Szczyrk, October 26-27

BOOK OF
ABSTRACTS
Szczyrk, October 26-27
VDOCS 2015
Institute of English, University of Silesia
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V-DOCS 2015
Various Dimensions of Contrastive Studies
Różne wymiary studiów kontrastywnych
Szczyrk, 26-27 October 2015
Presenters
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Leszek Berezowski .....................................................................................................................................- 4 Małgorzata Fabiszak..................................................................................................................................- 4 Pavol Štekauer .............................................................................................................................................- 5 Adam Wojtaszek .........................................................................................................................................- 6 Mirosław Bańko and Diana Svobodová .............................................................................................- 7 Paulina Biały.................................................................................................................................................- 8 Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska ...........................................................................................................- 8 Maria Brenda ................................................................................................................................................- 9 Bożena Cetnarowska .............................................................................................................................. - 10 Bożena Duda .............................................................................................................................................. - 10 Anna Dziama.............................................................................................................................................. - 11 Myroslava Fabian .................................................................................................................................... - 12 Katarzyna Gaweł ...................................................................................................................................... - 12 Agnieszka Kaleta ...................................................................................................................................... - 14 Daniela Katunar and Ida Raffaelli ..................................................................................................... - 14 Ireneusz Kida ............................................................................................................................................ - 15 Artur Kijak .................................................................................................................................................. - 16 Katarzyna Kokot-Góra ........................................................................................................................... - 17 Ewa Konieczna.......................................................................................................................................... - 18 Kamil Krakowiecki .................................................................................................................................. - 19 Robertus de Louw ................................................................................................................................... - 19 Marek Łukasik .......................................................................................................................................... - 21 -2-
Girish Munjal ............................................................................................................................................. - 21 Adam Palka ................................................................................................................................................ - 22 Adam Palka and Robertus de Louw ................................................................................................. - 23 Adam Pluszczyk ....................................................................................................................................... - 24 Wiktor Pskit ............................................................................................................................................... - 24 Irina Sklema-Litwin ................................................................................................................................ - 25 Katarzyna Strębska ................................................................................................................................. - 26 Konrad Szcześniak .................................................................................................................................. - 27 Artur Świątek ............................................................................................................................................ - 28 Jarosław Wiliński ..................................................................................................................................... - 29 Grzegorz Wlaźlak ..................................................................................................................................... - 30 -
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Plenary Talks
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Leszek Berezowski
Wrocław University
Polish and English lexical plurals
Polish is not prominent in discussions of lexical plurality and if it is referred to in
published studies at all, it usually serves as an example of a twilight zone, where even
nouns designating a violin, a rake or a pitchfork (i.e. skrzypce, grabie and widły,
respectively) are invariably plural, which is unheard of in English and other more widely
spoken and better researched languages. The talk will thus contrast Polish and English
data to see how they in fact compare.
The point of departure of the talk is the description of lexical plurals in Aquaviva
(2008), where they are characterized as nouns that are morphologically plural but
semantically non-compositional in that their plural meanings cannot be fully worked out
from the meanings of their singular bases and the plural morpheme. Based on this
characterization and the ideas found in Wierzbicka (1988) and Wickens (1992), the talk
will go on to explore in detail seven broad groups of Polish and English lexical plurals,
beginning with a case where the match between the two languages is almost complete
and moving on to areas where that is less so.
The groups to be discussed comprise (i) nouns designating pieces of clothing with
two identical and prominent parts (spodnie, legginsy / trousers, pants, leggings), (ii) nouns
designating instruments with two or more identical and prominent parts (okulary,
kajdanki, grabie, / glasses, handcuffs / a rake), (iii) nouns designating sequences of two or
more items (Zielone Świątki, mistrzostwa, roraty / Whitsun , championships / Advent
mass), (iv) nouns designating collections of multiple items located in one place (schody,
ruiny, środki pieniężne / stairs, ruins, funds), (v) nouns designating events always
participated in by two distinct parties (gratulacje, odwiedziny, zaręczyny /
congratulations, a visit, an engagement), (vi) nouns designating events participated in by
multiple individuals (wykopaliska, żniwa / excavations, harvest), and (vii) nouns
designating places with shifting or unspecified borders (Kresy, rodzinne strony / Poland’s
Eastern Borderlands, homeland).
Małgorzata Fabiszak
Adam Mickiewicz University
Cognitive and discursive dimensions in contrastive studies
Modern Contrastive Studies stem from the need to design effective pedagogical grammars
and FL textbooks (cf. Sajavaara 1983, Fisiak 1981). Comparable examples from various
languages have also been used in theoretical linguistics to illustrate their claims (Zabrocki
1986)). Thus contrasting languages has contributed both to applied linguistics and
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theoretical linguistics practice. Yet, despite the seminal work by Krzeszowski (1990) who
attempted to outline the theoretical and methodological requirements for a rigorous
contrastive analysis, contrasting languages in practice follows his suggestions to varying
degrees. In the present talk, I will take a look at three selected studies (Fabiszak 2015,
Kajzer-Wietrzny 2012, Krawczak – Hilpert – Fabiszak (under review)) to see to what
extent they make their tertium comparationis explicit and to what extent they follow the
three steps in classical contrastive analysis, i.e. description, juxtaposition, comparison
(Krzeszowski 1990: 35-45). The first of the investigated studies (Fabiszak 2007) is an
analysis of the metaphoric strategies of enemy vilification used in war reports, the second
(Kajzer-Wietrzny 2012) tests the notion of interpreting universals and interpreters’
idiosyncratic style, while the third (Krawczak – Hilpert – Fabiszak (under review))
analyses complementation patterns of mental predicates from a cognitive perspective.
The present meta-analysis will show how the key concept of tertium comparationis and
the three methodological steps are realized in discourse studies, translation studies and
cognitive linguistics. In this way we will address both the applied (study 1 and 2) and
theoretical (study 3) nature of contrastive studies as well as their present development
well beyond the primarily syntactic and lexical studies of the 1970s and 1980s into
cultural and cognitive perspectives.
References
Fabiszak, M. 2007. A Conceptual Metaphor approach to war discourse and its implications. Poznań: Adam
Mickiewicz University Press.
Fisiak, J. (ed.).1981. Contrastive linguistics and the language teacher. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Kajzer-Wietrzny, M. 2012. Interpreting universals and interpreting style. PhD thesis. Adam Mickiewicz
University in Poznań.
Krawczak, K. – Hilpert, M. – Fabiszak M. (under review). “A corpus-based, cross-linguistic approach to
mental predicates and their complementation: Syntactic complexity, picturability, and boundedness across
first and third person uses.”
Krzeszowski, T. P. 1990. Contrasting languages: the scope of contrastive linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Sajavaara, K. (ed.). 1983. Cross language analysis and second language acquisition. Jyvaskyla: University.
Zabrocki, T. 1986. “A processing explanation for a syntactic difference between English and Polish”. (In:)
Kastovsky, D. and Szwedek, A. Linguistics across historical and geographical boundaries. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter. 1133-1145.
Pavol Štekauer
P.J.Šafárik University
On derivational networks
The notion of paradigm has traditionally been discussed exclusively within the field of
inflectional morphology. The idea of derivational paradigms has, for a long time, been
called into question. Nevertheless, there are significant parallelisms between inflectional
and derivational paradigms. First, both of these types of paradigm operate within wordclasses. Thus, there are substantival, verbal, adjectival, adverbial paradigms in inflection.
