Browsing Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Face, Knowledge and Floor: Analyzing Like Usage through a Combined Variationist, Discourse Analytic and Pragmatic Approach

Hilton, Katherine M. (Georgetown University, 2012)

This thesis examines the distribution and functions of non-standard like in naturally occurring conversations among young Americans. Many of the past quantitative studies on like have focused exclusively on its correlations ...

Cover for Facework on Facebook : how it legitimizes online community membership and enables
linguistic socialization through intertextuality

Facework on Facebook : how it legitimizes online community membership and enables linguistic socialization through intertextuality

West, Laura E. (Georgetown University, 2010)

Factors Affecting Proficiency Among Gujarati Heritage Language Learners on Three Continents

Shah, Sheena (Georgetown University, 2013)

This dissertation examines the causes behind the differences in proficiency in the North Indian language Gujarati among heritage learners of Gujarati in three diaspora locations. In particular, I focus on whether there is ...

Focus and the semantics of desire predicates and directive verbs

Harner, Hillary (Georgetown University, 2016)

In this dissertation, we investigate the semantics of attitude predicates in terms of how they interact with focus. We look at two kinds of focus data: minimal pairs where the focus structure of the complement varies ('Sofia ...

Focusing in Hindi Syntax

Irani, Ava (Georgetown University, 2014)

In this paper, I propose that focused elements in Hindi must scramble to the specifier of a Focus Phrase projected immediately above the vP, which is the default position for focus (Kidwai 1999). A focus phrase in the ...

FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF EMOJIS IN WHATSAPP INTERACTION AMONG OMANIS

Al Rashdi, Fathiya (Georgetown University, 2015)

This study examines the forms and functions of emojis as used by Omani men and women friends and relatives in messages exchanged on the Instant Messaging application called WhatsApp. Emojis, or “picture characters,” are a ...

Framing in Board Game Play Among Friends: The Linguistic and Multimodal Management of Rules, Intersubjectivity, and Knowledge

Cheng, Ho Fai (Georgetown University, 2023)

Researchers in various fields have observed that in everyday interaction, play activities or frames are linguistically and multimodally bound off from others (e.g., Bateson, 1972; Goffman, 1974; Shore, 1996). Scholars who ...

FRAMING ON TWITTER: HOW SAUDI ARABIANS INTERTEXTUALLY FRAME THE WOMEN2DRIVE CAMPAIGN

Almahmoud, Jehan (Georgetown University, 2015)

This study uses Twitter posts as a new domain to explore the intersection of framing and intertextuality in computer-mediated communication. My dataset consists of Twitter posts by Saudi women activists in support of women's ...

Gesture in Multiparty Interaction: A Study of Embodied Discourse in Spoken English and American Sign Language

Shaw, Emily (Georgetown University, 2013)

This dissertation is an examination of gesture in two game nights: one in spoken English between four hearing friends and another in American Sign Language between four Deaf friends. Analyses of gesture have shown there ...

Godless Arabic: How Lack of Belief Affects the Inherently Religious Arabic Language

Atwa, Osama (Georgetown University, 2018)

The growing field of religiolinguistics (Hary & Wein, 2013) is concerned with the relationships between religion and language use, but no studies have yet focused on the use of Arabic by atheists, agnostics, or other ...

Cover for Heritage Language Education: Administrative and teachers perceptions of community- based and school-based classrooms across the United States

Heritage Language Education: Administrative and teachers perceptions of community- based and school-based classrooms across the United States

Garcia, Valerie (Georgetown University, 2022)

Thus far, K-12 and higher education heritage language (HL) programs have been treated as an adjunct to traditional world language classrooms which have been constructed for second language learners (Carreira & Chik, 2018). ...

A Hybrid Approach to Inferring a Consistent Temporal Relation Set in Natural Language Text

Lee, Chong Min (Georgetown University, 2013)

This dissertation investigates the temporal relation identification

I Don't Know What It Is, but I Know It When I Hear It: Speaking Proficiency and the ACTFL OPI

Amoroso, Luke Wander (Georgetown University, 2015)

The Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) that is used by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) to assess speaking proficiency has become quite popular since its debut in the 1980s. As the OPI has ...

Cover for "I Have the Deck": Power and Style in the Discursive Production of Leadership by Individuals of Marginalized Gender and Sexual Identities in the U.S. Navy

"I Have the Deck": Power and Style in the Discursive Production of Leadership by Individuals of Marginalized Gender and Sexual Identities in the U.S. Navy

Mararac, Nicholas (Georgetown University, 2019)

In 2011, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed and gay and lesbian service members were allowed to serve openly. In 2016, all occupational specialties throughout the military became open to women. As gender and sexual minorities ...