Institutional Scholarship :: Browsing by Author "Huang, Shizhe"

Browsing by Author "Huang, Shizhe"

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Adverbs of Quantitication in Public Health Surveys
(2019) Guadalupe, Jason; Fernald, Theodore B.; Huang, Shizhe
This thesis examines the function of adverbs of quantification through a comparison of questions found in two public health surveys, the data collected from each survey, and the subsequent allocations of healthcare resources and focus on specific areas in the medical field. After examining the types of questions present in the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) survey and the US Household Food Security Scale Module (HFSSM), I conclude that each of the surveys utilizes adverbs of quantification differently in their questions. The ACE survey's main objective is to establish the psychological impacts of childhood trauma, so while the possible answers may be linguistically vague, the survey collects important data to inform mental health professionals about how to treat patients. The HFSSM establishes more specific possible answers to create a scale of food security that can be nationally applied and assist the US government in allocating resources to fight food insecurity. I argue that survey authors would benefit from focused, basic linguistics training or a linguistic advisor to help write questions that avoid presuppositions and implicit restrictions, and help researchers collect the most helpful data possible.
Colonial Valley Zapotec Effects on Bilingual Spanish
(2019) Metzger, Jaime; Huang, Shizhe
Most linguistic research on Zapotec-Spanish language contact has centered on Spanish influences such as loanwords borrowed into Zapotec. The current state of the field fails to acknowledge the structural effects that Zapotec has had on modern Oaxacan Spanish. This thesis analyzes variation and innovation found in a corpus of Zapotec and Spanish bilingual manuscripts. The goal in variationist language contact studies such as this one is to tell the stories of the sociolinguistic identities whose language use informed the local variant. The patterns that emerged because of Zapotec grammar's influence can be captured dynamically across time by way of data visualization and complementary present-day studies, both of which this thesis will begin and suggest.
DP-internal only in English and Russian
(2019) Fisher, Ian; Huang, Shizhe
This paper presents an analysis of DP-internal only in English and Russian. I review the evidence in Coppock and Beaver (2012b, 2015) for definites containing only that do not presuppose uniqueness, and supplement it with data from Russian. Building on this empirical foundation, I propose that DP-internal only presupposes existence and asserts uniqueness, and the determiner the in the only constructions is semantically vacuous. As a consequence, DPs containing only, like indefinites, are never of type e. I also present evidence that the DP-internal and adverbial usages of only correspond to a single lexical item.
DP-internal only in English and Russian
(2019) Fisher, Ian; Huang, Shizhe
This paper presents an analysis of DP-internal only in English and Russian. I review the evidence in Coppock and Beaver (2012b, 2015) for definites containing only that do not presuppose uniqueness, and supplement it with data from Russian. Building on this empirical foundation, I propose that DP-internal only presupposes existence and asserts uniqueness, and the determiner the in the only constructions is semantically vacuous. As a consequence, DPs containing only, like indefinites, are never of type e. I also present evidence that the DP-internal and adverbial usages of only correspond to a single lexical item.
A Guide to Building a Diphone Speech Synthesis System for Kalaallisut
(2017) Rehrig, Sophie; Huang, Shizhe
Diphone speech synthesis is the process of creating an artificial voice capable of converting text input to vocalized speech by means of concatenating diphones. While compared to unit selection. the most popular modem method of speech synthesis. diphone synthesis suffers from naturalness problems. it has the benefit of requiring fewer recorded segments and thus fewer resources and less memory. In this thesis I will present a guide to constructing a diphone speech synthesis system for Kalaallisut. the national language of Greenland. I will also discuss the importance of these systems. and the need for resources that will allow members of marginalized speech communities to construct such tools themselves.
