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Evolution of discourse markers in Czech: case study of vždyť
Doischer, Tomáš ; Zíková, Magdalena (advisor) ; Beneš, Martin (referee)
The main goal of this paper is to analyze one specific Czech discourse marker, vždyť, both from the synchronic and diachronic position. In the context of this analysis, some questions of linguistic methodology are discussed. Most of this analysis focused on its semantic properties, which were described using the NSM methodology (Natural Semantic Metalanguage). NSM allows its users to describe the meaning of grammatical words in natural language, thanks to which a researcher can formulate the expression's function without having to use a complicated and obscure terminology. The resulting definition of vždyť is compared to the description found in Czech dictionaries, whose authors, unlike my approach, describe the meaning of vždyť in terms of multiple senses, polysemy. Apart from semantics, a small part of the chapter is dedicated to the description of other properties of vždyť, e. g. phonetics. In the diachronic analysis, a hypothesis is formulated about the emergence of vždyť from the originally temporal marker vždy, explaining it on the basis of conversational implicatures. That is illustrated by some examples of vždy from the earliest available linguistic data from Czech. I then describe the meaning of vždyť in Old Czech, while speculation about its further development is hindered by the lack of adequate...
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Ad hoc gradation of "non-gradable" adjectives in Czech
Doischer, Tomáš ; Křivan, Jan (advisor) ; Lehečková, Eva (referee)
There are some adjectives in language which sound strange to a native speaker in their graded form. Consider this sentence: "These pearls are more real than the real ones!" ("Tyhle perly jsou pravější než pravé!") How can they be more real? What does it even mean? I attempt to answer these and other questions in this paper. While the phenomenon of rarely graded adjectives may quite peripheral, it is nonetheless interesting and understanding it is important for the general understanding of adjective gradation. Adjectives such as real are traditionally considered non-gradable. However, as we can see from the example, that doesn't mean they can't be graded. The distinction between gradable and non-gradable adjectives apparently cannot be clear-cut. The goal of this paper is to describe this phenomenon, determine which properties rarely graded adjectives have and how they can be graded. I use data from a large corpus of written Czech (SYN v4) to find these adjectives and the way they are used. I employ both quantitative and qualitative methods to reach a comprehensive overview of rarely graded adjectives. I use statistical methods to find parameters specific for this type of adjective and semantic analysis to divide it into well-motivated categories. I also explain why they are graded only rarely, how...
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Evolution of discourse markers in Czech: case study of vždyť
Doischer, Tomáš ; Zíková, Magdalena (advisor) ; Beneš, Martin (referee)
The main goal of this paper is to analyze one specific Czech discourse marker, vždyť, both from the synchronic and diachronic position. In the context of this analysis, some questions of linguistic methodology are discussed. Most of this analysis focused on its semantic properties, which were described using the NSM methodology (Natural Semantic Metalanguage). NSM allows its users to describe the meaning of grammatical words in natural language, thanks to which a researcher can formulate the expression's function without having to use a complicated and obscure terminology. The resulting definition of vždyť is compared to the description found in Czech dictionaries, whose authors, unlike my approach, describe the meaning of vždyť in terms of multiple senses, polysemy. Apart from semantics, a small part of the chapter is dedicated to the description of other properties of vždyť, e. g. phonetics. In the diachronic analysis, a hypothesis is formulated about the emergence of vždyť from the originally temporal marker vždy, explaining it on the basis of conversational implicatures. That is illustrated by some examples of vždy from the earliest available linguistic data from Czech. I then describe the meaning of vždyť in Old Czech, while speculation about its further development is hindered by the lack of adequate...
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