S. de Koning

This study investigates the way in which speech varieties are employed in animated films in the Netherlands. In part, it is a response to the work of Rosina Lippi-Green (1997; 2012) who has examined in detail the language practices of Disney characters. The current study focuses on the Dutch dubbed counterparts of the original works of Disney and Pixar and explores the range of foreign accents and Dutch dialects that are used in the films in connection to the character types and backgrounds. Data on the animated characters was collected from DVD’s that are dubbed and distributed in the Netherlands. Lippi-Green has found significant instances of linguistic discrimination. For instance, in all cases where a character spoke African American Vernacular English, these characters had the form of animals (e.g. Whoopi Goldberg as a hyena in The Lion King), whereas only 54% of Standard American English speaking characters portrayed animals. This was found to reflect a language ideology of stigmatization of African American Vernacular English and its speakers. Processes of linguistic discrimination similar to the original versions have been found in the Dutch dubbings of the Disney animations, where non-standard varieties of Dutch (e.g. Flemish, regional dialects, accented-Dutch spoken by Caribbean and Mediterranean immigrant speakers) were employed in a stereotypical manner, thereby reflecting the underlying language attitudes and ideologies in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the films were found to propagate linguistic homogeneity by either ignoring or stereotypically depicting the native Dutch linguistic varieties.

Dyslexics have been found to have multiple co-occurring problems, of which language, motor and attention problems are among the most frequently named. This thesis examines the relationship between dyslexia and its possible precursors, with a specific aim to investigate claims about motor development. Infants with a familial risk of dyslexia were compared with a group of control infants. A parental questionnaire provided information about the medical history and development, speech and language development, motor development and attention. Additionally, language production and comprehension skills were assessed with the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. As dyslexic children have shown impaired language, motor and attention abilities, the development of the at-risk group was expected to be delayed. Furthermore, correlations between the performance in language, motor and attention skills are examined. The at-risk children indeed obtained lower scores on measures of receptive vocabulary. No difference was found between the two groups on any of the motor development measures. Overall motor development was associated with vocabulary scores for both groups, but a relationship between oral motor development and vocabulary was only present for the at-risk group. Similarly, whereas overall motor development was associated with attention for both groups, a correlation between oral motor development and attention was only present for the at-risk group. This suggests that oral motor skills and attention need to be taken into account when studying precursors of dyslexia.