C. Domintе. Negaţia în limba română
Review of: C. Domintе. Negaţia în limba română. Bucureşti, Editura Fundaţiei „România de mâine“, 2003. 260 p.
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Review of: C. Domintе. Negaţia în limba română. Bucureşti, Editura Fundaţiei „România de mâine“, 2003. 260 p.
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Review of: Е. Vrabiе. Etimologii romanegti şi straine. [Institutul de lingvistica „Iorgu Iordan“, Etymologica, 11.] Bucureşti, Univers enciclopedic, 2001. 153 p.
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In English the NP1 V NP2 construction typically involves arguments that are construed as Agent and Patient, or Subject and Object. It is associated with the notion of transitivity and analyzed accordingly, even when it exhibits only the syntactic properties of transitivity but not its semantic characteristics. This phenomenon is well-known and has been accounted for by linguists (Lakoff 1977; Hopper and Thompson 1980, among others) as a result of the absence of some prototypical transitive features in the utterance. This paper aims at demonstrating that the NP1 V NP2 structure has a semantic value and conveys a general abstract sense, of which prototypical transitivity represents only one particular realization whose occurrence is determined by the semantic and aspectual properties of the context. It will be argued that the sense of this construction can be explained through concepts that are not usually used in the description of transitive utterances, namely conjunction and disjunction. In some examples, the subject enters a relation of conjunction or disjunction with the object. In others, it is the other way round.
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Middle English was a period of transition between the free word order of Old English, with functional variation of adjective form and position with respect to the head noun, and the fixed prenominal placement of single attributive adjectives in Modern English. Aided by the PPCME2 of the Penn-Helsinki corpora, this corpus-driven study explores the range of adjectives attested frequently after the head noun, as well as their relative attraction to the position and, sampling the ME period with emphasis on variables in the corpus metadata, compares the frequencies of postnominally placed adjectives in various genres, capturing their declining overall frequency over time. These general tendencies are commented against the background of postpositives in PDE.
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This is an account of English modals that invokes their exceptional morpho-syntactic tense properties as original preterite-present verbs in order to explain their becoming T elements. Within the framework of minimalist theory, I argue that modal verbs in OE and ME (up to approx. 1470) have an exceptional syntactic status that consists in that they merge directly under v, whereas strong verbs merge as a stem-by-default prior to v, and weak verbs merge as a root with a vowel-by-default also prior to v. Modals necessarily differ from both strong verbs and weak verbs in their τ–licensing, whereas they share with the latter (with both strong verbs and weak verbs) φ–licensing. A specific Probe of T is in charge of the latter for all verbs in the language. Modals pass on to merge directly under T when v ceases to be a locus of interpretable τ–features. A symptom that v loses such a capacity is the loss of the Pret.1/Pret.2 ablaut distinction.
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The primary focus of this article is on the usefulness of conventional knowledge, pictorial illustrations, and etymological notes in the process of defining the meaning of idioms within the macrostructure of a thematic dictionary of idioms based on cognitive principles of linguistic organization, and on the use of phonological motivation and iconic and scalar ordering as principles for explaining the form of idiomatic expressions. This article makes a noteworthy contribution to the widely-held view in current language teaching and pedagogy that grouping figurative idioms under source domains and conceptual metaphors, using visuals for explaining the literal reading of idioms, providing background information about their literal meanings or origins, as well as drawing students’ attention to the lexical make-up of idioms can be conducive to their learning and understanding and especially beneficial for students’ retention of the meaning and form of such phrases (Kӧvecses and Szabó 1996; Kӧvecses 2001; 2002; Benor and Levy 2006; Boers and Lindstromberg 2008a; Kӧvecses and Csábi 2014).
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This paper is a comprehensive literature review of the role of creativity in second language (L2) learning and use. It seeks to provide a theoretical background of the concept of creativity and show its practical relevance in the L2 context. The article begins with the conceptualisations of general creativity and narrows down to the concept of linguistic creativity and its instances in L2 use. Next, it presents the empirical research findings that point to an important role and benefits of creativity in L2 learning and use. The paper closes with pedagogical implications and methodological guidelines on enhancing creativity in the L2 classroom.
