Subject expression in Spanish

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly L. Geeslin ◽  
Aarnes Gudmestad

Research on variation demonstrates that analyses of frequency and predictors of use contribute to our understanding of languages. Investigations of subject expression in Spanish in particular have identified differences across person and number of the verb that suggest that linguists should focus their analyses exclusively on a single category of that variable (e.g., Torres-Cacoullos and Travis 2010). The current paper examines the subject-expression forms produced in first- and second-person contexts in separate analyses, exploring the degree to which patterns of use generalize across verbal person categories. Data from 32 sociolinguistic interviews with native and non-native speakers of Spanish in the same speech community were coded for independent linguistic variables, such as switch reference, perseveration, tense, mood and aspect of the verb form, verbal negation, presence of object pronouns, specificity and reference cohesiveness. Separate multivariate analyses for first- and second-person referents show subtle differences between NSs and NNSs.

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taiwo Oluwaseun Ehineni

The subject of the proverb especially in the African context has been diversely explored by studies as Yankah (1989), Obeng (1996), Owomoyela (2005) and Fasiku (2006), this study however attempts a discourse and structural analysis of Yorùbá proverbs collected from oral interviews and native Yorùbá texts. First, based on a theory of the proverb as a discourse medium, the study reveals that proverbs are used to achieve different discourse acts and communicative goals by speakers. Native speakers use the proverb as a linguistic strategy of negotiating deep ideas and intentions. Second, the paper avers that Yorùbá proverb is structurally characterized by some lexical and grammatical devices which help to reinforce its communicative intelligibility and textuality. Thus, it examines the Yorùbá proverb both functionally and formally and underscores that it is a culturally and linguistically rich significant part of the Yorùbá speech community.


2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARI C. JONES

The aim of this paper is to investigate a case of transfer within the context of language death. By examining data from Jersey Norman French (known to its speakers as Jèrriais) it illustrates the difficulty in determining linguistic norms for this relatively undocumented variety and suggests possible strategies to overcome this problem. The study compares systematically the occurrence of overt and covert transfer in the speech of a sample of fifty native speakers of Jèrriais via the analysis of a number of linguistic variables. The extent to which transfer-induced changes are themselves becoming established as norms within this speech community will also be considered.


Author(s):  
András Bárány

This chapter turns to object agreement with personal pronouns in Hungarian. Pronouns are interesting because they do not always trigger agreement with the verb: first person objects never trigger object agreement (morphology), and second person pronouns only do with first person singular subjects. It is proposed that the distribution of object agreement is a morphological effect and argues that all personal pronouns do in fact trigger agreement, but agreement is not always spelled out. This means that Hungarian has an inverse agreement system, where the spell-out of agreement is determined by the relative person feature (or person feature sets) of the subject and the object. A formally explicit analysis of the syntax and the morphological spell-out of agreement is provided.


Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Pascale Leclercq

This study aims to advance the understanding of the impact of the discursive context in the form-function mappings of aller + V forms by native speakers (NSs) and learners of French (NNSs), and to further knowledge about the developmental patterns of use of such forms at three proficiency levels (lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced). While aller + V is often referred to as a periphrastic future form, i.e., a way to express temporal reference, it also takes a range of diverse semantic values (including spatial, aspectual, and modal values), and discursive functions. We therefore set out to examine data from a cross-sectional oral narrative and a longitudinal semi-guided interview task to find out to what extent aller + V forms are used by NSs and NNSs in a study abroad context. Our main results show that at lower intermediate level, spatial values dominate, while temporal and modal values emerge at upper intermediate and advanced levels. As regards the discursive functions of aller + V, learners make context appropriate choices (among others, narrative function in oral narratives, and stance-marking in interviews), but even at advanced level, their range of semantic values and discursive functions is more restricted than native speakers’.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Feist

