For many non-native speakers of English it can be difficult to distinguish semantic differences between near-synonyms. In order to create idiomatically correct sentences in a language it is important to know which word to use in a specific context. This study deals with the emotion adjectives terrified, petrified and horrified, which all refer to an emotion of fear of something that can or will happen. The present research aims at exploring the meanings of these adjectives, in American English and British English, and to discover which words these adjectives tend to collocate with. To obtain data a British Corpus and an American corpus were used with fiction and newspaper as subcorpora. A quantitative method was used where the frequencies of terrified, petrified and horrified were counted. Secondly, the most frequent left- and right-hand collocates were studied. Due to the variety of collocations found, it was discovered that the meanings between the adjectives differ somewhat. The literal meaning of petrified is to be hard as a stone while the non-literal meaning is to be extremely afraid. The literal meanings of terrified and horrified are to be very afraid, but unlike terrified, horrified also seems to refer to being shocked. It can be stated that in accordance with how vague the adjective is in its meaning the more frequently it is used, i.e. terrified is the most frequent adjective in all subcorpora and in both varieties of English most frequently used while petrified is least frequently used.

FundaÃÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Cearà / In this work, we propose a computational linguistic analysis of the so-called adverbialized adjectives (hereinafter AdjAdvs). On the one hand, we start by questioning whether AdjAdvs belong to category A(djective) or ADV(erb) and, on the other, which approach is computationally more efficient. We base our point of view according to the Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) (KAPLAN and BRESNAN, 1982) and implement in the XLE system (Xerox Linguistic Environment) a fragment of Brazilian Portuguese grammar (henceforth PB) capable of analyzing adjectives in adverbial use. Our implementation is based on the adaptation of a fragment of French grammar constructed by Schwarze and Alencar (2016) and deepened in FrGramm by Alencar (2017). This fragment of grammar adapted to PB serves as the basis for the implementation of two versions for a comparative analysis: G-A and G-ADV. In the first version, AdjAdvs are analyzed as adjectival category, while in the second they are analyzed as adverbial category. The implementation of G-A and G-ADV is evaluated by applying a parser to a set of 168 grammatical sentences and 286 ungrammatical sentences. After testing grammatical and ungrammatical sentence sets, G-A and G-ADV grammars processing results in XLE and the statistical analysis based on the double factor variance test, we concluded that there was no significant difference in treatment of syntax between G-A and G-ADV versions built to parse AdjAdvs. This result reinforces Radford (1988) argument that adjectives and adverbs belong to a single category. / Neste trabalho, propomos uma anÃlise linguÃstico-computacional dos chamados adjetivos adverbializados (doravante AdjAdvs). Partimos, por um lado, do questionamento se AdjAdvs pertencem à categoria A(djetivo) ou ADV(Ãrbio) e, por outro, que abordagem à computacionalmente mais eficiente. Fundamentamos nosso ponto de vista de acordo com a GramÃtica LÃxico-Funcional (LFG, em inglÃs Lexical-Functional Grammar) (cf. KAPLAN e BRESNAN, 1982) e implementamos no sistema XLE (do inglÃs Xerox Linguistic Environment) um fragmento de gramÃtica do portuguÃs brasileiro (doravante PB) capaz de analisar adjetivos em uso adverbial. Nossa implementaÃÃo parte da adaptaÃÃo de uma minigramÃtica do francÃs construÃda por Schwarze e Alencar (2016) e aprofundada na FrGramm por Alencar (2017). Esse fragmento de gramÃtica adaptado ao PB serve de base para a construÃÃo de duas versÃes para uma anÃlise comparativa: G-A e G-ADV. Na primeira versÃo, AdjAdvs sÃo analisados como categoria adjetival, enquanto na segunda sÃo analisados como categoria adverbial. A implementaÃÃo de G-A e G-ADV à avaliada pela aplicaÃÃo de um analisador sintÃtico automÃtico (parser) a 168 sentenÃas gramaticais e 286 sentenÃas agramaticais. ApÃs os testes nos conjuntos de sentenÃas gramaticais e agramaticais, os resultados de processamento das gramÃticas G-A e G-ADV no software XLE e a anÃlise estatÃstica com base no teste de variÃncia de fator duplo, chegamos à conclusÃo de que nÃo hà diferenÃa significativa no tratamento sintÃtico entre as versÃes G-A e G-ADV construÃdas para analisar AdjAdvs. Esse resultado reforÃa o argumento de Radford (1988) de que adjetivos e advÃrbios pertencem a uma Ãnica categoria.

Estudos sobre o papel do responder por exclusão na aquisição de vocabulário têm se concentrado nas relações nome-objeto ou nome-figura, mas não está claro se esse processo está envolvido, e de que maneira na aprendizagem de diferentes categorias lexicais, adjetivos (propriedades do objeto), por exemplo. Este estudo teve por objetivo comparar a aprendizagem de relações nome-textura por participantes com diferentes perfis de desenvolvimento (crianças com desenvolvimento típico e indivíduos com deficiência intelectual) em dois procedimentos de ensino por exclusão. Participaram deste estudo 24 indivíduos, 12 com desenvolvimento típico (Grupo DT) e idade entre 5 e 6 anos e, 12 com deficiência intelectual com idade entre 8 a 13 anos (Grupo DI), todos com nível de desenvolvimento linguístico entre 5 e 6 anos. Os estímulos utilizados foram palavras ditadas (nomes de diferentes texturas) e estímulos táteis (objetos confeccionados com diferentes texturas, referentes aos nomes ditados). O procedimento tinha quatro fases. A primeira investigou se os participantes conheciam os nomes de texturas familiares (áspero e liso) linha de base. Na segunda fase, foram ensinadas quatro palavras desconhecidas (referentes a nomes de texturas), em duas condições. Na primeira, duas texturas (rugoso e aveludado) eram ensinadas com o uso de contraste linguístico referencial (CAC). Na segunda condição, outras duas texturas (listado e flocado) foram ensinadas em um procedimento de ensino por exclusão padrão (SAC). O critério de aprendizagem era 100% de acertos no bloco de sondas; blocos de ensino eram conduzidos até se atingir esse critério. Uma semana após cada condição, eram conduzidas sondas de manutenção dos nomes de adjetivos ensinados. Na terceira e quarta fase, sondas de manutenção geral (SMG) e sondas de generalização - SG (objetos diferentes com as mesmas texturas ensinadas) eram realizadas, bem como sondas de nomeação, apresentando-se os seis objetos com as diferentes texturas ensinadas. Ambos os grupos apresentaram desempenho similar: na Condição CAC, os participantes precisaram, em média, de um bloco de ensino para atingir o critério de aprendizagem; na Condição SAC precisaram de, em média, dois blocos. A Condição CAC favoreceu a aprendizagem das palavras novas, a partir de um número menor de blocos de ensino, porém, a exposição mínima, nas duas condições dificultou a manutenção e generalização dessa aprendizagem. Discute-se o papel do contraste linguístico referencial como dica contextual na aprendizagem de adjetivos em um procedimento de ensino por exclusão. / Studies about the role of responding by exclusion in vocabulary acquisition have focused on relations object name or name-figure, but it is unclear whether this process is involved, and how the learning of different lexical categories, adjectives (properties object), for example. This study aimed to compare the learning of name-texture relations by participants with different development profiles (children with typical development and individuals with intellectual disability) in two teaching procedures for exclusion. The study included 24 subjects, 12 typically developing (DT Group) and aged between 5 and 6 years, and 12 with intellectual disabilities 8-13 years aged (DI Group), all with level of language development between 5 and 6 years. The stimuli used were dictated words (names of different textures) and tactile stimuli (objects made with different textures, referring to the dictates names). The procedure had four phases. The first investigated whether the participants knew the names of familiar textures (rough and smooth) - baseline. In the first two textures (rough and smooth) were taught using referential linguistic contrast (CAC). In the second condition, another two textures (wrinkled and velvety) were taught in procedure teaching by exclusion (SAC). The criterion for learning was 100% correct in probes block; teaching blocks were conducted to achieve this criterion. One week after each condition, maintenance probes were conducted of the names of adjectives taught. In the third and fourth phase, general maintenance probes (SMG) and generalization probes - SG (different objects with the same taught textures) were held, as well as appointment of probes, presenting the six objects with different textures taught. Both groups had similar performance: the CAC condition, participants had to, on average, a teaching block to reach the criterion of learning; SAC on condition needed on average two blocks. The Condition CAC favored the learning of new words from a smaller number of teaching blocks, however, the minimal exposure, in both conditions difficult to maintenance and generalization of this learning. It discusses the role of the reference linguistic contrast to contextual clue in learning adjectives in a teaching procedure for exclusion.

