On the morphological nature of spanish adverbs ending in -mente

The morphological status of adverbs ending in -mente in Spanish (-ly in English) has been the object of many studies and continues to be the subject of debate. The two main proposals regarding the morphology of these adverbs treat them as either compounds or derivatives as the result of suffixation, but bothhypotheses present problems. In this study an analysis will be defended which treats -mente as a phrasal affix (cf. Zwicky 1987, Nevis 1985 and Miller 1992). The notion of phrasal affix has been used to describe clitics which, from a morphological standpoint, are similar to affixes but which, simultaneously manifest characteristics of independent words. The argument for analyzing -mente as a phrasal affix is based on both synchronic and diachronic data, including some similarities with object clitic pronouns.

A study of epistemic modality in academic and popularised discourse: the case of possibility adverbs perhaps, maybe and possibly

[EN] This paper describes the use of perhaps, maybe and possibly in a cross-disciplinary corpus of academic and popularised scientific writing. It accounts for their higher frequency in popularised discourse by investigating their functions in detail. The analysis, conducted from various perspectives (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and rhetorical), suggests that two factors are at work: the evidential basis for the epistemic assessment and the mode of discourse the marker is most closely associated with.

Author stance in doctoral dissertations of native and non-native speakers of English: a corpus-based study on epistemic adverbs

[EN]Our study concentrates on the epistemic adverbs used in conveying author stance in academic English. The Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (Granger, 1996) was run to three sets of corpora comprising doctoral dissertations written by native and non-native academic authors of English. Epistemic adverbs occurring in the dissertations were identified through a computer programme and their frequencies were separately computed for each corpus. Lastly, a log-likelihood test was administered to see whether there is a statistically significant difference across the groups in concern concerning the use of these adverbs.

Aspects of Passives in Capeverdean (Santiago’s variety)

The present dissertation intends to study passives in Capeverdean. I argue that Capeverdean have eventive passives with specific morphology, postverbal morphemes, -du and -da, which affix to the verb to form passives and interact with the TMA morphemes available in the language in the same way as in the active voice. I also show that Capeverdean only allows short passives. However, this study demonstrates that the by-phrase, although not expressed phonologically, is implicit and can be tracked through instrumentals and Agent-oriented adverbs. In order to account for this specific property of Capeverdean passives, I assume the existence of a Voice head which introduces the external argument in all finite sentences in Capeverdean, except in unaccusatives, following proposals from Marantz (1984), Kratzer (1996), Sailor & Ahn (2010), Pratas (2014). I also assume that this Voice head is subject to a Doubly Filled Comp Filter, similar to what is proposed in Koopman (1997), which determines that either heads or specifiers can be overt, never both. In the case of passives, I propose that external argument is in Spec,Voice and the passive morphology is lexicalized in Voice0 and that while Spec,Voice is silent, Voice0 is not. This configuration can be explained if it is assumed, following Costa & Martins (2004), that in Capeverdean passives Voice0 is a strong functional head, thus requiring visibility at PF. This restriction, combined with the Doubly Filled Comp filter, imposes that Spec,Voice is silent.

La forma lògica de les oracions d'acció i la tesi d'Anscombe

This paper has three sections. In the first one, I expose and discuss Davidson's semantic account of adverbial sentences: the basic idea is that these sentences involve quantification over events, and I defend that view from opposing perspectives like the theory of adverbs as predicate modifiers. In the second section I defend the claim that in english constructions following the scheme: ¿X did V by T-ings¿, we are referring to the same action of X; what is sometimes called ¿The Anscombe Thesis¿. Again I discuss competing theories only to conclude that the Anscombe Thesis is true. In the third section, however, it is shown that to assume as premisses these two theses -Davidson's account and the Anscombe Thesis- leads to a serious conflict. Alternative solutions are worked out and rejected. It is also argued that the only tenable solution depends on certain metaphysical assumptions. Finally, however, I will cast doubt on this solution.

La atenuación en artículos de revisión odontológicos en español: estudio exploratorio

Describimos el uso de estrategias de atenuación en 40 artículos de revisión (AR), publicados en español en revistas iberoamericanas entre 1994 y 2004. Identificamos las estrategias empleadas en las secciones retóricas por medio de un análisis contextual de género y clasificamos los atenuantes en cinco categorías: construcciones impersonales, deícticos temporales, aproximadores, escudos y atenuantes compuestos. Los resultados muestran que hay abundantes y variadas estrategias de atenuación en las tres secciones retóricas del AR, aunque son más frecuentes en el desarrollo y en la introducción. Predomina el modal epistémico “poder”, los adverbios y los adjetivos de posibilidad y probabilidad, y los verbos epistémicos. Registramos varias construcciones impersonales empleadas para atenuar. Los aproximadores se usan para expresar honestidad y varios niveles de certidumbre en las proposiciones; los deícticos temporales, para expresar provisionalidad y sugerir varias interpretaciones. Concluimos que la atenuación puede estar relacionada con la posición de los autores en la comunidad científica y con las características del AR como género discursivo. Asimismo, el nivel de expectativa en la escritura de este género podría condicionar cómo se presentan las proposiciones.

