School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses
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ItemA surreal synthesis: Robert Klippel's language of forms( 2003)This thesis will show the influence of surrealism in Robert Klippel's sculptures and drawings between 1947 and 1950 which he spent in London and Paris. It will identify the origins and development of Klippel's language of forms, which was based on a he used in his drawings and sculptures from the period. This language was based on forms he studied from the external world around him. The thesis argues that his engagement with surrealist strategies and principles came from an alternative position, supplanting the primacy of the human unconscious for the potential power and energy in the world around him.
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ItemA contrastive analysis of Chinese and English writing of Singaporean students( 2008)This thesis compared the essays of 13 Singaporean students, written in English and Chinese, within the theoretical framework of contrastive rhetoric. The study responded to criticisms made of contrastive rhetoric, by including new methodologies, particularly the experiences of participants as a significant part of the qualitative analysis. The analysis of essay data focused on how arguments were framed and their content. The questionnaire and interview data investigated student's experiences and attitudes towards learning and using the two languages.. It was found that (a) there were similarities in terms of overall structure of the essays and transfer of certain Chinese stylistic devices, (b) there were differences in the use of other Chinese stylistic devices, and the arguments in Chinese essays clustered around personal-informal-emotional arguments whereas those in the English essays clustered around impersonal-formal-rational arguments. These themes were reflected in the questionnaire and interview data as well.
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ItemEvent classification: a cognitive semantic analysis of two Murrinh-Patha event categories( 2008)Murrinh-Patha is a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Southern Daly family. It is spoken by around 2,500 people in and around Wadeye in Northern Territory. Murrinh-Patha exhibits a phenomena found in many Australian languages where speakers must select one of a finite number of closed-class morphemes to appear in every verbal expression. In most cases, this morpheme collocates with a member of an open-class of verbal elements known as coverbs. Because different meanings arise when different closed-class elements collocate with the same coverb, the choice of the closed-class element is thought to be semantically motivated. Therefore, we are dealing with a kind of overt classification in the verbal domain where all event expressions are sorted into a finite number of categories. But the question arises of what conceptual basis there is for this type of classification; how do speakers allocate every conceivable event to a class? This thesis approaches these questions by examining two event categories using a cognitive linguistic framework. This is the first time a wholly cognitive linguistic approach has been applied to an analysis of this type of classification and the first examination of this system in Murrinh-Patha.
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ItemThere and back again: a study of the effects of study abroad on the language learning of returned university students( 2007-11)For many learners of a second language, studying the language abroad may be the single most salient experience in their history of language learning. When investigating the importance of study abroad, however, it must be asked how the experience affects the student both on return, and over a longer period of time since returning. This study will attempt to move towards qualifying the post-study abroad experience in an exploration of students’ ongoing second language learning, including motivations and general attitudes. Qualitative trends regarding patterns of and changes to language use and attitudes to language are analysed. The analysis draws on theoretical notions in the second language learning literature, while at the same time utilising a learner-perspective approach. Furthermore, some quantitative methods were run regarding previously defined variables in second language learning motivation. Three research questions are posed: RQ1: Are there any changes to students’ language learning motivation (including attitudes and behaviours) on return from study abroad? RQ2: Is there a temporal effect on motivation (including attitudes and behaviours) after return? RQ3: Does the study abroad experience define in a similar way learners’ perspectives on language learning on return?
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ItemPlaygroup socialisation: the socialisation of interaction in an Australian playgroup( 2007)From approximately nine months of age, children demonstrate new interactional skills, including the ability to share their focus on an object with another interactant. This skill is known as joint attention. Joint attention has been widely investigated, however, there has been a paucity of research outside experimental, mother-child dyadic contexts beyond some work in larger family contexts. This study examines joint attention through the framework of the language socialisation paradigm. By looking at adult responses to joint attention in interactions in a playgroup, evidence was found for the differing response to differing interactions. The data demonstrate a primacy given to adult-child interactions.
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ItemSemantic change in psychiatric categories: the case of DSM-III( 2007)Psychiatric terminology has undergone a number of significant shifts over time. These have reflected broader social circumstances surrounding mental illness. One of the biggest upheavals was publication of the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in 1980, which created a strictly defined categorical system of diagnostic labels. A framework from historical sociolinguistics, proposed by Weinreich, Labov and Herzog (1968), has been used to investigate this change. Three terms were analysed in detail – Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Panic Disorder – and were found to have very different histories leading up to DSM-III. The Weinreich et al. framework is evaluated for its utility in this type of complex semantic change, and is found to be effective with some minor modifications. Broader effects of language on shaping perceptions of mental illness are also briefly sketched.
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ItemThe gender variable in Australian English stop consonant production( 2007)This sociophonetic study investigates the social variable of gender in Australian English consonant variation. In particular, 18-22 year old male and female speech from Melbourne will be examined for variation in the production of English voiceless stops /p/, /t/ and /k/. The corpus includes citation speech in a controlled wordlist and sentence as well as spontaneous speech. Auditory and acoustic analyses were used to identify non-canonical variation. The findings of this study are presented and discussed with reference to previous work done. Several gender correlations were found in relation to speaker sex, phonetic environment and speech style. Male speakers’ speech was especially marked for /k/ and /p/, taps and glottalization of /k/. Female speech was marked for the affrication of /t/ across speech styles. Both speaker sexes showed more variation in connected speech than in cited speech.
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ItemYeah-No: a discourse marker in Australian English( 2007)The aim of this study is to investigate the use of yeah-no in English, primarily in Australian English. It is a corpus based study which uses natural language data to analyse the distribution and the function of the discourse marker yeah-no in spoken English. A variety of sources were searched for examples of yeah-no tokens, and each instantiation was analysed from a discourse analytical perspective.
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ItemBreaking up is hard to do: teasing apart morphological complexity in Iwaidja and Maung( 2007-11)In my thesis, I begin to unravel morphological complexity in Iwaidja and Maung, two languages of the Iwaidjan family spoken in the Northern Territory. Both these languages contain long seemingly inscrutable verb stems. I argue that these long 'macro verbs' can in fact be analysed as old verb compounds that were formed by processes which are no longer productive in either language. Such compounds typically comprise a verb root and one or more prepounds, and in my work I present numerous sets of verb roots and prepounds which I have identified.
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ItemNative speaker perceptions of gesture( 2007-11)In this study the perception and categorisation of gesture by native speakers of Australian English is compared to the established categorisational methodology of researchers working in the field of gesture studies. Twelve native speakers participated in a survey, created a transcription of a short video using ELAN and participated in a post hoc interview. The results indicate that native speakers are not homogeneous in their categorisation of gesture, however they are more likely to categorise gestures by their function than their form. Native speakers consider the same range of events as researchers to be gestural, but often include a wider range of phenomena as well. Native speakers do show some consistency in their perception of beat gestures.