Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2004.

This dissertation addresses the question of whether the empirical data gathered from an analysis of verb categories within the primary clauses of the Pauline corpus reveals letter structure. It begins with a discussion of the classification and structuring of the ancient Greek letter, with focus on the New Testament Jetter tradition. It shows that no real consensus has been reached concerning the classification and structure of ancient letters, especially the New Testament letters. This lack of consensus serves as the impetus for attempting a different approach for the description of Pauline letter structure. After providing a brief description and history of corpus linguistics and its application to New Testament studies, a corpus linguistic application similar to one presented by Douglas Biber is suggested to analyze the verb patterns within the Pauline letter corpus. This is accomplished by analyzing and describing the patterns revealed in each of the letters of the Pauline corpus and then comparing them with attempts made within Greek texts, Bible translations, and commentaries at structuring the letters. This analysis not only reveals verbal patterns but also discovers other key features found within the primary clauses that seem to contribute to the structure of the letters, such as conjunctions, formulaic verbs, and vocatives/nominatives of address. The combination of the verb patterns and the occurrence of these features leads to the presentation of structural outlines for each of the letters within the Pauline corpus according to a five-part (letter opening; thanksgiving; body; parenesis; and letter closing) letter structure. With these structural parts established, the verb occurrences within each part are counted to test whether the verbal categories of mood, person-number, and aspect contribute to the structuring of the Pauline letter. The tracking of these occurrences reveals a statistically significant shift between the body and parenetic section of the letters. This further validates the assumption that verb patterns contribute to the structuring of Paul's letters. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to identify the basic emotion verbs in Sesotho. Five basic emotions verb are identified: anger, anxiety, disgust, sadness, and fear. The verbs, expressions, as well as idiophones that express these emotions, are identified. Furthermore, the emotion words are semantically and syntactically analyzed. The outlay of the nine chapters is as follows: Chapter One is an Introduction in which reference is made to the aim of this study, methods used in compiling the data, and the analysis of the data. Chapter Two offers an overview of the basic emotions. A psychological overview of the work of the following scholars is undertaken: Le Doux (1998), Johnson-Laird and Oatley (1992), Tomkins (1962), Plutchik (1980), and Izard (1971); as well as a linguistic overview of the work of the following scholars: Kovecses (1989), Wierzbicka (1989), Frijda (1986), and Goddard (1998). Chapter Three deals with the lexical semantics which will be used in analyzing the different emotion words. Chapter Four deals with anger words. It starts with an overview of anger as treated by the following scholars: Taylor and Mbense (1998), Kovecses (1989), and Lakoff and Kovecses (1987). The treatment of the data (the expression of anger in Sesotho) starts with the definition of anger, followed by expressions of anger and the verbs of anger which are analyzed semantically and syntactically. Another form of the expression of anger, namely the threat, is also analyzed semantically and syntactically. Chapter Five deals with anxiety, Chapter Six with disgust, Chapter Seven with sadness and Chapter Eight with fear. In all these instances, the definition of the emotion word is followed by relevant expressions and verbs which are semantically and syntactically analyzed. The last chapter, Chapter Nine, offers conclusions regarding the five different types of emotion words in Se otho. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie stu die is om die basiese emosie-werkwoorde in Sesotho te behandel. Vyf basiese emosies word geidentiflseer, naamlik toorn/woede, angstigheid, walging, droefheid en vrees. Die werkwoorde en uitdrukkinge, sowel as idiofone wat hierdie emosies uidruk, word geidentifiseer. Voorts word die emosie-woorde semanties en sintakties geanaliseer. Die uitleg van die nege hoofstukke is soos volg: Hoofstuk Een is die Inleiding, met besonderhede betreffende die doel van die stud ie, metodes gebruik in die inwin en opstel van die data, sowel as die analise van die data. Hoofstuk Twee behandel die basiese emosies oorsigtelik. 'n Psigologiese oorsig so os verwant in die werk van die volgende deskundiges word onderneem: Le Doux (1998), Johnson-Laird en Oatley (1992), Tomkins (1962), Plutchik (1980) en Izard (1971); daar is ook 'n linguistieke oorsig van die werk van Kovekses (1989), Wierzbicka (1989), Frijda (1986) en Goddard (1998). Hoofstuk Drie behandel die leksikale semantiek wat in die analise van die verskillende emosie-woorde gebruik sal word. Hoofstuk Vier behandel die woede-woorde. Dit begin met 'n oorsig van woede soos behandel in die werk van Taylor en Mbense (1998), Kovecses (1989) en Lakoff en Kovecses (1987). Die behandeling van die data begin met 'n definisie van woede, en word gevolg deur 'n semantiese en sintaktiese analise van uitdrukkinge en werkwoorde wat woede uitdruk. 'n Ander vorm van woedeuitdrukking, naamlik die dreigement, word ook semanties en sintakties geanaliseer. Hoofstuk Vyf behandel angstigheid, Hoofstuk Ses walging, Hoofstuk Sewe droefheid, en Hoofstuk Agt vrees. In elke hoofstuk word 'n definisie van die emosie-woord gevolg deur 'n behandeling van relevante werkwoorde en uitdrukkinge wat semanties en sintakties geanaliseer word. Die laaste hoofstuk, Hoofstuk Nege, bring sekere gevolgtrekkinge betreffende die vyf ver killende tipes van emo ie-woorde in Sesotho.

