Dissertations / Theses: 'English language Semantics'

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Hinrichs, Erhard W. "A compositional semantics for Aktionsarten and NP reference in English." The Ohio State University, 1985. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1272461401.

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Boyd, Jeremy Kenyon. "Comparatively speaking a psycholinguistic study of optionality in grammar /." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2007. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3273558.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed August 31, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 172-181).

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Smith, Elizabeth Allyn. "Correlational Comparison in English." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1282105587.

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Felker, Helen Margaret. "Effects of Language Dominance in Spanish-English Bilingual Speakers." Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2018. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/523710.

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Communication Sciences
M.A.
Despite the rise of globalization and increasing multilingualism, the effect of language dominance on thought and perception in bilingual speakers has received little attention. This study examines the semantic networks of Spanish-English bilingual adults and monolingual English-speaking peers to determine whether language dominance structures the semantic space of a bilingual speaker to more closely match the semantic space of a monolingual speaker of the dominant language. It is predicted that semantic ratings produced by English-dominant bilinguals will correlate more closely to the semantic ratings of monolingual English-speaking participants than ratings produced by Spanish-dominant bilinguals. Spanish-English bilinguals (n=20) completed the Bilingual Language Profile regarding language use, attitudes, and fluency (Birdsong, Gertken, & Amengual, 2012). Spanish-English bilingual participants and monolingual English-speaking participants (n=20) then rated a series of translationally equivalent nouns (n=80) according to sound, color, morality, valence, size, and position. Using these ratings, a Euclidean distance matrix containing the ratings of English-dominant bilinguals, Spanish-dominant bilinguals, and English monolinguals was analyzed within and between groups using hierarchical cluster analysis, matrix comparisons (Mantel Tests), Spearman correlations, and qualitative k-means clustering analysis. Results suggest the possibility of dynamic interconnection between languages, with semantic connection weights determined by the dominant language (Malt et al, 2015). However, more research is needed to draw firm conclusions.
Temple University--Theses

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Wulf, Douglas J. "The imperfective paradox in the English progressive and other semantic course corrections /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8368.

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Styan, Evelyn Matheson. "Elementary sentences containing 'be' : a semantic analysis of subject-predicate relations." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=75679.

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Within a theoretical framework that combines generative X-bar syntax (Chomsky 1986), a compositional interpretive semantics and elements of Aristotelian logic, this thesis studies the nature of the syntactic and semantic constituents involved in the subject-predicate relations of elementary sentences containing 'be'. Interpretation is characterized in terms of the entities of various types that speakers intend to refer to and the various ontological types that the referents are said to belong to. 'Be' is analyzed as a single lexical item. This analysis unifies all syntactic functions (e.g., auxiliary, copula, main verb) and all "senses" of 'be' (e.g., definitional, equative, predicative, etc.). Conceptually, 'be' in English is an explicit sign of attribution. The propositional content of simple sentences of the form (NP be XP) is the attribution of a certain ontological type or types to the referent(s) of the subject NP. Although the value of postulating a single ontological category to account for all the entities that speakers can refer to and talk about (such as an Aristotelian substance) is questionable, nevertheless, such categories and types seem pertinent for linguistic analysis. With respect to linguistic inference, pronominalization, and question words, an analysis based on ontological types is shown to be more explanatory than one based on the assignment of a fixed set of thematic relations to arguments.

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Cohen, Shai. "On the semantics of too and only distinctness and subsumption /." Amherst, Mass. : University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3379949/.

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Whelpton, Matthew James. "The syntax and semantics of infinitives of result in English." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:acba134d-c3b0-4acb-ab80-13de3eb2daa9.

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This thesis concerns infinitives of result in English, examples of which are given under (a-c). (a) John designed a battery to operate at high temperatures. (b) John designed a battery to win a prize. (c) John designed a battery for the competition, only to discover that he was ineligible. The infinitive in (a) is called a Purpose Clause; the infinitive in (b) is called a Rationale Clause; and the infinitive in (c) is called a Telic Clause. These infinitives are optional modifiers of the verbs with which they occur. I argue, however, that important characteristics of their form and interpretation follow naturally if the infinitives are assumed to have argument structures which must be incorporated into the argument structure of the verb they modify. In Chapter 1, I introduce the constructions and offer a general discussion of the problems posed by modifiers in a study of natural language semantics, arguing that these problems are best addressed by viewing modifiers as predicates of a standard sort. This establishes a central hypothesis of this thesis, namely that the syntax and semantics of modification should be incorporated into the theory of argument structure, or "theta theory". In Chapter 2, I offer a summary of key works in the literature in two areas: theories of argument projection by Williams and Higginbotham and studies of infinitives of result by Faraci, Bach, Chierchia, and Jones. In Chapter 3, I apply a range of syntactic tests to establish the structural relation of the infinitives to the sentences they modify. I argue that the infinitives are embedded at an increasing distance from the modified verb, from which important characteristics of their distribution follow. In Chapter 4, I turn to the internal syntax of the constructions and consider the nature and distribution of the gaps that occur within each infinitive and the manner in which those gaps are interpreted. I relate key characteristics of the infinitives to the nature of their argument grids. I also address constraints on interpretation introduced by pronominal binding in the infinitives. In Chapter 5, I discuss a variety of problems on the syntax-semantics interface involving argument structure and control. The issues raised move from the relatively syntactic (phrase structure accounts of Purpose Clause antecedence and the possibility of event control for the Rationale and Telic Clauses) to the philosophical semantic (causal efficacy and the nature of resultant states in the interpretation of the Purpose Clause). I then offer a full sample analysis of a sentence modified by all three infinitives of result. My conclusion points again to the importance of argument structure in an analysis of infinitives of result in particular and of modification in general.

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Benom, Carey. "An empirical study of English 'through' : lexical semantics, polysemy, and the correctness fallacy /." view abstract or download file of text, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1404336481&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=11238&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-374). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

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Makwela, Matlaleng Maria. "The role of usage examples in Northern Sotho-English / English-Northern Sotho bilingual dictionaries." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2372.

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Dunai, Amber. "Semantic Shift and the Link between Words and Culture." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2008. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9785/.

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This thesis is concerned with the correlation between cultural values and the semantic content of words over time; toward this purpose, the research focuses on Judeo-Christian religious terminology in the English language. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is of central interest to this study, and the implications of the hypothesis, including a bidirectional interpretation allowing for both the influence of language on worldview and culture on language, is of great relevance to the research findings and conclusions. The paper focuses on the etymology and sources of religious terminology in the English language, the prominent category of terms with both religious and secular applications attained through semantic shift, and the role of religious words as English taboo. The research findings imply that a bidirectional understanding of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the correct one. This is achieved both through analysis of historical events and linguistic development which emphasize the speaker's role in language development and through the study of societal values that are reinforced through linguistic practices, namely taboo.

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Ursini, Francesco-Alessio. "The Language Of Space : The Acquisition And Interpretation of Spatial Adpositions In English." Doctoral thesis, Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-85019.

