Table of Contents
20-31
Pavol Žigo: Similarities of Linguistics and Non-Linguistics Structures
Abstract
The author refers in the paper to a similarity of elementary linguistic structures and some laws from the sphere of theoretical physics. Comparing older language development changes, that were realised after a breaking up of a Proto-Slavic unity and formation of new structures in the Slovak language with a prospective of a broader Slavic view, he points out analogical regularities between the linguistic and physical micro-structures.
Keywords
theoretical physics, isomorphism, (language) structures, isotropy, entropy
32-43
Oľga Orgoňová: Discourse Dynamics
Abstract
Discourses as multidimensional entities constitute a subject of transdisciplinary investigation. We consider discourses as being (mutually overlapping, confronting or cooperating) representations of the world and, at the same time, continual processes of the interaction of the active participants of communication, as well as products offering new virtual images of the world. Discourse dynamics is connected with the restructuring of the participants, the flexibility of the ways of representing the world (of the linkage of events and circumstances) and of involving the media, and it is a consequence of the (interdiscoursive) fluctuation of the constants of discourses. Within seizing the discourse dynamics we devote special attention to the following: 1. the restructuring of the social hierarchy, 2. the hybridization of institutional and non-institutional features of discourses, 3. the intensification of the persuasiveness of discourses. Within the hybridization of the features of discourses we point out the subjectivization of utterances, the conversationalization of interactions, and the importing of purposeful playfulness into “serious” communication while restructuring space and time in interactions.
Keywords
discourse, emergentness, interdiscoursivity, pluralist interpretation
44-52
Božena Bednaříková: Towards (Proto)typing of Morphological Processes
Abstract
Linguistic expressive processes (see for example Meľčuk, 2000) are divided into grammatical and non-grammatical (i. e. lexical). This “meaningful” criterion is combined with a „textual“ parameter, by which (non)crossing the boundaries of the word-form is meant. This article aims to satisfy the above mentioned criteria while establishing the basic classification of morphological processes valid for (not only) Czech morphology description.
Keywords
morphological process, linguistic expressive process, (non)grammatical, (non)morphological, lexicalization, function, formant
53-72
Ludmila Veselovská: Inversion and Fronting in English: A Cartography of Discourse in Generative Framework
Abstract
The paper describes in detail English structures containing Inversion of a clausal operator/ auxiliary, and the Fronting (preposing, left dislocation) of a phrasal constituent. First I provide a large list of constructions with the relevant word order specifications showing that Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) and Fronting, though they can interact, are results of two independent transformations which both require the presence of the projection of a Complementizer (CP). Then, because of the compatibility of several head and phrasal movements in English, I demonstrate how the CP level can be ‘split‘ as in Rizzi (1997) and Haegemann (2010) to accommodate projections including both Topic and Focus. At the end I mention some alternative generative analyses which are also able to integrate the discourse related phenomena in a syntactic tree.
Keywords
English Fronting, Subject-Auxiliary Inversion, Split CP, WH-Criterion, Focus Criterion
73-90
Michaela Martinková: I wish you would, I wish I could: a corpus-based study of sentences with wish
Abstract
Using data from the British National Corpus (BNC), this paper examines the complementation of the verb wish used with different subjects, and then focuses on patterns in which wish is typically complemented by a finite clause. It turns out that I wish is by far the most frequent clause with wish, and the subject of the finite clause following it is often I or you, i.e. a pronoun denoting a direct participant in conversation. Wishes addressed to the listener can be interpreted as appeals, or, as Searle (1975:64-5) argues, indirect directives (I wish you would V). Speaker-oriented wishes (the most frequent ones, e.g. I wish I could V) and wishes about third persons are expressions of attitudes. The subject of the finite clause after I/he/she wished is often the same as the subject of wish, and you is not common. A systematic analysis of finite clauses after I wish on the one hand, and of I/he/she wished on the other, brings supporting evidence for the argument that while clauses with wish in the past tense are true main clauses with a reporting function and the whole sentences function as statements, I wish has lost its main clause status and has become an expression of sentence modality, or in Poldauf’s (1964:253) terms a means of expressing the third syntactical plan.
Keywords
corpus linguistics; BNC; wish clauses; form and function; contrastive grammar; Czech; third syntactical plan
Book review
73-90
Ludmila Veselovská: The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind. Steven Pinker. (Trans. Markéta Hofmeisterová: Jazykový instinkt: Jak mysl vytváří jazyk)