Cette thèse étudie le fonctionnement des déterminations définie et indéfinie au sein des syntagmes nominaux génériques en anglais contemporain à partir d’un corpus essentiellement composé de textes encyclopédiques et scientifiques. La catégorisation générique peut relever de processus cognitifs et de niveaux d’abstraction distincts signifiés par les déterminations définie et indéfinie. La première partie décrit successivement le cadre référentiel de cette étude, la formalisation morphosyntaxique de la généricité nominale, la spécification dont sont porteurs les articles définis et indéfinis, ainsi que les contraintes déterminatives liées à la classe lexico-grammaticale des substantifs et au contexte prédicatif. La deuxième partie étudie les possibilités et impossibilités déterminatives au regard des contextes prédicatifs lorsque le syntagme nominal est associé à un prédicat d’espèce. Nous considérons plus spécifiquement l’interaction entre la classification des espèces, le nombre singulier ou pluriel et la détermination définie ou indéfinie en nous intéressant aux espèces conçues dans leur pluralité interne. La troisième partie examine le fonctionnement de l’article défini comme opérateur d’abstraction. L’étude des spécialisations de the montre qu’il est lié à une visée référentielle externalisante et synthétique. La quatrième partie traite du fonctionnement des syntagmes nominaux génériques définis et indéfinis au sein des textes génériques eu égard à la structuration du discours. L’article défini sous-tend une dimension anaphorique au générique également, et reste la marque de la saillance cognitive du référent. / This dissertation deals with the use of definite and indefinite determiners in generic noun phrases in contemporary English, using a corpus based on encyclopedic and scientific texts mainly. The categorization which genericity is based on results from various cognitive processes and levels of abstraction which are signified in the use of definite and indefinite determiners. The first part successively describes the referential framework of our study, the morphosyntactical forms of generic noun phrases, the values of definite and indefinite articles, as well as the pattern of constraints on definite and indefinite articles established by the lexico-grammatical features of nouns and the predicative context. The second part examines determiner possibilities and impossibilities with regard to the predicative context when a generic noun phrase is combined with a kind-predicate. More specifically, we correlate species classification, singular/plural number marking and definite/indefinite determination as we examine the plural structure of generic referents. The third part studies the use of the definite article as an abstraction operator. As we consider cases in which the use of definite noun phrases is favored, we show that its reference involves an externalizing and synthetic dimension. The fourth part deals with the way generic definite and indefinite noun phrases combine in generic texts with regard to the discourse structure. The use of the definite article presupposes an anaphoric dimension in generic reference also and indicates that the referent is salient in a cognitive perspective.

This study is an analysis of the translation of a French text regarding the use of pesticides in agriculture. The French text has been translated into Swedish by the author of this paper. There have been some problems in producing an idiomatic translation in some cases. Some of the noun phrases, infinitival phrases and participle phrases were especially complicated to translate. The main purpose of this study is to analyse how these problems were solved in a communicative translation. The analytic framework is mainly based on the works of Eriksson (1997), Ingo (2007), Fredriksson (2011) and Säll (2004).       The French language has a tendency of using infinite phrases, participle phrases and long noun phrases. When translating into Swedish one needs to bear in mind that the finite verb, in the present and past tense, is far more used than the infinite and participle forms. Actions are for example often expressed with finite verbs in the Swedish language. When completing a main clause, you often use a subordinate clause in Swedish. In a French text it is more common to see an infinite phrase as a complement of a main clause.   Noun phrases with many words are often avoided in the Swedish language. As a result, Swedish texts can be shorter compared to French texts. The French language is also said to be more abstract than the Swedish language, because there is not so much semantic value in many of the French words compared to Swedish words. The result is that there can be more words in a French text than in the translated Swedish text. In some cases, you can omit words that are not necessary for the context.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze how post-nominal of-phrases are translated from English to Swedish in a non-fiction text about the musician Dave Grohl and his band Foo Fighters. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. The of-phrases are categorized according to Keizer’s (2007) categories, and the results show that most of-phrases are translated to prepositional phrases, although it differs which prepositions are used, depending on the type of ofphrase. For of-phrases of the possession-type, i is the most common preposition, and for compound-like of-phrases, av is the most common preposition. Of-phrases of possession-type are also frequently translated into genitive constructions, especially if the possessor is animate or syntactically light. Other structural changes also occur in the translation, although no pattern was found for this strategy in the analysis.

The subject of the present study is a comparison of two postmodifying constructions in noun phrases - finite relative adnominal clauses with the subject gap and nonfinite participial clauses - in spoken academic discourse: natural and social science. The comparison is based on the fact that both constructions realize the same clause element, i.e. a postmodifier in a noun phrase. The aim of the present study is thus to present major characteristics and functions of finite relative clauses and their reduced counterparts with respect to their distribution across the two subregisters of spoken academic discourse. The study is divided into three main parts: the theoretical background (Chapter 2) which defines the major characteristics and functions of the two postmodifying constructions and their mutual relationship, as are presented in the literature; the main part (Chapters 3 and 4) which provides the analysis of finite relative clauses and participial postmodifiers; and conclusion in Chapter 5.

<p>English noun phrases (NP) which include degree modified adjectives show some interesting variation of the position of the indefinite article. A particularly salient pattern is displayed in <em>This is anticipated to be <strong>more common a scenario</strong> than fleas spreading bubonic plague </em>(BoE, BU-NX022521)<em>.</em> The present paper is based on a study of utterances where this pattern was used even though a canonical word order would have been possible. Such constructs are referred to as the <em>Optional Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase </em>(OPIANP) and have been collected from the British National Corpus (BNC) and <em>Collins Word Banks Online: English Corpus</em> (BoE). The central question is whether there is semantic motivation for this postposition of the indefinite article. The results suggest that there is such motivation, namely that the OPIANP could be an extension of a more frequent construction identified as the <em>Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase</em> (PIANP). Furthermore, it is shown that the pattern’s semantics is unpredictable from the composition of its parts and that its primary function is that it positions already given arguments on an adjectival scale. That is, it foregrounds scalar qualities and backgrounds the noun. These conclusions stem from observations of patterns of unification with other constructions, illustrating how the OPIANP unifies best with the non-referential, descriptive PC-constructions and less well with referential constructions such as the subject and direct object constructions. These findings are remarkable as the idea of an adjective-scalar centred NP-construction challenges the idea of NPs being centred round their head, the noun.</p>

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Portuguese

English Language Learners (ELLs) are a growing population within the U.S. school system. In the secondary grades, this diverse group requires instruction to improve not only English language proficiency but also utilization of the academic language register, especially in writing tasks. The present study focused on ELLs in middle school. The aim was to explore the effects of enhanced Self–Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) writing instruction on the use of complex language, particularly elaborated noun phrases (ENPs) when SRSD was combined with linguistic instruction on increased sentence complexity. As a part of a larger study exploring critical literacy and the persuasive writing instruction of Spanish–English speaking students, this repeated measures design detailed the effects of two six–week instructional periods aimed at teaching 19 ELLs methods for organizing, planning, and constructing persuasive texts (the macr–-structure level), as well as ways of incorporating academic language forms and functions in their writing (the micro–structure level). Within the critical literacy project that involved topics and themes related to immigration, the 19 students produced three texts in English (pre–, mid–, and post–instruction essays). These texts were analyzed for ENP frequency and complexity. Three case studies were also chosen to highlight the variation in ENP outcomes and to discuss additional aspects of persuasive writing at both the macr–- and micro–structure levels. Statistical analysis of group use of ENPs revealed no significant increase in frequency or complexity across essays as simple pre–noun modifications were produced in amounts greater than all other ENP type across all essays. The three case studies revealed that frequency of ENP use generally corresponded to strength of abilities at either the macro–structure level, such as inclusion of more persuasive elements, or the micro–structure level as indicated by increased text length and variety of vocabulary. One implication of these outcomes indicates the need for more in–depth emphasis on the coordination of both the macro– and micro–structure levels in writing instruction studies with ELLs. Other implications pertain to further analysis of classification approaches for designating ENP complexity, and how enhanced understanding of ENP production signals aspects of the academic language register.

Despite the plethora of SLA research conducted on the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations in L2 Arabic and English (e.g., Sarko, 2007; Master, 1997; Collier, 1987; Anderson, 1984; Kharma, 1981), there is as yet no definitive description of how noun phrases are acquired and why errors persist after advanced stages in L2 learning. Results, as shown by Butler (2002), are inconclusive, and the primary causes of difficulties in the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations remain unclear. Recently, the internal syntax-semantics interface (Cuza & Frank, 2011; Montrul, 2010; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006; Sorace, 2003, 2004) and the specificity-definiteness distinction (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2008) have been considered as appropriate frameworks for exploring the acquisition of noun phrases and other structural features. The structure of noun phrase configurations in Arabic and English offers a complex interface between form and meaning for L2 learners with multiple cases of matches and mismatches between specificity and definiteness. In this three-article dissertation project, two of which were conducted in a bidirectional methodological framework with L1 Arabic-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Arabic learners, I explored the acquisition of three cases of noun phrase configurations. In the first study, I investigated the acquisition of plural noun phrase configurations that carry generic and specific readings at the initial state of L2 learning. Using three data collection instruments: written translation; error detection and correction; and forced choice elicitation, I tested the predictions made by the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the Full Transfer (FT) Hypothesis. Results showed that L2 learners in both directions tend to transfer noun phrase configurations from L1 into L2, a result that I took to support the FT hypothesis. In addition, it took L1 English-L2 Arabic learners two years of instruction to recover from this L1 effect. The second study aimed at confirming the result of the first study, but in the acquisition of the definite marker in generic singular noun phrase configurations in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. The behavior of generic singular noun phrases in L2 Arabic offers a good testing ground since it has numerous similarities and differences with English. Two conditions were established: a matching condition and a mismatching condition. Both conditions were tested in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. Results showed a similar pattern to the one recorded in the first study. Typological proximity and distance were found to be important determiners of language acquisition of the in/definiteness configurations of singular noun phrases. In the third study, I shifted to the exploration of a more complex type of noun phrases; namely the definite Iḍāfah construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its equivalent noun phrase configurations in English in the two directions. I started with a common difference between MSA and English. Whereas in MSA there is a canonical configuration in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness, English is tolerant of more than one permissible configuration. I operationalized the acquisition of these noun phrases in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness. Results showed a clear effect of L1 transfer in both directions; knowledge of L1 noun phrase configurations acts as the initial step in L2 learning. I concluded that both communities of L2 learners face problems that vary according to the L1 noun phrase configuration at hand. However, in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction, learners reached a satisfactory level of performance in the Iḍāfah construction after two years of instruction. I approached this finding as a result of intensive Focus-on-Form Episodes (Loewn, 2005) that the Iḍāfah construction receives in MSA instruction. At the conclusion of this research project I highlighted some implications for the second language acquisition and teaching of noun phrases. The overall results were couched in a broader perspective that characterizes the initial state of L2 learning of noun phrases in + article and – article languages, the effects of typological proximity and distance, and the effects of Instructed SLA. For the pedagogical implications, I called for the integration of the semantics of the definite marker while presenting noun phrases in textbooks. I also recommended the use of explicit instruction and structured-input activities (VanPatten, 2004; Marsden & Chen, 2011) as effective pedagogical tools that foster form-meaning mapping in the acquisition of L2 Arabic and English noun phrases.

