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'Shell nouns' in English written and spoken monological academic texts
Rajchartová, Sofie ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Nádraská, Zuzana (referee)
This thesis deals with the linguistic phenomenon of "shell nouns" and its use in English monological, academic, written and spoken texts. The main objective of the thesis is to compare the use of "shell nouns" in written and spoken texts in terms of their semantic classification, position in lexico-grammatical patterns, discourse functions, and potential frequency of occurrence. The thesis raises questions concerning the overall impact of written and spoken register, frequency of occurrence, semantic classification of shell nouns, functions in lexico-grammatical patterns, as well as anaphoric and cataphoric relations. The primary material used for the analysis of spoken academic English was the British Academic Spoken English corpus, while a custom corpus created from academic articles was used for the analysis of written text. The theoretical part defines the concept of "shell noun" and related terms, semantic classification, lexico-grammatical patterns, and discourse functions related to the phenomenon. The analytical part then describes the research, provides quantitative results regarding the potential occurrence, and analyses selected shell nouns with the aim of verifying the hypotheses of this thesis. KEYWORDS shell nouns, academic language, English, discourse functions, corpus linguistics
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English Past Conditional and the Errors of Czech Advanced Learners of English
Kovandová, Marie ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Jančovičová, Ivana (referee)
The present work studies the uses of the English past conditional and problems it poses for Czech advanced learners of English. The correspondences between the English past conditional and its Czech translation counterparts are explored using a parallel translation corpus. This analysis shows patterns of translation correspondence and confirms that the English past conditional most frequently corresponds to the Czech present conditional. It also presents different ways of expressing the condition in both languages. The results then serve as a basis for a test administered to the students of the first year of the English studies Bc. programme at the Faculty of Education, Charles University. The answers of students are described and evaluated and suggest that they are quite proficient with conditionals. According to the results, the most difficult sentences are those where the past conditional is appropriate in English, but the present conditional is used in Czech. Additionally, where the condition is expressed in a way other than by a conditional clause (e.g., adverbial, implied, etc.). Other influences are also taken into account. The analysis is based on 50 examples gathered from the parallel corpus InterCorp available through the Czech National Corpus website and 60 students' responds. KEYWORDS...
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English translation correspondences of Czech finite subjectless sentences
Trajerová, Klára ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Nádraská, Zuzana (referee)
This thesis examines English constructions corresponding to Czech subjectless sentences with a finite verb form. A structurally congruent equivalent of these sentences does not exist in English; English sentences always contain a subject, even if it may be expressed solely through expletives (e.g., It is raining). Therefore, the thesis focuses primarily on the selection of the English subject and the factors influencing it. The analysis was based on material excerpted from the Czech-English subcorpus of the parallel translation corpus InterCorp. The query formulation was based on the form of the predicate of the Czech sentence - the verb in the third person singular, the neuter singular participle, and the excerpt was narrowed down to past tense forms. One hundred translation pairs were described and classified. The results of the analysis confirmed that the meanings of these sentences (mental and physical states, atmospheric conditions, etc.) and the structure of the Czech sentence (presence of objects, adverbials, etc.) play a significant role in the selection of translation counterparts for single-clause sentences. On the other hand, the form of the Czech predicate (verbal or verbo- nominal predicate, reflexivity of verbs) also contributes to this selection process.
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Usage of recycled material in asphalt surface layers
Malá, Markéta ; Komenda, Radek (referee) ; Hýzl, Petr (advisor)
Diploma thesis deals with adding R - material to the wearing asphalt courses, specifically to the SMA 11S. It has two parts – theoretical and practical. The theoretical part describes using R - material in the recycling of roads, different types of recycling and how is this problem handled in the Czech Republic, the practical part deals with the design of three kinds of asphalt mixtures with different added ratios of R – material, describing empirical and functional tests on the bitumen binder and the designed asphalt mixtures and the results of those tests.
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English Idioms of Comparison in Corpus Data
Emmer, Jaroslav ; Klégr, Aleš (advisor) ; Kopřivová, Marie (referee) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
This thesis presents a corpus-based investigation that focuses on adjectival similes. As similes are often overshadowed by metaphors, the existing research on similes using empirical evidence is relatively scarce. The presented work provides a complex account of adjectival similes in corpora using data from multiple heterogeneous sources. The methodology for mining adjectival similes from corpora is thoroughly described, along with the associated pitfalls. As every corpus requires a different approach, the CQL query designs are presented individually for each researched corpus. The corpus-based mining yielded a list of 309 unique adjectival similes. The obtained data are subjected to meticulous scrutiny in the form of both formal and content analyses. Following a statistical overview of the data collected from each corpus, the 60 most frequent similes are presented in detail, including their meanings and functions, typical targets, related similes, and frequencies. These similes are then searched in respected online dictionaries, and the findings suggest that dictionaries struggle to keep up with corpus evidence. The formal analysis shows a strong preference for monosyllabic constituting elements. Regarding their content, adjectival similes can be divided into five general ground- centred groups...
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Linguistic complexity of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
Gottwald, Michal ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Jančovičová, Ivana (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the language complexity in the initial and final volumes of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, testing the hypothesis that the novels' linguistic features, impacting readability, are adjusted to the intended readers' evolving comprehension and reading skills. As the series progresses, the complexity is expected to increase, reflecting the maturation of its audience. The research investigates whether the series' later novels are syntactically and lexically more complex than the earlier ones, with the help of employing corpus stylistic methodology. The theoretical part of this thesis outlines the definition of linguistic complexity and its relation to readability and discusses various methods of analyzing literature from a linguistic perspective. The complexity is measured using various criteria: the number of tokens, types, chapters, sentences, the extent and types of clausal subordination and non-finite clauses. Sentence length and type-token ratio are also considered. The methods include frequency lists and keyword analysis, complemented by a detailed examination of text samples. KEYWORDS complexity, children's literature, sentence structure
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