This dissertation is a study of the construction of meaning below the word level, specifically how roots and morphemes combine to create verbs, and the contribution of each to the meaning that a verb construes. It uses data from the verb system of Modern Standard Arabic to bring together the theory that roots combine with different structures to produce verbs describing different types of event, and the observation that many roots cannot form verbs on their own, and must combine with other morphemes do to so. The thesis is that Arabic roots lexicalize events, states or things, but remain free to create new meaning in combination with the different verb stems of Arabic, each of which contains one or more morphemes that determine the type of event that a root may come to describe. The findings are that the morphemes present in the different verb stems of Arabic condition verb meaning in four main ways: through reflexivization; through providing an Actor subject argument; through marking plural event phases; and through marking the presence of two relations construed as one event. A root combines with a morpheme that determines the type of event that a verb may describe, and it contributes meaning within the limits set by that morpheme. Thus morphemes do not modify a fixed concept, but root and morpheme create verb meaning together. The implication of this for a theory of meaning below the word level is that the semantic concepts which humans communicate remain relatively constant, but they are expressed at different levels of granularity: at the root level; by combining roots below the word level; by combining roots with morphemes below the word level; and by combining words at the clause level. This opens up avenues for further research to establish the differences, if any, between the meanings construed at these different levels of granularity. / text

This thesis explores the phrasal verb construction ("get off," "takeover") from a previously unexplored vantage point--that of its frequency and variation in terms of contextual or register constraints. Ten separate discourses were used as the corpus for this study, two in each of fiveterms of percentage per pragmatic context, frequency of particular particles and verbs on each level, and other significant pragmatic criteria.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the Predicate Argument Structure (PAS) of the verbs of existence with special reference to transitive and intransitive verbs in Tshivenda. Chapter One is the introduction of this study. It states the purpose of study, theoretical framework, organisation of study as well as the predicate argument structure of the verbs of existence. representation (i.e.theta-roles) are also defined. The lexical - semantic A review of Chomsky's Government and Binding theory is given. The study also examines the different types of verbs of existence. Chapter Two of this study examines the arguments of verbs of existence. The external NP argument in subject position will be considered with the features [+animate] i.e. (humans and animal) or [-animate]. The interpretation of the example sentence of the arguments will also be given. Chapter Three examines the compatibility between verbs of existence and several syntactic operations. These possible operations include the locative inversion, locative alternation, location subject alternation, location instrument alternation, the benefactive and the locative. Chapter Four is the conclusion where the summary of the main contents of the previous chapters is given. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hiedie navorsing ondersoek die Predikaat Argument Struktuur van die werkwoorde van bestaan met spesiale verwysing na oorganklike en onoorganklike werkwoorde in Tshivenda. Hoofstuk Een is die inleiding van hierdie navorsing. Dit gee die doel van die studie, die teoretiese raamwerk, organisasie van die studie, sowel as die predikaat argument struktuur van die werkwoorde van bestaan. Die leksikaal semantiese representasie (d.i. die theta-roll e) is gedefinieer. Die aannames van Chomsky se Government en Binding teorie is gegee. Die studie poog ook om die verskillende vorms van die werkwoord van bestaan te gee. Hoofstuk Twee ondersoek die argumente van die werkwoorde van bestaan. Die eksterne argumente in onderwerp-posisie val saam met die kenmerke (+lewendig) d.i. (mense en diere) of (-lewendig). Die interpretasie van die voorbeeldsin is ook gegee. Hoofstuk Drie ondersoek die alternasies van die werkwoorde van bestaan en verskeie sintaktiese operasies. Hierdie operasies sluit in die lokatiewe inversie, -alternasie, -onderwerp alternasie, -instrument alternasie, die bevoordeelde en die lokatiewe. Hoofstuk Vier is die konklusie waarin 'n samevatting van die vonge Hoofstukke gegee word.

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese Language and Literature / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study explored infants’ sensitivity to speaker reliability in verb labeling. Past research has focused primarily on nouns (Koenig & Echols, 2003). The participants in this study were 32 24-month-old infants. Visual stimuli included a group of intransitive verbs that should be familiar to 24-month-olds such as jumping, turning, and waving. These stimuli were shown on a television display. Half of the participants were in a True Labeling Condition, in which they heard labels that correctly matched the familiar actions. The other half of the participants were in a False Labeling Condition, in which they heard familiar labels that did not correspond with the familiar actions they saw. The amounts of time that infants looked at action, labeler, and parent were compared across true and false conditions using t-tests. I expected to find that infants have similar expectations about how labels map to referents for verbs and for nouns, such that they expect speakers to apply consistent labels to both. As a result, infants were expected to look longer to the “false” than “true” labeler. Contrary to predictions, infants failed to look longer at the action in the true condition than the false, or to the speaker in the false condition as compared to the true. The comprehensive results for the studies did not indicate that infants expect accurate labels for actions from humans who are intending to refer, as did previous research with objects. / text