In derivation, this has an analogy in paradigms that are also based on the main wordclasses. Second, inflectional paradigms are based on expressing certain (grammatical)
categories by affixes, for example, CASE, NUMBER and GENDER in nouns. Analogically to this,
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derivational paradigms are also based on expressing certain (semantic) categories, for
example, the category of AGENT, PATIENT, INSTRUMENT, LOCATION, ABSTRACTNESS, ACTION, RESULT
OF ACTION, etc. Third, each of these grammatical categories can be realized by various
formal devices, i.e., by different affixes. Thus, while the nominative singular plural slot of
the substantival paradigm in Slovak can be represented by -i, -y, -ovia, -e, -á, -ia, -tá (their
use depends on the formally determined gender of a noun), thus establishing various
inflectional paradigms for the category of nouns (twelve in total), one can analogically
speak of several distinct derivational paradigms within the category of AGENT, including
the paradigm based on the combination of a verbal base and the suffix -er; nominal base
and the suffix -ist; nominal base and the suffix -ian; nominal base and the semisuffix -man;
verbal base and the suffix -ee; etc. Fourth, both inflectional and derivational paradigms
function as a pattern for new lexical items entering the paradigmatic system of a language.
This means that both inflectional and derivational paradimgs are characterized by the
principle of regularity and the principle of predictability. From this perspective, there
seems to be the only substantial difference between the two types of paradigm: while
membership in inflectional paradigms is obligatory, membership in derivational
paradigms is facultative. As a result, while there are a minimum number of gaps (but they
do occur!) in the inflectional system of paradigms there are quite a lot of them in the
derivational paradigmatic system in every language. This fact, however, does not project
itself onto a chaotic or vague nature of derivational paradigms. The opposite is true. In
spite of numerous gaps derivational paradigms are highly regular and predictable, which
is guaranteed by the possibility to fill each of the gaps by a potential word that fits the
paradigmatic system. From this it follows that the only major difference between
inflectional and derivational paradigms concerns the fact that while the former is based
on actual units the latter relies on a combination of actual and potential units.
This paper goes one step further and discusses derivational networks that include
- Vertical (paradigmatic) dimension of derivational network: all direct (first-degree)
derivations from a single WF base. This dimension can be evaluated by the paradigmatic
capacity of the WF base.
- Horizontal (syntagmatic) dimension of derivational network: all linear derivations from
a single WF base. This dimension can be evaluated by the number of derivational degrees
of the WF base and by a range of semantic categories that can be derived from a single
word-formation base (Agent, Patient, Instrument, Location, Diminutive, Attenuative,
Action, manner, etc).
Finally, the overall number of actual words that fill in the system of horizontally and
vertically established network might be labeled as derivational network saturation.
The paper discusses these issues from theoretical, methodological, and cross-linguistic
perspectives.
Adam Wojtaszek
University of Silesia
Thirty years of the Discourse Completion Test in contrastive
pragmatic research
Discourse Completion Test (DCT) became a very popular research instrument after the
publication of the influential Blum-Kulka & Olshtain’s (1984) paper titled “Requests and
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apologies: a cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP)”. Hundreds
and thousands of papers employing the data collection instrument, originally developed
by Blum-Kulka in 1982, have been published since then, and the controlled elicitation
procedure has left a very important mark on the way in which speech acts have been
studied cross-culturally. DCT has its strong supporters as well as pronounced enemies,
but its contribution to the development of the field cannot be questioned. The paper
presents an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the data collection tool, as
well as a synthesis of the most important findings which it has managed to yield so far.
Major directions of research are summarized and possible future developments
outlined.
Session Presentations
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Mirosław Bańko and Diana Svobodová
University of Warsaw / University of Ostrava
Loanword adaptation patterns: the case of English loans in
Polish and Czech
The aim of this paper is to establish the most typical adaptation pattern of English loans
in Polish and Czech. Setting meaning and syntactic behavior aside, we include four
dimensions on which loanword adaptation can proceed: pronunciation (P), inflections (I),
derivational potential (D) and spelling (S). The question we ask is therefore in which
order the four dimensions appear most often in the adaptation of English loans in Polish
and Czech. Does, for example, the adaptation of spelling precede the adaptation of
morphological structure of loans or vice versa?
Basing on some general considerations and on other authors’ proposals, we assume that
PIDS order is most likely to govern the adaptation of lexical loans in Polish and Czech.
Then, drawing on the material from our earlier study which included a hundred of English
words borrowed to both Polish and Czech we count how many loanwords fit particular
patterns resulting from assigning values 0 (“un-adapted”) and 1 (“adapted”) to particular
positions in the PIDS sequence. Our intention is to use these counts to identify the typical
loanword adaptation order in Polish and Czech. The method is, basically, as in some
former works whose authors divided loanwords into groups of varying degree of
adaptation to the recipient language. The difference is that the former works that we are
familiar with were not as explicit and systematic as this one.
The analysis of different adaptation patterns has confirmed our initial assumption only in
part: PIDS turns out indeed to be the most typical loanword adaptation order in Polish,
but in Czech PDIS seems to be more common.
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Paulina Biały
University of Silesia
On two English translations of Polish diminutives in Weiser
Dawidek by Paweł Huelle
Even though translation of diminutives may give rise to significant difficulties, it is usually
omitted while analyzing different aspects concerning the whole process of cross-cultural
translating. The following paper discusses the issue of translating diminutives, as, in many
cases, it requires not only a careful analysis of all the meanings of diminutive forms, but
also the translator’s inventiveness and sensitivity.
Hejwowski (2009: 119) is of the opinion that it is actually impossible to find ready
English equivalents for Polish diminutives. As it is worth discussing with the use of which
means (e.g. by translating double/multiple diminutives as single ones or by using
functional equivalents) English translators provide equivalents for Polish diminutives
(e.g. in the case of multiple diminutives such as Polish mamusieńka when referring to a
mother), the paper aims at analyzing and contrasting two translations of Polish book
Weiser Dawidek by Paweł Huelle: Who Was David Weiser? translated by an American,
Michael Kandel, and Who Was David Weiser? translated by an Englishwoman, Antonia
Lloyd-Jones.
Hejwowski, K. 2009. Kognitywno-komunikacyjna teoria przekładu. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska
University of Silesia
Politeness and friendliness in public spaces and transport
Public spaces (e.g., high streets, street markets, shopping malls, community centres,
parks, playgrounds, and neighbourhood spaces in residential areas) and public transport
(subway stations and trains, and buses) play a very important role in the life of the society.
They act as a “self-organising public service”, a shared resource in which experiences and
values are created (Mean and Tims, 2005). These are places where people are in presence
of other people and interact with them. The success of a particular public space is not only
in the hands of the architect and the urban planner, but it also depends on the people using
it: “people make places”.
In public spaces and transport, one can read inscriptions which provide their users
with instructions how to behave and interact with others, what is acceptable in a
particular place and what is not, constituting the so-called “traffic rules” of social
interactions (Goffman, 1967). Others are expressions of friendliness, intended to make a
passer-by feel good. They are examples of discourse which is both socially conditioned
and socially constitutive; their forms and content depend on social context, and they
constitute situations, objects, people’s social identities and relationships between
individuals and groups.
The aim of the study is to analyse this type of inscriptions present in American
urban public spaces and transport. Due to the specificity of the discourse to be
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investigated, I decided to employ two approaches to analyze it, Critical Discourse Analysis
(Fairclough and Wodak 1997/2009; van Dijk 2009), and the post-modern / discursive
approach to face and (im)politeness (Watts 2003; Locher 2006).
References
Mean, Mellisa and Charlie Tims, Charlie. 2005. “People make places: Growing the public life of cities”.
Published by Demos. Report available from www.demos.co.uk.
Dijk, Teun A. van. 2009. “Critical Discourse Studies. A sociocognitive approach”. In Methods of
critical discourse analysis, R. Wodak and M. Meyer (eds), 62-85. London: Sage.
Fairclough, Norman and Wodak, Ruth. 1997/2009. “Critical Discourse Analysis”. In Discourse as
Social Interaction, T. A. van Dijk (ed.), 258-284. London: SAGE
Publications.
Goffman, Erving. 1967. Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face-to-Face Behavior. Chicago: Aldine
Publishing
Company.
