The thesis aims to describe and theoretically explain the range of complex nominal word structures and phrases that evolved in all Slavic languages with staggering productivity during the last decades. In particular, it focuses on the so called analytical adjectives, i.e. formally invariant lexical units mostly of foreign origin that manifest their attributive syntactic role (and the word class they belong to) not through a morpheme but through fixed word order position. The thesis rejects the view that analytical adjectives are first parts of compound words and explores several transitional cases. In more general terms, the thesis explores phenomena that test the boundary between words and phrases, morphology and syntax. It concludes that in Bulgarian there already exists a well established word subclass of analytical adjectives. They have resulted from an originally lexical innovation that has been grammatcalized due to intensive borrowings of words and phrase models mainly from English and their replication. The comparative study of present-day Bulgarian and Czech provides evidence of the strategies that the two genetically related languages use to achieve their nomination goals. The search for an explanation of the similarities and differences between both languages offers insights into their...

In this thesis we concentrate on superlatives and other expressions to the greatest degree. The aim of this thesis is to map these expressions in the Spanish language of the youth and the Czech language of the youth. The thesis is divided to several parts. The first part describes expressions to the greatest degree, elatives, superlatives or other expressions of intensification from several different perspectives and the diversity of different theories represented by czech and spanish linguists. Then we mention global influence of the Language and we stipulate hypothesis. And in the second part we analyze czech and spanish magazines for young people, finding superlatives, elatives or other terms expressing the greatest degree. The result of this thesis is a well-arranged and organized report about the frequency, mood and fashion of different expressions of intensification, elatives or superlatives. In the conclusion we graphically demonstrate the frequency of different expressions and we prove the theoretical hypotheses.

Self-help counselling is an important industry that not only influences its immediate users’ behavior but also society and social behaviors more generally. Since New Ageis a main branch of self-help, and since positivity is a dominant concept in (New Age) self-help discourse, it is worth analyzing how positivity might be achieved in terms of language use. The present study investigates whether the adjectives in a couple of New Age publications contribute to communicating positivity and, if yes, how. What adjectives are used and how can they be categorized in terms of positive, negative, neutral or undetermined connotations as well as semantic prosody? The findings support the hypothesis that the use of “positive adjectives” (Rozin, Berman & Royzman, 2010, p. 536) is what helps to make New Age self-help books convey a positive spirit.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:06:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MKM.pdf: 917584 bytes, checksum: cea833f5d98c17ebc0535d899cf9f518 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-07 / This present work has as objective to analyze the interpretation of the syntactic and semantic meaning performed by third graders in the nominal groups (NGs) with attributive adjectives in the English language in a text of the final exam in the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) discipline. The corpus is made up of 30 exams of two classes from a third grade institution of the biomedical area, corresponding to the basic and advanced levels of the second term in 2006. The text has 24 NGs of different lexical content, a total of 27 NGs in the whole text summing up to 810 analyzed occurrences. The analysis is carried out at the morphologic, syntactic and semantic levels using as theoretical background the traditional and functional grammars (QUIRK et al, 1985; CELSE-MURCIA et al, 1998; TUCKER, 1998), in their semantic aspects, the Semantics (FRAWLEY, 1992) and the Cognitive Linguistics (TAYLOR, 2002). We concluded that the main difficulties were due to the lack of vocabulary and to the use of mother tongue strategies instead of using the top-down strategies for reading a text in English to compensate this gap. We also observed that even when the vocabulary was known, there were difficulties in establishing the semantic and syntactic relations between modifier and noun head. We suggested improvements for the teaching of reading English texts at the third grade grounded in the obtained results such as a more comprehensive study of the several different morphologic and syntactic structures of the NGs with premodifiers and their semantic consequences, an approach of the morphologic, syntactic and semantic aspects of the NGs and the use of both top-down and bottom-up strategies when reading a NG in the English language / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a interpreta??o do significado sint?tico e sem?ntico realizada por alunos universit?rios de Ingl?s Instrumental nos sintagmas nominais (SNs) com adjetivos atributivos na l?ngua inglesa em um texto da prova de final de semestre. O corpus ? constitu?do por 30 provas de duas turmas de uma institui??o de n?vel superior, da ?rea biom?dica, do segundo semestre de 2006, do n?vel b?sico e avan?ado. O texto da prova ? composto por 24 SNs de conte?do lexical diferente, num total de 27 SNs presentes no texto, totalizando 810 ocorr?ncias analisadas. Usamos como pressupostos te?ricos as gram?ticas tradicional (QUIRK et al, 1985) e funcionalista (CELSE-MURCIA et al, 1998; TUCKER, 1998), em seus aspectos sem?nticos, a Sem?ntica (FRAWLEY, 1992) e a Ling??stica Cognitiva (TAYLOR, 2003). Conclu?mos que as maiores dificuldades deveram-se ? falta de vocabul?rio, ao uso inadequado de estrat?gias da L?ngua Materna no lugar de se usar as estrat?gias descendentes de leitura para suprir esta falta. Observamos tamb?m que, mesmo quando se conhecia o vocabul?rio do SN, muitas vezes houve dificuldades em se perceber a rela??o sem?ntica e/ou sint?tica entre os modificadores e o n?cleo do SN acarretando inadequa??es de interpreta??o. Sugerimos melhorias para o ensino da leitura de textos em l?ngua inglesa nas universidades com base nos resultados obtidos, como um estudo mais detalhado das v?rias estruturas morfossint?ticas dos SNs com modificadores antepostos e suas conseq??ncias sem?nticas; uma abordagem conjunta dos aspectos morfol?gico, sint?tico e sem?ntico dos SNs com adjetivos atributivos na l?ngua inglesa e o uso das estrat?gias descendentes juntamente com as ascendentes ao se ler um SN na l?ngua inglesa

