Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:56:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leidiane.pdf: 524055 bytes, checksum: e8c7ba289bd55c50477bc6ffa0daa723 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-12 / Given the difficulty of students to interpret a text, this research aims at providing some reflections on the interpretive process in the teaching of Portuguese. Specifically, we discuss the importance of linguistic elements in text interpretation. Among the various language resources, this study addresses the elements that collaborate in the construction of meaning and in the texture in text, focusing on referencing. This process constitutes a discursive activity carried out through the construction and reconstruction of objects of discourse, carried out by individuals in a process of interaction, which means that it carries, among other factors, the interests and views of interlocutors involved in speech (KOCH; ELIAS, 2006). For a refined understanding of the corpus, considering the limits and possibilities of this research, we decided to emphasize, among the possible elements for referencing in Portuguese, the non-coreferential retrieval operations, since they are conceived as a form of manifestation of the text producer (KOCH, 2005). We assume that the approach of this language resource in the teaching of Portuguese can help students in textual interpretation, in view of its role in the process of extracting relevant information from text. Aiming at diagnosing the use of referencing strategies, we analyze answers for comprehension questions of students from the 5th grade of a public school in Cascavel (Paraná, Brazil). Firstly, we examine the students interpretation of two versions of the fable The fox and the grapes, without a previous approach of the linguistic strategy proposed. Secondly, we examine the students interpretation of two versions of the fable The wolf and the lamb, after approaching non-coreferential anaphora. We found that, by using this kind of anaphora in their responses, students evinced their choices for highlighting features or characteristics of the referent, and thus evaluate it according to their beliefs and views. We found that students used strategies to reconstruct the referent, demonstrating comprehension of the texts read. We conclude that such linguistic mechanism is much more than just a retrieval resource, but it constitutes a mark and evidence of a strategy used in producing the utterance, which portrays the recategorization of objects of discourse. This process has relevant argumentative value, since the selection of certain types of non-coreferential anaphora is based on a number of discursive factors and reflects the speaker s communicative purposes. For this study, the main theoretical frameworks come from Kleiman (2009), Koch (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009), Koch and Elias (2006), Mondada and Dubois (2003), and others. / Tendo em vista a dificuldade que os alunos sentem ao interpretar um texto, a presente pesquisa tem por objetivo refletir acerca do processo interpretativo no ensino de Língua Portuguesa. Mais especificamente, discutimos sobre o valor que elementos linguísticos exercem no instante da interpretação textual. Dentre os vários recursos linguísticos existentes, este trabalho aborda elementos que colaboram na construção dos significados e na tessitura do texto, focalizando, então, o processo de referenciação. Tal processo configura uma atividade discursiva, que ocorre por meio da construção e reconstrução de objetos de discurso, realizada por sujeitos num processo de interação, o que significa dizer que carrega, dentre outros fatores, os interesses e os pontos de vista dos interlocutores envolvidos no discurso (KOCH; ELIAS, 2006). A fim de promover, considerando os limites e as possibilidades desta investigação, uma compreensão mais precisa do corpus, dentre os elementos referenciais possíveis na língua portuguesa, optamos por focalizar as retomadas não correferenciais, tendo em vista serem concebidas como uma forma de manifestação do produtor do texto (KOCH, 2005). Partimos da hipótese de que a abordagem desse recurso linguístico no ensino de Língua Portuguesa pode auxiliar o aluno na interpretação textual, tendo em vista o seu papel no processo de extração de informações relevantes do texto. Para efeito de sondagem, tomamos como corpus de análise respostas interpretativas produzidas por alunos do 6º ano de uma escola pública de Cascavel-PR. Em um primeiro momento, verificamos como esses alunos interpretaram duas versões da fábula A raposa e as uvas, sem ter sido antes trabalhada a estratégia linguística proposta. Em um segundo momento, observamos como interpretaram duas versões da fábula O lobo e o cordeiro, após estudo das anáforas não correferenciais. Constatamos que, ao usar tais anáforas em suas respostas, os alunos deixaram transparecer suas escolhas com a finalidade de destacar traços ou características do referente e, assim, avaliá-lo, segundo suas crenças e seus pontos de vista. Nessa direção, observamos que os alunos realizaram estratégias de reconstrução do referente, demonstrando compreensão dos textos lidos. Concluímos, então, que tal mecanismo linguístico é muito mais do que simples um recurso de retomada, mas é marca e evidência de estratégia do sujeito na produção do enunciado, que vem retratar a recategorização de objetos de discurso. Tal processo é revestido de valor argumentativo relevante, pois a seleção de certas anáforas não correferenciais é feita a partir de uma série de fatores discursivos e mediante as finalidades comunicativas do falante. Para o desenvolvimento deste estudo, os principais referenciais teóricos adotados são Kleiman (2009), Koch (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009), Koch e Elias (2006), Mondada e Dubois (2003), dentre outros autores.

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on language variation and language change in judicial protocols from the municipal court in Stockholm during the period 1476−1626. These documents provide a unique insight into late medieval and early modern use of written vernacular. The main material consists of 700 courtroom notes from seven different periods of time, a hundred documents from each year: 1476, 1499, 1525, 1550, 1575, 1600, and 1626. The study draws theoretically on functional linguistics; more specifically, it utilizes Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, Ulf Teleman’s (1985) theoretical model of language change, as well as dialogism. The results are presented in four analytical chapters. In the first of these, the aim is to systemize the somewhat heterogeneous material, and the corpus is divided in two different ways: one due to judicial content (‘categories of matter’), and one due to textual structure (‘discourse levels’). These systemizations also serve as a methodological foundation for the lexicogrammatical analysis in the following chapters. A main result is that multi-party cases over time develop a functional need for new communication strategies, while unilateral cases already from the beginning seem to bear a more deep-rooted textual stability. In addition, there is a significant increase of discourse level 3, representing communicative events outside the courtroom, in multi-party cases found in texts from 1600 and 1626. In the two following chapters, lexicogrammatical resources of ‘personal reference’ and ‘time and tense’ are analysed. The texts realize different patterns of anaphora, where individuation explains much of the variation: texts with high degree of individuation (criminal cases) materialize a high degree of pronouns, whereas texts regarding property issues materialize low individuation with few pronouns and many full NPs. Regarding the use of tense, the past tense is the most common tense. Still, the study shows an diachronic increase in the use of present tense. The last analytical chapter examines the use of three lexical features: judicial pronouns; word pairs; and nominalizations. The results show that judicial pronouns and word pairs typically occur in registrations matters; nominalizations occur throughout the genre. In the last chapter, the results and implications of the thesis are summated and discussed. The results point towards a pragmatic use of the written language. Although the lexicogrammatical resources are the same during the period, the usages vary. Hence, linguistic variation and change are highly motivated by an intercommunion of contextual factors such as a more solid administrative literacy, a changing litigation, and an increase of legal demands for linguistic precision and documentation. It is argued that the language variety in the genre can be understood as instantiations of different registers.

Dans cette thèse nous étudions les sémantiques ludothéoriques, conçues comme les altérnatives à la sémantique traditionelle de Tarski, qui metent en marche le princip Meaning is in use et l’idée des jeux de language de second Wittgenstein: le sens des constantes logiques est donné par les règles qui en fixent l’usage et qui apparaissent dans les interactions social que sont les jeux de langage. Deux traditions ludotheorique sont présentées: Game Theoretical Semantics (GTS), proposé par Hintikka et Sandu en 1968 et Dialogical logic, proposé initialement par Paul Lorenzen et Kuno Lorenz en 1955 et developé à partir de 1993 par Shahid Rahman et ses collègues. En 1989 Hintikka et Sandu ont arrivé à l’idée des jeux avec des informations imparfaits qui les a emmené à Independence Friendly Logique (IF logic), logique du premiere ordre qui dépasse en expressivité la logique classique. Deux chapitres de cette thèse sont consacrés à l’axiom de choix et au traitement de l’anaphore, deux sujets choisis par Hintikka pour démontrer la fécondité de la logique IF et de GTS. Le but de cette thèse et de montrer que’il est possible de rendre compte aussi bien et à moindre frais dans le cadre dialogique. Plus précisément, la logique IF est comparée avec la théorie constructive des types dans la forme dialogique pour conclure à la supériorité de cette dernière qui a le même pouvoir explicatif qu’IF sans sacrifier pour autant la dimension inférentielle de la logique. / This thesis studies game-theoretically oriented semantics which provide an alternative to traditional Tarski-style semantics, implementing Wittgenstein’s idea of the meaning as use. Two different game theoretical traditions are presented: Game Theoretical Semantics (GTS), developed by Jaako Hintikka and Gabriel Sandu, and Dialogical logic, first introduced by Paul Lorenzen and Kuno Lorenz and further developed by Shahid Rahman and his