The interplay of conversational implicature, speaker expectations, and NPI and positive anymore and yet
(2019) Dalton, Courtney; Huang, Shizhe
This paper accounts for the behavior of the temporal adverbs anymore and yet under the negative episternic verb doubt and under a class of verbs that I tenn rnirative emotive [actives (lvlEFs; emotive [actives conveying surprise, or a contrast between expectations and reality). I consider both the standard NFl anymore and yet and the non-standard "positive" variants available to some speakers. Previous accounts of anymore and yet ascribe their meaning to contrast or additivity, respectively, between a presupposition about the past and an assertion about the present. I show that, under doubt, the latter can be replaced with a conversational implicature about the present Then, following Altshuler & Michaelis's (2018) account of by temporal adverbs, I argue that the contrast between expectation and reality inherent in the meaning of J\!IEFs can constitute the change-of-state event that is a necessary part of the meaning of anymore. Finally, I appeal to the presuppositions and assertions inherent in yet to illustrate why anymore and yet behave differently under MEFs, with the fonner receiving fhe NFl interpretation and the latter taking on the positive reading.
Keeping It Classy: Sinitic Classifiers and Their History in Literature
(2022) Evans, Will; Huang, Shizhe
The purpose of this study is to chart the history of nominal classifiers in Sinitic (Chinese) languages. The particular focus is the forms in which classifiers appear throughout the written record, and to aid this analysis data was gathered from a corpus of literary works spanning from the very earliest complete works of literature written in the 5th century BC to full-length vernacular novels written in the 18th century AD. The study finds that classifier phrases gradually began to overtake other methods of counting beginning around the 5th century AD, but oddly count phrases that do not utilize classifiers persisted in the literature at least as far as 1740 AD, which should not have been possible at least in the spoken language. Two solutions are presented to account for this co-occurrence of what should be complementarily distributed structures. The first being a prosodic solution, as detailed by Feng (2012), and the second being one that focuses instead on extra-linguistic aesthetic concerns that may have artificially preserved syntactic structures that were seen as more "literary" even though they were no longer found in the spoken language. Ultimately, the study is inconclusive as to which, if either, account is better suited to explain the discrepancies observed in the data, but the importance of considering extra-linguistic factors in particular is emphasized.
Keeping It Classy: Sinitic Classifiers and Their History in Literature
(2022) Evans, Will; Huang, Shizhe
The purpose of this study is to chart the history of nominal classifiers in Sinitic (Chinese) languages. The particular focus is the forms in which classifiers appear throughout the written record, and to aid this analysis data was gathered from a corpus of literary works spanning from the very earliest complete works of literature written in the 5th century BC to full-length vernacular novels written in the 18th century AD. The study finds that classifier phrases gradually began to overtake other methods of counting beginning around the 5th century AD, but oddly count phrases that do not utilize classifiers persisted in the literature at least as far as 1740 AD, which should not have been possible at least in the spoken language. Two solutions are presented to account for this co-occurrence of what should be complementarily distributed structures. The first being a prosodic solution, as detailed by Feng (2012), and the second being one that focuses instead on extra-linguistic aesthetic concerns that may have artificially preserved syntactic structures that were seen as more “literary” even though they were no longer found in the spoken language. Ultimately, the study is inconclusive as to which, if either, account is better suited to explain the discrepancies observed in the data, but the importance of considering extra-linguistic factors in particular is emphasized.
Language Retention Amongst Alumni of Bilingual Education Programs in U.S. Public Schools
(2020) Fanning, Kylah; Huang, Shizhe
Access to bilingual education has been a contentious political subject throughout United States history, despite significant evidence of the cognitive, psychological, cultural, academic, professional, and communicative benefits of bilingualism. While much of the existing research largely focus on the experiences and linguistic proficiencies of students in bilingual education, there is a lack of research on the relationship between bilingual education and language retention. This thesis uses qualitative surveys of alumni of bilingual and monolingual education programs to evaluate the relationship between bilingual education and language retention, and proposes that both bilingual education and continued language use in a variety of contexts are predictive factors for strong language retention post-K-12 education for alumni of United States public schools.
