Browsing Graduate Theses and Dissertations - Linguistics by Title
Now showing items 2-21 of 199
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A Cognitive Linguistics Approach to Explaining the Polysemy of ‘alā and fī in Modern Standard Arabic
(Georgetown University, 2018)‘Alā ‘on’ and fī ‘in’ are two of the most polysemous Arabic prepositions. Previous accounts have varied in the range of meanings attributed to ‘alā and fī. In addition, many have viewed prepositions, including ‘alā and ... -
A Descriptive Study of Nouns and Nominal Phrases in Soqotri
(Georgetown University, 2022)This dissertation thoroughly describes the noun and the major phrases within the nominal domain in Soqotri, one of the Modern South Arabian languages which belong to the West Semitic branch of the Semitic language family. ... -
A Help or Hinderance: Examining the Role of Curriculum in Task-based Language Teaching Innovation Plans
(Georgetown University, 2022)Despite a theoretical foundation in second language acquisition research (Mackey, 2021), supportive empirical findings (Long, 2015), and growing international popularity (Bryfonski & McKay, 2017), the task-based language ... -
A Multifactorial, Multitask Approach to Automated Speaker Profiling
(Georgetown University, 2019)Automated Speaker Profiling (ASP) refers broadly to the computational prediction of speaker traits based on cues mined from the speech signal. Accurate prediction of such traits can have a wide variety of applications such ... -
The academic discourse socialization of international lawyers at a U.S. law school
(Georgetown University, 2016)As increasing numbers of international students pursue graduate degrees in the U.S., universities have developed English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs and individual courses to foster and accelerate these students’ ... -
ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AND YOUNG EMERGENT BILINGUALS: PATTERNS OF CONTEXTUALIZING DISCOURSE IN PERSONAL NARRATIVES AND CLASSROOM LITERACY EVENTS
(Georgetown University, 2012)Both personal experience narratives and classroom tasks require language use that is precise, explicit, and sufficiently elaborated for the naïve interlocutor. Language that fulfills these expectations, often labeled ... -
Accounting for Diphthongs: Duration as Contrast in Vowel Dispersion Theory
(Georgetown University, 2018)This dissertation investigates the production and perception properties of diphthong vowels at different speech rates in order to advance the understanding of diphthong phonetics and to incorporate diphthongs into the ... -
ACHIEVEMENT, ASSESSMENT, AND LEARNING: A STUDY OF EMERGENT BILINGUAL STUDENTS IN MAINSTREAM CONTENT CLASSROOMS
(Georgetown University, 2012)This dissertation investigates and problematizes emergent bilingual students' achievement gaps in an existing corpus of middle-school science assessment data. I first characterize achievement gaps across national data, ... -
Acoustic Salience and Input Frequency in L2 Lexical Tone Learning: Evidence from a Zapotec Revitalization Program in San Pablo Macuiltianguis
(Georgetown University, 2017)Second language (L2) learners of tone languages do not perceive and produce the different tones of the target language with equal ease. The most common explanation for these asymmetries is that acoustically salient tones ... -
The acquisition of Korean plural marking by native English speakers
(Georgetown University, 2013)This study investigated the L2 acquisition of Korean plural marking by English-speaking learners within a feature-reassembly approach--a formal feature-based approach suggesting that native-like attainment of L2 morphosyntactic ... -
Acquisition of New Dialect Features by Seoul and Kyungsang Korean Speakers: Social and Attitudinal Factors Influencing Production
(Georgetown University, 2022)This dissertation explores the acquisition of second dialect (D2) features by mobile speakers relocating between two regions, one urban and characterized by a prestigious dialect, and one rural, whose dialect is stigmatized. ... -
The acquisition of wh-in-situ constructions in second language acquisition
(Georgetown University, 2009) -
Agency and Participation in Multilingual Family Interaction
(Georgetown University, 2021)Building on previous work in participation (Goffman 1981, Goodwin and Goodwin 2004, Goodwin 2018, Erickson 2004) and agency (Ahearn 2001, Enfield 2017), I investigate – through interactional sociolinguistic and multimodal ... -
Agreement with subjects in Lubukusu
(Georgetown University, 2010) -
APPLYING AN ARGUMENT-BASED APPROACH FOR VALIDATING LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RESEARCH: THE ELICITED IMITATION TEST FOR RUSSIAN
(Georgetown University, 2015)This dissertation was motivated by the need for practical suggestions as to what can be done to improve L2 proficiency assessment practices in SLA research. In response, it is proposed that an argument-based approach to ... -
Applying cognitive linguistics and task-supported language teaching to instruction of English conditional phrases
(Georgetown University, 2012)Due to their internal complexity, English conditional phrases (e.g., "If it rains tomorrow, we will cancel the picnic"; "If John had come to the party yesterday, he would have told you his favorite joke"; etc.) represent ... -
Arabic accent and perception in the USA
(Georgetown University, 2011) -
Articulating Non-Native Vowel Contrasts
(Georgetown University, 2021)The goal of this dissertation is to better understand the targets of vowels in speech production. Three experiments investigate vowel production in non-native speech, probing how new vowel categories, and thus targets, are ... -
An Articulatory, Acoustic, and Auditory Study of Burmese Tone
(Georgetown University, 2011)This dissertation investigates the complex tonal contrast in the modern Burmese language. The four Burmese tones are reported to make multi-way distinctions in pitch, phonation, duration, intensity, vowel quality, and ...
