Browsing by Subject "Articles"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Definiteness in the Arabic dialects
(2018-10-11) Turner, Michael Lee; Brustad, Kristen; Epps, Patience; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Russi, Cinzia
This dissertation proposes a model, based roughly on Dryer's (2014) REFERENCE HIERARCHY, that can systematically account for variation in the morphosyntactic strategies used to mark different degrees of definiteness and indefiniteness in the Arabic dialects. These primarily spoken varieties display a great deal of diversity in this domain, not only in the forms of the articles and affixes and that they use to mark referential status in noun phrases, but also in the semantic notions with which formal marking strategies can be associated. Although there is some information available in individual Arabic dialect grammars, many of which note the existence of any reference-marking strategies perceived as unique or significant, there has been relatively little comparative work on these strategies and only limited progress toward describing them using cross-linguistically applicable models for semantic typology. The present study fills this gap by providing a case study based, textually supported account of key points of grammatical variation and a preliminary typological classification system for dialects' treatment of definiteness. The goal of this approach is to clarify the discrete semantic parameters that govern the use of marking strategies across a diverse set of Arabic varieties, thereby opening the door for a more thorough comparative analysis of the corresponding forms' semantic properties and diachronic origins.
Definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic : contact, divergence, and semantic change
(2013-08) Turner, Michael Lee; Brustad, Kristen
The aim of the present study is to cast new light on the nature of definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic (MA). Previous work on the dialect group has described its definiteness system as similar to that of other Arabic varieties, where indefinite entities are unmarked and a "definite article" /l-/ modifies nouns to convey a definite meaning. Such descriptions, however, do not fully account for the behavior of MA nouns in spontaneous natural speech, as found in the small self-collected corpus that informs the study: on one hand, /l-/ can and regularly does co-occur with indefinite meanings; on the other, a number of nouns can exhibit definiteness even in the absence of /l-/. In response to these challenges, the study puts forth an alternate synchronic description the system, arguing that the historical definite article */l-/ has in fact lost its association with definiteness and has instead become lexicalized into an unmarked form of the noun that can appear in any number of semantic contexts. Relatedly, the study argues that the historically indefinite form *Ø has come under heavy syntactic constraints and can best be described as derived from the new unmarked form via a process of phonologically conditioned disfixation, represented {- /l/}. At the same time, MA has also apparently retained an older particle ši and developed an article waħəd, both of which can be used to express different types of indefinite meanings. To support the plausibility of this new description, the study turns to the linguistic history of definiteness in MA, describing how a combination of internal and external impetuses for change likely pushed the dialect toward article loss, a development upon which semantic reanalysis and syntactic restructuring of other forms then followed. If the claim that MA no longer overtly marks definiteness is indeed correct, the study could have a significant impact on work that used previous MA descriptions to make grammaticality judgments, as well as be of value to future work on processes of grammaticalization and language contact.
A visual-verbal agenda : the interaction of news stories and photographs on second-level agenda setting
(2014-05) Yaschur, Carolyn J.; Coleman, Renita
This research explores the second-level agenda-setting effects of news photographs and news stories, separately and when presented together. The tone of photos and stories each independently influence public opinion on an affective level. Negative stories and photographs elicited negative opinions and emotions about the issue presented, while positive responses resulted from positive stories and photographs. When congruently toned stories and photos were presented together their affective agenda-setting effects were amplified. Positive stories paired with positive photos created stronger positive affect than negative stories and photos, which precipitated a strong negative response. However, because of the negativity bias, no significant differences were found between negative stories paired with negative photos and negative stories with positive photos. Audiences felt negative, regardless of the valence of the photo. When stories and photos were of incongruent tone, the audience's opinion about the issue followed the tone of the story. Findings from this study also confirmed that need for orientation was not a component of second-level agenda setting. However, a relationship was established between need for orientation and elaboration. Those with high need for orientation were more likely to process the information deeply than those with low need for orientation, thereby drawing ties between agenda-setting theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model.