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Siegel, Jeff
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Given Name
Jeff
Jeffrey
Surname
Siegel
UNE Researcher ID
une-id:jsiegel2
Email
jsiegel@une.edu.au
Preferred Given Name
Jeff
School/Department
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
14 results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
- Publication¡Nosotros no hablamos así! ‘We don’t talk like that!’ Perceptions of misrepresentation and the imposition of a linguistic imaginary in popular Colombian telenovelas(University of New England, 2020-04-02)
; ; Linguistically, Colombia is divided into two macrodialects: cachaco (interior), which includes the hegemonic dialect group from the capital Bogotá, and costeño (coastal), a stigmatised dialect group. This dichotomy is also prominent in the Colombian social imaginary, and it is reflected in popular folk discourse on language, which in turn manifests itself in Colombian telenovelas, ‘soap operas’. This thesis builds on recent scholarship on the sociolinguistics of fiction (Stamou, 2018a) which centralises fictional discourse as being the principal object of study whilst also attempting to move beyond fidelity checks in television dialect representation, labelled the reflection fallacy (Androutsopoulos, 2010). Nevertheless, authenticity and how it is linguistically indexed are central, and I adopt the position that authenticity matters because my participants believe it does. I therefore explored the language ideologies behind how linguistic variation is indexed in Colombian telenovelas using the semiotic processes of iconisation, fractal recursivity, and erasure (Irvine & Gal, 2000), with the aim of identifying and examining the signature linguistic features (SLF), a sub-set of stereotypical linguistic markers that are higher-order indices of costeño (Johnstone, Andrus, & Danielson, 2006; Silverstein, 2003). Thirty extended interviews were held with actors, producers, directors, script writers, and voice coaches to determine perceptions, with costeño participants feeling their dialect is misrepresented. I also developed a corpus of telenovela data, consisting of 40 episodes taken from ten telenovelas. Whilst wary of “measuring authenticity”, I analyse if the perceived misrepresentation is reflected in telenovelas, as well as investigating how it is constructed, and more importantly, who decides on this depiction of variation. Findings show that the link between perceptions of misrepresentation and actual portrayal is complex and inconsistent; however, storytellers tend to reproduce these SLF, which are “hyperused” to index costeño identity, contributing to perceptions of misrepresentation. Importantly, these storytellers are often cachacos, raising complex questions of authenticity, identity, and representation. Broadly, this thesis contributes to the emerging sociolinguistics of fiction through the present investigation of the understudied Colombian sociolinguistic and telenovela contexts.
- PublicationStructural priming and second language learning(2013)
; Anton-Mendez, InesThis thesis investigates L2 structural priming in learners of English and the possible role of structural priming in second language acquisition. Three picture description production priming experiments were carried out in which speakers were exposed to prime sentences exhibiting a specific target structure. A pre- and post-test design was deployed to measure learning effects. In Experiment 1, fifty two L2 English speakers took part in a structural priming experiment targeting the production of get passives (e.g., the woman got arrested). Priming and learning effects were weak and were manifested in production of non-get passives. In contrast, in Experiment 2, where thirty eight L2 English speakers took part in another structural priming experiment targeting the production of stranded prepositions in relative clauses (e.g., a bed is something you sleep on), priming and learning effects were strong. The findings of learning through structural priming are interpreted as evidence of implicit learning of L2 structure. However, when the stranded preposition structure was primed in a different sentential context (i.e., the bed was too uncomfortable to sleep on) in a third experiment (n=40) only a weak priming effect emerged and there appeared to be no significant learning effect. These disparate findings suggest that the strength of L2 structural priming and subsequent learning effects might be modulated by the target structure. Implications for second language teaching and learning and theories of second language acquisition are discussed. - PublicationSecond Dialect AcquisitionThis book is about learning a new dialect, and how it is different from learning a new language. In this introductory chapter, I start by describing the contexts where this kind of learning occurs and some of the questions the book aims to answer. As I have tried to make the content accessible not just to linguists, I have also included some basic information for readers without a strong background in linguistics. This is about differentiating dialects, describing speech sounds and studying variation in language. The final section presents a brief outline of the book. The study of second language acquisition (often abbreviated as SLA) examines how people who already speak a first language (L1) subsequently acquire a second or additional language (L2). This book focuses on a special type of SLA – when the relationship between the L1 and the L2 is close enough for them to be considered by their speakers to be varieties of the same language, or different dialects, rather than different languages. In this situation, the term "second dialect acquisition" (SDA) can be used. The study of SDA examines how people who already speak one dialect (D1) acquire a different dialect (D2) of what they or their community perceive to be the same language.