El español de los inmigrantes de los Andes bolivianos en el Norte Grande de Chile : convergencias y divergencias dialectales en el marco de una situación de contacto

Cette thèse a été financée par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (numéro de référence 767-2010-1310)

Lógica, lenguaje y significado. Lógica intensional y gramática lógica

Este texto representa el esfuerzo combinado de dos lógicos, dos filósofos y un lingüista. Esta empresa fue inspirada por la convicción de los autores de que la lógica y el lenguaje son inseparables, en particular en lo que respecta al análisis del significado. Una región interdisciplinaria emerge entre los límites de la filosofía, la lógica y la lingüística. Lógica, lenguaje y significado: lógica intensional y gramática lógica es una introducción a este campo, el cual aplica los sistemas lógico-formales al estudio del significado del lenguaje natural. El libro comienza con una introducción de los distintos principios de la semántica intensional y luego presenta varias lógicas intensionales, tales como la lógica proposicional modal, la lógica de predicados modal y la lógica temporal. También introduce la teoría de tipos, la lambda-abstracción y la sintaxis categorial.

Are We Terribly Different? : A case-study of male and female fiction-writing in English

The aim of this study is to find similarities and differences between male and female fiction-writing. The data has been collected from pupils at an upper secondary school in Central Sweden. They were given an extract from a novel by Bernard MacLaverty and from that they were supposed to continue the story.Theories that have evolved during the last centuries claim that the language use between men and women differ in many aspects. Women, it is said, use a more emotional language than men do, while men use more expletives than women. Likewise, the language is said to differ in the use of adverbs, verbs and adjectives. It has also been claimed that men and women have different topic developments and that women write longer sentences than men.The results of the current study show that most of these claims are false, or at least not true in this specific context. In most cases there is little or no difference between the male writing and the female writing. There are also cases where the opposite is true – for example, the female participants write shorter sentences than the male participants. A general conclusion of the study is that the writing between the two groups are quite similar – or at least that similarities are present to a larger extent than differences.

The functions of Japanese Sound Symbolic Words in Different Types of Texts and Their Translation

Though sound symbolic words (onomatopoeia and mimetic words, or giongo and gitaigo in Japanese) exist in other languages, it would not be so easy to compare them to those in Japanese. This is because unlike in Japanese, in many other languages (here we see English and Spanish) sound symbolic words do not have distinctive forms that separate them immediately from the rest of categories of words. In Japanese, a sound symbolic word has a radical (that is based on the elaborated Japanese sound symbolic system), and often a suffix that shows subtle nuance. Together they give the word a distinctive form that differentiates it from other categories of words, though its grammatical functions could vary, especially in the case of mimetic words (gitaigo). Without such an obvious feature, in other languages, it would not be always easy to separate sound symbolic words from the rest. These expressions are extremely common and used in almost all types of text in Japanese, but their elaborated sound symbolic system and possibly their various grammatical functions are making giongo and gitaigo one of the most difficult challenges for the foreign students and translators. Studying the translation of these expressions into other languages might give some indication related to the comparison of Japanese sound symbolic words and those in other languages. Though sound symbolic words are present in many types of texts in Japanese, their functions in traditional forms of text (letters only) and manga (Japanese comics)are different and they should be treated separately. For example, in traditional types of text such as novels, the vast majority of the sound symbolic words used are mimetic words (gitaigo) and most of them are used as adverbs, whereas in manga, the majority of the sound symbolic words used (excluding those appear within the speech bubbles) are onomatopoeias (giongo) and often used on their own (i.e. not as a part of a sentence). Naturally, the techniques used to translate these expressions in the above two types of documents differ greatly. The presentation will focus on i) grammatical functions of Japanese sound symbolic words in traditional types of texts (novels/poems) and in manga works, and ii) whether their features and functions are maintained (i.e. whether they are translated as sound symbolic words) when translated into other languages (English and Spanish). The latter point should be related to a comparison of sound symbolic words in Japanese and other languages, which will be also discussed.

As construções adverbiais em mente: análise funcionalista e implicações para o ensino de língua materna

This research aims at investigating the constructions with adverbials in ly, based on the view of contemporaneous linguistic functionalism, such as proposed by Givón, Hopper, Thompson, Traugott, Furtado da Cunha, as well as the cognitivist notion of language, through construction grammar support upon the patterns of Goldberg and the prototypes theory. The cognitive functional approach adopted here considers the change as a proper and inherent phenomenon of language and understands the linguistic phenomenon as resulting from effective use of language. Another aspect to be considered to the realization of this study is the fact that the formation adjective + ly is a word construction mechanism really productive, which generates interests on linguistic description. In a particular way, our leading objective is to exam the constructions with adverbials in ly in the context of language in use, in its oral and written forms, looking for to apprehend the meaning multiple manifestations forged in the use. Bearing this in mind, we worked with data from the Corpus Discurso & Gramática (Natal). There are, in the data, adverbs ended in ly that take the signification of mode, as foreseen in traditional models, but there are also other significations, for instance, the modalizador in its different manifestations. The results show that this adverb is a linguistic mark that carries in its constitution the multissêmico and multifunctional character, which interferes extremely in the ordination of this category, assuming a position sometimes pre-verbal, sometimes post-verbal. Other aspect observed refers to the relationship between the adverb and the verb, with emphasis on the compatibility or restriction between them, option which is related to the semantic aspect. The data in analysis legitimate the use in different constructions with adverb ended in ly in various genres, as follows: personal experience narrative, retold narrative, local description, proceeding account, opinion account, both in oral as in written language

Estratégias de relativização e classe de palavra: um estudo tipológico-funcional

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Os advérbios focalizadores no português falado do Brasil: uma abordagem funcionalista

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE