http://hdl.handle.net/2123/94 Search the Channel search http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/simple-search http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5385 Title: Negative Evidence in Linguistics: The case of Wagiman Complex Predicates<br/><br/>Authors: Wilson, Aidan<br/><br/>Abstract: In this thesis I will justify the use of negative forms of evidence as a permissible means of analysing grammatical constructions. I do this by presenting a test case, a grammatical construction that is not entirely understood, and attempting to understand and explain further aspects of it by appealing to negative forms of evidence. The constructions that form the object of this investigation are complex predicates in the Wagiman language. It will be necessary first, to provide a detailed explanation of Wagiman complex predicates; the elements that comprise them, the way those elements combine and the limitations that hold on them. Following that, negative evidence of the combinations that are possible and combinations that are impossible will provide the means by which to identify the constraints that limit complex predicates. Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5335 Title: Loanword Adaptation: A study of some Australian Aboriginal Languages<br/><br/>Authors: McManus, Hope<br/><br/>Abstract: This thesis is a case study of some aspects of the adaptation of English words in several Australian Aboriginal languages, including Martu Wangka, Gamilaraay and Warlpiri. I frame my analysis within Smith’s (to appear) source-similarity model of loanword adaptation. This model exploits loanword-specific faithfulness constraints that impose maximal similarity between the perceived source form and its corresponding loan. Using this model, I show that the conflict of the relevant prosodic markedness constraints and loanword-specific faithfulness constraints drives adaptation. Vowel epenthesis, the most frequent adaptation strategy, allows the recoverability of a maximal amount of information about the source form and ensures that the loan conforms to the constraints of language-internal phonological grammar. Less frequent strategies including deletion and substitution occur in a restricted environment. The essence of the present analysis is minimal violation, a principle that governs loanword adaptation as well as other areas of phonology.<br/><br/>Description: Supervised by Toni Borowsky Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:59:35 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2255 Title: Prepositions and preverbs in Hellenistic Greek<br/><br/>Authors: Budd, Noella<br/><br/>Abstract: This thesis traces the history of usage of a group of words (‘P-words’) that were adverbial particles in Proto-Indo-European and became in Greek, as in many other IE languages, both prepositions and verbal prefixes. It adopts a corpus-linguistic approach which, when allied with a suitable statistical method and a theoretical framework for analysis of syntactic change (grammaticalisation), allows for the detection and sometimes the explanation of trends in usage which may be invisible to a general reader. However, this method relies on the availability of suitably tagged texts for analysis; such tagging exists for the New Testament, the basis of the statistical analyses of this study, and a few other documents of roughly the same period of Greek, but not for large portions of text from other periods. The finding of this paper is that the method is reliable and likely to produce interesting results once diachronic comparisons and same-period genre and register comparisons become possible with the production of standardised grammatical tagging of texts, a program that is being pursued in New Testament studies and has potential for much wider use in Greek linguistics.<br/><br/>Description: The thesis was supervised by Jane Simpson, with Vrasidas Karalis (Department of Modern Greek). Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:48:13 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2237 Title: A Longitudinal Study of Ngarrindjeri<br/><br/>Authors: Bannister, Corinne<br/><br/>Abstract: This thesis aims to follow the changes that occur in Ngarrindjeri, a language from South Australia, over a period of 130 years. Over this period of time the speakers underwent great social and cultural change, with the settlement of white people, and the language changed from being a vibrant living language to one where only a few lexical items can be remembered. Particular attention is given to the syntactic changes, with a focus on case, the pronominal system and the antipassive function. A range of sources have been used; however Meyer’s grammar from 1843 and the Berndt texts, recorded in the 1940s, plus the accompanying analysis provided by Cerin (1994), receive the main focus because they are the most extensive descriptions of the language. The other sources are used when necessary to fill in the gaps. Chapter one introduces the language and the source material. It also discusses general concepts in language attrition. Chapter two deals with nominal morphology, with a particular focus on how the cases have changed. It also contains some reanalysis of the forms, which differs slightly from previous analyses. Chapter three address the pronominal morphology and identifies and explains discrepancies among the sources. This chapter contains information on the personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns and also a small section on how the pronominal system influenced a change in word order. Chapter four addresses the antipassive in Ngarrindjeri. Previous work on the antipassive has been scarce, so firstly this chapter establishes the form of the antipassive. Next it identifies the semantic uses of the construction. Finally, there is an investigation into the existence of a syntactic antipassive and the type of pivots that may also exist.<br/><br/>Description: Supervisor: Jane Simpson Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:01:41 GMT