Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Verb argument structure accuracy'

This study examines the early acquisition of verb-argument structure within the theoretical frameworks of both nativist and empiricist approaches to language acquisition. The aim is to evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach and establish to what extent each approach provides an accurate description of the developmental data. Data collect ion took the form of naturalistic audio-tape recordings of individual mother-child dyads engaged in normal everyday interaction. Twelve predominantly middle-class families took parr in the study. The children are all first-borns and monolingual. At the beginning of the study. the children were aged between 21-24 months with MLUs of between 1.00-2.50. Each child was taped for two separate hours in each three week period for the duration of one year. In total, 395 hours of data were collected. The data was transcribed in CHAT format using the CHILDES system of transcription (MacWhinney. 1995). Three separate analyses were carried out to assess the role of performance limitations in the acquisition of verb-argument structure (Valian, 1991), the role of semantically simple or 'light' verbs in early speech (Pinker. 1989). and the development of argument structure from a constructivist perspective (Tomasello, 1992). In all cases, the method of analysis used was fine-grained and operated at the lexical level rather than at the level of abstract grammatical classes. The findings of these studies suggest that analysis at the general level, as adopted by nativist ihcorixts, typically results in children being credited with an abstract knowledge of grammatical categories and rules which is not supported by fine-grained analysis of [he data. When the data is examined at the lexical level. there is evidence to suggest that children acquire verb-argument structure in a lexically-specific manner based around individual verbs and other lexical items. Thus. in no sense do children show evidence of operating with innate grammatical knowledge. Furthermore, the particular verbs and structures the children acquire early in development are closely related to the verbs and structures used by their mothers. with frequency of use playing a particularly important role. These findings suggest that children are unlikely to learn language guided by innate grammatical knowledge of the type assumed by nativist theorists. Instead. it is proposed that the process of language acquisition may depend on a distributional processor which is sensitive to the distributional regularities of the input. This process would predict that children will first learn lexically-specific patterns of high frequency in the input. and only over time will children come to acquire the more complex grammatical classes assumed to exist in adult language.

This dissertation describes and evaluates a thesis about the means of identifying verbs early in learning a language, and a first language in particular. The thesis is presented briefly in the first section. The second section provides a critical review of theories about children's early part-of-speech identifications. Section 3 presents a new theory of verb identification. I argue that learners initially identify members of a category, predicator, that subsumes verbs and adjectives. Predicators have argument structures. Learners identify a predicator through an inference that the word must take noun-phrase arguments because the phrase containing the word is interpreted into a nonseparable phenomenon--a property or relation that exists or occurs only by virtue of one or more individuals (i.e., the bearers of the property, or the participants in the relation), the referent(s) of the argument(s). Actions are prototypical of that which is nonseparable (being dependent for their realisation upon one or more participants), and so words for actions will usually be identified as predicators. This tendency will be augmented when an unfamiliar predicator appears in an utterance with its one or more noun-phrase arguments, and the noun phrases are interpretable (by the learner) into the one or more individuals that are the participants in an ongoing action (or other nonseparable phenomenon); under these conditions, the learner should readily divine that the novel word is a predicator and the noun phrases are its arguments. These conjectures form the nonseparability hypothesis. To identify verbs in particular, a learner must first discover a distinction between verbs and adjectives, where it exists in a language, through distributional analyses within phrases. Subsequently, details of syntax and morphology will reveal to the learner a predicator's subcategory (verb or adjective). Section 4 contains reviews of literatures that provide support, in varying degree, for the theor

L’objectif général de la présente thèse est d’évaluer dans quelle mesure la grammaire des verbes, aussi appelée complémentation verbale, peut être basée sur l’usage de la langue. La linguistique de l’usage (usage-based approach) constitue un récent changement de paradigme dans les sciences du langage, qui défend l’idée que la grammaire est un inventaire dynamique d’unités symboliques qui émergent et sont constamment redéfinies par l’usage de la langue. En adoptant une approche constructionnelle de la complémentation verbale et sur la base de données de l’anglais, nous traitons la question de la relation entre la grammaire des verbes et leur usage à trois niveaux d’organisation.Au niveau des verbes, nous comparons des résultats expérimentaux à des données de corpus, et trouvons que les plus fréquentes valences d’un verbe sont traitées plus facilement, ce qui montre que la valence est basée sur l’usage. Au niveau des constructions, nous montrons que, dans le cas de la construction conative, il est possible de formuler le sens d’une construction sur la base du sens des verbes en se plaçant au niveau de classes sémantiques, mais moins facilement au niveau le plus abstrait. Nous considérons ceci comme une preuve supplémentaire de l’importance des schémas de bas niveau sur les généralisations abstraites. Au niveau des alternances, nous suggérons que la productivité verbale peut être basée sur des relations d’alternances. Nous montrons que l’alternance dative présente une asymétrie en productivité, et que cette asymétrie peut être expliquée par des différences correspondantes en termes du nombre de verbes utilisés dans chaque construction
The general goal of this thesis is to investigate to what extent the grammar of verbs, also called argument realization, can be based on linguistic usage. The usage-based approach is a recent paradigm shift in linguistics which takes the view that grammar is a dynamic inventory of symbolic conventions that emerges through, and is likewise shaped by, actual language use. Adopting a constructional approach to argument structure and on the basis of English data, we address the question of the usage basis of argument realization at three levels of organization.At the level of verbs, we compare experimental results to usage data, and find that more frequent valency patterns of a verb are processed more easily. These findings provide evidence for the usage basis of valency. At the level of constructions, we show that, in the case of the conative construction, it is possible to formulate constructional generalizations on the basis of verbal meaning at the level of semantically defined verb classes, but not so easily at the most abstract level. We take this as further evidence of the importance of lower-level schemas over broad generalizations. At the level of alternations, we present usage-based evidence that productivity can be based on alternation relations. We report that the dative alternation displays a productivity asymmetry, and we show that these differences can be explained by corresponding asymmetries in type frequencies

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2009.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed April 3, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-131).

