The diploma thesis considers the translation and contrastive analysis of the Czech and German idioms found in the online edition of "Bild" newspaper. First chapter deals with the theoretical background of the phraseology. In the following chapter the idioms are translated and the translations are thoroughly commented. The meaning of each idiom is explained and the idiom is classified according to the degree of similarity with its Czech translation. In the conclusion the results are summarized.

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This study represents an attempt to make explicit, within a contrastive perspective, the various types of meaning which can be expressed by the modal auxiliary verbs of English and Afrikaans. Chapter 1 investigates the potential of contrastive analysis for application in the field of foreign-language teaching and it is found that this linguistic technique is of definite pedagogical relevance because negative learning transfer or interference, which results from differences between source and target languages, is a major cause of learner error. It is also noted here that generally speaking the most acceptable type of linguistic theory within which a contrastive analysis should be framed is one which recognises both surface and deeper levels of structure so that the surface forms in each language can be ultimately related to a common semantic base. The modal auxiliaries of the two languages were selected for study because of the high degree of formal similarity or congruence that obtains between the English and Afrikaans counterparts, a fact which can be expected to lead to a considerable amount of learning transfer. As the semantics of these forms is not always equivalent, however, some of this transfer is bound to be negative, i.e. error-generating. In Chapter 2 the syntactic and morphological characteristics of the English and Afrikaans forms are compared. Although, as Chapter 2 reveals, the modal auxiliaries constitute a fairly well-defined formal class in each language, they relate semantically to an extensive set of other expressions, all of which mark modality, a rather complex concept which may be broadly characterised as relating to qualifications on the truth-value of the basic proposition which a speaker expresses. In Chapter 3 various classifications of types of modality are discussed and a basic distinction is made between epistemic modality (qualification relates directly to the speaker's assessment of the factuality of the proposition expressed) and non-epistemic modality (qualifications relate more specifically to conditions on the process referred to). In both cases the 11 qualification" can be expressed as a kind of "possibility" or a kind of "necessity", and within the framework of our analysis modality is represented at the level of deep-semantic structure by POSS and NEC as higher abstract predicates linked to one another by a set of meaning postulates. The interpretation of these predicates depends on the kinds of arguments which accompany them in the semantic representation and these arguments are classified and labelled broadly in accordance with Fillmore's functionalsemantic definitions of "case". The modal abstract predicates take as arguments a predication which is labelled as a Goal and either an Agent or Instrument as a source. Unlike traditional "modal operators", then, they are two-place transitive-causative predicates and the basic structure of the modal content of sentences is seen to be something of the order of "x makes-possible/necessary y (pre di ca ti on)". . Representations of epistemic modality contain a further BELIEVE predicate as part of the Goal predication. Depending on the prelexical transformations that apply (e.g. whether the modality source is deleted or not) syntactically different modality markers are derived from the same basic semantic representation and so expressions such as John allows Fred ... ,Fred is allowed ... and Fred can ... are shown to be broadly synonymous. Our main concern here is not with the actual transformations but with the "semantic primitives" in terms of which different types of modality may be represented and related to one another. Using the framework outlined in Chapter 3, the semantics of the "possibility" and the "necessity" modal auxiliaries in each language is discussed in Chapters 4 and 5 respectively. Both non-oblique ("present") and oblique ("imperfect") forms are related to one another and to other modality markers. Chapter 6 deals briefly with negative forms of the modal auxiliaries before summarising the semantic similarities and contrasts between the congruent English and Afrikaans forms. It is found that in spite of considerable parallelism in the meaning-form relations expressed by the modal auxiliaries in the two languages, there are also a number of basic differences. The pedagogical implications and applications relating to this study, its findings and its approach, are reviewed briefly by way of conclusion. / Linguistics and Modern Languages

This diploma thesis aims to analyze the function of articles in English and Italian. In both languages, articles are used in order to determine the name; however, in some instances, such function works in both languages differently. With the help of examples from books and from the InterCorp corpus, this thesis shows the similarities and differences regarding this matter. The description of both languages is based on the point of view of a native speaker of Czech. Having a broad variety of endings and declinations, Czech is a language that does not use the category of article. Thus, it uses other means to cover the same function, which in this case helps to see the differences in different language systems. The thesis is divided into ten chapters; each of them deals with a different aspect that is related to the article use. To show the level of similarity in each of these cases, the theory is supported by various examples in both languages. The first chapter deals with the development of articles from the Indoeuropean base. Next chapter introduces the current forms of articles in modern English and Italian, taking into account pronunciation. Chapter 3 focuses on the classification of substantives and also deals with the concept of countability. Chapter 4 introduces articles as a part of NP, taking into account different parts of speech that from the syntactic point of view can appear in the same position as article. Chapters 5 and 6 are focused on the general functions of articles, while the following two chapters analyse respectively the use of articles with common and proper names. Chapters 9 and 10 deal with the impact of word order on the use of articles and with the correlation of articles and demonstrative pronouns. In the final part are exposed the general conclusions that resulted from the analysis of all the aspects listed above.

in English A corpus analysis of the semantic interpretation factors of the French gérondif The aim of this work is to analyse factors influencing the interpretation of the implicit meaning of the French gérondif (Ger), and to explain, on the basis of this research, the semantic functioning of this non-finite verbal form (in connection with its equivalents in Czech). Our departing point is that the Ger form functions as an interpretation instruction, which defines the means of the integration of the action of the Ger into the action of the main proposition. This interpretation instruction defines the semantic invariant of the Ger, and thus its basic meaning; other meanings are derived on the basis of complex interactions of syntactic, lexical and pragmatic factors. The method used to examine these factors is based on a computer analysis of wide data acquired from monolingual and parallel corpora (FRANTEXT and InterCorp). Part I presents a summary of the results of the latest research of Ger and defines the specific factors: morphological which determine the essential interpretation instruction of the Ger (I.1.1) and basic relationships of aspect and time between the Ger and the main proposition (I.1.2); syntactic which define the Ger as a predication (I.2.1), its syntactic function in the context of...

國立政治大學英國語文學系在職碩士班 碩士論文提要 論文名稱：台灣高中生英文寫作中連接詞使用之研究 指導教授：尤雪瑛博士 研究生：洪孟芬 論文提要內容： 本研究旨在分析高中生在英文寫作中如何使用連接詞，並對學生使用連接詞的誤用現象加以分析，以期了解學生使用連接詞的原則。本研究採用Halliday and Hasan的連接詞分類法，並對中、英文的連接詞加以對比分析，從中發現中英文連接詞的相異及相同點，及可能造成學生混淆的問題。本研究以兩階段驗證假設。第一階段以192篇的學生作文為分析樣本，第二階段以問卷從中發現學生使用連接詞的困難。 本研究採用質的分析方法，分析內容涵蓋：在學生作文中（一） 連接詞的誤用狀況（二）影響學生使用連接詞的因素。 本研究結果如下：學生在使用連接詞時，會受到本身母語的影響，造成某些連接詞的使用錯誤。而中、英語連接詞本身的複雜性，易造成學生的使用困難。 本研究最後提出在英語教學上的建議：在課堂上教導連接詞時，應加強語意方面的探討，並訓練學生正確文句之間的邏輯關係。 / ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the use of conjunctions in English compositions written by senior high school students in Taiwan. Its purpose is to discuss senior high school students’ performance in using conjunctions, to discover common errors made by students, to find out possible explanations for students’ errors, and to provide teachers implications of how to reduce learners’ errors in English composition teaching. In this study, Halliday & Hasan’s taxonomy of English conjunctions and a contrastive analysis of English and Chinese conjunctions are provided as the basis. Those potential problems in using English conjunctions for Chinese ESL learners are predicted and tested. There are two stages of verification precedure. The predictions are first verified with a data corpus totaled 192 written texts, which are collected from Bai-ling senior high school in Taiwan. Then, a questionnaire is used to reexamine and confirm most of the predictions between English and Chinese conjunctions. The study reveals that Taiwan senior high school students do receive certain influence from their first language--Chinese. Consequently, the outcome is regarded as capable of rendering valuable implications for ESL teachers and learners as well as researchers.

The following thesis deals with the topic of the contrast of phrasemes with a constituent black in German and Czech. The first, theoretical part of the thesis seeks to outline the basic terms as well as problematic points of the phraseological domain, which are of importance for the practical part. This concerns the phraseological terminology in general as well as the terminology of the contrastive phraseology. The practical part elaborates on the contrast of five phrasemes, picked from the Deutsch- tschechisches Wörterbuch der Phraseologismen und festgeprägten Wendungen (2010). These phrasemes have been looked up in DeReKo and InterCorp and subsequently analysed from the morpho-syntactic and semantic point of view. The result of this analysis should provide the answer to the question of whether the translation variants in the dictionary correspond with the actual written language usage or whether there is a discrepancy between those two areas.

