The emotive connotations of diminutives in English are a source of controversy among scholars, while the Slavic languages of Polish and Russian are considered ‘diminutive-rich’ with diminutives that convey diverse nuances. Thus, the translation of diminutives between English and Slavic languages has either been portrayed as difficult or has been ignored altogether. However, an analysis of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and several of its translations into Polish and Russian shows that English has many diminutives, some of which are ‘untranslatable’, while many diminutives can be easily translated. Yet, the strong emphasis on diminutives in Polish and Russian produces diminutives in the translations that do not appear in the original text and are not typical of English. What becomes evident is that the obstacles in translating various diminutive constructions provoke the question: What are the semantic-pragmatic differences between English and Polish/Russian diminutives and how do these differences affect translation? / Graduate / 0679 / 0593 / 0314 / dlockyer@alumni.ubc.ca

Studies of Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian language learners converge on the finding that morphological features of nouns are first generalized to word clusters of high morpho-phonological similarities such as diminutives, that grammatical categorisation is are more easily applied to novel words that fall into these clusters. The present thesis explores whether the facilitating effect of diminutives on the acquisition of complex noun morphology can be extended to Serbian, a south Slavic language, morphologically similar to Russian and Polish. Specifically, the thesis explores the role of parameters responsible for the obtained diminutive advantage: high frequency of a particular cluster of words in child-directed speech (CDS) and morpho-phonological homogeneity within this cluster. A corpus analysis of the distribution of diminutives in Serbian CDS indicated a rather unexpected difference in frequency relative to Russian and Polish CDS, despite the high similarity of the diminutive derivation across these three Slavic languages. Out of the total number of nouns in Serbian CDS only 7% were diminutives, compared to 20-30% in Polish and 45% in Russian. Two experimental studies explored whether the low frequency of diminutives in Serbian CDS attenuates the diminutive advantage in morphology learning compared to Russian and Polish. In the first two experiments, Serbian children exhibited a strong diminutive advantage for both gender agreement and case marking in the same range as Russian children, indicating that morpho-phonological homogeneity within the cluster of diminutives may play as important a role as their frequency for grammatical categorisation of novel nouns. A third study investigated in more detail the effects of morpho-phonological homogeneity on the emergence of the diminutive advantage using a gender-agreement task with novel nouns in simplex and pseudo-diminutive form over four sessions with Serbian children. The results showed a pseudo-diminutive advantage for gender agreement by Session 2, suggesting that the categorisation of nouns into grammatical categories is based on morpho-phonological homogeneity of the word cluster, emerges relatively fast, and can occur despite the much lower frequency of diminutives in Serbian CDS. Finally, a series of neural network simulations designed to capture the pattern of results from the third experimental study was used to examine to what extent a simple associative learning mechanism, relying on morpho-phonological similarity of the noun endings, can explain the findings. The performance of three models, a whole-word feed-forward network, a Simple Recurrent Network (SRN) and a last-syllable feed-forward network, was compared to the experimental data. The superior fit of the SRN suggests that gender learning is based on a very fast sequential build-up of representations of the entire word, allowing the system to exploit the predictive power of word stems to anticipate regularised endings. Overall, the findings of this thesis contribute to our general understanding of mechanisms responsible for the acquisition of complex inflectional noun morphology in two ways. First, by extending experimental studies and neural network simulations to Serbian, the results underline the universality of the idea that noun morphology is learned and processed through a single-route associative mechanism based on the frequency and morpho-phonological structure of nouns. More specifically, the results from experimental studies and neural network simulations demonstrate that for diminutives, the low-level grammatical categorisation is based mainly on the morpho-phonological similarity of word endings, and can emerge after just a few exposures. And second, the neural network simulations suggest that during the process of categorisation of nouns into gender categories, learners rely not only on predictable information from the noun endings, but also on phonological regularities in the stems of nouns. Taken together, these findings contribute also to a better understanding of the facilitating role of CDS in morphology acquisition.