Learning to Read without Sound: Literacy Across Deaf Poopulations
(2019) Norton, Temperance; Huang, Shizhe
Multiple studies have shown that the best deaf readers are those who use sign language as their primary means of communication rather than an oral language. This thesis first seeks to answer the question of why this is the case. It is hypothesized that deaf signers are better readers because sign language is more easily acquired as a full first language by deaf children, and as such, deaf signers have the general linguistic skills necessary to acquire a written language. It is found that the orally-educated deaf have overall diminished language skills and, like deaf signers, are unable to access phonological representations of language when reading; as such, they are at a disadvantage when acquiring literacy through phonological means. After it is determined that early language access, which is best facilitated through the use of sign languages in deaf populations, is paramount in ensuring literacy skills, this thesis then seeks to determine how deaf readers translate their language skills into reading skills, using evidence primarily from the dual-route theory of reading (DRT). The DRT consists of two routes: a route based on auditory phonology and a route based on lexical knowledge. It is found that the second route is more important in deaf literacy than the first, which is consistent with what we know about how deaf readers use (or don't use) phonological knowledge when reading.
The Limitations of English Language Ideology (LI) and Language Policy & Planning (LPP) in South Korea
(2019) Park, Nozomi; Huang, Shizhe
"English Fever" is an ongoing phenomenon in South Korea that represents the strong obsession for English language proficiency through education. The growing prevalence of a foreign language is surprising considering South Korea's linguistic history. However, the significance of English bolstered by globalization, has undoubtedly permeated into South Korea's government, schools, and public language ideologies (LI) and language policy & planning (LPP). This obsession for English proficiency is contradictory to reports of South Korean English language competency levels. Therefore, it is critical to analyze English language practice in South Korea. Examining South Korean youth who are greatly influenced by these surrounding LI and LPP, this thesis argues that there are limitations to South Korea's "English Fever" or pursuit towards English proficiency. These limitations are found to be the reliance on instrumental motivation, notions of the native speaker, and accessibility of English for all South Korean youth. Limitations hinder English language learning and practice for South Korean youth, which ultimately impact their English competency.
Loanword Adaptation in Spanish and Mapudungun: a Phonological and Sociolinguistic Analysis
(2016) Bronzino, Dana; Huang, Shizhe
This thesis is a study of Mapudungun loanword adaptation, with a focus on the treatment of foreign phonemes and syllable structures. The data used for analysis in this thesis are Spanish loanwords borrowed into Mapudungun as found in Golluscio (2009) and the World Loanword Database, or WOLD (Golluscio, Fraguas, Mellico 2009), as well as Mapudungun words adapted into modern Chilean Spanish as seen in the RAE Spanish Dictionary (2001). The goal of this thesis is to show that there are deliberate patterns in how loanwords are adopted in both languages, and I investigate the phonological factors as well as sociolinguistic factors that regulate loanword adaptation. Spanish loanwords undergo repair processes such as segmental changes, for example palatalization (1a), suprasegrnental changes, such as stress adaptations (1b), and the deletion of syllables in words with more than three syllables in order to match their native root-word system (1c). (1) Repair strategies used by Mapudungun (Spanish to Mapudungun): a. Palatalization of Ixl b. Stress adaptation 10· ~exal > lofi'fal /"bakal > Iwa ·kal c. Deletion of initial syllables leska ·leral > Ika ·le(al 'the sheep' 'the cow' 'the stairs,' 'the ladder' Loanwords in Mapudungun vary in their degrees of adaptation according to the age of the loanword. Loanwords introduced by the Spanish soon after their conquest of the Mapuche region show the most modifications in phonological adaptation, while words introduced in the late 19th century show fewer (Golluscio, 2009). The lexicon of Mapudungun is full of loanwords from the sociolinguistically dominant language Spanish. Although Spanish has adapted loanwords from Mapudungun, the influence is not nearly as great, and the transferring of words is mainly onesided in favor of Spanish (Golluscio, 2009). Unlike Quechua that underwent fundamental changes, such as the adaptation of the sound and grammatical systems to those of Spanish (Heggarty, 2006), Mapudungun maintains its phonology in loanwords with very few exceptions, preferring "Mapucheness." Therefore, I hypothesize that Mapudungun resists adopting foreign phones or structures as a way of stating their independence. Furthermore, I discuss historical and current sociolinguistic factors, such as the prestige of Spanish and lower status of Mapudungun, including the history of attributing negative stereotypes to the Mapuche since as early as the 1500s (Alvarado & Purcell, 2003). I also discuss public and political usages of the languages and linguistic discrimination of the Mapuche. In these analyses, I confront the impacts of discriminatory actions on a culture that has historically resisted foreign domination for centuries.
