This MA thesis aims at describing the Czech counterparts to the English copular verbs of sensory perception, presupposing lexical differences due to the unequeal size of the repertoire available to each of the languages. After discussing the approaches of the major grammars of English to copular verbs, the MA thesis analyses the translation equivalents excerpted from the English-Czech section of the multilingual corpus InterCorp. The final set of translation pairs comprises 217 examples, with 50 examples of copular clauses with look, feel, smell, sound and 17 sentences with the predicate taste. The analysis, divided into sections investigating each copula individually, shows that the prevailing means of translating an English copular predication of perception are lexical verbs (in 78% of occurrences), most frequently followed by an adverbial (in 72% of occurrences). In particular, the most usual translation was an intransitive verb followed by an adverb. Verbs with a complementation comprise a low number of occurrences. Similarly, fusion appeared very rarely (usually with the copula feel). Czech copular verbs as counterparts of the English copulas of perception occurred only in the imperfective aspect (být) comprising 9% of all counterparts. Comparing the languages revealed that Czech copulas are...

Ce doctorat présente une recherche menée en linguistique et en psycholinguistique sur la production de verbes en F.L.S. dans une Approche Fonctionnaliste chez des adultes. Il est important de s’interroger sur les énoncés non conventionnels du type casser un fruit, nommés métaphores, ou erreurs de surextension. Duvignau les a appelés approximations sémantiques à cause de la proximité entre un verbe produit (non conventionnel) et un verbe conventionnel pertinent. L’objectif de ce travail est d’analyser la production d’approximations sémantiques chez les participants étrangers de différents niveaux de F.L.S. Notre hypothèse la plus importante est que la production d’approximations sémantiques serait une stratégie palliative qui aide les étrangers à communiquer avec peu de mots. Nous avons établi l’hypothèse selon laquelle plus les apprenants F.L.S. sont avancés, moins ils produiraient d’approximations sémantiques. Nous avons utilisé un protocole « Approx » (Duvignau et Gaume, 2004) qui contient 17 séquences d’actions (DVD) dont le but est d’analyser la production des verbes dans les tâches de dénomination et de reformulation d’actions auprès de 125 participants (un groupe de chinois de F.L.S. (N=56), un groupe d’étrangers non sinophones de F.L.S. (d’une vingtaine de langues maternelles différentes ; N=56) et un groupe contrôle de F.L.M. (N=13). Par ailleurs, nous avons recueilli des données au sein de différentes écoles et entreprises à Toulouse. Notre hypothèse selon laquelle plus les participants de F.L.S. sont avancés, moins ils utiliseraient d’approximations sémantiques a reçu un soutien mitigé. / This PhD presents a study in linguistics and psycholinguistics that uses a functionalist approach to the study of production of non-conventional verbs by adults learning in French as a Second Language. We are interested in oral productions like to break a fruit that are known as metaphors or errors of over-extension. Duvignau called these semantic approximations because of the proximity between the non-conventional verb that participants produced and the conventional verb that should have been produced. The objective of this PhD is to investigate production of semantic approximations at different levels in French Second Language learning. We suggest that the palliative strategy could be responsible for the production of semantic approximations by learners in Second Language and helps learners to communicate with few verbs. We hypothesized that the more advanced learners will use less semantic approximations. We used the “Approx” protocol (Duvignau and Gaume, 2004) that contains 17 video-actions to measure production of verbs in denomination and reformulation tasks in 125 participants at different levels in French (a Chinese group (N=56), a foreign non-Chinese group speaking 27 different languages (N=56) and French group (N=13)) from different schools or companies in France. This research shows that our hypothesis that the more advanced learners will use less semantic approximation receives limited support.

