Stop Pretending To Be Like Me

I was scrolling on my Facebook feed when I saw a post that appeared to be a proposal featuring two women captioned: “She said yes!!!!!!” My first thought was how wonderful it was to see a happy, loving gay couple, and how heartening it is that they can be open and out about their relationship. As a queer person, it is always nice to see people who share that part of myself being visible. However, upon closer examination it was obvious that it was two straight best friends, joking. [excerpt

A Study of Chinese Language Acquisition: Chinese L2 of (Morpho)-Syntax and Lexemes

This study analyzes two groups of young adult native English speakers of L2 Chinese. One group consisted of beginner level students and the second group was comprised of intermediate/advanced level students. Both groups were administered acceptability tasks in three linguistic areas: syntax, morphosyntax, and semantics. It was hypothesized that students at the beginning level would have good mastery of measure words and semantic differences of lexemes (ren shi 认识and zhi dao 知道 and ke yi 可以, hui 会, neng 能), some mastery of syntax, and little to no mastery of aspectual markers le 了and guo 过. It was hypothesized that students at the intermediate/advanced level would have strong mastery of measure words, lexemes, and syntax, and partial mastery of le and guo. Both groups’ answers were compared to those of a native speaker control group. It was found that English speakers in both the beginner and intermediate/advanced groups comparatively had greater mastery of syntax and measure words (morphosyntax) while they both struggled with le and guo aspectual marker structures. Additionally, in this study lexemes had the greatest amount of variation in all groups. It is hoped that this kind of research will help shed light on what linguistic areas are more difficult for native English speakers to learn, therefore helping scholars devise more effect teaching methods for these topics

A San Diegan debate: Take 8 or Take the 8: Investigating the use of the determiner “the” before numeric freeways in San Diego

The determiner “the” before numeric roadways in Southern California has become salient enough that it has reached mainstream media. However there has been little formal research done on this linguistic variant, and especially in subregions of California such as San Diego county. This study examines the use of the by ten speakers through sociolinguistic interviews and a map task. It was found that people from San Diego had the highest usage of the, long term transplants also favored the but to a lesser degree, and recent transplants disfavored the. Additionally, it was found when recent transplants used this variable they did not apply it to unknown roads, though long term transplants used the not only for roads in San Diego but also for unknown roads. These differences between transplants may inform us about factors influencing second dialect acquisition. Furthermore a mixed methods analysis revealed that the might have diffused from Los Angeles to San Diego in the 1980s

Letter from the Editors

The Gettysburg Historical Journal embodies the History Department\u27s dedication to diverse learning and excellence in academics. Each year, the Journal publishes the top student work in a range of topics across the spectrum of academic disciplines with different methodological approaches to the study of history. In the words of Marc Bloch, author of The Historian\u27s Craft, history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding. In the spirit of this maxim, our authors strive to elucidate the many facets of human societies and cultures. Whether this research is focused on politics, religion, economics, environmental history, or women, gender, and sexuality studies, the editorial staff is consistently proud of the diverse subject matter we select for publication. [excerpt

Letter from the Editors

The Gettysburg Historical Journal embodies the History Department\u27s dedication to diverse learning and excellence in academics. Each year, the Journal publishes the top student work in a range of topics across the spectrum of academic disciplines with different methodological approaches to the study of history. In the words of Marc Bloch, author of The Historian\u27s Craft, history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding. In the spirit of this maxim, our authors strive to elucidate the many facets of human societies and cultures. Whether this research is focused on politics, religion, economics, environmental history, or women, gender, and sexuality studies, the editorial staff is consistently proud of the diverse subject matter we select for publication. [excerpt