Several theorists (amongst whom Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004:175) have stated that the verb (or the verbal group) is the core element in clauses and is largely responsible for the grammatical structure of language. In spite of this pivotal role that verbs fulfil in clauses, lexical specificity is rarely investigated in this class. Instead researchers prefer to investigate lexical specificity in the noun class. It is against this background that the main purpose of this study is to investigate specificity in the lexical verbs of first language (L1) English users and Black South African English (BSAE) users. In order to achieve this aim the secondary aims of the study are: to develop a framework for the analysis of lexical specificity in the lexical verb word class (ii) to compare specificity with regard to lexical verbs in L1 English and BSAE by using corpora, which allows one to firstly test the analysis framework on corpus data and secondly to determine whether or not lexical verbs in BSAE are less specific than lexical verbs in L1 English (iii) to establish the reasons for the differences in lexical specificity with regard to lexical verbs between L1 English and BSAE English. In order to achieve these aims, two corpora were used: the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (also known as LOCNESS) that consists of texts written by a subpopulation of L1 English users and the Tswana Learner English Corpus (also known as the TLE) that consists of texts written by a subpopulation of BSAE users. The results obtained in this study were interpreted from both a systemic functional perspective and a cognitive perspective. The initial quantitative results indicated that even though the BSAE users use lexical verbs (tokens) more frequently than L1 English users do, the BSAE users have fewer lexical verb lemmas (types) at their disposal than the L1 English users. Statistical tests determined that the mean type/token ratio between the two independent corpora is not only significant, but that the degree to which there is more specificity in the lexical verbs of the L1 English users than in the lexical verbs of the BSAE users is large. Due to space constraints, the qualitative part of the study focused only on the communication verbs in LOCNESS and the TLE. In order to provide an in-depth overview of the communication verbs, the communication verbs were divided into five semantic subcategories (using frequency counts and semantic considerations). They are: (i) to say something in a particular manner] (ii) to say something in order to express one’s feelings] (iii) to say something in order to convey information] (iv) to say something to someone in order to elicit a certain response] (v) to say something in response to something already said] Each of these semantic categories in turn was divided into semantic subcategories to present a detailed insight into the communication verbs employed in both LOCNESS and the TLE. In the study it was determined that there is overall more specificity in the lexical verbs of the L1 English users than in the lexical verbs of the L2 English users. It was also determined that there is overall more lexical diversity within the lexical verbs of the L1 English users. The following factors influenced the lexical specificity and lexical diversity in the corpora: (i) In cases where more general communication verbs are elaborated by verbs containing manner elaborations, the BSAE users tend not to use the more specific verbs. (ii) Communication verbs that usually play an important role in academic literacy (such as summarise and argue) are used to a lesser extent by the BSAE users than the L1 English users. (iii) In cases where a communication verb could possibly belong to another semantic category (as is the case with the verbs stress and maintain) the BSAE users tend to avoid using the verbs as communication verbs. (iv) Some communication verbs (such as demand and beg) acquired additional meanings in BSAE. (v) Some essay topics in both LOCNESS and the TLE influenced the frequencies of some communication verbs in the respective corpora. Considering the factors above, it was found that being a L2 English user means that English will not always function in the same contexts for the BSAE users as it would for the L1 English users. Therefore the vocabulary of the BSAE users will only be specific and diversified in those semantic categories needed to function in certain contexts. Consequently, the findings of this study can be used to contribute to the development of pedagogical material in academic literacy courses being presented to BSAE users to create an awareness of the variation in English and all the contexts in which it can function. The findings can also be of value to researchers in the fields of lexicography and computational linguistics. / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

本文提出以規則法與相似法將未知動詞自動分類至中研院詞庫小組(1993)的動詞分類標記上。規則法中的規則從訓練語料中訓練出，並加上未知動詞重疊的規律，包含率約二成五，正確率約86.86%∼91.32%。規則法的優點在於正確率高，但缺點在於可以處理的未知動詞數量太少。相似法利用與未知動詞的相似例子猜測未知動詞的可能分類，利用詞彙內部的訊息---詞基的詞類、語意類與詞彙結構來計算相似度。相似法的可以全面性的處理未知動詞，缺點容易受到訓練語料中標記錯誤的例子誤導與訓練語料的大小所影響。我們結合規則法與相似法預測未知動詞分類的正確率為72%。 / We present two methods to classify the Chinese unknown verbs. First, we summarize some linguistic rules and morphological patterns from corpus. The accuracy of the rule-based method is 86.86%~91.32%. Second, we use the instance-based categorization to classify the Chinese unknown words. The accuracy of the instance-based method is 67.86%~70.92% and the accuracy of the integrated classifier is about 72%.

Traditionally, language was proposed to be mediated by various left hemisphere perisylvian structures and the associated role of the motor cortices was limited to tasks such as articulation. Recent theoretical models have proposed that effector specific words with motor related meaning are represented somatotopically on the primary motor (Brodmann’s Area 4) and premotor (Brodmann’s Area 6) cortices. For example, it has been reported that when verbs associated with the hand (e.g., pick) are processed, the primary and premotor areas involved with moving the hand are engaged. However, fundamental methodological problems exist within the reported research. This thesis aimed to address and correct the inconsistencies and methodological limitations within the existing literature to provide more conclusive evidence regarding the involvement of the primary and premotor cortices in processing verbs with motor related meaning. This thesis also aimed to investigate whether the names of effectors (nouns) also involve processing by the motor cortices, either generally or somatotopically. Three behavioural dual task experiments and one fMRI experiment were conducted. Results indicated no evidence of somatotopically organised overlapping activation in the primary or premotor cortex between the various semantic categories of words and related effector movements. However, in the fMRI experiment, motor related verbs in general yielded significant overlapping activity between reading all effector related verbs and moving all effectors in the pre-supplementary motor area of the premotor cortex. These findings indicate that an embodied language involving somatotopic representations of effector specific verbs on the primary or premotor cortex is unlikely to be the case. Rather there appears to be a more general representation of effector related verbs in a more cognitive than motor area of the premotor cortex. The findings of this thesis are consistent a wealth of evidence supporting the motor cortices being generally associated with motor related language and with the idea that semantic representations are distributed throughout the brain according to the embodied cognitive framework, rather than being localised to amodal regions that process all words.

Traditionally, language was proposed to be mediated by various left hemisphere perisylvian structures and the associated role of the motor cortices was limited to tasks such as articulation. Recent theoretical models have proposed that effector specific words with motor related meaning are represented somatotopically on the primary motor (Brodmann’s Area 4) and premotor (Brodmann’s Area 6) cortices. For example, it has been reported that when verbs associated with the hand (e.g., pick) are processed, the primary and premotor areas involved with moving the hand are engaged. However, fundamental methodological problems exist within the reported research. This thesis aimed to address and correct the inconsistencies and methodological limitations within the existing literature to provide more conclusive evidence regarding the involvement of the primary and premotor cortices in processing verbs with motor related meaning. This thesis also aimed to investigate whether the names of effectors (nouns) also involve processing by the motor cortices, either generally or somatotopically. Three behavioural dual task experiments and one fMRI experiment were conducted. Results indicated no evidence of somatotopically organised overlapping activation in the primary or premotor cortex between the various semantic categories of words and related effector movements. However, in the fMRI experiment, motor related verbs in general yielded significant overlapping activity between reading all effector related verbs and moving all effectors in the pre-supplementary motor area of the premotor cortex. These findings indicate that an embodied language involving somatotopic representations of effector specific verbs on the primary or premotor cortex is unlikely to be the case. Rather there appears to be a more general representation of effector related verbs in a more cognitive than motor area of the premotor cortex. The findings of this thesis are consistent a wealth of evidence supporting the motor cortices being generally associated with motor related language and with the idea that semantic representations are distributed throughout the brain according to the embodied cognitive framework, rather than being localised to amodal regions that process all words.