For an eSports commentator, the ability to promote the rivalry between the competitors is just as important as fast and accurate commentary. Thus, it is of interest how an experienced commentator achieves this promotional language per some theoretical framework. Using the relatively new and unexplored linguistic field of promotional metadiscourse the quality of commentary can be evaluated quantifiably. Thus, this paper investigates the promotional language used by accomplished eSports commentators, in contrast to inexperienced novices, in the game StarCraft II. This is achieved with a lexical analysis of two StarCraft II commentaries using categories of promotional language previously identified in press releases. Experienced commentators were found to have a much more extensive and varied vocabulary than their inexperienced counterparts, adopting stronger evaluative adjectives and adverbs, as well as metaphorical language, in their commentaries. After comparing the commentaries with each other, the comments of two experienced commentators were compared. In this analysis, the same results were found in regards to commentator experience, as the less experienced commentator in this team featured less varied and weaker evaluative language than his more experienced co-commentator, yet more varied and evaluative than the novices. This paper shows that metadiscursive analysis methods can be fruitfully applied to non-academic discourses, as well as shining a light on the entertainment genre of eSports as a subject for further study. / Denna uppsats utforskar språket som används av etablerade eSportskommentatorer, i jämförelse med oerfarna nybörjare, i spelet StarCraft II. Detta har gjorts genom att analysera eSportskommentarmaterialet från två matcher med hjälp av en modell med kategorier för befrämjande språk, framställd för pressmeddelanden. Analysen fann att erfarna kommentatorer hade ett betydligt bredare och mer varierat ordförråd än sina mer oerfarna motparter, till exempel, genom användandet av mer starkt värderande adjektiv, förstärkande adverb och metaforer. Efter analysen av de två kommentarmaterialen gjordes en analys för liknande mönster av de två erfarna kommentatorernas språk. Denna jämförande analys fann att skillnaden i ordvalet även var knuten till kommentatorns erfarenhet, då den mindre erfarne kommentatorn hade ett mer begränsat och mindre varierat ordförråd än den mer erfarne kommentatorn, men betydligt mer varierat än noviserna. Denna uppsats visar att metadiskursiva metoder kan användas för att analysera icke-akademiskt språk, samtidigt som den visar på ett behov att undersöka E-sportsspråket som en genre.

Negationsaffigering av adjektiv förekommer i flera indoeuropeiska språk. Tidigare studier visar på tydliga mönster, som att den affigerade stammen ofta är avledd och har positivt värde. Affigeringen skapar en negativ antonym till det affigerade ordet. Syftet med denna korpusstudie är att undersöka o-prefixet i dagens svenska. I första delen undersöks prefigerade stammars form och värde. Studiens resultat visar att 91,5 % av de 563 mest frekventa orden har en avledd stam, många av dessa är deverbala. Bland de 100 mest frekventa orden har stammen främst positivt värde. Det förekommer asymmetri i prefixets användning. 11,2 % av studiens prefigerade stammar har inte en icke-prefigerad form. 48 av de 100 mest frekventa orden tillhör den semantiska typen MÄNSKLIG BENÄGENHET. Studiens andra del undersöker antonymförhållanden mellan prefigerade och icke-prefigerade ord. I de få fall där det inte råder ett direkt antonymförhållande har det prefigerade ordet ofta en mer generell och abstrakt betydelse än det icke-prefigerade. Det prefigerade ordet kan också ha en äldre, inaktuell betydelse av stammen. Denna studie visar inga tydliga mönster i generalitet eller abstrakthet i betydelse mellan prefigerade ord och lexikala antonymer till den icke-prefigerade stammen. / Affixal negation of adjectives occur in several Indo-European languages. Previous studies show recurring patterns: the affixed stem is derived and has a positive value. The affixation creates a negative antonym. This corpus-based study examines the prefix o- in modern Swedish. The form and value of prefixed stems are investigated. The results of this study show that 91.5 % of the 563 most frequent prefixed words have a derived stem and many are deverbal. Among the 100 most frequent words, the stems have a positive value. Asymmetry in the use of the prefix occurs. 11.2 % of the study’s prefixed stems do not have a non-prefixed form. 48 of the 100 most frequent words belong to the semantic type HUMAN PROPENSITY. The second part of this study investigates the antonymic relationship between prefixed and non-prefixed words. The prefixed word often has a more general and abstract meaning when there is no direct antonymic relationship. The prefixed word may also have an older meaning, which is no longer used today. This study shows no clear patterns in differences in generality and abstractness in meaning between the prefixed word and the lexical antonym to the non-prefixed word.