The Mandarin Chinese de as a Type Nominal Proform: A Syntax-Semantics Approach
(2016) Plesniak, Daniel H.; Huang, Shizhe
In this paper, it is argued that the Mandarin Chinese particle de is analogous to the English pronoun one/ones. Initial evidence of this can be seen in the English sentence he likes red ones (as in, I like green shirts, he likes red ones), which translates word for word to ta xihuan hongse de (lit. 'he like red DE'). At least superficially de and one appear to function identically This analysis, though, is not so simple to assert. Syntactic and semantic analysis of nominal modification in Chinese has long been complicated by the presence, or occasional lack thereof, of de. For example, one can say zang yifu, 'dirty clothes', and yet, one cannot say hen zang yifu 'very dirty clothes.' The correct form of the latter is hen zang de yfiu. The connection between de and one in these situations is not immediately evident. This analysis suggests, however, that such cases are actually examples of adjunction of the de-phrase onto the classifier phrase containing the rightmost noun. This process makes hen zang de yifu more directly analogous to the English 'clothes, dirty ones', as in he brought me lots of clothes, dirty ones or give me those clothes, the dirty ones. It will be argued that in English this construction is the result of adjunction of the NP headed by one, or the DP that contains that NP, to the DP that contains clothes. The question of why Chinese would employ this adjunction strategy for adjectival modification still remains. An answer can be found using a modified version of the schema for de found in Huang (2006). Noting that simple adjectives like zang 'dirty' could not serve as sentence predicates, but complex adjectives, such as those proceeded by hen 'very', as in hen zang 'very dirty' could serve as sentence predicates. Huang argues that Chinese simple adjectives are type e and Chinese complex adjectives are type
Mandarin language learning by American students: A research study on orthographic influences on pronunication accuracy in second-language learners
(2016) Richter, Kari Walker; Huang, Shizhe
The Critical Age Hypothesis states that language acquisition is inherent to humans, but that humans lose this ability over time after passing through several critical age periods (Lenneberg 1967). One of these periods of particular importance is around the age of ll-14, after which adolescent speakers who begin to study another language will struggle to develop the competence of a native speaker, with particular difficulty in learning the phonetic inventory (Krashen 1981). Furthermore, the theory of phonetic transfer suggests that aspects of the phonetics of one's native language naturally influence the learning of the phonetics of a target language (Gass and Selinker 1992). This study finds significant evidence for language transfer in four adult, native Englishspeaking learners of Mandarin Chinese. The similarity between Mandarin and English vowels [i] often leads to positive transfer for the speakers. However, negative transfer is also present to a large degree for these speakers. Relative vowel differences, such as the differing sounds for [u] between English and Chinese, result in significant negative transfer and pronunciation errors. In fact, negative transfer is present to some degree for most of the Chinese vowels. The subjects of this study even mispronounce [i] on occasion, which would be impossible if relative sound similarity or difference were the only influential factor. Thus, this thesis contends that orthographic inputs also lead to negative transfer. For example, the pinyin (i) in a Chinese word such as bin (~-'guest') is pronounced as [i]. Conversely, in English, this letter in the same environment, 'bin,' is pronounced [I]. This incongruous mapping of orthography to phonetics impacts American learners, who in this way are hindered by the use of pinyin before fully mastering the Chinese phonetic system.
A Minimal Rule Generalization Algorithm for Multi-Part Phonological rule Learning
(2017) Kostyszyn, Kalina; Huang, Shizhe
In the late 1990's, Adam Albright and Bruce Hayes worked together on an algoritlnn that learned morphologic patterns from input data, intending to use this as a model for how humans learn morphological and phonemic changes across languages as well. Though the system was effective, it had some shortcomings - the algorithm was not designed to handle some more complicated relationships between morphology and phonology. One such relationship is known as a derived environment, created when the addition of some morpheme generates a phonological pattern deemed unacceptable in that given language. When analyzing a word pair that contained the result of one of these environments, the algorithm reads the resulting change as an original part of the affix, without regard for underlying forms. Here, I examine the structure of the original algorithm and layout a method for how future modifications can implement a system to account for theoretical derived environments. This requires splitting the area of change into a substructure that breaks down into two segments: a section that originally is introduced by the affix, and a section that, given a feature-matched phone in the root, likely was transformed after the morpheme was added. To give an example in Polish, for the root word [vag] (,weight'), the result after applying a verb-denoting suffix (here, the suffix [iiJ!) is [va3iij] ('to weigh'). Where the origioal algorithm would read [3iij] as the entire suffix, the modified version breaks it into the 'original' suffix [iij] and the segment [3], the latter of which maps onto [g] in the original word. From this, a rule describing this particular phonological change is generated in addition to a rule describing the affixation.
Modeling Speakers’ Attitude towards Loanwords through Corpus Data: A Diachronic Case Study on English Loanwords in Russian
(2020) Feng, Synthia; Huang, Shizhe; Shaw, Jane
While the field of loanword research has received more attention since the Nineteenth Century, it has been noted that the existing literature is rather limited in terms of both the perspective and the methodology, both of which deserve special attention from future research. In an attempt to address these problems in the field, this thesis attempts to study loanwords from an onomasiological perspective with use of corpus data. It first examines the conceptual framework adopted in the field of loanwords research and modifies the inconsistencies within the framework for a better understanding on the process of lexical choice. Then, this thesis proposes a methodology that attempts to capture patterns in speakers’ attitude towards loanwords from corpus data. It ends with the application of the proposed methodology to a diachronic case study on a Russian word pair, one English loanword and its native synonym, in order to demonstrate the potential of such a methodology to provide a different understanding to the usage of loanwords.
Morphosyntax and semantic type of noun phrases in Turkish
(2014) Walter, Micah John; Huang, Shizhe
Chierchia (1998) proposed that the semantic type of nouns varies across languages: in some languages, nouns denote entities; in others, nouns denote predicates; in yet others, nouns of both types are attested. Chierchia posits the existence of two parameters to account for this division--namely [±arg], which determines whether a language contains nouns denoting arguments, and [±pred], which determines whether a language contains nouns denoting predicates. Chierchia then makes generalizations about each group. This paper examines the noun phrase semantics of Turkish. My analysis shows that not all [+arg, −pred] languages have nouns that act alike: while Turkish patterns in key ways with Chinese, a [+arg, −pred] language, it does not follow all of Chierchia's predictions for [+arg, −pred] languages. In particular, it appears that some Turkish nouns, while being "mass" in the sense that they denote kinds, are countable. Based on these findings, I introduce a third language parameter relevant to the semantic type of nouns, which I label [±count]: languages with countable nouns of type e, such as Turkish would be [+count], while languages with no countable nouns, such as Chinese, would be [−count]. Such a parameter accounts for the Turkish data described. Based on these observations, I work out a possible analysis of Turkish noun phrases that satisfies the Turkish data and corroborates the extended typology. This analysis posits that the "plural" suffix in Turkish has a determiner-like function, selecting a plural individual from a kind.
