https://hdl.handle.net/2123/94 Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:12:45 GMT 2026-06-09T11:12:45Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34399 Cultural representation in Evolve 1: A Critical Multimodal Study. Asiri, Yahya This research investigates the cultural representation in Evolve 1, an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook designed for learners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While a plethora of studies have explored culture in EFL textbooks, few have adopted both multimodal semiotic and mixed-method approaches. This study analyzes cultural representation both linguistically and visually, combining quantitative measures with qualitative semiotic analysis to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how culture is represented in Evolve 1. The analysis draws on corpus-based methods for linguistic data and applies van Leeuwen’s (2008) social actor representation frameworks (for both visual and linguistic representation) alongside Martin and Rose’s (2007, 2008) tools for analyzing tenor, field, and genre. The study seeks to answer two central questions: (1) Who is represented in the Evolve 1 textbook? and (2) How are they represented? Findings show that although visual representation appears balanced quantitatively, closer analysis reveals the dominance of certain subgroups within cultural categories. Key disparities emerge in gender roles, family structures, and visual strategies across cultures. Notably, representations of MENA cultures tend to be dynamic and internally diverse, challenging simplistic or monolithic portrayals. This study contributes to ongoing efforts to ensure equitable and culturally sensitive representations in global EFL materials. References: van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Analysis (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001 Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2008). Genre relations : mapping culture. Equinox Pub. Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2007). Working with discourse : meaning beyond the clause (2nd ed.). Continuum. Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34399 2025-10-15T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/31431 Ideophones and depictive constructions: Towards an explanation of functional overlap Tsolakis, Theodore This thesis attempts to account for the functional overlap that exists between ideophones and depictive secondary predicates. Discussions of depictives are largely absent from the functional and typological literature, and there is much still to elucidate with regard to the typology of ideophones. The thesis identifies the commonalities and differences between ideophones and depictives at each level of linguistic structure (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics) with reference to a genetically and areally diverse sample of languages. I argue that this functional overlap is due to a similarity in pragmatics, whereby both depictives and ideophones occur relatively infrequently and thus are used to signal information that is in some way unexpected and thereby catch a listener’s attention. It is manifested through similarities in semantic domains and word classes: depictives and ideophones typically encode states, which are often evoked through an appeal to the senses and tend to be conveyed through the same word classes in different languages. The thesis provides an illustration of the interrelatedness of different levels of structure and most significantly how pragmatic considerations have consequences for semantics and syntax. Wed, 05 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/31431 2023-07-05T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/29906 Climate change advocates and deniers? Triangulating methods to investigate the language of left- and right-leaning Twitter users McCarthy, Darcy This thesis examines left- and right- leaning users on Australian Twitter in an effort to understand the language use of the different parties to online climate change discourse. The data are taken from Australian Twitter users between 2020 and 2022, and split up via a political affiliation metric in order to create two distinct politically-opposed user groups. Three main techniques are used to identify linguistic differences between the two groups: sentiment analysis, multiple correspondence analysis, and keyword analysis. The findings of this thesis are threefold. Firstly, text data collected on left- and right-leaning metrics are found to be an apt proxy for examining the language of climate change activism and denial. Secondly, climate change activists and deniers on Australian social media speak similarly in terms of grammatical style, but significantly differently in terms of lexical content. Thirdly and finally, triangulating between the three aforementioned methods provides a much clearer picture of language use. In this way, this thesis offers methodological innovations in examining online discourses, as well as important findings on the language use of the various parties to climate discourses on Australian Twitter. Thu, 19 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/29906 2023-01-19T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28886 ‘Trump at the Gates of Democracy’: A corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis of news reporting on the January 6th Event in the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald Lo Schiavo-Rega, Raphael A corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis of news reporting on the January 6th Event (also known as the '2021 United States Capitol attack') in the two Australian broadsheet newspapers The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald Wed, 22 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28886 2022-06-22T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/25889 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) in Australian print news: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis Bray, Carly This thesis investigates the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) in mainstream Australian newspapers. It combines approaches from corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to examine factors such as terms of reference, prominent themes and salient discourses employed in this coverage. The data consists of a purpose-built corpus of articles containing mention of Aboriginal people(s) or issues published in the 12 major metropolitan dailies within a 3-month period in mid 2019. The analysis confirmed a number of previous findings, as well as identifying two previously unidentified discourses—those of economic success and non-agential cooperation—and the linguistic resources used to construct them. One particularly valuable contribution is the finding that the agency of Aboriginal participants in cooperative events is often undermined using prepositions, a part of speech regularly overlooked in both corpus linguistic and critical discourse analytic studies. Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/25889 2021-08-23T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/25578 Sundanese TRANSITIVITY: a first step into the description Bangga, Lungguh Ariang This is a dissertation submitted as partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Applied Linguistics from the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney. It focuses on the initial description of TRANSITIVITY system in Sundanese from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/25578 2021-07-05T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/24679 The Sociolinguistic State of Alemannic Dialects Bodnaruk, Carl The various dialects of Alemannic, a set of German dialects spoken in South-Western Germany, North-Eastern France, and Switzerland, are spoken by, in general, a decreasing number of people in these regions. However, the amount by which this has decreased varies drastically from region to region. This thesis consists of a study looking at the current usage of the dialects in Germany, a comparison of these statistics with those from France and Switzerland, and an analysis of the possible historical causes for the established disparity. It finds that major events non-linguistic events, primarily political, have caused continuing and self-perpetuating shifts towards standardised languages in France and Germany, and a lack of such events in Switzerland has precluded it from such shifts. Thu, 18 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/24679 2021-03-18T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/21205 “Holding the (wo)man”: a corpus analysis of patriarchal discourses and appraisal of AFLW players in the Herald Sun newspaper Kemble, Melissa Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/21205 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/18592 Let's Talk about Sex Education: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Advice Column Discourses Carr, Georgia This thesis examines sex education discourses in magazines in an attempt to understand how language helps uphold and/or challenge attitudes in sex education. Specifically, it investigates the advice columns of Dolly, an Australian fashion, beauty, lifestyle and celebrity magazine aimed at teenage girls. The data are taken from two time periods, the mid-1990s and mid-2010s, to allow comparison of the discourses of the past twenty years. Corpus linguistics and Appraisal are used to identify these discourses and the linguistic resources used to construct them. The data are also analysed dialogically, or across the question and answer, to examine how these discourses are negotiated in interaction. This analysis reveals the linguistic strategies used to reproduce or challenge the discourse of the question in the corresponding answer, with certain discourses being ‘mirrored’ (i.e. reproduced) and others being ‘shifted’ (i.e. challenged). This thesis extends existing work on Appraisal to examine evaluation in a large corpus of written dialogic texts. It also extends existing research in corpus linguistics which is primarily concerned with patterns across a number of texts (intertextual analysis) rather than within texts (intratextual analysis). In this way, it offers methodological innovations in addition to important findings on the linguistic construction of sex education discourses. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/18592 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/13303 Intimacy, Power and Pleasure: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Online Personal-ads for Casual Sex Grover, Cameron This thesis explores the linguistic construction of sexual identities in online personal-ads for male-male casual sex. Specifically, it will investigate how POSTERS of Craigslist advertisements for casual sex construct their identity in part through defining not only their pleasure, but also a relationship of power and intimacy with the identity of the desired TARGET in creating imaginary sexual encounters. The analysis will make use of quantitative corpus linguistic methods and qualitative analytical frameworks in drawing out and interpreting the empiricallyvalid patterns of discourse that construct these identities and relationships. Tue, 12 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/13303 2015-05-12T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/10039 Syntactic Derivations of Samoan Predicates Collins, James This thesis gives a formal syntactic account of Samoan verbal classes. Samoan verbs may be divided into classes based on their observable syntactic behaviour (for example, case assignment, incorporation) or on their semantic properties (event structure, theta role assignment). The analysis aims to characterise these differences in terms of simple, lexically specified parameters. My objectives here are primarily theoretical, as opposed to descriptive. I intend to test the validity of certain linguistic assumptions using Samoan examples. My argument is informed by research conducted with Samoan speakers living in both Australia and Samoa. Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/10039 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8803 The Language of Clinical Empathy Watson, Olivia This Honours thesis examines the language of clinical empathy in an attempt to broaden understanding of what constitutes effective communication in medicine. Linguistic theories of appraisal, affiliation and intonation are applied in a case study analysis of an expert interpersonal communicator, using recorded data from patient consultations. A new graded model of empathic responses is introduced, which uses linguistic criteria to categorise potential responses according to the degree of empathy conveyed. The appropriateness of the different response options is shown to be dependent on the context in which they are used, and this relationship is analysed sensitive to both ideational and attitudinal factors. This thesis extends existing work on affiliation to examine bonding in a professional context, and introduces the concept of 'empathic contours' where empathy develops over several conversational moves. It targets the difficulty in defining, and therefore teaching, interpersonal skills in medicine by proposing some systematic strategies for describing the language of expressions of empathy. In this way it offers the medical discipline a new framework for understanding and teaching empathic communication. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8803 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7116 Knowledge and Multisemiosis in Undergraduate Physics Doran, Yaegan Physics is arguably the most fundamental of the sciences, yet many students disengage with it at a very early level. This thesis lays the groundwork to understanding why this is the case by using Systemic Functional theory to study how knowledge is conveyed to students within two undergraduate physics textbooks. Further to this, it uses Bernstein’s (1999) notion of ‘knowledge structure’ to describe the nature of knowledge within the discipline of physics itself. The thesis finds that mathematics and images work with written language to convey technical knowledge. Moreover, these semiotic resources can become technical, transcending the text to become part of the assumed knowledge of the field. Finally, it shows that mathematics in particular allows physics to integrate its various sub-fields and produce general theories that can be applied to real world. This thesis presents the first attempt using linguistic analysis at describing the nature of physics and how it is recontextualised for pedagogical purposes. As part of this, the thesis extends multiple theoretical frameworks including multimodality, theory of knowledge and genre theory. Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7116 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/6770 Children's Silences in Mareeba Aboriginal English Watts, Janet This thesis examines the role of silence in conversations between teacher’s aides and 5-6 year old Indigenous Australian children at school. Recent studies of conversation among adult Aboriginal Australians have observed that a positive value is ascribed to silence, and that it is not percieved as indicating a breakdown in communication. Studies of Aboriginal children in school settings have similarly remarked on the prevalence of silence, observing that Indigenous students appear reticent to speak in certain types of classroom interaction. This thesis uses a Conversation Analysis approach to analyse in depth the role of silence in one-on-one conversations between young Indigenous children and teacher’s aides. These conversations were recorded in Mareeba in Far North Queensland, with children who speak varieties of Aboriginal English at home. Factors influencing the extent to which the children were silent in these conversations are considered. The results of this study are in line with previous research, in finding that factors such as the language variety spoken by the children, the structure of the discourse, and whether or not the interlocutor is Indigenous play a role in the extent to which the children are silent. Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/6770 2009-11-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5836 Typing friendship into being: vocatives in Facebook wall-to-wall conversations Walkley, Amelia Individuals may write themselves, their communities and their friendships into being on social network sites (Sundén 2003) (boyd 2008). That is, they write themselves into being by providing information about themselves in the form of personal profiles; they write their communities into being by setting up groups with which to connect with like-minded people; and they write their friendships into being by displaying contact lists and through continual interaction with their friends online. Since communication is key to the upkeep of friendship ties, a linguistic perspective has the potential to expand on the idea of writing friendship into being through a consideration of the ‘writing’ itself. The Facebook wall-to-wall conversation is a new means of computer-mediated communication and may be conceptualised as a way of typing friendship into being. Facebook ‘Friends’ write on each other’s ‘profile walls’ in turn, and in doing so they augment the interpersonal connection between them that originated offline by undertaking strategies of positive face enhancement in tandem. As semi-synchronous, semi-public dialogues in plain text, the wall-to-wall conversation is exclusive to two Facebook users as active participants, but visible to a special public of their mutual Facebook Friends. This thesis considers the type, semantic form, sentence position, orthography and pragmatic function of vocatives in a corpus of Facebook wall-to-wall conversations engaged in by students from the University of Sydney, Australia and from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The vocatives