Analysis of prepositions: near and away from Frames of reference.

XXII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2017)Traditional strategies and procedures to learn a foreign language include the study of rules of grammar and doing exercises such as filling the gaps, repetition of words, drills, memorization of irregular verbs and sentences which may express usual expressions of everyday life. Even if the array of exercises is adequate, polysemy in prepositions causes difficulties in choosing the proper preposition conveying the meaning required by different contexts. Two prepositions of the horizontal axis (near and away from) are taken into consideration in this paper. Approaching the problem from the theory of polysemy and understanding, the use of these prepositions is explored along the dimensions of function, topology – which is the study of physical space–, and force dynamics – introduced in studies such as Navarro (1998)–, as well as the notion of frame of reference (Levinson, 2004). Then, the different senses and uses of these prepositions of the horizontal axis are systematized, explained and examples are used to illustrate the difficulties in learning a language and the doubts which students may have in some situations

Two approaches to teach the preposition on

XVIII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2013)As some studies suggest (Navarro 1998; Navarro, Campoy & Caballero 2001; Silvestre 2009), the mastery of in, on, and at presents special problems for many Spanish students of English as a Foreign Language. In this project I have focused on the preposition on in order to check a different theoretical approach and an experimental approach at the same time. Following the theoretical proposals by Navarro (1998), a same series of activities were prepared for two groups of intermediate level of English at the official school of languages in Castellón. The main and only difference between each group lies in the method employed to introduce the use of on. Thus, at the beginning of the lesson, the theory and the basic senses of on were explained with examples in the first group. In the second group, in contrast, some images were shown in order to experiment the common senses or uses of on mentioned by themselves without theory. Apart from the activities, proficiency assessments were developed in order to know the level and mastery of the use of prepositions on, in and at, with a special focus on the basic senses of on with examples. These proficiency assessments were filled in by students at the beginning and at the end of the class. After the implementation of the lessons in either group following these two different methodological procedures, data were gathered from students and the results concerning the preposition on were compared in both groups in terms of correct answers. Finally, the general results of this study show the benefits of the experimental and the theoretical approach to the teaching of on particularly. Then, the conclusions show the convenient approach for the context of my project

Image-schematic structures of near, next to and by in the landscape context of The Hobbit

XXIII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2018)Various senses of quotidian words ─not just literal or physical senses, but also figurative senses─ appear very often in narrative storytelling contexts. In the case of prepositions, polysemy is an acknowledged evident phenomenon. Many linguists in the cognitive linguistics tradition have analysed the semantic contrasts between prepositions, on the grounds of image-schemas (Lakoff 1987), frames of reference (Levinson 2003) and other cognitive patterns. The aim of this paper is to clarify the meaning of the prepositions near, next to and by as well as the perception boundaries that contribute to that meaning, through the analysis of the spatial language in the book The Hobbit, by John Ronald R. Tolkien. This literary work is particularly useful for the analysis of spatial language because, by describing spatial environments and situations, the author helps readers understand an imaginary world and controls their spatial perception and conceptualisation. The term image-schema refers to imaginative procedures in connection with meaning and perception. According to Navarro i Ferrando (2000, 2006, 2011), there are three different image-schematic perceptual dimensions in which trajector (TR) and landmark (LM) play their role for the conceptualisation of a particular scene. Thus, this research provides a proposal of prepositional meaning and polysemy regarding image-schematic structure, according to a three-dimensional system, which includes topology, force-dynamics and function to illustrate TR-LM relationships. The results shed some light on the semantic contrast between next to, near and by

New technologies and the internet

Treball Final del Màster Universitari en Llengua Anglesa per al Comerç Internacional. Codi: SAR016. Curs acadèmic 2014-2015Many companies need to improve the sales techniques, since knowing how to sell is a vital concept for marketing success. A successful sales process starts by looking at the customer and what they want, rather than what managers are trying to sell. Good sales skills include anticipating and dealing with customers, and negotiation should start with understanding the customer. It is considered good practice to plan the sale strategically and to make them enthusiastic about buying. There are three main ways to understand one's customers better. One way is to put oneself in their shoes, and try to look at one's own business from their point of view. The second way is to collect and analyse data in order to understand their needs and the third one is simply to ask them what customers think. Thus, communication methods are not the same and new technologies and the Internet have changed the ways to contact each other through these years. One of the benefits is that access is available 24 hours worldwide. There is information, frequently asked questions, and not only the text, also high quality colour images, sounds and videos. For this reason, in this project the main objective is to show a proposal for sales improvements through the web page and by email. Therefore, several issues need to be explained initially to better understand the final proposal. Then, the information about the company where I have been working for is included. In addition, an analysis of some weaknesses and some proposals for improvements are explained in several points. In brief, an introduction of new technologies and the Internet, the use of electronic email, some tips for using them, information about web pages, some strategies as well as examples of companies which create a web page, information about design including video, colours or images, business communication, web page in a small business and the last point, the continuous improvement, are included

The polysemy of prepositions at, beside, by, near and next to: The horizontal axis of spatial relations

Even though some prepositions may appear similar in meaning to others, slight and subtle nuances exist. Thus, exploring the contrasts in their senses is fundamental to developing a description of these distinct meanings. The material for the analysis in this study consists of one thousand examples of each of five prepositions (at, beside, by, near and next to) from the BNC. In a comparative analysis, identifying the frequency of uses is necessary to determine the uses of prepositions and the updated evolution of their applications to express perceived scenes. The novelty in my approach to this research lies primarily in the fact that it is a method which has not been employed before and should therefore offer a freshness and clarity for studying prepositions, yielding new insights into both their uses and into how these uses are to be understood.Programa de Doctorat en Llengües Aplicades, Literatura i Traducci