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This thesis by publication presents a study on English adpositions (e.g. to, in, at, from, in frontof, through). It attempts to offer a solution to the following three outstanding problems, whichare presented in each of the three parts making up the thesis, preceded by a general introduction(chapter 1) and followed by the general conclusions (chapter 7). The first part includes chapter2, and discusses the problem of What is the relation between adpositions and the non-linguistic,visual content they represent. The second part includes chapters 3 and 4, and discusses theproblem ofwhat is a proper compositional theory of the Syntax and Semantics of adpositions.The third part includes chapters 5 and 6, and discusses the problem of what is the psychologicalreality of this theory, regarding adults and children’s data.The following three solutions are suggested. First, the relation between adpositions and theircorresponding visual information is an isomorphism: adpositions capture how we “see” possiblespatio-temporal relations between objects, at a flexible level of fine-grainedness. Second, aproper compositional treatment of adpositions treats each syntactic unit (in front, of ) as offeringa distinct semantic contribution, hence spelling out a restricted instance of a spatio-temporalpart-of relation. Third, this compositional treatment of adpositions can also stand as a theory ofon-line interpretation in adults and a theory of their acquisition in children.These three answers are couched within a single theoretical approach, that of Discourse Representation Theory, and offer a unified solution to three apparently distinct problems regardingspatial adpositions and their linguistic properties.

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Oberlander, Jon Reid. "The semantics of temporal indexicals." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6617.

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The thesis investigates the formal semantics of temporal indexical expressions in English. Examples of such expressions include now, tomorrow and last year. In the past, research has concentrated on instances of such expressions which have two major properties. These indexicals are sensitive to extralinguistic context, and while they do possess descriptive meaning, that meaning does not appear within the propositions which correspond to utterances of the sentences which contain the indexicals. The thesis argues that this line of research has neglected a significant body of natural language evidence in which indexicals display rather different behaviour. We term indexicals from the first group unbound, and indexicals from the second group bound. Given these two domains of indexical evidence, the thesis sets out to achieve three primary aims. The first aim is to provide a formal semantic representation of both bound and unbound indexicals which systematically relates them, while distinguishing them from non-indexical expressions. To establish this aim, we informally investigate the relationship between the two types of indexical, and propose a unifying generalisation. This generalisation is then embedded within an existing but novel semantic system, due to Richards, called IQ. IQ is an interval-based semantics for tenses and temporal quantifiers in English which makes use of double-indexing. IQ must be modified so as to properly accommodate indexicals. With a new representation in hand, we demonstrate that the thesis can adequately treat both types of indexical occurrence. The second aim of the thesis is to assess the effects of the incorporation of the two types of indexical on the semantic entities of IQ. The propositions of IQ already include two major types: value free and value specific. Using the new representation of indexicals, the thesis shows that there are further varieties of the value free proposition. These propositions are then compared with Kaplan's contents, Frege's thoughts and Russell's propositions. The final aim is to establish a rigorous formulation of a fragment of the version of IQ derived in the thesis. Given this formulation, it is possible to assess its position relative to a landmark in the logic of indexicals. Using mathematical techniques, the thesis proves that the tense operators and indexical operators of the final version of IQ have particular properties which distinguish them from those in other indexical logics also based on double-indexing.

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Stephenson, Tamina C. "Towards a theory of subjective meaning." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41695.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-212).
This dissertation develops a form of relativism in which propositions are treated as sets of world-time-individual triples, in contrast to standard views that treat them as sets of worlds or world-time pairs. This builds on existing proposals for predicates of personal taste such as fun and tasty, and has ties to approaches to de se attitudes involving centered worlds. I develop an accompanying pragmatic view in which the context set is similarly construed as a set of world-time-individual triples. The semantic and pragmatic systems together are used to account for the behavior of predicates of personal taste, epistemic modals, indicative conditionals, and a variety of attitude reports, including control constructions. I also explore ways that this account can help solve puzzles related to Moore's paradox. To give one concrete example, I propose that the proposition expressed by the sentence it might be raining is the set of world-time-individual triples such that it's compatible with x's knowledge in w at t that it's raining. On the pragmatic side, a speaker is justified in asserting this sentence in a conversation if it is compatible with the speaker's own knowledge that it's raining; by asserting it, though, the speaker is making the stronger proposal to make it common ground that it is compatible with the knowledge of the entire group of conversational participants that it's raining. If this proposal is accepted by the other participants, then the group will have established that their knowledge states are aligned in a particular way. I introduce the core semantic and pragmatic proposals in Chapter 2, focusing on epistemic modals, predicates of personal taste, and belief reports.
(cont.) In Chapter 3, I extend the analysis to indicative conditionals, showing that this solves longstanding puzzles involving the relationship between conditionals and disjunction. In Chapter 4, I extend the approach to certain control constructions, with a special emphasis on capturing their de se interpretation. In Chapter 5, I look at two puzzles related to Moore's paradox, with special attention to the meaning of imagine.
by Tamina C. Stephenson.
Ph.D.

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Tan, Man Wai Emily. "Lexical signalling of notions of solution in the problem-solution discourse context." HKBU Institutional Repository, 1997. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/119.

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Swan, Karen Esther. "Borrowing the Essentials: A Diachronic Study of the Semantic Primes of Modern English." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2013. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4249.

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In order for communication to take place, there must be a set of core concepts that are universal to all speakers. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) has proposed an inventory of these concepts, called semantic primes, and uses them as universal concepts in the explication and exploration of cultural values. The English semantic primes, while the majority are Anglo-Saxon, contain words that have been borrowed from Latin, Old Norse, and French. Borrowing lexical items into core vocabulary has many implications. First, the primes are not entirely stable or immune to foreign influence, even the Anglo-Saxon primes have been susceptible to the processes of language change. Second, the primes do not reflect the trends of borrowing in English as a whole. And finally, because the primes are core vocabulary, this study opens up a new aspect of English as a mixed language.

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Almutairi, Bandar Alhumaidi A. "Visualizing Evaluative Language in Relation to Constructing Identity in English Editorials and Op-Eds." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/13591.

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This thesis is concerned with the problem of managing complexity in Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) analyses of language, particularly at the discourse semantics level. To deal with this complexity, the thesis develops AppAnn, a suite of linguistic visualization techniques that are specifically designed to provide both synoptic and dynamic views on discourse semantic patterns in text and corpus. Moreover, AppAnn visualizations are illustrated in a series of explorations of identity in a corpus of editorials and op-eds about the bin Laden killing. The findings suggest that the intriguing intricacies of discourse semantic meanings can be successfully discerned and more readily understood through linguistic visualization. The findings also provide insightful implications for discourse analysis by contributing to our understanding of a number of underdeveloped concepts of SFL, including coupling, commitment, instantiation, affiliation and individuation.

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Chen, Rui. "A corpus-based comparison between semantic and pragmatic features of English aspect marker-ING and Chinese aspect markers ZHE and ZAI." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2010. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/1204.

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Dickey, Zachary R. L. "The Role of Semantics in Prohibiting The Acquisition of a Native-like Semantic Competence: Understanding Why ` Jason Hit Tommy ’ and Why `Tommy Was Hit by Jason ’." University of Toledo Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1386932531.

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Alff, Diane Catherine Rose. "Workers and artisans, the binders and the bound : craftsmen and notions of craftsmanship in Old English literature." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f4859c5e-7176-46b9-8a1a-5bf7e21b0db7.

