Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Open Access The Universe of Discourse in a Virtual World: Triangulating Discourse Syntax with VR-Mediated Corpora, Sensory Schemata, and Cognitive Simulation(Saudi Digital Library, 2026) Alsayed, Abdulrahman Abdullatif A; Horesh, Uri; Bergman, TedIn the universe of discourse and its text-internal and text-external worlds, information flows in and out of consciousness, shaping linguistic information structure. This thesis directs its scope to the central roles of cognition and text-external context in the syntactic construction of information structure. Following a comprehensive review of rationalist and empiricist research that identifies a range of context-sensitive constructional phenomena, the thesis presents an innovative simulationist exploration of these phenomena in discourse syntax. A two-phase mixed-method triangulation pipeline is designed and implemented to seek novel insights supported by the parallelism of language, cognition, and computation. In the pipeline’s documentary phase, a virtual reality staging paradigm is applied to collect audiovisual data from thirty native speakers of Peninsular Arabic through utilizing virtual-reality-mediated fieldwork, immersive stimulus content, and participant psychological priming. The data is compiled into an egocentric embodiment corpus, systematically annotated by processing visual captures from virtual reality into spatiotemporal units and visual schema domains, which categorize text-external sensory-modality input based on patterns of visibility and actuation. In the pipeline’s analytical phase, the quantitative component examines occurrence probabilities in the context of visual schema domains through a text-external abstraction linkage. The probabilistic results indicate that exposure to domain patterns triggers statistically significant effects of large magnitude associated with discourse-syntactic marking. A continuum mapping informed by these findings estimates trajectories of cognitive activation, reactivation, and deactivation. The results further guide the qualitative component, enabling an empirical-theoretical integration into models of discourse and common ground in functional linguistics; attentive/preattentive processing and mental simulation in cognitive science; mental spaces in cognitive linguistics; and optimality in formal linguistics. The empirical findings of this work offer an explanatory account of the domain-general cognitive basis of information structure and support new theoretical proposals on sensory schemata, common ground simulation, activation equilibrium, ecosystemic marking inventory, and compensatory constructional optimization.28 0Item Restricted A Corpus Study of Linking Adverbials in EFL Learners’ Writing(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Aldawood, Arwa Abdulaziz; Durrant, PhilipThe current study focused on a corpus-based approach to examine the variation of linking adverbials used by B1, B2, and C1 level EFL Saudi learners. It investigated the frequency, position, and forms of linking adverbials across different EFL proficiency levels. Most previous work on linking adverbials in written essays has concentrated on the differences between native and non-native speakers in using the linking adverbials not on the development of linking adverbials among the proficiency levels. The design and methods of this study were primarily quantitative and sought to identify the number of linking adverbials occurrences in the learner corpus. A qualitative approach was used to provide a more detailed analysis of the linking adverbials in the context, and to address the issue of the syntactic forms of the target linking adverbials by manual inspection of the concordance lines. EFCAMDAT (EF Cambridge Open Language Database) was sampled to include data from B1 level to C1 levels containing texts written by EFL Saudi Arabian students which are 7023 texts. Mixed-effects models as a statistical test used to examine the difference between the frequency of the linking adverbials in general. The results show that there is no significant difference between the overall frequency of use of linking adverbials across the proficiency levels. However, fine-grained analysis of the linking adverbials illustrated that the low-level learners used spoken like linkers in their written texts. Conversely, the advanced learners demonstrated a preference for linking adverbials more frequently found in academic writing, as evidenced by comparisons with the COCA native English corpus. However, the data revealed that there was no significant relationship between the spoken style of linking adverbials and the proficiency of the learners. As learners increased their proficiency, their use of linking adverbials does not become written in style. Furthermore, the findings related to the position of the linking adverbials revealed that there was a lack of variation across proficiency levels, indicating a stable pattern in their usage. This consistency suggests that learners across different proficiency levels apply similar approaches to placing linking adverbials in their writing. The results also indicated that Saudi EFL learners with different proficiency levels showed different preferences for the grammatical forms of linking adverbials used in their written texts. These differences appeared in single adverb, prepositional phrase and adverb phrase categories. Overall, these insights have valuable implications for creating instructional materials aimed at teaching linking adverbials in writing.19 0Item Restricted EMERGING SOCIO-CULTURAL IDENTITIES IN SAUDI ARABIA: A TRIANGULATED CORPUS-BASED CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-12-01) Alraziza, Abdullah Suliman; Alani, SalmanThis dissertation presents a comprehensive exploration of the intricate relationship between language and identity in Saudi Arabia, with a specific focus on the analysis of emerging and salient sociolinguistic identities as evidenced by data collected from social media sources. Uti- lizing methodological triangulation, which involves creating a corpus and employing corpus linguistics tools, this study systematically collects and analyzes social media data. Specifically, it focuses on hashtag and user-generated content that encapsulates unique identities. The central aim of this research is to advance the comprehension of sub-cultural identity variations within Saudi Arabia and to elucidate the processes by which these identities are shaped through language use on social media platforms. This study makes a significant con- tribution to the field of sociolinguistics, particularly within the relatively constrained sphere of language and identity investigations in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it provides valuable insights into the evolving Saudi Arabian identity in the context of globalization and modernization, as mirrored in language practices observable on social media platforms. Throughout the course of this dissertation, diverse dimensions of identity have been thor- oughly examined, spotlighting how language utilization on Twitter functions as a portal into the formulation and expression of identities within the Saudi context. The prominence of pro- fessional identity has emerged as a dominant theme, serving as a testament to how individuals present their professional personas within the digital realm. Additionally, this research delves into the intricate interplay between language and identity expression, accentuating the pivotal role of linguistic choices in shaping online identities. The distribution of age groups among users has also yielded valuable insights, shedding light on generational dynamics that influ- ence patterns of engagement. Furthermore, the evolving role of Twitter within Saudi Arabia underscores its burgeoning significance as a platform for both social interaction and the dis- semination of information. The methodological framework employed in this research harmoniously integrates both quantitative and qualitative methods, revealing the synergistic nature of these approaches within the context of identity research. By adopting a critical stance in the discourse anal- ysis, this study has unveiled deeper insights into the mechanisms through which identities are constructed and negotiated. In summation, this dissertation offers a comprehensive investigation into the relationship between language and identity in Saudi Arabia, providing invaluable insights into the evolving sociolinguistic landscape of the nation in the context of globalization and modernization.148 0