The present study focuses on object extraposition in English based on an analysis of corpus findings. The construction in question comprises a monotransitive verb complemented by it which anticipates an object nominal content clause introduced by the conjunctions that, when or if/whether, immediately juxtaposed to the anticipatory it. The aim of the study is to determine the types and frequency of verbs which occur with object it extraposition and to describe what factors influence the use of anticipatory it. The study first provides a review of the relevant topics and outlines a summary of possible factors influencing the occurrence of the construction under study. It focuses on the properties of the verb and complements, the nature of object extraposition in English and the realisations of the object function, and lastly, it outlines the possible factors leading to the use of anticipatory it object. The research part of the study consists of two parts. The first one deals with the selection of material and methodology, while the second presents the description and analysis of the findings. The primary main part of the research was conducted on the data containing 836 sentences that were drawn from the British National Corpus. The research shows that the most frequent verbs occurring with...

Hiponimia ni uhusiano wa kifahiwa unaodhihirika baina ya leksimu ya jumla (hipanimu) na mahususi (hiponimu). Kama vile hipanimu mzazi hujumuisha hiponimu baba na mama. Uhusiano huu wa kihiponimia ulidhukuriwa na wanaisimu wa awali kuwa unahusisha leksimu nomino pekee. Hata hivyo, tafiti za hivi punde zinadhihirisha kuwa hiponimia huweza kudhihirika pia miongoni mwa kategoria za vivumishi, vielezi na vitenzi. Ingawa kuna midhihiriko ya hiponimia za vitenzi vya Kiswahili, wataalamu kadha wameelekea kushughulikia hiponimia za nomino na kutotilia maanani vitenzi. Hivyo basi, makala hii imechanganua uhusiano wa kihiponimia unaodhihirika miongoni mwa vitenzi teule vya Kiswahili. Katika kushughulikia suala hili, hipanimu vitenzi 24 kutoka kamusi za Kiswahili zimeteuli¬wa kimakusudi na hiponimu husika kutolewa. Nadharia ya Uchanganuzi Vijenzi kwa mujibu wa Katz na Fodor imezingatiwa katika uchanganuzi wa hiponimia hizi. Katika nadharia hii, sifa bainifu za hiponimu husika huonyeshwa kwa kutumia alama maalum za [+, -]. Data kuhusu hiponimia za vitenzi ilipekuliwa kutoka kamusi za Kiswahili kwa kuzingatia mwelekeo wa kiishara au kisintaksia kwa mujibu wa Hearst, na Snow na wenzake ili kuweza kutambua hipanimu na hiponimu husika katika sentensi. Hiponimia hizi zimechanganuliwa na kuwasilishwa kwa mtindo wa nadharia ya seti. / Hyponymy is a sense relation existing between general lexemes (hypernym) and the specific ones (hyponym). For instance, a hypernym parent includes hyponyms like father and mother. The hyponymy relation was regarded by earlier linguists that it could exist only amongst nouns. However, recent studies indicate that hyponymy can also be manifested in other categories such as adjectives, adverbs and verbs. Though there is hyponymy relation existing amongst Kiswahili verbs, various scho¬lars have tended to focus on nominal hyponymy and disregard verbal hyponymy. Therefore, this article has analyzed the hyponymy relation existing amongst selected Kiswahili verbs. In this regard, 24 verbal hypernyms from Kiswahili dictionaries were purposively sampled and their specific hyponyms indicated. Componential Analysis theory by Katz and Fodor has been used in the analysis of these hyponyms. The theory focuses on distinctive features of specific hyponyms that are normally shown by the use of specific signs [+, -]. The data on verbal hyponymy was observed from the Kiswahili dictionaries by the application of symbolic or syntactic approach propounded by Hearst, and Snow et al in order to identify the hypernyms and specific hyponyms in a sentence. These hyponymy relations are analyzed and presented using the set theory style.