Locher, Miriam A. 2006. “Polite behavior within relational work: The discursive approach to politeness”.
Multilingua 25: 249-267.
Watts, Richard. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maria Brenda
University of Szczecin
The concept of spatial proximity and its metaphorical transfer
in English and Polish: the case of near and next to .
The interest in spatial prepositions is a relatively new research path although
prepositions have always been considered one of the most difficult elements for foreign
learners of English to master. So far, the cognitive investigation into prepositions has
focused on their polysemous nature and the coherence of cognitive categories they
constitute. At the same time, the question of prepositional categorical status has not been
resolved—linguists underline either their purely grammatical or lexical nature.
The proposed corpus-based study discusses the semantics of two spatial words,
near and next to, encoding the concept of proximity, which may be transferred to other
non-spatial domains. The research suggests that the semantic structures of the two
prepositions are best seen as semantic networks with the primary spatial senses
functioning as their respective prototypes and other related senses as more peripheral
extensions. The research confirms that the semantic structures of near and next to are
best viewed as a continuum encoding both lexical and grammatical information giving, at
the same time, an insight into their rather impoverished polysemies in comparison to
other spatial prepositions, such as, for instance, over and at.
The question of Polish equivalence is also taken into consideration. English-Polish
dictionaries suggest that near and next to may be translated in a similar way, that is by
means of words such as obok, opodal, w pobliżu for near, and obok, przy and tuż przy for
next to. The present study suggests that those equivalents are, in fact, suitable, however,
only for primary spatial senses of the prepositions under study, while more peripheral
senses require other linguistic means to be expressed in Polish.
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Bożena Cetnarowska
University of Silesia
English appositional N+N compounds with the man/woman
constituent and their Polish N+N equivalents
This paper focuses on appositional compounds (Spencer 1991) in English containing man
or woman as their constituent, e.g. woman writer, man servant. Attention is given to other
English compounds which contain a word defining gender of the person denoted, e.g. girl
slave, boyfriend, lady doctor. The issue which calls for investigation is which constituent(s)
should be identified as the semantic head of such compounds, e.g. woman, writer or both
lexemes in the multiword unit woman writer (cf. Renner 2008, Fabb 1998). Apart from
semantic heads, other types of compound heads are recognized in the complex lexemes
in question, i.e. categorical, morphological and morphosyntactic heads (Scalise and
Fábregas 2010, Masini and Scalise 2013). Equivalent N+N constructions in Polish are then
discussed, in view of their controversial morphosyntactic status. Although the
expressions kobieta-lekarz (lit. woman doctor), lekarz-mężczyzna (lit. doctor man),
kobieta-szef (lit. woman boss) are usually treated in the literature as syntactic
constructions consisting of a head noun followed by a nominal (nominative) attribute (cf.
Kallas 1980, Nagórko 1997), some disadvantages of such an analysis are pointed out.
Other methods of gender marking in Polish personal nouns are mentioned (e.g. –ka
suffixation). Finally, some attention is given to the possibility of constituent order change
in English N+N appositional compounds and Polish N+N complexes.
Bożena Duda
University of Rzeszów
The sociolinguistic portrayal of contact-induced synonyms of
prostitute in Polish
The primary aim set to this paper is to analyse the sociolinguistic background of the
synonyms of prostitute which were or have been incorporated into Polish from a number
of languages. In addition to finding the source of loans, observations will be made as to
the nature of the conceptualization patterns that are evidenced to be at work in the
process of naming the members of the profession of prostitute in the Polish language. The
major lexicographic source of Polish synonyms of prostitute is Lewinson’s Słownik
seksualizmów polskich, which encompasses as many as one thousand seven hundred
lexical items under the entry PROSTITUTE. Out of the multitude of terms, such synonyms
were selected as bajadera, bardach, damicelka, dansiorka, demimondówka, fuchtla, girlsa,
hajlajf, kinderka and sziksa, to mention but a few. A particular focus will be concentrated
on the type of loan, as well as the assimilation of the synonyms borrowed.
KEY WORDS: synonyms of prostitute, loans, conceptualization, contrastive analysis,
contact linguistics
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Bańko, M. 2008. Wielki słownik wyrazów obcych PWN. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN.
Dalzell, T. 1998. The Slang of Sin. Springfield: Merriam-Webster Inc.
Duda, B. 2014. “From poule de luxe to geisha: Source languages behind the Present-day
English synonyms of prostitute.” Styles of Communication 6/no. 1/2014: 31-43.
Durkin, P. 2014. Borrowed Words. A History of Loanwords in English. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Foley, W.A. [1997] 2006. Anthropological Linguistics. An Introduction. Malden/Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.
Lewinson, J. 1998. Słownik seksualizmów polskich. Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza.
Partridge, E. 1984. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. New York: the
Macmillan Company.
Rawson, H. 1981. A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Double Talk. New York: Crown
Publishers.
Simpson, J. and E. Weiner (eds.) [1992] 2009. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition
on CD-ROM (v. 4.0.0.2) Oxford: Oxford University Press (the OED).
Spears, R.A. 1991. Slang and Euphemism. A Dictionary of Oaths, Curses, Insults, Ethnic
Slurs, Sexual Slang and Metaphor, Drug Talk, College Lingo and Related Matters. New
York: David Publishers.
Weigand, E. (ed.) 1998. Contrastive Lexical Semantics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Weinreich, U. 1968. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
Anna Dziama
University of Rzeszów
The Vocabulary of Jewish Law: A contrastive analysis of
kosher and treyfe in English, Hebrew, Polish and Yiddish
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present a contrastive semantic analysis of the
religious terms i.e. kosher and treyfe in various languages, namely English, Hebrew, Polish
and Yiddish. The Contrastive pragmatic model of lexical semantics has been employed to
conduct the analysis of these lexical items. The article presents a short description of
kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), an overview research of the literature, the description of
the universal structure, and the ways-of-use in the individual languages.
Key words: contrastive, semantic analysis, kosher, treyfe, English, Hebrew, Polish,
Yiddish
Reference
Weigand, E. 1998. Contrastive Lexical Semantics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V.
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Myroslava Fabian
Uzhhorod National University
Lexical semantics of the words denoting etiquette in English,
Ukrainian and Hungarian language systems
There are many different approaches to the way in which meaning in language is studied.
The paper introduces a new approach to researching lexical semantics on the basis of the
achievements of both mathematical and structural linguistics. It stresses the importance
of language as a system and investigates the place the linguistic units occupy within this
system. At the same time the suggested approach helps to study the way in which meaning
in a language is structured. It is done by means of componential analysis, and also
mathematical and statistical methods.
The paper focuses on contrastive analysis of etiquette lexis in distantly related and nonrelated language systems - English, Ukrainian and Hungarian. Contrastive semantics of
the words denoting etiquette is studied by making both quantitative and qualitative
analyses of their dictionary definitions. The obtained lists of lexical units and their
meanings make it possible to present the correlations between them by means of matrix.
The latter is based on set theory, which gets the lexico-semantic field construction by
means of graph theory in perspective. Such language material presentation makes it
possible to clearly define and determine the relationships between the words under
study and other lexical units as well as their places and roles in the vocabulary systems of
English, Ukrainian and Hungarian. After having analyzed etiquette words in each of the
languages separately, and formed matrices and graphs of their lexico-semantic fields, the
contrastive research is carried out to highlight both common and distinctive features of
the etiquette words’ semantics. The approach in question also helps to penetrate into the
culture of language bearers, and find out similarities as well as differences in their
mentality, habits, traditions and everyday activities.