Esta tese investiga o modo de organização dos domínios nominal, verbal e dos adjetivos em Português do Brasil (PB), tendo como guia a aceitabilidade de sentenças com todo. Para o inglês, a natureza do parâmetro orienta a seleção de argumentos por operadores; já para o PB, o que importa é a oposição entre tipos de escala. O PB não tem determinantes que distingam entre nome contável e massivo, como much e many. O operador aspectual progressivo não modifica estados em inglês, mas em PB sim. Em inglês, very seleciona adjetivos de parâmetro relativo. Em PB, muito + adjetivo tem parâmetro relativo, e todo + adjetivo tem parâmetro absoluto. Todo é um operador interdomínios, sensível aos tipos de escala. Todo modifica a relação de predicação. Todo impõe condições (quantitativas) sobre como a saturação de um predicado por certo argumento deve ocorrer. Todo não é nem um modificador nominal, nem um quantificador canônico como cada. Todo não cria, apenas modifica uma relação existente. A distribuição que ocorre em sentenças com todo é uma entre as muitas formas de saturação de um predicado por um argumento: uma relação incremental. Se o argumento for quantizado, o predicado necessariamente também se tornará quantizado. Analisamos uma descrição definida (DD) como um sintagma de medida (SM). O artigo definido torna um predicado nominal em denotação quantizada, mas todo não. Relacionamos ser quantizado a ser argumental, e ser cumulativo a ser predicativo. E associamos sentidos diferentes às posições de todo na sentença. / This thesis takes the distribution of todo as a probe for the structure of nominal, verbal and adjective domains in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Todo is a Degree Modifier (DM) and is sensitive to scale structure. English DMs (e.g., very) select adjectives by their standards; the BP DMs select adjectives only by their scale structure. However, they produce phrases with standard specialization. Todo + adjective shows absolute standard interpretation. We claim that the domains show the same properties in both languages, but the nature of scale standard matters in a distinct level for each one. We claim that todo is neither a noun modifier nor a true quantifier. Todo is a relation modifier. Todo modifies the way the argument saturates the predicate. A quantized incremental argument will make the predicate quantized as well. Todo is not the true source of distributivity, since incremental relations occur even in its absence. Definite Descriptions are treated as measure phrases. The definite article relates noun predicates to situations. So it will change a bare noun into a quantized denotation, which todo cannot do. Each land site corresponds to a different meaning for floating todo.

This study deals with the translation from English into Swedish of a text about music and tourism. The special areas of interest were, on the one hand, how to translate references to cultural phenomena and, on the other hand, adjectives of graphic character. The source text is Music and Tourism: on the Road Again by Chris Gibson and John Connell from which all but a few pages from the introductory chapter were translated. The reader of the text would be a person interested in music, tourism and the history of the niche music tourism. With tourism and music come different cultural references, which can pose a problem for a translator. In turn, the cultural references are often phrased in a graphic language in the text, consisting mainly in specific adjectives that need to be as graphic in the target text. To solve the problem of translating a text like this, theories on translation, such as those presented by Vinay & Darbelnet (1995), Nida (2001), Newmark (1988) and Ingo (2007) were consulted. The procedures by Vinay and Darbelnet in particular were proven to be beneficial while translating. When dealing with the references to cultural aspects, Vinay and Darbelnet‟s procedure borrowing in combination with Ingo‟s addition were the ones most useful to the translation. In terms of translating the adjectives, Vinay and Darbelnet‟s transposition was mostly used.

Det saknas en beskrivning i den svenska grammatiken över hur adjektiv förstärks med hjälp av förled. Forskning visar att fenomenet med förstärkningar, även kallade intensifierare, uppmärksammats mer i andra språk. Syftet med denna undersökning var att beskriva och kartlägga användandet av förledsförstärkningar, samt se om det fanns några hittills oskrivna regler och mönster. Här gjordes en kvantitativ undersöking där frågeställningarna analyserades utifrån statistiska data insamlade ur två korpusar bestående av bloggtext. Adjektiv inom sinnelag, stabila egenskaper, och sinnesstäming, temporära egenskaper, samt parametrarna positiva och negativa adjektiv undersöktes. Adjektiven visade sig vara olika förstärkningsbenägna. Temporära adjektiv förstärktes hellre än stabila, negativa adjektiv hellre än positiva, kortare ord hellre än längre, och högfrekventa ord hellre än lågfrekventa. De mest grammatikaliserade förstärkningarna går att använda på större delen adjektiv och de mer lexikalt bundna på ett mindre antal adjektiv / There is no description in the Swedish grammar regarding how adjectives can be reinforced with prefixes, also known as intensifiers. Research shows that this phenomenon have recieved greater attention in other languages. The purpose of this study was to describe and map the use of prefix reinforcements, and see if any patterns or rules could be found. The quantitative research is based on statistical data collected from informal blog texts in two Swedish corpora. Adjectives on two types of mood, solid and temporary, as well as positive and negative, were investigated. The results showed that some types were more inclined to take reinforcements than others. Temporary adjectives took on more than solid ones, negative more than positive, as well as the short and frequent adjectives where more often reinforced than the longer and uncommon ones