Abstract Imagery can be one of the difficulties a translator faces. It can be difficult to transfer the same image in a metaphor, simile, metaphorical adjective or a cultural reference to the target text. The aim of this study is to look at what translation strategies can be used for the translation of said imagery. The method is a quantitative analysis of the source text’s imagery types and a qualitative analysis of the translation strategies used. Since the language pair come from the same language family and have a lot of similarities in terms of culture, literal translations, equivalences and, in some cases, adaptions were suspected to be more frequent. The results show that for metaphors, similes and metaphorical adjectives literal translations were the most frequent ones, followed by equivalents carrying the same connotations, for metaphors and adjectives. Adaption, which is perhaps not really translation at all, was frequently used for the cultural references due to the target oriented approach. Omission and neutral explanations were used where the loss of information did not affect the presumed understanding of the target text reader. Transference, transposition and calque were used to some extent but not as frequent as suspected. In conclusion, when two languages are as similar as Swedish and English, a translator can go far by using literal translation or, where applicable, equivalents.

Studien är en korpusbaserad undersökning av hur bloggare vanligen förstärker adjektiv på svenska, och om förstärkningen varierar utifrån vilka adjektiv och/eller substantiv som modifieras. Tidigare litteratur belyser exempelvis hur adjektivförstärkning kan styras av semantiska och kontextuella faktorer samt hur förstärkare ofta grammatikaliseras. Undersökningen ämnar deskriptivt komplettera tidigare observationer, genom analys av större datamängder än motsvarande studier av svenska. Datan hämtades ur korpusen Swedish Blog Sentences (>6 miljarder tokens). Alla sammansatta adjektiv, adverb följda av adjektiv samt liknelser (”ADJ som en/ett N”) extraherades automatiskt. Därefter listades manuellt de 20 vanligaste förstärkande förleden, adverben och liknelserna, totalt och för 26 utvalda adjektiv. ”Förstärkning” definierades som ett uttryck för ’hög grad’ av egenskapen som adjektivet betecknar. Resultaten visade att förleden och adverben är nära Zipf-fördelade totalt sett, och ofta för enskilda adjektiv. Vidare fastslogs att adjektiv förstärks olika mycket och med olika förstärkare. Resultaten bedöms stödja teorin kring affixoider och grammatikalisering samt graderbarhet hos adjektiv. Det föreslås att framtida större studier skulle belysa skillnaden mellan lexikalt specifika och generella förstärkningar. Slutligen argumenteras för att liknelserna fyller samma förstärkande funktion som förleden och adverben. / The study is a corpus-based investigation of how bloggers usually reinforce adjectives in Swedish, and if the intensification varies according to the adjectives and nouns that are being modified. Earlier literature shows for example how intensification of adjectives may depend on semantic and contextual factors and how intensifiers often undergo grammaticalization. The study aims to descriptively contribute to earlier observations, by analysis of more data than used in comparable studies of Swedish. The data comes from the corpus Swedish Blog Sentences (>6 billion tokens). All adjectival compounds, adverbs preceding adjectives, and similes (”ADJ som en/ett N”) were automatically extracted. Then the 20 most frequent reinforcing left parts of compounds, adverbs and similes, totally as well as for 26 chosen adjectives, were manually listed. ”Reinforcement” was defined as an expression of ’high degree’ of the feature that the adjective expresses. The results showed that the left parts along with the adverbs follow a Zipfian distribution, in total and often for individual adjectives. Moreover, it was shown that adjectives are more or less reinforced, and by different reinforcers. The results are seen as supporting theories about affixoids and grammaticalization, and also gradability in adjectives. It is suggested that future bigger studies would illuminate the difference between lexically specific and general reinforcers. Finally, it is argued that similes serve the same reinforcing function as the left parts and adverbs.

