 --- Subject --- p.47
Chapter 3.1.1 --- Family background --- p.47
Chapter 3.1.2 --- Input for both languages --- p.47
Chapter 3.1.3 --- Bilingual development in the bilingual child --- p.49
Chapter 3.2 --- Taping --- p.55
Chapter 3.3 --- Transcription --- p.56
Chapter 3.4 --- Sampling and data analysis --- p.56
Chapter Chapter 4 --- The acquisition of wh-questions by one Cantonese-English bilingual child --- p.58
Chapter 4.1 --- UG and bilingual acquisition --- p.58
Chapter 4.2 --- The acquisition of wh-questions in Cantonese by the bilingual child --- p.59
Chapter 4.3 --- The acquisition of wh-questions in English by the bilingual child --- p.66
Chapter 4.3.1 --- The acquisition order --- p.66
Chapter 4.3.2 --- Position of wh-expressions --- p.68
Chapter 4.3.3 --- Subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions --- p.77
Chapter 4.4 --- Summary --- p.81
Chapter Chapter 5 --- Discussion and conclusion --- p.82
Chapter 5.1 --- The acquisition order of wh-questions in the bilingual child's English --- p.82
Chapter 5.2 --- Placement of wh-expressions in the bilingual child's English --- p.86
Chapter 5.3 --- Subject 一 auxiliary inversion in wh-questions in the bilingual child's English --- p.93
Chapter 5.4 --- Overall course of development of what-questions in the bilingual child --- p.94
Chapter 5.5 --- Conclusion --- p.100
Chapter 5.5.1 --- Summary of findings --- p.100
Chapter 5.5.2 --- Suggestions for further studies --- p.102
References --- p.107
Appendix --- p.113
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"An investigation of the patterns of learning English interrogative structures by EFL learners in China." Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5885689.
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Reese, Brian Jon 1973. "Bias in questions." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/3280.
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This dissertation investigates three interrogative sentence types that are each associated with a particular speaker bias. In asking one of these questions, the speaker invariably conveys a prior expectation, or belief, that a specific answer to the question is the true one. These sentence types include reversed-polarity tag questions, negative polar questions, and questions containing a strong negative polarity item or a constituent that is emphatically focused. For each of these three question types, I address the two questions: (1) What kind of meaning is bias; and (2) what grammatical feature, if any, is the bias linked to? In answer to the first question, I argue that bias is an assertion (rather than, for example, a conversational implicature). As a result, biased questions can be thought of as a type of indirect speech act (Searle 1975). Following Asher and Lascarides (2001), I model biased questions as instances of a complex speech act type Assertion · Question. On this analysis, biased questions are simultaneously assertions and questions. I provide evidence, for this claim, showing these question types share distributional properties of both assertions and questions. With regard to the second question, I argue that intonation, in addition to syntax and compositional and lexical semantics, plays a key role in linking the use of the kind of interrogative sentence described above to an assertion. Indeed, one of the benefits to studying biased questions is that they provide a case study of the interaction of intonation and discourse function. I begin to develop an analysis of intonation within the theory of discourse provided by Asher and Lascarides (2003) which builds on the work of Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg (1990) and Steedman (2000, 2003), amongst others. Specifically, I argue that intonation provides information about the speakers cognitive state, i.e. about his or her beliefs and intentions. Thus intonation contributes information that can be used to compute the rhetorical contribution of an utterance to a discourse or dialogue. On this model, intonation indirectly contributes to the determination of the discourse function of an utterance.text
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Hsu, Hsiu-ling, and 許秀玲. "The Study of Intonation in English Interrogatives: Taiwanese Learning English as a Foreign Language." Thesis, 2003. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/78817163989012414543.
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碩士國立臺灣大學
語言學研究所
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This thesis compares the intonation of English sentence types phonologically and acoustically, particularly interrogatives, between native English speakers and Taiwanese English learners. Taiwanese English learners are accustomed to Mandarin Chinese, a tonal language while the native English speakers are exposed to English, an intonational language. The four issues brought out by the different intonational system between the two language groups are discussed: rising patterns (global or local), rising slope, pitch accent location, and pitch alignment with segments. A total of 32 speakers participated in Study I and in Study II. 16 are Taiwanese English learners and 16 are native English speakers. The 16 Taiwanese speakers were majors in English and have been graduated from the Taiwan Normal University. Some of them have been a teacher in a junior high school or in a senior high school, so these Taiwanese speakers are representative of advanced English learners. The experiment design involves three parameters: sentence types, sentence length, and the number of syllable of the final word. The sentence types consist of declaratives, wh- questions, yes-no questions, echo question, alternatives, tag questions, and indirect questions. The test materials used in the two studies are in the form of sentences and short dialogues. All data were measured and analyzed by Speech Analyzer and computed by one-way ANOVA and GLM of SPSS 8.0. Results indicate the differences in the four issues in English intonation existing between Taiwanese speakers and native speakers. Concerning the rising form, Taiwanese English learners produce a local rising whereas the native English speakers make both global and local rising patterns. Other than that, there is a difference in local rising. Taiwanese speakers have a mid-level rise. However, the native speakers yield a low rise. Another difference is the rising rate. Taiwanese English speakers are prone to make a steeper rising slope than the native speakers do. Compared with the native speakers who put stress at the beginning of a sentence, Taiwanese English learners tend to place pitch accent on the first modifier as the number of words in a sentence increases. Finally, with regard to pitch alignment with segments, the native English speakers raise pitch at the beginning of the vowel in a lexically stressed syllable. Nevertheless, Taiwanese English learners raise pitch after the beginning of the vowel in a syllable. Moreover, for Taiwanese speakers, the rising point depends on the number of syllables in the final word in a sentence. In the final word with more than one syllable in declaratives and wh- questions with falling intonation, Taiwanese speakers tend to raise pitch at the penultimate or antepenultimate of the final word. In interrogatives with rising intonation, Taiwanese speakers raise pitch at the last syllable of the terminal word in a question. Comparatively, irrespective of sentence types, the pitch begins to rise at the first (stressed) syllable of the final word in the native English speakers’ intonation. In sum, this paper contributes not only to the interlanguage phonology but also to the second or foreign language learning as well as in terms of intonation.