The doctrine of partes orationis in the speculative grammars of the Modistae: With special reference to the works of Siger de Courtrai and Thomas of Erfurt.

This thesis contains a preface, an introduction, and a table of contents; it also contains six chapters and concludes with six appendices, the last of which is the bibliography, and a brief chronology. The first two chapters are introductory; the first chapter describes the history of grammatical writing in Europe from the ancient Greeks up to the Middle Ages; the second chapter describes briefly the mediaeval background to the Modistae, writers of speculative grammars in the later Middle Ages. Chapter three describes their grammatical theories against the metaphysical theories of reality on which they constructed their theories; the second part of this chapter contains an analysis of their technical vocabulary. The fourth chapter analyses the descriptive procedure of the Modistae; it is divided into two parts. The first part elements describes the creation of a pars orationis beginning with the expression (vox) and culminating in the pars, orationis the second section, 'categories', describes the process beginning with the thing to be signified and its properties (modus essendi) and ending with its grammatical signification (modus significandi). Chapter five is an analysis of Modistic descriptions of the partes orationis, and is divided into two parts; the first part contains the description of the eight partes orationis; the second part discusses Modistic syntactic theory. The sixth chapter attempts to evaluate the grammatical theories of the Modistae with reference to modem linguistic theories. The thesis concludes with six appendices. The first contains a brief comparison of Siger de Courtrai and Thomas of Erfurt, the principal members of our corpus: the second contains definitions of the modes used to describe the partes orationis; the third and fourth are diagrammatic expositions of their descriptions of the partes orationis and their syntax; the fifth contains a glossary of technical terms; the final appendix contains the bibliography

The construction and validation of an Arabic placement test for first year students at the University of Malaya

The issue which has always been discussed by scholars in the area of language teaching and testing is whether the test is valid, i.e. whether it tests what it is supposed to test and whether the test is reliable, i.e. consistent in assessing the candidates. This research attempts to construct and to validate an Arabic placement test for new students at the Academy of Islamic Studies at the University of Malaya in Malaysia. The design of the test was based on the syllabus at the Academy and the test specification, prepared during this research. Four sub-tests are constructed: Reading, Grammar, Writing and Dictation. To ensure the validity of the test, two analyses, internal and external, are conducted. The internal validity analysis is concerned with face and content validity. Three groups of students from different levels of academic background and countries participated in the pilot study for the purpose of internal validity analysis. Modifications were made to some items of the sub-tests at the end of the pilot study. The external validity analysis is concerned with concurrent and predictive validity. The correlation coefficients (r) between the total mark of the sub-tests and one of the two measures for concurrent validity indicate that the relationships are moderate: between .40 and .60. As for predictive validity, the r between the sub-tests and the total mark of the final examination are between .60 and .64: a moderate relationship too. In the analysis of the reliability of the tests using the internal consistency method, the reliability coefficients (r^) for the sub-tests are very high: ranging between .87 and .90. The correlation analysis between the total score of the sub-tests also indicates a very high relationship: five correlation coefficients (r) are between .70 and .75 and only one correlation has the r of .69. The conclusion of the study states that all four sub-tests prove to be successful in assessing the students' proficiency in Arabic and therefore could be used for the purpose of grouping students for the teaching and learning of Arabic at the Academy

Tense and aspect in the Vetālapañcaviṅśati, a work of late classical Sanskrit

The loss of many of the finite verbal forms of Sanskrit between the Vedic period (1200- 700 B.C.) and the Classical period (400-1700 A.D.) has been well documented (Burrow 1955; Taraporewala 1967; Pap 1990; Masica 1991). By the Classical period, the three finite past tenses, the aorist, perfect and imperfect, had "fallen together" and were being used interchangeably to relate past events (Taraporewala 1967:76; Misra 1968:62; Whitney 1889/1967:201). -- This thesis investigated verbal forms of a text of late Classical Sanskrit, the Vetālapañcaviṅśati, ‘Twenty Five Tales of a Demon', with a view to discovering some of the directions taken in the post-Vedic process of "rebuilding" the verbal system. -- Jambhaladatta's version of the Vetālapañcaviṅśati was found to contain two systems used to indicate past events: the 'archaic' (including the aorist, imperfect and perfect) and the 'innovative' (including the P-oriented participle -ta and the A-oriented participle -tavant). The three 'old' tenses showed no significant semantic differences, consistent with their acknowledged "collapse", although the perfect did show a discourse function of indicating "finality". The P-oriented -ta participle was used three times as often as the A-oriented -tavant participle, indicating that in the 'new’ system, the syntactic shift from A- to P-orientation (as in Hock 1986) was well underway. -- The Historical Present, consistent with its function in all periods of the language, was heavily used for the "lively" narration of past events, both as a main verb, and as the auxiliary component of analytic forms. -- The 'new’ system also showed numerous analytic aspectual forms. To indicate imperfective aspect, constructions involving the present participle plus auxiliaries ✓sthā 'to stand’, ✓ās 'to stay,sit', and vidyate<✓vid ‘to find' were used extensively. The auxiliary vidyate was noted to be a recategorized middle voice verb, with features of both A- and P- orientation. Retrospective aspect was regularly indicated by constructions involving the PPP combined with the auxiliary ✓as 'to be; this construction was especially common in direct speech. -- The increase in analytic forms, clearly marked for imperfective aspect, was considered to be a strategy to redress an imbalance in the 'old' system of preterite tenses where imperfective aspect was under represented

