Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit den grammatischen und semantischen Kontexten enumerativer 'there-existentials' im Englischen. Mithilfe von Korpusbelegen werden die Auftretenskontexte näher bestimmt. Im Anschluss werden die Ergebnisse anhand Mira Ariels 'Accessibility Theory' gegengeprüft und interpretiert. / This paper seeks to analyze the grammtical and semantic contexts of enumerative 'there-existentials' in English. By using corpus data, the contextual environment of there-extistantials' will be defined more closely. Afterwards, the results will be checked and interpreted againts Mira Ariel's 'Accessibility Theory'.

This dissertation examines genericity from a textual perspective. The material consists of popular science texts about species of animals. The investigation concerns both the distribution of different forms of generic noun phrases and the boundary between generic and non-generic noun phrases. The analytical tools are taken from Accessibility Theory and Blending Theory. Two separate studies have been undertaken. The results of the first study indicate that generic reference on the whole follows the same principles of accessibility as non-generic reference, although there are some differences that can be attributed to the distinction between generic and non-generic reference. Some results suggest that our mental representations of generic referents are generally less accessible than those of non-generic referents. Factors other than accessibility influencing the choice of generic noun phrases are also identified. While genericity is generally treated as an all-or-nothing phenomenon, an important experience of this first study concerns the difficulties facing anyone who tries to distinguish between generic and non-generic noun phrases in authentic texts. These difficulties are the centre of attention in the second study, which shows that genericity is an extremely context-dependent phenomenon. The sentence context may clearly indicate a particular, non-generic reference, while the wider context of the text reveals that the noun phrase in question is in fact generic. Not infrequently, chains of reference involve a great deal of shifting and slithering between a generic and a non-generic meaning, although the references are seemingly coreferential. It is sometimes difficult to decide on the real referents intended. At times there are also clear cases where the noun phrase must be analysed as referring to both generic and non-generic entities at the same time. This implies that it is unlikely that we actually decide for every reference if it is generic or non-generic.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / O conceito de referÃncia tem passado por inÃmeras reformulaÃÃes atravÃs dos tempos, de acordo com as viradas epistemolÃgica, lingÃÃstica e pragmÃtica (GHIRALDELLI, 2005). De acordo com as concepÃÃes de linguagem mais atuais, essa noÃÃo passou a ser vista como um processo que se desenvolve na pragmÃtica do discurso e que, por isso, envolve aspectos da interaÃÃo-cogniÃÃo. Essa nova maneira de ver o fenÃmeno exige ferramentas capazes de dar conta de sua complexidade. Nesta tese, discutimos seis das atuais propostas de abordagem dos fenÃmenos referenciais e elegemos a Teoria da Acessibilidade, de Ariel (1996, 2001), como a mais avanÃada, quando se trata de agregar aos aspectos puramente lingÃÃsticos os elementos pragmÃticos. Embora ainda tome por base o cognitivismo clÃssico, um dos paradigmas criticados pelos teÃricos da visÃo pragmÃtico-discursiva, essa teoria propÃe uma interaÃÃo complexa entre fatores, nos diversos nÃveis do universo do texto/discurso. Ao lado de uma ampla pesquisa bibliogrÃfica, montamos um corpus composto por 223 mensagens, trocadas entre membros da Comunidade Virtual da Linguagem (CVL), de onde retiramos exemplos que apoiaram nossas reflexÃes teÃricas. Embora nÃo tenha sido aplicado ao corpus nenhum tratamento estatÃstico, percebemos que um fenÃmeno importante, que està presente no inÃcio de um grande nÃmero de mensagens, à o processo de encapsulamento anafÃrico, resumindo quase sempre o conteÃdo proposicional de outra(s) mensagem(ns). Percebemos que a imprecisÃo dos limites da materialidade textual, que se verifica nesse tipo de comunicaÃÃo hÃbrida, parece ser responsÃvel pelo apelo ao recurso da sumarizaÃÃo. Vimos, entÃo, na Teoria da Acessibilidade, que nÃo separa o que à textual do que à extratextual, uma ferramenta importante para tratar dessas questÃes, que, apesar de, ao que parece, serem comuns a qualquer tipo de discurso, sÃo tÃo salientes no ambiente da lista de discussÃo. / The concept of reference has experienced a number of transformations through times, consistent with epistemological, linguistic and pragmatic changes (GHIRALDELLI, 2005). According to the more recent standpoints on language, that notion is now seen as a process which develops from the discourse pragmatics and which, because of that, involves aspects of the interaction-cognition. Such new viewpoint on the phenomenon requires new tools in order to account for its complexity. In this dissertation, we discuss six of the current models of the reference phenomena and we elected the Accessibility Theory, by Ariel (1996, 2001) as the most advanced, when it comes to link the pragmatic elements to the purely linguistic aspects. Although it is still based on the classical cognitivism, one of the paradigms criticized by theoreticians of the pragmatic-discursive view, that theory proposes a complex interaction among factors on the several levels of the text/discourse universe. Besides an extensive bibliographical research, a corpus of 223 messages exchanged between members of the Virtual Community for Language was arranged, from which we got examples that supported our theoretical considerations. Although no statistical treatment was applied to the corpus, we noted that an important phenomenon, present in the beginning of several messages, is the process of anaphoric encapsulating, almost always summarizing the propositional content of other message(s). We observed that the uncertainty of textual limits, which is present in such type of hybrid communication, seems to be responsible for demanding the summarization and found that the Accessibility Theory, that does not separate what is textual from what is extratextual, is an important tool to treat those questions, which, although present in any type of discourse, are so evident in the discussion list environment.