Aquest treball s'emmarca en l'àmbit del processament del llenguatge natural. Té l'objectiu d'explorar el potencial de la similitud verbal i, més concretament, de les classificacions verbals, a l'hora de capturar i modelitzar la informació bàsica relacionada amb l'expressió d'esdeveniments en espanyol. La tesi s'articula entorn de dos estudis que examinen la capacitat que té la similitud verbal de modelitzar la informació relativa als participants en esdeveniments. En primer lloc, elaborem una anàlisi de la similitud verbal amb relació a l'estructura argumental. Amb aquesta finalitat, partim de tres perspectives que tracten aquest tema: la lingüística teòrica, la lingüística de corpus i la psicolingüística, i analitzem com cadascuna defineix la similitud entre els verbs. Aquesta anàlisi ens serveix per a definir un conjunt de característiques lingüístiques i configuracions que s'apliquen en el segon estudi. Aquest estudi consisteix en la creació d'una classificació automàtica de sentits verbals amb l'ús d'un algorisme de clusterització (clustering). L'objectiu d'aquesta classificació és capturar l'estructura argumental dels verbs i reflectir-la en les classes, de tal manera que permeti modelitzar els participants en els esdeveniments expressats pels verbs. Les troballes ens permeten afirmar que la classificació verbal organitza la informació de manera que és capaç d'acomodar diferents aspectes de l'estructura argumental.
Este trabajo se enmarca dentro del ámbito del procesamiento del lenguaje natural. Su objetivo es explorar el potencial de la similitud verbal y, más concretamente, de las clasificaciones verbales, a la hora de capturar y modelizar la información básica relacionada con la expresión de acontecimientos en español. La tesis se articula en torno a dos estudios que examinan la capacidad de la similitud verbal para modelizar la información relativa a los participantes en acontecimientos. En primer lugar, elaboramos un análisis de la similitud verbal con relación a la estructura argumental. Para ello tomamos tres perspectivas que tratan este tema: la lingüística teórica, lingüística de corpus y la psicolingüística, y analizamos de qué modo cada una de ellas define la similitud entre los verbos. Este análisis nos sirve para definir un conjunto de características lingüísticas y configuraciones que se aplican en el segundo estudio. Este estudio consiste en la creación de una clasificación automática de sentidos verbales usando un algoritmo de agrupamiento (clustering). El objetivo de esta clasificación es capturar la estructura argumental de los verbos y reflejarla en las clases, de tal manera que permita modelizar a los participantes en los acontecimientos expresados por los verbos. Los hallazgos nos permiten afirmar que la clasificación verbal organiza la información de manera que es capaz de acomodar diferentes aspectos de la estructura argumental.
This paper aims to explore the potential of verb similarity, and more specifically of verb classifications, when it comes to capturing and modelling basic information related to events expressed in Spanish. The research is based on two studies that examine verb similarity's ability to model event participant information. We first perform a study of verb similarity with respect to argument structure, looking at its relevant characteristics through the lens of three different perspectives: linguistic theory, corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics. Based on this analysis, we choose the features and configurations to be explored in order to create an automatic classification of verb senses using a clustering algorithm. The aim of this automatic classification is to capture the argument structure of the verbs and apply it to the classifications in a way that allows us to adequately model the participants in the events expressed by those verbs. The evaluations carried out for this verb classification confirm automatic classifications' ability to capture and infer relevant information related to participants in events.

This thesis investigates how the outcomes of the acquisition of second language (L2) argument structure will vary depending on the nature of the learner's first language (L1). The focus is on motion verbs appearing with a prepositional/postpositional phrase that expresses the final endpoint of the motion (goal PP). In English, manner-of-motion verbs (e.g., walk ) and directed motion verbs (e.g., go) can appear with a goal PP as in John walked (went ) to school. In contrast, Japanese allows only directed motion verbs to occur with a goal PP. Thus, Japanese motion verbs with goal PPs form a subset of their English counterparts. I propose an analysis of these crosslinguistic differences in terms of different incorporation patterns in lexical-syntax (Hale & Keyser, 1993). L1 transfer and learnability considerations (White, 1991b), then, lead me to hypothesize that Japanese-speaking learners of English will be able to acquire the L2 representation on the basis of positive evidence, but that English-speaking learners of Japanese will have difficulty acquiring the L2 representation due to the lack of positive data motivating the restructuring of the L1 representation to the L2. A series of experiments tested these hypotheses using grammaticality judgment and picture-matching tasks. Results in general supported this prediction, suggesting that whether the L1 constitutes a subset of the L2 or vice versa indeed affects the outcomes of L2 argument structure. The results indicate full involvement of L1 and UG in L2 acquisition, thus supporting the Full-Transfer/Full-Access model of L2 acquisition (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994).

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo descrever a estrutura argumental da língua Karitiana (grupo Tupi, família Arikém, aproximadamente 400 falantes) em uma perspectiva descritiva e teórica. Nesse trabalho, buscou-se o desafio de descrever as classes verbais da língua com base em uma teoria formal: a teoria de estrutura argumental de Hale e Keyser (2002). O trabalho encontra-se dividido em duas partes. Na parte I, descreve-se a morfossintaxe das classes verbais. Na parte II, foram analisadas, em termos de estrutura argumental, as evidências morfossintáticas notadas no padrão verbal. A segunda parte, ainda, oferece uma análise preliminar para a estrutura passiva impessoal em Karitiana, dentro da teoria Gerativa. A transitivização, a passivização, a construção de cópula e o padrão de concordância funcionam como evidências morfossintáticas para descrever classes verbais na língua. Todos os verbos intransitivos podem ser afetados pela causativização sintética (transitivização) através de um morfema causativo que permite a adição de um argumento externo (o sujeito agente ou causa) a uma sentença intransitiva, tornando-a transitiva. Através do morfema de passiva impessoal em Karitiana, é possível transformar um verbo biargumental em monoargumental, apagando o sujeito original da sentença transitiva. O morfema de passiva é adicionado apenas a um verbo minimamente biargumental ou a um verbo intransitivo que tenha sido antes transitivizado via . A construção de cópula nesta língua apresenta uma estrutura bioracional (S Copula minioração) em que a cópula toma como complemento uma minioração. No núcleo desta minioração, pode entrar apenas um verbo intransitivo, um adjetivo ou um nome. O padrão de concordância ergativo-absolutiva é o último diagnóstico utilizado como evidência de valência na língua. Com base nestas evidências, foram descritas três classes verbais: uma classe de verbos intransitivos (formada por 3 subclasses: composta de intransitivos comuns, de intransitivos com objeto oblíquo e sujeito experienciador e, por último, a subclasse de intransitivos locativos), uma classe de verbos transitivos e uma terceira classe composta por verbos bitransitivos. Esta última tem um objeto direto com papel semântico ALVO e um objeto indireto, marcado obliquamente (com a posposição ty) com papel TEMA. Os verbos intransitivos com objeto oblíquo apresentam um comportamento especial, comportando-se, morfossintaticamente e em termos de alternância, como os demais intransitivos, mas projetando em sua estrutura um complemento oblíquo, o que leva a considerar que eles são sintaticamente intransitivos e semanticamente transitivos. Concluimos que todos os verbos intransitivos nesta língua têm o comportamento de verbos inacusativos do tipo alternante. Na proposta de Hale e Keyser, os verbos são formados, estrutural e hierarquicamente, a partir de duas estruturas básicas (monádica e diádica) nucleadas pelos núcleos verbais (V1 e V2). Deste modo, os verbos do Karitiana descritos como intransitivos são analisados como verbos diádicos compostos, em conformidade com suas propriedades alternantes. Os verbos intransitivos com objeto oblíquo e aqueles verbos intransitivos locativos foram analisados como verbos diádicos compostos com complemento oblíquo (P-complemento). Os verbos bitransitivos são analisados como diádicos básicos. Apenas os verbos transitivos em Karitiana podem ser analisados como verbos monádicos.
This masters thesis aims to describe the argument structure in Karitiana (Tupi branch, Arikém family, about 400 speakers) both in a theoretical and in a descriptive perspective. In this work, the challenge is to describe the verb classes identified in Karitiana in the formal theory of argument structure proposed by Hale and Keyser (2002). The work is divided in two parts. In Part I, the morphosyntax of the verb classes is described. In Part II, the verb patterns were analyzed in terms of their argument structure. Still in this part, a preliminary analysis of the structure of the impersonal passive is presented, inside the Generativist framework. All instransitive verbs may be affected by the synthetic causativization (transitivization) in which a causative morpheme allows the addition of an external argument (the subject) to an intransitive sentence, transitivizing it. By the use of the impersonal passive in Karitiana it is possible to turn a bi-argumental verb into a mono-argumental one, causing the demotion of the initial subject and the promotion of the initial object to subject of the passive. The passive morpheme is added only to a transitive verb or to an intransitive verb which has been first transitivized via . The copular construction in Karitiana presents a biclausal structure (Subject + copular verb + small clause) in which the copular verb selects a small clause as its complement. Copular verbs can only select complements headed by nouns, adjectives or intransitive verbs. If a transitive verb is added to the head of the small clause, the sentence is ungrammatical. However, if a transitive verb has undergone a passivization process via , that verb may be the head of the small clause. The ergative-absolutive agreement pattern is also used as evidence of valency in Karitiana. Based on this evidence, three verbal classes were described: a large class of intransitive verbs (with three subclasses, one of common intransitive verbs, another of intransitive verbs with oblique objects and experiencer subjects, and one of intransitive locatives), a class of transitive verbs, and a third class of ditransitive verbs. The latter presents a direct object with the semantic role GOAL, whereas the indirect object is a THEME, marked as oblique (with the postposition ty). These intransitive verbs with an oblique object are part of a special subclass of intransitives because they behave, in terms of morphosyntax and valency, as other intransitive verbs, but they also project in their structure an oblique complement; it seems to be the case that they are syntactically intransitive and semantically transitive. We conclude that all intransitive verbs in Karitiana have the behavior of unaccusative verbs that may alternate. In Hale and Keysers proposal, verbs are formed, in structural and hierachical terms, from two basic structures (monadic and dyadic) headed by the verbal heads (V1 and V2). Thus, the Karitiana verbs described as common intransitives are analyzed as dyadic because of their alternation properties. The intransitives with oblique objects and the locative intransitives were analyzed as composite dyadic with oblique complements (P-complements). The ditransitive verbs are analyzed as basic dyadic, and only the transitive verbs in Karitiana may be analyzed as projecting monadic argument structures.