Katarzyna Gaweł
University of Silesia
Agents in sex-related sentences in Polish and British national
corpora: a comparative study
The aim of the study is to compare the gender of agents and patients in sentences
expressing sexual actions in Polish and British national corpora. The incentive for
conducting this study was Elizabeth Manning's (1997) study on language expressions of
reciprocity in English sentences with sex-related verbs. Her analysis showed that in
sentences which involved the pattern MAKE SOMETHING TO SOMEBODY most commonly men
appeared in the subject slot and women in the object slot. Women were subjects almost
only in sentences with the following structure: DO SOMETHING WITH SOMEBODY. This tendency
was also proved in author's previous studies on the language of sexuality in American TV
series.
The study is mainly quantitative. It focuses on the analysis of concordances of a set of
chosen sex-related verbs (selected on the basis of a previous studies) in order to establish
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the type of the subject (grammatical/concomitant) and the gender of the subject and the
object (male/female). On the basis of these data the conclusions concerning agency in sexrelated sentences in Polish and English are drawn.
Manning, E. 1997. Kissing and cuddling: the reciprocity of romantic and sexual activity.
In: K. Harvey and C. Shalom (eds.), Language and Desire: Encoding Sex, Romance and
Intimacy. London: Routledge..
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Agnieszka Kaleta
Jan Kochanowski University, Piotrków Tryb.
The semantics of post-predicate clausal complementation: a
contrastive study in English and in Polish
Resent research clearly shows that the distribution of clausal complements such as the
gerund, the infinitive, or that-clauses is not random or arbitrary by semantically
motivated (cf. Kaleta 2014). This motivation comes from the compatibility between the
lexical semantics of the matrix predicates and the constructional semantics of
complement categories. More specifically, as has been argued by researchers associated
with functional and cognitive linguistic approaches (cf. Wierzbicka 1980, Langacker 1991,
Goldberg 1995), syntactic categories are meaningful in and out of themselves. Seen from
this perspective, the main difference between lexical and syntactic categories is that the
former convey fully concretized meanings while the latter represent the so called
schematic meanings (i.e. abstract or general meanings which are often a matter of
cognitive processing rather than concrete referential concepts).
While the semantic motivation behind English clausal complementation has been
a thoroughly studied topic, the corresponding research in Polish lags far behind. The main
question posed in this paper is whether the semantic distinctions encoded by English
clausal complements have their equivalents in Polish or whether there are any motivating
factors which are unique to Polish. The paper compares the distribution of the three
complement types i.e. the gerund, the infinitive and that clauses, as they occur in the two
languages in question, with a view to shedding more light on the issue of cross-linguistic
variation in this area.
Goldberg, Adele. 1995. Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument
structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kaleta, Agnieszka. 2014. English Clausal Complementation: A Usage Based Approach.
Piotrków Tryb.: Naukowe Wydawnictwo Piotrkowskie.
Langacker, Ronald. 1991. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Volume II. Descriptive
Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1988. The Semantics of Grammar. Amsterdam/ Philadelpia: John
Benjamins.
Daniela Katunar and Ida Raffaelli
University of Zagreb
Contrastive study of governed prepositions in Croatian,
English and French
Governed prepositions are defined as prepositions in the relation of strong government
with another lexical unit in a syntactic phrase, e.g. a verb (believe in, rely on) (Rauh 1993,
Hoffmann 2007, Gaszewski 2012). The relation of strong government makes prepositions
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obligatory complements of verbs, and entails a semantic difference between verb senses
with or without a preposition (Eng. believe someone – believe in someone, Cro. držati (što
u ruci) ‘hold (something in hand)’ – držati do ‘appreciate; lit. hold to’, Fr. mettre ‘put
(something somewhere)’ – mettre sous ‘to hide’). It also entails a change in the meaning of
a preposition and results in its extension from the basic spatial meaning, e.g. be in the box
– believe in someone.
Governed prepositions have been assigned an intermediary status in terms of the
lexical and functional properties of prepositions as a word class, falling in between the
basic spatial and other adverbial uses on the one hand, as well as particle uses in phrasal
verbs on the other (Rauh 1993). It is therefore the aim of this study to examine the
properties of governed prepositions in three structurally different languages - Croatian,
English and French. The three languages differ greatly with respect to some syntactic –
semantic properties relevant for the role of prepositions in the language system – a) the
presence / absence of phrasal verbs, b) a rich / small verb prefix inventory and c) overt /
covert case marking. However, there seem to be important similarities in the choices of
prepositions which appear in the governed position (e.g. Engl. in, on, at, Cro. u ‘in’, na ‘on,
at’, Fr. en ‘in’, dans ‘on, in’) and the syntactic-semantic processes which underlie the
meaning extension of particular prepositions, namely idiomatization and
gramamaticalization. Based on the extensive corpus study of all three languages we
therefore extract verb – preposition constructions in the three languages where the
relation of verb and preposition is determined by strong government, and compare and
contrast their language specific properties as well as general tendencies in the syntacticsemantic properties of prepositions.
References:
Gaszewski, J. (2012). Semantics of Governed Prepositions. PhD dissertation. Łódz: Uniwersytet
Łódzki
Rauh, G. (1993). On the grammar of lexical and non-lexical prepositions in English. in: Zelinsky
Wibbelt, C. The Semantics of Prepositions: From mental processing to Natural Language
Processing. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 99 – 151.
Hoffmann, Th. (2007). Complements versus adjuncts: A Construction Grammar approach
of English prepositional phrases. Occasional Papers in Language and Linguistics
(University of Nairobi) 3: 92-119.
Ireneusz Kida
University of Silesia
An automated corpus-based contrastive analysis of the
occurrence of the definite article in Gothic and Greek
In my paper I am going to present the results of an automated analysis, based on a
manually constructed corpus, of certain differences between Gothic and Greek in
the text of the New Testament. These differences concern the behaviour of the
definite article in Greek and its counterpart in Gothic. Although it has generally been
accepted that Gothic follows Greek literally, the area of the definite article is
especially interesting due to the fact that Gothic often does not employ this
- 15 -
grammatical category in places where Greek does. My study aims at demonstrating
that there are important differences between the two languages in this respect.
Artur Kijak
University of Silesia
Labial-velar changes in the history of English and
Netherlandic
The primary aim of this paper is to discuss, compare and analyze selected historical
developments of labials and velars in two languages: English and Dutch. More specifically,
we narrow down the discussion to only those changes in which labials evolve into velars
or velars end up as labials. The reason why we decide to compare English and Dutch (more
precisely Low Franconian languages, hence ‘Netherlandic’ in the title) is that in these
languages the processes in question proceed in opposite directions. The labial > velar
changes are characteristic to Dutch, e.g. MDu after > Du achter. While the reversed velar
> labial changes are more common in English, e.g. laughen > laugh, laffe ‘laugh’. Certainly,
this general pattern may be reversed or it may be violated, i.e. the labial may evolve into
a spirant [s], e.g. MDu nooddurft > WFl nooddorst ‘indigence’, as it often happens in various
dialects of Dutch, for example, in West Flemish.
The main questions we address in this talk include: 1) how come that two articulatorily
unrelated consonant classes reveal a highly intimate phonological relationship and on
such a massive scale; 2) why this change affects labials/velars in prosodically weak
positions, i.e. before another consonant or at the end of a morpheme/word and 3) what
happens when a velar changes into a labial and vice versa. We answer the above questions
by arguing for a modified representation of labials/velars which stands in opposition to
the mainstream Element Theory solution. Specifically, it is pointed out that the
relationship can be easily captured if we agree on the presence of ǀUǀ not only in the
content of labials but, first and foremost, in velars with the proviso that this element has
a different status in both categories, i.e. it functions as the head in labials but as an
operator in velars. Moreover, it is demonstrated that when in a weak position,
labials/velars have two options to choose from: they can give up and undergo deletion,
e.g. [x] > ø, or they can fight for life. In order to survive, however, they have to reduce their
internal complexity (weakening), e.g. [f] > [w], or an element may be promoted/demoted
to the head or an operator status respectively, e.g. English [x] > [f] and Dutch [f] > [x]. The
final question we address here is whether the operator > head switch can still be
recognized as a typical weakening mechanism or whether we are witnessing here a
reverse mechanism, that is, strengthening. The latter scenario would be problematic as it
is uncommon if not downright impossible to observe strengthening in a typical weakening
context.
When confronted with more data, the solutions advocated here may contribute to the
explanation of a number of traditional problems and shed new light on phenomena which
have either been overlooked or not recognized at all, e.g. OE breaking, ME/ModE liquid
vocalizations, ME diphthongization before the velar fricatives, among many others.
- 16 -
Katarzyna Kokot-Góra
Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
Awarding : propositional semantic model of a conceptual
category (a contrastive study of Polish and English)
The aim of the article is to reconstruct a conceptual category through propositional
semantics model, i.e. taking into account predicate-argument structures (see Kiklewicz
2009), encoded in verbal lexemes Pol. nagradzać/nagrodzić, Eng. award, as well as
deverbal derivatives Pol. nagroda, Eng. award, reward, prize.
Methodologically and heuristically propositional semantics proposed in the
research has been configured with phenomenological approach – prototypical (Langacker
2008; Kleiber 1990; Putnam 1975 et al.): for every position (semantic function) in the
propositional structure of a conceptual category based on corpus analysis prototypical
realizations were established, which – from one side – reflect cultural aspect of a lexical
meaning, and form the other side – are treated as mental representations of a particular
status: they are founded on practical experience of language subjects and constitute an
empirical element of a cognitive competence.
The research concentrates on description and cognitive interpretation of semantic
functions of participants in a cognitive model of the situation of awarding including the
obligatory (subject, addressee, instrument/means, reason) as well as facultative
elements. The novelty is introduced by establishing a category of semantic syncretism, i.e.
syncretic realization of a number of semantic functions in one argument position.
The results show that, inter alia, the propositional-semantic analysis of a
conceptual category cannot be limited to linguistic competence, e.g. lexical – an
indispensable element of such an analysis should include knowledge on situational
patterns, as well as experiential foundation, i.e. information on alternative form of
realization of the same situational pattern. Data for the study was excerpted from two
corpora: NKJP (Narodowy Korpus Języka Polskiego – Eng. National Corpus of Polish) and
COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English).
References:
Kiklewicz, A. (2009): Zum propositionalen Explikationsmodell einer semantischen
Kategorie. In: Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny. 2009, LVI/1, 63-78.
Kleiber G., 2003: Semantyka prototypu. Kategorie i znaczenie leksykalne, Kraków.
Langacker R., 2008: Cognitive grammar: a basic introduction, New York.
Putnam, H., 1975:The meaning of “Meaning”. Mind, Language and Reality. Cambridge.
Key words: propositional semantics, conceptual category, corpus study, award, Polish
- 17 -
Ewa Konieczna
Uniwersytet Rzeszowski
The VERTICAL AXIS schema re-examined: metaphorical
extensions of the English particle under and the Polish verbal
prefix podThis paper is an attempt at a cognitive-semantic study of polysemy of the verbal particle
and prefix, expressing the relation UNDER in two typologically different languages:
English and Polish. This relation is realised in English by the particle under, as in bring
under, put under, or keep under, while in Polish by the prefix pod-, as in podjechać ‘drive
up’, podpisać ‘sign’, or podnieść ‘lift up’.
The analysis will focus on conceptualising the relation UNDER and its metaphorical
extensions in English and Polish with a view to discovering both universal tendencies and
cross-linguistic differences. The discussion will adopt a cognitive approach to polysemy,
treating it as a kind of categorization: related word meanings form categories and are
linked with one another through family resemblances. According to Lakoff (1987),
polysemy is brought about by the transformations of an image schema, creating
extensions from the prototype. The notion of an image schema is basic for this analysis,
as according to Lakoff (1987) and Johnson (1987), image schemas are grounded in our
bodily experience and play an essential role in structuring our mental world. Thus, in view
of the concept of embodiment, as defined and explained by Lakoff and Johnson (1980),
our body serves as a source domain. Consequently, the physical nature of a human body
as a container, perceived as the whole with its parts and characterised by vertical
orientation is metaphorically mapped onto other conceptual domains, generating such
well-known orientational metaphors, as HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN, or HIGH STATUS IS
UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN.
The prototypical basic sense encoded by the English particle under and its Polish
equivalent pod- is based on the VERTICAL AXIS image schema: one concrete entity is
situated below another concrete entity and the two entities do not remain in contact with
each other. The schema has been discussed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in their seminal
work, presenting a list of 10 conceptual metaphors, derived from vertical movement. The
aim pursued here will be to examine this inventory of metaphors in the context of the
English verbal particle under as well as the Polish prefix nad-.
References:
Dąbrowska, E. 1996. ‘The spatial structuring of events. A study of Polish perfectivising
prefixes’ [in:] M.Putz, R. Dirven (eds) The construal of space in language and thought.
Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 467-490.
Johnson, M. 1987. The body in the mind. The bodily basis of meaning, imagination and
reason. Chicago, London: the University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, fire and dangerous things. What categories reveal about the mind.
Chicago, London: the University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., Johson, M. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lindner, S. 1983. A lexico-semantic analysis of English verb particle constructions with out
and up. Bloomington: The Indiana University Linguistic Club.
Rudzka-Ostyn, B. 1988. Topics in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- 18 -
Talmy, L. 1983. ‘How language structures space? [in:] H.L. Pick L.P. Acredolo (eds)
Spatial Orientation. Theory, research and application. New York, London: Plenum Press.
225-282.
Kamil Krakowiecki
University of Silesia
‘Vivat academia, vivant professores’: On Academic Discourse
in Latin and Its Polish Rendition
The paper discusses an issue that has attracted scholarly attention relatively recently, i.e.
Latin academic discourse, as seen through its interaction with Polish academic tradition.
A couple of points of interest can be sketched; the main emphasis is placed on the
problems in the translation of a Latin work on herbalism De herba vetonica by Antonius
Musa into Polish. The work, being a 16th-c. edition of an ancient text, includes later
comments, thus providing a unique opportunity for comparing those two stages in the
development of Latin academic discourse, viz. Classical Latin and New Latin. Apart from
this, it raises the problems of early editorship (as the editors took a position on the
doubtful authorship of the text), handwritten inscriptions in printed volumes,
abbreviations and, before all, specific lexicon and grammar. All these issues are discussed
in connection with Polish conventions of the time. Another focus of attention is the
author’s work on the creation of A Latin-Polish and Polish-Latin Glossary of Academic
Terms. The source material comprises scientific works by Newton, Linnaeus and others,
as well as a range of dictionaries. Finally, the importance of this line of research for the
historians of science is stressed, as well as the desired future directions of scholarly
activity in this field are indicated, most notably lack of complete Polish translations of
Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (the only available translation
being the one via English).
Robertus de Louw
UAM Poznań
TEACHING CONTRASTIVE GRAMMAR AND THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
AWARENESS – THE CASE OF POLISH (UNIVERSITY) STUDENTS OF
DUTCH
Contrastive Analysis (CA) is defined as the “systematic comparison of two or more
languages, with the aim of describing their similarities and differences” (Johansson 2008:
9). The assumption being that it would allow for a better understanding and description
of a language, comparing across languages was initially meant to serve both a linguistic
and a pedagogical purpose as it was supposed to allow for the creation of more effective
teaching materials and to contribute to the discovery of language universals. Even though
- 19 -
CA in its initial form has partly failed, it continues to be used today on a more conceptual
level.
Language Awareness was first defined as “a person’s sensitivity to and conscious
awareness of the nature of language and its role in human life” (Donmal 1985: 7). Since
the nature of this definition is too broad (Thornbury 1997), various attempts have been
made to narrow down the scope. Andrews, for instance, introduced
a Language Exploration and Awareness approach to language teaching and learning,
encouraging, among others, development of reflective or metalinguistic awareness among
learners (Andrews 1998).