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Emerging from the theoretical assumptions voiced by Descriptive Translation Studies (Toury, 1995), the theory of translation universals (Baker, 1996) reflects the current trend in Translation Studies wherein the centre of gravity is shifted from source-oriented to target-oriented translation. The concept of translation universals has further shifted attention from comparing the quality of translated texts by making reference to their original source texts (the S-universals, Chesterman, 2004) to analysing their features by juxtaposing them with other texts in the target language (the T-universals), both translated and non-translated. By comparing the translated texts with other translated texts or other non-translated texts in the target language, some general (universal) patterns can be observed regarding the tendencies in the process of both interlingual (between two languages) and intralingual (within one language) rendering. While the idea of treating intralingual transfer as one of the subtypes of translation still evokes some discussions and controversy, it has been recently acknowledged by a growing number of scholars. Regardless of the status of intralingual transfer, both interlingual translation and intralingual rendering deploy similar simplification techniques, and pursue the same aim of making texts easier to read and understand, that is, making them more readable.
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The focus of the present paper is on the constructionist interpretation of concepts and linguistic meanings in general with a special emphasis on emotions, and in particular on clusters of meanings of English fear and anxiety, and their corresponding emotions in Polish, as well as their relations to other emotion concepts (sadness and anger). Relevant cross-linguistic similarities and differences are examined in English and Polish monolingual and translation corpus data. Additionally, recommendations are formulated concerning the possible ways in which the results can be applied in educational settings, particularly with regard to the English language and translation.
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This paper explores the construct of metacognition and metacognitive skills in relation to translator training. It attempts to illustrate the role of metacognition as a facilitative factor in the professional translator career. Given that it is of primary importance in translator education to help translation students recognize the need for lifelong education and further development of their skills, the article discusses models of self-regulated learning and stresses the need for a transition from other-regulation to self-regulation. Metacognitive approach to translator training conceives of translator competence as based on personal resources, that is, aspects of the self that refer to the sense of ability to successfully meet demands, which make up the psychological capital of the translator (Pietrzak, 2022). Metacognitive translator competence is understood here as the ability to self-regulate cognitive processes that contribute to goal achievement and translator professional success (ibid.). The article reports on an exploratory study on translation graduates with particular attention to the effects of metacognitive awareness on their professional development. The data collected and analyzed in the study show correlations between metacognitive awareness and professional development as reflected in the career path and perceived success.
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Using a written corpus of 529 texts, this study is the first to examine undergraduate university learners’ productive bigram knowledge in the Moroccan EFL context. Internationally, while previous research focused on strongly associated bigrams, the current study adopts a continuum perspective and examines strongly and moderately associated bigrams as well as wrong word combinations, using a cross-sectional approach with three adjacent groups. The analysis of strongly and moderately associated rare bigrams shows that learners tend to increase their MI mean score towards the production of more strongly associated bigrams, as we compare lower to upper proficiency groups. For frequent bigrams, the results show that there is a reversed effect of proficiency on learners’ performance as learners have a tendency to produce less fixed frequent combinations as they gain better proficiency, which suggests that they are using frequent word combinations in novel, more flexible ways. For wrong combinations, the three groups manage to form more accurate combinations as they move towards higher proficiency levels both when rare and frequent bigrams are considered. The results indicate that the development of phraseological knowledge follows a continuum trajectory. The study has implications for learning and teaching EFL.
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The present study aimed to compare effectiveness of two pedagogical interventions for enhancing aspects of L2 oral performance in an EAP program. For five weeks, two groups of EAP students received focused vocabulary instruction as part of their syllabus. One group explicitly learned and practiced formulaic sequences (FS) used in spoken academic context and the other, academic vocabulary (AcaVoc). Participants’ oral performance was tested on three occasions and examined in terms of three aspects of speech: accuracy, complexity and fluency. Results showed that the FS group significantly outperformed the AcaVoc group in terms of L2 oral fluency, while the AcaVoc group outperformed the FS group in terms of L2 oral complexity. On the other hand, there was no significant differences between the two groups in terms of L2 oral accuracy. The participants’ use of the target items in posttest was also found to be associated with their L2 oral performance. The findings of this study can contribute to our understanding of how explicit learning of academic vocabulary and formulaic sequences shape the quality of L2 learners’ oral performance in academic speaking tasks.
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The paper uses the perspective of native speakers to present an aspect of the topic of the infinitive subjunctive in modern Italian that cannot be extracted through sentence grammar. The study is based on a corpus extracted from the pages of three novels – contemporary Italian fiction – and on a questionnaire distributed to twenty native speakers. Through a linguistic analysis of the informants’ responses to the questionnaire created for this purpose, their point of view is interpreted with regard to the phenomenon under study. The main aim of the study is to get at the strategies that native speakers use in interpreting linguistic facts, and to try to answer the question why the violation of syntactic norms does not interfere with the comprehension of the text.