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This thesis analyses Anglo-Saxon conceptions of craftsmanship, and provides new interpretations for the notions of searo, orþonc and cræft in Old English literature. I argue that the texts discussing craftsmanship and craftsmen subscribe to an atemporal myth. This myth is not so much that of Weland the smith of Germanic lore, but rather a myth of the inculpating and redemptive power of craftsmanship, after a fall-and-salvation pattern. I show that, on the level of semantics, mirroring the above pattern, there are concurrent shifts in the meanings of two of the main terms for craftsmanship, and that notably searo is subject to pejoration in the process of transition from a poetic to a prose term, while cræft, on the other hand, witnesses a number of semantic changes to make it a versatile and uniquely positive expression of craftsmanship. Whereas orþanc is a neutral notion of craftsmanship that is bound to a concrete genre before being recast in the close environment of bishop Æthelwold‟s circle at Winchester in the tenth century, the semantic shifts in searo and cræft are testimony to broad cultural shifts in the representations of craftsmanship and in perceptions of the craftsman. The point of departure in Chapter One is with the artisans themselves, the craftsmen and skilled metalworkers – the actual makers of em>searo, orþonc and cræft. Taking the smith as the archetypal craftsman, I examine the manner in which this artisan-artist is depicted in Old English and Anglo-Latin literature. I argue that two strands can be distinguished, one depicting the craftsman as reprobate, and another exalting him. In subsequent chapters, semantic studies and new readings of three notions of craftsmanship illuminate the intricate ways in which these two strands interact across time, genre and medium of expression. In Chapter Two, searo is examined within the semantic field of binding to show that it represents a traditional expression of superlative craftsmanship associated primarily with the smith, and denoting status and quality in verse. In its pejoration as a notion of scheming and deceit, it retains its strong association with binding and becomes a mechanism for redemption by connecting with the Harrowing of Hell tradition. Chapter Three shows how orþanc evolves from a poetic term denoting ancient craftsmanship into an abstract notion of ingenuity, by charting its existence in the gloss corpus and relating it to the glossing of mechanica in later Anglo-Saxon England. It emerges as a hermeneutic term characterised by moral neutrality, with close connections to the Benedictine Reform movement. Chapter Four is the first segment of a two-part examination of cræft as a notion of craftsmanship. After evaluating the body of existing critical material, I assess our understanding of the term's polysemy before analysing its use as a concrete but somewhat antiquated notion of magical craftsmanship. Chapter Five provides an in-depth assessment of an alternative, much more widespread, Christianized usage of cræft as a notion of divine endowment. It shows how this notion is instrumental in several highly positive assessments of smiths analysed in Chapter One, and argues that it provides a platform for other craftsmen to distinguish themselves in a religious, orthodox way. In my conclusion, I show that the new readings of these notions are key to interpreting metaphors of poetic creation and creativity as used by authors such as Cynewulf.

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Yamamoto, Natsuki. "The use of modals in ESL academic writing." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1999. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1727.

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Persson, Lotta. "The Language of Tourism : How the Tourism Industry Promotes Magic." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-17803.

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To lure potential customers to buy a holiday away from home, most marketers incorporate certain semantic and pragmatic features into their promotional material: words and images are chosen with utmost care. The present study is conducted in order to reveal these semantic and pragmatic features and equally, to show how they highlight the concept of “magic”.This research is based on responses from six different interviews in which the interviewees had to describe twelve key words and key phrases taken from twelve tourism advertisements, in and out of context. Secondary material further consists of publications dealing with the areas of linguistics, advertising and tourism.The conclusion of this research will reveal that the impact of tourism advertisements depends on agreement between various semantic and pragmatic elements rather than implementation of individual semantic and pragmatic features per se. In other words, all the semantic and pragmatic elements (linguistic and non-linguistic content) have to reinforce one another, acknowledging common ground and meeting the reader's pre-existing assumptions. Hence, for an advertisement to avoid ambiguity it has to be relevance-governed, delivering just what is necessary to ensure that the reader is able to decode the message: that one should leave the ordinary and travel to a temporary, yet seemingly magical holiday destination.

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Karlsson, Therése, and Hanna Lawrence. "English as a Second Language for Kenyan Children in Primary School : A Trial of the Spoken Language Assessment Profile – Revised Edition." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för klinisk och experimentell medicin, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-119193.

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Sub-Saharan Africa is a multilingual environment and there is a lack of materials available for speech and language assessment in this area (Hartley & Krämer, 2013). The norms for assessment material cannot be used for both monolinguals and bilinguals, since bilinguals may have different levels of knowledge in their languages (Kohnert, 2010). The Spoken Language Assessment Profile – Revised edition (SLAP-R) is an assessment that can be used to evaluate English as a second language (ESL) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this instrument is an attempt to fill the gap of suitable speech and language assessment tools that can be used for all those involved in setting up clinics, schools or speech and language assessment tools (Hartley & Krämer, 2013). The aim of the present study was to assess English as a second language for Kenyan children in primary school based on their result on the SLAP-R. The present study consisted of 68 participants with reported typically developed language and hearing that attended first or second grade in a public school in western Kenya. All participants were between six and nine years old, had a Bantu language as their first language and had been exposed to English for less than one year up to eight years. They had also attended preschool at their current school. The independent variables in the present study were grade, age and exposure to English. SLAP-R consists of six subtests that test expressive and receptive phonology, semantics and grammar. These parts constituted the dependent variables. In addition there is a part called ultimate expressive language skill (UELS) that consists of picture sequences where the participant should tell a story of what is happening in the pictures. The result indicated that grade had the largest effect on the participant’s performance in English as a second language. Grade two had significantly higher results regarding receptive phonology as well as expressive and receptive semantics and grammar than the participants in grade one. Most of the incorrect answers were made in the subtest expressive grammar. These answers were mainly incorrect due to other reasons than an answer in Kiswahili.
Sub-Sahara Afrika är en flerspråkig miljö och det finns en brist på material för tal- och språkbedömningar inom detta område (Hartley & Krämer, 2013). Normerna för ett bedömningsinstrument kan inte användas för både enspråkiga och tvåspråkiga barn, eftersom tvåspråkiga barn kan ha varierande kunskapsnivåer inom språken (Kohnert, 2010). Spoken Language Assessment Profile – Revised edition (SLAP-R) är ett bedömningsmaterial som är avsett att utvärdera engelska som andraspråk i Sub-Sahara Afrika. Syftet med detta instrument är att försöka fylla tomrummet av lämpliga tal- och språkbedömningsmaterial som kan användas av samtliga inblandade vid att starta upp kliniker, skolor eller logopedmottagningar (Hartley & Krämer, 2013). Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka engelska som andraspråk för Kenyanska barn i grundskolan baserat på deras resultat i SLAP-R. Föreliggande studie bestod av 68 deltagare med rapporterad typisk hörsel och språkutveckling som gick i klass ett eller två i en kommunal skola i västra Kenya. Alla deltagarna var mellan sex och nio år, hade ett bantuspråk som förstaspråk och hade exponerats till engelska i mindre än ett år upp till åtta år. De hade även gått i den förskolan som tillhörde deras nuvarande skola. De oberoende variablerna i föreliggande studie var klass, ålder och exponeringstid till engelska. SLAP-R består av sex deltest som testar expressiv och receptiv fonologi, semantik och grammatik. De här delarna utgör de beroende variablerna. Det finns ytterligare en del som kallas för ultimate expressive language skill (UELS) som består av sekvensbilder där deltagaren ska berätta en historia om vad som händer på bilderna. Resultatet indikerade att klass var variabeln som hade störst inverkan på deltagarnas prestationer i engelska som andraspråk. Klass två hade signifikant högre resultat gällande receptiv fonologi, såväl som expressiv och receptiv semantik och grammatik än deltagarna i klass ett. De flesta felsvaren gjordes i deltestet expressiv grammatik och var i huvudsak på grund av andra skäl än svar på kiswahili.

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Ruuska, Sofia. "Englishes Online: : A comparison of the varieties of English used in blogs." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-27491.

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This study is based on data gathered from two corpora. It investigates and analyses the written English of second language users, in this case English used by Swedes, with the English used online in blogs found in the Birmingham Blog Corpus, which includes blogs written in English by authors of various nationalities. The aim is to compare Swedes’ use of English in blogs and the English used in general in blogs. The study focuses on typical features associated with either American English (AmE) or British English (BrE) and investigates which variety is the most prominent online. The results indicate that features that are generally associated with AmE have a higher frequency in both analysed corpora in this thesis. The conclusion is therefore that AmE tends to dominate both Swedish and international authors’ use of English in blogs.

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Hjálmarsson, Guðmundur Andri. "What if? : an enquiry into the semantics of natural language conditionals." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/949.

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This thesis is essentially a portfolio of four disjoint yet thematically related articles that deal with some semantic aspect or another of natural language conditionals. The thesis opens with a brief introductory chapter that offers a short yet opinionated historical overview and a theoretical background of several important semantic issues of conditionals. The second chapter then deals with the issue of truth values and conditions of indicative conditionals. So-called Gibbard Phenomenon cases have been used to argue that indicative conditionals construed in terms of the Ramsey Test cannot have truth values. Since that conclusion is somewhat incredible, several alternative options are explored. Finally, a contextualised revision of the Ramsey Test is offered which successfully avoids the threats of the Gibbard Phenomenon. The third chapter deals with the question of where to draw the so-called indicative/ subjunctive line. Natural language conditionals are commonly believed to be of two semantically distinct types: indicative and subjunctive. Although this distinction is central to many semantic analyses of natural conditionals, there seems to be no consensus on the details of its nature. While trying to uncover the grounds for the distinction, we will argue our way through several plausible proposals found in the literature. Upon discovering that none of these proposals seem entirely suited, we will reconsider our position and make several helpful observations into the nature of conditional sentences. And finally, in light of our observations, we shall propose and argue for plausible grounds for the indicative/subjunctive distinction.distinction. The fourth chapter offers semantics for modal and amodal natural language conditionals based on the distinction proposed in the previous chapter. First, the nature of modal and amodal suppositions will be explored. Armed with an analysis of modal and amodal suppositions, the corresponding conditionals will be examined further. Consequently, the syntax of conditionals in English will be uncovered for the purpose of providing input for our semantics. And finally, compositional semantics in generative grammar will be offered for modal and amodal conditionals. The fifth and final chapter defends Modus Ponens from alleged counterexamples. In particular, the chapter offers a solution to McGee’s infamous counterexamples. First, several solutions offered to the counterexamples hitherto are all argued to be inadequate. After a couple of observations on the counterexamples’ nature, a solution is offered and demonstrated. the solution suggests that the semantics of embedded natural language conditionals is more sophisticated than their surface syntax indicates. The heart of the solution is a translation function from the surface form of natural language conditionals to their logical form. Finally, the thesis ends with a conclusion that briefly summarises the main conclusions drawn in its preceding chapters.

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Robinson, Melissa Aubrey. "A Man Needs a Female like a Fish Needs a Lobotomy: The Role of Adjectival Nominalization in Pejorative Meaning." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1157617/.

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This thesis documents the grammatical processes and semantic impact of innovative ways to pejoratively reference individuals through adjectival nominalization. Research on nominalized adjectives suggests that when meanings shift from having one property (1) to becoming a kind with associated properties (2), the noun form often encodes stereotypical attributes: [1] "Her hair is blonde." (hair color); [2] "He married a blonde." (female, sexy, dumb). Likewise, the linguistic phenomenon of genericity refers to classes or kinds and different grammatical structures reflect properties in different ways. In 1 and 2 above, the shift from adjectival blonde to indefinite NP a blonde moves the focus from the definitional characteristic to the prototypical. Similarly, adjectival gay [3] is definitional, but the marked, nominal form [4] adds socially-based conceptions of the "average" gay (example from Twitter): [3] jesus christ i make a joke and now im a gay man? (sexuality) [constructed]; [4] jesus christ i make a joke and now im a gay? … (flamboyant, abnormal). To investigate innovative reference via nominalization, two corpus studies based in human judgment were conducted. In the first study, a subset of the corpus (N=121) was annotated for pejoration by five additional linguists following the same guidelines as the original annotator. In the second study, 800 instances were annotated by non-experts using crowd-sourcing. In both studies we find a correspondence between nominal status and pejorative meaning.

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Kaczorowski, Anna. "Is 'respect' a Feeling or a Behaviour? : -a study of the connection between word meaning and age for native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, Mid Sweden University, Department of Humanities, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-9175.

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The aim of this study was to investigate if there is a connection between language and social identity in the perception of word meaning among second language learners in the same way as for native speakers, and if the sociolinguistic variable age is significant. This was done with an investigation of two generations of Swedish learners' perception of the meaning of the words 'respect', 'integrity' and 'communication'. The investigation showed that age is important to a certain extent regarding interpreting words and their meaning, but that it is not as important if the speaker has English as their mother tongue or as their second language.

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Juffs, Alan. "Learnability and the lexicon in second language acquisition : Chinese learners' acquisition of English argument structure." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=41626.

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This thesis investigates the knowledge of semantics-syntax correspondences in second language acquisition (SLA) within the Principles and Parameters framework. A parameter of semantic structure is proposed to account for crosslinguistic syntactic differences between two previously unrelated, and superficially distinct, verb classes: change of state locatives and 'psychological' verbs. Chinese and English contrast in terms of the parameter setting. Experimental evidence indicates that adult Chinese learners of English L2 initially transfer parameter settings, but are able to reset the proposed parameter. However, they only acquire L2 lexical properties and concomitant syntactic privileges with ease when L2 input adds a representation to their grammar. When positive L2 input should pre-empt overgeneralizations based on representation transferred from the L1, it is shown that L1 influence may persist until quite advanced stages of acquisition. The implications of the results are discussed for the parameter setting model of SLA.

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Gustin, Edward Louis. "A semantic analysis of 'get' and its acquisition by students of English in Macau : a cognitive approach." Thesis, University of Macau, 2012. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2586626.

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Erikson, Jessie Alise. "Phonological Transfer during Word Learning: Evidence from Bilingual School-Age Spanish-English-Speaking Children." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613100.