COSTA, Maria Helenice Araújo. Acessibilidade de referentes: um convite à reflexão. 213 f. Tese (Doutorado em Linguística) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza-CE, 2007. / Submitted by Liliane oliveira (morena.liliane@hotmail.com) on 2012-09-05T13:49:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_TESE_MHACOSTA.pdf: 851993 bytes, checksum: 4beefe8ac7751a982c7e691c3a540479 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2013-10-10T14:01:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_TESE_MHACOSTA.pdf: 851993 bytes, checksum: 4beefe8ac7751a982c7e691c3a540479 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-10T14:01:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_TESE_MHACOSTA.pdf: 851993 bytes, checksum: 4beefe8ac7751a982c7e691c3a540479 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / The concept of reference has experienced a number of transformations through times, consistent with epistemological, linguistic and pragmatic changes (GHIRALDELLI, 2005). According to the more recent standpoints on language, that notion is now seen as a process which develops from the discourse pragmatics and which, because of that, involves aspects of the interaction-cognition. Such new viewpoint on the phenomenon requires new tools in order to account for its complexity. In this dissertation, we discuss six of the current models of the reference phenomena and we elected the Accessibility Theory, by Ariel (1996, 2001) as the most advanced, when it comes to link the pragmatic elements to the purely linguistic aspects. Although it is still based on the classical cognitivism, one of the paradigms criticized by theoreticians of the pragmatic-discursive view, that theory proposes a complex interaction among factors on the several levels of the text/discourse universe. Besides an extensive bibliographical research, a corpus of 223 messages exchanged between members of the Virtual Community for Language was arranged, from which we got examples that supported our theoretical considerations. Although no statistical treatment was applied to the corpus, we noted that an important phenomenon, present in the beginning of several messages, is the process of anaphoric encapsulating, almost always summarizing the propositional content of other message(s). We observed that the uncertainty of textual limits, which is present in such type of hybrid communication, seems to be responsible for demanding the summarization and found that the Accessibility Theory, that does not separate what is textual from what is extratextual, is an important tool to treat those questions, which, although present in any type of discourse, are so evident in the discussion list environment / O conceito de referência tem passado por inúmeras reformulações através dos tempos, de acordo com as viradas epistemológica, lingüística e pragmática (GHIRALDELLI, 2005). De acordo com as concepções de linguagem mais atuais, essa noção passou a ser vista como um processo que se desenvolve na pragmática do discurso e que, por isso, envolve aspectos da interação-cognição. Essa nova maneira de ver o fenômeno exige ferramentas capazes de dar conta de sua complexidade. Nesta tese, discutimos seis das atuais propostas de abordagem dos fenômenos referenciais e elegemos a Teoria da Acessibilidade, de Ariel (1996, 2001), como a mais avançada, quando se trata de agregar aos aspectos puramente lingüísticos os elementos pragmáticos. Embora ainda tome por base o cognitivismo clássico, um dos paradigmas criticados pelos teóricos da visão pragmático-discursiva, essa teoria propõe uma interação complexa entre fatores, nos diversos níveis do universo do texto/discurso. Ao lado de uma ampla pesquisa bibliográfica, montamos um corpus composto por 223 mensagens, trocadas entre membros da Comunidade Virtual da Linguagem (CVL), de onde retiramos exemplos que apoiaram nossas reflexões teóricas. Embora não tenha sido aplicado ao corpus nenhum tratamento estatístico, percebemos que um fenômeno importante, que está presente no início de um grande número de mensagens, é o processo de encapsulamento anafórico, resumindo quase sempre o conteúdo proposicional de outra(s) mensagem(ns). Percebemos que a imprecisão dos limites da materialidade textual, que se verifica nesse tipo de comunicação híbrida, parece ser responsável pelo apelo ao recurso da sumarização. Vimos, então, na Teoria da Acessibilidade, que não separa o que é textual do que é extratextual, uma ferramenta importante para tratar dessas questões, que, apesar de, ao que parece, serem comuns a qualquer tipo de discurso, são tão salientes no ambiente da lista de discussão