At the frontier of political liberalism

Holst, Bradley D Georgetown University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Political liberals aim to provide an account of how to achieve political unity under conditions of ethical pluralism. To that end, they invite us to think about the theoretical endeavor in a novel way: normative arguments are to be crafted out of the raw materials latent in the public political culture. From this methodological innovation derive two advantages---one epistemological, one motivational. Political liberals thus promise citizens a way to avoid intractable metaphysical debates over the meaning and value of life while identifying moral motives that can sustain a liberal regime with minimal coercion. My doubts about the adequacy of political liberalism emerge when political liberals take up foreign affairs. Any theory that pretends to capture the right way for us to think about politics generally must help us to think through the full range of our political experience, so political liberals must look beyond liberal society. The central criticism emerging from my research is that, when theorizing foreign affairs, political liberals consistently violate their own methodological commitments as well as substantive liberal ideals. Indeed, despite their commitment to grounding theory in political culture, a universalizing instinct seems overriding in most political liberal treatments of foreign affairs. Like their metaphysical forebears, political liberals believe liberal values and institutions to be "the best hope for the species;" however, their mode of theorizing makes it impossible to support this conviction with good reasons. Holding the commitment to grounding theory in political culture fixed, I argue that a more coherent political liberal treatment of foreign affairs begins from the recognition of two things. First, in moving from theorizing domestic politics to theorizing foreign affairs, the political culture and, consequently, the theorist's moral resources change. Second, the liberal tradition includes instincts---e.g., wariness of concentrated power and suspicion of uniformity---that countervail against universalism. Ultimately, a more tenable political liberal account of foreign affairs must be more forbearing, pausing at the frontier of liberal society to invite non-liberal others into conversation, the shared understandings emerging from which must serve as the basis of any claim to legitimate authority.

The role of discourse context and verb class in native and nonnative Spanish postverbal subjects

Zach, Ariel A Georgetown University 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Recent research on the second language (L2) acquisition of postverbal subjects in Spanish has focused on the important role of discourse context in licensing postverbal subjects with unaccusative and unergative verbs (Hertel, 2003; Lozano, 2006; Dominguez & Arche, 2008; Dominguez, 2013). While these studies have made important advances in early L2 research within the generative framework, in which the structure was studied as a part of the pro-drop parameter (White, 1985; 1986, Liceras, 1988; 1989), they only examine intransitive verbs, do not consider the role of nuclear stress, and do not compare postverbal subject use across discourse contexts nor include contrastive focus as a discourse context. These shortcomings have led to variable performance by the native speaker controls, which make any claims of native or non-native like performance on the part of L2 learners questionable. This dissertation uses empirical data to incorporate discourse context, verb type, and nuclear stress into one experiment examining postverbal subjects in Spanish by native speakers and English-speaking L2 learners. A multi-componential experiment was conducted, consisting of two oral assessment tasks, in order to gauge native speakers' and L2 learners' ability to produce and rate sentences with postverbal subjects compared to those with preverbal subjects. It considers three discourse contexts: wide, narrow, and contrastive focus, four verb types: unaccusative, unergative, transitive, and ditransitive verbs, and transitive verbs with topicalized objects. Ninety-five L2 learners from four proficiency levels and thirty-seven native speaker controls completed the study. Results show that for the contexts in which native speakers most frequently use postverbal subjects, namely with topicalized objects and in contrastive focus, L2 learners from low through advanced proficiency can also use postverbal subjects, and knowledge of postverbal subjects increases significantly with proficiency. The optionality of pre- and postverbal subjects in narrow and contrastive focus is explained syntactically by positing a null pro[FOC] that can optionally be used in the numeration along with the lexical subject when it bears matching agreement and focus features. The Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2008; 2009) can explain L2 behavior by positing difficulty in reassembling the features from one lexical item in English, the lexical subject, to two lexical items in Spanish, the lexical subject and pro[FOC].