Aim of this MA thesis is to describe Spanish diminutives from different points of view. After defining basic concepts from morphology and lingu- istics the study focuses on traditional and pragmatic semantics of Spanish diminutives. The pragmatic point of view is the basis for analysis of particu- lar diminutives. In the conclusion, the traditional and pragmatic approaches to Spanish diminutives are compared.

Analizuojamas rytų aukštaičių uteniškių, vilniškių ir širvintiškių patarmėse rastų daiktavardžių deminutyvų vartojimas kalbėjimo situacijose, tekste, semantinėse ir sintaksinėse stiliaus figūrose, nagrinėjamos deminutyvų atliekamos funkcijos (tikslinamoji, vertinamoji, teksto siejamoji ir estetinė). / Researching the usage of the diminutives of nouns in the subdialects of eastern Aukštaičiai Uteniškiai, Vilniškiai and Širvintiškiai in speech situations, in the text, in semantic and syntactic figures, analysing the functions of the diminutives (evaluating, specifying, text related and aesthetical functions).

The emotive connotations of diminutives in English are a source of controversy among scholars, while the Slavic languages of Polish and Russian are considered ‘diminutive-rich’ with diminutives that convey diverse nuances. Thus, the translation of diminutives between English and Slavic languages has either been portrayed as difficult or has been ignored altogether. However, an analysis of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and several of its translations into Polish and Russian shows that English has many diminutives, some of which are ‘untranslatable’, while many diminutives can be easily translated. Yet, the strong emphasis on diminutives in Polish and Russian produces diminutives in the translations that do not appear in the original text and are not typical of English. What becomes evident is that the obstacles in translating various diminutive constructions provoke the question: What are the semantic-pragmatic differences between English and Polish/Russian diminutives and how do these differences affect translation? / Graduate / 0679 / 0593 / 0314 / dlockyer@alumni.ubc.ca

The theme of the diploma thesis is the analysis of the "mother language" on the Czech Internet forums (especially on emimino.cz, baby-cafe.cz, mimibazar.cz). In the theoretical part the author introduces the varieties of the national language. She defines the characteristics, structure and social differentiation of the analysed sociolect. Then she presents the fundamental aspects of human communication and also devotes to the particularities of communication on the Internet. In the practical part she carries out a language analysis of the collected material. She focuses primarily on the lexical means, mainly diminutives, compounds and abbreviations. The aim of the thesis is to present the specific type of expressing and at the same time to contribute to the research of the non-standard Czech language with this study.

The dissertation examines how the Swedish cultural code, contained in books by Astrid Lindgren, was transferred into the Polish linguistic and cultural domain. The research reveals how the Polish cultural filter affected the image of Swedish reality in the translations. The analysis took into account the transfer of both verbal and visual aspects of the cultural elements. A smooth transfer was achieved in the following sphere: changes in the linguistic code between interlocutors from different social strata; the way in which people from the privileged classes were addressed; the transfer of the verbal folklore of children. The folklore of Swedish and Polish children was shown to be more or less congruent, which may indicate the existence of a universal, transnational children’s code. The reconstruction of intertextual references was achieved in relation to the Bible. References to world literature succeeded in crossing the cultural border only partially. The complexity of the cultural code of the original led to an exoticization of the translated text. The colloquial language and dialect of the original, reflecting the structure of Swedish society failed to find its way into the translations. Emotionality in the form of expression, typical of Polish culture, caused the translations to be characterized by the use of diminutives. The emphasis on the emotional element is also visible in the enormous diversification of the verba dicendi in the translations, which also makes the text more expressive. The linguistic and stylistic conventions of the target language (i.e. Polish) caused the translations to depart from Lindgren’s simple and repetitive style. The addition of footnotes in the translations demonstrates the strong didactic tendencies in literature for children in Polish culture. They did not enrich the text of the translation, however, with any new information. The transfer of the visual element in the first translations was characterized by polonization and folkoricization. Scenes that show children at work and portray village life were subjected to a form of purification, so that the small-town milieu—in contrast to the village—was shown to advantage through its visualization. The typical rural buildings and the costumes of their inmates were transmitted via a strategy of folkloricization: by drawing on the relatively well-regarded peasant culture of the Podhale region of Poland.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the methods used by translators when translating spoken language in contemporary Danish fiction into Czech. In the first chapter, the Czech translation tradition is defined. This tradition influences Czech usage and tendencies. The second chapter introduces the features of stylized language reflected in literature written in Czech. As will be shown, these are mainly lexicological and morphological features and related stylistical means. The following chapters are devoted to the analysis of individual features of stylized language and their translation into Czech. Discussed are loanwords, diminutives, expletives, morphological changes, realia and politeness. The translated units are compared with Czech translation tradition and literature written in Czech.

