8,427 research outputs found
I Remember piece in which author William Welsh recounts the wooden rowboat his
No full textI Remember piece in which author William Welsh recounts the wooden rowboat his father built in 1957 for use at the family cottage in Boothbay Harbor
SUBTLEX-CY: A new word frequency database for Welsh
No full textWe present SUBTLEX-CY, a new word frequency database created from a 32-million-word corpus of Welsh television subtitles. An experiment comprising a lexical decision task examined SUBTLEX-CY frequency estimates against words with inconsistent frequencies in a much smaller Welsh corpus that is often used by researchers, the Cronfa Electroneg o’r Gymraeg (CEG), and three other Welsh word frequency databases. Words were selected that were classified as low frequency (LF) in SUBTLEX-CY and high frequency (HF) in CEG and compared with words that were classified as medium frequency (MF) in both SUBTLEX-CY and CEG. Reaction time analyses showed that HF words in CEG were responded to more slowly compared to MF words, suggesting that SUBTLEX-CY corpus provides a more reliable estimate of Welsh word frequencies. The new Welsh word frequency database that also includes part-of-speech, contextual diversity, and other lexical information is freely available for research purposes on the Open Science Framework repository at https://osf.io/9gkqm/
Audiences' willingness to participate in Welsh-language media
No full textPhDContemporary media audiences expect to be able to interact with content, but in a minority language context, audience participation presents challenges related to audiences’ linguistic confidence. This thesis focuses on Wales, where media producers have suggested that audiences are often reluctant to interact with broadcast and online content in Welsh. To begin to understand this unwillingness, and how it might be overcome, the concept of willingness to participate (WTP) is coined as an extension of willingness to communicate (McCroskey & Baer 1985).
First, interviews with producers are analysed qualitatively to identify potential influences on audiences’ WTP. The analysis aims to assess the relative importance of various factors: audiences’ feelings of apprehension, self-perceived competence, language background and Welsh language ability, as well as the modality of participation (oral/written) and the level of demand placed on the audience.
Second, a questionnaire is designed and administered to 358 Welsh speakers, to examine audiences’ perceptions of different opportunities to participate in media content. A path model of WTP is proposed and tested using quantitative data from the survey. The results support the hypothesis that audiences’ apprehension and self-perceived competence predict WTP and that audience response varies according to the media context. While audiences’ Welsh language skills are important in explaining their WTP, other aspects of language background, such as Welsh language acquisition context, are found to be less important.
Third, the survey sample is grouped according to common patterns of WTP, to test whether the above effects are consistent across the population or whether different ‘types’ of audience exist. Using a combination of cluster analysis and thematic analysis of audience comments, four types of audience are proposed and described in detail. Finally, implications for sociolinguistic theory, language maintenance and media production practice are considered and recommendations made.Arts and Humanities Research Counci
Nation building : implementing devolution in the United Kingdom— the Welsh experience
No full textPaper presented to the IBIS conference, Renovation or revolution? new territorial politics in Ireland and the United Kingdom, University College Dublin, 3 April 2002.The Welsh experience of devolution can best be summarised by contrasting it with the Scottish. Where Scotland had an established array of civic institutions, the National Assembly of Wales found itself in the position of having to construct an institutional reality. The Assembly faced a number of constraints: its powers were limited to those previously held by the Secretary of State for Wales, and it was established as a corporate body. However, it soon became clear that the view of the Assembly as a continuation from previous administrations was unsustainable. This paper discusses the role of a number of key characters and agencies in redefining the nature of the National Assembly. In addition to the development of a strong central authority the author tracks the related emergence of a new civic culture in Wales. The paper concludes by examining the broader impact of the Welsh experience of devolution on territorial politics within the British Isles, and Welsh engagement with a network of European regions.Not applicableti,co,ab.kpw8/7/1
Rose B. Welsh and Jayna Welsh, 1932
No full textBlack and white photograph of Rose B. Welsh and Jayna Welsh, 1932
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth : the making of a Welsh prince
No full textLlywelyn ab Iorwerth (1173-1140) has long been considered one of the leading heroes of Wales. The life and rule of Llywelyn, known as Llywelyn the Great, is explored in detail in this thesis. The grandson of Owain Gwynedd, ruler of North Wales from 1137-1170, Llywelyn grew up during the period of turmoil following Owain’s death. After wresting control of Gwynedd from his rival family members in the latter decade of the 12th century, he proceeded to gain recognition as the foremost representative of Wales on the political stage.
