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Structural ambiguity based on the grammatical indeterminacy of the ing-nonfinite form in subject position
Vojtěch, Albert ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
This thesis deals with the structural ambiguity of constructions similar to Flying planes can be dangerous, where the ambiguity can arise due to the grammatical indeterminacy of ing- nonfinite form that can be interpreted both as gerund and participle. The ambiguity is analysed on the basis of the transitivity of ing-nonfinite form and subsequently on its semantic compatibility with the noun in the role of subject and object, in the ideal case the ambiguity and compatibility is tested further in the sentence context. The first part, the theoretical background presents us with what the secondary sources say to the phenomenon of ambiguity, distinguishes the types of ambiguity and also covers the grammatical description of non-finite verb forms. The Second part, material and method, describes the method of sampling, which brought us 2 samples extracted from British National Corpus. First sample comprises of 25 instances of "ing-nonfinite form + noun + verb constructions" (sg/pl, type of verb and verb tense are not restricted) and the second sample comprises of 100 instances of similar constructions, however the verb following the noun has been restricted on formal grounds for verb tense, verb type and number in order not to represent a hindrance for the ambiguity. The third, analytical part comprises...
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Teacher's attitudes and beliefs regarding English grammar teaching
Čížková, Lucie ; Gráf, Tomáš (advisor) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
(in English) This diploma thesis focuses on teachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding English grammar teaching at Czech high schools. The thesis is based on the assumption that teachers' decisions and actions in ESL and EFL teaching are motivated by what teachers know, think and believe. It takes the concept of teacher cognition as a starting point. The research part ot the thesis is based on a questionnaire survey among Czech high-school teachers. It aims to observe teachers' beliefs about English grammar teaching and learning and to describe the way Engligh grammar is taught at Czech high schools. The main areas which the research focuses on are grammar teaching approaches, grammar practice, grammatical error correction, the use of L1 in teaching grammar and the use of coursebooks. Moreover, the thesis observes teachers' position towards the concept of method with respect to the recent trend discussed in ELT research - the post-method condition which redefines the relationship of 'method' and a teacher who is understood as a critical and creative strategic thinker.
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English adverbial participial constructions and their Czech and French translation counterparts
Chmelařová, Jitka ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
Participial constructions are usually studied as means of complex condensation, the degree of which is directly related with the typology of the given language. The present thesis focuses rather on the functions of these constructions in English and their reflection in Czech and French translation counterparts. Previous research suggests that syntactic congruence will be rare. Translation counterparts should include instances of coordination and subordination, the latter of which is associated with explicitation of the implied semantic relations. Excerpts for the analysis are drawn from the parallel corpus InterCorp. The 100 excerpts of English adverbial participial constructions were excerpted only from original English texts, along with their Czech and French translation counterparts. The present BA thesis focuses only on -ing participial constructions. The excerpts are analysed in terms of the English construction (syntactic structure, degree of integration, position, presence of subordinators, semantic relation to the superordinate clause) and in terms of the type of translation correspondence in both languages (congruent/ divergent counterpart, its syntactic structure and function).
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English translation counterparts of Czech sentences containing "copak" and "jestlipak"
Šebestová, Denisa ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Dušková, Libuše (referee)
This BA thesis examines the English translation counterparts of the Czech particles copak and jestlipak. The postfix -pak evolved from the eclitic particle pak, which is added to pronouns, adverbs or particles. The postfix is by its nature expressive and has an intensifying function. The present thesis analyses the particles with -pak from the perspective of the third syntactical plan (Poldauf, 1964). Based on Poldauf's findings about the English equivalents of the Czech third syntactical plan elements, the thesis presents possible English counterparts of the two particles. Subsequently, English counterparts of Czech sentences with copak/jestlipak excerpted from the parallel corpus InterCorp are analysed to find out what types of equivalents occur in English translations of Czech fiction. The English counterparts then serve as markers of the functions of the Czech sentences containing copak and jestlipak. Apart from emotionally evaluative functions, such as reproach, the particles are shown to have deliberative, intensifying or focusing functions. keywords: translation counterparts, the third syntactical plan, particles
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On adverbial English - French faux amis: a contrastive view of actually and actuellement
Čapková, Andrea ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The subject of the present thesis is a contrastive analysis of two formally similar adverbs, the English actually and the French actuellement, which despite their com- mon etymological origins nowadays render different meaning. The theoretical chapter deals with classification of the two adverbs; in particular their semantic roles and syntactic functions. The latter section of this chapter is concerned with the historical development of the semantic meaning and concentrates on the common etymological origins as well as on the possible interchangeability of the adverbs. The research part focuses on the detailed analysis of the two adverbs based on the examples excerpted from the synchronic monolingual corpora (British National Corpus for English and Lextutor-Parlé for French) and describes their semantic roles as well as syntactic functions. The second part of this chapter is an analysis of the translation equivalents of actually and actuellement. The material for this section was excerpted from the parallel corpus InterCorp (fiction Core and the subcorpus Europarl). This thesis aims to identify possible discourse functions developed in the French actuellement and explore the translation correspondences of the two adverbs. Key words: actually, actuellement, discourse functions, faux-amis
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English counterparts of Czech finite subjectless clauses
Pospíšil, Jan ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The thesis focuses on the English counterparts of a Czech clause type which does not exist in English - finite subjectless clauses. These Czech clauses with a verbal or verbo-nominal predicate correspond to English clauses with a subject and a predicate. The thesis describes the repertoire of means used as subjects of the English constructions, also examining the factors which influence the choice of a particular subject and predicate, and the structure of the English sentence. The most influential factors are linked with the semantic class of the clause, i.e. whether it refers to the states of the surrounding environment or physical and psychical states, whether a general human agent is implied, or whether the meaning of the clause is associated with modality. The material is extracted from the Czech-English parallel corpus InterCorp. One hundred examples of Czech finite subjectless clauses were obtained from Czech original texts (the "core" texts). The clauses extracted comprise predicates which include the third person singular of an active past participle, i.e. Setmělo se. Došlo k nedorozumění.
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Non-standard functions of "like" in spoken discourse
Raušová, Veronika ; Brůhová, Gabriela (advisor) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
This thesis is concerned with the non-standard functions of the word like in spoken discourse. The aim of this thesis is to categorize the non-standard functions that had been described in the past 30 years and create a comprehensive overview, which might serve as a guideline for further research. The theoretical part of the thesis offers a compilation of standard and non-standard functions that like may represent in spoken discourse. As a non- standard function is considered the use of like as a focus marker, hedge, quotative marker and a discourse marker. The second, methodological, part describes the method of extraction of the sample of 100 instances from the COCA. The following part then contains analysis of the extracted instances, which are categorized according to the theoretical frame created in the theoretical part of this thesis. The analysis also concerns the position of like in the utterance and frequent collocations. The result of this thesis is a confirmed theoretical frame containing the non-standard functions of like extended by an additional quotative construction, more detailed description of the hedge and the focus marker like and also a confirmation that non- standard like is certainly not only an empty intrusive word but a multifunctional, ever- developing, device with which...
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English first person plural imperative clauses and their Czech counterparts
Zvěřinová, Simona ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The present thesis studies the English 1st person plural imperative clause. Specifically it focuses on outlining the various possible categories of illocutionary force expressed by it. Czech translation counterparts of the clause are used as an ancillary means of determining these categories. In the process of utilising these counterparts during the analysis, the study also identifies specific markers in the Czech language helpful in determining categories of illocutionary force of the English originals. The thesis is comprised of two main parts. The first, theoretical part focuses on describing the grammatical form of the 1st person plural imperative clause, on forming the framework of discourse function and categories of illocutionary force as utilised by the study, on summarising the distribution of the 1st person plural imperative clause across the fields of discourse and on outlining the various syntactic and/or lexical means through which the Czech language expresses the directive discourse function. The second, empirical part analyses one hundred examples of English 1st person imperative clauses and their Czech counterparts from the parallel translation corpus InterCorp.
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English present perfect and its Czech translation counterparts
Losmanová, Milena ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Brůhová, Gabriela (referee)
This bachelor thesis describes the meanings of the English present perfect and the factors leading to identification of the specific meaning in a given sentence. Czech translations of English sentences are used as indicators of the meaning. The analysis is based on 100 examples of the English present perfect and their Czech translation counterparts excerpted from the InterCorp paralel corpus. The Czech counterparts have been analysed especially with respect to the verbal categories of time and aspect (vid) as well as the temporal adjuncts. Apart from the syntactic-semantic features of verbs, the context factors of the English sentences that may influence the perfect (adverbials of time, method of incorporation of the present perfect into multiple sentence etc.) have been analysed. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question posed by Vilém Mathesius whether there is a correspondence between the perfect tense and the pefective aspect in Czech. Key words: present perfect, Czech aspect
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Analysis of stylistic features in English and Czech radio debates
Neubauerová, Alena ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
This MA thesis focuses on the stylistically marked features that occur in an English radio debate called Any Questions? aired by BBC - Radio 4 and a Czech radio debate called Speciál Martina Veselovského aired on Český rozhlas 1 - Radiožurnál. Stylistically marked features are restricted to certain kinds of social context: in the case of this thesis, it is two radio debates broadcast by public service media. Those linguistics features that are considered stylistically marked in the two debates are identified on the morphological, syntactical and lexical level, and classified into categories based upon a view of their functions. Subsequently, they are described as standard or nonstandard. Some of the features found are shared by both debates. However, some are, due to the different language systems concerned, symptomatic of only one of the languages. The difference between the English and the Czech stylistically marked features is also revealed as to the frequency of their occurrence. Finally, the conclusions about the level of informality of the two debates are drawn.
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