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Purpose: This study examines potential cross-linguistic effects on accuracy of codas in newly learned English-like nonwords produced by bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children. Methods: Forty-two bilingual Spanish-English-speaking second-graders (age 7-9) were matched individually with monolingual peers on age (+/- 6 months), sex, and percentile score on the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA-2; Goldman & Fristoe, 2000), and matched for group on mother's level of education. Participants named various sea monsters as part of computerized word-learning games. Sixteen syllable-final coda consonants were analyzed for accuracy. These were drawn from thirteen nonwords distributed across five word-learning tasks. Results: Bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children in production of both shared and unshared codas, though the gap was greater for unshared codas. Both bilingual and monolingual children were more accurate in production of shared codas than unshared codas. Conclusion: The results suggest that native language phonotactics influence accuracy of coda production in bilingual Spanish-English-speaking school-age children during word learning. Influences of native phonology on word learning could potentially impact academic achievement through vocabulary learning in the classroom.

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Ouayed, Abdul-Jabbar. "Manipulation of semantics and syntax : the use of emotive language in English and Arabic news reports and editorials with reference to translation." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1990. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1630/.

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Since language is an important means of communication between human beings, it is held that writers or speakers can affect their readers or hearers by using certain linguistic means. The manipulation of semantics and syntax, namely the use of emotive language, is seen as an affective means resorted to by text producers to influence the people's acceptance of the truth. Emotional language aims ultimately at persuading the addressee to accept the facts as they are presented by writers. It is regarded as a necessary condition for persuasion to be successful. This is due to the persuasive force of emotive meaning exerted upon the receiver. In addition, the employment of emotive language may be attributed to ideological considerations. This will be demonstrated in Chapter II. Emotiveness, as a means of persuasion, can be expressed by using certain devices such as repetition, intertextuality, word-order, figures of speech, intensifiers ... etc. These strategies will be discussed in detail with reference to translation in Chapter III. Furthermore, I must say that some of my remarks have been based on the findings of outstanding grammarians and linguists, and therefore, I have been obliged to quote from such works to substantiate my points of view. Before proceeding with the investigation, I must point out that the entire data of my work will be confined only to news reports and editorials both in Arabic and English, and for this end a number of articles have been used from official newspapers in both languages.

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Nilsson, Rickard. "The cross-linguistic semantics of intentionality : Causation event descriptions of native Castilian Spanish and British English speakers." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur (from 2013), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-83300.

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This semantic typology study investigates the intentionality of causation event descriptions of ten native British English speakers (NBES) and ten native Castilian Spanish speakers (NCSS). Through a methodology that implements a picture story as non-verbal stimuli and verbal event descriptions, statistical data are gathered on the form and function of the participants’ descriptions. Inferred and inscribed characteristics of constructions are collected through a description task, a narration task, and a post-task interview. The results show that the NBES participants consistently were more varied in their choice of constructions, especially when the picture showed or implied an accidental action in the causation event. The frequent use of all constructions for a single picture might indicate that English does not provide a clear means for expressing what speakers want to voice in terms of intentionality. The functional characteristics attributed to the constructions were for the NCSS participants more unified than the NBES participants; all the Spanish constructions demonstrated a clear representing majority characteristic. Having more fine-grained distinctions to represent intentionality, as the NCSS participants have at their disposal, could potentially lead to less constructional variation, as there are options available to speakers for expressing the right intention with the use of a more specific construction. These fine-grained constructions also likely provide the speakers with more certainty in their judgements since they do not need to select a construction ad hoc that best fits the described event.
Denna semantiska typologistudie undersöker intentionaliteten i beskrivningar av orsakshändelser av tio infödda brittiska engelsktalande (NBES) och tio infödda kastilianska spansktalande (NCSS). Genom en metod som implementerar en bildberättelse som icke-verbala stimuli och verbala händelsebeskrivningar samlas statistiska data om formen och funktionen för deltagarnas beskrivningar. Uttydda och inskrivna egenskaper hos konstruktioner samlas genom en beskrivningsuppgift, en berättandeuppgift och en intervju. Resultaten visar att NBES-deltagarna konsekvent var mer varierade i deras val av konstruktioner, särskilt när bilden visade eller antydde en oavsiktlig handling i orsakssammanhanget. Den frekventa användningen av alla konstruktioner för en enskild bild kan tyda på att engelska inte ger ett tydligt sätt att uttrycka vad talare vill uttrycka i termer av avsikt. De funktionella egenskaperna som tillskrivs konstruktionerna var för NCSS-deltagarna mer enhetliga än NBES-deltagarna; alla de spanska konstruktionerna visade en tydlig representativ majoritetsegenskap. Att ha mer detaljerade skillnader för att representera avsiktlighet, som NCSS-deltagarna har till sitt förfogande, kan potentiellt leda till mindre konstruktionsvariation, eftersom det finns alternativ tillgängliga för talare för att uttrycka rätt avsikt med användning av en mer specifik konstruktion. Dessa finkorniga konstruktioner ger sannolikt också talarna större säkerhet i sina bedömningar eftersom de inte behöver välja en konstruktion ad hoc som bäst passar den beskrivna händelsen.

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Fredricks, Sharon. "The Effectiveness of Semantic Mapping on Reading Comprehension." PDXScholar, 1993. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4667.

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It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping is a text organization strategy which may be used to explicate text structure and content relationships with both expository prose and fiction. The purpose of this study was to use semantic mapping to explicate the structure and content of short fiction and to measure the effect, if any, on comprehension. For the purposes of this study, comprehension was defined two ways: (1) recognition comprehension, which is the ability to retain and recall factual detail from text content, and (2) comprehension as evidenced by the use of certain critical thinking skills, i.e., elaboration and supplementation in forming written responses. Two hypotheses were posed: 1. The use of semantic mapping will result in an increase in recognition comprehension by a treatment group of English as a second language readers using a semantic mapping strategy, as compared to a control group using an advance organizer, based on a combination multiple choice and true/ false quiz. 2. The use of semantic mapping will result in greater use of elaboration and supplementation by a treatment group of English as a second language readers using a semantic mapping strategy, as compared to a control group using an advance organizer, based on an analysis of a quiz requiring written responses. In order to determine the results of this study, .t-tests were used to compare the mean scores between groups. In the case of recognition comprehension, the group receiving the treatment, semantic mapping, did score significantly higher than the control group. In the case of comprehension, as evidenced by the use of elaborations and supplementations in written responses, the group which used semantic mapping showed a higher level of use, but the difference was not statistically significant. A Mann-Whitney U test ranked the subjects' scores individually on an ordinal scale and then compared the means between groups. In the case of elaborations the treatment group showed a significantly higher level of use. However, there was no corresponding significant difference in the case of supplementations.

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Rydblom, Oskar. "Snap! Crack! Pop! : A corpus study of the meanings of three English onomatopoeia." Thesis, Linnaeus University, School of Language and Literature, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-7159.

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The focus of this essay is on examining the meanings of the onomatopoeia (sound imitating words) snap, crack and pop. Previous studies on onomatopoeia and sound symbolism are used to define the terms and create a model for an alternative categorization of these meanings. This model is then applied in a corpus study, conducted on the COCA (Corpus Of Contemporary American English) and BYU-BNC (The British National Corpus) corpora, to find a way to more accurately describe the meanings and functions of these words. For this purpose the context in which snap, crack and pop are used is also addressed by observing how frequently they occur in formal and informal texts and which adjectives and adverbs frequently modify them. In the study it was discovered that these three words took on many different meanings that would be hard to list separately in a dictionary. These meanings did follow a pattern linked to the properties associated with the word. The study found snap, crack and pop to be informal words with a tendency to add emotion or effect to a statement. It is therefore concluded that sorting onomatopoeia by sound and non sound-related meaning and describing the informal characteristics of these words leads to a greater understanding of how they are used.

Keywords: Arbitrariness, crack, emotive, ideophones, mimetics, mimes, non-arbitrariness, onomatopoeia, phenomimes, phonomimes, pop, psychomimes, register, semantics, snap, sound symbolism and style.

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Nilsson, Daniel. "Morpho-semantic processes in the English language used in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game : A case study of neologisms in Warhammer Online." Thesis, Växjö University, School of Humanities, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-2626.

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The language used in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (or MMORPGs) is a form of computer-mediate communication. It consists of elements from both written and spoken language, but it is a highly abbreviated and innovative form of written language. This study focuses on the English language used in a MMORPG called Warhammer Online. The aim of this study is to identify abbreviations, interpret their meanings and to analyze the word formation processes and semantic changes that are involved in new words. The method used in this study is a qualitative case study of the English language in a MMORPG from a synchronic point of view. The secondary sources used in this study include previous works on morphology and semantics. The material used is based on logs acquired from the game Warhammer Online as a subscribed player. The results presented in this study show new and unique words created by players in Warhammer Online, along with other semantic changes that have taken place. It is concluded that the English written language has not seen such a major change in its entirety before, within one community.

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Feijóo, Antolín Sara. "Learning from the input: syntactic, semantic and phonological cues to the noun category in English." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/673498.

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Las líneas centrales de la teoría lingüística de los últimos años han descrito la adquisición y el desarrollo de primeras lenguas como un proceso basado en el conocimiento innato de las propiedades gramaticales de la lengua por parte de los niños aprendices. Tales descripciones del desarrollo sintáctico asumen que el entorno lingüístico al que los niños están expuestos es demasiado limitado como para dar lugar al aprendizaje de una lengua (es decir, el llamado argumento de la pobreza del estímulo). Así pues, según esta visión, es el conocimiento lingüístico innato lo que permite a los niños llegar a ser hablantes competentes de su propia lengua nativa. Este estudio se plantea el objetivo de cuestionar esta visión y muestra evidencia empírica con la que se puede inferir que los niños pueden adquirir conocimientos gramaticales a partir de la experiencia y de la información que reciben del entorno.

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Mello, Aline. "Articulação semântico-cognitiva por meio de papéis semânticos." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/10820.

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Articulação Semântico-Cognitiva por Meio de Papéis Semânticos realiza a comparação de enunciados retirados do meio jornalístico nas línguas portuguesa e inglesa, analisados com base nas teorias propostas pela gramática de casos e semântica cognitiva. A partir das idéias de background e foreground propostas por Fillmore, é possível a interpretação de tais enunciados como eventos. Pretende-se, aqui, categorizar os predicadores, verificar seus possíveis efeitos de sentido dentro do contexto em estudo, determinar as relações temáticas que envolvem os núcleos preposicionais, analisar e dimensionar os dados qualitativamente. A análise procedeu-se tendo como corpus editorial da revista National Geographic, nas versões em língua portuguesa e inglesa, donde se concluiu que o ambiente enunciativo tanto na fala quanto na escrita sofre alterações, mas, apesar de flutuações sintáticas (como indicações de tempo e gênero), o campo semântico mantém-se inalterado, ou seja, estável e produtivo.
Cognitive -Semantic Articulation by Semantic roles compares sentences from publications in Portuguese and English Languages, analyzing them through the theories proposed by The Case Grammar and Cognitive Semantics. The concepts of background and foreground presented by Fillmore allow an interpretation of such sentences as events. The intention is to categorize the verbs, verify their possible effects within the analyzed context, determine the thematic relations involved in the prepositional nucleons and qualitatively analyze the data. The analyses had the Portuguese and English versions of a National Geographic editorial as a corpus, from which we concluded that although the discourse environment can differ, the semantic field remains unaltered.

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Colin, Nathalie. "English and Swedish Animal Idioms : A Study of Correspondence and Variation in Content and Expression." Thesis, Karlstad University, Division for Culture and Communication, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-13.

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Idioms are found in every language and learning them is an important aspect of the mastery of a language. The English language is no exception as it contains a large number of idioms, which are extensively used. However, because of their rather rigid structure and quite unpredictable meaning, idioms are often considered difficult to learn. Although little research has been done to date on the nature of idioms as well as how they are used, a better understanding of variations in idioms can nevertheless be acquired by looking at some theories and thoughts about their use and their structure.

The aim of this paper is to examine a number of animal idioms, focusing primarily on English idioms and the similarities and differences found in equivalent Swedish idioms, even when the Swedish idioms do not contain an animal. Two types of studies are presented. In the first one, the English and Swedish animal idioms collected are grouped into four categories. The results of such a categorization show that half of the English animal idioms found have an equivalent in Swedish containing an animal. In the second study, the content, structure, wording, semantics and metaphorical meaning of the animal idioms are analysed and compared. The results indicate that the Swedish animal idioms that correspond to the English animal idioms have, for the most part, the same structures and similar variations in degree of literalness, fixity, manipulation and transformation. Furthermore, the use of metaphor, personification and simile appears to be common both in English and Swedish animal idioms. The role of context and literal and figurative translation are also addressed in this study.

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Azaz, Mahmoud. "Acquisition of Form-Meaning Mapping in L2 Arabic and English Noun Phrases: A Bidirectional Framework." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/333120.

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Despite the plethora of SLA research conducted on the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations in L2 Arabic and English (e.g., Sarko, 2007; Master, 1997; Collier, 1987; Anderson, 1984; Kharma, 1981), there is as yet no definitive description of how noun phrases are acquired and why errors persist after advanced stages in L2 learning. Results, as shown by Butler (2002), are inconclusive, and the primary causes of difficulties in the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations remain unclear. Recently, the internal syntax-semantics interface (Cuza & Frank, 2011; Montrul, 2010; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006; Sorace, 2003, 2004) and the specificity-definiteness distinction (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2008) have been considered as appropriate frameworks for exploring the acquisition of noun phrases and other structural features. The structure of noun phrase configurations in Arabic and English offers a complex interface between form and meaning for L2 learners with multiple cases of matches and mismatches between specificity and definiteness. In this three-article dissertation project, two of which were conducted in a bidirectional methodological framework with L1 Arabic-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Arabic learners, I explored the acquisition of three cases of noun phrase configurations. In the first study, I investigated the acquisition of plural noun phrase configurations that carry generic and specific readings at the initial state of L2 learning. Using three data collection instruments: written translation; error detection and correction; and forced choice elicitation, I tested the predictions made by the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the Full Transfer (FT) Hypothesis. Results showed that L2 learners in both directions tend to transfer noun phrase configurations from L1 into L2, a result that I took to support the FT hypothesis. In addition, it took L1 English-L2 Arabic learners two years of instruction to recover from this L1 effect. The second study aimed at confirming the result of the first study, but in the acquisition of the definite marker in generic singular noun phrase configurations in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. The behavior of generic singular noun phrases in L2 Arabic offers a good testing ground since it has numerous similarities and differences with English. Two conditions were established: a matching condition and a mismatching condition. Both conditions were tested in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. Results showed a similar pattern to the one recorded in the first study. Typological proximity and distance were found to be important determiners of language acquisition of the in/definiteness configurations of singular noun phrases. In the third study, I shifted to the exploration of a more complex type of noun phrases; namely the definite Iḍāfah construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its equivalent noun phrase configurations in English in the two directions. I started with a common difference between MSA and English. Whereas in MSA there is a canonical configuration in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness, English is tolerant of more than one permissible configuration. I operationalized the acquisition of these noun phrases in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness. Results showed a clear effect of L1 transfer in both directions; knowledge of L1 noun phrase configurations acts as the initial step in L2 learning. I concluded that both communities of L2 learners face problems that vary according to the L1 noun phrase configuration at hand. However, in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction, learners reached a satisfactory level of performance in the Iḍāfah construction after two years of instruction. I approached this finding as a result of intensive Focus-on-Form Episodes (Loewn, 2005) that the Iḍāfah construction receives in MSA instruction. At the conclusion of this research project I highlighted some implications for the second language acquisition and teaching of noun phrases. The overall results were couched in a broader perspective that characterizes the initial state of L2 learning of noun phrases in + article and – article languages, the effects of typological proximity and distance, and the effects of Instructed SLA. For the pedagogical implications, I called for the integration of the semantics of the definite marker while presenting noun phrases in textbooks. I also recommended the use of explicit instruction and structured-input activities (VanPatten, 2004; Marsden & Chen, 2011) as effective pedagogical tools that foster form-meaning mapping in the acquisition of L2 Arabic and English noun phrases.

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Boberg, Per. "The inflected genitive and the of-construction : A comparative corpus study of written East African, Indian, American and British English." Thesis, Växjö University, School of Humanities, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-1372.

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This quantitative corpus study discusses and compares the distribution of the inflected genitive (’s- or zero-genitive) with that of the of-construction in East African, Indian, American and British English using data collected from the ICE-EA, ICE-IND, Frown and FLOB corpora. This study also discusses the semantic categories of the inflected genitive in the varieties mentioned.

The first conclusion of the study is that the distribution of tokens according to semantic categories is similar in all varieties examined. Furthermore, it is concluded for the modifier classes that animateness-biased classes are more common with the inflected genitive, while inanimateness-biased classes are more common with the of-construction; this distribution is similar in all varieties.

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Wasserman, Gertruida Petronella. "Modality on trek : diachronic changes in written South African English across text and context / G.P. Wasserman." Thesis, North West University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/13042.

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This study describes the diachronic development of modality in South African English (henceforth SAfE) from the early 19th century up to its contemporary state (1820s to 1990s) in the registers of letters, news, fiction/narrative and non-fiction, on the basis of the theoretical framework of socio historical linguistics and the empirical approach of corpus linguistics. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted for modal and quasi-modal verbs, by means of the newly compiled historical corpus of SAfE and ICE-SA (with the addition of Afrikaans corpora for comparison). The study explores general frequency changes, register-internal changes and macro- and micro semantic changes, with the focus of the main semantic analysis more strongly on the obligation and necessity cluster1. A set of parameters is compiled for analysing the strength of obligation in the modals must and should, and the quasi-modal HAVE to, and is applied in the micro semantic analyses. The findings are compared with the trends for modality in other native English’s, such as American, British and Australian English (cf. e.g. Mair & Leech, 2006; Collins, 2009a; Leech, 2011), in an attempt to present a complete and comprehensive description of SAfE modality, as opposed to the traditional approach of focusing on peculiar features. It is reported that the trends of modality in SAfE correspond to those of other native varieties in some cases, but do not correspond in others. The modals of SAfE for example have declined more and the quasi-modals have increased less over the 20th century than in other native varieties of English. One particular case, in which SAfE is reported to be unique among other varieties, is the quantitative and qualitative trends for must, which has some implications for the manifestation of the democratisation process. Must in SAfE has not declined significantly over the 20th century (as it has in other native varieties) and has become less face threatening, since uses with a median (weaker) degree of force are just as frequent as those with a higher degree of force by the 1990s (unlike in other native varieties, where must has become restricted to high-degree obligative contexts). Based on socio historical, as well as linguistic evidence (on both quantitative and qualitative levels), language contact with Afrikaans is posited as the main influence for the increased use of must in contexts that are not face threatening. Extrapolating from the semantic findings, some new insights are offered regarding the phase in which SAfE finds itself within Schneider’s (2003) model of the evolution of New English’s, and some support is offered for Bekker’s (2012:143) argument that “SAfE is ...the youngest of the colonial varieties of English”, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Ultimately, this thesis offers a piece in the larger puzzle that is SAfE, both in terms of linguistic (textual) and socio historical (contextual) aspects.
PhD (English), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

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Falcoski, Maria Cristina Nigro. "Sentidos de comunicativo em dizeres de professores de inglês e teóricos em ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa: uma análise semântica-discursiva dos processos de designação sobre a Abordagem/Metodologia Comunicativa (CLT)." Universidade de São Paulo, 2010. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8147/tde-26042010-161217/.