Nonverbal means as regulators in communication: sociocultural perspectives

http://www.ester.ee/record=b1547624~S1*es

Latin as the Language of Science and Learning

This book approaches its topic from three angles: diachronic semantics, a panorama of science and scientific writing in Latin from antiquity up to the present, and linguistic forays that try to demarcate scientific Latin from other registers and to identify groups of different language use among the authors introduced in the panorama. The transition of science from Greek through Latin to the modern vernaculars is especially emphasised

Latin as the Language of Science and Learning

This book approaches its topic from three angles: diachronic semantics, a panorama of science and scientific writing in Latin from antiquity up to the present, and linguistic forays that try to demarcate scientific Latin from other registers and to identify groups of different language use among the authors introduced in the panorama. The transition of science from Greek through Latin to the modern vernaculars is especially emphasised

Borrowings, Derivational Morphology, and Perceived Productivity in English, 1300-1600.

This dissertation examines how borrowed derivational morphemes such as -age, -ity, -cion, and -ment became productive in the English language, particularly in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. It endeavors to expand our current understanding of morphological productivity as a historical phenomenon--to account for not only aggregate quantitative measures of the products of morphological processes, but also some of the linguistic mechanisms that made those processes more productive for language users. Judgments about the productivity of different suffixes in the late ME period cannot be made on counts of frequency alone, since the vast majority of uses were not neologisms or newly coined hybrid forms but rather borrowings from Latin and French. It is not immediately clear to the historical linguist if Middle English speakers perceived a derivative such as enformacion as an undecomposable word or as a morphologically complex word. By examining usage patterns of these derivatives in guild records, the Wycliffite Bible, end-rhymed poetry, medical texts, and personal correspondence, this project argues that several mechanisms helped contribute to the increased transparency and perceived productivity of these affixes. These mechanisms include the following: the use of rhetorical sequences of derivatives with the same base or derivatives ending in the same suffix; the frequent use of derivatives as end rhymes in poetry; the lexical variety of derivatives ending in the same suffix; and the more frequent use of certain bases compared to their derivatives. All of these textual and linguistic features increased readers' and listeners' ability to analyze borrowed derivatives as suffixed words. Ultimately, the dissertation finds that several borrowed affixes were seen as potentially productive units of language in the late ME period, though some were seen as more productive than others in different discourses and contexts. It also emphasizes the value of register studies for understanding the specific motivations for the use of borrowed derivatives in different discourses, as well as the morphological consequences of salient usage patterns within different registers.Ph.D.English Language & LiteratureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64624/1/palmercc_1.pd

