scholarly journals “Few people can have seen it” – an investigation into an allegedly non-normative construction with can and the perfect infinitive form

2021 ◽  
Vol LXXVII (77) ◽  
pp. 245-266
Author(s):  
Leszek Szymański

This article discusses an investigation into the English modal predicate with can and the perfect infinitive form of the main verb. The study uses language samples excerpted from The Corpus of Contemporary American English, as well as selected data from The Corpus of Historical American English and The British National Corpus. English grammars tend not to discuss can with the perfect infinitive form, which can give an impression that it does not exist. Nevertheless, the reported study confirms that can with the perfect infinitive form is present in both American and British Englishes, mainly in formal, written communication. In the US, it was used already at the beginning of the 19th century. Furthermore, can with the perfect infinitive form expresses either the speaker’s reasoning about a hypothetical past situation or speaker’s certainty that a situation did not take place in the past. Thus, can interacts with the perfect and yields epistemic readings. Additionally, subject negation extends its scope over the proposition. The propositional negation interacts with can, thus producing the meaning of speaker’s certainty. Finally, the findings of the study are used to determine the norms which may underlie the modal predicate with can and the perfect infinitive form. “Few people can have seen it” – badanie rzekomo nienormatywnej konstrukcji z czasownikiem can i formą bezokolicznika perfect Streszczenie: Artykuł omawia badanie angielskiego orzeczenia modalnego z czasownikiem can i formą bezokolicznika perfect czasownika głównego. W badaniu wykorzystano próbki języka z korpusu The Corpus of Contemporary American English oraz wybrane dane z korpusów: The Corpus of Historical American English i The British National Corpus. Gramatyki języka angielskiego zwykle nie omawiają can z perfectem, co może sprawiać wrażenie, że ta konstrukcja nie istnieje. Niemniej, opisane badanie potwierdziło obecność can z perfectem w angielszczyźnie zarówno amerykańskiej jak i brytyjskiej, zwłaszcza w oficjalnej komunikacji pisanej. Użycie tej konstrukcji w Stanach Zjednoczonych zarejestrowano już na początku XIX w. Can z perfectem wyraża wnioskowanie mówiącego odnośnie hipotetycznej sytuacji z przeszłości lub pewność nadawcy, że sytuacja nie wystąpiła w przeszłości. Zatem can wchodzi w interakcję z perfectem i w efekcie wyraża znaczenia epistemiczne. Nadto, negacja podmiotu obejmuje swym zasięgiem cały sąd logiczny i wchodzi w interakcję z can, w wyniku czego powstaje znaczenie pewności mówiącego. Na koniec określono normy, które mogły były przyczynić się do powstania orzeczenia modalnego z can i perfectem.

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Trudgill ◽  
Elizabeth Gordon

The division of the world’s Englishes into rhotic and non-rhotic types is clearly due to the fact that the former are conservative in not having undergone loss of non-prevocalic /r/, whereas the latter have. The beginnings of the loss of non-prevocalic /r/ in English have generally been dated by historians of the language to the 18th century. It is therefore obvious, and has been widely accepted, that Irish English, Canadian English, and American English are predominantly rhotic because the English language was exported to these colonial areas before the loss of rhoticity in England began; and that the Southern Hemisphere Englishes are non-rhotic because English was exported to these areas in the 19th century after the loss of rhoticity. Analysing newly-discovered data from Australia, we present some surprising evidence that shows that this obvious conclusion is incorrect.


Author(s):  
Marcelo Luiz Carvalho Gonçalves ◽  
Cassius Schnell ◽  
Luciana Sianto ◽  
Francoise Bouchet ◽  
Mathieu Le Bailly ◽  
...  

The identification of parasites in ancient human feces is compromised by differential preservation of identifiable parasite structures. However, protein molecules can survive the damage of the environment. It was possible to detected antigen of Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia duodenalis in historic and prehistoric human fecal remains using two enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) kits with monoclonal antibodies specific for E. histolytica and G. duodenalis, respectively. Specimens of desiccated feces and ancient latrine sediment from the New and the Old World were examined. The ELISA detected E. histolytica antigen in samples from Argentina, USA, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, dated to about 5300 years BP to the 19th Century AD. G. duodenalis antigen was detected in samples from USA, Belgium, and Germany, dated to about 1200 AD, 1600 AD, and 1700 AD. The detection of protozoan antigen using immunoassays is a reliable tool for the study of intestinal parasites in the past.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Namkil Kang

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of rely on and depend on in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus. The COCA clearly shows that the expression rely on government is the most preferred by Americans, followed by rely on people, and rely on data. The COCA further indicates that the expression depend on slate is the most preferred by Americans, followed by depend on government, and depend on people. The BNC shows, on the other hand, that the expression rely on others is the most preferred by the British, followed by rely on people, and rely on friends. The BNC further indicates that depend on factors and depend on others are the most preferred by the British, followed by depend on age, and depend on food. Finally, in the COCA, the nouns government, luck, welfare, people, information, state, fossil, water, family, oil, food, and things are linked to both rely on and depend on, but many nouns are not still linked to both of them. On the other hand, in the BNC, only the nouns state, chance, government, and others are linked to both rely on and depend on, but many nouns are not still linked to both rely on and depend on. It can thus be inferred from this that rely on is slightly different from depend on in its use.


2016 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
pp. 88-92
Author(s):  
Jan Widacki ◽  

In Poland and only in Poland, a polygraph is occasionally called a “variograph”. For some, the argument in favor of the name “variograph” is that the term “polygraph” is allegedly misleading as it can be associated with the printing industry. The author argues that in other countries, the ambiguity of the name “polygraph” does not cause confusion. Furthermore, the author mentions several names synonymous with “polygraph” and recalls how the name of the device commonly known as the “lie-detector” has evolved in the US before it eventually became known as the “polygraph”. Finally, the author proves that the name “polygraph” was in use in the Polish physiological literature already in the 19th century, for denominating the device capable of simultaneously registering more than one physiological function of the human body.


Author(s):  
Sergio Sabbatani ◽  
Luca Ansaloni ◽  
Massimo Sartelli ◽  
Federico Coccolini ◽  
Salomone Di Saverio ◽  
...  

Risk of infection remains a major concern for surgeons. The expansion of surgery towards the end of the 19th century determined a noticeable increase in septicemia and gangrene, and surgeons developed various techniques to limit them. In a previous publication, we reminded our readers of one of the gems of Italian surgery, Dr. Giuseppe Ruggi, who operated in Bologna from the end of 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. To him we owe the introduction and dissemination of the antiseptic method in Bologna. His scientific activity continued with Dr. Benedetto Schiassi, his successor. The techniques used to avoid microbial contamination by the Italian surgeon Dr. Schiassi, are particularly interesting, as Schiassi’s tentorium is still useful. Despite advances in surgical technologies, many innovations to prevent infection in surgery proposed in the past are still relevant today.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140
Author(s):  
Constantin Vadimovich Troianowski

This article investigates the process of designing of the new social estate in imperial Russia - odnodvortsy of the western provinces. This social category was designed specifically for those petty szlachta who did not possess documents to prove their noble ancestry and status. The author analyses deliberations on the subject that took place in the Committee for the Western Provinces. The author focuses on the argument between senior imperial officials and the Grodno governor Mikhail Muraviev on the issue of registering petty szlachta in fiscal rolls. Muraviev argued against setting up a special fiscal-administrative category for petty szlachta suggesting that its members should join the already existing unprivileged categories of peasants and burgers. Because this proposal ran against the established fiscal practices, the Committee opted for creating a distinct social estate for petty szlachta. The existing social estate paradigm in Russia pre-assigned the location of the new soslovie in the imperial social hierarchy. Western odnodvortsy were to be included into a broad legal status category of the free inhabitants. Despite similarity of the name, the new estate was not modeled on the odnodvortsy of the Russian provinces because they retained from the past certain privileges (e.g. the right to possess serfs) that did not correspond to the 19th century attributes of unprivileged social estates.


2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 6-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milutin Nenadovic

Discordances of harmonic mental functioning are as old as the human kind. Psychopathological behaviour of an individual in the past was not treated as an illness. That means that psychopathology was not considered an illness. In all past civilizations discordance of mental harmony of an individual is interpreted from the physiological aspect. Psychopathologic expression was not considered an illness, so social attitudes about psychiatric patients in the past were non-medical and generally speaking inhuman. Hospitals did not follow development of medicine for admission of psychiatric patients in past civilizations, not even in the antique era. According to historic sources, the first hospital that was meant for mental patients only was established in the 15th century, 1409 in Valencia (Spain). Therefore mental patients were isolated in a special institution-hospital, and social community rejected them. Only in the new era psychopathological behavior begins to be treated as an illness. Therefore during the 19th century psychiatry is developed as a special branch of medicine, and mental disorder is more and more seen according to the principals of interpretation of physical illnesses. By the middle of the 19th century psychiatric hospitals are humanized, and patients are being less physically restricted. Deinstitutialisation in protection of mental health is the heritage of reforms from the beginning of the 19th century which regarded the prevention of mental health protection. It was necessary to develop institutions of the prevention of protection in the community which would primarily have social support and characteristics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (73) ◽  

This research covers an examination of the effects of the ongoing war in Palestine on artists of Palestinian origin and their works that can be considered as “uprising (intifada)”. Although the beginning of the Palestine-Israel conflict can be dated back to the end of the 19th century, the turning point has been known as 1948 when the State of Israel was officially declared. While the year 1948 means victory for the Israelis, this date was imprinted on the memories of the Palestinians as a “Catastrophe (nakba in Arabic)”. The First Palestinian Intifada (uprising), which took place twice in Palestine from 1987 to 1993 (the period from the signing of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian uprising against the occupation of Palestinian lands), the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) from September 2000 to 2005 and the interim periods when the artists came to the fore with their works were evaluated within the scope of the uprisings. Artists who attempt to trace the traces of individual and social war memory, notably those such as Mona Hatoum, Emily Jacir and Dana Awartani, were addressed within the scope of the research on the works of artists of Palestinian origin. As a result, the works of artists, who have been continuing in Palestine from the past to the present and cannot easily isolate themselves from the conflicts, will take their place in art history as the anatomy of an occupied society by war. Keywords: war, art, Intifada art, Palestinian artists, occupation


2020 ◽  
pp. 323-330
Author(s):  
A.S. Dautova

The article presents the experience of studying the semantic structure of the English verbs with the meaning of leaving. The author focuses on the problem of modulating the meaning of the English verbs “leave”, “depart” and their transition into another lexical and semantic group. The urgency of the study lies in addressing the category of space as one of the basic linguistic forms of conceptualization and interpretation of extra-linguistic reality, which man operates in the process of cognition, interpretation of the surrounding world. The problem of research is solved by describing the modulation of meaning in terms of the concept of space of sets, as one of the factors contributing to the change of meaning. The verification of the research hypothesis is based on the analysis of lexicographical data sources of the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Modern American English.


1970 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Oleg W. Szeremietiew

The article addresses the oeuvre devoted to the Napoleonic Wars by eminent Polish battle painter and illustrator of the 2nd half of the 19th century, Juliusz Kossak (the founder of a dynasty of artists). Many of the artist’s pictures and watercolours show Polish soldiers, participants of the Epopee. They reflected not only the work and research of the master and his vision of the past, but also the patriotic idea of the revival of Poland and its nation.  


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