Browsing Graduate Theses and Dissertations - Linguistics by Title
Now showing items 47-66 of 196
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Developing Question Constructions in Japanese as a First Language: The Roles of Type of Referent and Parental Input
(Georgetown University, 2017)The present dissertation extracted 17,291 questions from Aki, Ryo, and Tai and their mother’s spontaneously produced speech data available in the CHILDES database (MacWhinney, 2000; Oshima-Takane & MacWhinney, 1998). The ... -
Development of conscious knowledge during early incidental learning of L2 syntax
(Georgetown University, 2013)Second language acquisition (SLA) researchers have a long-standing interest in the effectiveness of providing learners with conscious knowledge (CK) through explicit instruction (e.g., Sanz & Morgan-Short, 2004); however, ... -
(Dis)Connecting perception and production: Training native speakers of Spanish on the English /i/-/ɪ/ distinction
(Georgetown University, 2016)This dissertation features three experiments that investigated how perception and production are connected in the acquisition of second language (L2) phones by comparing the effectiveness of two modality-specific trainings ... -
DIVERGENCE IN CEBUANO AND ENGLISH CODE-SWITCHING PRACTICES IN CEBUANO SPEECH COMMUNITIES IN THE CENTRAL PHILIPPINES
(Georgetown University, 2015)The Philippines is a diverse linguistic environment with more than 8 major languages spoken and a complicated language policy affected by its colonization history. With this context, this research investigates Cebuano and ... -
Does Learnability Predict Syntactic Universals? An Investigation Using Artificial Languages
(Georgetown University, 2020)Universals in natural language have long been a focus of the generative syntactic and typological literature. However, the source of these universals is not clear. Within Chomskyan generative syntactic literature, it is ... -
THE EFFECT OF PHONETICS INSTRUCTION ON ADULT LEARNERS' PERCEPTION AND PRODUCTION OF L2 SOUNDS
(Georgetown University, 2012)Traditional pronunciation instruction and instruction in second language (L2) phonetics have been shown to improve learners' L2 accent in some, though certainly not all, cases. Learners in intermediate and advanced Spanish ... -
Examining Creativity as an Individual Difference in Second Language Production
(Georgetown University, 2019)As our understanding of individual differences in second language acquisition continues to develop and expand, cognitive creativity is emerging as a promising area of research (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015). Previous studies have ... -
Examining the L2 Motivational Self System Through Meta-Analysis
(Georgetown University, 2022)The present dissertation is a synthesis and meta-analysis of the 15-year-old research domain of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) model initiated by Dörnyei (2005). The study is based on data from 100 studies involving ... -
Experiments on Approaches to Named Entity Recognition in IsiZulu
(Georgetown University, 2021)Named Entity Recognition (NER) has always been one significant part of Natural Language Processing technologies. This thesis investigates a range of approaches to address the NER task in isiZulu, a morphologically complex ... -
Exploring the Links between Second Language Learners’ Proneness to Shame and Proneness to Guilt and their Language Learning Motivation and Achievement
(Georgetown University, 2019)Emotion research in second language acquisition (SLA) research is undergoing rapid changes with an increasing number of studies exploring its role in second language (L2) learning (Prior, 2019). In line with this rising ... -
Expressing Gender and Queer Identity with Intonation: Variation Amongst Masculine, Neutral, and Feminine Aligning AFAB Queer Speakers in DC
(Georgetown University, 2018)Many sociolinguistic studies have examined how language use can express gender and sexuality in talk. (Lakoff 1973; Tannen 1994; Murray 1999; Bucholtz, Liang & Sutton 1999; Eckert & Rickford 2002; Hellinger & Bußmann 2001; ... -
Extending the language of space into abstract contexts in child Hungarian
(Georgetown University, 2010) -
Extracting and modeling typical durations of events and habits from Twitter
(Georgetown University, 2012)This thesis presents recent work on a new method to automatically extract fine-grained duration information for common verbs using a large corpus of Twitter tweets. I present the results of distinguishing between habitual ... -
Face, Knowledge and Floor: Analyzing Like Usage through a Combined Variationist, Discourse Analytic and Pragmatic Approach
(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 ... -
Factors Affecting Proficiency Among Gujarati Heritage Language Learners on Three Continents
(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
(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
(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
(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 ON TWITTER: HOW SAUDI ARABIANS INTERTEXTUALLY FRAME THE WOMEN2DRIVE CAMPAIGN
(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 ...