Although viewed as a legendary hero in Welsh history, poetry and culture, Llywelyn's route to power is more complex than that. The thesis explores the development of the man from rebel and warlord, to leader and spokesman, to statesman, traces the expansion of his hegemony throughout Wales, and discusses the methods he used to gain and maintain power. Particular attention is paid to his use of family, marriage, allies, rivals and the church to achieve his goals. These insights can be derived from the surviving charters, letters, and other acta of Llywelyn and the Royal Chancery of England, the titles accorded therein, Welsh and English chronicles, as well as, occasionally, Venedotian Poetry. Finally, this thesis seeks to address the limitations on Llywelyn’s successes, in light of succeeding events and concludes with a discussion of Llywelyn’s legendary status in the modern world
A review of databases and other statistical sources reporting ethnic group and their potential to enhance the evidence base on health promotion
No full textThe Health ASERT Programme Wales is a research programme commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government to investigate health promotion issues among Minority Ethnic Groups, Refugees/Asylum seekers, and Gypsy Travellers. The acronym ASERT stands for Asylum Seekers, Ethnic minorities, Refugees and Travellers. Research was undertaken by the Research Centre for Transcultural Studies in Health, Middlesex University and the Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent at Canterbury between February 2003 and March 2004. The study aimed to enhance the evidence base on health promotion issues related to minority ethnic groups, refugees/asylum seekers and Gypsy Travellers in Wales in
order to inform policy and programme development in the Welsh Assembly Government’s Health Promotion Division (now known as Health Improvement Division) and elsewhere in the Public Health and Health Professions Department. The study objectives were to: identify
gaps in the existing evidence base of health needs and health promotion issues for the study groups; identify existing good practice of health services and promotion for the study groups; explore ways of delivering health promotion policy/programmes targeting these groups in a
culturally and socially sensitive manner; identify issues for further research
A critical evaluation of linguistic minorities from a postmodern perspective: the case of Welsh
No full textMy aim in this thesis is to consider language policy and minority languages from the viewpoint of postmodernism – a theoretical framework that has much to offer beyond mere explanation and support for the concepts of diversity and pluralism. I argue there is a shortage of texts that interrogate language policy from a postmodern perspective – notwithstanding the contributions of a relatively small group of linguists including Pennycook (2000, 2006), Wright (2000, 2004), Cameron (1995) and Edwards (1985-2003). Thus, I combine some arguments from the domain of postmodernism articulated by theorists such as Foucault (1980), Lyotard (1997), and Connor (2004) with other arguments from the fields of language policy, language ideology and minority language rights formulated by theorists such as Phillipson (1993, 2003), Crystal (2000, 2003).In the first chapter I consider how language policy and planning has developed as a subject of academic inquiry since World War II. In the second chapter I focus on a primary objective for language policymakers, namely minority language maintenance. I conclude that characteristics and trends associated with postmodernism are neither wholly supportive nor wholly unsupportive of minority language maintenance. In the third chapter, I concentrate on the minority language Welsh, tentatively concluding that a truly bilingual Wales is not achievable. In this fourth chapter, I analyse findings from my ethnographic research into Welsh language usage in Newport. I tentatively conclude once more that the Welsh Assembly Government’s bilingual objective is unachievable. Finally, I argue that postmodernism is a useful theoretical perspective for academics in the field of language policy and planning
Likelihood inference for small variance components
No full textIn this paper, we develop likelihood-based methods for making inferences about the components of variance in a general normal mixed linear model. In particular, we use local asymptotic approximations to construct confidence intervals for the components of variance when the components are close to the boundary of the parameter space. In the process, we explore the question of how to profile the restricted likelihood (REML), show that general REML estimates have a lower probability of being on the boundary than maximum likelihood estimates, and show that the likelihood-ratio test based on the local asymptotic approximation has higher power against local alternatives than the likelihood-ratio test based on the usual chi-squared approximation. We explore the finite sample properties of the proposed intervals by means of a small simulation study
Arthur L. Welsh seated in Wright Model B Flyer
No full textArthur L. Welsh seat in a Wright Model B Flyer at Huffman Prairie. Welsh was a member of the Wright exhibition team and the first to learn to fly at the Wright School of Aviation. Welsh was killed in a aircraft crash at College Park, Md. on Jun. 11, 1912.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/special_ms1_photographs/2344/thumbnail.jp
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