In this thesis, we look into the level of knowledge of Czech phraseology of non-native speakers, namely Russian-speaking (Russophones). The objective is to investigate, using five case studies, what is the degree of knowledge of Czech phraseology, how the level of integration into the Czech society might influence their knowledge, or whether there may be any other relevant factors. By means of a semi-structured interview, these case studies describe respondents' language background which is later confronted with the research findings. In conclusion, results of the case studies are compared in order to identify tendencies and factors that might be significant for students when acquiring the idioms.

The aim of this thesis is comparison of speakers' understanding of meaning of names of body parts head, eye, ear, nose, mouth and heart in Czech and Japanese language. To achieve this goal a list of idioms consisting of mentioned body parts in both languages is created. Speakers sort the idioms into arbitrary categories based on their understaing of meaning of name of body part. Resulting data is processed by multidimensional scaling and evaluated afterwards. The first bigger chapter is dedicated to introduction of idiomatics and phraseology in Europe and Japan in order to compare understanding of idioms and their classification. The second bigger chapter introduces a base for approaches to idioms, following by focus on somatic idioms. Two different approaches are introduced. The method of introspection is represented by a theory of coneptual profiles by I. Vaňková and by an idealized cognitive model of act by Arizono T. The corpus approach is represented by F. Čermák, Hashimoto Ch. et al. and by Lin W. The introduction of practical part follows. The first part is dedicated to the method of multidimensional scaling. After that the survey realization and its evaluation is described. The overall evaluation of results in terms of the aim of this thesis is placed in conclusion. Keywords: Japanese...

This study measured the effect of mode of discourse and developmental factors on composition length, syntactic complexity, and sentence-production error rate in the writing of secondary school students. The study also included a descriptive analysis of syntactic and logical patterns found in the sentence production errors. The 297 students whose writing samples provided the data for this study were enrolled in grades 7, 9, and 11. The students were divided into low and high within-grade developmental groups. Each student wrote two compositions, one in the descriptive mode and one in the persuasive mode.

This thesis examines translation strategies for translating figurative language with a focus on metaphors, idioms, and phrasal verbs. Translators often state that figurative language presents challenges in the translation process. This is mainly because the translator must consider the language’s pragmatic, cognitive, and aesthetic functions. This analysis combines a modified translation approach based on Liu and Zhang (2005), Newmark (1988) as well as Lakoff and Johnson (2003). Using the strategies literal translation, transference, meaning translation, omission, and addition to reduce the loss between the source and target texts, this paper seeks to map how frequently these strategies are applied in the translation of metaphors, idioms, and phrasal verbs in the source text. This paper also discusses any potential problems arising in conjunction with these strategies. The findings of this analysis show that literal translation is the most commonly used translation strategy, in line with Liu and Zhang’s recommendations (2005). Overall, the second most frequently used strategy is transference, followed by meaning translation. This analysis also highlights interesting research gaps regarding omission and addition and encourages further research on these subjects. Greater knowledge and application of these strategies could lead not only to a better and more efficient target text but also a target text that is closer in word count to the original, thereby reducing the expansion of the source text.