Jury duty: Competing legal ideologies and the interactional negotiation of authority in jury deliberation

Magenau, Keller S Georgetown University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

According to Philips (1998), as a state-connected institution, criminal courts are a site of interactional construction of nation-states as a sociocultural phenomenon. Past analyses of the construction of institutional authority have focused on ways in which officials (re)enforce institutional practices. This study examines ways that lay participants negotiate, appropriate and challenge institutional authority and ideology. In an interactional sociolinguistic discourse analysis of a jury deliberation in a US criminal trial, I examine the interactional process and outcomes of the jury's decision-making. I introduce the concept<italic> kinetic intertextuality</italic> to account for jurors' embodied orientation to, and appropriation of, the legalistic texts in their presence. I demonstrate that legalistic texts, such as jury instructions, become an organizing element of the interaction through the jurors' verbal and embodied intertextual links to them. Jurors actively incorporate these materials into their interaction as a means of appropriating legal authority, and backgrounding their agency in constructing a legal reality. The legalistic texts recontextualize (Bernstein 1990) a formalist legal ideology, rendering legal formalism <italic>the</italic> “reified and naturalized meaning” (Iedema and Wodak 1999: 13) of law. I demonstrate, further, that framing plays a role in reifying <italic> legal formalism</italic>. I examine how jurors use framing to legitimate formalism, and de-legitimate an alternative legal ideology, <italic>legal realism</italic>. Jurors' contributions that adhere to a formalist ideology are ratified within the deliberation frame, while contributions that propound a realist ideology are rejected as out-of-frame activity. What counts as deliberating becomes part of an ideological struggle to determine the meaning of law. The study makes new connections among literatures. In combining the insights from research on language, the body, and the material surround with research on intertextuality, I expand the notion of interactional appropriation of texts to include kinetic intertextuality. I bring frame analysis to bear on understanding the relationship between interaction and ideological struggle. I demonstrate that frames can be ideologically constituted, and frame shifts can be used to strategically legitimate one ideology over others. I conclude that legal formalism is imposed on the deliberation through jurors' active appropriation of the authority of the courts' texts, affecting how the law is constructed.

Music and the making of the Kazak nation, 1920--1936 (Soviet Union)

Rouland, Michael R Georgetown University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This dissertation considers the Soviet policy of rooting both socialist and nationalist messages in public performance culture as part of a modernization campaign to promote nationalism, a constructed national vision, and a national state in Kazakstan. In this image of the Kazak nation, the state enabled the Kazak elite to locate themselves in the Soviet system. Through the evolution of this elite from participants in a Soviet ethnographic project to the realization of a refined nationality culture in the 1936 festival of Kazak arts, the idea of a modern Kazak nation emerged. Rather than an imperial technology, the Soviets devised a new type of nation in a system of nations where the expression of unique national cultures was central and essential. The evolutionary movement of the Kazak nation is part of a larger discussion of nationality formation in the twentieth century. This dissertation offers new methods for and insights into the broader study of nationalism by placing music at the center of the discourse and offering alternatives to the European-centered model of nations. Ultimately, my research addresses more than a study of Central Asia by employing an example of national and state formation emblematic of Soviet nationality policy writ large. In the midst of massive social changes in the 1920s and 1930s, the ideology of socialism, and the radical imposition of a new economy in Kazakstan, music continued to play an instrumental role in providing a stable cultural link to the traditional world that was being rapidly transformed. By tracing the path of cultural encounter from the ethnographic discovery of early collectors of Kazak music to the cultural transmission of these artifacts through nationalist terms in 1930s, this dissertation reveals the mechanisms of Soviet power and attitudes towards the development of non-Russian nationalisms in the creation of the Kazak national republic.

Communication across ability-status: A nexus analysis of the co-construction of agency and disability in Oman

Al Zidjaly, Najma Georgetown University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This study brings together the approaches to agency put forth in action theory, discursive psychology, and literary theory in the context of disability discourse to explore the construction and negotiation of agency in communication across ability-status between an Omani quadriplegic man, Yahya, and his caregivers. Oman is an Islamic Arab country where disability is conceptualized as biomedical only, not social. Personal agency in Oman is considered primarily in the context of selecting among choices proffered by God. To consider how Yahya and his caregivers construct and negotiate agency in this cultural context, I use a nexus analysis framework to examine and link both discursive and non-discursive actions occurring at micro (interactional) and macro (societal) levels. The analysis draws on a unique set of interdiscursive data that I collected over the course of nine months of ethnographic fieldwork dedicated primarily to audio-taping and videotaping communication between Yahya and his main caregivers, including me. The data set also includes public discourse on disability in Oman, ethnographic observations, and numerous technological artifacts. Taking a social constructivist view, the analysis considers (1) how Yahya uses computer-related actions to construct agentive identities, and the role his co-interlocutors play in this process; (2) how Yahya engages in non-narrative discourse tactically to negotiate inclusion and attempts at exclusion, and how these processes are co-constructed by those with whom he interacts; and (3) how he uses hypothetical future-oriented narratives to influence his co-interlocutors to help him effect societal change. In doing so, this study illuminates the active role that one disabled individual plays in co-constructing his own identity as an agent and the identities of his caregivers; it illustrates that human agency is collective and co-constructed; and it highlights the need to go beyond bounded texts when exploring identities constructed by disabled individuals. This study, thus, illustrates the very nature of agency and the role that discourse plays in exercising agency as a form of social action and as a component of action.

Effects of verbalization condition and type of feedback on L2 development in a CALL task

Bowles, Melissa Alise Georgetown University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Some recent SLA studies have used verbal protocols to gather data on learners' cognitive processes (e.g., online think alouds in Bowles, 2003, 2004; Leow, 1997a, 1998a, 1998b, 2000, 2001a, 2001b; Rosa & Leow, 2004a, 2004b; Rosa & O'Neill, 1999). However, the potential effects of verbalization on learners' performance have only been investigated in two studies, Bowles and Leow (in press) and Leow and Morgan-Short (2004), leaving this methodological issue open. Additionally, an ever-present topic of debate among second language acquisition researchers and language teachers is how and when to correct students' errors in the L2. Recently, SLA studies (e.g., Nagata & Swisher, 1995; Rosa & Leow, 2004b; Sanz & Morgan-Short, 2004) have produced inconsistent results regarding the effects of explicit versus implicit written feedback on L2 development in computerized tasks. This study addressed both the reactive effects of verbal protocols on L2 development and effects of type of feedback in a CALL problem-solving task. Participants were first-semester students of Spanish randomly assigned to interact with a series of task-essential (Loschky & Bley-Vroman, 1993) CALL mazes in one of the following experimental conditions: [+metalinguistic + explicit feedback; +metalinguistic - explicit feedback; -metalinguistic + explicit feedback; -metalinguistic - explicit feedback]. The targeted structure is the dative experiencer construction involving the Spanish verb gustar, in which sentences display non-canonical word order. In this study, results showed that there was a significant interaction between verbalization and feedback on the production of old exemplars, although there was no effect for verbalization on production of new exemplars, regardless of the type of feedback provided. Type of feedback did have a differential effect on participants' written production of both old and new exemplars of the targeted structure, with those participants who received explicit feedback performing significantly better on the immediate post-test than those who received implicit feedback. By the time of the delayed post-test, however, the two feedback groups performed statistically similarly. Finally, verbalization was reactive for latency in this study, due to significant differences between the metalinguistic group on one hand and the control and non-metalinguistic groups on the other.

Intertextual media references as resources for managing frames, epistemics, and identity in conversation among friends