This paper aims at bringing these two notions together to see how they can influence and
complement each other. It also looks at how Contrastive Grammar can be taught at
university level in Poland. Students of English, for instance, often follow such a course as
a continuation of one in Descriptive Grammar (Chrzanowska-Kluczewska and MańczakWohlfeld 2008), with all the appropriate linguistic terminology and analysis. Such an
approach, however, is impossible when doing a Contrastive Grammar course with
students of Dutch, whose knowledge of the language is at level A1 in their first year.
During the talk I will present teaching materials, which meet these students’ needs, are
adapted to their level, and attest the view that there is still a place for Contrastive Analysis
in the classroom.
- 20 -
Marek Łukasik
Akademia Pomorska w Słupsku
CONTRASTIVE TERMINOGRAPHY
Undoubtedly, contrastive lexicography has much to offer to not only linguists, but also
language learners. In fact, one can envisage a much wider range of the contrastive
dictionary applicability (and hence a wider group of its addressees), depending on the
type and characteristic of the entry unit. Each type of the entry unit, however, calls for a
different lexicographic approach to dictionary making, at the level of both source material
analysis and designing a particular dictionary, the latter involving setting the parameters
of macro- and microstructure.
A specific type of an entry unit in a contrastive dictionary is the term. Since terms
represent concepts, and conceptual systems may, and do, vary from language to language,
contrastive terminological studies are indispensable in a knowledge community, all the
more so as international terminology standardisation seems to have stalled (or in some
cases has never taken off) for the majority of disciplines.
One of the most consistent and coherent tools to present such studies is therefore a
contrastive terminological dictionary. Yet, to compile a quality product of this kind, a
number of issues need to be considered. In view of the fact that contrastive terminography
has yet to be thoroughly defined, the task might prove unfeasible.
Accordingly, some theoretical principles underlying contrastive specialised lexicography
(=terminography) will be drafted and potential applicability of contrastive terminological
dictionaries will be presented. Also, a set of terminographic parameters of an optimal
contrastive terminological dictionary will be offered.
Girish Munjal
University of Delhi
Syntactic & Semantic Analyses of Grammatical Cases in Polish
& Hindi Languages
Polish & Hindi belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Nouns, adjectives,
pronouns are inflected in both the languages for gender, number and case. Although
Polish & Sanskrit Grammar have a lot in common but Hindi Grammar differs, especially
the inflectional forms of above parts of speech.
The present paper is an attempt:
1) to study as to how various syntactic & semantic relationships are indicated in noun
and verb phrases in Polish & Hindi languages;
2) to analyze the forms and usage of specifically Genitive & Vocative cases in the languages
under study;
3) to show as to how the correct understanding of similarities & differences in expression
of various case forms and their semantic functions can help improve acquisition of Polish
by speakers of Hindi and vice versa.
- 21 -
Adam Palka
University of Silesia
A contrastive glimpse into conceptualisations of selected
English and Polish localised pains – a cognitive-linguistic
perspective
Sawhney and Coutinho discredit a seemingly unshakable biomedical assertion that pain
comes in two varieties – mental and physical. They admit that “[t]his assumption has a
commonsense logic, in that a headache clearly differs from a heartache. It also finds ready
support in ordinary language where the adjective ‘painful’ can refer to a broken arm or a
loss at chess” (2001:21). However, in their view, the abovementioned binarism is still
unwarranted, since “[a] metaphorical language of hurt … does not justify a philosophical
or medical distinction between mental and physical pain [, and such] language reminds
us instead that pain is always inseparable from the cultural contexts – including especially
the linguistic contexts – within which we come to understand it” (ibid.).
In my presentation I attempt to explore and illustrate metaphoric potential of two
hyponyms of English pain, namely headache and heartache and their apparent Polish
equivalents, ból głowy and ból serca respectively. In each case a specifically localised pain
serves as a source domain (SD) of certain metaphors where target domains (TDs) refer to
persons, entities, or situations endowed with certain characteristics. What I also want to
stress is that metaphor not only hinges on (the relation between) SD and TDs, but also
emerges from their interaction with a broadly understood context, something that also
gives rise to metaphoric novelty. As Biro puts it, “[c]ontemporary philosophers speak of
metaphor as an interaction between sentences, ideas, and categories. … Only in this way
is it possible for metaphor to generate novel meanings and thoughts.” (2010: 62; italics
original). If this should be the case, then both English and Polish ‘headachy’ and
‘heartachy’ metaphorisations may become refurbished and rejuvenated. With all this in
mind, I try to ascertain to what extent and at which levels these English and Polish lexical
items overlap in terms of activating certain (novel) metaphoric conceptualisations. The
discussion is mostly based on my own cognitive study of selected pain metaphors in
English and Polish, and also relies on extensive English and Polish corpora accessed via
the Internet.
References
Biro, D. (2010). The Language of Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief. New York,
London: W. W. Norton & Company .
Sawhney, M., & Coutinho, L. (2001). Dukh Dard and Gam: Living With Chronic Conditions
of the Painful Kind. Delhi: Institute of Economic Growth, University Enclave.
- 22 -
Adam Palka and Robertus de Louw
University of Silesia / UAM Poznań
A few insights into pain metaphorisations – a cross-linguistic
case study in English, Dutch and Polish
Although Scarry elaborates on the difficulty of expressing physical pain, she cautiously
acknowledges the efforts of scientists to take control of pain language, conceding that
“through the mediating structures of the diagnostic [McGill Pain Questionnaire], language
... has begun to become capable of providing an external image of interior events” (1985:
8). On a more enthusiastic note, Halliday asserts that pain, analysed lexico-grammatically,
can be “construed as an entity, a ‘thing’ that participates in processes” (1998: 13). He
enumerates seven different grammatical properties of pain, one of them being its
‘qualifiability’. Thus, if pain is a ‘qualifiable’ thing, the abundance of its qualities may be
revealed by resorting to various diagnostic tools, among them the afore-mentioned McGill
Pain Questionnaire (MPQ). Finally, Crawford claims that “the MPQ made phantom pain
substantive in new ways [and] a language of pain quality became concretized, became
reified...” (2009: 668).
Inspired and encouraged by such scholarly assertions about pain’s expressibility,
communicability and concretisation, in our presentation we attempt to show that
descriptors present in MPQ and some other ‘painful’ contexts may provide us with a
springboard from which to depart to numerous language-specific and ostensibly cultureconditioned pain metaphorisations. Our analysis focuses mainly on the English (original)
version of MPQ and its renditions into Dutch and Polish, and by adopting a comparative
stance, we try to single out similarities and differences at the interface of these three
languages. Hence, we hope to demonstrate that pain lexicalisations emerging from the
languages in question point to the presence of convergent and, more interestingly,
divergent metaphorical conceptualisations, the latter steeped in a specific lexico-cultural
layer and ‘climate’.
References
Crawford, C. S. (2009). From pleasure to pain: The role of the MPQ in the language of
phantom limb pain. Social Science & Medicine, 69, pp. 655-661.
Halliday, M. A. (1998). On the grammar of pain. Functions of Language, 5(1), pp. 1-32.
Scarry, E. (1985). The Body in Pain: the Making and Unmaking of the World. New York:
Oxford University Press.
- 23 -
Adam Pluszczyk
University of Silesia, Katowice
ON THE FEATURES OF MALE AND FEMALE LANGUAGE IN SPANISH:
GENDER EFFECT IN LANGUAGE USE
It is common knowledge that there are differences between the speech of men and
women, which has been demonstrated by many researchers. Gender constitutes a very
significant extra-linguistic variable which contributes to language variation. It is also
crucial to stress that the role of gender in language use is especially evident when it
interplays with other variables, such as age, social status or context.