The materials examined here consist of 121 Russian letters dating from 1700-1715. The present study aims to  define a stage in linguistic evolution and analyze the morphological heterogeneity in the textual corpus. The letters are divided into three categories: private, semiofficial, and official. All nomina (substantives, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals) are registered and their occurrences processed statistically case by grammatical case. The focus is on linguistic features where a choice is possible and variation is in evidence. Conservatism asserts itself primarily in strongly standardized texts such as the official correspondence, while  phonetic spelling reflecting akanie and dialectally influenced syncretism between different cases (e.g., the GDLsg) is observable mainly in the private letters, which consitute the least standardized category. There is a trend break among u-genitives and u-locatives, where our findings indicate that the u-ending is losing ground. A statistically established correlation between declensional type and the presence/absence of a coordinated adjunct is noted in the instrumental plural of masculine o-, jo-stems. The choice of the archaizing Ipl-ending suggests that repetition of the –mi- element is perceived to be redundant. In the singular paradigm of the adjective the feminine instrumental forms are strongly conservative, and the modern short ending occurs in only a few instances. In the nominative plural the modern ending –ye, -ie dominates for all cases and in all letter categories. The use of samyj for the comparative degree is not particularly prominent in these 18th-century letters. Because this descriptive comparison type developed in the 17th century, its use could have been expected to rise in the 18th, but our materials do not indicate any such increase. With few exceptions, pronouns generally display forms corresponding to modern usage. One notable deviation is the occurrence of a pronoun with an adjectival ending in the genitive singular (tago), but it is an idiosyncratic feature. Numerals for the most part correspond to modern usage, although their low frequency does not invite generalizations. / <p>978-91-86071-61-5 (del 1), 978-91-86071--62-2 (del 2), 978-91-86071-63-9 (del 1-2)</p>

In the English language adjectives can either be placed before the noun or after the nounin the noun phrase. This thesis is concerned with the postposition of adjectives inEnglish. It is particularly concerned with adjectives ending in -ible and -able which caneither take a prepositive or postpositive position when modified by a superlativeadjective, only or next etc. In the theoretical section of this study, reasons for whypostposition might occur and historic information about the -ble suffix are described.The usage of these adjectives in both the prepositive and postpositive position isfurthermore excerpted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Twentyadjectives from the adjective sample are further analysed in detail regarding theirpostposition, to ascertain which characteristics might lead to postposition, in principlesemantics, domain usage, etymology, syntactic function, and the characteristics of theirnoun collocates. Ten nouns are further analysed using the same criteria to ascertain ifcertain nouns can affect the postposition of adjectives in the noun phrase. From theseexamples, conclusions about the common characteristics of adjectives ending in -blethat prefer the postpositive position are drawn. The results showed that -ible adjectiveshad a 17.4% tendency to be postposed, whereas -able adjectives had a 17.5 % tendencyto be postposed. Which can be compared to the 4.6 % chance that an adjective ispostposed in English. -Ible and -able adjectives were, furthermore, mostly postposed inprepositional phrases, phrases with complements and in fixed expressions. The -ibleadjectives were also often of Latin or French origin, whilst the -able adjectives were ofFrench origin. These adjectives were moreover commonly used in the academic domainand denoted a dynamic sense. Their noun collocates were, lastly, commonly inanimate,intangible objects used in the academic domain.

This thesis uses language corpora to analyze Czech translations of a linguistically asymmetric phenomenon of German privatives ending in -frei and -los from three perspectives: translation typology (micro-stylistics and macro-stylistics), Popovič's stylistic adequacy (shifts of expression: intensification of expression, attenuation of expression, correspondence of expression) and potentially intrinsic feature of German privatives to perceive the fact of absence ("privation") as positive or negative. Privatives are adjectives that express the absence of substance or quality that is represented in their first (left) component; in the context of this work they are limited to adjectives ending in -frei, -los, -arm and -leer. In the Introduction the current state of research is outlined and its time and local limitations are explained. It is emphasized that corpus is here used not just for translation as such but also for theory of translation. The hypothesis starts from the assumption that German privatives as phenomena of grammar have no equivalent on this level in Czech; therefore a direct translation equivalent is often missing. For this reason it is also probable that the translator will have to decide for such Czech translation of one German privative that comprises more words or even a whole...