are examined qualitatively through a lens of (Im)Politeness theory, drawing from Brown and Levinson (1987), Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1992; 2002) and Culpeper (1996; 2008) with a focus on positive politeness, mock deference and mock impoliteness. The joint engagement in creativity, playfulness and humour with regards to the formation and exchange of vocatives is attested in both the Australian English and the Swiss French corpora. Supervisors: Caroline Lipovsky (French Studies), Jane Simpson (Linguistics) Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5836 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5796 The Grammar of Nouns and Verbs in Whitesands, an Oceanic Language of Southern Vanuatu Hammond, Jeremy Whitesands is an under-described language of southern Vanuatu, and this thesis presents Whitesands-specific data based on primary in-situ field research. The thesis addresses the distinction of noun and verb word classes in the language. It claims that current linguistic syntax theory cannot account for the argument structure of canonical object-denoting roots. It is shown that there are distinct lexical noun and verb classes in Whitesands but this is only a weak dichotomy. Stronger is the NP and VP distinction, and this is achieved by employing a new theoretical approach that proposes functional categories and their selection of complements as crucial tests of distinction. This approach contrasts with previous analyses of parts of speech in Oceanic languages and cross-linguistically. It ultimately explains many of the syntactic phenomena seen in the language family, including the above argument assignment dilemma, the alienable possession of nouns with classifiers and also the nominalisation processes. Supervised by Bill Foley and Jane Simpson Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5796 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5797 Non-predicating adjectives: a semantic account de Zwaan, Alan This thesis provides a semantic account of non-predication in the adjectives of English. Particular attention is paid to adjectives that are only non-predicating when they modify certain types of nouns; both agentive nouns and degree nouns are decomposed semantically into two distinct semantic elements, one of which consists of the referent (referential element) and another which consists of either an action associated with the noun or a quality already expressed by it (non-referential element). The other main focus of the thesis is denominal adjectives which have a structure like that of modifying nouns and which are differentiated from regular quality attributing adjectives via their semantic structure that does not express a single quality. The semantics of regular predicating adjectives is discussed, and it is found that predication requires an adjective to attribute a quality directly to the noun referent. Adjectives which have a function that does not meet this description are then restricted to the attributive (prenominal position). It is suggested that the prenominal position allows for a greater variety of semantic behaviours due to the relationship between the two phrasal elements not being made explicit. Supervised by Nick Riemer Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5797 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5385 Negative Evidence in Linguistics: The case of Wagiman Complex Predicates Wilson, Aidan 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 https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5385 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5335 Loanword Adaptation: A study of some Australian Aboriginal Languages McManus, Hope 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. Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5335 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/2255 Prepositions and preverbs in Hellenistic Greek Budd, Noella 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. The thesis was supervised by Jane Simpson, with Vrasidas Karalis (Department of Modern Greek). Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/2255 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/2237 A Longitudinal Study of Ngarrindjeri Bannister, Corinne 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. Supervisor: Jane Simpson Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/2237 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/2181 Psychotic victims: Risk, compassion and blame in mental health discourses Moore, Rose Recent theories of evaluative language, such as Appraisal theory, aim to use fine-grained qualitative analysis to look at the way social reality is constructed and reflected in text, and how we are aligned through the use of evaluative resources in text. This thesis uses Appraisal theory to look at the way the identity of people with psychotic illness is constructed in a corpus of recent broadsheet feature articles on the topic of schizophrenia, and how we - as readers and members of society- are positioned to perceive people who have psychotic illness. It also looks at the way that the roles and responsibilities of institutions such as the court and prison system, the mental health system and government are evaluated, and outlines the strategies which are used to construe people with psychotic illness as victims, both of their illness and of social institutions. These findings are in direct contrast to much of the previous research on representations of psychotic illness in the media, which has predominantly found that people with psychotic illness are portrayed as violent and a danger to society. This thesis contributes to a growing body of literature which uses Appraisal theory to identify evaluative patterns in text and add to our understanding of how meaning is made. It also describes patterns of evaluation with regard to certain groups of people (those with psychotic illness, their families, and institutions such as the government, health system and prison system) which appear to mark changing attitudes towards psychotic illness. The thesis was supervised by James Martin. Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/2181 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1919 Spatial Reference in Momu Blake, Fiona Spatial reference - how we communicate notions such as location, motion and direction - is an important area of current research. Recent studies involving detailed analysis of geographically and typologically diverse languages have uncovered extensive and unexpected variation in the means languages utilise to encode spatial relations. This thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about the cross-linguistic representation of the spatial domain. It is an analysis of fieldwork data which was collected for a preliminary investigation into the spatial reference system of Momu (also known as Fas), a Kwomtari language spoken in the West Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. The analysis focuses on descriptions of static location, motion and the use of frames of reference. In Momu, all basic locative, directional and motion verbs are deictically anchored, such that there are few expressions of spatial reference that do not obligatorily require deictic specification. This thesis demonstrates the particular attention Momu pays to the specification of deixis across all major sub-areas of the spatial domain. This honours thesis was submitted in June 2007, and was supervised by William Foley. Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1919 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1726 Gender and codemixing in Hong Kong Wong, Kwok-Lan Jamie This paper investigates the relationship of gender and codemixing behaviour in Hong Kong. Data were obtained through the use of a questionnaire and a language diary experiment from 10 young women and 10 young men who had just joined the workforce. It was found that educated young women in Hong Kong are more likely to codemix (Cantonese sentence with English words or phrases) than their male counterparts. However, this difference shown up in the sex grouping could not be said to be a pure gender difference. Rather, this difference seemed to be difference among the females themselves. By looking into the historical and cultural background of Hong Kong, the researcher suggested that Hong Kong young women’s higher use of mixed code nowadays was caused by their desire to dissociate themselves from the traditional role of women in the Chinese culture. Furthermore, it was found that young women working in a more competitive environment would codemix more than those working in a less competitive environment. The findings in this paper confirm the constructionsts’ view that the construction of gender is interwoven with other social constructions of identity in a complex way, so that it is important for researchers interested in gender and language use to look into the cultural and historical background of a speech community instead of focusing solely on the differences shown up in sex groupings. Honours thesis, Department of Linguistics, supervisors Dr Ahmar Mahboob and Dr Toni Borowsky Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1726 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1105 The diachronic evolution of directional constructions in Mandarin McElvenny, James This thesis investigates the diachronic evolution of directional constructions found in Mandarin and other modern varieties of Chinese. What I call directional constructions are usually called 'directional complements' in most work on Chinese grammar. They consist of a series of particles and their associated syntactic constructions. The particles follow after verbs and typically indicate a direction of motion associated with the event expressed by a verb. For example, in the sentence 'ta zouchulai' 'He walks out hither', the verb 'zou' 'walk' expresses the action of walking and the directional particle 'chulai' indicates that the action is performed going from inside to outside and in the direction of the speaker. Directional particles can also have a variety of abstract senses that are derived from their basic directional senses through metaphor. I trace the diachronic evolution of the directional particles and their associated syntactic constructions from their origins as independent verbs in various syntactic constructions in pre-Qin varieties of Chinese up to their present state in Modern Mandarin. I identify the various formal and functional properties of the constructions at each stage in the history of the language and show how these properties change from one stage to another. I also investigate the factors that condition these changes. My research is based on a corpus of vernacular texts that cover each period in the development of the constructions from pre-Qin times up to the present. I present my analysis of each stage in the development of the constructions within the Construction Grammar framework. Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1105 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/139 Topic and focus in Ngardi Honeyman, Tom This paper examines the discourse pragmatics of the non- configurational (free word order) Australian language Ngardi. Ngardi is a Ngumbin language spoken by a small number of people east of the Kimberleys. I examine Topic and Focus in equational sentences and question forms gathered from transcripts of card games played by Ngardi speakers. I examine this data from the Information Structure perspective as defined by Lambrecht (1994) and include some discussion of Choi's (2001) NEW and PROM binary features. I conclude that a range of constituents to the left of the obligatory pronominal clitics are conditioned by discourse pragmatic factors. This is an Honours thesis based on field data and grammatical analysis collected by Lee Cataldi with help from Tjama Napanangka. The supervisors were William Foley and Jane Simpson. Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/139 2005-10-21T00:00:00Z