Linguistics

An interesting arena of second language acquisition surrounds second language structures that have no correlate in the native language. This paper presents a case study of the acquisition of a particular Spanish morpheme-the "Personal A"-by an English speaker learning Spanish. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the participant has successfully acquired the morpheme and then, based on the result of that inquiry, attempt to explain why such is the case.

By the time they enter school, children have already encountered a wealth of print language, from fast food logos to clothing labels and from television programs to appliances. A vein of research has suggested that children’s literacy instruction is most successful when it harnesses this previous exposure to print language—young students’ sociocultural knowledge—as an educational tool. Perhaps this type of education also happens informally: For example, young children may learn to associate the pronunciation of “McDonald’s” with the written logo. The proposed study will dive deeper into this phenomenon: Are children who can recognize logos—meaning they are able to associate a design with a particular meaning—better than their peers at recognizing printed words? If so, we can say that they are exhibiting advanced signs of emergent literacy, which include knowledge of print conventions (e.g. left-to-right reading in English, spaces between words and punctuation norms) and letter knowledge (i.e. the association of letters with sounds) (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). If children can distinguish words from non-words, they must already be beginning to synthesize these skills. I hypothesize that children who are more successful at recognizing logos are also better at distinguishing words from non-words. This paper outlines a methodology for testing this hypothesis.

A number of bilingual Puerto Rican reggaeton artists use both English and Spanish in their lyrics. Why might these artists use code-switching in their music? Music is meant to convey a message; how does code-switching enhance or change that message? From these wonderings, this research asked: What is the nature and purpose of code-switching in Puerto Rican hip-hop? It was found that the density of Spanish in reggaeton music has evolved considerably over the first decade of the 21st century, and that the motivations for code-switching in reggaeton are overall similar to those in the music of other cultures.

Tito, a recent fanzine by Catalonian artist Arnau Sanz Martínez, exhibits various neologistical borrowings, metalinguistic knowledge on the part of the characters, and invented lexical and morphological items that behave systematically. Because of the nature of fanzines and Tito in particular, we can posit that these may also be features of colloquial modern speech in Catalonia.

We often consider the paralinguistic aspects of speech that modulate meaning—gesture, volume and speed of delivery, for example. But we seldom consider the paralinguistic aspects of the written word. In this MA thesis, the author considers the phenomenon of writing in all caps as a means of conveying paralinguistic information on the Internet.

This paper explores a possible link between neographic representations of [ʧ] in online written Spanish. Orthographically, [ʧ] is represented by <ch>, but neographically it is most often represented by <x>, though <xx> and <tx> are used sometimes. Based on a corpus analysis of Spanish Yahoo! Answers data, it seems that females are more likely to employ neographic representations of [ʧ].

Advances in technology allow for new modes of access to both secular and religious information. Historically, some religious groups seem to have been eager to acknowledge technological developments, while others have done so reluctantly. Nevertheless, the sustainability of a religious tradition depends on the ability of its practitioners to continually access information in an evolving world. Modern technology has occasioned broader religious information landscapes than ever before, to the extent that religion can seemingly be practiced using entirely online tools. Is this possibility borne out in reality? Through an analysis of the nature and historical development of Zen Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, this study identifies some aspects inherent in each tradition that have influenced each one’s religious information landscape. It then explores the extent to which each religion can be practiced without an in-person faith community. These findings suggest an opportunity for further investigation into the information behavior of technology-enabled believers as a means of better understanding the future of religious experience.

Ultrarunning is an individual sport and serious leisure pursuit that requires ongoing information access and use during events, but has not yet been studied in information research. This study leverages a link between the theory of life in the round and the serious leisure perspective to explore the information experience of an ultrarunner during his first 100-mile race, identifying ultra-endurance sports as a fruitful context for information research and invites further consideration of discrete serious leisure events rather than solely ongoing processes. Its findings may also apply to other high-stress, individualistic performance contexts. This study also establishes autophenomenography as a suitable methodology in information research.

This essay explores the philosophy of time and documents. It first presents a number of theories of time and discusses how time has been applied in research on documents to date. These applications have been limited by their conceptualization of time. In order to extend our understanding of documental time, this paper draws from Heidegger's experiential theory of time and the theory of document transaction in order to introduce a theory of documental time. In documental time, the past and future of the person and the past and future of the object cohere in a shared present. The special case of numinous document experiences—and numinous time—is also explored.

Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to invite further consideration of and research into the authoritativeness, reliability and trustworthiness of documents. How do documents come to be trusted? Why are some more trusted than others?

Design/methodology/approach: The cases of the Oxford English Dictionary and Wikipedia policies are explored from a historical perspective, and other cases are considered.

Findings: Authoritativeness seems inherent to documents because of a cognitive metaphor that says “what is persistent is trustworthy”.

Practical implications" This feature of documents exposes users to a number of pitfalls related to trusting illegitimate documents. This has important implications for document literacy.

Originality/value: New insight into documents is achieved by applying cognitive metaphors and prototype theory to documents

This study examines the experience of literary reading as an example of document work. It launches from the insight that books are mediated through technology, and all technology presents affordances. When a book is remediated, how do the affordances of the remediated technology change the reader’s experience with the book? Using analytical perspectives from phenomenology and semiotics, this study examined reader reviews of Ulysses and Infinite Jest in three formats: hardcover, audiobook and Kindle. Findings suggest that, while immersive experiences occur with both novels across all formats, reviewers of the hardcover books demonstrated deeper experiences with the novels, while reviewers of other formats demonstrated sensitivity to issues in the remediation process.

The concept of document is common and fundamental to numerous information-related disciplines. Perhaps because of this, many definitions of document have been proposed. A conceptual analysis reveals that all these definitions, though they vary in important ways, have a common feature that has not yet been stated explicitly: Humans are vital to documents. That is, a human being is inextricable from the very notion of document. This leads to a further conceptualization of documents as psycho-physical or socio-physical entities that are co-created. Consequently, all documents must be viewed as idiosyncratic and context-bound. Further ramifications for information research, ethics and practice are discussed. Finally, reconsideration of this conceptualization in light of the possible approach of the technological singularity is provoked.

Advances in technology allow for new modes of access to both secular and religious information. Historically, some religious groups seem to have been eager to accept technological developments, while others have done so reluctantly. Nevertheless, the sustainability of a religious tradition depends on the ability of its believers to continually access information in an evolving world. Modern technology has occasioned broader religious information landscapes than ever before, to the extent that religion can seemingly be practiced using entirely online tools. Is this possibility borne out in reality? Through a synthesis of the nature and historical development of Zen Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, this study identifies some aspects inherent in each tradition that have influenced each one’s religious information landscape. It then explores the extent to which each religion can be practiced without an in-person faith community. These findings suggest an opportunity for further investigation into the information behavior of technology-enabled believers as a means of better understanding the future of religious experience.

This study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative interview methodology, to examine the information experience of Catholic readers of the Bible. It presents a detailed, individual-focused account of how Catholics experience the Bible, in its diverse oral, print and digital manifestations, as a source of religious information. Partici- pants in this study were found to experience the Bible as God’s Word, with which they inter- face in three thematic ways: Connections, Journey and Practice. These themes are, in turn, linked by the processes of sharing, repetition and interpretation. This work extends previous research on the religious reading of believers and numinous document experience, and it contributes to a budding conceptualization of reading as an example of document work rather than a merely cognitive activity.

The concept of document is common and fundamental to numerous information-related disciplines. Perhaps because of this, many definitions of document have been proposed. A conceptual analysis reveals that all these definitions, though they vary in important ways, have a common feature that has not yet been stated explicitly: Humans are vital to documents. That is, a human being is inextricable from the very notion of document. This leads to a further conceptualization of documents as psycho-physical or socio-physical entities that are co-created. Consequently, all documents must be viewed as idiosyncratic and context-bound. Further ramifications for information research, ethics and practice are discussed. Finally, reconsideration of this conceptualization in light of the possible approach of the technological singularity is provoked.