The work attempts to contribute to mapping of the lexical field of HOLINESS in Old English prosaic texts. The lexical field in this work is represented by four adjectives (halig, gebletsod, gesælig, gehalgod) which are chosen from the Thesaurus of Old English. The mapping is conducted in the York-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose by identifying morphological and syntactical categories of each adjective (predicative, attributive, postpositive functions, comparative and superlative forms; modification by adverbs) as well as the collocational sets (conceptual fields). The results then show the way in which the given adjectives differ in named categories.

Sports commentary is an essential part of live broadcasted sports as well as eSports and is a task that requires that the caster be verbally proficient and can maintain a high tempo when speaking, especially in more fast-paced sports. This study aims to analyze this promotional language sportscasters use by approaching it from the linguistic phenomenon of metadiscourse. This will be achieved by utilizing a theoretical framework adapted from previous research on eSports commentaries. By comparing a traditional sport, in this case mixed martial arts, with that of the eSport of Super Smash Bros. Melee, the aim is to see what differences can be found between the two sports’ commentaries and their use of metadiscursive promotional language. After comparing these two sets of commentaries, the results show that there are some differences in how promotional language is used to enhance the understanding and excitement of their respective sports. The major differences found are in how the two sets of commentaries use metaphors as well as that the eSport casters show a pattern of using evaluative adjectives in a more varied and colorful way. / Sportkommentatorer är en väsentlig del av live-sänd idrott såväl som eSport och är en uppgift som kräver att kommentatorn är muntligt skicklig och kan hålla ett högt tempo när hen talar, särskilt i sporter med högre tempo. Denna studie syftar till att analysera det promotionsbefrämjande språk som sportkommentatorer använder genom att närma sig det från det lingvistiska fenomenet metadiskurs. Detta kommer att uppnås genom att använda sig av ett teoretiskt ramverk som anpassats från tidigare forskning om eSports kommentarer. Genom att jämföra det med en traditionell sport, i detta fall mixed martial arts, med eSporten Super Smash Bros. Melee, är målet att se vilka skillnader som kan hittas mellan dem två sporternas kommentarer och deras användning av metadiskursivt promotionellt språk. Efter att ha jämfört dem två kommentarerna så visar resultaten att det finns vissa skillnader i hur promotionsbefrämjande språk används för att förstärka förståelsen och spänningen i deras respektive sporter. De största skillnaderna som fanns är i hur de två kommentarerna använder metaforer samt att eSports-kommentatorerna visar ett mönster av att använda evaluerande adjektiv i ett mer varierat och färgrikt sätt.

This study investigates the cross-linguistic encoding of bad and evil expressions. Using parallel data from the Bible corpus consisting of translations of the New Testament into 30 languages, probabilistic semantic maps have been created using Multi-Dimensional scaling. Special attention has been paid to the presence of morphological and syntactic negation withinthe domain. The results show that languages either have one broader expression that is used within the entire domain, or they have at least two expressions of which one is broader, i.e. expresses a bad state, action or character flaw, and the other one narrower, i.e. is restricted to themost evil actions or characters which require a moral agent. Languages with several expressions vary largely in how broad or restricted the expressions are within the domain. Therefore, a scalar view of the domain has been proposed, rather than dividing the domain into discrete semantic categories. In the languages where negation marking was present within the domain, it only occurred in the broader expressions. / I denna studie undersöks den tvärspråkliga kodningen av uttryck med dålig och ond. Probabilistiska semantiska kartor har skapats med hjälp av Multi-Dimensional scaling genom att använda parallel data från Bibelkorpusen som består av 30 översättningar av Nya Testamentet. Förekomsten av eventuell morfologisk och syntaktisk negation inom domänen har tillägnats särskild uppmärksamhet. Resultaten visar att de flesta språken antingen har ett bredare uttryck som används inom hela domänen, eller har minst två uttryck varav ett är bredare, dvs används för dåliga tillstånd, handlingar eller karaktärsdrag, och det andra är mer begränsad, dvs används endast för de mest onda handlingar och karaktärer som kräver en moralisk agent. Språk med flera uttryck varierar mycktet i hur breda eller begränsade uttrycken är. En representation av den semantiska domänen som en skala föreslås därför, snarare än att dela uppdomänen i diskreta semantiska kategorier. I de språken där negation förekom inom domänen fanns det endast i de bredare uttrycken.