The two Saudi Arabian dialects, Ghamdi and Zahrani Arabic (henceforth referred to as GA and ZA), have not received much attention linguistically. The current study provides a descriptive account of several aspects of the phonology of the aforementioned dialects. This study centers on three main topics. First, it describes stress assignment and shows regional variation of both dialects. It is shown that syllable weight, geminates as well as suffixation play significant roles in attracting stress in GA and ZA. Second, it deals with some deletion processes occurring in GA and ZA. Due to a language rule, it exhibits that word-final long vowels and geminates can be affected by final weight reduction. Also, it discusses and probes a phonological phenomenon of compensatory lengthening in the definite article of Arabic /ʔal-/ in ZA, which has never as yet been the subject of linguistic investigation before. It also analyzes cases of compensatory lengthening due to the deletion of the glottal stop /ʔ/ word-internally. And, as in many Arabic varieties, it also shows that /ʔ/ is deleted word-finally. Third, it sheds light on various cases of regressive and progressive assimilation. In particular, it investigates some assimilatory processes resulting from the interaction with some prefixes. It shows that root-initial consonants undergo assimilation with prefixes in GA and ZA. Finally, it shows that a prefixal vowel can also undergo vowel harmony when a prefix attaches to the root. The principal goals of this study are to enrich Arabic dialectology in general and Saudi Arabian Arabic dialectology in particular through examining data from two dialects spoken in a southwestern region in Saudi Arabia, Albaha region, and also to study and present phonological issues of GA and ZA that have not been under previous research or analysis in the literature.

In an increasingly globalized world, the issue of minor languages and their preservation is critical as the popularity of more widely-spoken languages is oppressing them both consciously and subconsciously. The preservation of these languages is important as they not only correspond with unique cultural practices, but with literature and oral tradition as well—all of which will be lost with the extinction of the language. The Sassarese (also called Turritano) and Pumuntincu (Oltramontano/Southern Corsican) languages found on the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, respectively, are both classified by UNESCO as highly endangered as they are spoken by 100,000 or fewer people. This thesis is designed as a report describing the level of preservation of the languages of Pumuntincu in southern Corsica and Sassarese in northern Sardinia. It describes the availability of language resources (educational or otherwise), current and former language policies, and any local efforts to preserve the language. Field research was conducted on the islands in the communities where the languages are spoken as well as at the Universities of Sassari and Corsica. The findings confirmed that both languages are, indeed, in a perilous situation, prompting language policy recommendations for both the French and Italian governments to implement in conjunction with existing policies of other recognized minor languages in each country, i.e. Sard, Gallurese, Tabarchino, Breton, Basque, and Cismontano/Northern Corsican.

The following is a brief grammatical sketch of the Chechen language whose analysis largely follows that of the existing Ingush grammar by Johanna Nichols. All data was elicited virtually from native speakers via translation exercises. It presents the current orthography of the language as well as the transcription system used in Nichols and Vagapov's Chechen dictionary, and further discusses the morphology of the major parts of speech as well as a few syntactic characteristics of the language such as agreement, coordination, and subordination.

This paper examines the function of grammar and pragmatics in testimonies and cross-examinations, specifically in sexual assault cases in the United States. Past research demonstrates a society’s view of sexual assault, particularly as a means of control, is reflected in cross-examination methodologies, which propagates into the laws surrounding sexual assault. This aims to investigate the impact the shift in societal perspective on sexual assault has on the cross-examination methodologies and ultimately the laws surrounding sexual assault in the United States. The incorporation of Conversation Analysis (CA) is used as a framework to evaluate the court transcripts. The framework is coupled with guidelines previously used to examine sexual assault cross-examinations in other countries. It is imperative to apply this to the United States as the view on sexual assault differs. The cross-examination and testimony transcripts in three court cases are examined. The guidelines for grammar include transitivity, use of adverbials and modals, nominalizations and subjects of unaccusatives, while the pragmatics focus on strategic questioning, presupposition, and selective reformulation. The findings in this qualitative study demonstrate the lack of progress the United States judicial system has made in terms of sexual assault. While the societal perspective shifts, the cross-examination methodology and the language of the laws remain constant, despite increase in awareness and supporting Acts. Given the small scope of research conducted in the United States, more research is necessary, along with reformation of the court proceedings and laws surrounding sexual assault.

Attending college is like embarking on a journey of self-discovery and transformation. Education as a heroic journey transforms students in such a way that it will invite them to re-examine their conceptual structures, as well as internalized cultural norms. While heroes make their way through their journey, they are often viewed as drawing upon different archetypes. By recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each archetype, the Hero can consciously rely on the most beneficial attribute of this transformative journey. Despite the essential role of universal archetypes in students’ educational journey, they have been overlooked and replaced by a more functional approach in which personal development is neglected. Therefore, calling for a transformative educational approach in higher education has been advocated to push against the boundaries imposed by the functional approach and to help students transcend their personal boundaries. The purpose of this study is to discover the dominant Shadow archetypes of first-year college students and to explore the influence of archetypal unconscious traits on students’ self-efficacy. To investigate students’ archetypal personalities, two questionnaires: Pearson-Marr Archetypal Indicator (PMAI) and Sherer’s General Self-Efficacy Scale (SGSES), were applied. To investigate students’ perceptions on the influence of their Shadow archetypes, semi-structured online based interviews through Zoom were conducted. For the quantitative data analysis, statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS; and for the qualitative data analysis, deductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview protocols. It was revealed from the findings that the most active archetypes among first year college students are the Seeker, Jester, and Caregiver archetypes. The most common Shadow archetypes that are active among first year college students are the Idealist, Ruler, and the Warrior archetypes. The statistical analysis indicated that there is a linear relationship between the Shadow archetypes and students’ self-efficacy. The thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that first year college students’ academic self-efficacy is influenced by the traits of their Shadow archetypes in various ways. Some of these influences are lack of motivation, procrastination, inability to set goals, irresponsibility, and negative self-evaluation. Keywords: Shadow, Self-Knowledge, Archetypes, Self-efficacy, Transformative Education.

Moral status questions, (who and what counts morally) are of central concern to moral philosophers. There is also a rich history of psychological work exploring the topic. The received view in psychology of moral status accounts for it as a function of other mind perception. On this view, entities are morally considerable because they are perceived to have the right sort of minds. This dissertation analyzes and tests this theory, pointing out both empirical and conceptual issues with the received view. The results presented show that important moral intuitions (for example about unjustifiable interpersonal killing) cannot be explained by appealing to other mind perception. Some alternative views of the psychology of moral status are presented, as well as avenues for further research.

Screenplays and novels are similar in that they both tell a story. However, the two are not the same. Screenplays and novels have a significantly different function and purpose from one another. With that being said, this thesis conducts a register analysis to discover the prominent linguistic differences in each register. Overall, this study finds that novels and screenplays do in fact have linguistic features that differ from one another. The linguistic features distinctive to a screenplay are: shorter sentences, more non-standard sentences, and more nouns. Longer sentences, independent clause coordination constituents, phrasal constituents, and reduced predicate adjective phrases are the linguistic features present in the novel.

The study aims to explore negation in Mehri and provide a historical and theoretical account for the types of negation in Mehri. I begin with a diachronic analysis by adopting the grammaticalization theory and providing several examples illustrating how this process— grammaticalization —is taking place in Mehri. I also discuss the negative existential cycle suggested by Croft (1991) and I find Mehri language to be in Stage B > C. In addition, I propose an account of the negative copula in Mehri after I show examples for the reanalysis of a pronoun as a copula because of the grammaticalization process. I demonstrate how this pronoun ends in the head position of predicate phrase (PredP) and raises to attach to the negative l- /al and forms the negative copula. Regarding the theoretical account, I follow Laka (1994), Van Gelderen, (2011) and argue that a negative particle in bi-partite negative clauses was weakened and changed to Polarity Phrase (PolP). In other words, I assume that the preverbal negative (if any) is in the Tense Phrase (TP) layer, changed to a polarity phrase with a u-negative feature in need of checking by the new negative la, projected above TP. I also provide a morphological account by assuming that the preverbal negative particles are clitics that are picked by the subject or verb movement. This agrees with Chomsky (2001) and Boeckx and Stjepanović (2001) who find that head movement involves morphological components. To account for negation and negative polarity items (NPIs), I argue that NPIs such as nowah ‘never’ and ʃaagtaʕ ‘never’ merge with the negative element la to check the negative feature. Finally, I propose an account of negation associated with coordinates clauses, following van Gelderen (2006) who states “the speaker will only use —e.g., coordinates— for structures where a phrase is necessary” (P.6), similarly, Iassume that grammaticalization is not active in Mehri negative coordinates clauses because they are phrases. For this reason, I suggest a feature named W feature in the coordinate phrase that needs checking by the negative al-/l to form one unit with the following element.

The purpose of this dissertation is three-fold: to further the understanding of grammar learning strategies (GLS) that students at an American university use when they engage in language study sessions on their own, in technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) outside of the classroom; to examine how previous language learning experience (PLLE) influences the application of GLS in individual study sessions in TELL; and to investigate the roles that technology plays in students’ use of strategies to study grammar individually, in TELL. By adopting a modified version of Oxford’s Strategic Self-regulation (S2R) Model of language learning and Pawlak’s Grammar Learning Strategy Inventory (GLSI), this mixed-method study took a contextualized approach to GLS investigation in order to fill gaps in identifying GLS application and draw a detailed inventory of GLS preferred by college students. Findings drew on data from a systematic full-semester investigation of the strategic behaviors deployed by US university undergraduate students while they completed French and Spanish grammar activities assigned as regular coursework in a TELL environment. Moreover, the goals of this dissertation were achieved by tapping into strategy use and the factors influencing it, more generally, through a questionnaire, interviews, and language learning histories. The overall findings indicated that metacognitive strategies were preferred by participants, followed by cognitive strategies, with sociocultural-interactive strategies being least frequently used. Additionally, some of the main PLLE factors found to influence the GLS use were: past language instructors’ teaching methodologies, previous knowledge of other languages, and foreign language strategy transfer. Finally, technology was found to play several roles in GLS application, such as: promoting strategic use of language learning, making language learning more flexible and convenient, and making language learning more engaging/fun/entertaining. The findings of this study contribute valuable insights into the field of GLS, in a research context still largely underexplored, grammar study in TELL outside the classroom. The study also contributes novel findings on the types of contextual factors related to students’ PLLE that influence their choices and use of GLS as well as the roles that technology plays in GLS application.

This dissertation presents a minimalist account of null arguments in Maybrat. Different generative theories have been put forward for conditions that trigger the appearance of null subjects in a number of languages. There have been two general lines of position since Perlmutter's initial identification of null subjects in some European languages. The first posits that null subjects (pro) appear in languages with a rich agreement paradigm, known as the rich agreement hypothesis. The second argues that rich agreement is not attested in other languages. It suggests that discourse context triggers the appearance of null pronouns. This study was based on the descriptive analysis of 18 stories gathered from the fieldwork and corpus of Maybrat spoken texts. It claims that the two approaches may not fully explain the appearance of null arguments in Maybrat for three respects. First, the null subjects appear in the clauses that both have agreement and no agreement. Second, not all verbs with agreement markers are fully specified in person, number, or gender features (φ-features). Third, objects are also dropped freely in many contexts despite the lack of agreement. Building on the minimalist framework of Agree, the dissertation proposes the derivation of pro in two ways. First, the Tense (T) head is strong in φ-features and pro is a Determiner Phrase (DP). They participate in a local Agree relation. Second, pro is weak in definite feature (D-feature) and the functional head T is deficient for lacking φ-features. The Agree relation can operate if T inherits the features from the Complementizer (C) head. Thus, a long-distance Agree between C and pro is assumed. This dissertation concludes that the appearance of null arguments in Maybrat is licensed either by the agreement head, the discourse context, or a combination of the two conditions. However, among the three conditions, discourse context plays a significant role in promoting the null arguments since pro appears regardless of the verbal agreement inflections. For this reason, this dissertation also proposes that Maybrat may be classified as a radical pro-drop language.