The morphology of loanwords in Urdu :the Persian, Arabic and English strands

PhD ThesisLanguage contact and the influence of one language on another are very common phenomena. Persian, Arabic and English have influenced various languages globally. Urdu is one of the recipient languages from these three sources, and shows linguistic features borrowed from them. This study focuses on the Persian, Arabic and English loanword morphology in Urdu. Loanwords from Persian/Arabic are far older than English loans, and function like native Urdu words. Therefore, native Urdu morphological structures and those from Persian and Arabic are treated as the patterns for English loans. The discussion describes the patterns and then the processes involving English loans in the light of these patterns. The hypothesis is that the affixation, whether inflectional or derivational, may be based on native Urdu patterns but that the compounding of English loans is more frequent with Persian and Arabic loanwords. This is a major factor, which needs to be established. It is equally vital to know whether Urdu also borrows any derivations of an English loan, as it did with Persian/Arabic loans with or without any morphological changes. Almost nothing is written on the morphology of loanwords, from the three languages, into Urdu. Furthermore, there is no theory on loanwords specifically dealing with the morphological adaptation of loans. So, the present work is descriptive and deals with the characteristics of the morphological structures from native Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English. Due to space restrictions, the primary focus is on gender/number and case morphology, and derivation of by affixation and by compounding. The study is divided into six chapters. The discussion begins in the first chapter with an introduction to the study and an overview of the sociolinguistic background of Urdu. It also discusses the influence of English loanwords on South Asian languages in general and Urdu in particular. The chapter exemplifies pluralisation of English loans and compound verb forms with the words of recipient languages. The next three chapters focus on inflectional morphology, derivation by affixation and derivation by compounding. In chapter 2, only the gender, number and case morphology of the Urdu noun with relevance to the three sources comes under discussion. Chapter 3 focuses mainly on derivational affixes in Urdu from the three sources. Although a discussion of morphological issues is the main concern, some phonological and semantic issues with relevance to morphology are also included. However, phonological issues are only discussed in connection with Arabic loanword phonology, which shares in lexical creations e.g. ɣʊnɖa ‘scoundrel’. Derivation of new words is also very frequent by means of compounding. Constituents from two different sources very often interact and are rather more frequent than normal, i.e. native + native, combinations in Urdu. Therefore, rather than looking at their source languages, Chapter 4 focuses on various types of compounds i.e. endocentric, exocentric and copulative etc. Chapter 5 discusses the features of English loanwords adaptation in the light of Persian and Arabic loanwords adaptations. Morphological changes occur both on the inflectional and derivational level. On the inflectional level, the changes are more frequent and based on the native Urdu patterns. Derivational changes are seen in various loans, but the adaptability is limited in the derivation of other categories irrespective of native Urdu or Persian and Arabic patterns. It is far less frequent than the adaptation seen in Persian and Arabic loans. It is more frequent with native Urdu affixes, but the formation of compounds is more frequent with Persian and Arabic loan constituents. Thus, the hypothesis made in the beginning of the study is supported. English loan affixes have not found a place in formal Urdu, although they are used informally. The chapter draws some conclusions. Chapter 6 then presents a summary of the discussion made in the thesis, and presents the implications of the study

The morphology of loanwords in Urdu : the Persian, Arabic and English strands

Language contact and the influence of one language on another are very common phenomena. Persian, Arabic and English have influenced various languages globally. Urdu is one of the recipient languages from these three sources, and shows linguistic features borrowed from them. This study focuses on the Persian, Arabic and English loanword morphology in Urdu. Loanwords from Persian/Arabic are far older than English loans, and function like native Urdu words. Therefore, native Urdu morphological structures and those from Persian and Arabic are treated as the patterns for English loans. The discussion describes the patterns and then the processes involving English loans in the light of these patterns. The hypothesis is that the affixation, whether inflectional or derivational, may be based on native Urdu patterns but that the compounding of English loans is more frequent with Persian and Arabic loanwords. This is a major factor, which needs to be established. It is equally vital to know whether Urdu also borrows any derivations of an English loan, as it did with Persian/Arabic loans with or without any morphological changes. Almost nothing is written on the morphology of loanwords, from the three languages, into Urdu. Furthermore, there is no theory on loanwords specifically dealing with the morphological adaptation of loans. So, the present work is descriptive and deals with the characteristics of the morphological structures from native Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English. Due to space restrictions, the primary focus is on gender/number and case morphology, and derivation of by affixation and by compounding. The study is divided into six chapters. The discussion begins in the first chapter with an introduction to the study and an overview of the sociolinguistic background of Urdu. It also discusses the influence of English loanwords on South Asian languages in general and Urdu in particular. The chapter exemplifies pluralisation of English loans and compound verb forms with the words of recipient languages. The next three chapters focus on inflectional morphology, derivation by affixation and derivation by compounding. In chapter 2, only the gender, number and case morphology of the Urdu noun with relevance to the three sources comes under discussion. Chapter 3 focuses mainly on derivational affixes in Urdu from the three sources. Although a discussion of morphological issues is the main concern, some phonological and semantic issues with relevance to morphology are also included. However, phonological issues are only discussed in connection with Arabic loanword phonology, which shares in lexical creations e.g. ɣʊnɖa ‘scoundrel’. Derivation of new words is also very frequent by means of compounding. Constituents from two different sources very often interact and are rather more frequent than normal, i.e. native + native, combinations in Urdu. Therefore, rather than looking at their source languages, Chapter 4 focuses on various types of compounds i.e. endocentric, exocentric and copulative etc. Chapter 5 discusses the features of English loanwords adaptation in the light of Persian and Arabic loanwords adaptations. Morphological changes occur both on the inflectional and derivational level. On the inflectional level, the changes are more frequent and based on the native Urdu patterns. Derivational changes are seen in various loans, but the adaptability is limited in the derivation of other categories irrespective of native Urdu or Persian and Arabic patterns. It is far less frequent than the adaptation seen in Persian and Arabic loans. It is more frequent with native Urdu affixes, but the formation of compounds is more frequent with Persian and Arabic loan constituents. Thus, the hypothesis made in the beginning of the study is supported. English loan affixes have not found a place in formal Urdu, although they are used informally. The chapter draws some conclusions. Chapter 6 then presents a summary of the discussion made in the thesis, and presents the implications of the study.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo