published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – išnagrinėti dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priede „Sostinė“ prielinksnių vartojimo ypatumus. Analizuojami įvairios tematikos straipsniai: politika, kultūra, menas, sportas, medicina, kriminalai ir pan. Tiriamąją medžiagą sudaro 2006 metų lapkričio mėnesio 10 dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priedo „Sostinė“ numerių. Darbo metu ištirta 2534 prielinksnių. Analizuojant nagrinėjamą medžiagą, buvo keliami šie uždaviniai: a) remiantis „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatikoje“, „Kalbos patarimuose“ pateiktu skirstymu, sugrupuoti dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priedo „Sostinė“ prielinksnius pagal tai, su kuriais linksniais jie eina; b) nustatyti ir apibrėžti tiriamųjų prielinksnių reikšmes. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad prielinksniai eidami su linksniu dažniausiai žymi sintaksinę objekto raišką, sintaksinę vietos raišką, sintaksinę krypties raišką, sintaksinę laiko raišką, rečiau – sintaksinę kiekio raišką, sintaksinę veiksmo ar būsenos priežasties raišką, sintaksinę informacijos ��altinio raišką, sintaksinę veiksmo atlikimo priemonės ar būdo raišką, sintaksinę išskirties santykių raišką ir labai retais atvejais – sintaksinę daikto požymių raišką, sintaksinę draugės raišką, sintaksinę medžiagos raišką, sintaksinę tikslo raišką, sintaksinę veikėjo būsenos požymio raišką, sintaksinę požymio raišką, sintaksinę tarpininkavimo raišką, sintaksinę veiksmo įrankio raišką, sintaksinę paskirties raišką. / The aim of the work is to analyze the prepositions found in appendix to daily newspaper „Lietuvos Rytas“ – „Sostinė“. In this work analyzes variety of themes in articles: politics, culture, art, sport, medicine, crime etc. Various dates were examined that is each week day was examined (it was chosen 2006 year November 10 issues). During the writing 2534 prepositions were analyzed. The main goals were: a) to group the prepositions according to „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika“, „Kalbos patarimai“ proposed distinction by means of analyzing the cases they are found with; b) estimate and describe the meaning of examined prepositions. Main consideration was given to syntactic meaning of prepositional. The results showed that the most often used prepositions are prepositions with syntactic meaning of place, and less frequently found are those with the syntactic informational meaning, and the rarest prepositions found in articles are the prepositions of time, quantity and movement or condition. What is more the prepositions of object, aim, relation, material, tool or purpose are used in very rare cases.

The present thesis focusses on the structure of PP's in English and Polish, and the occurrence of PP's in subject and object positions. The main theoretical references are the X-bar Theory of syntactic categories and the Government Binding framework (GB). A consideration of English data corroborates Jackendoff's and Emonds' claim that apart from an NP, prepositions can take a PP and an S′ complement or no complement at all, though details of Jackendoff's analysis are revised. Polish prepositions allow the same range of complements, including no complement, although,with a greater variety of complex prepositions and with intransitive prepositions modified by relative and appositive clauses, the P-PP and the P-S′ structures are less common in Polish than in English. Subject and object PP's have so far received little attention. Like PP objects of prepositions, they are used if the intended meaning cannot be expressed by a suitable NP. The appearance of subject PP's in raising and passive sentences poses a problem for classical Transformational Grammar, though not for a slightly revised version of GB – another category-based framework. The analysis proposed here involves a particular view of the representation of Case, and a revised Case Filter. The Case Filter rules out not merely any lexical NP with no Case but any lexical XP which requires Case but has not been assigned Case. Thus, the properties of being an NP and requiring Case are independent of each other. It emerges from the investigation (i) that prepositions in English and Polish are more alike than one might expect, given the obvious differences between the two languages; (ii) that prepositions and PP's are like verbs and VP's – as Jackendoff emphasizes – but in some respects they show greater resemblance to other categories; and (iii) that syntactic categories are less important for the distribution of phrases than is commonly assumed, and that the meaning of phrases is of central importance for their distribution.

146f. / Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-05-13T17:50:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ironildes Franca.pdf: 408703 bytes, checksum: 37100227656b91b1d7a1a8d6f339e10d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva(sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-06-04T17:04:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ironildes Franca.pdf: 408703 bytes, checksum: 37100227656b91b1d7a1a8d6f339e10d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-04T17:04:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ironildes Franca.pdf: 408703 bytes, checksum: 37100227656b91b1d7a1a8d6f339e10d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / As raízes das preposições a, em e para da língua portuguesa podem ser traçadas desde as preposições latinas ad, in e da locução prepositiva per ad. Esses simples morfemas assumem diversos significados e usos ao longo dos séculos e expressam simples idéias concretas de deslocamento de coisas e/ou pessoas, tanto quanto as mais abstratas noções de dedicação, devoção e atribuição. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é estudar o processo de gramaticalização passado pela preposição a, em textos representativos dos séculos XVI e XVII, e observar até que ponto ocorre interferência de campos semânticos entre as preposições a, em e para, identificando as sutilezas de seus usos. / Salvador

This thesis investigates the acquisition of the spatial and figurative meanings of five Spanish spatial particles, namely sobre, encima, debajo, bajo and en, by a group of Chinese university students of Spanish as a foreign language at intermediate and upper-intermediate language levels. More specifically, this study aims to answer two questions. The first question considers the order of acquisition of prepositional meanings, that is, whether this is similar to a native language, with literal and more primary meanings acquired first and figurative ones later or, conversely, whether the pattern of acquisition is different to that found in a first language (Kemmerer, 2005; Lam, 2010). The second question of this research is to determine whether there are observable differences between the degree of acquisition and use of these prepositions in English compared to Spanish, and if so, what the characteristics of these differences are. To try to answer these questions, the performance of this group of participants in four behavioural tests is compared. The tests were a lexical identification task, a picture fill-in-the- blank task, a sentence generation task and a truth value judgment task. These tests were conducted both in Spanish, which the participants had begun to study at undergraduate level and English, which they had first been exposed to in school in a pre-puberty period. The results of this study indicate, first, that the acquisition of the literal and figurative meanings of the spatial particles in this study does not follow a pattern similar to that found in a native language. That is, meaning acquisition in a foreign language occurs in a parallel or simultaneous pattern. Furthermore, in a non-immersion context such as that of this study, the age at which students begin the study of a foreign language is not a decisive factor in determining the degree of mastery that students can obtain. The quantity and quality of the input students are exposed to; together with an appropriate methodology appear to be the most important factors in predicting the level of proficiency that can be reached.

À is the prototypical preposition used before city names in French, yet there are reports that, since the mid-20th century, sur also appears in this context in vernacular varieties of European French. To date, research on the choice between à and sur has focused on semantic and pragmatic differences between the two, and has relied on made-up examples, small participant usage surveys, or empirical datasets that were not systematically analyzed. Moreover, the influence of social factors has received only scant attention. This thesis addresses these shortcomings by providing a quantitative, variationist and longitudinal account of à/sur alternations. It asks the following question: Which factors (linguistic and social) can account for prepositional variation before city names in Hexagonal French? The data was drawn from two publicly available corpora of spoken Hexagonal French, representing three locales: the Parisian city-centre, a group of suburban cities surrounding Paris, and the midsize provincial city of Orléans. The speakers (N = 151) were born between 1878 and 1994, providing a mixture of real- and apparent-time perspectives on variation. Following variationist methods, the analysis considers all contexts where à/sur variation is possible (N = 2542) and seeks to elucidate the variable grammar. Results indicate important differences between the three areas under study, both in terms of social patterns and in terms of linguistic constraints. In Paris, the use of sur is restricted to a few speakers and a few linguistic contexts, and is overall very infrequent. In the suburbs and Orléans, sur is more widely attested across speakers and contexts, but it remains a minority variant which seems to be on the decline, especially in the suburbs. Further, in Orléans, the variable grammar is less linguistically constrained, suggesting a trajectory of geographic diffusion. Overall, the quantitative findings support some of the semantic and pragmatic hypotheses proposed in earlier work while shedding light on how geographic, social and linguistic factors combine to explain a phenomenon of variation that has never been studied using variationist methods before. / Graduate / 2022-07-19

Verhandeling ingelewer vir die graad Magister in die Lettere en Wysbegeerte aan die Universiteit van Zululand, 2000. / Eng =: In this thesis I report the results of a survey that I made of the contributions that linguists had made in the course of the previous century regarding the description of the Afrikaans prepositional phrase construction. My research revealed that the first generation of Afrikaans linguists for ideological reasons were preoccupied with the origin and development of Afrikaans, and that Afrikaans prepositions were only referred to during discussions regarding the extent to which Afrikaans was considered to be a pure Germanic language, or a creolised language that obtained its characteristic features at the southern tip of Africa under the influence of contact languages such as Malay-Portuguese and Khoe. My research further revealed that De Villiers and Raidt were the first of the second generation Afrikaans linguists that understood that prepositions were constituents of a grammatical construction, the prepositional phrase construc¬tion. My main finding was that Ponelis is the central figure in the description of the grammar of Afrikaans, and that he made the biggest contribution to the description of the Afrikaans prepositional phrase construction in that capacity. Finally I concluded that De Wet and De Stadler are transitional figures to a new approach, according to which prepositions are characterised as elements of case grammar. Of De Stadler I concluded that his work on the Afrikaans partitative construction and the Afrikaans dative construction have created a bridge for analysing the Afrikaans prepositional phase construction within an emerging new approach, Cognitive Grammar. Afri: = In hierdie verhandeling doen ek verslag oor 'n bestekoJlname wat ek gemaak het van die bydraes wat taalkundiges in die loop van die vorige eeu gemaak het t.o.v. die beskrywing van die Afrikaanse setselgroep. My navorsing het aan die lig gebring dat die eerste generasie Afrikaanse talkumliges om ideologiese redes gemoeid was met die ontstaansgeskiedenis van Afrikaans, en dat Afrikaanse setsels slegs ter sprake gekom het tydens besprekings oor die mate waarin Mrikaans 'n suiwer Germaanse taal sou wees, of 'n gekreoliseerde taal wat aan die suidpunt van Afrika onder invloed van kontaktale soos Maleis-Portugees en Khoekoens sy kenmerkende taaleienskappe gekry het. Verder het my navoring aan die lig gebring dat De Villiers en Raidt die eerste taalkundiges van die tweede generasie was wat getoon het dat setsels as konstituente van 'n bepaalde grammatikale struktuur,die setselgroep, gebruik word. My hootbevinding is dat Ponelis die hooffiguur in die beskrywing van die grammatika van Afrikaans is en dat hy in daardie hoedanigheid die grootste bydrae gelewer het tot die beskrywing van die Mrikaanse setselgroep. Laastens het ek bevind dat De Wet en De Stadler oorgangsfigure is na 'n nuwe benadering waarvolgens setseIgroepe as deel van die kasusgrammatika beskryf word. Gor De Stadler het ek bevind dat sy werk oor die Afrikaanse partitietkonstruksie en die Afrikaanse datietkonstruksie 'n brug skep vir die bestudering van die Mrikaanse setselgroep binne 'n ontwikkelende nuwe benadering, die Kognitiewe Grammatika. / National Research Foundation (NRF),

Abstract A central problem in all language teaching is to teach the correct use of prepositions. There are grammar rules, but also a lot of exceptions and idiomatic expressions that often have to be learnt by examples or by heart. A trick for learning might be to use a mnemonic method with songs and music to memorize a correct use of prepositions. The purpose of this study is to test a language teaching didactic exercise for knowledge of preposition in Spanish with songs and music. Grammatical aspects, rules and exceptions when studying prepositions in Spanish are presented. A literature review shows the significance of music for language learning. By lesson trials the five so called “empty” prepositions in Spanish: a, con, de, en and por, are studied by 40 high school students only by listening to and singing two different songs in the beginning and at the end of each Spanish lesson during two weeks. The result of the study shows an improved knowledge of correct use of the 5 Spanish prepositions among the students using the method. Furthermore, the language teaching didactic exercise with song and music was seen as a pleasurable learning experience by the students.

Данная магистерская диссертация посвящена семантике английского предлога over. Также в рамках данной работы были рассмотрены различные подходы к описанию семантики пространственной лексики и факторы, влияющие на концептуализацию пространственной ситуации в языке. В работе доказывается, что описание семантической структуры предлога over является сложной задачей и требует объяснения широкого спектра языковых феноменов вследствие большого разнообразия его значений. Теоретическая часть работы посвящена способам описания семантики пространственной лексики; рассматриваются элементы пространственной схемы; подробно исследуются модели описания семантики предлогов, предложенные Л. Талми, А. Герсковитс и К. Ковентри. В ходе работы нами была описана семантическая структура английского предлога over, отражающая большинство случаев употребления предлога; выявлены факторы, влияющие на возможность/невозможность употребления предлога в определенном контексте, а также объяснены связи между различными значениями и описана модель взаимодействия предлога с контекстом высказывания. Для подтверждения полученных теоретических положений в практической части мы обращаемся к постановке эксперимента. Для проведения экспериментов нами была разработана интерактивная анкета-опросник в приложении Google docs и размещена на сайте гражданской науки scistarter.com для привлечения носителей языка для участия в эксперименте. В результате мы выяснили ряд параметров, влияющих на употребимость предлога over. / The master’s thesis is devoted to semantics of the English spatial preposition “over”. The author has highlighted various approaches to the description of spatial vocabulary and factors affecting the conceptualization of space within language. Semantic structure of “over” is considered to be a complex issue, as it requires taking into account a lot of linguistic phenomena due to the huge variety of its meanings. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with different ways of depicting the semantics of spatial vocabulary; it also demonstrates the elements of spatial schemes and models of description of the semantics of prepositions introduced by L. Talmy, A. Herskovits and K. Coventry. The author reveals the semantic structure of the English spatial preposition “over” and its usage; presents factors affecting the (im)possibility of using this preposition in a certain context; explains the relations between several meanings of “over” and introduces the model of interaction between the preposition and its immediate context. To support the theoretical claims the author has conducted an experiment. He has developed an interactive survey in Google docs and placed it on www.scistarter.com (a website of citizen science) to invite native speakers to join the experiment. As a result, the thesis offers several parameters affecting the usage of the English spatial preposition “over”.

v angličtině: This thesis deals with the issue of how to present prepositions in teaching Czech for foreigners. This topic has not been dealt with in detail yet, therefore its main aim is to call attention to some problematic moments in the presentation of prepositions in textbooks of Czech for foreigners. The thesis briefly describes the history of teaching methods in terms of presentation and the importance of grammar as well as the basic characteristics of the Czech prepositions are described based on their interpretation in selected studies. A sample of textbooks of Czech for foreigners ilustrates how prepositions are presented to students. The thesis also attempting to clarify the meaning of chosen prepositions of manner and formulate some general recommendations on how to effectively present Czech prepositions to foreigners.