Search results for "Adverb"

Baltu filoloģija, 26 (2)

2018

Mitigating-casi: relation between propositional content and discourse units

2018

El aproximativo casi entraña la inversión polar de su proposición, sin embargo, los usos considerados expletivos presentan valores atenuantes. Este trabajo complementa con un estudio de corpus la descripción teórica del uso expletivo-atenuante en relación con la unidad discursiva de casi en el habla coloquial. La unidad que ocupa en el discurso determina su uso atenuante y supone una prueba efectiva de su naturaleza semántica, al tiempo que aclara ciertas cuestiones de la bibliografía deductiva. This paper explores the mitigating function of Spanish casi and its relation to the discourse units casi fulfills in spoken language. Casi can either entail a polar inversion of the proposition it h…

Part-of-speech labeling for Reuters database

2015

Even if the Vector Space Model used for document representation in information retrieval systems integrates a small quantity of knowledge it continues to be used due to its computational cost, speed execution and simplicity. We try to improve this document representation by adding some syntactic information such as the parts of speech. In this paper, we have evaluated three different tagging algorithms in order to select the most suitable tagger for using it to tag the Reuters dataset. In this work, we have evaluated the taggers using only five different parts of speech: noun, verb, adverb, adjective and others. We considered these particular tags being the most representative for describin…

Baltu filoloģija, 24. sēj., Nr.1 

2015

The hidden side of adverbs

2018

This paper will address the predicative nature of manner adverb(ial)s and of three types of sentence adverbs (subject-oriented, modal, and evaluative) in Italian. Predication often becomes overt by means of morphological correlates. Is it possible to find any such evidence with invariable adverbs? To unveil their predicative nature, a procedure will be suggested in which two sentences, one with a -mente adverb, the other with its cognate adjective (a) share the content morphemes (identity of the signifiant) and (b) entail each other (identity of the signifié as regards semantic roles). A number of such pairs will be discussed, examples of which include: Intelligentemente, Leo intervenne ‘Cl…

Bene : Adverb or noun?

2013

International audience; When Italian bene ‘good / well’ occurs with fare ‘do / make’, several constructs with remarkably different argument frames are involved. This paper deals with three of them: (a) Il latte fa bene ai bambini ‘Milk is good for children’; (b) Fa bene il suo lavoro ‘She does her job well’, and (c) Faresti bene a non dire niente ‘You would do well to say nothing about it’. We discuss dictionary discrepancies concerning the lexical category of 'bene' in (a), which we take to be a noun predicate, and draw a distinction between the adverbial uses in (b) and (c).

Spanish spatial deictic adverbs: interpretation and discourse functioning with depersonalizing constructions

2018

En el presente articulo, analizamos las diferentes funciones de los adverbios deicticos espaciales del espanol. Mas concretamente, el analisis de los adverbios deicticos espaciales en construcciones despersonalizadoras muestra que, si se produce una ausencia de formas deicticas personales, la interpretacion de los adverbios deicticos espaciales no solo depende de los factores fisicos, sino tambien de los factores contextuales del discurso. Ademas, se muestra como los adverbios deicticos espaciales en construcciones despersonalizadoras cumplen funciones diferentes que si se utilizan junto con los deicticos de persona o con referencias concretas de tercera persona. En efecto, en ausencia de l…

Discourse markers and modality in spoken Catalan: The case of (és) clar

2012

Abstract The present paper illustrates the fuzzy limits between modality markers and discourse markers by analysing the different uses based on the word clar ‘clear’ in oral Catalan. Clar is lexically described as an adjective, but it has developed different functions in various syntactic and pragmatic contexts. In the adverbial and the interjective uses, (es) clar (que) ‘it is clear that’ is a modality marker indicating certainty and shared knowledge. As a conjunction, clar que has developed a concessive meaning (‘but, nevertheless’). When (es) clar acts as a discourse marker (i.e. introducing an utterance) it can be an effective mitigation device used to soften a potentially face-threaten…

Polar meaning and “expletive” negation in approximative adverbs

2005

In this paper we provide a synchronic and diachronic analysis of an instance of so-called “expletive” negation in the Spanish approximative adverb por poco. Synchronically, we show that this adverb, when combined with the sentence negator no, is ambiguous between ~p (“expletive”) and ~~p (“canonical”) meanings. Diachronically, we show that this ambiguity arose due to a change in the negation system of Spanish around the fifteenth century. As a result, the supposed instances of “expletive” negation found in present-day uses of por poco are not really expletive at all, but rather are a holdover from the Old Spanish requirement of preverbal negative concord.

The translatability into Italian of the German stance marking modal particles wohl, eben and ja. Between epistemicity and evidentiality

2015

Contrary to Italian and many other languages, German has a linguistic means to mark the speaker’s stance: the so-called modal particles, such as wohl, eben and ja. This paper examines their occurrence in a German novel and their possible translations in its Italian version. It analyses their complex meaning arising from the intertwined relations between speaker – hearer – state of affairs as the three key entities of stance they mark and the textual or situational context, concluding that they have only covert epistemic and evidential features. This cross-linguistic analysis proves that it is impossible not only to translate them, but also to draw a clear borderline between epistemicity and…