Sierra, Sylvia A Georgetown University 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Gordon (2009) has demonstrated that intertextuality (e.g., Bakhtin 1981, 1986; Kristeva 1986; Becker 1994; Hamilton 1996; Tannen 2007) and framing (e.g., Bateson 1972; Goffman 1974; Tannen & Wallat 1987/1993) are intrinsically intertwined. This study builds on this work, merging the study of intertextuality and framing with Raymond and Heritage's (2006) analysis of epistemics in social relations, and simultaneously contributing to the study of 'intertextual identity construction' (Hamilton 1996) and 'epistemic discourse analysis' (van Dijk 2013). I demonstrate how intertextual ties, specifically media references (to movies, TV shows, songs, videogames, and online memes), contribute to epistemic management and frame shifts, which is conducive to group identity construction in 'epistemic ecologies' (C. Goodwin 2013). The analysis focuses on five conversations of seven hours among ten American friends in their mid-twenties. These data include 116 media references across the five interactions, where speakers use repeated words, phrases, and phonetic and paralinguistic features appropriated from media texts. Expanding on Gumperz's (1977, 1982) work on contextualization cues, I demonstrate how these speakers use vowel lengthening, loudness, pitch shifts, laughter, smile voice, regional and foreign accents, singing, and creaky voice to signal media references in talk. I also show that speakers primarily demonstrate recognition of media references through laughter and participating in play frames, and that repetition or explicit affirmation also occasionally demonstrate recognition. I argue that and demonstrate how media references often serve to remedy epistemic imbalances and simultaneously manage frames, thereby negotiating interactional dilemmas (M. Goodwin 1996). Building on Gordon's (2009) understanding of what Goffman (1974) refers to as laminated frames, I show how two kinds of frame laminations are constructed and interrelated in play frames around media references: overlapping (two frames at once) and embedded (a specific frame within a more general frame). Through such play frames, speakers rekey, reframe (Tannen 2006), and re-adjust the epistemic territory of conversation and ultimately construct group identities as speakers with shared experiences. This study demonstrates how shared prior texts that are referenced by a group of people, such as media references, are used as a resource for managing epistemics, shifting frames, and identity construction.

The syntax-semantics interface in distributed morphology

Kelly, Justin Robert Georgetown University 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Distributed Morphology (DM; Halle & Marantz 1993; Marantz 1997) is founded on the premise that the syntax is the only computational component of the grammar. Much research focuses on how this premise is relevant to the syntax-morphology interface in DM. In this dissertation, I examine theory-internal issues related to the syntax-semantics interface in DM. I also I propose an account of the Encyclopedia, where meaning is stored in the semantic component of the grammar, since a clear model is generally absent from DM literature. Much of this dissertation is based on the Strong DM Hypothesis (SDMH; Embick & Noyer 2007), the idea that roots lack syntactico-semantic features. However, a corollary of the SDMH is necessary but generally ignored: a root cannot take an argument directly. The SDMH has repercussions for the syntax and compositional semantics in DM, so I propose models for both that are compatible with the SDMH. By defining the syntax of lexical categories, based on Hale & Keyser (2002) and Baker (2003), I extend the syntax to present an inventory of functional heads in DM. Utilizing a semantics based on Kratzer (1996), I define a formal semantic model for DM, and show how it interprets the syntax. I then present an approach to causation based on Kratzer (2004) and Pylkkänen (2008), providing an overt syntax and semantics for a variety of causative structures in English; zero and analytic causatives, and prepositional and adjectival resultatives. This approach to causation is applied to an analysis of other argument-structure phenomena in English, as well as in Italian and Japanese, showing how these phenomena are accounted for within this model of DM. However, cases remain where argument-structure phenomena cannot be resolved in the syntax alone, so I present an approach to the Encyclopedia with Hopper & Thompson's (1980) typology of transitivity as a starting point, and show how it can account for such cases. By further specifying the nature of the syntax in DM and integrating this with a broader semantic model encompassing both compositional semantics and the Encyclopedia, this dissertation contributes to our overall understanding of the DM framework.

Vowel variation, style, and identity construction in the English of Latinos in Washington, D.C