The purpose of the present analysis is to investigate the characteristic features of
language in the speech of both male and female speakers. More specifically, the
presentation concentrates on the differences between the speech of men and women
reflected in pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and conversational styles. Apart from the
differences which will be dealt with in various aspects, the paper attempts to compare if
people’s awareness, perception and knowledge on the linguistic differences in gender
conform to the data obtained in a number of sociolinguistic research studies.
The subjects under study consist of randomly selected Spanish students who are exposed
to a multiple-choice questionnaire based on various statements pertaining to language
use in Spanish. This will enable us to compare and verify the informants’ perception,
intuition and factual knowledge in this field with the data obtained in other sociolinguistic
research studies.
Kew words: communication, linguistic features, linguistic differences, gender, perception
Wiktor Pskit
University of Łódź
English and Polish Comparative Correlatives as Symmetric
Structures
The present paper is concerned with the so-called comparative correlative (CC)
construction in English and Polish (e.g. The harder I work, the more I earn; Im więcej
pracuję, tym więcej zarabiam). The relevant structures have recently been investigated by
a number of researchers representing various theoretical approaches (e.g. Culicover and
Jackendoff 1999, Den Dikken 2005, Taylor, Abeillé and Borsley 2008, Citko 2008, Iwasaki
and Radford 2009). The paper discusses the properties of comparative correlatives in the
two languages and focuses on the internal structure and derivation of the relevant
construction in the generativist (minimalist) terms. The discussion of these properties
reveals a number of similarities and differences between English and Polish CCs. The
apparent internal symmetry of CCs is analysed in the light of the proposals in Den Dikken
(2005), Citko (2008) and Iwasaki and Radford (2009).
- 24 -
References
Abeillé A. and R.D. Borsley. 2008. ‘Comparative correlatives and parameters’. Lingua
118, 1139-1157.
Citko, B. 2008. ‘Missing labels’. Lingua 118, 907-944.
Culicover, P. and R. Jackendoff. 1999. ‘The view from the periphery’. Linguistics Inquiry
30, 543-571.
Den Dikken, M. 2005. ‘Comparative correlatives comparatively’. Linguistic Inquiry 36,
497-533.
Iwasaki, E. and A. Radford. 2009. ‘Comparative correlatives in English: a minimalistcartographic analysis’. Essex Research Reports in Linguistics 57.6.
Taylor, H. 2005. ‘Can comparative correlatives be derived under minimalist
assumptions?’. In: C. Davis, A.R. Deal and Y. Zabbal (eds.) Proceedings of the 36th meeting
of the North East Linguistics Society (NELS), Amherst, MA: GLSA.
Irina Sklema-Litwin
Szczecin University
Inhibited vowel reduction in English: a cross-linguistic
perspective
The tendency to cast English as an isochronous language with prominence-reducing
vowel reduction has long prevailed in traditional academic accounts of the phenomenon.
Moreover, for practical reasons, EFL literature has also promoted a conveniently
simplified version of vowel reduction in English, which suggests replacing most vowels
with the targetless schwa in prosodically weak positions. The description of vowel
reduction in English, however, is constantly evolving to embrace a widening range of its
phonological motivation and phonetic realizations, which allows a conclusion about the
non-homogenous nature of vowel reduction patterns in the language.
Moreover, there is a recent observation that the scope of stress-related vowel reduction
in English may not be as extensive as viewed previously, with a number of non-prominent
contexts unaffected by the process. The present paper offers a brief account of the major
phonotactic and morphological blocking factors, such as providing perceptual clues to
non-coronal obstruents, preventing homophony and avoiding hiatus.
Of special interest is the absence of vowel reduction in loanwords, which may indicate the
degree of their phonological adaptation. While English had borrowed extensively
throughout its evolution, various adaptation paths needed to be chosen for different
categories of loans. Certain non-nativized borrowings were to be allowed to comply with
fewer constraints and left unassimilated in the periphery domains of L1 phonology.
The paper presents the evidence of unreduced long vowels occurring in phonetic
dictionary (CEPD 2003) representations of approximately 2000 lexical items, the majority
of which may be categorized as partially nativized borrowings. It is suggested that
inhibited vowel reduction in the recommended pronunciation variants is intentional and
serves to prevent the obscuration of loanwords, whose average frequency of use is below
that of the ‘core’ vocabulary items, and the sound of which is less familiar to the native
speaking community.
- 25 -
Katarzyna Strębska
University of Silesia
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF MODALITY IN POLISH AND ENGLISH
COURT OPINIONS
As Hasan and Perrett (1994: 209) accurately put it, “the exchange of information through
propositions regards whether something ‘is’ (affirmative) or ‘is not’ (negative), but it is
possible to ‘construe’ the area of meaning that lies between yes and no – the intermediate
ground between positive and negative polarity”.
This study is to compare the two most often occurring types of modality, i.e. epistemic and
deontic, in the body of Polish and English Supreme court opinions.
The underlying aim is to determine which modality occurs more often in a given version
and, if possible, account for the resulting differences . Firstly, definitions of both epistemic
and deontic modality are provided and this theoretical part is followed by an analysis of
court opinions containing modal verbs of two types above.
In their deliberations concerning statutory terms that arouse doubts, judges necessarily
resort to linguistic means expressing modality. As the instances (1). and (2). below show,
both types of modality can occur in contexts where vague and imprecise terms are
employed
“In determining whether the use of force was wanton and unnecessary, it may also be
proper to evaluate the need for application of force (…), the threat “reasonably perceived”
by the responsible officials.”
“Whether the prison disturbance is a riot or a lesser disruption, corrections officers must
balance the need “to maintain or restore discipline” through force against the risk of injury
to inmates.
Whereas the first sentence exemplifies epistemic modality, the second one clearly
expresses an obligation, thus a deontic type of modality.
The analysis shall also take into account the philosophic dilemma whether legal language
preserves or creates meaning. On the one hand, as claimed by Bhatia, legislation „belongs
to what has traditionally been called a frozen variety of English, where emphasis is
definitely on conformity rather than creativity or innovation. (…) The emphasis in all
legislation is on avoiding litigation rather than giving elegant expression to the will of
Parliament. If there is any tension between the two, obviously certainty will be preferred
to elegance and conformity will thus be considered more valuable than innovation
(Bhatia, 1997: 140).”
On the other hand, however, Thomas makes a somewhat controversial remark that: „A
judge creates law not only when he/she expands a legal principle to a new situation. Both
negative and positive (creative) decisions are innovative. (…) Law is continually in statu
nascendi (...) and largely indeterminate- it is made either conservatively or less
conservatively, by the decision in the instant case” (Thomas, 2005: 56).
The corpus used for the study is, in the case of English, the United States Reports
containing
opinions
of
judges
(available
at
:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/boundvolumes.aspx) and, in the case of Polish,
opinions available at: www.sn.pl (the official website of the Polish Supreme Court).
- 26 -
Bibliography:
Bhatia, V.K. (1993), Analysing Genre. Language Use in Professional Settings. Longman.
Hasan R., Perrett G. (1994), Learning to function with the other tongue: A systemic
functional perspective on second language teaching in: Perspectives on Pedagogical
Grammar (ed. by Terence Odlin). Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, E.W. (2005), The Judicial Process. Realism, Pragmatism, Practical Reasoning
and Principles. Cambridge University Press.
Konrad Szcześniak
University of Silesia
The role of event structure in grammatical constructions
I wish to focus on the form of various grammatical constructions which express two
events: the causing and caused event. I would like to analyze how that form is a result of
the regularity observed by Talmy (2000), whereby caused events are specified before
causing events (p. 483). Talmy shows that combinations of events such as A ball sailed
into the window (causing event) and the window broke (caused event) can be expressed
by means of the following two patterns.
