Esta tese investiga a expressão do Tempo e do Aspecto nas línguas árabe e portuguesa, a fim de estabelecer uma discussão de como as duas formas que compõem o seu sistema verbal - /almāḍī/ e almuḍāriᶜ/, aqui denominadas perfectivo e imperfectivo, respectivamente -, podem ser representadas no português do Brasil. O método de análise partiu da leitura e tradução do texto tomado como corpus, o conto \"O tapete persa\" de Hanan Aššayḫ, seguidas da identificação das formas verbais a serem analisadas, para lançar uma proposta de tradução de acordo com a divisão temporal do quadro do sistema verbal do português. Foi feita, para cada tempo (ou modo) que traduziu as formas árabes, uma discussão da decisão, levando em conta o contexto, sua interpretação temporal/aspectual, e, também, a Aktionsart de cada item verbal. O que se descobriu nesta pesquisa coincidiu com as conclusões apontadas nos trabalhos discutidos, como Cuvalay-Haak (1997), Holes (2004) e Bahloul (2008), sobre a língua árabe de que o perfectivo é mais comumente empregado na indicação de tempo passado, em ambientes neutros, onde outras interpretações não são possíveis, e, ao mesmo tempo, o aspecto perfectivo. O imperfectivo comporta-se semelhantemente ao tempo flexional presente do português e expressa o tempo simultâneo ao momento da fala, o futuro, o passado ou não apresenta nenhuma ligação com o tempo; pode ainda ser traduzido pelas três formas nominais, quando em perífrase. Na área aspectual, expressa o imperfectivo com verbos durativos ou, com verbos pontuais, o perfectivo ou o iterativo; precedido do verbo ﮐﺍن /kāna/ indica a continuidade do evento no passado, com uma leitura de situação habitual ou iterativa; ocorre, também, com ﻤﺎ ﺯﺍﻝ /mā zāla/ para indicar a continuidade no presente. / This thesis investigates Tense and Aspect expression in Arabic and Portuguese language, in order to establish a discussion of how both forms that composes its verbal system - /almāḍī/ and almuḍāriᶜ/, here named as perfective and imperfective, respectively -, can be represented in Brazilian Portuguese. The analysis method started from the reading and translation of the text took as corpus \"The Persian Carpet\", a Hanan Aššayḫ\'s short story following the verbal forms identification to be analyzed in order to propose a translation according to the temporal division of the Portuguese verbal system structure. That was a discussion of the decision for each tense (or mood) that translated the Arabic forms, taking into account the context, it\'s temporal/apectual interpretation and also the Aktionsart of each verb. This research finding coincided with conclusions pointed out by studies about Arabic language, such Cuvalay-Haak (1997), Holes (2004) and Bahloul (2008), that the perfective is generally used in the past tense indication, in neutral situations, where others interpretations are not possible or, at the same time, the perfective aspect. The imperfective (tense and aspect) behaves like the portuguese\'s present tense and also expresses the simultaneous time at the moment of speech, the future, the past or have no temporal link; it can even be translated by the three nominal forms, when in periphrasis. In the aspectual area, it expresses the imperfective with durative verbs, or with pontual verbs, the perfective or the iterative; preceded by the verb ﮐﺍن /kāna/ it indicates the event continuity in the past, with an habitual or iterative situation reading; it occurs also with the verb ﻤﺎ ﺯﺍﻝ /mā zāla/ to indicate the continuity in the present.