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Este trabalho tem como objetivo a análise de sentidos em processos designativos decorrentes da chamada Abordagem/Metodologia Comunicativa, também referida como CLT (Communicative Language Teaching), depreendidos de: a) textos de teóricos em ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa e b) de professores de inglês, participantes de um programa de curso para certificação na didática de línguas. Pelo aparato teórico da Semântica Histórica da Enunciação, em confluência com a Análise do Discurso, que contempla a dimensão histórico-social e ideológica na relação do sujeito com a língua, buscamos compreender como se estabelecem processos de produção de sentidos em nomes que circulam em torno da designação CLT, no contexto ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa. A aparente estabilidade e univocidade das designações levaram-nos a confrontá-las e, com isso, propusemos um questionamento acerca da transparência da linguagem. Pela análise, percebemos uma tentativa de construção referencial do CLT e, que conflitos constitutivos da relação falante-língua são escamoteados, na cena enunciativa. A busca constante de fixação de um sentido único para essa designação, o bom sentido de comunicativo, levou-nos a buscar compreender, pelo interdiscurso (memória discursiva), como se estabelecem certos movimentos dicotômicos de produção de sentidos nos dizeres de professores e teóricos, na polarização método antigo versus método moderno. Depreendemos, pelos processos designativos analisados, que a idealização do modelo comunicativo remete a um lugar de completude, onde a aprendizagem da língua parece se dar de uma maneira natural, sem conflitos, lugar esse que professores buscam ocupar. No percurso da análise procuramos problematizar o convívio dos professores com o lugar estabelecido pelo CLT, de suposta neutralidade política perante o método, colocando-os fora de sua historicidade. Concluímos que os processos designativos dos nomes analisados buscam promover um efeito de homogeneização nos dizeres de teóricos e professores do corpus, no processo de constituição de sentidos da Abordagem Comunicativa.
This work aims at analysing meanings observed in designation processes derived from the so-called Communicative Language Teaching, also referred to as CLT, in a corpus formed by a) texts of theorists in the field of ELT and b) texts of EFL teachers who participated in a program on ELT for further external exams. From the perspective of both Historical Semantics of Enunciation and Analysis of Discourse which contemplates the historical-social and ideological dimension in the relation of the subject with language, we have sought to investigate how processes of production of meaning are established as far as names related to CLT are concerned. Our analysis enabled us to confront the apparent stabilised meaning of the observed designations in relation to the names of the Communicative Approach/Communicative Language Teaching thus questioning the evidence of language transparency. By means of analysis, we have noticed an attempt towards reference construction of CLT and also, that constitutive conflicts in the relation speaker-language are silenced in the utterance locus. The constant search for fixing a single meaning to this designation, the good meaning for communicative led us to understand, from the interdiscourse (discourse memory), how certain dichotomical movements in the constitution of meaning in the teachers´ and theorists´ sayings are established in the polarization old method versus modern method. From the analysed designation processes we have apprehended that the idealisation of the communicative model alludes to a place of completeness where the learning of the language seems to occur in a natural way, with no conflicts, a place which teachers seek to occupy. Throughout the analysis we have tried to question the experience the teachers have with the place established by the CLT, of apparent political neutrality in relation to the method, placing them out of their historical context. Our analysis has concluded that the designation processes of the analysed names seek to promote an effect of homogeneity in sayings of theorists and teachers of the corpus in the process of constitution of meanings related to the Communicative Approach/Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).

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Кобякова, Ірина Карпівна, Ирина Карповна Кобякова, Iryna Karpivna Kobiakova, Світлана Володимирівна Баранова, Светлана Владимировна Баранова, Svitlana Volodymyrivna Baranova, and I. Polishchiuk. "Numeral polysemy." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2017. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/64707.

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The quantitative determination of the world is influenced by the semantics of any language. In the most developed modern languages, including English, the means of expressing ideas of quantity permeate all the levels of language structure, phraseology as well.

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Kevari, Mary Kathleen. "The role of universal grammar in second language acquisition: An experimental study of Spanish ESL students' interpretation of lexical pronouns." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2000. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1710.

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Sörensen, Susanne. "Five English Verbs : A Comparison between Dictionary meanings and Meanings in Corpus collocations." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för humaniora (HUM), 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-6091.

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In Norstedts Comprehensive English-Swedish Dictionary (2000) it is said that the numbered list of senses under each headword is frequency ordered. Thus, the aim of this study is to see whether this frequency order of senses agrees with the frequencies appearing in the British National Corpus (BNC). Five English, polysemous verbs were studied. For each verb, a simple search in the corpus was carried out, displaying 50 random occurrences. Each collocate was encoded with the most compatible sense from the numbered list of senses in the dictionary. The encoded tokens were compiled and listed in frequency order. This list was compared to the dictionary's list of senses. Only two of the verbs reached agreement between the highest ranked dictionary sense and the most frequent sense in the BNC simple search. None of the verbs' dictionary orders agreed completely with the emerged frequency order of the corpus occurrences, why complementary collocational learning is advocated.

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Dunai, Amber Munshi Sadaf. "Semantic shift and the link between words and culture." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2008. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9785.

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Mullen, Kristen. "A Cross-Generational Analysis of Spanish-to-English Lexico-Semantic Phenomena in Emerging Miami English." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1801.

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Sociolinguists have documented the substrate influence of various languages on the formation of dialects in numerous ethnic-regional setting throughout the United States. This literature shows that while phonological and grammatical influences from other languages may be instantiated as durable dialect features, lexical phenomena often fade over time as ethnolinguistic communities assimilate with contiguous dialect groups. In preliminary investigations of emerging Miami Latino English, we have observed that lexical forms based on Spanish lexical forms are not only ubiquitous among the speech of the first generation Cuban Americans but also of the second. Examples, observed in field work, casual observation, and studied formally in an experimental context include the following: “get down from the car,” which derives from the Spanish equivalent, bajar del carro instead of “get out of the car”. The translation task administered to thirty-one participants showed a variety lexical phenomena are still maintained at equal or higher frequencies.

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Davy, Belinda. "A cognitive-semantic approach to the acquisition of English prepositions /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9998029.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-296). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9998029.

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Izdebska, Daria Wiktoria. "Semantics of ANGER in Old English." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6227/.

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This thesis examines representations of ANGER in Old English by analysing occurrences of eight word families (YRRE, GRAM, BELGAN, WRĀÞ, HĀTHEORT, TORN, WĒAMŌD and WŌD) in prose and poetry. Through inspection of 1800 tokens across c. 400 texts, it determines the understanding of how ANGER vocabulary operates in the Old English lexicon and within the broader socio-cultural context of the period. It also helps refine the interpretations of wide-ranging issues such as authorial preference, translation practices, genre, and interpretation of literary texts. The thesis contributes to diachronic lexical semantics and the history of emotions by developing a replicable methodology that triangulates data from different sources. Chapter 1 introduces the field of study and shows the approaches to emotions as either universal or culturally-determined. It discusses previous analyses of ANGER in Old English and proposes a cross-linguistic, semasiological approach, which minimises ethnocentric bias. Categorisations and conceptualisations are not identical between languages, and Old English divides the emotional spectrum differently from Present-Day English. Chapter 2 presents the methodology, which draws on approaches from historical semantics and corpus linguistics, integrating methods from cognitive linguistics, anthropology and textual studies. Chapters 3 to 10 investigate each of the eight word families, analysing all occurrences in relation to grammatical category, collocations, range of meanings, and referents. Cognates in Germanic and other Indo-European languages, and Middle English and Early Modern English reflexes are examined to trace diachronic development. The thesis determines recurrent patterns of usage, distribution between text types, and socio-cultural significance. Specific passages from Old English from a range of genres are analysed and discussed. Each family is found to have a distinct profile of usage and distribution. Chapter 11 examines ANGER in the Old English translation of Gregory’s Regula pastoralis. This text exhibits usage not found in later prose or in poetry. The Cura pastoralis also presents a different framework for understanding and conceptualising ANGER to the one found in Latin. Finally, Chapter 12 synthesises my findings and considers them comparatively. These word families differ in usage, conceptual links, referents, and even authorial preferences. Most common portrayals of ANGER in Old English involve one of the three themes: ANGER AS VICE, WRATH OF GOD and ANGER AS HOSTILITY. The thesis demonstrates that a detailed analysis of lexical usage is essential for understanding larger conceptual structures within a language, and that this in turn aids the analysis of literary texts and understanding of Anglo-Saxon psychologies.

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Chiu, Chia-Hui. "Semantic development in ESL vocabulary acquisition." online access from Digital Dissertation Consortium, 2006. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3247996.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'English language Semantics'

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