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The syntax and semantics of the subject "it" as a style marker
Fišerová, Helena ; Dušková, Libuše (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
This thesis analyses the distribution of the different functions of the subject it in two text types: academic prose and fiction. The objective of the thesis is to discover to what extent and in which aspects the two examined text types differ. The analysis is based on two hundred examples of it in the subject function obtained from the British National Corpus (BNC), one half of them drawn from academic prose, the other from fiction. The functions of it analysed include anaphoric it, anticipatory it, empty it and it as the subject in a cleft sentence (focusing it). The discussion of anaphoric it focuses on the distance of the referent from the pronoun, the realisation form and semantic role of the referent; in the case of anticipatory it, attention is paid to the type of subordinate clause realising the extraposed subject and the realisation form and semantics of the predicate in the superordinate clause; for the cleft sentence, the analysis deals mainly with the realisation form and underlying syntactic function of the focused element. Additionally, the instances of it that did not fit into any of the four main categories are also examined. The two text types are first discussed separately, and the findings are then compared in the final part of the thesis. Key words: anaphoric it, anticipatory...
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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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