Identifier

etd-04082013-145504

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between Cajun status, as defined by location, and five grammatical structures of Cajun English (CE): zero marking of past tense, zero marking of third person singular, zero marking of copula is and are, and was-leveling. The data were from 35 kindergartners, 14 from a Cajun status school, 21 from a non-Cajun status school; 15 were male and 20 were female. The data compared rate-based differences between the Cajun status and non-Cajun status children’s productions of the five CE structures in transcribed language samples. Five independent samples t-tests revealed that the children’s Cajun status did not have an effect on their use of the five CE grammatical structures. Given this, a repeated measures ANOVA was performed using structure as the within-subject variable and the five CE structures as levels. These results indicated that when the percentages of the Cajun status and non-Cajun status productions were combined, CE structure use varied as a function of structure. Additionally, a correlation coefficient was used to explore other possible factors that may have shared a relationship with the children’s productions of the five grammar structures. There was a strong negative correlation between the syntax subtest of the DELV-NR and zero marking of past tense. There was a moderately negative correlation between the PTONI and zero marking of third person singular. These findings suggest that similarities exist between the children’s use of the five previously designated structures of CE despite their Cajun or non-Cajun status. Cajun status as defined solely by the location of a child’s school did not render significant differences in the kindergartners’ CE structure use.

Date

2013

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Oetting, Janna

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.3904

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