Journal of Undergraduate Research

Jennifer Smith and Dr. Alan K. Melby, Linguistics GEvTerm is an initiative whose primary goal is to “address language challenges on a global scale” . One method for achieving this goal is to provide databases of terms in many different languages in order to help facilitate translation and communication. One example is their Olympic Sporting […]

Eve Okura and Dr. Cynthia Hallen, Linguistics In cultures with oral traditions, sacred place names and ritual language may serve as a sacred text of a people. Cultures across the globe have unique definitions of and rules reagrding sacred space. Knowing these rules and definitions can help the cross-cultural traveler exhibit more culturally sensitive behavior […]

Katherine Morris and Dr. Wendy Baker, Department of Linguistics and English Language Introduction Studying attitudes toward different varieties of English has helped researchers understand how different language groups interact. When a listener judges a particular speaker based solely on his or her variety of English, the listener is really making a judgment on the group […]

Bradley Miller and Dr. Janis B. Nuckolls, Linguistics The original Quechua language was the main language spoken in the ancient Inca Empire. This language became over the years the native language of many Indians of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile. However in the 1500’s, with the conquistadores, Spanish became the language of dominance and […]

Silia Dutson and Dr. Wendy Baker, Linguistics and English Language Department As an international student it’s easy to see the importance of language learning and how it can be a means to create and take advantage of opportunities. The learning of a second language is so important that there is an extensive field of research […]

Arle R. Lommel and Dr. John Robertson, Linguistics The fifteenth century was an important time in the development of the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian language. Despite a war with both the Turks and the Austrians, Hungarian culture was undergoing a flowering in the independent principality of Transylvania. This was linked largely to the introduction […]

Malena Weitze and Dr. Deryle Lonsdale, Department of Linguistics An oral testing method, Elicited imitation (EI), has provided helpful insight into the process of language acquisition and language assessment over the past 40 years. EI is an oral test in which the subject hears a sentence, forms a cognitive representation, and then produces a sentence […]

Alisha Walbrecht Introduction Metaphors are a very important aspect of language, particularly of the English language. Lakoff and Johnson opened linguists to the study of metaphors by pointing out that English speakers use metaphors throughout their speech. For example, Lakoff and Johnson say that the phrase “spending time” is evidence of the metaphor “time is […]

Adam Prestidge and Dr. William Eggington, Department of Linguistics and English Language In a nation governed by laws, change in the meaning of the words that compose those laws can have an unexpected impact. When I began to research this topic, I noticed that in certain Supreme Court cases, the word liberty was central to […]

Ross Hendrickson and Dr. Deryle Lonsdale, Linguistics Department Elicited imitation (EI) was originally used to study L1 acquisition in children and has since been applied to L2 oral proficiency testing (Chaudron, 1994). The PSST research group I am involved with has been researching EI as a viable method of language proficiency testing for some years […]