Traditionally, language was proposed to be mediated by various left hemisphere perisylvian structures and the associated role of the motor cortices was limited to tasks such as articulation. Recent theoretical models have proposed that effector specific words with motor related meaning are represented somatotopically on the primary motor (Brodmann’s Area 4) and premotor (Brodmann’s Area 6) cortices. For example, it has been reported that when verbs associated with the hand (e.g., pick) are processed, the primary and premotor areas involved with moving the hand are engaged. However, fundamental methodological problems exist within the reported research. This thesis aimed to address and correct the inconsistencies and methodological limitations within the existing literature to provide more conclusive evidence regarding the involvement of the primary and premotor cortices in processing verbs with motor related meaning. This thesis also aimed to investigate whether the names of effectors (nouns) also involve processing by the motor cortices, either generally or somatotopically. Three behavioural dual task experiments and one fMRI experiment were conducted. Results indicated no evidence of somatotopically organised overlapping activation in the primary or premotor cortex between the various semantic categories of words and related effector movements. However, in the fMRI experiment, motor related verbs in general yielded significant overlapping activity between reading all effector related verbs and moving all effectors in the pre-supplementary motor area of the premotor cortex. These findings indicate that an embodied language involving somatotopic representations of effector specific verbs on the primary or premotor cortex is unlikely to be the case. Rather there appears to be a more general representation of effector related verbs in a more cognitive than motor area of the premotor cortex. The findings of this thesis are consistent a wealth of evidence supporting the motor cortices being generally associated with motor related language and with the idea that semantic representations are distributed throughout the brain according to the embodied cognitive framework, rather than being localised to amodal regions that process all words.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-08-13Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:40:09Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 vendrame_v_dr_sjrp.pdf: 1109440 bytes, checksum: 425cc6fee8d27dd9cb5223e5c30b8dbe (MD5) / A evidencialidade corresponde à explicitação da fonte da informação contida em um enunciado. Em muitas línguas, ela é codificada por meios gramaticais que indicam se a informação transmitida foi obtida de maneira direta, por meio de percepção sensorial, ou de maneira indireta, por meio de um relato ou uma inferência. Apesar de existir um grande número de trabalhos que tratam da evidencialidade gramatical, poucos são os estudos que consideram a evidencialidade expressa lexicalmente. A presente pesquisa surge como uma proposta de descrição da evidencialidade lexical expressa por meio de verbos de percepção em língua portuguesa. Mais especificamente, busca-se investigar quais são os tipos de contextos sintático-semânticos em que os verbos de percepção ver, ouvir e sentir têm valor evidencial e quais sentidos evidenciais estão relacionados com cada contexto. A teoria que embasa este estudo é a da Gramática Discursivo-Funcional (GDF), um modelo de gramática que “procura entender como unidades linguísticas são estruturadas em termos da realidade que elas descrevem e das intenções comunicativas com as quais elas são produzidas, e molda isso em uma implementação dinâmica da gramática” (HENGEVELD; MACKENZIE, 2008, p.2). Dentro da GDF, a evidencialidade é descrita em termos de níveis ou camadas de acordo com as características semântico-pragmáticas e morfossintáticas que a estrutura evidencial apresenta. O material de análise desta pesquisa é composto por amostras do português brasileiro falado e escrito. A partir da análise dos dados, foi possível identificar quatro tipos evidenciais codificados pelos verbos analisados: evidencialidade reportativa, expressa pelos verbos ver e ouvir, evidencialidade inferida, deduzida e direta, esses três tipos codificados pelos verbos ver, ouvir e sentir. Uma vez que um mesmo verbo pode codificar diferentes... / Evidentiality is understood as the marking of the source of evidence a speaker has for his/her statement. In many languages, it is expressed by grammatical means that indicate whether the information was obtained in a direct way, via sensorial perception, or in an indirect way, via report or inference. Although there are many studies on grammatical evidentiality, only a few take lexical evidentiality into account. This research aims at describing lexical evidentiality expressed by perception verbs in Portuguese by investigating the verbs ver (to see), ouvir (to hear) and sentir (to feel) in order to find out the evidential meanings related to them and the syntactic and semantic contexts in which they occur. The