In communication, a language user is naturally disposed to proceed from what is known to, or shared by, both the speaker/writer and hearer/reader and end with the information that is the most important. Such a disposition complies with the requirements of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP), but it also makes a language user “transform” the basic word order. The present work took a functional approach to language study to explore the syntactic potential of English to produce various sentence patterns by carrying out a communicative (functional) analysis of Carson McCullers’ short stories. The analysis showed that one of the main causes of noncanonical ordering of sentence elements is thematization by means of Preposing. The preposed elements were semantically diverse, though the frequency of occurrence of different process type sentences varied. The results of the analysis led to the conclusion that syntactic movement is determined by the semantic, syntactic and contextual restrictions. Syntactically, the peripheral elements of the sentence exhibited a higher flexibility than the core sentence elements. Semantic and syntactic unity of the sentence elements were interfered when the preposed sentence elements expressed information recoverable from a very short retrievability span, which revealed the significant role of the context in syntactical movements. Preposing and the resulting sentence patterns seem to be used for particular discourse functions: to enhance the... [to full text] / Pagal sakinio aktualiosios skaidos (AS) teoriją konkrečiame kontekste vieni sakinio elementai komunikaciniu požiūriu yra svarbesni negu kiti. Kalbos vartotojas yra natūraliai linkęs sakinį pradėti nuo to, kas žinoma jam kaip kalbėtojui ar rašytojui ir jo klausytojui ar skaitytojui ir baigti sakinį informacija, kuri yra svarbiausia. Tokia nuostata verčia kalbos vartotoją transformuoti vadinamą gramatinį sakinio modelį Veiksnys+Tarinys+Papildinys. Kitaip tariant, komunikacijos procese sintaksinio lygmens uždavinys yra „rasti“ tinkamą sakinio modelį ir jį aktualizuoti. Šiame darbe yra tiriamos anglų kalbos sintaksinės galios sudaryti įvairias sintaksines struktūras, kurios geriausiai gali atspindėti sakinio turinį ir komunikacinį tikslą. Tiriamajai medžiagai pasirinkti amerikiečių rašytojos Carson McCaullers apsakymai. Tyrimas parodė, kad tiriamų sakinių žodžių tvarką dažniausiai lėmė teminami semantiniai elementai, iškeliant juos į sakinio pradžią, arba kitaip tariant, atliekant temos preposiciją (angl. Preposing). Į sakinio pradžią keliami elementai yra semantiškai skirtingi, priklausomai nuo proceso tipo. Žodžių tvarkos įvairavimą lemia semantiniai, sintaksiniai ir konteksto apribojimai. Dažniausiai į sakinio pradžią keliami pagrindiniai ir periferiniai elementai reiškė žinomą informaciją. Tiriant žodžių tvarkos įvairavimo atvejus, buvo siekiama įvertinti ir diskursinį žodžių tvarkos modelių vaidmenį. Tyrimas parodė, kad įprasta žodžių tvarka yra keičiama, siekiant ne tik... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

The thesis is focused on the Spanish determiners este, ese, aquel, the definite article and their anaphoric function. First, the theoretical groundwork for the latter analysis is built: the deter- miners are characterized together with the anaphora as a device of discourse coherence. Then, the choice between the demonstratives este, ese, aquel and the defi- nite article in different types of nominal anaphora is analyzed using examples from the parallel corpus InterCorp. Diverse factors influencing this choice are examined. The analysis is extended with a comparative analysis in which Czech equivalents of the Spanish determiners in the same types of anaphora are compared.

The aim of the present thesis is to analyze syntactic realisations of the Presentation Scale (presentation sentences) as they are defined in the framework of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP). Several aspects are examined: the semantic aspect is reflected in the observation of the semantic character of the presentation verb and in the semantic affinity it displays with its subject. From the syntactic viewpoint, the sentential architecture of presentation sentences is examined as well as the distribution of the syntactic realisations in text. The study also offers results as regards sentences implementing the Extended Presentation Scale, namely the syntactic realisation of the dynamic semantic function of Specification. The textual aspects concern the correlation between the type of presentation sentence, its location within a paragraph and its textual function. All the above-mentioned aspects are examined in sentences excerpted from texts of two different functional styles, viz. academic prose and fiction. The corpus on which the analysis is based comprises 1731 presentation sentences, 826 from texts of academic prose and 905 from texts of fiction. The theoretical part of the thesis aims both at presenting the FSP theory as it was developed by Jan Firbas and his followers and at a comprehensive...