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English modals "may" and "might" and their Czech translation equivalents
Čuchalová, Marie ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Vašků, Kateřina (referee)
This BA thesis is concerned with the English modals may and might and their Czech translation counterparts. The theoretical section will briefly introduce the category of modality and its two basic subtypes: deontic and epistemic. It will also provide an overview of the formal features and meanings of the two modals. Apart from that, it will focus on the mutual relationship between the two modal verbs. Furthermore, it will touch upon the situation in Czech. The empirical part will present an analysis of 100 authentic Czech translation equivalents of may and might. The material will be drawn from the parallel corpus InterCorp, specifically from prose and drama. The main objective of this analysis is to examine the proportion of the Czech means of expressing the meanings of may and might (modal verbs, modal particles etc.)
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Translation equivalents and function of eventive objects after the verbs "give/make" ("give an answer/make a promise")
Bláhová, Jana ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Brůhová, Gabriela (referee)
This BA thesis deals with the description of eventive objects after the verbs give and make. There is no equivalent construction in Czech and therefore the thesis focuses on the translation equivalents as well. The eventive object is a part of verbo-nominal constructions (the verb reflects the grammatical categories; the eventive object bears the meaning). One of the functions of the construction is modification and quantification flexibility (e.g. she gave a sad smile). Usually the modificators (both pre- and postmodificators) of the eventive noun are translated as adverbials into Czech. The position of the adverbial in the Czech sentence can cause problems in translation. In terms of methodology, the thesis is based on the analysis of 100 eventive objects exported from English original texts and their translation equivalents. The corpus of examples was acquired from InterCorp parallel corpus available under Český národní korpus. Firstly, and most importantly, clear criteria of the construction have to be established. Then the individual examples of the construction will be classified and described. Finally, the translation equivalents and modification will be analysed.
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The Use of Determiners in Art History and Criticism
Čížková, Lucie ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
9. Abstract This thesis deals with the use of determiners in proper names concerning visual art. Proper names are expressions that can comprise one or more words, either a common or a proper noun head with common or proper noun dependents. Although they have an internal structure that can be analysed as a structure of a common noun phrase, the structure of proper names is unchangeable since they function as a single grammatical and semantic unit. The reference of proper names is limited to non-generic situational reference. They refer directly to a particular person or object uniquely recoverable in the situation. Generally, the use of articles with proper names is limited to the definite or the null article (which is distinguished from the zero article). Examples demonstrating the use of determiners with proper names concerning art were excerpted from contemporary British art magazines. The excerpts were divided into seven semantic categories, most of which have not been covered, with respect to the use of articles, by any representative English grammar. The examples were analysed and described and conclusions were drawn. However, the results of this thesis cannot be considered as a set of clear-cut rules but rather an outline of tendencies in the use of articles with several semantically distinguished...
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Functional and translation correspondence of English demonstrative determiners in translation from English
Ledvinka, Miroslav ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to analyse Czech translation counterparts of English demonstrative determiners and determine the degree of correspondence in the use of demonstratives in both languages. The first half of the theoretical chapter defines the English demonstrative determiners on the morpho-syntactic level. Demonstrative determiners in English carry either situational or textual reference, which can be further divided into anaphora, cataphora and the non-phoric reference. Demonstratives also distinguish between singular forms (this/that) and plural forms (these/those), as well as between proximal (this/these) and distal forms (that/those). The choice of either a proximal or a distal form is not always influenced by solely spatial relationships. Less frequent instances of a co- occurrence of a demonstrative and a proper name (Vantage Theory), and of demonstratives with prominent cohesive features (Gradient focus theory), are also discussed. The second half of the theoretical introduction is focused on a morpho-syntactic classification of Czech demonstratives. The inflectional character of Czech, together with the absence of the category of definiteness results in different realisations of certain grammatical structures. The quantitatively larger set of Czech demonstratives is classified...
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The position of direct and indirect objects of selected English ditransitive verbs
Halamásková, Jana ; Brůhová, Gabriela (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The subject of the present thesis is an analysis of English ditransitive verbs, i.e. verbs that need complementation by two objects. The main focus is the position of the objects depending on their realization and factors influencing their ordering. There are four different types of realization distinguished: 1. both Od and Oi/Oprep realized by nouns; 2. Od realized by a noun and Oi/Oprep realized by a pronoun; 3. Od realized by a pronoun and Oi/Oprep realized by a noun; 4. both objects realized by pronouns. The position of the objects is assumed to be influenced by the principle of end-focus, i.e. clause element carrying less communicative dynamism (given information) tends to precede element carrying more communicative dynamism (new information), and by the principle of end-weight, i.e. the tendency to put longer and more complex (premodified or postmodified) clause elements towards the end of a clause. As new information is often stated more fully, the principle of end-focus and end- weight often reinforce each other. The analytical part is a corpus-based analysis of 120 examples for two ditransitive verbs, buy and sell, with 60 examples for each verb. The examples have been excerpted from the British National Corpus leaving out examples unsuitable for the analysis (e.g. passive voice). The...
