The article consists of four parts. In the first, the authoress presents these theses of cognitive linguistics that she finds especially important for lexical contrastive studies. The second part presents selected procedures used during modelling of the picture of the world in a given language. They are as follows: a reconstruction of a structure of conceptual field, a construction of a cognitive definition and analysis of etymologic data which enables to find semantic connections between existing lexemes and to fill possible gaps. Then the authoress explains the specific character of studies that compare conceptual models from different languages. Finally, she discusses the perspectives of the studies presented above and indicates problems worth considering in a contrastive aspect.
(Title in Spanish - 'Algunas observaciones sobre los aspectos metodológicos del estudio contrastivo de los sistemas verbales del espanol y del polaco'). The aim of this paper is to contribute to the explanation of the terms such as 'tertium comparationis', grammatical category, grammatical form employed in contrastive grammar studies. The author presents the relation between the above mentioned notions and the description of the categories of tense and mood. Furthermore, the formal and functional differences between the a.m. categories in the Spanish and Polish languages are presented.
The Voice Onset Time (VOT) introduced by Lisker and Abramson (1964) is defined as the single production dimension, the time interval between the release of a stop occlusion and the onset of vocal cord vibration. Languages generally fall into two of the three broad categories that show little cross-linguistic variation: voicing lead, short lag, and long lag. English and Polish exploit the VOT continuum differently. While English contrasts short lag vs. long lag for voiced and voiceless stops, Polish exploits voicing lead vs. short lag for its voiced and voiceless stops. This acoustic difference makes an interesting cross-linguistic scenario for perception studies in an identification paradigm. From a naturally obtained nonword keef, the author generated 8 stimuli with the VOT values of an initial stop ranging in 10ms-steps from 0 ms to +70 ms. These values span across the English VOT boundary which separates short lag (voiced) vs. long lag (voiceless) categories. In a forced-choice format, he asked two groups of subjects - native speakers of English and Polish beginner learners of English - to recognise and initial segment in each stimulus. The analysis of the results shows that the two groups performed differently in that native speakers categorised short lag into voiced /g/ and long lag into voiceless /k/. Polish subjects, on the other hand, did not exhibit a categorical shift from a voiceless into voiced category.
The dissertation discusses the problem of lexical indicators of the hypothetical modality to be observed in Polish and Lithuanian. To begin with, the definition of the hypothetical modality along with its paraphrase has been formed. Furthermore, the gradational character of the category has been analyzed. There have been distinguished six groups of lexemes, which express particular degrees of the hypothetical modality - ranging from that expressing the trace of uncertainty (minimal degree of probability) to that expressing almost complete certainty (maximum degree of probability) . The resemblances and differences between the languages have been noticed. In the research area, the method of contemporary contrastive studies utilizing the interlanguage and the experimental Polish-Lithuanian corpus have been applied.
(Polish title: Leksykalne wykladniki hipotetycznosci w litewskiej gwarze punskiej z odniesieniami do jezyków polskiego i litewskiego). The dissertation discusses the problem of lexical indicators of the hypothetical modality in the Lithuanian local dialect of Punsk. The Lithuanian local dialect of Punsk is used by the Lithuanians living in the north-east regions of Poland. In these very regions there run important ethnic borders between Slavs and Balts, and between the Eastern and the Western groups of Slavs. The author has applied the method of theoretical contrastive studies to characterize the local dialect of Punsk. To begin with, the author forms the definition of the hypothetical modality along with its paraphrase. She analyzes the gradation of the hypothetical modality phenomenon. Therefore, she has distinguished 6 groups, each of which is characterized by a different degree of probability. Furthermore, she gives examples of all possible indicators of the hypothetical modality in the local dialect: lexical, morphological and syntactic, where lexical indicators are more precisely described. She has distinguished the differences and resemblances between the local dialect and the literary languages of Lithuanian and Polish. In the research area, she applies the experimental corpus of the local dialect of Punsk.
(Polish title: Polsko-litewskie badania konfrontatywne Zespolu Semantyki Instytutu Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk). The dissertation discusses the research area of the Lithuanian-Polish theoretical contrastive studies, conducted by the Department of ISS PAS, including.: [1] Lithuanian-Polish theoretical contrastive studies utilizing the interlanguage (Lithuanian-Polish contrastive grammar), [2] Terminological dictionary (definitions of the interlanguage particular sections used in the linguistic contrast along with terminology suggestion for Slavic languages, including Lithuanian), [3] Corpus linguistics and on-line dictionaries (experimental trilingual Bulgarian-Polish-Lithuanian parallel and comparable corpora, experimental corpus of the Lithuanian local dialect of Punsk and experimental electronic Polish-Lithuanian dictionary), [4] Research on the Lithuanian local dialect of Punsk in Poland (grammatical description of the local dialect on the basis of the experimental dialectal corpus in contrast with Polish and Lithuanian).
The analysis of the language confrontation issues presented in the paper shows the imperfection of the results of research where two or more languages are compared based on a formal inventory, i.e. the so-called morpho-syntactical features and values. The use of interlanguage as a language of consistent and simple notions helps overcome the formal barrier, and ensures that the individual confronted languages are always referred to the same meaning plane, known traditionally as tertium comparationis. The results of research on natural languages obtained based on a confrontation with a semantic interlanguage are comparable and have an equal status. The approach presented in the Part 2 motivates syntactical phenomena by semantic features of predicative units, as well as by the specific structure of the argument places opened by those units. The objects contained within those places are carriers of states in the sense of net theory, but describing that sphere solely by its relations to states and events does not exhaust the whole problem area. The paper presents an outline of an apparatus of analysis starting with the semantic plane, in which the elements of the interlanguage are classes of semantic predicates and the set of 'predicate- argument positions' defined by positions at possibly simple predicates. The paper also shows problems connected with the condensation phenomena. As an effect of such phenomena, some elements of the semantic structure are only realized superficially, and functions of argument phrases might be sometimes neutralized.
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