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The rise in the productivity of the o'clock construction
Erazímová, Lucie ; Sláma, Jakub (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The BA thesis zeroes in on the [non-numeral] o'clock construction, exemplified by instances such as beer o'clock or stupid o'clock, relying on the framework of Usage-based Construction Grammar. The central aim of the thesis is to reconstruct the semantic and syntactic development of the construction in recent years and to analyse the rise in the productivity. The theoretical part introduces the framework of Usage-based Construction Grammar and the terminology relevant for the analysis, such as type and token frequency, entrenchment, and productivity. The third chapter describes the distinct but related senses of o'clock according to English dictionaries and lays foundation for later attempts to construe a more precise explanation of the nature and the meaning of the [non-numeral] o'clock construction. The analysis of 329 examples, collected from COHA, COCA, BNC, and Twitter, focuses on the type-based, semantic, and grammatical productivity of items in the free slot of the [non- numeral] o'clock construction. Additional focus is given to the external syntax of the construction. The qualitative analysis outlines basic observations about the collective interaction between the semantic and grammatical properties of free-slot types and the external syntax, and further discusses their relevance to the...
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Partial conversion of adjectives into nouns without the use of the
Viktorinová, Inka ; Sláma, Jakub (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
This bachelor's thesis focuses on a previously unacknowledged type of partial syntactic conversion of adjectives into nouns, which can be found in sentences such as I like normal or weird is cool. The theoretical section introduces the theoretical frame of construction grammar the thesis is based on, as well as the problematics of conversion, particularly partial conversion of adjectives into nouns. In addition, the theoretical section also discusses multiple possible ways of analyzing structures such as the rich and the obvious (i.e. the difference between partial conversion vs. ellipsis) and how to describe these structures in terms of construction grammar. The practical section is based on the InterCorp corpus, Spoken BNC2014 and COCA; the analysis draws upon a hundred and twenty examples of the construction in question. The analytical section of the thesis shall focus on the complex descriptions of the construction (and potentially its types) with regard to its formal, semantic and referential characteristics, as well as on the pragmatic and contextual aspects related to its practical usage. Key words: conversion, adjective, construction, Construction Grammar
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Single uncomplemented adjectives available, responsible, and possible in pre-/post-head position
Petrechová, Sára ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Sláma, Jakub (referee)
The thesis is a qualitative corpus-based analysis focusing on three single uncomplemented adjectives, namely available, responsible and possible in their pre- and post-head position, and analysing features determining the two adjectival positions. The analysis is based on the syntactic and semantic properties proposed by Cinque (2010), which are applied to corpus examples with the intention of attesting or not these properties, namely deictic/generic meaning of adjectives, non- /restrictiveness, stage-/individual-level interpretation, and non-/specificity-inducing character of adjectives. The analysis also employs analyses from other theoretical studies by Bolinger (1952), James (1979) and a corpus-based study by Blöhdorn (2009). The abovementioned properties were attested as relevant in the examples of pre- and postmodifying available and responsible, while the adjective possible showed unclear results. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the quantification, reference, presupposition and semantic meaning play a significant role in determining the adjectival position. Key words: uncomplemented, adjective, adjectives, pre-head position, post-head position, premodification, postmodification, presupposition, quantification
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Available and responsible as modifiers
Dudáková, Petra ; Šaldová, Pavlína (advisor) ; Sláma, Jakub (referee)
The objective of the thesis is to describe and compare the modifying uses of two adjectives which can appear both as premodifiers as well as bare postmodifiers, namely available and responsible. Both modifying positions are examined with respect to the textual environment, the complexity of noun phrases and adjective phrases in which the adjectives function, reference and other features in order to outline the patterns in which these two adjectives appear. The data for the analytical part have been extracted from the British National Corpus using the basic query and limiting the search to the written part of the corpus. After manual assessment of the initial samples of 500 concordance lines, 154 concordance lines containing the adjective available and 147 containing the adjective responsible proved to be suitable for the analysis. The final samples of the data are further categorized and analysed concerning the complexity of the noun phrase, premodification, postmodification and complementation of the adjectives, semantic preference of the head nouns, and the motivation for the pre- or postnominal placement of the modifiers. Key words: adjective, adjective phrase, premodification, postmodification, complementation, attributive function, predicative function, postpositive function, bare adjective,...
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Variability in Rhoticity in Czech Speakers of English
Fischer, Ondřej ; Šturm, Pavel (advisor) ; Sláma, Jakub (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the description of contemporary Czech foreign accent in English by examining Czech learners' rhoticity, a substantial accent feature. Rhoticity is addressed both from a phonological and a phonetic perspective, and its variability under the influence of different factors is investigated. The theoretical part presents rhoticity and its various aspects in present day's accents of English, and its dimensions related to second language acquisition. The research part analyses rhoticity both in Czech university students of English, with respect to their accent-preferences, and in Czech non-students of English. The results show a distinct and consistent inclination to rhoticity in less proficient learners, a lower degree of consistency and dependence on accent models in students of English, a high capability of especially younger Czech learners to realise the rhotic contexts in a standard manner, and certain noticeable tendencies dependent on the critical /r/-phoneme's position in syllable. Key words: rhoticity, foreign accent, language transfer, L2 learner, accents of English, pronunciation model
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The subject in Czech and in English as seen through Google Translate
Kenderová, Anna ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Sláma, Jakub (referee)
This BA thesis aims to describe the differences between the Czech and English subject through the prism of Google Translate and the divergent strategies used by it to translate the subject from Czech to English. GT output is then compared to strategies used by a human translator. The theoretical part describes the history and methods of machine translation, strategies generally employed by human translators and finally, compares the form and function of the Czech and English subject. Special emphasis is put on the translation of Czech subjectless sentences and on the way the information structure influences the word-order in the languages. In the analytical part, 100 cases of non-corresponding translation of the subject by GT are excerpted and judged on the accuracy of the solution. They are then compared to the strategies used by the human translator. It was found that the most frequent non-corresponding translation strategy was in fact condensation (32%), which was not included in the initial hypothesis. In addition to condensation, construing a different clause element as the English object was the second most common (26% of excerptions, the majority of which was formed by construing Czech object as English subject.) In regard to human translation strategies, GT used the same strategy as a human...
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Sense Inheritance in the Derivation by Suffixes from Polysemous Words
Sláma, Jakub ; Bozděchová, Ivana (advisor) ; Martínek, František (referee)
The present thesis deals with, and elaborates on, the concept of sense inheritance (particularly with respect to suffixation in Czech). Drawing on more general remarks on lexical meaning, polysemy, and the semantic relatedness of a derived word and its base, the theoretical part of the thesis delineates the notion of sense inheritance, originating within the framework of construction grammar. It is shown that the idea of sense inheritance has at least implicitly been present in Czech lexicology (cf. the derivational criterion for identifying senses of polysemous words) and lexicography. It is argued that the traditional Czech theory of word formation relies on the assumption of the semantic transparency or even compositionality of motivated words, which can hardly be squared with empirical evidence concerning sense inheritance, nevertheless. In the empirical part of the thesis semantic relations are analyzed that hold between derivatives within 43 word families of polysemous bases (denoting body parts), and subsequently the sense-inheritance properties of the 80 most frequent (hence established and lexicalized) derivatives with the agentive suffix -tel and polysemous base verbs are contrasted with those found in 100 hapax legomena derived from polysemous bases with the same affix. This enables not...
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The prepositional phrase with the preposition at as a valency complement of nouns
Sláma, Jakub ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
The present thesis deals with noun valency, its relation to reference, and factors underlying the realization of the valency potential of nouns. The theoretical part examines valency in general, delineating the basic terminology and concepts usually employed in the descriptions of valency couched within various linguistic frameworks. The theoretical part subsequently focuses more specifically on the valency of nouns, pointing out in what ways it differs from the valency of verbs. The support verb construction is introduced, and it is explained why the construction is not examined in the present thesis. Two interfaces are introduced, viz. that of valency and word-formation, and that of valency and reference, or contextual boundness. The empirical part of the thesis is divided into several parts, all relying on data from the British National Corpus. The quantitative part of the analysis shows that the nouns attempt and ability obligatorily take an explicit complement when they are immediately preceded by an indefinite article marking their newness in discourse. This could possibly challenge both the widespread claim that the expression of the valency potential of a noun is never obligatory and the claim that (these) nouns are avalent. The qualitative part of the analysis examines the expression of...
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English counterparts of the Czech instrumental case
Sláma, Jakub ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
1 Abstract The present thesis deals with English translation counterparts of Czech non-prepositional instrumental case forms of nouns. The theoretical part briefly describes the Czech case system and the status of the instrumental case, both non-prepositional and prepositional, within this system, and also discusses certain (especially morphological) aspects of the instrumental case. Subsequently, syntactic functions and semantic roles of non-prepositional instrumental case forms are characterized, which serves as a basis for attempting to describe the possible English counterparts of non-prepositional instrumental case forms, especially with respect to the semantics. The methodological section of the thesis includes arguments for a primarily semantic approach (rather than an all-syntactic one). The analysis is based on a sample of 110 non-prepositional instrumental case forms and their English counterparts, i.e. 10 examples for each of the delineated semantic specifications (viz. agent, direction or path, manner, accompanying circumstances, the phasal instrumental case, instrument, material, means, actional means, viewpoint, cause) excerpted from the parallel corpus InterCorp v8. The analysis aims to identify the primary realization form for each semantic specification and to describe semantic and...
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