[pt] Esta pesquisa propõe uma nova forma de análise dos verbos de ligação em Língua Portuguesa. A Gramática Tradicional considera que este grupo de verbos possui apenas uma função sintática, sem atenção ao seu significado. Na verdade, os verbos de ligação e seus complementos constituem uma expressão por si só significativa. Esta característica nos permite compará-los aos verbos-suporte, já que eles têm o mesmo tipo de comportamento. / [en] This research proposes a new way of analising verbos de ligação (copulae) in Portuguese. Traditional Grammar considers this group of verbs as having a purely syntactic function, paying no attention to their meaning. In fact, these verbs and their complements constitute an expression with meaning of its own. This characteristic enables us to compare verbos de ligação to light verbs, since they have the same kind of behavior.

The aim of the study is to provide knowledge about how children explore, understand and reason about the physical phenomenon of friction. This study have been based on the younger children’s exploring. The method of the study has been observation in order to get as close to the environment that’s being investigated and to bring attention to the younger children’s actions. A nonparticipating observation was also used for the observer to influence the children as little as possible. The observations that have been made have taken place over two days and have been video recorded to ensure documentation of children's reasoning, body language and actions. The result shows how the children focused on overcoming the friction to get an object to slide instead of getting stuck. The participants’ interaction also emerged in the result as central to driving the exploration further. The conclusions drawn after the study is that the result can be linked to the preschool’s curriculum, which addresses the fact that the children should be given the opportunity to explore, discuss and develop understanding of physical phenomena. The study has also highlighted that hills can be used as a tool for teaching and exploring the phenomenon of friction.

A partir da segunda metade do século XX, iniciaram-se os estudos sistemáticos sobre a aquisição/aprendizagem de segundas línguas assim como a observação e elaboração de métodos mais eficazes no ensino da L2. Este trabalho teve sua origem no interesse pela investigação da aquisição/aprendizagem dos verbos ditos do passado da língua italiana, passato prossimo e imperfetto por aprendizes brasileiros em contexto de instrução formal. Através da realização de uma pesquisa longitudinal, os alunos dos níveis II, III, IV e V dos cursos de Italiano no Campus, oferecidos pelo departamento de Letras Modernas da Universidade de São Paulo, foram submetidos a testes de dois tipos: produção de texto e de cloze. Os testes foram realizados em vários momentos do processo de aquisição da L2, tanto antes da aprendizagem explícita quanto depois. O primeiro objetivo era descobrir quais os efeitos das instruções explícitas e implícitas no aprendizado desses dois tempos verbais a curto e a longo prazo. O segundo objetivo consistia em investigar se no processo de aquisição/aprendizagem da L2 os aprendizes associavam os predicados télicos às marcas perfectivas e os predicados atélicos às marcas imperfectivas. Partindo dos pressupostos teóricos sobre aquisição/aprendizagem da L2 e ainda da análise do material didático utilizado pelos aprendizes, foram elaboradas hipóteses que pudessem explicar os resultados alcançados na pesquisa. Os verbos télicos foram associados primeiro à marca perfectiva, conforme algumas teorias já haviam pressuposto. Entretanto, através dos dados obtidos não foi possível verificar se, de fato, os verbos atélicos são associados diretamente à marca imperfectiva nos primeiros estágios da aquisição. Os dados fornecidos pela produção de 6 texto indicaram que os alunos não utilizam o passato prossimo em seguida à instrução formal, visto que as produções consistiram, principalmente, na utilização do tempo presente. Houve ocorrências consideráveis de verbos no presente nos níveis II e IV, o que não aconteceu no nível III, em que os alunos utilizaram mais o passato prossimo. Pode-se observar uma oscilação de uso da marca perfectiva dependendo do nível que os alunos cursavam, fato que pode ser explicado pelas atividades presentes/ausentes no livro didático. Em relação ao teste de cloze, verificou-se