School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 12
-
ItemExotisme et couleur locale – essai d’une analyse constrastive des champs sémantiques respectifs( 2003)La terminologie littéraire et le discours critique contemporains dans le domaine français semblent reléguer d’une façon presque unanime et irrévocable le syntagme couleur locale parmi les expressions désuètes appartenant au discours littéraire « pré-théorique ». En revanche, les deux décennies passées ont témoigné d’un renouveau d’intérêt pour l’exotisme littéraire, devenu l’objet de nombreux travaux d’érudition, thèses universitaires et colloques. S’agirait-it d’une simple expansion du champ de l’exotisme au détriment du terme évincé, jugé trop démodé ?Cet article, présentant les résultats d’une thèse toujours en chantier, se propose d’établir le rapport et le degré de parenté entre ces deux termes voisins en démontrant que le transfert sémantique en question est loin de s’arrêter à une simple question d’appellation.En analysant les définitions lexicographiques et celles proposées par des ouvrages d’érudition importants ainsi que les différentes occurrences des deux termes, nous tenterons de démontrer les différences existant entre leurs acceptions originales respectives et d’esquisser dans une perspective diachronique les voies d’évolution sémantique qui ont pu favoriser leur contamination mutuelle, aboutissant à l’élimination d’un des termes jugé superflu du système terminologique actuel. Ce faisant nous essaierons d’expliquer les raisons pour lesquelles le terme couleur locale était souvent doté d’une connotation péjorative au cours de sa longue évolution sémantique en examinant son pertinence dans un système terminologique contemporain.Finalement, nous examinerons les problèmes que la définition de la couleur locale pose, surtout sur le plan international, en raison des contaminations des champs sémantiques de ses équivalents linguistiques par ceux des termes dénotant les courants apparentés des traditions nationales dans plus d’une aire linguistique (loca
-
ItemRaddoppiamento sintattico and glottalization phenomena in Italian: a first phonetic excursus( 2002)This study is a preliminary phonetic exploration of aspects of the well-known Italian sandhi phenomenon of Raddoppiamento sintattico (henceforth RS), which involves the gemination of word-initial consonants under certain conditions, eg dei [k]ani ‘some dogs’ but tre [kk]ani ‘three dogs’. It is often assumed that RS C-gemination is regular, but there is increasing evidence that it competes with other phenomena such as vowel lengthening. This study first discusses results of our auditory study of RS contexts, which show that RS is far less frequent in spontaneous speech than is theoretically predicted. This paper then looks specifically at glottal stop insertion and creak in RS contexts, based on the results of an initial small-scale acoustic investigation. The first has controversially been reported as occurring in RS environments where it serves to block RS (Absalom & Hajek, 1997). In addition, glottal stops have also been claimed to provide a coda to short word-final stressed vowels outside of RS environments (Vayra, 1994). We discuss our unexpected finding that glottalization characterizes phrase boundaries in our spontaneous speech data, and the implications that this evidence may have for the phonetic and phonological description of Italian and for our understanding of RS.
-
ItemLanguages and culture in Australia in the 21st century: riding the multilingual tiger(Canberra: Department of Education, Science and Training, 2001)The rise of English as the world's dominant world language is seen by many as inevitable and permanent. While it might seem to bestow great advantage on native English-speakers, such an outcome is not guaranteed today or over time. It also runs the risk of disadvantaging English-speakers who are less inclined to see and grasp the benefits of multilingualism. History shows linguisitc predominance not to be permanent and there are compelling reasons - economic amongst them - in ensuring Australians are fluent in more than just English.
-
ItemPhonological length and phonetic duration in Bolognese: are they related?( 1994)The phonetic basis of a reported phonological correlation between stressed vowel and post-tonic consonant length in Bolognese (Italo-Romance, N. Italy) is examined for the first time. Whilst a vowel length distinction is confirmed for all subjects, a correlation between vowel and consonant duration is not universal.