Nicaraguan Sign Language as a Realization of the Language Bioprogram
(2017) Buyco, Delfin Gerard; Huang, Shizhe
This study compares Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN) and Hawaiian Creole English (HCE) in order to validate the realization of the Language Bioprogram in environments that lack linguistic input. Bickerton (1981) proposed the existence of such a Bioprogram that acts as a mechanism that gives humans the innate sense of what for a language should take. Some (Kegl & McWhorter, 1997) have argued that sign languages are better candidates for studying the Bioprogram because deaf children are linguistically isolated because of their inability to hear spoken language and often their lack of access to deaf and sign language education. ISN is especially suited for a study about the Language Bioprogram because its de novo emergence in the late 20th century has been documented. In this work, it is hypothesized that if HCE and ISN were both products of the Language Bioprogram, then they should have structural similarities. And overall, there is evidence that ISN and HCE do have similar underlying structures. First, both languages feature SV as the basic word order and allow for topicalization of constituents by moving them to the front of the sentences. Both languages also exhibit similar behavior in terms of relative clauses, in that such clauses are subject to the A-over-A principle as described by Chomsky (1964). Second, both languages make similar basic distinctions with regards to definiteness of NPs, tense, mood, and aspect. Third, both languages feature similar mechanisms for negation, forming interrogatives, and expressing the existential and possessive. There were some supposed Bioprogram parameters that are found in HCE, but not in ISN, but this may be explained by modality-specific effects, environmental and social effects, or language contact. The similarities between HCE and ISN may be further evidence for an innate mechanism common to all humans that sets linguistic parameters. Conversely, the differences between HCE and ISN suggest that social and environmental factors may have lasting effects on cognition and language acquisition.
Requirement of Variable-Introducing Elements on Event Quantification in Chinese: A case study of 每 měi–VP sentences
(2024) Dantas e Moura, Guilherme Zeus; Huang, Shizhe
Chinese uses the 每–都 měi–dōu cooccurrence to express universal quantification. The case where 每 měi is followed by a noun phrase (měi–NP) is well studied, but the case where 每 měi is followed by a verb phrase (měi–VP) is often forgotten in the literature. Huang (1996) proposed a hypothesis about 每 měi–vp constructions in Chinese: the requirement of a variable-introducing element in the verb phrase. Common variable-introducing elements that are used in 每 měi–VP sentences include ⼀次 yī cì ‘one time’ and ⼀场 yī chǎng ‘one event’, which in some sense quantify over the eventuality denoted by the verb phrase. However, Huang (1996) shows an example where an indefinite direct object, namely ⼀篇⽂章 yī piān wénzhāng ‘one article’ , a variable-introducing element, also serves this role. This thesis strengthens the hypothesis of Huang (1996) by showing that it correctly predicts the grammaticality of a larger collection of sentences. The larger dataset includes ditransitive verbs, the 把 bǎ construction, and the verb copying construction, as well as includes sentences with two kinds of variable-introducing elements: indefinite expressions and the reflexive pronoun ⾃⼰ zìjǐ ‘self’.
The Rise of French: An Examination of Latin's Influence upon Middle French through Analysis of Christine de Pizan's Treatises
(2016) Jones, Susannah; Huang, Shizhe
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the vernacular Middle French began to be used more extensively as a language of prestige over Latin, which had been overwhelmingly the scholarly lingua franca as well as the official language in law, politics, medicine, and science. Part of this linguistic shift involved the elevation of French by latinization practices performed by translators, clerics, and writers seeking to capture the full meaning of the Latin and impose more formal structure upon Middle French, as well as to make French into a more serious and prestigious language. Christine de Pizan, a French author of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, provides an excellent case study for the use of Latin to elevate Middle French as a language of prestige. Sociolinguistically, her choice to write in Middle French over Latin shows a calculated choice to make her work more accessible to her intended audience of women, who were literate in the vernacular, but not in Latin. Her use of latinisms, or latinization processes shows an attempt to elevate her own French so that her writing may be taken seriously by her academic peers.

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