que os alunos em seguida ao aprendizado explícito do passato prossimo, nível II, já o utilizaram no exercício. Esse fato pode, talvez, ser associado ao tipo de atividade proposta no material didático em havia muitas atividades de cloze e transformação de frases, mas poucos que se relacionavam à produção de texto livre. / From the second half of the twentieth century, systematic studies on the acquisition / learning of second languages began, as well as the observation and development of more effective methods in teaching L2. This work had its origin in research interest in acquisition / learning of verbs in past tense of the Italian language, passato prossimo e imperfetto, by Brazilian learners in the context of formal education. By carrying out a longitudinal study offered by the Department of Modern Languages and Literature at the University of São Paulo, the students in levels II, III, IV and V of the Italian courses in the Campus performed two types of tests: production of text and Cloze. The tests were conducted at various times of the L2 acquisition process, both before and after explicit learning. The first goal was to find out the effects of explicit and implicit instructions in the learning of these two tenses, in short and long term. The second goal was to investigate whether, in the process of acquisition / learning of L2, the learners associate telic predicates to perfective marks and atelic predicates to imperfective marks. Based on theoretical assumptions about acquisition / learning of L2 and also on analysis of teaching material used by the learners, hypotheses that could explain the results achieved in the research were developed. Telic verbs were first associated to the perfective mark, as some theories had assumed. However, it could not be verified by the data obtained if, indeed, the atelic verbs are directly associated with the imperfective mark in the early stages of acquisition. Data provided by the production of text indicated that students do not use passato prossimo after the formal education, since the productions consisted mainly in using the present tense. There was considerable 8 occurrences of present tense verbs in levels II and IV, but not for level III, in which students used more often the passato prossimo. One can observe an oscillation of use of the perfective mark depending on the level that students were attending, which may be explained by the activities present / absent in the textbook. Regarding the Cloze test, it was found that students, after the explicit learning of the passato prossimo, in level II, already used passato prossimo in the exercise. This fact may perhaps be associated with the type of activity proposed in the teaching materials, containing many Cloze and sentence transformation activities, but few activities related to the production of free text.

O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar uma proposta de tradução, do francês para o português, de uma receita da obra Révélations Gastronomiques (1995) de Hervé This. A singularidade desta obra consiste na transmissão de explicações dos processos físico-químicos que acontecem durante o preparo de um prato e da indicação dos gestos, ações e operações que garantam o bom resultado da receita, em um texto expressivo marcado pela presença de metáforas, ritmo, humor e pelo emprego de termos da cozinha francesa. Adotamos a perspectiva funcionalista em nossa proposta de tradução e verificamos a aplicação da metodologia de Nord (1997) na análise dos fatores pragmáticos dos textos de partida e de chegada. Sustentamos que devemos privilegiar a transmissão dos conteúdos dos verbos especializados da cozinha para permitir sua compreensão e boa execução da receita pelo cozinheiro brasileiro não especializado. A descrição dos conteúdos se construirá a partir das definições presentes nas obras de referência escolhidas em nossa pesquisa. / The aim of this study is to present a translation proposal, from French to Portuguese, of a recipe in Révélations Gastronomiques (1995), written by Hervé This. The uniqueness of this work is providing explanations of chemical processes that occur during the preparation of a dish and indication of gestures, actions and operations that ensure the sucess of the recipe, in a text marked by the presence of significant metaphors, rhythm, humor and of french cooking terms. We adopt a functionalist perspective on our proposal to translate and verify the application of the methodology of Nord (1997) analysis of pragmatic factors in both source text and target text. We argue that our study should focus on the transmission of the content of specialized cooking verbs to allow their understanding by the Brazilian receiver in order to succeed the recipe preparation as described in the source text. The description of the contents will be built from the definitions in the works of reference chosen in our research.