-
ItemLanguage data assessment at the national level: learning from the State of the Environment process in Australia(Foundation for Endangered Languages, 2003)Language maintenance is necessarily grounded in communities and has a local focus. Federal government policy has a national and international focus, yet it is the source of funding for most Australian indigenous language (IL) work, through ATSIC. The nearest approach to a national assessment of the number of languages and their needs has come through a perhaps unexpected source, an initiative of the federal department responsible for the environment, Environment Australia. Every five years this department mounts an evaluation of aspects of the physical and cultural environment, called the 'State of the Environment'. In 1997 it proposed a set of indicators for assessing the state of indigenous languages and in 2001 these indicators were implemented in the State of Indigenous Languages (SOIL) report. Among the indicators are those which measure the level of endangerment of languages. This necessitated building an improved listing of languages and consideration of how census data can be used to extract endangerment measures. Especially given the minimal questions on language in the Australian census and issues surrounding the meaning of the responses, these measures benefit from cross-checking against local studies where they exist. This paper presents some of the most recently available census data from 2001 and compares it, where possible, with local and regional studies.
-
ItemAs we may link: time-aligned concordances of field recordings. A working model( 2001)One can now picture a future investigator in his laboratory. His hands are free, and he is not anchored. As he moves about and observes, he photographs and comments. Time is automatically recorded to tie the two records together. If he goes into the field, he may be connected by radio to his recorder. As he ponders over his notes in the evening, he again talks his comments into the record. Vannevar Bush (1945) It has taken some time, but we are now able to create a system like the one envisaged by Vannevar Bush over 50 years ago. And despite the obvious leaps and bounds in technologies there are still areas in which much needs to be done. Linguists working on small languages (those typically spoken by indigenous people) with limited research grants typically patch together tools that will do what we want. Our research involves recording stories, sentences and so on, and then analysing that material to write a grammatical description. What we have done is record on to cassette, then transcribe the cassette and store it safely somewhere (like in our garage, or a cupboard). However a growing awareness that the products of our work need to be preserved in perpetuity means that we are also actively seeking principled approaches to language documentation.
-
ItemA typology of spreading, insertion and deletion or what you weren’t told about Raddoppiamento Sintattico in Italian(University of NSW, 2002)This paper focuses on the description and analysis of the external sandhi phenomenon of raddoppiamento sintattico (hereafter RS) in Italian, sometimes referred to as word-initial gemination. RS is one of the most discussed topics within Italian phonology, with the first description and treatment of the phenomenon dating back nearly 500 years. Theoretical analyses of RS since the 1970s, of whatever kind, seem to suggest that the facts of RS are clear and easy both to state and to analyze. Yet closer inspection shows RS not to occur in the manner claimed or predicted by these accounts. The aim of this paper is to highlight the empirical inadequacy of existing approaches to RS by illustrating the complex patterns that occur in RS environments.
-
ItemInnovating assessment in an Italian language course: first experiences(HERDSA, 1999)This paper examines a new academic's initial foray into the realms of innovative assessment. The paper begins by outlining the principle reasons for innovating the assessment scheme which include:- a desire to promote deep learning in students;- the necessity to have a more transparent connection between the aims and objectives of the course and assessment tasks;- the need to challenge the notion that language is easily compartmentalised into distinct skills - writing, reading, speaking, listening, metalinguistic. - implicitly conveyed by traditional assessment tasks. The unit in question was a full year ab initio Italian class. Students were cleanly divided into two camps: mature age and non-mature age with the former showing significant reservations in the face of non-traditional assessment methods. I discuss both the successes and failings of the new scheme from my perspective as well as from that of students. Notably, by the end of the unit, some of the students' initial responses to innovative assessment have been challenged in such a way as to have effected a change in thinking.
-
ItemEncoding and presenting interlinear text using XML technologies(Australasian Language Technology Association, 2003)Interlinear text is a common presentational format for linguistic information, and its creation and management have been greatly facilitated by the development of specialised software. In earlier work we developed a four-level mode and corresponding formal specification for interlinear text. Here we describe a suitable XML representation for the model and show how it can be rendered into a variety of convenient presentational formats. We conclude by discussing architectural extensions, and application programming interface for interlinear text, and prospects for embedding the interlinear model into existing applications.
-
ItemTaba and Roma: clusters and geminates in two Austronesian languages( 1999)Some lesser-known Austronesian languages, such as Taba and Roma, with relatively simple phonological inventories, nevertheless have very complex phonotactic structures. The presence of a wide range of typologically unusual cluster combinations in word-initial position has important implications for generally accepted notions about Austronesian languages and about segment sequencing and the sonority hierarchy.