Notre travail est consacré à l’élément LA (< fr. là) en guyanais, langue créole française pour laquelle il n’existe que peu de données linguistiques accessibles. Nous fournissons un nouveau corpus du guyanais qui inclut une vaste gamme de textes anciens de 1799 à 1893 et des données du guyanais parlé. En nous basant sur notre corpus, nous proposons une analyse diachronique et synchronique de LA, élément extrêmement polyfonctionnel en guyanais. Nous commençons notre étude par distinguer ses différentes fonctions : adverbe/marqueur de discours, élément du pronom déictique-démonstratif, LA en fin de proposition subordonnée ou interrogative, ainsi que LA marqueur postnominal. Pour l’analyse du dernier, nous proposons une approche théorique de la référence nominale qui tient compte de l’usage de l’élément en question en discours, et donc aussi des fonctions interactionnelles et sociales du langage. Notre analyse de corpus nous permet de classer LA comme marqueur dont l’emploi est non seulement incomplètement généralisé dans les contextes définis, mais dont l’usage dépend d’une interaction complexe de différents facteurs d’ordre sémantico-pragmatique, ontologico-cognitif et informationnel-syntaxique. LA dénote en outre une certaine variation graduelle en fonction de la tradition discursive, ou bien des conditions/intentions communicatives respectives. LA est enfin un élément qui laisse toujours entrevoir à un certain degré son enracinement initial dans la deixis et l’oralité. De ce lien témoigne également le rôle joué par là/LA non seulement dans les autres créoles français, mais également dans les variétés orales du français en Afrique ou au Canada. / Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich dem Element LA (< fr. là) im Guayanakreol, einer französischen Kreolsprache für die bisher kaum Untersuchungen vorliegen. Unsere Arbeit legt ein neues Korpus vor, das sich aus Texten von 1799-1893 sowie aus eigenen Sprachaufnahmen zusammensetzt. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Untersuchung liegt auf einer detaillierten synchronen und diachronen Beschreibung der Verwendungskontexte des im Guayanakreol stark polyfunktionalen LAs. Hierfür nehmen wir zunächst eine Abgrenzung zwischen LA als Adverb/Diskursmarker, LA als Teil des Demonstrativpronomens, LA am Ende von Neben- oder Fragesätzen sowie dem postnominalen Marker LA vor. Für die Analyse des postnominalen LAs entwickeln wir anschließend einen umfangreichen theoretischen Unterbau zur Nominalreferenz, wobei ein semantisch-pragmatischer und kognitiver Ansatz verfolgt wird. Die Korpusanalyse zeigt schließlich, dass das postnominale LA allenfalls als definiter Marker auf einer niedrigen Grammatikalisierungsstufe eingeordnet werden kann, dessen Auftreten durch ein komplexes Zusammenspiel semantisch-pragmatischer, ontologisch-kognitiver sowie informationell-syntaktischer Faktoren bestimmt wird. Unsere diachrone Analyse zeigt zudem, dass in unserem Korpus der Gebrauch von LA weitgehend stabil bleibt, dass aber eine gewisse graduelle Variation je nach Diskurstradition und Kommunikationsintentionen vorliegt. Die Funktionalität von LA zeugt außerdem bis heute von einer gewissen Verankerung in der Deixis und in der Nähesprache, die auch in anderen Frankokreols sowie in gesprochenen Varietäten des Französischen, wie etwa in Afrika oder Kanada, zutage tritt.

Les modèles de la perception du langage écrit et du langage oral mettent au premier plan l’importance du lexique mental. En effet, parmi les nombreux indices hiérarchisés et guidant la segmentation du flux continu de parole chez l’adulte et l’enfant, les indices lexicaux ont une place prépondérante. Tout au long de ce travail, nous nous intéressons aux spécificités du stockage des séquences multimots dans le lexique mental et à l’hypothèse d’une mémorisation de ces séquences en une seule unité.Ce travail se divise en deux parties, chacune composée d’une série d’expériences. La première partie interroge en premier lieu les indices impliqués dans les effets facilitateurs de la reconnaissance des noms au sein du groupe nominal. Pour cela, sont mis en perspective l’effet du genre grammatical porté par les déterminants et l’effet de fréquence de co-occurrence des séquences déterminant-nom sur le traitement du nom. C’est ensuite l’effet de la cohésion des séquences multimots sur leur reconnaissance qui est examiné.La seconde partie aborde l’influence de la variabilité interne des combinaisons déterminant-nom dans l’acquisition de la structure du groupe nominal chez l’enfant de deux ans à deux ans et demi. Au travers d’une étude longitudinale, nous opposons deux grandes conceptions de l’acquisition du langage chez le jeune enfant: la Grammaire Universelle et les approches Basées sur l’Usage. / The mental lexicon is usually assumed as the main foundation of written and spoken-language perception. Numerous and hierarchically-organized cues drive speech segmentation in adults and infants but lexical cues appear as overriding. Throughout this work, we question multiword-sequence storage idiosyncrasy and multiword-sequence memorizing as one unit in the mental lexicon.This work splits into two parts, each composed of a set of experiments. The first one assesses the cues involved in recognition facilitation of nouns in noun phrases. For that purpose, we disentangled grammatical-gender effects and co-occurrence frequency effects on the processing of determiner-noun sequences. Then, we tested the cohesiveness effect on three-word sequences’ recognition.The second set of experiments is about the influence of determiner-noun sequences’ internal variability in noun-phrase’s structure aquisition in 2 to 2,5 year-old children. In a three-month longitudinal study, we contrast two main conceptions of first-language acquisition: Universal Grammar and Usage-Based approaches.