Tseng, Amelia Georgetown University 2015 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This study investigates the interrelationship of language, identity, and /ae/ ("ash") variation along the first-formant (F1) and second-formant (F2) dimensions, in first- and second- generation Latinos in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. /ae/ was selected since Latino English /ae/ tends to be lower and more backed than in general American English, particularly in pre-nasal context. Methods integrate quantitative analysis of social and stylistic patterning of /ae/ variation and qualitative analysis of how speakers use these features to convey and shape social and personal meanings in interaction. The relationship between style, social factors, and substrate-related phonetic variation in emergent dialects has important implications for language system development and social identity construction in situations of bilingualism and language contact. Specific research questions were 1) how does /ae/, a phonological feature showing a well-documented distinction between Chicano English and general American English varieties, vary in the English of Washington, D.C. Latinos? 2) How does /ae/ variation contribute to stylistic variation and interactional construction of identity in sociolinguistic interviews and other interactional contexts? Quantitative mixed-model statistical regression analysis addressed inter-speaker and topic-related variation in sociolinguistic interviews and self-recorded data. Results showed that low, backed /ae/ is stylistically active among Washington, D.C.-area Latinos. Changing settlement patterns are also reflected in the data. Suburban participants show a lower realization of /ae/ than residents of D.C. proper (p<0.05), as gentrification and rising housing prices have prompted Latinos to move out of the city. Unraised /ae/ is a feature of native, not learner English, and its presence in multiple Latino Englishes suggests that the linguistic process at work may be similar to that affecting Chicano English /ae/. The contrast between the Latino English and general American English /ae/ patterns appears to be used for identity work that goes beyond a direct ethnic index. Qualitative analysis of interactional positioning (Bamberg 1997) showed that sociophonetic patterning took place in identity-salient stretches of discourse (Podesva, 2007), within and across topic boundaries. Meta-discursive commentary indicated that speakers had a salient sense of ethnic identity and local place related to language practices. Multifaceted methodological and analytic approaches to variation can present a more complete picture of the interrelation between variable linguistic patterning and social meaning. These connections affect language practices across generations, as emergent language varieties become legitimate language systems with important cultural and identity associations.

Essays on Responses to Income Taxation in the United States

Mortenson, Jacob Georgetown University 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Federal income taxes on individual income in the United States raised over $1.5 trillion in revenue in 2015. This represents just under half of all tax revenue collected by the federal government. Returns to saving and working are affected by income taxes, and understanding the responses of individuals to them is crucial to evaluating their welfare and revenue consequences. In this dissertation, I study individual income responses to federal income taxes in the United States. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I estimate the responsive of capital gains realizations and ordinary income in the United States to changes in marginal tax rates on both types of income. I use a large non-public panel of federal income tax returns from 1997-2007, and find two key results, though both are sensitive to a variety of specification decisions. First, capital gains respond to both the capital gains tax rate and the ordinary income tax rate. Second, I find mixed evidence that ordinary income responds to the ordinary income tax rate and the long-term capital gains tax rate. These results suggest cross-tax responses between these two bases are important, and should not be ignored when estimating taxpayer responses in the United States. The second chapter of this dissertation investigates how taxpayers respond to changes within the tax schedule. One way taxpayers may respond is by bunching at kink points in the tax schedule to avoid high marginal tax rates. We study this phenomenon using over 500 million federal individual income tax returns in the United States from 1996 to 2014. Though most kinks do not cause statistically discernible bunching, we present new evidence documenting the emergence and rapid rise of bunching at the second Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) kink and the Child Tax Credit refundability plateau, strong responses to the temporary Making Work Pay Tax Credit, and weak responses at three statutory kinks. Consistent with prior research, we also observe bunching at the first kink in the EITC schedule. The majority of bunchers are self-employed, though we find significant bunching among wage earners in recent years. Substantial bunching responses occur only at kinks that maximize tax credits, and the strongest response occurs at the unique point in the schedule that maximizes credits net of taxes owed. The third chapter of this dissertation examines withdrawal patterns from traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). In 2013, individuals age 60 or older held $3.9 trillion in wealth in these IRAs. Under current law, some fraction of these funds must be withdrawn each year beginning the year one turns 70.5 years of age, with the required fraction increasing in age. We study the effects of these Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) rules on the decumulation behavior of retirees using a 16-year panel of administrative tax data. Our data consist of a 5% random sample of individuals age 60 and older from 1999 to 2014: approximately 2.6 million individuals per year. This period encompasses a unique policy change that we exploit for identification: a one-year suspension of the RMD rules in 2009. Using a semiparametric technique we estimate the counterfactual density of IRA distributions in 2009 that would have prevailed if the rules had not been suspended. We estimate that at least 40% of the individuals subject to the RMD rules would take an IRA distribution less than their required minimum if they were unconstrained. In addition, we document an extensive margin effect among individuals newly subject to the rules.