theoretical background of accounting perception verbs here rests on Functional Discourse-Grammar (FDG), a model of grammar which “aims to understand how linguistic units are structured in terms of the world they describe and the communicative intentions with which they are produced, and models this in a dynamic implementation” (HENGEVELD; MACKENZIE, 2008, p.2). Within FDG, evidentiality is described in terms of levels and layers according to the semantic, pragmatic and morphosyntactic features the evidential structure presents. The data analyzed here comprise samples of spoken and written Brazilian Portuguese. The results show that the three verbs are used to express four types of evidentiality: reportative evidentiality, expressed by ver and ouvir, inferential, deductive and direct evidentiality, all these three kinds expressed by ver, ouvir and sentir. Taking into account that the same verb may be used with different types of evidentiality, a number of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects were considered in the description of each type. FDG model was very useful in the approach to the phenomenon under study. The syntactic description of the data showed... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Cette thèse propose une étude des constructions Verbe causatif + Nom d’émotion (susciter l’étonnement, déclencher l’enthousiasme, attiser la jalousie) selon la méthodologie établie dans le cadre du projet ANR-DFG Emolex (www.emolex.eu). Ce travail relie de façon étroite les descriptions linguistiques, sur le plan syntaxique et sémantique, de ces constructions et leurs applications en didactique du français langue étrangère (FLE). L’étude poursuit un triple objectif : 1) la sélection des collocations les plus "représentatives" dans le corpus selon le degré d’attirance de leurs éléments constitutifs, établi à l’aide de méthodes lexico-statistiques; 2) l’analyse de leurs propriétés sur le plan syntaxique et sémantiques ; 3) l’application didactique des résultats de l’analyse linguistique dans l'enseignement de ces collocations en FLE, notamment par la confection des cartes mentales. Ces dernières ouvrent des pistes innovantes pour l'enseignement/apprentissage de ces structures linguistiques auprès d’étudiants non-natifs du français (Cavalla et al. 2015). / This thesis proposes a study the linguistic relationships between nominal predicates and causative verbs the names of emotions and causative verbs according to the methodology established in the ANR-DFG Emolex project (www.emolex.eu). This work lies in linking linguistic descriptions of collocations V + N in the cause and didactic transposition of these constructions from the observation of the corpus, which is still little discussed in the didactic of French as a Foreign Language (FLE). We aim to meet three main objectives: 1) to identify the most "representatives" collocations in the corpus according to degree of attraction of their components, based on lexical and statistical methods ; 2) the identification of syntactic-semantic relations between their components; 3) didactic application of the results of linguistic research in a didactic perspective of FLE in particular by making mind maps. Mind maps provide innovative ways for teaching/ learning these language elements to non-native Francophone students (Cavalla et al. 2015).

Articulação Semântico-Cognitiva por Meio de Papéis Semânticos realiza a comparação de enunciados retirados do meio jornalístico nas línguas portuguesa e inglesa, analisados com base nas teorias propostas pela gramática de casos e semântica cognitiva. A partir das idéias de background e foreground propostas por Fillmore, é possível a interpretação de tais enunciados como eventos. Pretende-se, aqui, categorizar os predicadores, verificar seus possíveis efeitos de sentido dentro do contexto em estudo, determinar as relações temáticas que envolvem os núcleos preposicionais, analisar e dimensionar os dados qualitativamente. A análise procedeu-se tendo como corpus editorial da revista National Geographic, nas versões em língua portuguesa e inglesa, donde se concluiu que o ambiente enunciativo tanto na fala quanto na escrita sofre alterações, mas, apesar de flutuações sintáticas (como indicações de tempo e gênero), o campo semântico mantém-se inalterado, ou seja, estável e produtivo. / Cognitive -Semantic Articulation by Semantic roles compares sentences from publications in Portuguese and English Languages, analyzing them through the theories proposed by The Case Grammar and Cognitive Semantics. The concepts of background and foreground presented by Fillmore allow an interpretation of such sentences as events. The intention is to categorize the verbs, verify their possible effects within the analyzed context, determine the thematic relations involved in the prepositional nucleons and qualitatively analyze the data. The analyses had the Portuguese and English versions of a National Geographic editorial as a corpus, from which we concluded that although the discourse environment can differ, the semantic field remains unaltered.

La cohésion d’un texte repose sur un ensemble de liens syntaxiques et pragmatico-sémantiques entre les unités de discours dont les reprises anaphoriques. Les reprises assurent la continuité référentielle et thématique de phrases successives mais ne suffisent pas à assurer la cohérence des enchaînements. Elles font l’objet d’inférences qui permettent au système cognitif de trouver la relation de cohérence exprimée par l’enchaînement. Dans les cas simples, le système cognitif résout une reprise pronominale en lui attribuant un antécédent contextuellement pertinent, sélectionné parmi les éléments saillants actifs en mémoire. Lorsque la reprise concerne des arguments pluriels, les opérations cognitives sont plus complexes. Rentrent alors en ligne de compte non seulement la saillance de ces référents mais aussi le mode de relation qu’ils entretiennent au sein du prédicat de leur phrase d’accueil. Un prédicat d’accueil collectif tendra à effacer les distinctions entre les référents et facilitera les reprises plurielles au contraire des prédicats distributifs qui faciliteront les reprises de singuliers. Les prédicats réciproques lexicaux, quant à eux, établissent des liens de symétrie entre les entités dont on fait l’hypothèse qu’ils nécessitent des traitements cognitifs spécifiques. Les liens établis entre les arguments de prédicats collectifs, distributifs et symétriques sont étudiés d’un point de vue théorique. L’influence de ces liens sur la résolution de reprises pronominales au pluriel d’arguments dispersés mais aussi au singulier d’un élément d’une pluralité, est examinée expérimentalement (tests psycholinguistiques en production et en compréhension). L’étude théorique permet de mettre en évidence des différences fondamentales entre prédicats réciproques et prédicats symétriques d’une part, et entre prédicats collectifs et prédicats symétriques d’autre part. Les résultats expérimentaux corroborent l’étude théorique et permettent de proposer un pattern argumental pour les verbes lexicalement réciproques. / The cohesion of a text is based on a set of syntactic and pragmatico-semantic links between discourse units, including anaphoric referring terms. These terms ensure referential and thematic continuity in successive sentences, but are not sufficient to ensure the coherence of the chains. They involve inferences that enable the cognitive system to find the relationship of coherence expressed by the chain. In simple cases, the cognitive system resolves a pronominal anaphor by allocating to it a contextually relevant antecedent, selected from the salient elements that are active in memory. When the co-reference concerns plural arguments, the cognitive operations are more complex. In this case, it is necessary to take into account include not only the salience of the referents but also the type of relationship they have within the predicate of their host sentence. A collective hosting predicate will tend to remove distinctions between referents and will facilitate plural co-reference, unlike distributive predicates that facilitate singular coreference. Lexically reciprocal predicates, meanwhile, establish links of symmetry between entities that, are predicted to require specific cognitive processing. The links established between collective, distributive and symmetrical predicates are studied from a theoretical viewpoint. The influence of these links on the resolution of pronominal anaphora whose antecedent forms part of a plurality, or whose antecedents are dispersed in a comitative construction, is examined experimentally (psycholinguistic tests of production and comprehension). The theoretical study points to fundamental differences between reciprocal predicates and symmetrical predicates on the one hand, and between collective predicates and symmetrical predicates on the other. The experimental results support the theoretical study and lead to the proposal of an argumental pattern for symmetrical verbs.

Due to vague boundaries, a diversity of meanings and variations of modal strength, the translation of modals might be challenging. This paper investigates the translation of the modal should in a text with recommendations on horse feeding. The translations of deontic and epistemic meanings of should expressing an obligation or necessity are analysed using a framework based on grammatical definitions and linguistic theory. The translation strategies are based on Reiss’ text typology and strategies recommended for informative and operative texts (2000), and Newmark’s communicative translation (1988). Also, procedures of Vinay & Darbelnet (1995) are used to describe some of the translations. The study reveals that majority of the examples are used in the deontic sense and that should is mostly translated as bör and ska. The high frequency of ska might be related to its flexibility and multifunctional properties. Possible translation problems involve differences in the interpretation, where a modal might come across as too strong or too weak to target readers. Another translation problem may arise if the chosen modal can be perceived as less moralising than intended. There are also ambiguous cases that could be said to have both deontic and epistemic meanings. The analysis shows how deontic and epistemic meanings can be determined by context. However, even though a deeper understanding of the topic and an evaluation of the context might support the translation choices, some ambiguity can still be said to remain. The paper concludes that the translation of modals requires thoughtful consideration. A thorough interpretation of meaning related to context and profound knowledge on the topic are equally important in the translation of should.