associates. In 1989 Hintikka and Sandu came up with games with imperfect information. Those games yielded Independence friendly first-order logic (IF logic), exceeding the expressive power of classical first-order logic. It is expressive enough to enable formulating linearly, and at the first-order level, sentences containing branching quantification. Because of this characteristic, Hintikka claims that IF logic is most suitable for at least two main purposes: to be the logic of the first-order fragment of natural language; and to be the medium for the foundation of mathematics. This thesis aims to explore the above uses of IF logic. The properties of IF logic are discussed, as well as the advantages of this approach such as the possibility of taking account of (in)dependency relations among variables; GTS-account of two different notions of scope of quantifiers; the “outside–in” direction in approaching the meaning, which turns out to be advantageous over the traditional “inside-out” approach; the usefulness of game-theoretic reasoning in mathematics; the expressiveness of IF language, which allows formulating branching quantifiers on the first-order level, as well as defining the truth predicate in the language itself. We defend Hintikka’s stance on the first-order character of IF logic against some criticisms of this point. The weak points are also discussed: first and foremost, the lack of a full axiomatization for IF logic and second, the problem of signalling, a problematic phenomenon related to the possibility of imperfect information in a game. We turn to another game-theoretically oriented semantics, that of Dialogical Logic linked with Constructive Type Theory, in which dependency relations can be accounted for, but without using more means than constructive logic and the dialogical approach to meaning have to offer. This framework is used first to analyse and confront Hintikka’s take on the axiom of choice, and second to analyse the GTS account of anaphora.

La résolution des pronoms est le processus par lequel un pronom anaphorique est mis en relation avec son antécédent. Les humains en sont capables sans efforts notables en situation normale. En revanche, les systèmes automatiques ont une performance qui reste loin derrière, malgré des algorithmes de plus en plus sophistiqués, développés par la communauté du Traitement Automatique des Langues. La recherche en psycholinguistique a montré à travers des expériences qu'au cours de la résolution de nombreux facteurs sont pris en compte par les locuteurs. Une question importante se pose : comment les facteurs interagissent et quel poids faut-il attribuer à chacun d'entre eux ? Une deuxième question qui se pose alors est comment les théories linguistiques de la résolution des pronoms incorporent tous les facteurs. Nous proposons une nouvelle approche à ces problématiques : la simulation computationnelle de la charge cognitive de la résolution des pronoms. La motivation pour notre approche est double : d'une part, l'implémentation d'hypothèses par un système computationnel permet de mieux spécifier les théories, d’autre part, les systèmes automatiques peuvent faire des prédictions sur des données naturelles comme les corpus de mouvement oculaires. De cette façon, les modèles computationnels représentent une alternative aux expériences classiques avec des items expérimentaux construits manuellement. Nous avons fait plusieurs expériences afin d'explorer les modèles cognitifs computationnels de la résolution des pronoms. D'abord, nous avons simulé la charge cognitive des pronoms en utilisant des poids de facteurs de résolution appris sur corpus. Ensuite, nous avons testé si les concepts de la Théorie de l’Information sont pertinents pour prédire la charge cognitive des pronoms. Finalement, nous avons procédé à l’évaluation d’un modèle psycholinguistique sur des données issues d’un corpus enrichi de mouvements oculaires. Les résultats de nos expériences montrent que la résolution des pronoms est en effet multi-factorielle et que l’influence des facteurs peut être estimée sur corpus. Nos résultats montrent aussi que des concepts de la Théorie de l’Information sont pertinents pour la modélisation des pronoms. Nous concluons que l’évaluation des théories sur des données de corpus peut jouer un rôle important dans le développement de ces théories et ainsi amener dans le futur à une meilleure prise en compte du contexte discursif. / Pronoun resolution is the process in which an anaphoric pronoun is linked to its antecedent. In a normal situation, humans do not experience much cognitive effort due to this process. However, automatic systems perform far from human accuracy, despite the efforts made by the Natural Language Processing community. Experimental research in the field of psycholinguistics has shown that during pronoun resolution many linguistic factors are taken into account by speakers. An important question is thus how much influence each of these factors has and how the factors interact with each-other. A second question is how linguistic theories about pronoun resolution can incorporate all relevant factors. In this thesis, we propose a new approach to answer these questions: computational simulation of the cognitive load of pronoun resolution. The motivation for this approach is two-fold. On the one hand, implementing hypotheses about pronoun resolution in a computational system leads to a more precise formulation of theories. On the other hand, robust computational systems can be run on uncontrolled data such as eye movement corpora and thus provide an alternative to hand-constructed experimental material. In this thesis, we conducted various experiments. First, we simulated the cognitive load of pronouns by learning the magnitude of impact of various factors on corpus data. Second, we tested whether concepts from Information Theory were relevant to predict the cognitive load of pronoun resolution. Finally, we evaluated a theoretical model of pronoun resolution on a corpus enriched with eye movement data. Our research shows that multiple factors play a role in pronoun resolution and that their influence can be estimated on corpus data. We also demonstrate that the concepts of Information Theory play a role in pronoun resolution. We conclude that the evaluation of hypotheses on corpus data enriched with cognitive data ---- such as eye movement data --- play an important role in the development and evaluation of theories. We expect that corpus based methods will lead to a better modelling of the influence of discourse structure on pronoun resolution in future work.

Cette thèse propose une étude transversale des principales réalisations de DO dans l'anaphore verbale en anglais, à savoir : do this/that/it, do so, ellipse post-auxiliaire (EPA) et DO britannique. Chaque anaphorique fait l'objet d'une étude approfondie fondée sur un échantillon de plusieurs centaines d'occurrences authentiques prélevées dans le BNC et le COCA, ainsi que le corpus de Bos & Spenader (2011). Plusieurs variables sont analysées, notamment le registre, la nature grammaticale de DO, les propriétés sémantiques et syntaxiques du déclencheur d'antécédent, l’identité de sujet et d'état de choses, les alternances de polarité, de modalité, d'aspect, de temps et de voix ainsi que la présence éventuelle d'adjoints contrastifs ou non contrastifs.Une attention particulière est portée au DO britannique, c'est-à-dire l'emploi de formes non finies de DO anaphorique essentiellement limité au registre conversationnel de l'anglais britannique, qui n'a jamais fait l'objet d'une étude empirique auparavant. A partir d’un échantillon de 483 occurrences prélevées dans la composante orale du BNC et vérifiées systématiquement à l'écoute, cette étude met en lumière certaines caractéristiques socio-culturelles et situationnelles qui favorisent son utilisation, en plus de ses propriétés linguistiques et discursives. Ainsi, cette étude aboutit à la conclusion que le DO britannique constitue une réalisation particulière de l'EPA, qui met en œuvre des formes non finies du DO auxiliaire. / This dissertation presents research across the main types of verb-phrase anaphora involving DO, viz. do this/that/it anaphora, do so anaphora, post-auxiliary ellipsis (PAE) and British English DO. Each anaphor underwent close analysis based on a sample of several hundreds of occurrences retrieved from the BNC and the COCA, as well as Bos & Spenader's (2011) corpus. Different variables were studied including register, the grammatical status of DO, semantic and syntactic properties of antecedent triggers, identity of subjects and states of affairs, the presence or absence of contrastive and non-contrastive adjuncts, as well as polar, modal, aspectual, temporal and voice alternations.One item of particular interest involves British English DO which bears a strong resemblance to PAE, except that it involves non-finite forms of DO and is generally restricted to British conversational English. Unlike PAE, British English DO has never before been the focus of study based on empirical data. In this research, 483 naturally-occurring examples taken from the Spoken component of the BNC as well as the accompanying metadata and recorded material were fully examined. Sociolinguistic and situational information was investigated, as were the linguistic properties and discourse conditions that make the use of British English DO felicitous. The result has led to a far better understanding of the phenomenon. In particular, it was found that British English DO can be considered a sub-type of PAE, which involves non-finite forms of auxiliary DO.

This study identifies and describes constituents, patterns and distribution of the system –or systems- of demonstratives of a representative selection of early Greek dialects, namely the “Arcado-Cyprian” group: Arcadian and Cyprian, including a short analysis of Pamphylian as well as a discussion of the particle νι/νυ and a brief note on Mycenaean; the “Aeolic” group: Lesbian, Boeotian and Thessalian; and a selection of West Greek dialects, including both “Doric” and “Northwest Greek” dialects: Elean, Cretan, Laconian, Cyrenaean and Theran. It also examines, describes and compares the syntactic functions and, where possible, pragmatic uses of the series of demonstratives in operation in the selected dialects, providing a classification capable of accounting for all uses cross-dialectically, as well as a succinct account of the evolution of the system of demonstratives from Indo-European to “Ancient Greek”. Additionally, it offers a glimpse of the way in which deixis and anaphora seem to have worked in early Greek dialectal inscriptions, addressing the issue of defining demonstrative pronouns, as well as deixis and anaphora in general terms. Finally, this thesis provides the basis for a cross-dialectal comparison of the structure and operation of the different systems of demonstratives, and corrects some general misconceptions about the scope, usage and inter-dialectal connections of some series of demonstratives, particularly with regard to Arcadian and Cyprian. The results of such a study might contribute towards the discussion of the classification and history of the evolution of early Greek dialects.

Aquesta tesi és un estudi descriptiu que s'inscriu en un doble àmbit d'anàlisi, discursiu i traductològic. Es proposa un doble objectiu: per una banda, analitzar un conjunt de marques de cohesió franceses en dos tipos de textos diferents (un text polític i un text literari) per tal de mostrar la pertinència d'aquests elements lingüístics en la construcció del sentit; i per altra banda, descriure i comparar les principals estratègies traductores utilitzades en les traduccions castellanes del corpus per recuperar les esmentades marques de cohesió i veure quines en són les conseqüències en el nivell micro i macrotextual.Les marques de cohesió seleccionades per a l'anàlisi són les repeticions, les anàfores pronominals, l'ordre intrafràstic i interfràstic, les elipsis, algunes formes de creativitat lèxica, la puntuació, la unitat et i una sèrie de connectors argumentatius. / This doctoral thesis is a descriptive study which falls into the general framework of discourse and translational analysis. The study has two main aims: on the one hand, it firstly analyses the role of some French cohesive devices in two different types of texts (a political text and a literary one) in order to show how relevant they are to the construction of meaning. On the other hand, the study describes and compares the main translational strategies used in the Spanish target texts to translate these linguistic devices. Moreover, the analysis shows the consequences of these translational strategies both on the microstructure and the macrostructure of the target texts. The cohesive devices we have chosen to analyse include repetitions, pronominal anaphors, order into the sentences, ellipsis, lexical creativity, punctuation, the French conjunction "et" and some discourse markers.

La thèse porte sur le statut sémantico-pragmatique des propositions relatives appositives (PRA), étudié à travers l’examen du fonctionnement discursif des phrases complexes de la forme ‘Matrice, qui PRA’ du français. Dans beaucoup de langues, les PRA n’interagissent pas sémantiquement avec les opérateurs présents dans leurs propositions enchâssantes et tendent à s’interpréter pragmatiquement comme porteuses d’informations non-centrales ou secondaires pour la question en discussion (QUD) du discours en cours. Plusieurs analyses (Holler 2005, Arnold 2007, Koev 2012) dissocient ces deux propriétés en dérivant la projection des PRA de leur statut d’assertions indépendantes et en expliquant leur lecture pragmatique à l’aide de principes généraux de gestion du flot discursif. En effet, lorsque les PRA apparaissent en fin de phrase, elles sont susceptibles d’interagir avec la QUD tout en ayant une portée large vis-à-vis du reste de la phrase. Certains phénomènes discursifs semblent néanmoins contredire l’idée que les PRA constituent des assertions indépendantes. D’abord, les PRA peuvent interagir avec la QUD seulement si leurs matrices véhiculent également des informations pertinentes pour le sujet en discussion. Ensuite, contrairement à ce que l’on peut observer dans une séquence de deux propositions indépendantes, dans une séquence formée d’une proposition matrice et d’une PRA, quel que soit l’ordre de leur linéarisation, la matrice s’interprète toujours comme centrale pour le discours, alors que le statut pragmatique de la PRA dépend fortement du degré d’informativité du reste de la phrase vis-à-vis de la QUD. Enfin, les résultats de deux études comportementales conduites pour la thèse montrent que, suite au traitement de phrases complexes comme ‘Matrice, qui PRA’, les référents du type ‘individu’ mentionnés par la matrice restent hautement saillants pour le discours subséquent contrairement à ceux dont il est question dans la PRA, qui jouissent d’un degré d’accessibilité assez faible. Partant de ces données, nous concluons que la lecture pragmatique centrale des PRA n’est pas une conséquence de leur statut d’assertions indépendantes mais résulte de l’intégration de leur contenu dans le domaine focal de leurs matrices. Plus généralement, en nous appuyant sur les travaux d’Ander Bois & al. (2010) et Schlenker (2013, ms), nous défendons l’idée que le manque d’interaction entre les PRA et le reste de leurs phrases d’accueil ainsi que leur prédisposition à une interprétation non-centrale pour le discours proviennent du fait, qu’à la différence de leurs matrices, dont l’énonciation s’accompagne de l’introduction d’un référent propositionnel nouveau, les PRA sont des anaphores propositionnelles, dont la portée sémantique et l’interprétation pragmatique dépendent de la position discursive de l’expression important dans l’univers du discours le référent auquel s’applique le contenu qu’elles expriment. / The thesis focuses on the semantic-pragmatic status of appositive relative clauses (ARC). We address this question by examining discourse functioning of complex sentences of the form ‘Matrix, qui ARC’ in French. Crosslinguistically, ARC fail to interact semantically with scope taking operators contained in their embedding clauses and tend to be interpreted pragmatically as carrying non-central or secondary information for the question under discussion (QUD) in the ongoing discourse. Several analysis (Holler 2005, Arnold 2007, Koev 2012) dissociate these two properties, deriving the ARC projection from their status of independent assertions and explaining their pragmatic reading with independent principles of the discourse flow management. Indeed, when an ARC follows linearly its embedding clause, it can interact with the QUD while still receiving a wide scope relatively to the rest of the host sentence. Some discursive phenomena seem nevertheless contradict the idea that ARC constitute independent assertions. First, an ARC can interact with a QUD only if its matrix clause also conveys information relevant to the subject under discussion. Second, contrary to what we observe examining sequences of two independent clauses, in sequences formed of a matrix clause and an ARC, regardless of the order of their linearization, the matrix clause is always interpreted as being at-issue for the discourse, while the pragmatic status of the ARC depends to a great extent on the degree of informativeness of the rest of the sentence relatively to the QUD. And, third, the results of two psycholinguistic experiments conducted as part of this study show that after processing a sentence such as ‘Matrix, qui ARC’, the entity-type referents realized by the matrix clause are highly salient for the subsequent discourse unlike those realized by the ARC, which have a rather low accessibility degree. Based on these data, we conclude that at-issue pragmatic reading of ARC is not a consequence of their functioning as independent assertions but results from integration of their content into the focal domain of the embedding clause. More generally, building on the works of AnderBois & al. (2010) and Schlenker (2013, ms), we defend the idea that the lack of interaction between ARC and the host sentences as well as their tendency to receive a not at-issue reading in discourse arise from the fact that unlike their matrix clauses, whose utterance has the effect of introducing a new propositional referent, ARC are propositional anaphora, the semantic and pragmatic interpretation of which depends thus on the discourse position of their antecedent expression, importing into the discourse the propositional referent the ARC’s content applies to.

In my Ph.D. thesis, I examine the use of referential devices in spoken narrative discourse with predominant anaphoric reference. Special attention is paid to the relationship between two competing forms: lexical phrases containing the lexeme ten (ten-MARKED NPs) and lexical phrases not containing it (UNMARKED NPs) in repeated mentions. A primary aim of the work is (i) to identify factors favouring the use of ten-marked NPs at the expense of unmarked NPs and (ii) to explore the possibility of the lexeme ten grammaticalizing from its anaphoric use. Theoretically and methodologically I benefit mostly from the conception of discourse anaphora and the theory of grammaticalization. The referential devices are systematically explored in terms of their distribution into different classes according to a set of parameters and their values. These parameters reflect the conceptual (animacy), grammatical (syntactic function, type of clause etc.) as well as discourse characteristics of the forms and their referents (informational status of the NP in the clause, activation and persistence of the referent, etc.). The data consist of 45 short narratives produced by 15 speakers. The speakers' task was to retell three short silent-movie sketches which they had seen immediately before the recording. The design of the...

Diese Dissertation untersucht das variable Verhalten von sogenannten „bare nouns“ (Nominale ohne Artikel) im Persischen. Dieses Verhalten kann jedoch nicht verstanden werden ohne eine Reihe von entscheidenden Eigenschaften der persischen Satzstruktur zu betrachten. Dazu gehören Informationsstruktur, Prosodie und Wortstellung, sowie die semantischen und syntaktischen Funktionen verschiedener morphologischer Markierungen im Persischen. Die vorliegende Dissertation kann daher zum besseren Verständnis von satzinterner Syntax, Semantik und Prosodie des Persischen beitragen. Ich beginne meine Untersuchung mit dem Vergleich der BNs in verschiedenen Positionen mit Nominalen, die mit verschiedenen Morphemen gekennzeichnet sind. Die quasi-inkorporierten Nominale im Persischen scheinen zur Klasse der diskursintransparenten inkorporierenden Sprachen zu gehören. Doch dies scheint nicht immer zu stimmen, unter bestimmten Umständen zeigen persische BNs Diskurstransparenz. In Kapitel 3 untersuche ich daher, unter welchen Umständen BNs Diskurstransparenz zeigen und warum. In Kapitel 3 präsentiere ich einen Alternativvorschlag zu Farkas & de Swart, in dem ich darlege, dass ein BN tatsächlich einen neuen Diskursreferenten einführt. Aber der Numerus von BNs ist neutral (numerusneutralen Diskursreferenten).In der zweiten Hälfte der Dissertation wird die Interpretation von BNs in verschiedenen Positionen und mit unterschiedlichen grammatischen Funktionen diskutiert. Kapitel 4 konzentriert sich auf BNs in Objektposition. Wir stellen einen direkten Vergleich an zwischen BNs als tatsächliche BNs, d.h. Nominale, die nicht mit einem Morphem markiert sind, und Kontexten, in denen sie mit dem Morphem -ra auftreten. Ich werde argumentieren, dass -ra lediglich markiert, dass ein BN oder auch ein anderes Nominal nicht in seiner VP-internen Position interpretiert, sondern in eine VP-externe Domäne bewegt wird. Das bedeutet, das Morphem -ra ist ein syntaktisches Morphem auf Phrasenebene. / This thesis explores the variable behavior of bare nouns in Persian. Bare singular nouns realize different grammatical functions, including subject, object and indirect object. They receive different interpretations, including generic, definite and existential readings. However, the task of understanding the reasons for, and limits on, this variation cannot be achieved without understanding a number of pivotal features of Persian sentential architecture, including Information Structure, prosody, word order, and the functions of various morphological markers in Persian. With respect to the discourse transparency of Incorporated Nominals, under certain circumstances, Persian bare nouns show discourse transparency. These circumstances are examined in chapter 3, and it is proposed that bare nouns do introduce a number neutral discourse referent. This proposal is phrased within Discourse Representation Theory. In the second half of the dissertation, the interpretation of bare nouns in different positions and with different grammatical functions are discussed. Under the independently supported hypothesis of position>interpretation mapping developed by Diesing (1992), we will see the role of the suffix -ra in indicating that an object has been moved out of VP. For subjects, there is no morphological marking corresponding to –ra on objects, and we have to rely on prosody and word order to determine how a VP is interpreted using theories of the interaction of accent and syntactic structure. It is proposed that both subject and object originate within the VP, and can move out to the VP-external domain. The motivation for these movements are informational-structural in nature, relating in particular to the distinctions between given and new information, and default and non-default information structure.