The aim of the paper is to look into how the use and distribution of complex verbal phrases in English comply with the postulates of the theories of constructional iconicity, frequency asymmetries ...and naturalness, especially in the initial stages of their proliferation. The three theoretical frameworks are first outlined and compared, and predictions ensuing from them are formulated as to the expected behaviour of complex versus simple linguistic constructions. Two types of complex verbal constructions are examined from the point of view of these predictions: the progressive verbal phrase be + present participle and the composite predicate consisting of a semantically bleached verb + deverbal noun.
The purpose of this paper is to review some basic postulates of the theory of semantic primitives (semantic primes) and to evaluate the applicability of the natural semantic metalanguage in ...cross-cultural translation. The theory of semantic primes, formulated by Anna Wierzbicka and her colleagues, posits a universal set of cognitive primitives, lexicalized in all natural languages, which, combined into canonical sentences of basic syntactic patterns, constitute a natural semantic metalanguage (NSM). NSM is put forward as an alternative to traditional lexicographic definitions of words, to componential and prototypical semantic analysis, and, as tertium comparationis, presented as a more effective tool in translating culture-specific words and ethnosyntactic features.
Ena najbolj opaznih značilnosti srednjeangleškega nedoločnika je, da se pojavlja v šestih prepoznavnih oblikah, ki jih določajo kombinacije treh različnih označevalcev: nedoločniškega obrazila, ki ...razmeroma zgodaj prične glasovno šibeti, členice, ki v srednji angleščini izgubi svojo prvotno vlogo namenilniškega označevalca, ter členiške zveze, ki v srednjeangleški dobi najprej prevzame vlogo namenilniškega označevalca, a razmeroma hitro funkcijsko ošibi in zamre. Vsaj od 13. stoletja dalje raba različnih nedoločniških oblik ni ne slovnično ne pomensko dosledno razmejena. Med dejavniki, ki bi lahko vplivali na izbor ene ali druge nedoločniške oblike, so bile preučevane pomenske in vezljivostne značilnosti nadrednih glagolskih zvez, fizična razdalja med pomožnim ali faznim glagolom in nedoločnikom, metrične lastnosti besedila in podobno. Večina študij se osredinja na razmerje med rabo t. i. golega nedoločnika, ki je označen le z glasovno šibečo pripono in nedoločnikom, ki ga označuje bodisi členica ali njena okrepljena dvojnica, prisotnost ali odsotnost končnega soglasnika v priponi pa se obravnava (zgolj) kot posledica glasovne spremembe, ki poteka hitreje v položaju pred začetnim soglasnikom naslednje besede. Pričujoči sestavek povzema rezultate analize nedoločniških polstavkov v prvih tisočih verzih Canterbury Tales, pesnitve Geoffreya Chaucerja iz konca 14. stoletja. Osnovno vprašanje, ki si ga zastavlja, je, ali in v kolikšni meri se posamezni nedoločniški označevalci, še posebej končni soglasnik v priponi sopojavljajo s specifičnim skladenjskimi funkcijami nedoločniškega polstavka v nadrednem stavku ali zvezi, kakor tudi s posameznimi vrednostmi slovničnih kategorij v nadrednem okolju.
In Middle English the old inflected infinitive lost its supine function and gradually replaced the uninflected infinitive in all positions, except in the complementation of moal and a limited number ...of other verbs. According to most linguists, the choice between the to infinitive and the bare infinitive was either lexically or structurally conditioned. The theory of linguistic change as the assertion of weaker or stronger linguistic variants postulates the affinity of stronger variants for more complex, i. e. functionally marked grammaticall environment. The author tests the validity of the theory against the assertion of the English to infinitive at the expanse of the bare infinitive after the Norman Conquest. The results confirm the initial hypothesist that the degree of formal marked ness of the infinitive concurred with the degree of the functional markedness of grammatical pa rameters.
The present chapter reports the investigation into certain aspects of the periphrastic construction to be +present participle (e.g. NE: "he is teaching"; OE. "he is laerende") viewed as an example of ...a syntactic strengthening. The construc tion is usually referred to as "continuous tenses/form" or "progressive tenses/form", whereas Nickel (1966) uses "expanded form". Coming closest to this latter term, the "expanded tenses" employed here seems a convenient label for two reasons: a) the use of expanded tenses is not restricted to the expression of verbal aspect (Aspekt) or mode of verbal action (Aktionsart), which is implied by the use of either the term "continuous tenses/form" or the term "progressive tenses/form"; b) the expanded tenses are integrated into the English tense system, in the sense that they can be substituted with the respective non-expanded tenses without any change in the syntax of the clause, e.g.
The following paper reports on the final results 1 of the author's study of the use of participial nonfinite clauses and dependent clauses in Old English (OE) and in present-day English (PE), in ...relation to the nature of their respective grammatical environment. It ensues from the research into the early stages of syntactic change, which started as team work at the universities of Ljubljana and Maribor in 1986, under the guidance and coordination of Janez Orešnik.
The subsequent three papers in the present volume (viz. Snedec', Teržan's, and Trobevšek-Drobnak's) have arisen from the research in historical syritax conducted since 1986 by us in the Department ...for Germanic Languages and Literatures of the University of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, under the advisorship of J. Orešnik.
The followmg paper reports on the results of 'the investigation into some aspects of the usage of the Old English preverbal ge- from the point of view of the theory of language changes as ...strengthenings or weakenings. The investigation served as 'the basis for the author's Ph. D. dissertation (1990).
Three formal markers occur in Middle English infinitives the suffix -e(n) from the Old English -an of the uninflected infinitive, the particle to of the Old English inflected infinitive, and, as a ...new Middle English formation, the for to marker. The six marking patterns of the infinitive were +to, -(e)n, -to, +(e)n, +to, -(e)n, + to, +(e)n, +for to, -(e)n, and +forto, +(e)n. After the 13th century, they displayed no consistent semanticor grammatical contrast. The semantic content of verbs, the type of verbal complementation, physical distance from the matrix verb, metric and rhyme patterns have all been considered as potentially instrumental in the actual choice of individual markers. The author of this paper explores to which extent, if at all, the marking of the Middle English infinitives covariates with their respective syntactic functions, as well as with the grammatical properties of their immediate contextual environment. For this purpose, the distribution of infinitive markers, in particular of the marker is explored through the analysis of samples taken from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
In diachronic linguistics, the Naturalness Theory purports to unravel the seemingly random distribution of linguistic variants at the early stage of their assertion, when no other tangible ...functional, contextual or pragmatic motivation exists. The paper presents the results of three empirical studies, which confirm that the complexity of grammatical environment is instrumental in the choice between elective morphosyntactic constructions. Special attention is paid to the relevance of traditional grammatical parameters in defining grammatical environment as complex.
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