Hur språkspecifika ord ska översättas mellan två språk är inte alltid självklart. Därför har denna uppsats i syfte att undersöka hur ryska diminutiva vanliga substantiv översätts till svenska. Svårigheten vid översättning uppstår bland annat av att ryska är ett språk rikt på diminutiv medan användning av diminutiv i svenska är sällsynt. På grund av denna skillnad är det inte givet att det finns en lexikal motsvarighet i svenska för ryska diminutiv och översättningen måste anpassas om den ska få med den diminutiva innebörden.  Genom att undersöka hur ryska diminutiv brukar översättas till svenska, och om ryska diminutiv uppstår vid översättning från svenska, kan den rysk-svenska språkspecificiteten för diminutiv kartläggas. Med hjälp av en parallellkorpus kan genuina texter och deras översättningar undersökas i en kvalitativ analys för att kategorisera de vanligaste översättningsstrategierna och huruvida den diminutiva innebörden bevaras vid översättning.  Denna uppsats undersökning visar att ryska diminutiv av vanliga substantiv är språkspecifika gentemot svenska. Detta då innebörden oftast går förlorad vid översättning till svenska, medan diminutiv ofta uppstår vid översättning till ryska, trots att den svenska källtexten helt saknar diminutiva ord. / Каким образом лингвоспецифичные слова должны быть переведены между двумя языками, не всегда очевидно. Цель этой диссертации исследовать, как русские уменьшительно-ласкательные существительные переводятся на шведский язык. Трудности при переводе возникают, помимо прочего, из-за того, что в русском языке диминутивы широко распространены, тогда как в шведском языке они используются редко. По причине этих различий нельзя полноправно утверждать, что в шведском языке существует лексический эквивалент русских диминутивов, следовательно, любой перевод должен быть адаптирован, если он включает уменьшительно-ласкательные слова. Путем анализа того, как русские диминутивы обычно переводятся на шведский язык и как возникают русские уменьшительные формы при переводе со шведского, можно выявить русско-шведскую лингвистическую специфику уменьшительно-ласкательных. С помощью параллельного корпуса в этой работе анализируются самые распространенные стратегии перевода. Исследование в данном дипломном сочинении показывает, что русские уменьшительно-ласкательные формы имён нарицательных являются лингвоспецифичными, поскольку значение чаще всего теряется. При переводе со шведского на русский часто появляются диминутивы, хотя в шведских текстах они могут полностью отсутствовать. / How language specific words should be translated between two languages is not always obvious. Therefore, this thesis has the intention to examine how Russian diminutive common nouns are translated into Swedish. The difficulties of translation, inter alia, arise from the fact that the Russian language is rich in diminutives, whereas the usage of diminutives in Swedish is rare. Because of this difference, it is not guaranteed that there is a lexical counterpart in Swedish for Russian diminutives, and the translation must be adapted to retain the diminutive meaning. By examining how Russian diminutives usually are translated into Swedish, and whether Russian diminutives emerge during translation from Swedish, the Russian-Swedish language specificity for diminutives could be mapped. With the help of a parallel corpus, native texts and their translations can be examined in a qualitative analysis to categorise the most common translation strategies, and whether the diminutive meaning is retained during translation. The findings presented in this thesis demonstrate that Russian diminutives of common nouns are exceedingly language specific toward Swedish, as the meaning frequently is lost. During translation from Swedish to Russian diminutives usually emerge, despite that the Swedish original text completely lacks diminutive words.