Skolt Saami is a Finno-Ugric language spoken primarily in northeast Finland by less than 300 people. The aim of this descriptive grammar is to provide an overview of all the major grammatical aspects of the language. It comprises descriptions of Skolt Saami phonology, morphophonology, morphology, morphosyntax and syntax. A compilation of interlinearised texts is provided in Chapter 11. Skolt Saami is a phonologically complex language, displaying contrastive vowel length, consonant gradation, suprasegmental palatalisation and vowel height alternations. It is also well known for being one of the few languages to display three distinctive degrees of quantity; indeed, this very topic has already been the subject of an acoustic analysis (McRobbie-Utasi 1999). Skolt Saami is also a morphologically complex language. Nominals in Skolt Saami belong to twelve different inflectional classes. They inflect for number and nine grammatical cases and may also mark possession, giving rise to over seventy distinct forms. Verbs belong to four different inflectional classes and inflect for person, number, tense and mood. Inflection is marked by suffixes, many of which are fused morphemes. Other typologically interesting features of the language, which are covered in this grammar, include (i) the existence of distinct predicative and attributive forms of adjectives, (ii) the case-marking of subject and object nominals which have cardinal numerals as determiners, and (iii) the marking of negation with a negative auxiliary verb. Skolt Saami is a seriously endangered language and it is thus hoped that this grammar will serve both as a tool to linguistic researchers and as an impetus to the speech community in any future revitalisation efforts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-325
Author(s):  
Nadja Thoma

Zusammenfassung Im Kontext der zunehmenden Versicherheitlichung von Migration, deren Bedeutung auch für sprachliche Bildung im Kontext nationaler und globaler Sicherheitsagenden diskutiert wird, werden bestimmte Gruppen von Migrant*innen als Sicherheitsbedrohung konstruiert. Die Instrumentalisierung von Sprache für Identitätspolitik, die im Konzept von Sprache als ,Schlüssel zur Integration‘ besonders deutlich wird und unter Rückgriff auf Sprachideologien erklärt werden kann, bleibt nicht ohne Folgen für Angehörige minorisierter Gruppen. Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, was ,innere Sicherheit‘ für Student*innen bedeutet, denen zugeschrieben wird, keine ,native speaker‘ zu sein. Den Bezugspunkt der ,inneren Sicherheit‘ bildet dabei nicht der Nationalstaat, sondern das Subjekt. Aus einer biographieanalytischen Perspektive wird rekonstruiert, mit welchen (Un-)Sicherheitsdimensionen die Subjekte an der Universität und in Hinblick auf ihre beruflichen Pläne konfrontiert sind, wie Sicherheit und Sprache biographisch eingebettet sind und welche Strategien und Wege die Student*innen (nicht) nutzen (können), um ihre Sicherheitsspielräume zu erweitern.Abstract: In light of the increasing securitization of migration, language education is discussed as part of national and global security agendas, and certain groups of migrants have been constructed as a security threat. The instrumentalization of language for identity politics is particularly evident in the concept of language as a ‘key to integration’ and can be explained with language ideologies. These ideologies are not without consequences for members of minoritized groups. The article at hand explores the meaning of ‘internal security’ for university students who are not considered ‘native speakers’. The reference point of ‘internal security’ is not the nation state, but the subject. From a biographical-analytical perspective, the article reconstructs dimensions of security and insecurity which the subjects confront at university with regard to their professional aims. It will explore how the connection between security and language is embedded in their biographies, as well as the strategies and pathways students can and cannot use to expand their security scope.


LETS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Muh. Ikhlasul Amal ◽  
Syahdan ◽  
Risal Pandi ◽  
Halid M ◽  
Arialdi

The aim of the study was  to  analyze  and  describe  the  process of  improving students’ listening skill for eleventh grade students of MAN 1 Majene, West Sulawesi Province through  watching English movies. The subject of this research is XI Agama 2 Class that consisted of 16 students. The method used in this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR) which the writer works  collaboratively with the English teacher. The results in this study indicate that there  was  improvement of the students’ skill listening. Most of the students gradually gained good scores at the end of the cycle. The data were collected from a questionnaire, observation note of performance, pre-test and post-test. The study was conducted with cycle model through the steps of planning, conducting, observation, and reflection. The results of this study show a significant relationship between students' learning by English movie with delay subtitle related to their listening skills as shown in their improvement of post- test and positive responses of students than  E nglish movie  with not delay. The questionnaire shows that more than 75% students felt easy to understand listening materials from native speakers. Consequently, it was suggested that teaching learning process using English movie with English subtitle is recommended  into  learning  process  to  improve students' listening skills in English language classroom. In conclusion, watching English movie can improve students listening skill.


2019 ◽  
pp. 25-38
Author(s):  
Besma Dechir ◽  
Atef Chouikh ◽  
Tarek Hamel ◽  
Nawel Nadia Azizi ◽  
Nawel Ganaoui ◽  
...  

Treinta estaciones en el Parque Nacional El Kala (Noreste de Argelia) fueron objeto de un inventario florístico que se centró en el estudio de la ecología de geófitos bulbosos y tuberosos. La flora se caracteriza por una alta proporción de taxones raros y/o endémicos, entre ellos, 6 especies son endemismos algero-tunecinos pertenecientes a la familia Orchidaceae. En este trabajo, se da a conocer la presencia de una nueva especie para la flora argelina, Ophrys fusca subsp. lupercalis. Los análisis multivariantes revelaron, ciertas variables ambientales que determinan la distribución de los geófitos. Los lugares de interés son particularmente sensibles a las amenazas, particularmente las de origen antrópico. Thirty stations at the El Kala National Park (North Eastern Algeria) were the subject of a floristic focused on the study of the ecology of bulbous and tuberous geophytes. The floristic analysis was used to draw up a checklist of 67 species belonging to 36 genera and 14 families, among of which 19 species a high proportion of rare and/or endemic taxa; among them six signed taxa are endemic to algerian-tunisian mainly represented by family of Orchidaceae. In this work, we recorded the presence of a new species for the Algerian flora which is Ophrys fusca subsp. lupercalis. Multivariate analyses revealed certain environmental variables determining the distribution of geophytes. The visited sites show an alarming vulnerability and subject to threats, particularly anthropogenic ones.


Litera ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Oksana Evgen'evna Chernova ◽  
Aleksandra Anatol'evna Osipova ◽  
Dar'ya Sergeevna Buzhinskaya

Phraseological corpus of Russian language of the late XX – early XXI centuries has been enriched with multiple phraseological units. The subject of this research became neophraseologisms with “electronic” as the key component, actively used in modern publicistic discourse (electronic book, electronic textbook, electronic journal, electronic wallet, electronic library, and others). In Russia, the system of gradual fixation of emergence of new suprawords linguistic units did not form, thus composers of even the modern phraseological dictionaries include neologisms carefully, “sparsely”, often without due “linkage” to time and circumstances of their emergence, not fully answering the needs of a modern user. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that there is a need to conduct linguistic qualification and dictionary description of the Russian phraseological neologisms, emerged in the conditions of “digital pivot” of culture and formation of global communicative space. Abundance of supraword neologisms, which sensitively react to all changes in the life of society, is connected to a number of causes. On the one hand, on the background of geopolitical “redivisions” came drastic changes in the sociopolitical and socioeconomic life of the Russian native speakers. On the other hand, modern humanity is undergoing civilizational changes, caused by the “digital pivot” as coined by the renowned Polish phraseologist Wojciech Chlebda, driving formation of a global information network.


Author(s):  
Elena V. Kharchenko ◽  
◽  
Shu Man ◽  

The article describes aspects of perception and understanding of Russian ergonyms by native speakers of Russian and Chinese. The issue under study is of great relevance due to the increase in cross-cultural contacts, the tendency for the free travelling between the countries and the formation of a multicultural environment in cities. The modern metropolis is increasingly becoming a place of residence for representatives of different linguistic cultures, so we decided to check how successfully modern ergonyms perform their main function, i.e. help residents and guests of the city navigate in space. The aim of the study is to identify the universal and specific features in the perception and understanding of ergonyms by the representatives of different linguistic cultures. The study object is the perception and understanding of a proper name, with the subject being the strategies of ergonyms perception and understanding. The article describes a survey of Russian and Chinese students who were asked to determine the organization’s field of activity by its name. The experiment consisted of two stages: at the first stage, only a word was presented, while at the second one - the word and the photo of the sign. As a result, the main ways of identifying ergonyms were identified.


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