This thesis deals with a contrastive analysis of German phraseological units containing an animal and their Czech equivalents. In the theoretical part, we will explain the basic concepts of phraseology and focus on the contrastive phraseology. The core of the thesis is formed by analysis of German proverbs and other verbal phraseological units and finding their Czech equivalents. The selected phraseological units are accompanied by examples. The aim of the thesis is to divide the phraseological units into groups according to the degree of equivalence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristic features and meaning of number idioms in the English and Lithuanian languages and determine similarities and differences in symbolic meaning conveyed by numbers in the two cultures. The research has been conducted adopting both quantitative and qualitative approaches, focusing on the main theoretical issues related to idioms and such universal and abstract phenomenon as "number" in the English and Lithuanian idioms, and searching for the relationships between number idioms in the two languages. In order to illustrate the main similarities and differences between two languages, 156 English and 212 Lithuanian idioms containing the cardinal and ordinal numbers from one to ten were subjected to the analysis. The contrastive, descriptive and statistic analysis methods were employed in the research. The results of the analysis showed that the numbers one (70 instances) and two (47 instances) are the most productive numbers in the English idioms; whereas, in the Lithuanian idioms besides the same numbers, one (99 instances) and two (35 instances), the number nine (39 instances) is common. The research demonstrated that numbers in the idioms of both languages communicate non-quantitative meaning more often than quantitative meaning. It was discovered that the choice of numbers in the idioms might be determined by logic and reality or reflect some cultural point of view. The analysis showed that the numbers one, three, six... [to full text] / Šio darbo tikslas – ištirti lietuviškų ir angliškų idiomų su skaičiais ypatumus ir reikšmes (vadovaujamasi anglų-amerikiečių tradicija terminas „idioma“ yra vartojamas vietoj lietuviško termino „frazeologizmas“); nustatyti panašumus ir skirtumus tarp skaičių simbolinių reikšmių dviejose kultūrose ir pamėginti juos paaiškinti. Tyrimui atlikti buvo naudojamasi kiekybine ir kokybine analizė, bei teorine medžiaga, susijusi su idiomų ir skaičių simbolinėmis rekšmėmis. Šiame darbe aptariami tokie teoriniai aspektai, kaip idiomos apibrėžimo problema, kriterijai naudojami atskirti idiomas nuo laisvųjų žodžių junginių, idiomų semantinė klasifikacija, ir idiomų ir kultūros ryšiai. Pagrindiniams dviejų kalbų idiomų panašumams ir skirtumams pagrįsti buvo surinktos 156 anglų ir 212 lietuvių kalbų idiomos. Analizės rezultatai parodė, kad skaičiai vienas (70 idiomos) ir du (47 idiomos) yra dažniausiai pasitaikaintys skaičiai anglų kalbos idiomose, tuo tarpu lietuvių kalbos idiomose apart tų pačių skaičių, vienas (99 idiomos) ir du (35 idiomos), yra paplytęs skaičius devyni (39 idiomos). Skaičių vienas is du dažnumas idiomose negali būti paaiškintas iš simbolinės pusės. Šių skaičių vartojimą daugiausia lemia logika ir realybė. Tačiau skaičiaus devyni dažnas vartojimas lietuviškose idiomose parodo šio skaičiaus glaudų ryšį su Lietuvos kultūra. Analizė atskleidė, kad skaičiai anglų ir lietuvių kalbų idiomose gali sukelti abiems tautoms panašias ir skirtingas asociacijas. Analizė parodė, kad... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

The aim of the study was to investigate whether there is a difference between Swedish learners of English in an at-home environment compared to Swedish learners of English who studied English abroad for a year, in their ability to distinguish between certain English phoneme. The method used to investigate was through a questionnaire where the informants had to identify words containing the sounds /z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ and /w/. The results showed that the informants who had been abroad were more familiar with the sounds than the informants who had studied in a Swedish senior high school over the same period of time. It was found that the sound /z/ was the hardest sound to identify, followed by /ʒ/, for both groups of informants. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det är någon skillnad mellan svenska elever som lär sig engelska under ett år i klassrummet eller under ett år genom utbytesstudier, när det gäller deras förmåga att skilja mellan vissa engelska fonem. Metoden som användes var genom en enkät där informanterna fick identifiera ord som innehöll ljuden /z/, /θ/, /d/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ och /v/. Resultaten visade att informanterna som hade varit utomlands var mer bekanta med ljuden än informanterna som hade studerat vid ett svenskt gymnasium under samma tid. Det visade sig att ljudet /z/ var den svåraste ljudet att identifiera, följt av /ʒ/ för båda informantgrupperna.