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Theoretical tools for categorization and functional explanations of relations in language
Křivan, Jan ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor) ; Stekauer, Pavel (referee) ; Skarabela, Barbora (referee)
1 Abstract The dissertation Theoretical tools for categorization and functional explanations of relations in language is focused on linguistic categorization from the perspective of empirical gram- matical research. The primary aim is to present the theoretical and practical potential for the investigation of grammatical categories, stressing functional explanations of why cer- tain language structures are the way they are. The text is divided into two parts. (i) The first two chapters are devoted to the theoretical and methodological foundations of empirical linguistic research (including issues of metalanguage, language comparison, discreteness and gradience). Particular emphasis is placed on functional-evolutionary approaches, which describe grammar in interconnection with language use, and more specifically on func- tional explanations by means of frequency. (ii) In the following three chapters, the potential of corpus-based research is demonstrated in accordance with the principles adopted in (i). It is applied to the linguistic categories of possession and adjective comparison in Czech. Possession in Czech is described with regard to hypotheses based on statistical tendencies in language use. The main results of the research revealed the relationship between frequency of use and the animacy hierarchy,...
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The Idafa construction in Arabic and its morphosyntactic behaviour
Pospíšil, Adam ; Křivan, Jan (advisor) ; Zemánek, Petr (referee)
The so called Idafa construction is the central means for coding an attributive relation between two nominal phrases in Arabic. The semantics of the relation is rather vague, but it generally corresponds to a typical cross-linguistic concept of possession. This paper presents an analysis of the way this construction is marked, using the fundamental distinction between dependent-marking and head-marking features, which is outlined in Nichols (1986). It turns out that the traditional label classifying Idafa as a genitive construction can be misleading, since the morphosyntactic role of the genitive ending is rather dubious and it is rather the head-marking features that signal the presence of the relation. However, these features seem a little obscure since they do not dwell in adding a affixu to the head noun, but rather in imposing certain restrictions on the head (only bare heads are allowed and the head is left unspecified for the category of definiteness). In addition, as the analysis is aimed at the natural spoken use of Modern Standard Arabic, I take into account the socio-pragmatic variation presented by the possibility of reducing the nominal endings in speech, approached insightfully in Magidow (2009). These reductions give rise to a slightly different structural view of the morphosyntax of this...
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Theoretical tools for categorization and functional explanations of relations in language
Křivan, Jan ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor) ; Stekauer, Pavel (referee) ; Skarabela, Barbora (referee)
1 Abstract The dissertation Theoretical tools for categorization and functional explanations of relations in language is focused on linguistic categorization from the perspective of empirical gram- matical research. The primary aim is to present the theoretical and practical potential for the investigation of grammatical categories, stressing functional explanations of why cer- tain language structures are the way they are. The text is divided into two parts. (i) The first two chapters are devoted to the theoretical and methodological foundations of empirical linguistic research (including issues of metalanguage, language comparison, discreteness and gradience). Particular emphasis is placed on functional-evolutionary approaches, which describe grammar in interconnection with language use, and more specifically on func- tional explanations by means of frequency. (ii) In the following three chapters, the potential of corpus-based research is demonstrated in accordance with the principles adopted in (i). It is applied to the linguistic categories of possession and adjective comparison in Czech. Possession in Czech is described with regard to hypotheses based on statistical tendencies in language use. The main results of the research revealed the relationship between frequency of use and the animacy hierarchy,...
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The Idafa construction in Arabic and its morphosyntactic behaviour
Pospíšil, Adam ; Křivan, Jan (advisor) ; Zemánek, Petr (referee)
The so called Idafa construction is the central means for coding an attributive relation between two nominal phrases in Arabic. The semantics of the relation is rather vague, but it generally corresponds to a typical cross-linguistic concept of possession. This paper presents an analysis of the way this construction is marked, using the fundamental distinction between dependent-marking and head-marking features, which is outlined in Nichols (1986). It turns out that the traditional label classifying Idafa as a genitive construction can be misleading, since the morphosyntactic role of the genitive ending is rather dubious and it is rather the head-marking features that signal the presence of the relation. However, these features seem a little obscure since they do not dwell in adding a affixu to the head noun, but rather in imposing certain restrictions on the head (only bare heads are allowed and the head is left unspecified for the category of definiteness). In addition, as the analysis is aimed at the natural spoken use of Modern Standard Arabic, I take into account the socio-pragmatic variation presented by the possibility of reducing the nominal endings in speech, approached insightfully in Magidow (2009). These reductions give rise to a slightly different structural view of the morphosyntax of this...
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