(1)
a. S (event) CAUSE S (event)
b. S (event) RESULT FROM S (event) (ex. 43, p. 482 in Talmy 2000)
Talmy provides evidence that the second form is more basic. For example, grammatical
patterns are available for the expression of one event as resulting from another event (2),
(2)
The window broke from a ball’s sailing into it.
while the reverse order does not seem to have a corresponding grammatical form within
one clause.
(3)
*A ball sailed into the window to its breaking.
This observation of effect-before-cause patterns is relevant to the form of grammatical
constructions such as (4a) the into-gerund construction (Wierzbicka), (b) time-away
construction (Jackendoff), (c) x’s way (Jackendoff, Goldberg, Szczesniak 2013), (d) the
resultative (Levin & Rappaport), (e) the caused motion construction (Goldberg), and (f)
the manner of obtainment construction (Szczesniak 2008):
(4)
a. Jilly sweet-talked him into buying her a puppy.
b. We danced and kissed the night away.
c. He drummed his way to stardom.
d. The dog barked itself awake.
e. He sneezed the napkin off the table. (ex. 8, p.9 in Goldberg 1995)
f. Der Hund hat sich einen Knochen erbettelt. (ex. 9b, p. 71 in Sonnenhauser 2012)
The dog has itself a bone
er-begged.
‘The dog begged itself a bone.’
At first glance, the above example seem to run counter to the proposed regularity. In each
sentence, the causing event (sweet-talking, dancing, drumming, etc.) is specified before
the caused event (buying a puppy, spending a night, reaching fame, etc.). However, the
above patterns are grammatical complexes involving the integration of two events within
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one clause. They can be derived from simple subevents by means of Goldberg and
Jackendoff’s notation for fusing two subevents under one syntactic form.
Artur Świątek
Pedagogical University of Cracow
The contrastive analysis of the meaning of ‘although’ /
‘though’ and ‘however’ and their Polish equivalents based on
the corpus analysis of L2 learners` English
English abounds in function words, as opposed to an open class of content words, which
are rather challenging in their everyday use, even for their native users. According to
Klammer, Schulz and Della Volpe (2009) ‘function words are words that have little lexical
meaning or have ambiguous meaning, as they signal the structural relationships that
words have to one another and are the glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they
serve as important elements to the structures of sentences’.
Therefore the objective of the presentation will be the demonstration of the diverse
meaning of two most misleading function words in English, namely ‘although’ (its variant
‘though’) and ‘however’ and their potential corresponding elements in Polish, the native
language of the subjects, that are to be investigated.
The abovementioned words may fulfill miscellaneous functions in a sentence, depending
on the way a communicative message is conveyed to the recipient, e.g.
- However (adverb) he did it, it was very clever.
- Dress however (conjunction) you like.
- I can`t play the piano, although (conjunction) I took lessons for years.
- Fortunately though, (adverb) this is a story with a happy ending.
The subsequent objective of this presentation will be the analysis, contrast and overall
juxtaposition of the meaning of these function words based on corpus studies. The
analysis will be conducted via PLEC (PELCRA English Learner Corpus), BNC (British
National Corpus), COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) and NKJP
(Narodowy Korpus Języka Polskiego).
The results of the conducted research are to indicate how complex English function words
are for the Polish subjects to comprehend and to use appropriately as well as how these
elements are used in their native language.
References:
Arnoff M. Word formation in generative grammar. In: Morgan LJ, Demuth K, editors. Signal to
syntax: Bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 1976.
Au-Yeung J, Howell P, Pilgrim L. Phonological words and stuttering on function words. Journal of
Speech,
Language,
and
Hearing
Research.
1998:41:1019–1030.
Beattie GW, Bradbury RJ. An experimental investigation of the modifiability of the temporal
structure of spontaneous speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 1979:8:225–248.
Klammer, Thomas, Muriel R. Schulz and Angela Della Volpe (2009). Analyzing English Grammar
(6th
ed).
Longman.
Lingstromberg, S. (1998). English prepositions explained. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pinker S.
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Language acquisition. In: Gleitman LR, Liberman M, Osherson DN, editors. An Invitation to
Cognitive Science, 2nd edn. Vol. 1: Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 1995.
Quirk R, Greenbaum S, Leech G, Svartvik J. A comprehensive grammar of the English language.
London:
Longman;
1985.
Radford A. Syntactic theory and the acquisition of English syntax. Oxford: Basil Blackwell; 1990.
http://pelcra.pl/new/
Jarosław Wiliński
Uniwersytet Przyrodniczo-Humanistyczny w Siedlcach
A metaphostructional analysis of sports terms in the domain
of business
In recent years, the widespread availability of electronic corpora has provided
promising avenues for investigating metaphorical expressions in naturally-occurring
discourse, as shown by a number of studies (e.g. Cameron and Deignan 2003). Some
studies have investigated individual lexical items from the source domain (cf. Hanks
2004) or whole sets of such items (cf. Partington 1997), while others have focused on
target domain vocabulary (e.g. Stefanowitsch 2006).
Far too little attention has been paid to the quantitative investigation of source domain
vocabulary in a particular target domain. Adopting the notion of metaphostruction and the
corpus-based method, referred to as metaphostructional analysis, this paper attempts to
determine which source domain lexemes derived from sports terminology are strongly
attracted to or repelled by the target domain of business (i.e. occur more frequently or
less frequently than expected in this domain). The paper shows that there are indeed
lexemes that are significantly attracted to or repelled by the target domain of business,
and that these instantiate different metaphorical mappings.
References:
Cameron, L. and A. Deignan. (2003). Combining large and small corpora to investigate
tuning devices around metaphor in spoken discourse. Metaphor and symbol 18: 149160.
Hanks, P. (2004). The syntagmatics of metaphor. International Journal of Lexicography 17:
245-274.
Partington, A. (1997). Patterns and meaning. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Stefanowitsch, A. (2006). Words and their metaphors: A corpus-based study. In A.
Stefanowitsch and S. Th. Gries (eds.), Corpus-Based Approaches to Metaphor and
Metonymy (pp. 63-105). Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Grzegorz Wlaźlak
University of Silesia
The influence of foreign elements on the English word formation system.
The subject matter of this paper are various lexical strata of the English language due to
the contact with other languages, borrowings or diachrony in general. English is
considered to have two well-defined strata: a native body of Germanic origin and nonnative stratum of the Romance languages mainly. As a consequence, on the morphological
level, English language system possesses different types of affixes that select bases from
different lexical strata. The paper will address the problems of foreign influence on the
English lexicon of Early and Late Modern English, particularly of so called neoclassical
forms in affixation and morphological productivity of certain Latin and/or French
elements affecting English such as past participle, agentive –or suffix, allomorphic forms
and creation of competing doublets, nonce words or rare and obsolete forms. There will
also be discussed patterns where neoclassical elements combine with native elements
with the assumption that neoclassical word-formation and native word-formation form
separate systems. However, such combining elements of Latin (sometimes Greek) origin
have become established as part of the word-forming mechanism of modern English, with
their own distinctive word-forming patterns. It will be argued here that when such
formations follow an established pattern they should not be regarded solely as loanwords
but have acquired the status of regular word-formation rule. The author is going to
present selected examples of such forms basing on the 18th century English dictionaries
and ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collection Online) corpus and Oxford English Dictionary
as well as many other resources that might be relevant to present.
References:
Durkin P. (2014) Borrowed Words. A history of loanwords in English. Oxford: OUP.
Kaunisto M ( 2009 )The Rivalry between English Adjectives Ending in -ive and –ory. Selected
Proceedings of the 2008 Symposium on New Approaches in English Historical Lexis (HELLEX 2), ed. R. W. McConchie, Alpo Honkapohja, and Jukka Tyrkkö, 74-87. Somerville, MA:
Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Pius ten Hacken (2012) Neoclassical word formation in English and the organization of the
lexicon. Komotini: 10th International Conference of Greek Linguistics.
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