This thesis examines the historical development of the expletive það in Icelandic, from the earliest texts to the present day. This development is set against the backdrop of Icelandic clause structure, with particular attention to verb-second, information structure and the left periphery. The study combines corpus linguistic data and quantitative techniques with theoretical analysis, conducted within Lexical Functional Grammar. I show that Icelandic underwent three syntactic developments in the period 1750-present and argue that these all reflect one overall change: the establishment of það as a structural placeholder for the topic position (the clause-initial prefinite position). I claim that það functions as a topic position placeholder in the earliest attested stage of Icelandic (1150-1350), but is restricted to a specific context: topicless subjectless constructions with a clausal object, where það has cataphoric reference. The three changes in the period 1750-present represent the establishment of this topic position placeholder in new contexts: (1) það generalises to all types of topicless subjectless construction, beyond those with a clausal object; (2) það emerges in presentational constructions (which inherently lack a topic), out-competing the earlier expletive form þar; (3) in cataphoric contexts with a clausal subject, það begins to transition from subject to topic position placeholder. The majority of these contexts exhibit at least a short period in which það - or alternatively þar - behaves like a subject. Icelandic thus exhibits the emergence of a topic position placeholder expletive from an earlier subject-like element. This shift towards prefinite expletives, which sets Icelandic apart from e.g. Mainland Scandinavian, happens relatively late in the diachrony (1750-present). Moreover, the Icelandic development challenges the standard claim in the literature on Germanic expletives, which assumes that subject expletives emerge from prefinite expletives.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-09-03Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:21:22Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 carbone_mvs_dr_assis.pdf: 1183459 bytes, checksum: f4bf9b465c82e92b654f7eaaa196a307 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O desejo de estudar as correspondências dos usos da partícula que em espanhol e português foi o ponto de partida desta tese. Dado o fato de ser a referida partícula altamente empregada nas duas línguas, optamos pela pesquisa em um corpus de língua falada, por caracterizar-se esta modalidade como um reflexo mais autêntico do funcionamento da língua e, especificamente, dos usos do que. Dentro dessa modalidade de língua falada, trabalhamos com entrevistas pertencentes ao Projeto de Estudo da Norma Lingüística Culta das cidades de Bogotá (para o espanhol) e de São Paulo (para o português ). Delimitado o corpus de estudo (onze entrevistas completas do NURC colombiano), coletamos os enunciados em espanhol em que a partícula que está inserida, bem como alguns dos seus afins, preservando os contextos necessários para uma análise sintática adequada. Esses contextos sintáticos espanhóis nos quais aparece a partícula que é que nortearam a divisão dos capítulos deste trabalho. Nossa pesquisa consta de cinco capítulos. O primeiro, numa tentativa de retomar às origens para entender os auais empregos do que, trata diacronicamente do tema. O que pronome relativo, os outros pronomes relativos, os advérbios relativos, bem como os seus correspondentes portugueses e a freqüência de uso nas duas línguas é o assunto do segundo capítulo. Partindo do que interrogativo, o terceiro capítulo versa sobre os pronomes interrogativos em geral e suas correspondências em português. No quarto capítulo, abordamos o estudo do que conjuntivo, do porque e das locuções conjuntivas, bem como das equivalências portuguesas. O quinto e último capítulo trata de dois outros contextos sintáticos em que a partícula que aparece em nosso corpus de trabalho tanto em espanhol como em português: as perífrases verbais de obrigação e expletivos. / The starting point of this dissertation was our interest in studying the formal as well as the semantic correspondences between the usages of the particle QUE, both in Spanish and in Portuguese. Due to the high degree of occurrences of this particle in both languages, we chose to center our research in a corpus of spoken language. In fact the oral language reflects with more authenticity the way languages function and, in particular, the uses of THE. Therefore we analyzed samples of speech taken from interviews that were registered and transcribed by researchers belonging to the NURC (Project for the Study of the Cultivated Linguistic Norm) in Bogotá (Colombia), for Spanish language, and in São Paulo (Brazil), for the Portuguese. Once the corpus established, we gathered and classified the utterances of eleven interviews in Colombian Spanish, in which the particle QUE and other related forms appear. Necessary contextual elements were preserved to make possible an accurate syntactic analysis. The syntactic contexts of QUE detected in the Spanish corpus guided the division in five chapters of our work. The first one is a diachronic approach which constitutes an effort to reach the ancient and original usages of QUE in order to a better understanding of its present behavior. The relative pronoun QUE, other relative pronouns, relative adverbs, as well as their Portuguese counterparts and their frequency of use in both languages are the subject of our second chapter. Beginning with the interrogative QUE, the third chapter deals with the Spanish interrogative pronouns in general and their corresponding forms in Portuguese...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

This thesis analyses expletive usage of Czech word to (it). The aim is to contribute to the current description of Czech expletive to in the subject position and to compare it with English expletive subject it. Theoretical part of this thesis is dedicated to definition of the term reference, and other terms associated with it, and referential, modifying and non- referential functions of to in Czech academic literature. Important part of the theoretical background is definition of semantic criteria for identification of the Czech expletive to by Ivana Kolářová. In Czech academic literature, the term expletive is not widely described, therefore this thesis also gives a brief overview of description of English expletive it. For the purposes of comparison of the Czech and English expletives, this thesis is partly dedicated to a description of partial pro-drop languages and to an explanation how it is connected to the Czech language. There are two types of Czech expletive to defined as a basis for a qualitative analysis: formal expletive subject to in raising constructions and inferential expletive subject to. The analysis is based on 300 manually excerpted examples of constructions with expletive subject to from spoken corpora ORAL2013 and ORTOFON. Both types of expletives are described separately on...

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur pojkar och flickor på mellanstadiet upplever sitt bruk av kraftuttryck och slangord i och utanför klassrummet. Två undersökningsmetoder har valts för att på bästa sätt få fram ett tillförlitligt resultat; enkät samt strukturerade intervjuer. Enkäten besvarades av 76 elever i årskurs 5 och 6, och intervjuerna genomfördes med sju elever i årskurs 6. Resultatet visar på att elever anpassar sitt språkbruk beroende på situation och omgivning. Det visar också att elevernas attityd till kraftuttryck och slangord är negativ, men att de ändå använder det frekvent. Enkätresultatet tyder på att pojkarna använder mer kraftuttryck än flickorna, medan de intervjuade eleverna betonar individuella skillnader framför könsskillnaderna.

Orientador: Rafael Eugenio Hoyos-Andrade / Banca: Maria de Lourdes Otero Brabo Cruz / Banca: Eliane Roncolatto / Banca: Isabel Gretel Maria Eres Fernández / Banca: John Robert Schmitz / Resumo: O desejo de estudar as correspondências dos usos da partícula que em espanhol e português foi o ponto de partida desta tese. Dado o fato de ser a referida partícula altamente empregada nas duas línguas, optamos pela pesquisa em um corpus de língua falada, por caracterizar-se esta modalidade como um reflexo mais autêntico do funcionamento da língua e, especificamente, dos usos do que. Dentro dessa modalidade de língua falada, trabalhamos com entrevistas pertencentes ao Projeto de Estudo da Norma Lingüística Culta das cidades de Bogotá (para o espanhol) e de São Paulo (para o português ). Delimitado o corpus de estudo (onze entrevistas completas do NURC colombiano), coletamos os enunciados em espanhol em que a partícula que está inserida, bem como alguns dos seus afins, preservando os contextos necessários para uma análise sintática adequada. Esses contextos sintáticos espanhóis nos quais aparece a partícula que é que nortearam a divisão dos capítulos deste trabalho. Nossa pesquisa consta de cinco capítulos. O primeiro, numa tentativa de retomar às origens para entender os auais empregos do que, trata diacronicamente do tema. O que pronome relativo, os outros pronomes relativos, os advérbios relativos, bem como os seus correspondentes portugueses e a freqüência de uso nas duas línguas é o assunto do segundo capítulo. Partindo do que interrogativo, o terceiro capítulo versa sobre os pronomes interrogativos em geral e suas correspondências em português. No quarto capítulo, abordamos o estudo do que conjuntivo, do porque e das locuções conjuntivas, bem como das equivalências portuguesas. O quinto e último capítulo trata de dois outros contextos sintáticos em que a partícula que aparece em nosso corpus de trabalho tanto em espanhol como em português: as perífrases verbais de obrigação e expletivos. / Abstract: The starting point of this dissertation was our interest in studying the formal as well as the semantic correspondences between the usages of the particle QUE, both in Spanish and in Portuguese. Due to the high degree of occurrences of this particle in both languages, we chose to center our research in a corpus of spoken language. In fact the oral language reflects with more authenticity the way languages function and, in particular, the uses of THE. Therefore we analyzed samples of speech taken from interviews that were registered and transcribed by researchers belonging to the NURC (Project for the Study of the Cultivated Linguistic Norm) in Bogotá (Colombia), for Spanish language, and in São Paulo (Brazil), for the Portuguese. Once the corpus established, we gathered and classified the utterances of eleven interviews in Colombian Spanish, in which the particle QUE and other related forms appear. Necessary contextual elements were preserved to make possible an accurate syntactic analysis. The syntactic contexts of QUE detected in the Spanish corpus guided the division in five chapters of our work. The first one is a diachronic approach which constitutes an effort to reach the ancient and original usages of QUE in order to a better understanding of its present behavior. The relative pronoun QUE, other relative pronouns, relative adverbs, as well as their Portuguese counterparts and their frequency of use in both languages are the subject of our second chapter. Beginning with the interrogative QUE, the third chapter deals with the Spanish interrogative pronouns in general and their corresponding forms in Portuguese...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Doutor

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.