Esta dissertação descreve e analisa a estrutura argumental e as classes verbais da língua Dâw (família Nadahup, Amazonas). Estudamos os verbos dessa língua do ponto de vista semântico e sintático, identificando classes e subclasses de acordo com o comportamento morfossintático das raízes verbais. Além disso, avaliamos as hipóteses descritivas e explicativas das classes verbais identificadas por Martins (2004), primeira pesquisadora a abordar a morfossintaxe Dâw. Nosso arcabouço teórico é a teoria de estrutura argumental desenvolvida por Hale & Keyser (2002), que propõe uma análise da sintaxe e da semântica dos itens lexicais por meio da estrutura argumental sistema de relações estruturais estabelecidas entre o núcleo e seus argumentos, dentro de estruturas sintáticas projetadas pelo próprio núcleo. Por meio de testes linguísticos variados, incluindo alternância de valência e julgamento de (a)gramaticalidade, reclassificamos as nove classes verbais identificadas por Martins (2004) em três classes de acordo com a valência do verbo: classe dos verbos intransitivos, classe dos verbos transitivos e classe dos verbos bitransitivos. Martins (2004) afirma que, na sentença, os verbos podem mudar de tom devido à presença de um morfema tonal transitivizador ou intransitivizador. Contudo, mostramos neste trabalho que o sistema tonal da língua, no nível da sentença, é previsível. Desse modo, independentemente do processo de aumento de valência envolvido, percebemos que a mudança tonal dos verbos decorre devido ao fraseamento fonológico das sentenças. Quanto ao processo de transitivização, este identificou subclasses de verbos intransitivos: verbos alternantes e verbos nãoalternantes. As restrições de alternância devem-se à estrutura argumental de cada tipo verbal. No caso dos verbos intransitivos alternantes ou inacusativos, observamos que eles são formados a partir de estrutura diádica composta, que projeta um especificador interno e um complemento, o que lhe permite alternar entre uma forma intransitiva e transitiva. No caso dos verbos não-alternantes encontramos três padrões: verbos denominais e inergativos, formados a partir de uma estrutura argumental monádica (que não projeta especificador interno), o que impede a alternância; verbos inacusativos nãoalternantes, formados a partir de uma estrutura monádica que toma como complemento uma estrutura diádica básica verbos desse tipo não alternam, pois eles não são formados por uma estrutura diádica, mas contêm tal estrutura; e ve b s e jetiv is, formados a partir de uma cópula que toma como complemento um adjetivo. Uma vez que raiz e núcleo verbal possuem conteúdo fonológico pleno (não vazio), não é possível fazer conflation entre núcleo e raiz, o que impede que o predicado verbal seja formado. Essa estrutura explica a agramaticalidade desses verbos frente ao processo de transitivização automática. Também testamos a sintaxe e a semântica da intransitivização (construções incoativas, voz passiva, reflexiva e média). De modo geral, percebemos que não há morfologia específica para a construção de sentenças médias, incoativas ou anticausativas. Não existem passivas em Dâw; no lugar desta voz, os falantes produzem sentenças incoativas ou com o sujeito subespecificado. As sentenças reflexivas são geradas por meio de pronomes reflexivos na posição de objeto da sentença. Por fim, vimos que objetos diretos de sentenças transitivas são marcados pelo morfema {-uuy\'} analisados por nós como MDO. Sua aplicação está condicionada a restrições semânticas de definitude e animacidade
This thesis describes and analyzes the argument structure and verbal classes of the Dâw language (Nadahup family, Amazon). We studied the verbs of that language from the semantic and syntactic perspective, identifying classes and subclasses according to the morphosyntactic behavior of verbal roots. Furthermore, we evaluated the descriptive and explanatory hypotheses of verb classes identified by Martins (2004), the first researcher to address Dâw morphosyntax. Our theoretical framework is the theory of argument structure developed by Hale & Keyser (2002), which proposes an analysis of the syntax and semantics of lexical items by means of the argument structure the pattern of structural relations between the head and its arguments within syntactical structures projected by the head itself. Through various language tests, including verbal valency alternation and judgment of (a)grammaticality, we reclassified the nine verb classes identified by Martins (2004) into three classes according to the verbal valency: the classes of intransitive verbs, transitive verbs and bitransitive verbs. Martins (2004) states that, in the sentence, the verbs may change in tone due to the presence of a transitivizing or intransitivizing tonal morpheme. However, we show in this paper that the tonal system of the language is predictable at the sentence level. Thus, regardless of the valency-increasing process involved, we realized that the tonal change of verbs arises due to the phonological phrasing of sentences. Regarding the transitivization process, subclasses of intransitive verbs were identified: alternating and non-alternating verbs. The restrictions on alternation are due to the argument structure of each verb type. In the case of unaccusative or alternating intransitive verbs, we observed that they are formed from a composite dyadic structure, projecting an internal specifier and a complement, which allows them to switch between intransitive and transitive forms. In the case of non-alternating verbs we found three patterns: denominal and unergative verbs, based on a monadic argument structure (that does not project internal specifier) that prevents alternation; non-alternating unaccusative verbs based on a monadic structure that takes a basic dyadic structure as a complement verbs of this type do not alternate because they are not formed by a dyadic structure, but contain such a structure n e jectiv l ve bs, f me f m c p l ve b th t t kes n jective s complement. Since the root and verbal head have full (non-empty) phonological content, no conflation is possible between head and root, which prevents the formation of the verbal predicate. This structure explains the agrammaticality of these verbs with regard to the automatic transitivization process. We also tested the syntax and semantics of intransitivization (inchoative constructions, passive, reflexive and middle voices). In general, we found that there is no specific morphology for constructing middle, inchoative or anticausative sentences. There are no passives in Dâw; in place of this voice, the speakers form sentences that are inchoative or have a subspecified subject. Reflexive sentences are created using reflexive pronouns in the position of the object of the sentence. Finally, we found that direct objects of transitive sentences are marked by the {-uuy\'} morpheme analyzed by us as DOM. Its use is subject to semantic constraints of definiteness and animacy

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007.
This study explores semantic analysis of motion verb-hamba in IsiXhosa. In chapter 1 I have stated the aim of the study. I have discussed properties related to the lexical semantic analysis of the verb-hamba as well as Pustejovsky’s theory of the Generative Lexicon. The theoretical framework and the organization of study are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 2 addresses in more detail the type system for semantics. A generative theory of the lexicon includes multiple levels of representation for different types of lexical information needed. These levels include Argument Structure, Event Structure, Qualia Structure and Lexical Inherent Structure. In this chapter there is a more detailed structure of the qualia and the role they play in distributing the functional behavior of words and phrases in composition. In chapter 3 I have examined the lexical semantic analysis of the verb-hamba to account for the range of selectional properties of the NP phrase subject argument of the verb-hamba and various interpretations that arise in terms of composition with its complement arguments. The polysemous behavior of the verb-hamba is examined in sentence alternation constructions with respect to the properties of the event structure. I have also investigated the lexical representation in terms of argument structure and the event structure of the verb-hamba in different sentences. Chapter 4 is the conclusion, summarizing the findings of all the previous chapters in this study on lexical semantic analysis of the motion verb-hamba in IsiXhosa. This is followed by word lists that contain meanings of words in the context in which they are used.

A presente pesquisa está inserida nos estudos com base na Gramática de Construções Cognitiva, e tem por objetivo realizar um mapeamento sintático-semântico do verbo stellen, com ênfase em seu uso como verbo-suporte. Para a realização desse mapeamento, analisou-se contextos de uso do verbo stellen em que ele ocorre como verbo pleno, como integrante de construções com verbo-suporte e de outros fraseologismos que se inserem nas fronteiras com essas construções. A análise dos dados está baseada na abordagem construcional de Goldberg (1995 e 2006), para quem construções são definidas como pareamentos entre forma e significado. A autora se foca em um tipo específico de construção as chamadas construções de estrutura argumental que seriam, por si só, portadoras de sentido, independentemente de outros itens lexicais que compõem as sentenças. No que diz respeito à análise da estrutura argumental das construções com verbo-suporte (doravante CVS), levamos em conta os trabalhos de Wittenberg e Piñango (2011), Rostila (2011) e Wittenberg (2016). A metodologia adotada baseou-se na elaboração de um corpus composto por informações retiradas de entradas de dicionários em língua alemã e por excertos de textos retirados do Arquivo Wikipedia Artikel und Diskussionen, fornecido pelo banco dados COSMAS II, do Institut für Deutsche Sprache, da Universidade de Mannheim. Os resultados obtidos com o estudo aqui realizado confirmam o princípio da economia semântica postulado pela Gramática de Construções, já que os sentidos atribuídos tradicionalmente ao verbo stellen, são, na verdade, resultado da instanciação do verbo nas construções argumentais que ele pode integrar, são elas, a Construção de Movimento Causado, a Construção Transitiva, a Construção Resultativa e a Construção Bitransitiva. Os resultados da análise das CVS deverbais indicam que o sentido dessas construções é influenciado pela estrutura argumental tanto do verbo-suporte, quanto do componente nominal, em um processo de partilha de argumentos. Além disso, foram encontradas no corpus CVS formadas por stellen que, por serem altamente lexicalizadas, são consideradas unidades armazenadas como um todo no Léxico.
This master\'s dissertation belongs to the studies of Cognitive Construction Grammar and aims to demonstrate a sintatic and semantic investigation of the light verb stellen. Thus, the verb was analyzed in contexts, in which the verb stellen is a fullverb and as a component of light verb constructions and other phraseologies, which are considered as borderline cases of such constructions. This analysis was carried out following Goldberg\'s perspective (1995). The author assumes that the constructions are defined as form-meaning pairs and are considered as the fundamental unit of grammar. Goldberg argues, that constructions, disregarding their verbal meaning, are the significant components because of the Argument Structure. The analysis of the Argument Structure of the light verb constructions is based on the scientific researches of Rostila (2011), Wittenberg and Piñango (2011) and Wittenberg (2016).After all, this analysis is described as qualitative and based on corpus. For the creation of the corpus, examples were used from German dictionaries as well as dictionaries for German as a foreign language. Besides, references of the archive Wikipedia Artikel und Diskussionen of the IDS COSMAS II database of texts of the University of Mannheim were collected.The results confirm the principle of the semantic economy because the meanings, that are traditionally assing to the verb stellen, can be understood as the result of the relations between verb and four argument structure construciotns: The Caused Motion Construction, the Transitive Construction, the Resultative Construction and the Ditransitive Construction. Hence, the results of the analysis of non-deverbal light verb constructions suggest that both the argument structure of the light verb and the argument structure of the nominal element influence the entire meaning of the construction within a process of argument-sharing. In the corpus, there were other examples of light verb constructions with the verb stellen, of which its nominal component had no separate Argument Structure. Those light verb constructions are highly lexicalized and therefore included in the lexicon as a whole.

