Extractivism and the de jure and de facto ethno-territorial rights in Latin America: How important are the constitutions? : Extractivismo y derechos étnico-territoriales de jure y de facto en Latinoamérica: ¿Cuán importantes son las constituciones?

A growing number of Latin American rural groups have attained extended ethno-territorial rights, and sizeable territories were safeguarded by progressive constitutions. This trend was the product of extended cycles of protest at local, national and transnational levels; social movements struggle, with broader collective South-South collaboration. Nonetheless, the continent simultaneously experienced a resource extraction boom. Commonly, the extractivism takes place in protected areas and/or indigenous territories. Accordingly, economic interests clash with the safeguarding and recognition of constitutional rights. Through the analysis of selected illustrative cases across Latin America, this study analyses the (de jure) rights on paper versus the (de facto) rights in practice. 

El uso del valenciano, la actitud hacia la lengua y la destreza escrita : Un estudio sociolingüístico sobre el dominio del valenciano de jóvenes alicantinos

Los jóvenes de Alicante viven en una sociedad donde coexisten dos lenguas, el castellano y el valenciano. La lengua valenciana es utilizada por jóvenes de Alicante tanto en ámbitos formales como informales. Los jóvenes hablantes de valenciano sienten un lazo identificativo con la lengua que se rige por las actitudes de éstos. La actitud lingüística conlleva a una identificación lingüística del hablante, la cual es una construcción social que se rige por las normas que rodean al hablante. La identificación bilingüe podría, por lo tanto, ser influenciada e influenciar a su vez a la competencia lingüística. El propósito del presente estudio es investigar en qué situaciones y contextos es usado el valenciano; con el objetivo de estudiar la relación entre el grado de bilingüismo, la actitud lingüística y el nivel de complejidad, corrección y fluidez (CAF) en la expresión escrita del valenciano. Partimos de la hipótesis de que el valenciano tiene, para la generación joven de Alicante, una función social y que la actitud hacia la lengua es positiva, lo que a su vez se refleja en la destreza escrita. Para comprobar nuestra hipótesis nos hemos basado en un cuestionario de hábitos sociales, un test de nivel de valenciano y dos redacciones, una escrita en castellano y una en valenciano. Con la participación de 59 jóvenes alicantinos, llegamos a la conclusión de que el valenciano es usado tanto en ámbitos formales como informales y que la actitud hacia la lengua es positiva, y que consideran importante dominar y preservar el valenciano. Además, los participantes han presentado un nivel alto de destreza en el valenciano escrito, mostrando complejidad y fluidez en la expresión escrita. Por otro lado, la corrección es más elevada en el castellano. También se ha podido ver que la identificación de los participantes está relativamente correlacionada con la competencia lingüística. 

The Vulnerable Animals That Therefore We Are : (Non-)Human Animals in D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love

Central to animal studies is the question of words and how they are used in relation to wordless beings such as non-human animals. This issue is addressed by the writer D.H. Lawrence, and the focus of this thesis is the linguistic vulnerability of humans and non-humans in his novel Women in Love, a subject that will be explored with the help of the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s text The Animal That Therefore I Am. The argument is that Women in Love illustrates the human subjection to and constitution in language, which both enables human thinking and restricts the human ability to think without words. This linguistic vulnerability causes a similar vulnerability in non-human animals in two ways. First, humans tend to imagine others, including non-verbal animals, through words, a medium they exist outside of and therefore cannot be defined through. Second, humans are often unperceptive of non-linguistic means of expression and they therefore do not discern what non-human animals may be trying to communicate to them, which often enables humans to justify abuse against non-humans. In addition, the novel shows how this shared but unequal vulnerability can sometimes be dissolved through the likewise shared but equal physical vulnerability of all animals if a human is able to imagine the experiences of a non-human animal through their shared embodiment rather than through human language. Hence the essay shows the importance of recognizing the limitations of language and of being aware of how the symbolizing effect of words influences the human treatment of its others.

Monosyllabic Circumflexion in Lithuanian

This PhD thesis examines a phenomenon known as Monosyllabic Circumflexion (MC, hereafter) from a historical linguistics / phonological point of view. MC denotes a Lithuanian or Balto-Slavic phenomenon according to which long vowels and diphthongs in monosyllabic words exhibit a circumflex tone instead of the expected acute tone.  It is observed in the following four categories: I. 3rd person future forms of monosyllabic stems (e.g., šõks ― šókti `to jump;' vy͂s ― výti `to drive') II. reflexes of PIE root nouns (e.g., Latv. gùovs `cow;' Lith. šuõ `dog') III. prepositions/adverbs (e.g., nuõ `from' ~  nùotaka `bride;' vė͂l `again' ~ Latv. vêl `still, yet,' tė͂ (permissive particle) < *teh1) IV. pronominal forms (e.g., tuõ ~ gerúoju `the good (m.~sg.~instr.),' tie͂ ~ tíeji `id. (pl.nom)'). The unexpected circumflex tone in these categories is problematic and important for the solution of a Balto-Slavic accentological question on the etymological background of acute and non-acute tones. The aim of this thesis is to partially contribute to the solution of this problem by establishing the existence of MC and its relative chronology. The first category, the 3rd person future forms, provides a substantial number of examples and counterexamples. The examination of them has revealed the fact that the counterexamples constitute a morpho-semantic group of verbs whose future stems underwent considerable morphological changes in the prehistory, hence not exhibiting MC. This shows that the regular tonal reflex of the 3rd person future forms of monosyllabic acute stem must be circumflex, allowing for the establishment of MC as a regular phonological process, although this category does not provide much information on the relative chronology of MC. The second category, the reflexes of Proto-Indo-European root nouns, gives an important clue as to where MC is located in the relative chronology of Balto-Slavic sound changes. Next, there is a discussion of whether the results of the examinations of the first two categories can be maintained for the data of the third and fourth categories, which show an irregular distribution of the acute and circumflex tones in monosyllabic forms. It is shown that various morphological factors, such as homonymic clashes within the paradigms for pronouns, can explain why some monosyllabic forms have acute tone. Also, the linguistic feature of West Aukštaitian dialects of Lithuanian that tend to preserve the results of MC is revealed. These dialects are known to have played an important role in the formation of standard Lithuanian. In this way, the monosyllabic forms with unexpected circumflex tone in Lithuanian are explained as a combination of MC in the Proto-Balto-Slavic time and the dialectal tendency of West Aukštaitian dialects of Lithuanian.