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The subjunctive versus the "should"-construction and the indicative in dependent imperative clauses
Vlčková, Barbora ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
English dependent imperative clauses allow three possible forms of the verb phrase in the predicate: the subjunctive, the should-construction and the indicative. The present study deals with these paradigmatic variants and aims to examine their distribution in British English in a synchronic as well as a diachronic perspective. Drawing on grammars and previous studies, the theoretical part of the thesis provides an overview of the present issue and describes important terms. It is to serve mainly as background for the research part, which follows. The research project consists of two parts: a diachronic and a synchronic one. While the diachronic part focuses on the development of the distribution of the variants in dependent impererative clauses from the second half of the 20th century to the present, the synchronic part attempts to define some factors which may influnce the use of these variants in contemporary English. The study uses various corpora of British English as primary material for the research. Excerpted examples were analyzed and results were produced, on the basis of which conclusions were drawn.
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The use of lexical oppositeness in English internet advertising
Betincová, Barbora ; Klégr, Aleš (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The thesis deals with the relation of semantic opposition in the discourse of advertising. The aim of the thesis is to identify the techniques of advertising language based on the use of antonymy and describe their manipulative strategies. The thesis consists of two parts. The first is theoretical. It introduces the topics of advertising language and antonymy. It presents the views on definition of advertising, describes the influence of media on the language of advertising and summarizes the ba- sic advertising principles. Further, it defines antonymy and presents basic classification systems of opposites. Second part starts with the description of the research methodology and the database of advertisements created for the sake of the thesis. The following chapter analyses dis- tribution of classes of antonymy and describes individual advertising techniques and their manipulative force.
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Communicative strategies of politicians in interaction.
Lokajová, Jana ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
Abstract. The aim of this M.A. thesis is to apply on the sample of five transcribed interviews with American politicians the typology of strategies devised by social psychologists P. Bull and K. Mayer (1993) for 'non-replies' of British politicians in the genre of a political interview and to determine whether this typology could be qualitatively correlated to specific linguistic means (the use of passive, pronominal shifts, hedges). The responses of politicians are examined within the CDA method also in relation to the macro-principles of evasion (dissimulation), coercion, legitimation and delegitimation, which are claimed to be valid in political discourse by P. Chilton (2004) in order to discover whether Bull and Mayer's social typology could be related to these principles and to the strategies of face-management (Brown and Levinson 1987). It is expected that politicians will boost their positive image in the interview and coerce the public in the agenda shift (Clayman, Heritage 2002) through every response in the interview. A question which according to Bull and Elliott (1996) consists of face threat is also expected to be attacked; quantitative results are presented which verify this assumption. In addition, as thirty strategies were observed to have been employed by Mrs Thatcher and Neil Kinnock in...
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Anticipatory "it" objects
Filipová, Anežka ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The present study focuses on object extraposition in English based on an analysis of corpus findings. The construction in question comprises a monotransitive verb complemented by it which anticipates an object nominal content clause introduced by the conjunctions that, when or if/whether, immediately juxtaposed to the anticipatory it. The aim of the study is to determine the types and frequency of verbs which occur with object it extraposition and to describe what factors influence the use of anticipatory it. The study first provides a review of the relevant topics and outlines a summary of possible factors influencing the occurrence of the construction under study. It focuses on the properties of the verb and complements, the nature of object extraposition in English and the realisations of the object function, and lastly, it outlines the possible factors leading to the use of anticipatory it object. The research part of the study consists of two parts. The first one deals with the selection of material and methodology, while the second presents the description and analysis of the findings. The primary main part of the research was conducted on the data containing 836 sentences that were drawn from the British National Corpus. The research shows that the most frequent verbs occurring with...
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English past perfect in translation from Czech
Křiklánová, Tereza ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Brůhová, Gabriela (referee)
This thesis dealt with the English pluperfect in the Czech-English direction of translation. The aim of this thesis was to identify indices/motives leading to the use of the past perfect in the English translation, which could be found in the underlying Czech clauses. 200 examples and their English translational equivalents were analysed. Intercorp was used for excerption. It is an online parallel corpus tool made and run by Český národní korpus (Czech National Corpus). After the examples were excerpted, the complete parts of the Czech texts (used for excerption) were analysed. I tried to assess the constructions that should be translated by the past perfect myself. This should help to identify the Czech indices/motives leading to the use of the pluperfect in the English translation. My accuraccy in assessing the Czech constructions translated by the pluperfect was 38.5% (I managed to identify 77 out 200 examples found in the corpus). The examples found in the corpus were later classified according to the supposed reason for the use of the past perfect in the English translation, found in the Czech original. The groups were as follows: An adverbial or another lexical device contributing to specification of temporal relations (72 examples, 36%), Hypothetical past meaning (11 examples, 5.5%),...
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