Dans le cadre des approches constructionistes, cette thèse étudie les verbes labiles de l’anglais, qui peuvent manifester des configurations syntaxiques variées sans changer de forme. L’étude de la complémentation de ces verbes montre que leur catégorisation en familles sémantiques est pertinente mais pas suffisante pour expliquer leur comportement. La thèse défend une approche syncrétique de la complémentation du verbe qui rend compte de son importante productivité et de ses limites parfois arbitraires. Une analyse montre que les verbes ont tous une configuration syntaxique par défaut, qui n’est pas signifiante et qui permet simplement au verbe d’exprimer ses arguments de façon non marquée, en accord avec certains principes de cohérence conceptuelle. À l’inverse, lorsque la complémentation du verbe a un apport sémantique identifiable, l’existence de schémas de complémentation pleinement signifiants est postulée. Il s’agit d’ensembles de compléments dont le sens est distinct de celui du verbe auquel ils sont associés et se retrouve de façon régulière avec des verbes de catégories diverses. Il est démontré que les schémas de complémentation doivent être considérés comme des unités linguistiques de plein droit de l’anglais. Cela implique qu’en synchronie, ces schémas sont emmagasinés par les locuteurs plutôt que le résultat d’un processus d’analogie avec des constructions existantes. Leur statut d’unité linguistique permet d’étudier leur sémantisme de la même façon que des unités lexicales plus classiques. S’ils sont en majorité polysémiques, certains schémas ont des emplois difficiles à relier sémantiquement et doivent donc être considérés comme des homonymes
Within a constructionist framework, this thesis studies English labile verbs, which can enter into various syntactic configurations without changing form. A study of their complementation shows that categorizing them into semantic families is relevant but not sufficient to explain their behavior. The thesis defends a syncretic approach to verb complementation to that accounts for its important productivity and its sometimes arbitrary limits. It is shown that all verbs have a default syntactic configuration, which is not meaningful and which simply allows the verb to express its arguments in an unmarked way, in accordance with certain principles of conceptual coherence. Conversely, when the complementation of the verb has an identifiable semantic contribution, the existence of fully meaningful patterns of complementation is posited. These are defined as sets of complements, whose meaning is distinct from that of the verb with which they are associated and is found regularly with verbs of diverse categories. It is shown that patterns of complementation should be considered fully-fledged English linguistic units. This implies that synchronically, these patterns are mentally stored by speakers rather than the result of a process of analogy with existing constructions. Their status as linguistic units makes it possible to study their meaning in the same way as more classical lexical units. Although most of them are polysemic, some patterns of complementation exhibit uses that are difficult to link semantically and must therefore be viewed as homonyms

O objeto empírico desta tese é um subgrupo de verbos complexos do português brasileiro. Os dados estudados são formações sincronicamente transparentes e composicionais com prefixos a-, eN- e eS- e sufixos -ec-, -iz-, -e- e -ej-, incluindo os chamados verbos parassintéticos, e formações originalmente complexas, porém duvidosas quanto à complexidade atualmente. O corpus contém 380 verbos selecionados a partir de dicionário e organizados por critérios de frequência. O objetivo geral descritivo enfoca questões relativas às propriedades e ao comportamento dos afixos, das raízes e das vogais temáticas. A discussão é organizada em torno dos níveis de estrutura morfológica, morfofonológica, argumental e eventual. O objetivo geral teórico do trabalho consiste em discutir as propostas da Semântica Lexical, da Sintaxe Lexical e da Morfologia Distribuída. Como resultados, o estudo oferece uma primeira classificação em verbos parcialmente transparentes e totalmente transparentes. Aqueles são analisados como fruto de um processo de reanálise histórica comparado ao desaparecimento de preverbos. O estudo mostra que existe um continuum entre formações completamente fossilizadas, reanalisadas como simples, em processo de mudança e completamente transparentes e composicionais. Uma segunda classificação se refere a formações com significado composicional e não-composicional. Os dados não-composicionais são estruturalmente analisados através de uma releitura da restrição de localidade na interpretação das raízes e do uso da noção de polissemia das raízes. Os verbos totalmente transparentes e composicionais são descritivamente classificados em verbos de mudança de estado, de lugar (location), de posse concreta (locatum), de posse abstrata, de reconfiguração e verbos de modificação de v. A característica mais robusta dessa subclasse é a obrigatoriedade de um argumento interno interpretado como objeto afetado (tema ou experienciador, em menor escala) da mudança expressa pelo evento. A investigação aponta que esses prefixos podem ser a realização fonológica de um núcleo misto de natureza lexical e funcional que é responsável por introduzir o argumento interno na estrutura e relacioná-lo à semântica da raiz. Tal núcleo possui minimamente o traço [+r] (relacional) e, em poucos casos, apresenta especificação direcional [+dir]. Com isso, a ideia de que esses prefixos são morfemas direcionais é desmistificada, pois essa informação interna ao verbo complexo é residual e decadente. Em geral, os prefixos se comportam como alomorfes e não há fortes evidências de associação exclusiva de um prefixo a uma determinada estrutura argumental ou classe semântica. Os sufixos são analisados como realizações de núcleos funcionais de tipo v[+voice], v[-voice] e v[+voice, -télico] e também se observa que a ocorrência sufixal em tipos de eventos não se dá de modo tão sistemático como afirma a literatura prévia. A teoria de alomorfia prospota em Embick (2010), baseada em localidade e linearidade, se mostra efetiva para analisar a escolha dos alomorfes dos vi núcleos R (relacionador), v e Th (Vogal temática). O tipo semântico da raiz influencia o tipo de verbo formado, mas pode ser manipulado a fim de sofrer coerção por um processo metonímico ou estrutural. A principal conclusão a partir dos resultados obtidos é que a morfologia verbal do português brasileiro pode revelar tendências em relação à estrutura argumental e a estrutura de eventos, mas não reflete correlações suficientemente regulares ou consistentes.
The empirical object of this dissertation is a subgroup of complex verbs of Brazilian Portuguese. The dataset is composed by synchronically and compositional formations containing the prefixes a-, eN- e eS- and the suffixes -ec-, -iz-, -e- e -ej- and originally complex formations which are dubious in relation to its synchronic complexity. The corpus contains 380 verbs selected from a dictionary and organized by frequency criteria. The general descriptive goal encompasses topics on properties and behavior of affixes, roots and theme vowels and the discussion is guided by the levels of morphological, morphophonological, argument and event structure. The general theoretical goal of this dissertation is to discuss Lexical Semantics, Lexical Syntax and Distributed Morphology proposals. As empirical results, the study offers a primary classification in terms of partially and totally transparent verbs. Partially transparent verbs are treated as resulting from a historical reanalysis process compared to the well known process of disappearance of preverbs. It is assumed that there is a continuum from forms which are: 1) completely fossilized; 2) reanalyzed as simple; 3) forms in process of change; 4) completely compositional and transparent. A secondary classification refers to compositional and noncompositional formations. Non-compositional data are structurally analyzed by means of a new reading on the literature on locality restriction on the interpretation of roots and the use of the notion of root polysemy. Completely compositional and transparent verbs are empirically classified into change of state, change of location, change of abstract and concrete possession, reconfiguration and verbs of modification of v. The strongest characteristic of this subclass is the obligatory presence of an internal argument interpreted as an affected object (theme or experiencer, to a less extent) of the change denoted by the event. The investigation points out that the prefix may be considered as the phonological realization of a head with a mixed lexical functional nature, which is responsible for introducing the internal argument in the structure and relating it to the root semantics. This head has at least the feature [+r] and, in a few cases, it may present directional information [+dir]. Considering this, the assumption that these prefixes are directional morphemes is debunked since this kind of information within a complex verb is residual and decayed. In general, prefixes behave as allomorphs and there are not strong evidences of an exclusive association of a prefix and a certain kind of argument structure or semantic class. The suffixes are analyzed as realizations of three functional heads: v[+voice], v[-voice] and v[+voice, -telic] and it is observed that suffix occurrence in event type is not systematic as previous literature claims. The theory of allomorphy proposed in Embick (2010), which is based on locality and linearity, was efficient in accounting for selection of allomorphs of R, v and Th heads. Finally, semantic type shows influence on verb type but this information can be viii manipulated in order to derive structural or metonymical coercion. The main conclusion to be drawn from the results is the fact that Brazilian Portuguese verbal morphology may reveal certain tendencies in argument and event structure, but it does not reflect sufficiently regular or consistent correlations.

Grâce à l’évolution de la technologie à travers le Web, la documentation relative à la santé est de plus en plus abondante et accessible à tous, plus particulièrement aux patients, qui ont ainsi accès à une panoplie d’informations sanitaires. Malheureusement, la grande disponibilité de l’information médicale ne garantit pas sa bonne compréhension par le public visé, en l’occurrence les non-experts. Notre projet de thèse a pour objectif la création d’une ressource de simplification de textes médicaux, à partir d’une analyse syntaxico-sémantique des verbes dans quatre corpus médicaux en français qui se distinguent de par le degré d’expertise de leurs auteurs et celui des publics cibles. La ressource conçue contient 230 patrons syntaxicosémantiques des verbes (appelés pss), alignés avec leurs équivalents non spécialisés. La méthode semi-automatique d’analyse des verbes appliquée pour atteindre notre objectif est basée sur quatre tâches fondamentales : l’annotation syntaxique des corpus, réalisée grâce à l’analyseur syntaxique Cordial (Laurent, Dominique et al, 2009) ; l’annotation sémantique des arguments des verbes, à partir des catégories sémantiques de la version française de la terminologie médicale Snomed Internationale (Côté, 1996) ; l’acquisition des patrons syntactico-sémantiqueset l’analyse contrastive du fonctionnement des verbes dans les différents corpus. Les patrons syntaxico-sémantiques des verbes acquis au terme de ce processus subissent une évaluation (par trois équipes d’experts en médecine) qui débouche sur la sélection des candidats constituant la nomenclature de la ressource de simplification. Les pss sont ensuite alignés avec leurs correspondants non spécialisés, cet alignement débouche sur le création de la ressource de simplification, qui représente le résultat principal de notre travail de thèse. Une évaluation du rendement du contenu de la ressource a été effectuée avec deux groupes d’évaluateurs : des linguistes et des non-linguistes. Les résultats montrent que la simplification des pss permet de faciliter la compréhension du sens du verbe en emploi spécialisé, surtout lorsque un certains paramètres sont réunis
With the evolution of Web technology, healthcare documentation is becoming increasinglyabundant and accessible to all, especially to patients, who have access to a large amount ofhealth information. Unfortunately, the ease of access to medical information does not guaranteeits correct understanding by the intended audience, in this case non-experts. Our PhD work aimsat creating a resource for the simplification of medical texts, based on a syntactico-semanticanalysis of verbs in four French medical corpora, that are distinguished according to the levelof expertise of their authors and that of the target audiences. The resource created in thepresent thesis contains 230 syntactico-semantic patterns of verbs (called pss), aligned withtheir non-specialized equivalents. The semi-automatic method applied, for the analysis of verbs,in order to achieve our goal is based on four fundamental tasks : the syntactic annotation of thecorpora, carried out thanks to the Cordial parser (Laurent et al., 2009) ; the semantic annotationof verb arguments, based on semantic categories of the French version of a medical terminologyknown as Snomed International (Côté, 1996) ; the acquisition of syntactico-semantic patternsof verbs and the contrastive analysis of the verbs behaviors in the different corpora. Thepss, acquired at the end of this process, undergo an evaluation (by three teams of medicalexperts) which leads to the selection of candidates constituting the nomenclature of our textsimplification resource. These pss are then aligned with their non-specialized equivalents, thisalignment leads to the creation of the simplification resource, which is the main result of ourPhD study. The content of the resource was evaluated by two groups of people : linguists andnon-linguists. The results show that the simplification of pss makes it easier for non-expertsto understand the meaning of verbs used in a specialized way, especially when a certain set ofparameters is collected

