School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
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ItemThe use of translation in international organizations(WALTER DE GRUYTER & CO, 2004)
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ItemPolitical Dimensions of International NGO Collaboration with Cuba(CUNY Graduate Center, 2004)
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ItemExtreme Morphological Shift: Verbal case in Kayardild( 2004-07)Kayardild and the other Tangkic languages of Northern Australia are well known for their typologically unusual and complex case systems (Evans (1995, 2003a), Dench and Evans (1988)). Their extensive case stacking properties, and their use of case to mark clausal tense/aspect/mood properties (so called `modal’ case (Evans 1995)) have received much attention in recent LFG literature (Andrews 1996, Nordlinger 1998, Nordlinger and Sadler 2000, Sadler and Nordlinger 2002). In this paper we discuss the phenomenon of ‘verbal case’ (Evans 1995, 2003b), as yet unaddressed in these theoretical accounts, by which nominals are inflected with an alternative set of semantic case markers causing them to inflect like verbs, while still functioning syntactically as nominals. The phenomenon of verbal case poses a number of challenges for theories of morphology and the morphology-syntax interface. We argue that it can be naturally captured in a theoretical model that assumes a strict separation of morphology and syntax, as in LFG. Building on much recent work in LFG-based morphology arguing for a distinction between morphological features (m-features) and syntactic features (s-features) (e.g. Sadler and Spencer 2001, Ackerman and Stump (in press), Sells (in press)), we propose that such a distinction is required at the categorical level also: verbal case converts a nominal stem into a morphological verb, while maintaining its syntactic category of noun. We show how this approach interacts with the constructive case model of Nordlinger (1998) to provide a unified account of Kayardild case at the morphosyntactic level, despite the substantial differences in morphological structure.
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ItemCaratteristiche della comunicazione e-mail: riflessioni su un corso universitario australiano di italiano L2( 2004)This paper discusses a project involving the use of email exchanges in the Italian program at the Australian National University. Approximately eighty students participated in the project which consisted of two iterations of a one-to-one email conversation. We describe the language and content of the messages constructed by students in terms of the following features: • the effects of the spatial, temporal and psychological distance inherent in email communication • the hybrid nature of electronic communication which is situated between written and spoken discourse • the relationship of the formal and content aspects of electronic communication • the creative expression of the language produced.
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ItemEmail communication and language learning at university – an Australian case study( 2004)This paper discusses the use of email exchanges between non-native speakers (NNS) in the Italian program at the Australian National University (ANU). Approximately eighty students, spanning beginners’ to advanced level, participated in two iterations of a one-to-one email conversation in 2000. The underpinning rationale for the use of email was to promote interaction in the language. We describe the language and content of the messages constructed by students in terms of the following features: • the impact of email conversation on participation and engagement of the learners; • the effects of the spatial, temporal and psychological distance inherent in email communication; • the hybrid nature of email discourse; • the relationship between the formal and content aspects of email communication; • the creativity in expression of the language produced by learners. We also examine the ramifications the use of email communication can have for teaching and learning languages.
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ItemDocumentation in practice: developing a linked media corpus of South Efate(Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2004)There is a growing need for linguists working with endangered languages to be able to provide documentation of those languages that will serve two functions, not only the analysis and presentation of examples and texts, but also the means for accessing the material in the future. In this paper I describe a workflow for building documentation into a language description developed in the course of writing a grammar of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu, for a PhD dissertation. I suggest that, with appropriate tools, the effort of recording and transcribing documentary field recordings can result in a media corpus from which we can produce instant links between text and media, which in turn enriches our analysis. Further, these annotations are in an ideal form for archiving and for providing access to data by the speakers of the language. I take it as axiomatic that we must archive our recordings and associated material and that this step is integral to the larger project of language documentation.
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ItemThe expression of possession in Wumpurrarni English, Tennant Creek(Monash University, 2004)We discuss the expression of possession in Wumpurrarni English (WE), a variety spoken in the Tennant Creek area of the Northern Territory. We illustrate this from a data-set of 319 utterances containing possessive constructions (drawn from 14 video-recordings of conversations between care-givers and children). We show how the WE constructions relate to those of the source languages, Warumungu, Standard Australian English (SAE), and the creole that developed in northern Australia late in the nineteenth century. The interaction between these sources in the development of WE is complex. Three notable features are examined: the use of a possessor clitic whose form is taken from Warumungu, but whose syntactic behaviour is taken from the SAE Genitive clitic, the use of a post-nominal possessor as in Warumungu, and the extension of the possessor clitic to the possession of inalienable things such as body-parts. A body-part possessor construction appears with a wider range of verbs than in standard Australian English, but narrower than that in traditional Warumungu. We show the wide variation in the use of possessive constructions, and suggest that relevant factors are the speaker’s age, code-switching, and the context of use.
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ItemBuilding an interactive corpus of field recordings(Paris: ELRA, 2004)There is a growing need for linguists working with small and endangered languages to be able to provide documentation of those languages that will serve two functions, not only the analysis and presentation of examples and texts, but also the means for others to access the material in the future. In this presentation I describe the workflow developed in the course of writing a description of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu for a PhD dissertation. This workflow steps through (i) field recording; (ii) digitising or capturing media data as citable objects for archival purposes; (iii) transcribing those objects with time-alignment; (iv) establishing a media corpus indexed by the transcript; (v) instantiating links between text and media using a purpose-built tool (Audiamus); (vi) exporting from Audiamus to interlinearise while maintaining timecodes; (vii) extracting citable example sentences for use in a grammatical description; (viii) exporting from Audiamus in XML, Quicktime or other formats.
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ItemManagement of metadata in linguistic fieldwork: Experience from the ACLA project(European Language Resource Association, 2004-01-01)
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ItemFunctional requirements for an interlinear text editor(European Language Resources Association, 2004)Interlinear text has long been considered a valuable format in the presentation of multilingual data, and a variety of software tools have facilitated the creation and processing of such texts by researchers. Despite the diversity of tools, a common core of editorial functionality is provided. Identifying these core functions has important implications for software engineers who seek to efficiently build tools that support interlinear text editing. While few applications are specifically designed for the creation or manipulation of interlinear text, a number of tools offer varying degrees of incidental support for this modality. In this paper we provide a comprehensive set of critieria upon which the derivation of functional criteria can be based. We describe the basis on which a group of tools was selected for investigation, along with the evaluation criteria. Finally we consolidate our findings into a functional specification for the development of software applications for the editing of interlinear text.