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de descrição da dêixis de pessoa na língua de sinais brasileira. Nas línguas de sinais, a dêixis de pessoa é realizada substancialmente por meio de dois tipos de sinais de apontamento: os pronomes pessoais e os verbos indicadores. O objetivo de minha pesquisa é dar início à descrição desses dois tipos de sinais, tomando por base o trabalho de Liddell (2003), que analisa a dêixis de pessoa na língua de sinais americana, no âmbito da gramática cognitiva (Langacker, 1991) e da teoria de espaços mentais (Fauconnier, 1994 [1985]; Fauconnier & Turner, 1998). Segundo Liddell, tanto os pronomes pessoais quanto os verbos indicadores têm a propriedade de ser realizados e localizados no espaço físico em frente e ao redor do corpo do sinalizador e de apontar, dentro desse espaço, para um local que está associado, no discurso, a uma representação mental do(s) seu(s) referente(s). Para o autor, os sinais dêiticos são formados por duas partes: uma lingüística, que é invariável, e uma outra que é dêitica, ou seja, que varia conforme a situação discursiva. Para fazer a descrição dos pronomes pessoais e dos verbos indicadores da língua de sinais brasileira, analisei (i) dados levantados do dicionário de Capovilla & Raphael (2001); (ii) dados que foram eliciados de colaboradores surdos, e (iii) dados de língua em uso que foram obtidos por meio de uma narrativa infantil contada por uma surda. Com os estudos empíricos realizados e a construção e uma transcrição da narrativa, foi possível (i) descrever a maneira como os surdos usam o espaço de sinalização, para construir, representar e caracterizar as personagens da história (ou interlocutores) que são apontados pelos sinais dêiticos; (ii) levantar os pronomes pessoais e os verbos indicadores da língua de sinais brasileira, e (iii) descrever algumas de suas características formais e as características pragmáticas de seu apontamento (dêitico ou anafórico), tanto nos contextos eliciados como em uso, nos discursos diretos da narrativa. / This dissertation presents a proposal of description of personal deixis in Brazilian Sign Language. In sign language, personal deixis is substantially performed by means of two kinds of pointing signs: personal pronouns and indicating verbs. The aim of my research is to introduce a description of these two kinds of signs, based on work by Liddell (2003), who has analyzed the deictic signs of American Sign Language (ASL) within the framework of cognitive grammar (Langacker, 1991) and mental space theory (Fauconnier, 1994 [1985]; Fauconnier & Turner, 1998). According to Liddell, both personal pronouns and indicating verbs have this property of being signed and located in the physical space in front to and around the signer\'s body; in this space, they can point to a locus associated, within the discourse, to a mental representation of their referents. For Liddell, deictic signs have two parts: a linguistic and invariable component; plus a deictic component, which depends on the discourse situation. In order to describe the personal pronouns and indicating verbs of Brazilian Sign Language, I analyzed data from (i) the dictionary by Capovilla & Raphael (2001); (ii) elicited tests with deaf collaborators, and (iii) language in use in the form of a child narrative told by a deaf collaborator. With the empirical studies carried out, as well as the construction and transcription of the narrative, it was possible to (i) describe how deaf people use the signing space in order to construe, represent and characterize the characters of the story that are pointed at by deictic signs; (ii) identify the personal pronouns and indicating verbs of Brazilian Sign Language, and (iii) describe some of their formal aspects and the pragmatic characteristics of their pointing (deictic or anaphoric), by looking at both the elicited contexts and those instances of direct speech in narrative.

Os verbos que expressam eventos de transferência/movimento no PB são formados a partir de Raízes que envolvem, em sua semântica, um agente, um elemento transferido/movido e um recebedor/alvo. Geralmente, esses verbos formam construções sintáticas ditransitivas, em que o agente é expresso por meio do sujeito, o elemento transferido/movido por meio de um objeto direto e o recebedor/alvo por meio de um objeto indireto. Nesses contextos sintáticos, o objeto indireto tem suscitado, na literatura pertinente, algumas discussões sobre sua natureza, como: argumento ou adjunto, e, ainda, complemento dativo ou complemento oblíquo. Essas discussões demonstram a indefinição do estatuto sintático-semântico desse elemento para as teorias linguísticas. Entendemos que essas discussões estão ligadas à concepção de estrutura da gramática assumida pelos diferentes pesquisadores e, também, ao modo como estes entendem que as noções de estrutura argumental e de estrutura sintática interagem dentro dessa concepção. Em outras palavras, o debate surge, pois, na caracterização da relação gramatical do objeto indireto com o verbo, é fundamental que o pesquisador disponha de uma teoria da estrutura argumental que lhe permita estabelecer o mapeamento e o licenciamento dos argumentos na sintaxe. Assumimos, neste trabalho, a estrutura da gramática tal como esta é concebida pela Morfologia Distribuída (Distribuited Morphology, doravante, DM) (Halle & Marantz 1993). Segundo a DM, os morfemas são constituídos por traços sintáticosemânticos disponibilizados pela Gramática Universal. Os verbos consistem de morfemas-l (Raízes) em determinadas relações estruturais com morfemas-f, licenciadores de estruturas sintáticas de natureza verbal. Não pressupondo um mapeamento determinístico das propriedades semânticas das Raízes na sintaxe, a DM consegue explicar a possibilidade de um mesmo verbo ocorrer em mais de uma estrutura sintática, sem precisar recorrer, por exemplo, a duas entradas lexicais para esse mesmo verbo. Dessa forma, constitui-se em um modelo mais vantajoso para explicar fenômenos relacionados à estrutura argumental e à realização de argumentos do que modelos baseados na entrada lexical, o que justifica nossa opção teórica. Além disso, essa teoria nos permite participar das discussões mencionadas acima sobre o objeto indireto. Assumimos que esse elemento tem o estatuto de argumento dos verbos de transferência/movimento (VT/M) no PB, sendo um complemento dativo. Pressupostos como a inserção tardia de fonologia em Spell-Out (uma operação póssintática) e a subespecificação do item de vocabulário, assinaladas pela DM, dão conta de explicar os casos em que o objeto indireto não é realizado fonologicamente, ocorrendo na estrutura sintática como um argumento nulo anafórico ou como um argumento implícito sem referência anafórica, bem como os casos em que esse elemento não ocorre na estrutura sintática derivada pelo verbo dar. / Verbs which express transfer/motion events in Brazilian Portuguese are formed by Roots that involve, in their semantics, an agent, a transferred/motioned element and a receiver/goal. In general, these verbs form ditransitive syntactic constructions, in which the agent is expressed through the subject, the transferred/motioned element through de direct object and the receiver/goal through the indirect object. In these syntactic contexts, the indirect object has aroused, in the relevant literature, some discussions about its nature: argument or adjunct, and, yet, dative complement or oblique complement. These discussions show the indefinition of the syntactic-semantic status of this element inside linguistic theories. We understand that these discussions are connected to the conception of grammar structure assumed by the different researchers, and, also, to the way they understand argument structure and syntactic structure interact inside this conception. In other words, the debate arises for, in the characterization of the grammatical relation of the indirect object with the verb, it is crucial that the researcher has an argument structure theory that allows him to establish the arguments mapping and licensing in syntax. In this research, we assume the Distributed Morphologys (DM) (Halle & Marantz 1993) grammar structure. According to DM, morphemes consist of syntacticsemantic features supplied by the Universal Grammar. Verbs consist of l-morphemes (Roots) in specific structural relations with f-morphemes, which license verbal syntactic structures. Since DM does not presupposes a deterministic Roots semantic properties mapping in syntax, it gets to explain how is it possible that one verb occur in more than one syntactic structure, without needing to appeal to two lexical entries for this same verb, for example. Thus, DM is a more advantageous model to explain argument structure and argument realization related phenomenon than lexical entry based models, what justifies our theoretical choice. Furthermore, this theory allows us to take part in the discussions listed above about the indirect object. We assume that this element is an argument of the transfer/motion verbs in Brazilian Portuguese and that it is a dative complement. Assumptions like phonology late insertion in Spell-Out (a pos-syntactic operation) and vocabulary item specification, pointed out by DM, get to explain the cases in which the indirect object is not phonologically realized, and occur in the syntactic structure as an anaphoric null argument, or as an implicit argument, without anaphoric reference. Besides that, these theoretical resources also get to explain the cases in which this element does not occur in the syntactic structure derived by the verb give.