<p>Language-play can briefly be described as the wilful manipulation of the peculiarities of a linguistic system in a way that draws attention to these peculiarities themselves, thereby causing a communicative and cognitive effect that goes beyond the conveyance of propositional meaning. Among the various phenomena answering this description are the different kinds of puns, but also more strictly form-based manipulations such as rhymes and alliteration, in addition to a host of other, sometimes even fuzzier, subcategories.</p><p>Due to its unusual nature, and especially its frequently strong dependence on the idiosyncrasies of a particular language, language-play can generally be assumed to constitute a significant challenge in a translation context. Furthermore, given its non-negligible effects, the translator is not free to simply ignore the language-play (provided it has been recognized as such in the first place) without having taken an active stance on its treatment. However, the difficulties in finding a suitable target-language solution are possibly exacerbated if the source text is a complex multimedia product such as a film, the translation of which, normally in the form of dubbing or subtitling, is subject to additional constraints.</p><p>In view of these intricacies, it has been the aim of this study to analyze and measure how language-play in film has actually been treated in authentic dubbing and subtitle versions. As a prerequisite, the concept of language-play has been elaborated on, and more than a dozen subcategories have been described, developed, and employed. For the purpose of carrying out a meaningful analysis of the dubbing and subtitling of language-play, a corpus has been compiled, comprising 18 family films and 99 of their various target versions, most on DVD, and yielding nearly 800 source-text instances of language-play and thousands of translation solutions.</p><p>The results indicate that especially two sets of factors, among the many that are likely to influence a translation, play a prominent role: the type of the language-play, and the identity and working conditions of the translator. By contrast, the mode of translation (dubbing vs. subtitling), the target language, or the general properties of the films, could not be shown to have a sizeable impact.</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 sergio.pdf: 2431367 bytes, checksum: 49d6c74ea903d9d0c045da08226f295b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-11 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This dissertation aims at investigating the prosodic patterns in the speech of bilingual American and Brazilian speakers. By means of acoustic phonetic analysis, the manner by which speakers structure the prosodic groups was investigated in light of models that underscore the discoursal and attitudinal functions of intonation. Analyses were carried out on various strands: pitch configurations in idioms, distribution of pitch accents within an utterance whether it be for contrastive or emphatic reasons, and loss of accentual prominence in words that are no longer part of the common ground between speaker and listener. The study involved 4 female subjects, two Brazilians and two Americans, in the 20-40 age group. The corpus is comprised of 7 sentences in English and in Portuguese, four of which were uttered in the declarative modality, one in the exclamative modality and two in the interrogative modality. The sentences were extracted from a dialogue so constructed as to allow for the expression of attitudes and emotions. The dialogue was read and interpreted in three repetitions. The recordings of the readings were carried out at PUC-SP´s Radio and TV studio. The acoustic analysis of the data was done by means of the PRAAT software program, whereby utterances were segmented into units of varying sizes: GIPC, vowels, syllables and consonants. Results point to the use of language-specific strategies by Brazilian and American speakers: (a) Brazilians seem to favor a greater number of prosodic groups in order to maintain sentence focus at terminals; (b) speakers of both languages are heavily influenced by L1 intonational patterns in YES/N0 questions; (c) idioms as produced by non-natives present pitch configurations which convey attitudes incongruent with their meanings in the target language; (d) there are major distributional differences in the two languages as regards nucleus focus; (e) shared information is not a strong enough reason for deaccenting in Portuguese / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar os padrões entoacionais de produções de falantes bilíngües norte-americanos e brasileiros. Por meio de instrumentais de análise fonético-acústica, foi investigado o modo pelo qual os falantes estruturam os grupos prosódicos, à luz de modelos de descrição da entoação que privilegiem o discurso e as atitudes. Foram analisadas as configurações de pitch em expressões idiomáticas, a distribuição do acento principal de pitch em enunciados em que ocorra contrastividade ou ênfase, e a perda (ou não) de proeminência acentual de palavras que já façam parte do conhecimento mútuo entre falante e ouvinte. O trabalho envolveu quatro sujeitos do sexo feminino na faixa etária entre 20 e 40 anos, sendo duas brasileiras e duas norte-americanas. O corpus é composto de 7 sentenças em inglês e em português, sendo 4 na modalidade declarativa, uma na exclamativa e 2 na interrogativa. As sentenças foram extraídas de um diálogo construído de modo a contemplar a expressão de atitudes e emoções. O diálogo foi lido e interpretado em três repetições. A gravação das leituras foi feita no Estúdio de Rádio e TV da PUC-SP. A análise acústica dos dados foi feita por meio do programa PRAAT, a partir da segmentação dos enunciados em unidades de tamanhos variados: unidades V-V, vogais, sílabas e consoantes. Os resultados obtidos apontam para o uso de estratégias diferenciadas por parte dos falantes brasileiros e norte-americanos: (a) falantes brasileiros tendem a fazer um maior número de fronteiras prosódicas, de modo a manter o acento frasal em fronteira final; (b) falantes de ambas as línguas tendem a sofrer influência dos padrões entoacionais de L1 nas questões totais; (c) A produção de expressões idiomáticas por falantes não nativos apresenta configurações de pitch que carreiam atitudes incompatíveis com seu significado em L2; (d) há diferenças nas duas línguas em relação à posição do acento frasal; (e) nem sempre informação já compartilhada pelos participantes do discurso perde a proeminência acentual no português

Language-play can briefly be described as the wilful manipulation of the peculiarities of a linguistic system in a way that draws attention to these peculiarities themselves, thereby causing a communicative and cognitive effect that goes beyond the conveyance of propositional meaning. Among the various phenomena answering this description are the different kinds of puns, but also more strictly form-based manipulations such as rhymes and alliteration, in addition to a host of other, sometimes even fuzzier, subcategories. Due to its unusual nature, and especially its frequently strong dependence on the idiosyncrasies of a particular language, language-play can generally be assumed to constitute a significant challenge in a translation context. Furthermore, given its non-negligible effects, the translator is not free to simply ignore the language-play (provided it has been recognized as such in the first place) without having taken an active stance on its treatment. However, the difficulties in finding a suitable target-language solution are possibly exacerbated if the source text is a complex multimedia product such as a film, the translation of which, normally in the form of dubbing or subtitling, is subject to additional constraints. In view of these intricacies, it has been the aim of this study to analyze and measure how language-play in film has actually been treated in authentic dubbing and subtitle versions. As a prerequisite, the concept of language-play has been elaborated on, and more than a dozen subcategories have been described, developed, and employed. For the purpose of carrying out a meaningful analysis of the dubbing and subtitling of language-play, a corpus has been compiled, comprising 18 family films and 99 of their various target versions, most on DVD, and yielding nearly 800 source-text instances of language-play and thousands of translation solutions. The results indicate that especially two sets of factors, among the many that are likely to influence a translation, play a prominent role: the type of the language-play, and the identity and working conditions of the translator. By contrast, the mode of translation (dubbing vs. subtitling), the target language, or the general properties of the films, could not be shown to have a sizeable impact.

Denna magisteruppsats är baserad på översättningen av de två första kapitlen i ungdomsboken Goggle-Eyes (1989) av den brittiska författaren Anne Fine. Uppsatsen undersöker effekterna av en främmandegörande översättningsstrategi med utgångspunkt i Antoine Bermans negativa analysverktyg och med avseende på undvikandet av förlust av ikoniska och klangfulla ord och förlust av uttryck och idiom inklusive namn. Analysen visar att det i många fall är möjligt att bevara ikoniska och klangfulla ord vid översättningen, utan att effekten på måltexten blir främmandegörande, medan bevarandet av uttryck och namn i flera fall kräver förtydliganden för att måltexten ska bli begriplig för målgruppen. / The present study is based on the translation of the first two chapters of Goggle-Eyes, a novel for young teenagers by the british author Anne Fine. The study examines the effects of a foreignizing translation strategy based on Antoine Berman’s negative analytics, concerning avoidance of the loss of sonorous and iconic terms and expressions and idioms. The analysis suggests that in many cases it is possible to keep sonorous and iconic terms in translation without creating a foreignizing effect that could make reading difficult for young readers. However, the keeping of expressions and idioms in many cases calls for clarification in order to create a target text that is understandable for the target group.

[pt] Esta dissertação estuda locuções verbais da língua espanhola que apresentam alto grau de idiomaticidade e frequência de uso. O objetivo principal da pesquisa é investigar até que ponto processos cognitivos motivados por metáforas e metonímias são responsáveis pelo significado destas locuções. Para tal propósito, analisa-se um conjunto de locuções verbais da língua espanhola, tais como meter algo en la cabeza (meter algo na cabeça), cerrar la boca (fechar a boca) e abrir mano (abrir mão), que envolvem uma parte do corpo humano. As partes do corpo humano escolhidas para o conjunto de locuções para análise são cabeza (cabeça), boca (boca) e mano (mão). A fonte principal de coleta de dados é o Diccionario de la Lengua Española. O trabalho é realizado dentro da perspectiva teórica da Linguística Cognitiva e concebe a metáfora como um mapeamento conceptual entre dois domínios cognitivos com propriedades análogas; e a metonímia, como um processo mediante o qual uma entidade conceptual provê acesso a outra entidade conceptual dentro do mesmo domínio cognitivo. Na análise, descreve-se a estrutura das locuções, colocam-se exemplos da variedade das expressões e analisa-se o papel dos mecanismos da figuração mencionados na constituição do significado das locuções verbais selecionadas. Os resultados do trabalho constituem evidência para a relevância da metáfora e metonímia na constituição do significado das locuções verbais. / [en] This thesis studies verbal locutions in Spanish with a high degree of idiomaticity and frequency of use. The main objective of this research is to investigate to what extent cognitive processes triggered by metaphors and metonymies are responsible for the meaning of these locutions. For this purpose, a set of verbal locutions in Spanish language is analyzed, such as meter algo en la cabeza (to put something in the head), cerrar la boca (to close the mouth) and abrir mano (to open the hand), that involve a part of the human body. The body parts chosen for the set of locutions to be analyzed are cabeza (head), boca (mouth) and mano (hand). The main source of data collection is the Diccionario de la Lengua Española. The work is carried out within the theoretical perspective of Cognitive Linguistics and conceives metaphor as a conceptual mapping between two cognitive domains with analogous properties; and metonymy, as a process whereby a conceptual entity provides access to another conceptual entity within the same cognitive domain. In the analysis, the structure of the locutions is described, examples of the variety of expressions are given, and the role of the mentioned mechanisms of figuration in the constitution of the meaning of the selected verbal locutions is analyzed. The results of this work constitute evidence for the relevance of metaphor and metonymy in the constitution of the meaning of verbal locutions. / [es] Esta tesis estudia locuciones verbales en español, que presentan un alto grado de idiomaticidad y frecuencia de uso. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es investigar hasta qué punto los procesos cognitivos motivados por metáforas y metonimias son responsables por el significado de estas expresiones. Para tal propósito, se analiza un conjunto de locuciones verbales de la lengua española, tales como meter en la cabeza, cerrar la boca y abrir mano, que comprenden una parte el cuerpo humano. Las partes del cuerpo seleccionadas para el conjunto de expresiones, objeto del presente análisis, son cabeza, boca y mano. La fuente principal de recolección de datos es el Diccionario de la Lengua Española. El trabajo se realiza dentro de la perspectiva teórica de la Lingüística Cognitiva y concibe la metáfora como un mapeo conceptual entre dos dominios cognitivos con propiedades análogas; y la metonimia, como un proceso mediante el cual una entidad conceptual proporciona acceso para otra entidad conceptual dentro del mismo dominio cognitivo. En el análisis, se describe la estructura de las locuciones, se colocan ejemplos de la variedad de expresiones y se analiza el papel de la figuración de los mecanismos mencionados en la constitución del significado de las locuciones verbales seleccionadas. Los resultados de este trabajo son evidencia de la importancia de la metáfora y la metonimia en la constitución del significado de locuciones verbales.

Many language instructors focus on vocabulary word by word, neglecting common phrases. The result is that English as a Second Language students do not learn to speak idiomatic English (i.e. they make collocation errors). This study of the English compositions of National Tainan Second Senior High School students in Taiwan examined collocation errors, categorizing them according to Benson, Benson and Ilson's Collocation Classification System. An examination was then made of the error types as correlated with general English proficiency.