Uppsatsen behandlar konstruktionsmönster vid de bitransitiva verben sända och giva i äldre forn­svenska, yngre fornsvenska och äldre nysvenska. I uppsatsen undersöks dels för­del­ningen mellan de fyra konstruktionsalternativen DAT-ACK, ACK-DAT, PP-ACK och ACK-PP för sända respektive giva under var och en av de undersökta perioderna, dels vilka se­mantiska och informationsstrukturella faktorer som ligger bakom valet av en viss kon­struk­tions­va­riant vid ett visst verb under en viss tidsperiod. Resultaten visar att för verbet sända fö­re­lig­g­er inga sig­nifikanta skillnader i för­delningen av konstruktionsalternativ mellan de tre tids­pe­ri­oderna. Verbet konstrueras med ACK-PP i över hälften av fallen under alla tidsperioderna, me­dan DAT-ACK genomgående står för ungefär en tredjedel av beläggen. Verbet giva upp­vi­s­ar däremot en signifikant minskad användning av ACK-DAT mellan yngre fornsvenska och äl­d­re nysvenska, medan bruket av ACK-PP ökar under samma period. Mellan äldre forn­sven­ska och yngre fornsvenska ökar bruket av DAT-ACK, medan ACK-PP blir ovanligare. Båda des­sa tendenser beror dock på en specifik användning av ACK-PP i Fornsvenska legendariet, och speg­lar förmodligen inte utvecklingen i språket som helhet. Vad gäller de informationsstruktu­r­ella fak­torerna påverkar dessa valet av konstruktionstyp i stort sett som väntat, i så måtto att kor­t­a­re, pronominella och definita led (dvs. informationsstrukturellt tematiska led) ofta pla­ce­ras fö­re längre, icke-pronominella och indefinita led (informationsstrukturellt rematiska). Ana­lysen av de semantiska variablerna visade att DAT-ACK vid båda verben gynnas av ani­ma­ta m/m-ar­gument (mottagare/mål) och abstrakta p/t-argument (patient/tema), medan ACK-PP å andra si­dan gynnas av inanimata m/m-argument och konkreta p/t-argument. Vid verbet sän­da kon­stru­eras DAT-ACK enbart med animata m/m-argument, medan verbet giva i äldre och yngre forn­svenska endast konstrueras med ACK-PP om m/m-argumentet är inanimat. En se­mantisk ut­vidgning av ACK-PP vid verbet giva uppstår emellertid i äldre nysvenska, där kon­struk­tions­varianten blir kompatibel även med animata m/m-argument. ACK-DAT är vid verbet gi­va vanligare när p/t-argumentet betecknar någonting konkret, vilket indikerar en se­man­tisk upp­delning inte bara mellan dubbelobjektsvariant och prepositionsvariant utan även mel­lan de bå­da dubbelobjektsvarianterna DAT-ACK och ACK-DAT.

Current methods for assessing African American English (AAE) speaking children's semantic knowledge are seriously flawed. Many AAE-speaking children who do not have language disorders perform poorly on standardized vocabulary tests. However, there is no reason to believe that all of these AAE-speaking children are deficient in their ability to learn a rich and functional vocabulary. Existing vocabulary tests often are culturally biased because lexical items are selected and normed on middle-class Euro-American children. This results in an inherent bias against linguistically and culturally diverse populations. Some African American children have less exposure to the lexical items selected for use on standardized tests than Euro-American middle-class children. These cultural and language differences become exacerbated when these children enter school. Frequently, AAE-speaking children are referred to the school speech-language pathologist (SLP) for language testing. However, the SLP is often ill-equipped to provide an unbiased evaluation due to reasons previously mentioned. The problem for the SLP is to determine what areas of semantics to test and what methods should be utilized in this assessment. This study investigated the processing-dependent measure of fast mapping as an alternative method of assessing semantic knowledge in children. AAE and Standard American English (SAE) speaking children between the ages of four and six were presented with two comprehension tasks involving real verbs and the fast mapping of novel verbs in four different argument structures (intransitive, transitive, transfer, and complement). These tasks were developed to evaluate how children use syntactic bootstrapping to help fix the meaning of new verbs. The participants' performance on the alternative assessment measure was compared to their performance on a commonly used psychometric vocabulary test. Although significant differences were found between AAE- and SAE-speakers in the transitive argument structure for real verbs and transfer argument structure for both real and novel verbs, overall results indicated that both groups were able to fast map novel verbs. A performance gap between AAE and SAE participants on the psychometric vocabulary test was noted in this study. These results suggest the feasibility of fast mapping as a method to reduce test bias in semantic assessment.

This thesis will investigate the information structure and its interaction with argument mappings of Chinese resultative verb construction (RVC). One RVC may have several different mappings. This thesis proposes that these mappings have a strong relation with information structure. If a mapping is not in accord with the information structure of the sentence, this mapping will not be chosen by the speaker. This thesis proposes that there are four types of Topics in Chinese: primary Topic, secondary Topic, continuing Topic and contrastive Topic. The primary Topic and contrastive Topic motivate a Patient-type argument to be the Subject, and an Agent-type argument being a secondary Topic may not be the Subject of the sentence. Secondary Topics in BA and BEI construction bear different information update, and this blocks some mappings that are possible in the canonical structure to appear in BA and BEI construction.

This study focuses on the predicate argument structure (PAS) of a sub-class of verbs in Xitsonga - verbs of change of possession: give, contribute, future having, providing, obtaining and verbs of exchange. It is shown that these verbs select various theta roles to form their PAS in the different alternations allowed in this language. The effects of the applicative {-el-} and causative {-is-} verbal affixes on the PAS of such verbs are also considered. The study confirms the fact that the ordering of objects in ditransitive verbs is determined by an interplay of syntactic and semantic factors. Ambiguity arises in the case of two animate objects. In this case the object with a definite reading will appear adjacent to the verb.
African Languages
M. A. (Arican Languages)

Tese de Doutoramento em Linguística do Português apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra
O objetivo fundamental deste estudo é o de (dar a) conhecer o grau de proficiência que aprendentes de português como língua não materna (PLNM) apresentam no decurso do seu processo de aprendizagem da estrutura argumental preposicional (EAP) em português. Mais concretamente, pretende-se perceber se há correlação entre o nível de conhecimento (QECR) dos aprendentes de PLNM e a aprendizagem da EAP em português. Para tal, avalia-se através de inquéritos, propositadamente elaborados para o presente trabalho, se a frequência dos verbos e/ou das preposições das EAP têm peso positivo/negativo/nenhum ao longo do processo de aprendizagem dessas EAP, e se a frequência do input apresenta algum tipo de influência no desempenho dos alunos, no domínio em estudo. Pretende-se ainda conhecer que preposição é substituída e/ou omitida mais vezes pelos aprendentes de A1/ A2, B1, B2 e C1, e qual a preposição utlizada mais vezes por esses aprendentes para substituir as preposições pretendidas. Com o intuito de conhecer qual verbo/preposição/EAP se aprende com mais dificuldade/facilidade, a informação dos inquéritos foi analisada em função do nível do QECR dos aprendentes, da frequência dos verbos e de uma tipologia de ocorrências desviantes, formulada previamente. A análise dos dados empíricos revela que as EAP com as preposições de e em (as mais frequentes no português) não trazem muitos problemas aos alunos de A1/ A2 e B1. Ainda a preposição de foi a mais utilizada para substituir as adequadas. Os aprendentes de B2 e C1 mostram menos dificuldades nas EAP com a preposição com. Além disso, verifica-se que as EAP com a são a fonte das maiores dificuldades para todos os aprendentes, sendo também esta preposição a que é substituída com mais frequência pelos alunos. A preposição mais omissa foi por (em A1 e A2), provavelmente por ser pouco frequente nos níveis elementares. Verificou-se que a frequência dos verbos tem influência (positiva e negativa) ao longo de processo de aprendizagem das EAP. Em muitos casos, as EAP dos verbos mais frequentes são aprendidas com mais facilidade, enquanto as EAP dos verbos menos frequentes provocam mais problemas aos alunos de todos os níveis. Por outro lado, o sentido dos verbos (mais concreto ou mais abstrato) também tem um peso não negligenciável. Ou seja, as EAP dos verbos com sentidos mais concretos (de espaço, de tempo, de movimento) são mais facilmente assimiladas pelos alunos de PLNM – e como tal objeto de menos desvios –, enquanto as EAP dos verbos com sentidos abstratos (de crença, de atividade psicológica) são objeto de maior dificuldade. Constatou-se ainda que o input tem influência (positiva ou negativa) na proficiência dos alunos: as EAP encontradas com mais frequência no input são assimiladas com mais facilidade pelos alunos de PLNM e, pelo contrário, aquelas com as quais o contacto é menor provocam mais dificuldades. Por último, não há apenas um fator, mas vários, que ajuda(m) ou dificulta(m) a aprendizagem proficiente das EAP: a frequência das preposições/verbos/EAP e do input, o sentido das preposições e verbos, o contexto onde as EAP estão inseridas, o nível de proficiência linguística dos alunos e o seu conhecimento do mundo interferem no desempenho destes aquando da sua aprendizagem das EAP do PLNM.
The fundamental objective of this study is to know the degree of proficiency that learners of Portuguese as a Non-Native Language (PNNL) present in their learning process of the prepositional argument structure (PAS) in Portuguese. More specifically, the study aims to understand if there is a correlation between the level of knowledge of PNNL learners and the learning of Portuguese PAS. Through specially elaborated surveys, it assesses whether verb frequency and preposition frequency, amongst other factors, have a positive, a negative or no effect (at all) in the learning process of PAS, and if the frequency of input has some kind of influence on students’ choices. It also tries to establish which preposition is more often replaced or suppressed and what preposition is more used by these learners in order to replace the intended one. In order to know which verb/ preposition/ PAS is learned more easily / more difficulty, survey data was analyzed according to the level of the Common Reference Language Framework (CRLF) learning levels (CRLF A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1), verb frequency and types of deviant occurrence. Data analysis shows that PAS with the prepositions de and em (the most frequent prepositions in Portuguese) do not bring many problems to A1/ A2 and B1 students. In addition, de was also the most used preposition in order to replace others. B2 and C1 learners show less difficulties in PAS with the preposition com (which has a more concrete meaning). All PAS with a are very difficult for all learners and a has been replaced more frequently. Por was very often omitted by A1/ A2 learners, probably because it is less frequent at these learning levels. Verb frequency and meaning (more concrete / more abstract) also influence (positively and negatively) PAS learning processes. In many cases, the structure of the highest frequency verbs is learned more easily, whereas the structure of low frequency verbs entails more problems at all levels. Also, PAS of verbs with a more concrete meaning (space, time, movement) are more easily learned by students, while PAS of verbs with an abstract meaning (belief or physiological activity) are more difficult. Finally, high or low input also has some influence in PAS learning. PAS found with more frequency in the input don’t bring many problems to the students. On the contrary, less frequent PAS cause more difficulties. Overall, data show that learning of PAS in Portuguese does not depend on one factor alone, but rather depends on several intertwined factors: frequency of prepositions/ verbs/ PAS and input, PAS context, meaning of prepositions and verbs, students’ linguistic proficiency and their knowledge of the world.

The topic of this diploma thesis is Italian causative constructions fare + infinitive. The work is divided into two parts. In the first, theoretical, part the author defines Italian causative constructions then he describes their syntactic and semantic properties. After that the author turns his focus to Czech causative constructions which are followed by the second, practical, part of the work. In that part the author works with itWaC, an Italian web corpus, on the basis of which he makes a list of verbs that enter into causative constructions. Thereafter, the author proposes translations of the most frequent constructions and in case of more possible translations of the same one, he tries to theoretically explain such a situation.