- PublicationPidgins and CreolesPidgins and creoles are new varieties of language that emerge when people speaking different languages come into contact with each other. The study of these 'contact languages' falls mainly under the heading of sociolinguistics, but also intersects with many other subdisciplines, such as contact linguistics and applied linguistics. This chapter begins by providing some background: definitions of key terms and information about the current status and use of these languages. Then it describes four areas of research in pidgin and creole studies (sometimes called 'creolistics'). The next section concentrates on educational policy and practice. It discusses the use of pidgins and creoles for classroom instruction and special programmes aimed at speakers of these languages.
- PublicationReferring Expressions and Referential Practice in Roper Kriol (Northern Territory, Australia)(2011)
; ; In this thesis I describe aspects of referring expressions and referential practice in an English-lexified creole language spoken in the Ngukurr Aboriginal community, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Kriol has substrate influences from seven traditional Aboriginal languages. Dialects of Kriol are spoken in Aboriginal communities across the Top End of Australia; with estimates suggesting more than 20,000 people speak it as a first language. The language has a low status and in many contexts, such as health, medical and legal contexts, it frequently goes unrecognised as a legitimate language requiring interpreters. There is no comprehensive grammar of Kriol and as yet, there have been few in-depth studies into its structure and use. I investigate referential expressions in Kriol from various perspectives, using tools from a range of theoretical frameworks and research traditions, including descriptive linguistics, discourse analysis, information structure, and ethnopragmatics. The thesis provides an integrated description of how referential expressions are structured and how they are used in spontaneous talk to meet communicative needs. A further goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that there is significant continuity of referring strategies from Kriol's Aboriginal substrate languages. The data used in this study consists of a corpus of spontaneous discourse between two or more speakers, elicited material, and consultation with Elders on cultural issues relevant to language use. ... Each chapter contributes original description of the Kriol language. By combining a number of theoretical perspectives, the thesis offers an integrated description of the structure and function of referring expressions. - PublicationBilingual literacy in creole contextsThis article examines whether the conventional notion of bilingual literacy is applicable to speakers of creole languages in terms of autonomy, codification, instrumentalisation, education and literacy practices. It then goes on to describe alternative conceptions of both literacy and bilingualism that appear to be more relevant to creole contexts - namely, the sociocultural literacy approach and truncated bilingualism. The article concludes with a discussion of the educational benefits to creole speakers of adopting either conventional or alternative bilingual literacy practices in the classroom.
- PublicationTransitive and Intransitive Verbs in Nama, a Papuan Language of Southern New GuineaNama, a Papuan language spoken in southern New Guinea, indexes the person and number of the A argument of a transitive verb with a suffix, and the P argument with a prefix. For a large subset of transitive verbs, valency can be reduced to one argument by one of two strategies. In the first, an intransitive form of the verb stem is used and the remaining S argument is indexed like an A argument of a transitive verb. In the second strategy, the transitive verb stem is used and the S argument is indexed like a P argument. Thus, Nama appears to be a language with split intransitivity. After presenting some background information on Nama, this article describes these two strategies and their functions in detail. In comparison with other languages, the first strategy itself is not uncommon in detransitivizing languages, but the scope of its grammatical functions appears to be typologically unusual. The second strategy, however, is more unusual, but also more restrictive in function. The article concludes by discussing whether the use of a derived verb stem with an intransitive marker can, in fact, be considered as a valency reduction strategy.
- PublicationThe languages of Southern New Guinea(De Gruyter Mouton, 2018)
- PublicationContact Languages of the PacificWith over 1,000 indigenous languages and a recent history of colonial exploitation, the Pacific region has provided a fertile context for the growth of contact languages. This chapter first describes new languages (pidgins and creoles) and then new dialects (koines and indigenized varieties) that have emerged in the Pacific as the result of language contact. Pidgins are new languages that develop out of a need for a medium of communication among people who do not share a common language – for example, between traditional trading partners or among plantation laborers from diverse geographic origins. Although the chapter shows the diverse origins and linguistic features of Pacific contact varieties, some commonality in their development can also be seen in various shared characteristics. These include formal simplicity compared to contributing languages.
- PublicationThe relative pronoun strategy: New data from southern New GuineaThe Relative Pronoun strategy is commonly used for relativization in European languages such as English – for example: The woman [ who won the lottery ] is my neighbour. In this strategy the head nominal (here the woman) is indicated inside the relative clause by a clause-initial pronominal element (the relative pronoun, here who). The Relative Pronoun strategy has been characterized as an exclusively European areal feature (e.g. Comrie 1998). This article describes this strategy in more detail, as well as previous accounts of its distribution, and goes on to demonstrate that the same strategy is also found in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea.