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English translation counterparts of Czech relative clauses
Sedláčková, Markéta ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Dušková, Libuše (referee)
The thesis studies authentic English translation counterparts of the Czech relative clauses with the relative in nominative with the objective to describe realization forms of this modifier, which uses nonfinite clauses on a larger scale. In addition, English signals restrictive function of the modifiers with a comma, Czech does not do so. The theoretical part deals separately with English and Czech syntactic relations, modification, and related topics. It sums up main differences and similarities perceived as the consequence of the differences between analytical-nominal character of English, and flective-verbal character of Czech. The study proceeds from general to more detailed, i. e. from the syntactic relations to the non-obligatory process of the modification of the noun. Next, the characterisitics of nominal phrase constituents is described, emphasising the relative clause. However, English part is more focused on the non-finite modifiers, as is supposed that their presence in the data will be denser. Hence, there are separate sections speaking about -ing participle, -ed participle, infinitive, adjectives, prepositional phrase, and apposition. The excerption results show that the relative clause may be translated into preposed adjectives and other types of finite dependent clauses. As the next topic,...
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The principle of end focus in the English clause and the means of its realization. A comparison of older and contemporary literary text
Rubešová, Michaela ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Brůhová, Gabriela (referee)
In the present study we have attempted to determine the means of realization of the end-focus principle in the English clause. Conducting an analysis of two sample literary texts, an older one and a contemporary one, the aim was to trace the mutual influence of two word order principles, the principle of end-focus, which projects itself in the basic distribution of communicative dynamism over the sentence elements, and the grammatical principle, which represents the main word ordering tool in the English clause and as such may prevail over the functional sentence perspective. The analysis presented here had in its focus the possible outcomes of the application of the two principles. After dividing the material according to the clauses underlying word order, i.e. into clauses with and without transformation, analysis of the aspects influencing the FSP - linearity, the semantic aspect and the contextual aspect - was performed and several distinct types of clauses were identified depending on the extent to which either of the principles asserts itself in them. In the first type, both GWO and BDofCD were displayed by the clauses. These comprised 54.6% of the total of 441 clauses accepted for the analysis. The aspects monitored in them included the context-dependent character of the initial subject and the...
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Syntactic, semantic and FSP aspects of ditransitive complementation: a study of give, lend, send, offer and show
Brůhová, Gabriela ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Hajičová, Eva (referee) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The subject of the present study is an analysis of five ditransitive verbs: give, lend, send, offer and show. The study focuses on the position of the two objects and on the factors that have an impact on the object ordering. An attempt is here made to provide a systematic overview of the position of the two objects with respect to their realization (i.e. substantival or pronominal). As regards the realization of the two objects, four types are distinguished: i. both Oi /Oprep and Od realized by nouns; ii. both Oi /Oprep and Od realized by pronouns; iii. Oi /Oprep realized by a noun and Od by a pronoun; iv. Oi /Oprep realized by a pronoun and Od by a noun. The position of the objects is assumed to be associated with the distribution of communicative dynamism or in other words with the principle of end-focus, i.e. that given information tends to precede new information. The second principle that operates in the ordering the two objects is the principle of end-weight. Of the three (or four, including intonation) factors whose interplay determines the FSP function of a clause element, in the case of ditransitive complementation the most important role is played by the contextual factor. Therefore, particular attention is paid to the context-dependence / independence of the two objects. The present...
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The general human agent in English and in French (a contrastive view of the French "on")
Železná, Andrea ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Dušková, Libuše (referee)
The subject of this thesis is the analysis of English translation equivalents of the French pronoun on. This 'personal indefinite pronoun' is the typical means of expressing the general human agent in the French language. Unlike French, English does not have any special device for this purpose. It must employ linguistic devices which have other primary functions than the expression of the general human agent. These devices are explicit or implicit; they were described, for example, by Dušková (Dušková 1999) and Kratochvílová (Kratochvílová 2007). A short study of English translation equivalents of generic on was part of Tláskal's paper (Tláskal 2004). However, the pronoun on is not always generic; its reference can also be indefinite or definite. Since this thesis studies the English counterparts of all three types of on, translation devices were also collected of uses other than generic. This study analyses 200 sentences including the French on and their translation counterparts. The material was excerpted from 4 French novels and their translations into English. The 200 examples are divided into 4 groups according to the type of reference their on has: generic, indefinite, definite, or ambiguous. For each group, the English counterparts are studied. They are divided into 3 classes:...
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English modal verb "must" ("have to") and its Czech counterparts
Libertin, Daniel ; Dušková, Libuše (referee) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor)
The presented study focuses on the English modal verb must. It will attempt to explore its use in English and its corresponding Czech translation counterparts. The aim of this study is to examine the correspondences and differences between the uses of must and the respective Czech devices of expressing modality, in order to present a contrastive analysis of the means of expressing modality in both languages. In the theoretical part of the study, an overview of meanings, uses and functions of must in English with a focus on the extrinsic/intrinsic differentiation will be introduced. Its morphological features will be also described. This will be backed up by a short description of the concepts of modality and modal verbs. A brief outline of the situation in the Czech language will be also included, with the aim to introduce the points of contrast between the English must and the Czech modal verb muset, as well as the frequent use of modal particles/adverbs in Czech. In the empirical part, an analysis based on 179 occurrences of the verb must and its authentic counterparts in Czech will be provided. The analysis will be divided into two stages. In the first stage, the findings will be classified into the semantic subcategories according to the type of modality. The second stage will attempt to render a...
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Epistemic and root possibility meanings of can and may in written English
Remešová, Petra ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Hornová, Magdalena (referee) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The study is concerned with the English modal auxiliaries CAN and MAY and their morphologically past tense forms COULD and MIGHT.1 It is essentially a small-scale corpus-based investigation into possibility meanings of these modal auxiliaries in contemporary written British English, taking account of stylistic variation. The investigation focuses on assigning appropriate readings to contextualized occurrences of modal auxiliaries and is thus primarily based on discussions of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects. The study attempts to present a general account of possibility senses of CAN/COULD and MAY/MIGHT and reviews the issues relating to their use and distribution on the basis of a semantic and quantitative analysis. However, frequency of occurrence is meant to provide merely a supplementary view of the qualitative analysis, focusing on the role of context in interpreting modal meanings. Among the modal-specific questions that the treatise addresses are those concerning modal semantics, syntactic co-occurrence patterns, stylistic variation, and pragmatic inferencing. It is important to note that the study does not attempt to provide an exhaustive and systematic semantic description of CAN/COULD and MAY/MIGHT. Based on interpreting particular contextualized occurrences, it primarily investigates...
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A contrastive study of -ingly adverbials with special regard to disjuncts
Jarkovská, Martina ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Voráček, Jaroslav (referee) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
The present study is concerned with -ing participle base adverbs as one realization form of this word class and their Czech equivalents. The focus of our study is on -ingly adverbials especially in their sentence modifying function. Sentence modification is present in both languages, English and Czech; however, based on morphological and syntactic differences between the two languages, the means of Czech and English sentence modification do not always correspond. Above all, this is caused by the fact that -ingly adverbials, a productive class of disjuncts evaluating the content of the clause from the speaker's point of view, structurally more or less do not have Czech corresponding counterparts. In English -ing participle base adverbials can be regarded as condensed forms of clausal realization (surprisingly ~ it is surprising). Although in Czech such adverbial forms are structurally possible, they are not in common usage (překvapující ~ *překvapujícně). This often results in applying different means of attitudinal evalution as counterparts of -ingly disjuncts. Therefore a primary interest of this work is a comparison of morphological, syntactic and stylistic differences in the sentence modification between English and Czech. Unlike in Czech where the word order is flexible, in English the position of a...
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Determiners with Dutch and English nouns
Smetanová, Andrea ; Dušková, Libuše (referee) ; Hrnčířová, Zdeňka (advisor)
This thesis deals with the grammatical category of definiteness and presents a synchronic comparison of various types of reference and their respective means of expression used in Dutch and English. In the chapter devoted to classification of languages, both languages are put in the cultural and historical context. This is followed by general observations on the category of definiteness and its ways of expression and over the article as a word-class, its form and position. Based on a detailed description of the Dutch and the English system of articles, the formal differences in the way of expressing definiteness in both languages are summarized. In the chapter dealing with the system of reference, we present the basic types of reference used in Dutch and English and their respective means of expression. This chapter, too, is concluded by listing the formal and terminological differences. Quite close attention is paid also to the phenomenon of 'overt absence of a determiner' with nouns in both languages, a systematic treatment of which is usually not offered by the canonical grammar books. In relation to plural nouns, the situation is quite transparent, since the overtly absent article indicates either 'generic' or 'non-generic indefinite' reference, in both cases by means of the zero article. However, in...
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Epistemic and root possibility meanings of can and may in written English
Huschová, Petra ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Hornová, Magdalena (referee) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The study is concerned with the English modal auxiliaries CAN and MAY and their morphologically past tense forms COULD and MIGHT.1 It is essentially a small-scale corpus-based investigation into possibility meanings of these modal auxiliaries in contemporary written British English, taking account of stylistic variation. The investigation focuses on assigning appropriate readings to contextualized occurrences of modal auxiliaries and is thus primarily based on discussions of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects. The study attempts to present a general account of possibility senses of CAN/COULD and MAY/MIGHT and reviews the issues relating to their use and distribution on the basis of a semantic and quantitative analysis. However, frequency of occurrence is meant to provide merely a supplementary view of the qualitative analysis, focusing on the role of context in interpreting modal meanings. Among the modal-specific questions that the treatise addresses are those concerning modal semantics, syntactic co-occurrence patterns, stylistic variation, and pragmatic inferencing. It is important to note that the study does not attempt to provide an exhaustive and systematic semantic description of CAN/COULD and MAY/MIGHT. Based on interpreting particular contextualized occurrences, it primarily investigates...
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