A Framework for TEI-Based Scholarly Text Editions

In this paper, we describe an interdisciplinary project in which visualization techniques were developed for and applied to scholarly work from literary studies. The aim was to bring Christof Schöch's electronic edition of Bérardier de Bataut's Essai sur le récit (1776) to the web. This edition is based on the Text Encoding Initiative's XML-based encoding scheme (TEI P5, subset TEI-Lite). This now de facto standard applies to machine-readable texts used chiefly in the humanities and social sciences. The intention of this edition is to make the edited text freely available on the web, to allow for alternative text views (here original and modern/corrected text), to ensure reader-friendly annotation and navigation, to permit on-line collaboration in encoding and annotation as well as user comments, all in an open source, generically usable, lightweight package. These aims were attained by relying on a GPL-based, public domain CMS (Drupal) and combining it with XSL-Stylesheets and Java Script.

Variación y periferia izquierda: la Anteposición de Foco Débil en español y en catalán

El objetivo de éste estudio es el análisis diacrónico y comparativo {español-catalán} de la Anteposición de Foco Débil (AFD) en las lenguas románicas medievales

Valors adverbials associats a la conjunció que: un estudi històric

En aquest article parlarem dels valors adverbials causal i final associats al nexe 'que' en català i també en altres llengües romàniques. Dedicarem la primera part del treball a l’estudi de l’evolució del sistema de nexes complexos del llatí clàssic i dels usos orals posteriors en/de les llengües romàniques preliteràries. La segona part de l’article se centrarà en l’estudi de les subordinades causals i finals de les llengües romàniques introduïdes pel nexe 'que'

Pragmatic solutions for syntactic problems: Understanding some L2 syntactic errors in terms of discourse-pragmatic deficits

Contemporary research in generative second language (L2) acquisition has attempted to address observable target-deviant aspects of L2 grammars within a UG-continuity framework (e.g. Lardiere 2000; Schwartz 2003; Sprouse 2004; Prévost & White 1999, 2000). With the aforementioned in mind, the independence of pragmatic and syntactic development, independently observed elsewhere (e.g. Grodzinsky & Reinhart 1993; Lust et al. 1986; Pacheco & Flynn 2005; Serratrice, Sorace & Paoli 2004), becomes particularly interesting. In what follows, I examine the resetting of the Null-Subject Parameter (NSP) for English learners of L2 Spanish. I argue that insensitivity to associated discoursepragmatic constraints on the discursive distribution of overt/null subjects accounts for what appear to be particular errors as a result of syntactic deficits. It is demonstrated that despite target-deviant performance, the majority must have native-like syntactic competence given their knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (Montalbetti 1984), a principle associated with the Spanish-type setting of the NSP.

The Acquisition of Aspect in L2 Portuguese & Spanish: Exploring Native/Non-Native Performance Differences.

This study investigates the possibility of native-like ultimate attainment by analyzing L2 knowledge of aspect as seen in the Preterit/Imperfect contrast of highly successful English L2 learners of Portuguese and Spanish. Building on innovative work by Montrul & Slabakova (2003) and Slabakova & Montrul (2003), we test knowledge of semantic entailments associated with the acquisition of [+/- perfective] features checked in higher AspP. Additionally, we investigate the possibility of a specific pattern of associated target-deviant L2 performance. We hypothesize that L2 performance can be affected by explicit positive evidence (pedagogical rules) despite otherwise demonstrable native-like competence. Indeed, the data reveal a pattern of target-deviant performance noted only in three specific contexts, all of which can be linked to traditional instruction: (a) with particular stative verbs not used in the Preterit (b) when preceded by certain adverbial phrases (e.g.,siempre) and (c) so-called semantic shifting verbs (e.g., sabía vs. supe).

Le long trajet vers le Nord : de la traduction de la littérature de jeunesse française en suédois

