English get-passives in contemporary British English

The present article is a corpus-based study of the get-passive in British English. The theoretical part focuses on the general characteristics of the get-passive, pointing out the differences between the be- and the get-passive. The empirical part analyzes 100 examples of passive constructions with get, excerpted from the Araneum Anglicum Minus corpus, from syntactic-semantic and pragmatic aspects. Our study shows that the get-passive proves to be a dynamic construction, occurring almost exclusively with dynamic verbs. Next, the subject of get-passives tends to have an agentive role, rather than the role of an affected participant. Finally, the analysis demonstrates that the get-passive occurs most frequently in situations with either an adverse or beneficial effect on the subject or person concerned. The article provides a syntactic-semantic analysis of English get-passives and aims to contribute to a more detailed description of this passive construction in contemporary British English.405

English presentative sentences with have

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Reporting Verbs in L1 and L2 English Novice Academic Writing

The paper contributes to the research on academic attribution by exploring syntactic-semantic patterns of English reporting verbs used by three types of academic writers, namely L2 novice (with Czech as their L1), L1 novice and L1 expert academic writers. It investigates the impact which both the EFL and EAP challenge has on the use of these verbs by L2 novice academic writers. Our approach combines contrastive analysis and learner corpus research, focusing on academic writing in English in the discipline of economics. The results suggest that although similarities among the groups prevail, Czech novice academic writers tend to resort to patterns associated with informal, conversational rather than academic style. Pedagogical implications of the findings could include raising students’ awareness of the practice of appropriate academic reporting as one of the skills needed for them to accommodate themselves to the conventions of English as the academic lingua franca

Syntaktické, sémantické a aktuálněčlenské apekty ditranzitivní komplementace: analýza sloves give, lend, send, offer a show

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...Tato studie se zabývá analýzou pěti ditranzitivních sloves give, lend, send, offer a show. Studie zkoumá pozici předmětů a faktory, které jejich řazení ovlivňují. Práce je snahou podat systematický přehled pozice předmětů s ohledem na jejich realizaci. Jsou zde proto rozlišeny čtyři různé druhy realizace předmětů: i. oba předměty Oi /Oprep i Od jsou realizovány substantivy; ii. oba předměty Oi /Oprep i Od jsou realizovány zájmeny; iii. Oi /Oprep je realizován substantivem a Od zájmenem; iv. Oi /Oprep je realizován zájmenem a Od substantivem. Pozice předmětů bývá ovlivněna dvěma principy. Dle prvního principu jsou předměty řazeny podle základního rozložení výpovědní dynamičnosti. Druhý princip lze charakterizovat jako princip postpozice rozvitějších větných členů; rozvitější předmět bývá v koncové pozici. Ze tří (popř. čtyř, včetně intonace) faktorů určujících aktuálněčlenskou funkci větného členu, v případě ditranzitivní komplementace hraje největší roli okolní kontext. Zvláštní pozornost je proto věnována kontextové zapojenosti / nezapojenosti obou předmětů. Tato práce si klade za cíl zjistit, zda jsou předměty řazeny v souladu s těmito principy, nebo zda v řazení předmětů hrají roli i jiné faktory.Ústav anglistiky a amerikanistikyFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

Syntactic, semantic and FSP aspects of ditransitive complementation: a study of give, lend, send, offer and show

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..

Passivization of ditransitive verbs from the FSP point of view

The present paper aims at contributing to the study of passivization of ditransitive complementation from the FSP point of view. English ditransitive verbs generally allow two passive constructions, i.e. the subject of a passive can in the active correspond either to Oi (Jack was sent a copy of the letter) or to Od (A copy of the letter was sent (to) Jack). As the passive usually serves as one of the means used to achieve the basic distribution of communicative dynamism, the choice of the subject and the object of the passive can be supposed to be motivated, respectively, by their thematic and rhematic function. Thus, the sentence is perspectived away from the subject and constitutes the quality scale. The aim of the paper is to verify this assumption and to find out whether a passive sentence with a ditransitive verb can also implement the presentation scale, i.e. whether the sentence can be perspectived towards the subject and introduce a phenomenon into discourse. Attention is paid to other potential factors that might play a role in the selection of the passive, namely the semantics of the verb and of the indirect object (whether the recipient is actual or intended), object deletion (i.e. omission of an object) and the expression of the by-agent. The analysis is based on examples obtained from the British National Corpus

Syntactic, semantic and FSP aspects of ditransitive complementation: a study of give, lend, send, offer and show

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..

Passivization of ditransitive verbs from the FSP point of view

The present paper aims at contributing to the study of passivization of ditransitive complementation from the FSP point of view. English ditransitive verbs generally allow two passive constructions, i.e. the subject of a passive can in the active correspond either to Oi (Jack was sent a copy of the letter) or to Od (A copy of the letter was sent (to) Jack). As the passive usually serves as one of the means used to achieve the basic distribution of communicative dynamism, the choice of the subject and the object of the passive can be supposed to be motivated, respectively, by their thematic and rhematic function. Thus, the sentence is perspectived away from the subject and constitutes the quality scale. The aim of the paper is to verify this assumption and to find out whether a passive sentence with a ditransitive verb can also implement the presentation scale, i.e. whether the sentence can be perspectived towards the subject and introduce a phenomenon into discourse. Attention is paid to other potential factors that might play a role in the selection of the passive, namely the semantics of the verb and of the indirect object (whether the recipient is actual or intended), object deletion (i.e. omission of an object) and the expression of the by-agent. The analysis is based on examples obtained from the British National Corpus.273

Syntaktické, sémantické a aktuálněčlenské apekty ditranzitivní komplementace: analýza sloves give, lend, send, offer a show

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...Tato studie se zabývá analýzou pěti ditranzitivních sloves give, lend, send, offer a show. Studie zkoumá pozici předmětů a faktory, které jejich řazení ovlivňují. Práce je snahou podat systematický přehled pozice předmětů s ohledem na jejich realizaci. Jsou zde proto rozlišeny čtyři různé druhy realizace předmětů: i. oba předměty Oi /Oprep i Od jsou realizovány substantivy; ii. oba předměty Oi /Oprep i Od jsou realizovány zájmeny; iii. Oi /Oprep je realizován substantivem a Od zájmenem; iv. Oi /Oprep je realizován zájmenem a Od substantivem. Pozice předmětů bývá ovlivněna dvěma principy. Dle prvního principu jsou předměty řazeny podle základního rozložení výpovědní dynamičnosti. Druhý princip lze charakterizovat jako princip postpozice rozvitějších větných členů; rozvitější předmět bývá v koncové pozici. Ze tří (popř. čtyř, včetně intonace) faktorů určujících aktuálněčlenskou funkci větného členu, v případě ditranzitivní komplementace hraje největší roli okolní kontext. Zvláštní pozornost je proto věnována kontextové zapojenosti / nezapojenosti obou předmětů. Tato práce si klade za cíl zjistit, zda jsou předměty řazeny v souladu s těmito principy, nebo zda v řazení předmětů hrají roli i jiné faktory.Department of the English Language and ELT MethodologyÚstav anglického jazyka a didaktikyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Non-Standard Functions of Like in Spoken Discourse

The present study is concerned with non-standard functions of the word like in spoken American English. The aim was to gather all the non-standard functions that have been described in the past 30 years, to create a comprehensive overview serving as the basis for the analysis of a sample of 100 instances of non-standard like excerpted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The sample was analysed and sorted according to the function of like (focus marker, hedge, quotative marker, and discourse marker), while also examining the position and collocations of each instance. The conclusions of the study were validation of the proposed overview and its extension by an additional quotative construction, a more detailed description of the „hedge“ and the focus marker like and also the confirmation that the non-standard like is not an empty intrusive word but a multifunctional, ever-developing device which allows speakers to modify the pragmatic meaning of their utterances.456