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The article looks at the issue of synonymy and presents a brief history of Spanish synonym dictionaries, focusing on the first lexicographical works in this field. This research could be useful for both scholars and students as well as for people who want to enrich their knowledge in the area of Spanish lexicography.
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In the vast panorama of 16th-century Italian collections of novellas, Grazzini’s “Le cene” stands out for its extraordinary hedonistic mood. The narrative is set in Florence in the winter at the end of Carnival, when the time is set aside for merriment and fun. And one of the amusements consists precisely in the telling of novellas, which brings delight to both the tellers and the listeners, and therefore to potential readers. The framed narrative situation also corresponds with the subject matter of most of the novellas narrated, as the narration is intended to bring pleasure, to provoke laughter, to the exclusion of the lecturing tone present in many other authors. The formation of the narrating company is not dictated by any tragic events, but is merely a coincidence of circumstances whereby they find themselves shut out of the bad winter weather in the warm parlour of the landlady on the first evening of the telling. Subsequent gatherings, however, are the result of the desire of the company to continue in time the pleasure of good and entertaining story telling which brings laughter and merriment on winter evenings.
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Giovanni Sercambi’s collection of novellas is another step in the development of the genre: although it ostensibly follows the path outlined by the Decameron, a number of innovations can be found that give it a special place. The author-narrator enjoys a privileged position in the artistic world of the work, fitting into the framing narrative as one of the characters acting to create a narrative situation as “realistic” as possible. His role as narrator and author of the book is formalised within the narrative itself. The purpose of the novella’s narrative evolves throughout the collection from consolation during the long journey at the beginning of the collection to a lesson contained in the examples worthy of emulation. The traveling party, which voluntarily agrees to obey certain rules, can be seen as a model of society in miniature, and its formation as a political and social project based on Christian morality. The path, into which the fellowship embarks, therefore, far from aiming only at physical survival, also aims at salvation from spiritual death, becoming a symbol of man’s way of life. The titles of the novellas are also a novelty in the novelistic tradition, which will have almost no precedents in the next two centuries.
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Phrasemes consist of several lexical components, have certain syntactic restrictions and are used as fixed word combinations. They have an evaluative function or can express attitudes and emotions. Martin and White (2005) understand evaluation as attitude, engagement, and graduation. The present article addresses the role of phrasemes in the domain of attitudes related to judgments. The domain of judgment expresses people's attitudes towards certain behaviors, in other words, it is described how (un)able, (un)usual, (un)determined, (un)truthful and (un)ethical someone is. The world crisis that appeared at the time of the corona crisis triggered frustration and revolt against the existing situation among many people. In comments on the subject of the world crisis, readers express their opinions and attitudes toward economic policy measures. It is assumed that they use phrasemes to express their negative attitudes. The corpus is Croatian and German reader comments on the world crisis in the Corona period. The following questions will be answered: How often are phrasemes used to express negative attitudes in reader comments? Who or what is evaluated with phrasemes? Are there interlingual differences in the evaluation expression in Croatian and German reader comments? The aim is to investigate interlingual differences in the use of phrasemes to express assessment.
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The article is an introductory part of a larger study of the letter book of Luka Pavlev - a little-known Revival educator from Pirdop and the author of an 1858 textbook intended to introduce students to the art of epistolary. It was pragmatic in its nature, as it contained 20 templates for letters, preceded by metatexts informing about the sender, the recipient and the content of the letter. The ways of addressing the recipient, the content and signing of the letters, as well as the proper names appearing in them, are commented on against the background of the literary-linguistic situation in the 1950s and the previously published letter books.
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The article, which is part of a larger study, examines the functions of the polysemantic opposing conjunctions “a”,“но” and “обаче” when expressing concessional relations in the Bulgarian language. The existence of a certain opposition between events in objective reality creates conditions in the sentence, where the concessional semantic relation has to always be accompanied by opposing semantic relations. The observation shows that the conjunctions “a”, “но” and “обаче” function as active shapers of concessional-opposing relations, and in some cases meaning “when”, “though” or “although”, whereas in other cases their semantics is supplemented by the use of a circumstantial phrase, introduced by a genuine concessional conjunction or pretext.
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The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed life around the globe, killing millions and locking down billions. But another phenomenon appeared in the field of linguistics: the emergence and omnipresence of the word “COVID”.
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