Depuis très récemment, un changement est en train de se produire dans le domaine de la traduction de la littérature jeunesse: auparavant et pendant de nombreuses années, les ouvrages traduits venaient le plus souvent de la Suède pour être traduits en français (Gossas & Lindgren, 2011). Dans l’autre sens, on trouvait des imagiers plus ou moins sans texte, des bandes-dessinées (surtout franco-belges), des retraductions et quelques classiques comme les très populaires ouvrages de Jules Verne ou Le Petit Prince. Or, la littérature jeunesse française est certes abondante – et ce même si l’on s’en tient aux livres publiés en France, mais aussi souvent de grande qualité littéraire et iconique, ce qui devrait a priori encourager sa diffusion. Cette littérature a de surcroît la chance de pouvoir surfer sur la vague actuelle des traductions du français au suédois de livres ne faisant pas partie de cette catégorie. Mais il est bien connu que le système littéraire suédois de la littérature jeunesse comporte peu de livres traduits, en dehors des traductions massives d’ouvrages en anglais. Les questions auxquelles nous répondrons lors de notre présentation sont : Quels sont les livres actuellement traduits du français vers le suédois ? Qui les traduit (quels éditeurs et quels traducteurs) ? Nous allons ainsi montrer quelle a été l’évolution depuis 1970 jusqu’à nos jours. Nous ferons aussi le lien avec nos études précédentes concernant le sens inverse, c’est-à-dire la traduction en français de la littérature suédoise contemporaine pour la jeunesse et de nos résultats en la matière sur les livres traduits, les éditeurs et les traducteurs. Nous utiliserons comme base théorique la théorie du polysystème (Even-Zohar), notamment concernant le rôle de la littérature traduite dans un système littéraire, et les études descriptives de la traduction (voir Toury, Shavit, etc.).

História de uma completiva: origem e desenvolvimento do complemento oracional introduzido por se do português

O propósito deste trabalho é investigar o percurso histórico da oração completiva iniciada pela conjunção se do português, que também introduz, nessa e em outras línguas românicas, uma oração adverbial condicional. Com base em registros de filólogos e romanistas, demonstra-se que a similaridade existente entre essas orações é resultado de gramaticalização da oração condicional que, no latim, passou a funcionar como oração completiva, em razão da extinção das partículas interrogativas que passaram a ser substituídas pela conjunção condicional latina si. Como oração completiva, a oração com se submete-se à gramaticalização, integrando-se à oração matriz de um modo que, conforme proposta de Hopper e Traugott (1993) e de Lehmann (1988), é próprio a construções completivas. A forma que tem essa oração de se gramaticalizar, incorporando-se à oração matriz, é, entretanto, diferente do que é previsto ocorrer a uma completiva introduzida por que, uma diferença que se deve, sobretudo, ao significado hipotético que a completiva com se preserva de sua fonte histórica. Demonstra-se, por fim, que, do português arcaico ao português contemporâneo, a gramaticalização do complemento oracional introduzido por se não se configura em mudança diacrônica, já que essa gramaticalização é atestada desde períodos mais remotos, em textos do século XIV.

Tenho feito/fiz a tese: uma proposta de caracterização do pretérito perfeito no Português

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A manifestação das diferentes modalidades no emprego do verbo auxiliar poder em português e em espanhol: análise do discurso de autoajuda

This paper aims to investigate the behavior of the modal verb poder as an auxiliary verb in text written in both two Romance languages, Brazilian Portuguese and Iberian Spanish. This research follows a functionalist language approach, more precisely the Dutch Functional Grammar tradition, based on the modality classification proposed by Hengeveld (2004). This author considers two main criteria: target of evaluation, and semantic domain of evaluation. Considering this classification, we analyze the use of the auxiliary verb poder in a corpus of self-help discourses, which currently enjoy enormous popularity in various parts of the world. Although in Portuguese the auxiliary verb poder is essentially an epistemic modal (cf. Neves 1999-2000) —which, according to the Hengeveld (2004), corresponds to the event-oriented epistemic modality—. However, our analysis show that, given the essentially optimistic nature of the discourse analyzed, the self-help discourse, the previously mentioned modal verb (poder) behaves predominantly as a participant-oriented facultative modal. This result demonstrates the importance of considering the context of occurrence of the verb poder in order to evaluate the effects of meaning associated with its use.

Percurso diacrônico de completivas introduzidas por 'como' no português

As a more extensive issue, this paper deals with the polysemy attested in all Romance languages between interrogative pronouns and subordination markers in complex sentences. It investigates, specifically, the behavior of objective complement clauses introduced by “como” (“how”) in constructions in which they occur as equivalent to the meaning of prototypical declarative complement clause introduced by the conjunction “que” (“that”). It analyzes complement clauses introduced by “como” and “que” occurring in representative Portuguese texts from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. The results of the comparative analysis between the two forms of clausal complement show that in archaic Portuguese “como” was used primarily to introduce complement clauses of factive verbs. When the complement clause is introduced by “como”, the content that is presupposed as true due to the meaning of matrix verb has reinforced this factuality. In the passage from the archaic to the modern period, there was a drastic decrease in the frequency of occurrences of complement clauses with “como”, which are replaced by the form of completive introduced by the conjunction “que” in the context of factual constructions. In contemporary Portuguese, this replacement is fully established. Complement clauses with “como” remain rare and limited to specific contexts in which “como” maintains its reinforcement function of factual meaning.