On the syntactic status of sentential adverbs and modal particles

2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvio Cruschina

AbstractThis paper sets out a number of reasons for establishing a distinction between sentential (modal) adverbs and modal particles. Adverbs and particles are generally difficult to define as two distinct and independent word classes in terms of unitary criteria and distinctive properties. The traditional role of an adverb is that of modifying a verb or a verb phrase. In reality, adverbs also modify adjectives, sentences, and other adverbs. Particles also serve a sort of ‘modification’ function. Modal particles, for example, take the whole sentence as their object and fit its content to the context of speech. This ‘vague’ similarity, though, should not be interpreted as a motivation for assimilating the two categories, especially when other syntactic properties, such as the sentential position, the distribution, and the sensitivity to sentence types, together with their correlated semantic interpretations, are taken into consideration.

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-328
Author(s):  
Mireille Piot

SummaryIn this paper, we present a unified hypothesis about «focusing» conjunctional adverbs and subordinating conjunctions in French. A similar hypothesis is to be taken to hold at all romance languages as we argue after Piot (2003) mentioned above. At first, differences are to be observed between this case (with “focus”) and another case in which the same conjunctional items are purely conjunctions (coordinating or subordinating, but without “focus”). Then, we point out which are the common semantic and syntactic properties of the global “focus” operation related to all these items (parallelism between sentences and nominal phrases correlated by these conjunctional items, inclusion or union semantic relations between nominal phrases in some respects ensembles theory relations alike: the addition of syntactic-semantic specific items shares this inclusion or union relation). In particular, this study highlights, as a result, the role of the subject nature of the conjoined first sentence and the syntactic-semantic nature of the verb-phrase in the second sentence. Another study (to appear) will present the results about distinctions in this operation according to the particular significance of each different item.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Landman

A majority of the black community of Dullstroom-Emnotweni in the Mpumalanga highveld in the east of South Africa trace their descent back to the southern Ndebele of the so-called ‘Mapoch Gronden’, who lost their land in the 1880s to become farm workers on their own land. A hundred years later, in 1980, descendants of the ‘Mapoggers’ settled in the newly built ‘township’ of Dullstroom, called Sakhelwe, finding jobs on the railways or as domestic workers. Oral interviews with the inhabitants of Sakhelwe – a name eventually abandoned in favour of Dullstroom- Emnotweni – testify to histories of transition from landowner to farmworker to unskilled labourer. The stories also highlight cultural conflicts between people of Ndebele, Pedi and Swazi descent and the influence of decades of subordination on local identities. Research projects conducted in this and the wider area of the eMakhazeni Local Municipality reveal the struggle to maintain religious, gender and youth identities in the face of competing political interests. Service delivery, higher education, space for women and the role of faith-based organisations in particular seem to be sites of contestation. Churches and their role in development and transformation, where they compete with political parties and state institutions, are the special focus of this study. They attempt to remain free from party politics, but are nevertheless co-opted into contra-culturing the lack of service delivery, poor standards of higher education and inadequate space for women, which are outside their traditional role of sustaining an oppressed community.


1983 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.J. Galvin ◽  
L.S. Hung ◽  
J.W. Mayer ◽  
M. Nastasi

ABSTRACTEnergetic ion beams used outside the traditional role of ion implantation are considered for semiconductor applications involving interface modification for self-aligned silicide contacts, composition modification for formation of buried oxide layers in Si on insulator structures and reduced disorder in high energy ion beam annealing for buried collectors in transistor fabrication. In metals, aside from their use in modification of the composition of near surface regions, energetic ion beams are being investigated for structural modification in crystalline to amorphous transitions. Pulsed beams of photons and electrons are used as directed energy sources in rapid solidification. Here, we consider the role of temperature gradients and impurities in epitaxial growth of silicon.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Bryant

The modern Library or Information Service (IS) cannot, and should not, operate in isolation from the strategic planning of its wider organisation. Most IS units already tie their aims and objectives to the organisation's strategic mission, but how can the IS move from the confines of its traditional role to have greater influence and responsibility within the wider organisation? How can building relationships with key individuals/departments strengthen the overall role of the IS?


2020 ◽  
Vol 05 (04) ◽  
pp. 197-204
Author(s):  
Muhammad Saood ◽  
Noman Ul Haq ◽  
Aqeel Nasim ◽  
Yasmin Shah ◽  
Maria Tahir

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Sally Kondos

Educational programmes have recognized the growing need to use computers in the classes as it presents unprecedented challenges that help the students to acquire an inquiring, critical and creative mind to capitalize on the opportunities driven by the growth of information, knowledge and technology. The computer knowledge has begun influencing student’s learning experience for more than 25 years ago, but it was in a moderate manner (Cuban, 2001). However, the past decade has witnessed major trend toward integrating computer technology in all the language classes. The integration has increased because the computer technology represents an accessible and instant information, enormous potential for interactivity and media–rich communication, as well as educational tools which engage the students in the classroom (Mouza, 2002). Undoubtedly the recent advancement in information technology and computer usage in the classroom is rapidly transforming the environment of the classroom. The teachers cannot ignore the reality the today’s classroom must provide technology-supported learning (Angers & Machtmes, 2005). Being prepared to integrate the technology in the classroom has become a paramount skill in every teacher’s professional repertoires. The traditional role of the teacher as the center of the schooling is changing recently with all the introduction of the new technologies in the classroom. One of the effects of the new technologies is the decentralization of teachers in the learning environment (Damrian, 1998). This introduces a very valid point of how the teaching profession will change in the era of digital technologies. What is the role of the teacher in a classroom where he/she is no longer the only source of knowledge? How can he/ she teach effectively in a class, where every student has his/her computer and can Google any piece of information? The following study will investigate the effect of the implementation of the technology in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classes on the nature of the teachers’ profession.


Author(s):  
Sorrek Penn-Edwards

The qualitative research methodology of phenomenography has traditionally required a manual sorting and analysis of interview data. In this paper I explore a potential means of streamlining this procedure by considering a computer aided process not previously reported upon. Two methods of lexicological analysis, manual and automatic, were examined from a phenomenographical perspective and compared. It was found that the computer aided process - Leximancer - was a valid investigative tool for use in phenomenography. Using Leximancer was more efficacious than manual operation; the researcher was able to deal with large amounts of data without bias, identify a broader span of syntactic properties, increase reliability, and facilitate reproducibility. The introduction of a computer aided methodology might also encourage other qualitative researchers to engage with phenomenography.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
António Cardoso

This article examines how the emergence of interactive art brought about the necessity of re-positioning the traditional role of the spectator and led to the re-formulation of the notion of authorship. The non-linear structure of interactive artworks empowers the spectator with the (apparent) control of its narrative and creates a relational space filled with an input-output dynamic. It is suggested that this elevates the spectator to the realm of co-authorship of the work of art that he/she is interacting with, because the specificity of each interaction generates symbolic meanings that the original author cannot anticipate.It is also argued that the input required from the spectator to interact with the artwork could be compared to a theatrical performance. Thus, an analogy between the spectator-in-action of an interactive artwork and the figure of an actor is established. This brings us to the question concluding the article: as the reception of interactive art implies an action from its spectator, the compatibility between action and contemplation is questioned.Finally, the article concludes that the corpus of an interactive artwork has to include the spectator that acts and creates the input needed for the interaction to be established. Therefore, only from the point of view of an external observer one can gain access to its global dimension, that is, as meta-spectators.


2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-166
Author(s):  
John M. Anderson

For grammarians, acquiring some understanding of ‘finiteness’ as a linguistic concept has been a longstanding problem, even if frequently unacknowledged as such. It seems to me that the problem derives, in particular, from the fact that arriving at a universally applicable characterization of the syntactic status of finiteness is difficult to reconcile with how it has been claimed to be manifested morphosyntactically in different languages. In what follows I explore the consequences for our understanding of the role of morphological and periphrastic subjunctives in English of drawing a distinction between finiteness as a syntactic property and the possible signalling of this property in the morphology. The discussion presents no novel data or novel claims concerning the interpretation of the sentences cited (at least, not intentionally); it merely confronts the familiar with the characterization of finiteness proposed here. And I have also tried, in the interests of accessibility and generality of application, to minimize appeal to parochial theoretical assumptions beyond that involving finiteness and the recognition of grammatical periphrasis, i.e. analytic expression of a category otherwise signalled morphologically, and of the traditional concept of reaction.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document