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages) / The verb categories of Northern Sotho pose a problem which is still vague and controversial, despite the fact that it has often been addressed in the literature. This divergence of opinion concerning verb categories can be attributed to many factors of which the approach towards the description of the verb categories surely is one of the most important. Two main approaches to the problem can be distinguished, namely the universalistic and descriptive approaches. In both approaches the perception of universals plays an important role which proves that it is essential to examine universals beforehand. Firstly, universals are viewed in historical context. The methods to determine universals are examined, clearly distinguishing indu ction and deduction. It was found-however that the rigid application of these two methods, as suggested by Bloomfield and Hjelmslev respectively, amongst others, has proved to be unsatisfactory. The methods followed by Chomsky and Reichling, as inductive as those of Bloomfield, supply a solution as both are concerned with the nature of language. Van Wyk, supporting the views of these two linguists, distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative induction. He also stresses the need for interaction between induction and deduction as well as between the two methods of induction. The following types of universals are distinguished, namely general features, essential features, hypothetical universals, universal principles and categories, absolute and available universals, universal tendencies and simple and complex universals. The essence of these types lies in the distinction between essential and general features. Universals also play a role in the description of verb categories. Thus it is essential to determine to which type of universals the verb categories belong and whether the appearance is similar in all languages. The notions tense, aspect and mood as they appear in the literature, are examined. These notions are not as simple as is generally accepted. The 'present tense', for example, doesn't necessarily refer to action taking place NOW. It can also refer to general and habitual actions. The 'future tense' is more an issue of modality than of tense, because modal auxiliary verbs are used to indicate the so-called future tense. The notion of aspect frequently appears in the Slavic languages. It is a morphological category used to indicate the perfection or imperfection of an action. Mood is a morphological category of the verb being used to express the speaker's attitude towards his utterance. A distinction is made between tense and time, aspect and actionsart and mood and modality. For the purpose of this study, only the first of each group, namely the morphological forin, is of importance. Therefore the universality of each should be determined. It was found that the notions of tense, aspect and mood are not universal, but only available categories which a language may use. When existing views concerning the named categories in the African languages are compared, different viewpoints and a fair amount of confusion arise. Some categories, for example, are classified by certain writers as tenses, while others classify them as moods. The notion of aspect, found in the African languages, has not yet fully been explored. Definitions, concerning the verb categories, lack sufficiency and description. Confusion concerning the verb categories in the African languages can be attributed to the perception and treatment of universals, as well as the methods used to describe verb categories. The universalistic and descriptive approaches towards language description are compared. The conclusion is drawn that the descriptive method is the most appropriate for language description as it is not based on preconceived ideas about language. The verb categories of Northern Sotho are identified, classified and defined according to the descriptive approach. The system of the verb categories of Northern Sotho is as follows: two main categories are distinguished, namely primary categories (consisting of single verbs) and secondary categories (consisting of construction with deficient verb stems). The primary categories are divided into aspects (imperfectum and perfectum) and contingent categories (indicative, situative and relative), clausal categories (subjunctive, consecutive and habitual), and non-predicative categories (infinitive and imperative). The secondary verb categories are the futuritive, potential, progressive and casual categories.

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

No description available.

This study identifies two syntactically distinguishable types of Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in Mandarin Chinese (MC) and Jinjiang Southern Min (JSM), corresponding to the nuclear and core distinction made in Role and Reference Grammar (Foley and Van Valin 1984, Foley and Olson 1985, Van Valin and LaPolla 1997). This distinction is also made on the basis of a general consensus of the cross-linguistic classifications of the processes of monoclausal multi-verb construction formation (e.g., Butt 1993, 1997, Baker and Harvey 2010): namely, predicate fusion and argument fusion. In this study, I propose two sets of diagnostics to establish the distinction; these go beyond the range covered in previous studies (e.g., Olson 1981, Foley and Olson 1985, Crowley 2002, Chang 2007). In the first set of diagnostics in this study, seven inter-clausal diagnostics are considered as the threshold where the behaviours of bi-clausal structures and SVCs split. These diagnostics include independent negation, passivisation of the object of V2, independent modification by temporal adverbial, independent marking of viewpoint aspect, independent modification by manner adverbial, prosodic structure and the Coordinate Structure Constraint (Ross 1967) that is employed in a more restricted manner. In the second set of diagnostics, four intra-clausal diagnostics are adopted to make the distinction between nuclear and core SVCs, which include passivisation of O1, insertion of intervening material, coordination within the SVC, and obligatory topicalisation of undergoer argument. Of particular interest is the possibility that the same string of verbs may occur in superficially similar, but structurally different, SVCs: for example, the Cause-Effect SVC and the Excessive SVC. The diagnostics employed in this study are proposed as a novel method to establish the distinction between the SVCs and the bi-clausal structures, and more importantly, between core and nuclear types of SVC. Contributing to the originality of the new method of diagnosing the status of the SVCs proposed in this study, I add five novel diagnostics, such as passivisation of the object of V2, independent marking of viewpoint aspect, tone sandhi between adjacent verbs, coordination within the SVC and obligatory topicalisation of the undergoer argument, in addition to those that have been employed in the literature. I restrict myself to data of MC and JSM in discussing the rationale of the diagnostics. However, this novel method of identifying SVCs is expected to be cross-linguistically applicable with consistent results, while at the same time allowing for the possibility of cross-linguistic differences in the semantic sub-types of SVCs identified in each language.

M.A. / In this study the application of different temporal forms in Afrikaans narratives is discussed. Afrikaans narratives make use of the present tense, the preterite (a combination of the imperfect and the perfect tense) and a combination of the two above mentioned tenses to narrate events. Fleischman debates that in some languages the present tense that is used in narratives to narrate dramatic events can be divided into two different groups, namely the historical present tense and the dramatic or narrative present tense. In this study an attempt was made to make a distinction between these two tenses with regard to the semantic value of the verb. A variety of texts that mainly consist of present tense verbs were analyzed and the verbs were divided into two groups: dramatic verbs and static verbs. If a narrative consisted of higher percentage of dramatic verbs it was thought that the narrative was being narrated in the dramatic or the narrative present tense. When a narrative consisted of a higher percentage static verbs it was thought that the narrative was being narrated in the historical present tense. This distinction is however not absolute, but the two varieties are rather seen as being on a continuum. Afrikaans narratives do not only utilize the historical present tense to narrate, but also the preterite. By using the preterite in narratives the reader is further removed from the narrator‘s deictic centre than if the narrator is using the historical present tense. A combination of the preterite and the present tense is also quite often used in Afrikaans narratives. The alternative use of the two tenses consists of a diverse range of functions. For example when events are placed on the foreground the use of the present tense is often required amidst a story being told in the preterite. Lastly the Afrikaans adverbial particles toe, nou and dan and their various temporal functions in Afrikaans narratives were discussed

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Pillow & Flavell (1985) argue that the phrase 'look like' increases the tendency of young children to commit intellectual realism errors. The present study followed their procedures with the Block Arrays (which includes the Hidden Block task) and, in addition, included the identity task from a previous appearance-reality study by Flavell, Flavell & Green (1983). Forty-two three- and four-year-old preschoolers were presented with a variety of block arrays (Block Arrays task) and realistic-looking fake objects (Identity task) to observe. The subjects were tested on all of the stimulus items in one task before being tested on the second one. Half the subjects received the Block Arrays task first, half received the Identity task first. After the presentation of each array or object, the subject was asked a test question about its appearance while looking at it through a viewing tube. In the Look Like Condition, the test question included the words 'look like' and in the See Condition, the verb 'see' was used instead of 'look like'. If the subjects made any errors in the first condition (Look Like), they then received the second condition (See). No difference was found in the childrens' performance in the Hidden Block task but there was a difference in their performance in the Identity task. However, this difference cannot be attributed solely to the two wordings but rather to some interaction of task type and condition. Further analysis of the Look Like Condition revealed an Age-by-Task interaction in which the threes and fours performed differently in each task. A significant main effect for each of Task and Gender was also found in the Look Like Condition. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

In the Japanese language, there are various modal elements, which mark speakers' subjective attitudes toward propositions. One of the most common modals is the noda predicate, which possesses the dual function of either asserting the truth of the position or relaying the speaker's desire for information sharing. Japanese Native Speakers (JNSs) use noda frequently in conversation; however, Japanese Language Learners (JLLs) often face difficulty in learning noda because of its wide variety in function and use. To determine the nature of noda use, this study examines conversational data from role-plays and a case study of two JLLs. The main aims of this thesis are 1) to review research on noda and to provide a cohesive and concise explanation of its functions and 2) to examine the use and acquisition of noda by JLLs. Following Noda's (1997) categorization, noda can be divided broadly into two types: scope and mood. Noda of scope exhibits the speaker's assertion that the proposition is true, while noda of mood marks the speaker's strong desire for information to be shared by speaker and hearer. This study proposes a framework with which to understand the functions of noda, and classifies information which is speaker-oriented (+ Speaker/- Hearer knowledge), hearer-oriented (-Speaker/+ Hearer), and shared (+ Speaker/+ Hearer). JLLs first tend to use noda with speaker-oriented information, and later acquire functions related to hearer-oriented and shared information. In the study of role-plays, JLLs with higher oral proficiency levels as rated by the ACTFL-OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) used a higher frequency of noda. Both the JLLs and JNSs used noda primarily to provide and seek explanations. The intermediate-level JLLs underused noda in providing supplemental explanations. Other uses of noda in the role-plays included emphasizing information, seeking validity, and back-channeling. The two JLLs in the case study did not notice the use of noda during conversations with the JNS, but began to use noda more frequently during practice conversations upon receiving explicit instructions on the use of noda. While the post-test did not demonstrate increased use of noda due to the limited time of this study, there are clear indications for pedagogy. First, because the functions of noda are varied and numerous, Japanese language textbooks and classrooms should not be limited in providing only the 'explanation' function of noda. Second, the frequent use of noda in Japanese conversation suggests that it should be an area of focus in oral practice. Finally, JLLs need to develop skills in both comprehension and production of noda to improve their Japanese discourse. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate