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1

ANDERSSON, SARA. "prepositions." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Textilhögskolan, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-17455.

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Prepositions describes relations between different things. In this collection thosethings refers to the soft and moving body, hard and stiff sculptural shapes, colours,prints, fabrics and shoes.I have a great passion for sculptural shapes and for this collection I have used thispassion as an important source for inspiration. Interesting and challenging meetingsbetween the choice of especially materials and colours is another aspect of this project.Wholeness has a significant meaning to me, as the important thing is not to put focuson the garments themselves rather than the combination of all elements, in the compositionof each outfit and in the line-up. I have looked at the different componentssuch as the sculptural shapes, garments, colours, prints and shoes as if they wherebuilding blocks. I have arranged and rearranged and combined those building blocksin different ways trying to achieve a dynamic and balanced composition. I have triedto simplify all parts as much as possible when aiming for a clear and strong result.
Program: Modedesignutbildningen
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2

Andersson, Sara. "prepositions." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Textilhögskolan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-20942.

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Prepositions describes relations between different things. In this collection thosethings refers to the soft and moving body, hard and stiff sculptural shapes, colours,prints, fabrics and shoes.I have a great passion for sculptural shapes and for this collection I have used thispassion as an important source for inspiration. Interesting and challenging meetingsbetween the choice of especially materials and colours is another aspect of this project.Wholeness has a significant meaning to me, as the important thing is not to put focuson the garments themselves rather than the combination of all elements, in the compositionof each outfit and in the line-up. I have looked at the different componentssuch as the sculptural shapes, garments, colours, prints and shoes as if they wherebuilding blocks. I have arranged and rearranged and combined those building blocksin different ways trying to achieve a dynamic and balanced composition. I have triedto simplify all parts as much as possible when aiming for a clear and strong result.
Program: Modedesignutbildningen
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3

Jaworska, Ewa. "Aspects of the syntax of prepositions and prepositional phrases in English and Polish." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1987. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f5aaca25-2abc-412c-aa1e-a97f743d885b.

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The present thesis focusses on the structure of PP's in English and Polish, and the occurrence of PP's in subject and object positions. The main theoretical references are the X-bar Theory of syntactic categories and the Government Binding framework (GB). A consideration of English data corroborates Jackendoff's and Emonds' claim that apart from an NP, prepositions can take a PP and an S′ complement or no complement at all, though details of Jackendoff's analysis are revised. Polish prepositions allow the same range of complements, including no complement, although,with a greater variety of complex prepositions and with intransitive prepositions modified by relative and appositive clauses, the P-PP and the P-S′ structures are less common in Polish than in English. Subject and object PP's have so far received little attention. Like PP objects of prepositions, they are used if the intended meaning cannot be expressed by a suitable NP. The appearance of subject PP's in raising and passive sentences poses a problem for classical Transformational Grammar, though not for a slightly revised version of GB – another category-based framework. The analysis proposed here involves a particular view of the representation of Case, and a revised Case Filter. The Case Filter rules out not merely any lexical NP with no Case but any lexical XP which requires Case but has not been assigned Case. Thus, the properties of being an NP and requiring Case are independent of each other. It emerges from the investigation (i) that prepositions in English and Polish are more alike than one might expect, given the obvious differences between the two languages; (ii) that prepositions and PP's are like verbs and VP's – as Jackendoff emphasizes – but in some respects they show greater resemblance to other categories; and (iii) that syntactic categories are less important for the distribution of phrases than is commonly assumed, and that the meaning of phrases is of central importance for their distribution.
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4

Meijer, Sietske Johanna. "Lexical and grammatical prepositions." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302247.

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5

Blom, Liane. "Swedish problems with English prepositions." Thesis, Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-779.

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English prepositions cause problems for learners of English. The way prepositions are taught has impact on how students learn. Using corpora in teaching makes it possible for teachers and pupils to explore language together and is a good alternative to filling in missing prepositions on worksheets. Sometimes linguistic errors are caused by mother tongue interference. Little research has been made earlier with a Swedish contrastive approach to prepositions but a great deal of literature concern language transfer and mother tongue interference. This essay is written on the assumption that Swedish as a first language interferes with English and causes prepositional mistakes.

Two classes of ninth graders participated in my investigation. I wanted to find out if students performed better when they had given answers to choose from or when they had to produce the preposition themselves. My study proved that pupils had a better knowledge of prepositions perceptively than productively. It also proved that learners resorted to Swedish when they did not know the correct answer. Many learners fail to recognise prepositions as parts of multiword expressions. By teaching students how to notice grammatical collocations and lexical chunks we can help them to achieve acceptable levels of language proficiency and accuracy.

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6

Underdown, Ruth Carys. "Studies in Welsh prepositions : after." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.608641.

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7

GHAZOUI, MERIEM. "Les prepositions dans le coran." Paris 7, 1995. http://www.theses.fr/1995PA070040.

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Il s'agit d'une etude de fonctionnement des prepositions dans le coran, elle comprend une introduction, neuf chapitres et une conclusion. C'est un travail qui a ete effectue en deux etapes. La premiere est une etape de collecte et de classification de donnees. Vu la richesse du phenomene des prepositions dans le coran, nous lui avons consacre une demarche d'ordre technique, en ayant recours a dbaseiiiplus. Dans un premier temps, la demarche consiste a effectuer un travail purement automatique: saisie et organisation des donnees dans une base bien structuree, exploitation de la base en appliquant certains programmes. La seconde etape du travail consiste a observer les donnees et analyser les differentes configurations de phenomene, a partir des resultats du traitement automatique. Ainsi, dans cette partie d'observation et d'analyse, nous avons consacre un chapitre a chaque preposition. Nous avons commence chaque chapitre par la presentation de la preposition en question, en relevant un nombre d'interrogations portant sur ses differents sens, ensuite nous avons examine son statut, son semantisme et les proprietes semantiques qui lui sont inherentes, et qui la rendent apte a marquer certaines operations. Nous avons, a la fin de chaque chapitre, donne une sorte de synthese, dans laquelle nous avons presente ce que nous avons considere les traits semantiques intrinseques a la preposition en question; ainsi que les operations qui lui sont propres. Nous avons effectue egalement une classification et une differentiation entre plusieurs classes d'occurrences de chaque preposition,. .
The present work is a study the functionning of prepositions in the koran, divided into an introduction, nine chapters and a conclusion. Research has been conducted two stages. The first stage consisted of collecting and classifying relevant data. Owing to the complexity of the function of propositions in the koran, a technical approach was adopted using dbaseiii+. During a first, essentially automatic, phase data was entered and organized into a conveniently structured data base, which was then exploited using appropriate software. During the second phase, various prepositional configurations obtained by processing the data were observed and analyzed. For the purpose of observation and analysis of the results, a chapitre has been devoted each preposition. Each chapitre begins by introducing the preposition in question, deals with some questions concerning its various possible meaning, after which its status, semantism and intrinsic semantic properties, which enable il to represent certain operations, are pointed out. Each capter ends with a synthesis in which the intrinsic semantic properties of the preposition and its specific operations have been summed up. In addition, various occurrences of each preposition have been classified and differentiated in vieuw of explaining and clasifying abstraction process certain prepositions undergo, and justifying the passage from concrete usage to more abstract ones
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8

Tseng, Jesse L. "Representation and selection of prepositions." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22700.

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9

Tahbaz, Sofia. "The acquisition of Swedish prepositions : A longitudinal study of child comprehension and production of spatial prepositions." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-157020.

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Prepositions are acquired at earliest during the second year of life. This thesis investigates 16 children acquiring Swedish spatial prepositions, i.e. på ‘on/at’, i ‘in/at’, under ‘under’, bredvid ‘beside/next to’, bakom ‘behind/back’ and framför ‘in front’. This thesis aimed toinvestigate how preposition acquisition relates to language acquisition. The thesis used three different methods: eight sessions of free parent-child interaction, one structured experiment at 2;9 years and parental reports on child passive/active vocabulary from when the children were 0;9 years until they were 3;0 years old. The data gathered was correlated to scores in the parental reports at 4;0 years, which was used as a measure of communicative level, and used as a base when dividing the children into three groups: lower, average and higher score. The results showed that both parental and child preposition production, comprehension at 2;9 years, and comprehension and production predicted communicative level at 4;0 years. The results of the thesis varied depending on the method used. This highlights the importance if using several methods when investigating child language acquisition.
Prepositioner tillägnas som tidigast under barnets andra levnadsår. I denna masteruppsats undersöks utvecklingen av spatiala prepositioner hos 16 barn under deras 4 första levnadsår. På, i, under, bredvid, bakom och framför var prepositionerna som undersöktes. Ett av uppsatsens mål var att undersöka om och/eller hur prepositionsutveckling är kopplat till språkutveckling. För att nå målet användes tre olika metoder: åtta sessioner av förälder-barn interaktion, ett semi-strukturerat test då barnen var 2;9 år gamla och aktivt/passivt ordförråd från när barnen var 0;9 år till att de var 3;0 år gamla. Detta korrelerades sedan till barnens poäng från en föräldraenkät om barnets språkförmåga vid 4;0 års ålder. Poängen vid 4-års ålder låg till grund för uppdelning av barnen i tre grupper: lägre, medel och högre språklig nivå. Resultaten från uppsatsen var bland annat att såväl föräldrars som barns produktion av prepositioner, barnens förståelse av prepositionerna vid 2;9 år, och förståelse såväl som produktion av prepositioner förutsäger barnens kommunikationsnivå vid 4;0-års ålder.  Resultaten skiljer sig beroende på vilken metod som använts, vilket understryker vikten av att använda flera metoder när barns språkutveckling undersöks.
MINT - moduling infant language acquisition from parent-child interaction
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10

Trujillo, Indalecio Arturo. "Lexicalist machine translation of spatial prepositions." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.388507.

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11

Salles, Heloisa Maria Moreira Lima. "Prepositions and the syntax of complementation." Thesis, Bangor University, 1997. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/prepositions-and-the-syntax-of-complementation(59d983f2-7d61-458e-907a-19138fc8bc35).html.

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12

Lotsander, Jacob. "Thai Learners of English : An Error and Transference Analysis of the Use of Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-34343.

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13

Daraškevič, Ilona. "Prielinksnių vartojimas dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priede „Sostinė“." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2007. http://vddb.library.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2007~D_20070816_170837-77668.

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Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – išnagrinėti dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priede „Sostinė“ prielinksnių vartojimo ypatumus. Analizuojami įvairios tematikos straipsniai: politika, kultūra, menas, sportas, medicina, kriminalai ir pan. Tiriamąją medžiagą sudaro 2006 metų lapkričio mėnesio 10 dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priedo „Sostinė“ numerių. Darbo metu ištirta 2534 prielinksnių. Analizuojant nagrinėjamą medžiagą, buvo keliami šie uždaviniai: a) remiantis „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatikoje“, „Kalbos patarimuose“ pateiktu skirstymu, sugrupuoti dienraščio „Lietuvos rytas“ priedo „Sostinė“ prielinksnius pagal tai, su kuriais linksniais jie eina; b) nustatyti ir apibrėžti tiriamųjų prielinksnių reikšmes. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad prielinksniai eidami su linksniu dažniausiai žymi sintaksinę objekto raišką, sintaksinę vietos raišką, sintaksinę krypties raišką, sintaksinę laiko raišką, rečiau – sintaksinę kiekio raišką, sintaksinę veiksmo ar būsenos priežasties raišką, sintaksinę informacijos ��altinio raišką, sintaksinę veiksmo atlikimo priemonės ar būdo raišką, sintaksinę išskirties santykių raišką ir labai retais atvejais – sintaksinę daikto požymių raišką, sintaksinę draugės raišką, sintaksinę medžiagos raišką, sintaksinę tikslo raišką, sintaksinę veikėjo būsenos požymio raišką, sintaksinę požymio raišką, sintaksinę tarpininkavimo raišką, sintaksinę veiksmo įrankio raišką, sintaksinę paskirties raišką.
The aim of the work is to analyze the prepositions found in appendix to daily newspaper „Lietuvos Rytas“ – „Sostinė“. In this work analyzes variety of themes in articles: politics, culture, art, sport, medicine, crime etc. Various dates were examined that is each week day was examined (it was chosen 2006 year November 10 issues). During the writing 2534 prepositions were analyzed. The main goals were: a) to group the prepositions according to „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika“, „Kalbos patarimai“ proposed distinction by means of analyzing the cases they are found with; b) estimate and describe the meaning of examined prepositions. Main consideration was given to syntactic meaning of prepositional. The results showed that the most often used prepositions are prepositions with syntactic meaning of place, and less frequently found are those with the syntactic informational meaning, and the rarest prepositions found in articles are the prepositions of time, quantity and movement or condition. What is more the prepositions of object, aim, relation, material, tool or purpose are used in very rare cases.
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14

Jansson, Hanna. "Native Swedish Speakers’ Problems with English Prepositions." Thesis, Örebro University, Department of Humanities, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-958.

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This essay investigates native Swedish speakers’ problems in the area of prepositions. A total of 19 compositions, including 678 prepositions, written by native Swedish senior high school students were analysed. All the prepositions in the material were judged as either basic, systematic or idiomatic. Then all the errors of substitution, addition and omission were counted and corrected. As hypothesised, least errors were found in the category of basic prepositions and most errors were found in the category of idiomatic prepositions. However, the small difference between the two categories of systematic and idiomatic prepositions suggests that the learners have greater problems with systematic prepositions than what was first thought to be the case. Basic prepositions cause little or no problems. Systematic prepositions, i.e. those that are rule governed or whose usage is somehow generalisable, seem to be quite problematic to native Swedish speakers. Idiomatic prepositions seem to be learnt as ‘chunks’, and the learners are either aware of the whole constructions or do not use them at all. They also cause some problems for Swedish speakers. Since prepositions are often perceived as rather arbitrary without rules to sufficiently describe them, these conclusions might not be surprising to teachers, students and language learners. The greatest error cause was found to be interference from Swedish, and a few errors could be explained as intralingual errors. It seems as if the learners’ knowledge of their mother tongue strongly influences the acquisition of English prepositions.

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Lindahl, Leonard. "Problematic Prepositions for Swedish Students of English." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-35086.

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This study investigates prepositional errors that Swedish 16-year-old students of English produce. The study attempts to understand why English L2 students in Sweden struggle with prepositions by looking at research within the SLA field regarding transfer, interlanguage transfer, implicit and explicit learning. The only extra-linguistic variable included in the study is the variable of gender. The method used to investigate students’ prepositional errors was to hand out a two-part test on prepositions to the students in one Grade 9 class in Sweden. The data was then analyzed and categorized to identify in what construction (PP as adjectival complements, PP as verb complements or PP as adverbials) Swedish students of English produce the most errors. The first part of the test was a fill-in-the-blanks test investigating the students’ productive knowledge. The second part of the test was a grammatical judgement test (GJT) assessing the students’ receptive knowledge. The test was divided into two different parts not to favor one particular test form. The test included a total of 22 students from one class, including 12 male and 10 female students. 8 out of the 22 students answered that they had another L1 than Swedish. A majority of these have lived in Sweden their whole lives, and only two answered that they arrived later in life. In contrast with earlier research and statistics, which show that female students perform academically better than male students, the test showed a clear advantage by the male students in the class. The male students performed better on both parts of the test. The most problematic PP construction for both genders was PP functioning as adjectives. The most common prepositional error that the students performed in the test was negative transfer from Swedish to English.
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16

Palm, Belén. "Preparera prepositioner - Sång och musik som didaktiskt hjälpmedel för prepositionskunskap i spanska." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Lärarutbildningen (LUT), 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-28039.

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Abstract A central problem in all language teaching is to teach the correct use of prepositions. There are grammar rules, but also a lot of exceptions and idiomatic expressions that often have to be learnt by examples or by heart. A trick for learning might be to use a mnemonic method with songs and music to memorize a correct use of prepositions. The purpose of this study is to test a language teaching didactic exercise for knowledge of preposition in Spanish with songs and music. Grammatical aspects, rules and exceptions when studying prepositions in Spanish are presented. A literature review shows the significance of music for language learning. By lesson trials the five so called “empty” prepositions in Spanish: a, con, de, en and por, are studied by 40 high school students only by listening to and singing two different songs in the beginning and at the end of each Spanish lesson during two weeks. The result of the study shows an improved knowledge of correct use of the 5 Spanish prepositions among the students using the method. Furthermore, the language teaching didactic exercise with song and music was seen as a pleasurable learning experience by the students.
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17

Luthuli, Muzi Stephen. "Die Afrikaanse setselgroep : `n bestekopname." University of Zululand, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/656.

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Verhandeling ingelewer vir die graad Magister in die Lettere en Wysbegeerte aan die Universiteit van Zululand, 2000.
Eng =: In this thesis I report the results of a survey that I made of the contributions that linguists had made in the course of the previous century regarding the description of the Afrikaans prepositional phrase construction. My research revealed that the first generation of Afrikaans linguists for ideological reasons were preoccupied with the origin and development of Afrikaans, and that Afrikaans prepositions were only referred to during discussions regarding the extent to which Afrikaans was considered to be a pure Germanic language, or a creolised language that obtained its characteristic features at the southern tip of Africa under the influence of contact languages such as Malay-Portuguese and Khoe. My research further revealed that De Villiers and Raidt were the first of the second generation Afrikaans linguists that understood that prepositions were constituents of a grammatical construction, the prepositional phrase construc¬tion. My main finding was that Ponelis is the central figure in the description of the grammar of Afrikaans, and that he made the biggest contribution to the description of the Afrikaans prepositional phrase construction in that capacity. Finally I concluded that De Wet and De Stadler are transitional figures to a new approach, according to which prepositions are characterised as elements of case grammar. Of De Stadler I concluded that his work on the Afrikaans partitative construction and the Afrikaans dative construction have created a bridge for analysing the Afrikaans prepositional phase construction within an emerging new approach, Cognitive Grammar. Afri: = In hierdie verhandeling doen ek verslag oor 'n bestekoJlname wat ek gemaak het van die bydraes wat taalkundiges in die loop van die vorige eeu gemaak het t.o.v. die beskrywing van die Afrikaanse setselgroep. My navorsing het aan die lig gebring dat die eerste generasie Afrikaanse talkumliges om ideologiese redes gemoeid was met die ontstaansgeskiedenis van Afrikaans, en dat Afrikaanse setsels slegs ter sprake gekom het tydens besprekings oor die mate waarin Mrikaans 'n suiwer Germaanse taal sou wees, of 'n gekreoliseerde taal wat aan die suidpunt van Afrika onder invloed van kontaktale soos Maleis-Portugees en Khoekoens sy kenmerkende taaleienskappe gekry het. Verder het my navoring aan die lig gebring dat De Villiers en Raidt die eerste taalkundiges van die tweede generasie was wat getoon het dat setsels as konstituente van 'n bepaalde grammatikale struktuur,die setselgroep, gebruik word. My hootbevinding is dat Ponelis die hooffiguur in die beskrywing van die grammatika van Afrikaans is en dat hy in daardie hoedanigheid die grootste bydrae gelewer het tot die beskrywing van die Mrikaanse setselgroep. Laastens het ek bevind dat De Wet en De Stadler oorgangsfigure is na 'n nuwe benadering waarvolgens setseIgroepe as deel van die kasusgrammatika beskryf word. Gor De Stadler het ek bevind dat sy werk oor die Afrikaanse partitietkonstruksie en die Afrikaanse datietkonstruksie 'n brug skep vir die bestudering van die Mrikaanse setselgroep binne 'n ontwikkelende nuwe benadering, die Kognitiewe Grammatika.
National Research Foundation (NRF),
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18

Herrera, Roberto. "On Spanish prepositions : a syntactic and semantic analysis /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

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19

Nicholas, Katrina Elizabeth. "Children's Omission of Prepositions in English and Icelandic." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/145453.

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The purpose of this dissertation is to empirically test the hypothesis that children's omission of functional elements reflects performance factors (McKee, 1994; McKee & Iwasaki, 2001), rather than lack of knowledge (Felix, 1987; Radford, 1990, 1995; Tomasello, 2000). The multi-level production system treats content and function morphemes differently (Garrett, 1982). Further, a function morpheme's free or bound status and the independence of the content stem affect the likelihood that a function morpheme will be omitted. Four experiments each employed production and comprehension tasks testing English- and Icelandic-speaking children's and adults' production and comprehension of different prepositional phrases. The English experiments tested prepositional phrases with content prepositions and content/function preposition combinations. The Icelandic experiments tested prepositional phrases with prepositions and their associated case markings. Function prepositions in English and case markings in Icelandic both convey information about case, with the former being a free function morpheme, and the latter a bound function morpheme. Both English- and Icelandic-speaking children showed comprehension of prepositions that they do not produce. Further, Icelandic-speaking children produced case markings but English-speaking children did not produce function prepositions. These findings support a performance-based hypothesis with omission attributable to coordination issues among elements in the multi-level production system. These findings also show the importance of cross-modality and cross-linguistic research in studying the competence of children before, during, and after the telegraphic speech stage.
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20

KWON, PAK SONG-NIM. "Les prepositions statiales : sur quelques emplois de par." Strasbourg 2, 1997. http://www.theses.fr/1997STR20039.

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Dans le but de definir l'emploi spatial de la preposition par, quelques expressions spatiales ont ete etudiees. Les notions d'espace et de temps parraissant indissociables pour decrire cet emploi de la preposition par, nous avons esquisse parallelement son emploi temporel. Le parcours des dictionnaires nous a montre qu'en diachronie historique, les emplois spatio-temporels de cette preposition ont connu une evolution vers cette rencontre du temps et de l'espace. Nous avons pu souligner que dans les expressions spatiales etudiees, la dimension des entites concernees etait definie par rapport a notre experience spatiale temporellement vecue ainsi que par rapport a notre configuration physique. Ce qui nous permet d'avancer que la preposition par est un vecteur de la notion de lieu temporalise. L'approche pragmatique et cognitive ont egalement permis de comprendre que dans l'emploi de lieu de passage, l'idee instrumentale ou celle de passage sont indiquees par d'autres elements de la phrase ; la preposition par dans ce cas vehicule la notion de choix
In the purpose to definite the spatial uses of the french preposition par, some spatials expressions have been studied, the notions of space and time apearing as non dissociable to describe these uses of the preposition par, we tried to design in a parallel way its temporaly use. The overlooking of the dictionaries showed us that in the historical diachronic way, the spatio-temporals uses of that preposition have known an evolution to the conjunction of time and space. We underligned that in the spatials expressions studied, the dimension of the concerned entities was defined in relation to our spatial experience, temporally lived, and in dependence of our physical configuration. From that point, we can propose that the preposition par is a vector of the notion of a temporalized space. The pragmatic and cognitive approaches made clear that in the use of a spatial pathway, the instrumental or the pathway idea are indicated by others elements of the sentence ; the preposition par in that case is the vector of the notion of choice
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Fera, Ardian. "Contrasting the Polysemy of Prepositions in English and Albanian." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Jaume I, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/668783.

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The process of learning a foreign language can be exhausting for almost all language learners. In this study, it is aimed at providing students an accessible way to reducing commitment of errors while speaking or learning English as a second language (L2) in the most relevant and practical way, too. The Second Language Acquisition is defined as a subject which is concerned with how a language is learned and has the learner in its focus including the learner’s developing language. The main issues presented throughout the chapters were concentrated on language transfer, semantics and ambiguity. Prepositions were the most concerning analytical headline of all chapters because they are the most vulnerable part of speech students or learners of English (L2) face difficulty with. Many linguists or scholars have been working on the above scopes in order to clarify and recommend learners of English that committing errors depends on the amount of language scientific information they might have.
La adquisición de un idioma, especialmente el inglés, ha sido una pasión no solo para los estudiantes de diferentes instituciones educativas en Albania sino también para otras personas de diferentes capas sociales. Por supuesto, su adquisición no es fácil debido a los cambios estructurales léxicos y morfológicos y sintácticos que, generalmente, tienen las lenguas. Dadas las dificultades que enfrentan los estudiantes albaneses o incluso otras personas comunes en la sociedad, centré mi tesis doctoral en algunas áreas específicas de la lingüística, lo que sin duda mejorará el nivel de su adquisición, reduciendo, donde sea posible, la cantidad de errores causados por la falta de información lingüística que pueda existir en ambos idiomas Me he centrado en las áreas de interferencia (transferencia de la lengua), semántica, ambigüedad, así como en oraciones con -ing como complementos preposicionales. Cabe señalar que el estudio de la preposición es el foco principal de la tesis doctoral, ya que esta clase lingüística presenta mayores dificultades en los campos antes mencionados, debido a su frecuencia en la oración.
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22

Li, Hui. "Use types for English to Chinese translation of prepositions." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/26692.

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Although prepositions play an essential role in language, there is still no systematic approach for selecting the proper prepositions in a target language. This thesis explores such systemic approach and suggests a semantic framework, called Use Types, to play an important role in the automatic translation of prepositions. A Use Type gives a semantic interpretation to a context of use of a preposition based on its surrounding elements. Our hypothesis is that if we can automatically do this semantic interpretation in the source language, than we can reduce the set of possible target language prepositions. This thesis focuses on two widely spoken languages, English and Chinese. We give primary attention to translation from English to Chinese, and we specifically look at three prepositions: in, on and at. The thesis systematically analyzes the differences between Chinese prepositions and English prepositions. It explains in details what the Use Types semantic framework is and how it is used and expanded to better address the translation task. The thesis describes how machine learning experiments are designed and conducted. Results and future work are analyzed and discussed at the end. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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23

Flores, Galleguillos Carmen. "The acquisition of english prepositions among chilean EFL learners." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2013. http://www.repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/115654.

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Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Lingüística mención Lengua Inglesa
This work aimed to investigate about the way Chilean students acquire English Prepositions ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘at’. Through the identification of the most common strategies used by students when choosing one these three prepositions, the researcher aimed to find out about the difficulties the learners face when using those particles. The data analysis is based on the cognitive aspects of interlanguage, as well as some different notions on the learner´s knowledge. This work shows the way modern Linguistics has considered this kind of words and emphasizes their semantic roles. The data was collected through the use of Cloze Tests and interviews made to primary and secondary students from The Deutsche Schule in Los Angeles, Chile. The aim of the researcher with the interviews was to find out about the reasons why the students chose a particular preposition for their cloze tests. The results showed the students used several strategies to choose among ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘at’, like overgeneralization of basic uses, inference, application of rules, mental images, among others. The researcher could conclude that learners do have tools to deal with the knowledge they already have and the knowledge they do not yet, which may contribute to the development of more appropriate approaches for teaching English prepositions, to make learning a more meaningful process for the students.
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24

Thomas, E. C. "Second language acquisition of prepositions : functional and substantive features." Thesis, University of Essex, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.398869.

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25

Latimer, Elizabeth. "Variation in the use of prepositions in Quebec French." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/30160.

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Using the combined approach of Variationist Sociolinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics, this thesis undertakes the classification and analysis of certain prepositions in spoken Quebec French. The study examines 21 interviews that make up part of the Corpus de français parlé au Québec (CFPQ). The aim of this thesis is to examine the use of the variables expressing the concept of ‘possession’, and those equivalent to English before/in front of and after/behind. These three variables are represented as (POSS), (ANTE) and (POST). An initial quantification of the variants is carried out, which establishes the contexts of production, and helps determine the areas of linguistic analysis to be explored. For the (POSS) variable, the data is examined in terms of linguistic factors such as the reference of the possessor, the avoidance of hiatus, and inalienable/alienable possession. Interpersonal variation is also considered, including age and gender in addition to level of education. From the Cognitive Linguistic perspective, we investigate ‘reference point theory’ and how it can shed light on the alternation between the variants. The (ANTE) and (POST) variables are studied in terms of the type of reference (i.e. locative or temporal), the locating noun category, and the age, sex, and level of education of the speakers. The Cognitive Linguistic theory of ‘subjectification’ is also considered for these two variables. For the (POSS) variable, the reference of the possessor and the level of education are seen to be important factors for the use of possessive à. In addition, the ‘reference point theory’ contributes to our understanding of the use of this variant. With the (ANTE) and (POST) variables certain variants are seen to be employed both with and without an overt complement. The variant devant is predominantly found in contexts involving narrative discourse, and the variants en avant and en avant de are preferred for locative reference. Once again, the Cognitive Sociolinguistic approach highlights the possibility that the difference in variant choice is linked to the speakers’ cognitive construal of the situation.
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26

Hoffmann, Sebastian. "Grammaticalization and English complex prepositions : a corpus-based study /." London : Routledge, 2005. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb400409970.

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27

Cabuk, Sakine. "The Use Of Emglish Prepositions In Second Language Acquisition Process." Master's thesis, METU, 2009. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12611383/index.pdf.

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THE USE OF PREPOSITIONS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS This thesis investigates the use of three most frequent prepositions by Turkish learners of English at intermediate level of proficiency. The aim of the present study is to find out which differences between prepositions and their corresponding postpositions or case suffixes constitute difficulty on the part of second language learners. This study also examines the possible reasons of the errors/ mistakes pertaining to &lsquo
in&rsquo
, &lsquo
on&rsquo
, &lsquo
at&rsquo
by native speakers of Turkish with intermediate level of proficiency in English. To fulfill the purpose of the study the participants of the study were recorded in natural classroom environment and the recorded data were transcribed. The compiled corpus was examined by two native speakers of English and the researcher. The data was classified under four main categories for each preposition inquired: (i) correct usage, (ii) misuse (i.e., instead of &lsquo
on&rsquo
, for instance, students use &lsquo
in&rsquo
or &lsquo
at&rsquo
e.g., in television ), (iii) overuse (i.e., no preposition is required in the context but the students use one, e.g., I am going at home now), (iv) omission (i.e., a preposition is needed but the students do not use one, e.g., We go holiday). At the end of these analyses, the problematic contexts related to the use of the prepositions &lsquo
in&rsquo
, &lsquo
on&rsquo
, &lsquo
at&rsquo
for TIME and PLACE were identified. For detailed analysis of each category two tools - the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPPS) and the Computerized Language Analysis Child Language Data Exchange System (CLAN CHILDES) were used. Results indicate that Turkish learners of English produce erroneous forms of prepositions in second language acquisition process and the underlying reasons of these errors/mistakes is the interference of native language.
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28

Bortone, Pietro. "Aspects of the history of Greek prepositions : a 'localistic' view." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.327377.

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29

Song, Xin [Verfasser]. "A cognitive linguistic approach to teaching english prepositions / Xin Song." Landau : Universitätsbibliothek Landau, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1045085367/34.

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30

Dera, Abdullah S. "English spatial prepositions with particular reference to Arabic-speaking learners." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1995. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14678/.

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The learner's first language (L1) plays a significant role in the learning of a second language (12). This role is depicted as interfering with acquisition and production of (L2). The notion of interference has emerged as a legitimate area of linguistic investigation (Lado, 1957; Selinker, 1972;James, 1980). This study explores and assesses the Arab learners' performance in using English spatial prepositions. It focuses on the role of the Arab learners' first language in learning English, particularly spatial prepositions, as a second/ foreign language. The data of this study consists of the results of five tests which are designed firstly: to examine the learners' performances in acquiring certain English prepositions, which are considered to be among the most difficult items for Arab learners of English (AI-Sayed, 1983; Mukattash, 1985; Zughoul, 1979); and secondly to assess the degree of interference from Arabic in learning English spatial prepositions, the main objective of this study. Three statistical techniques were employed in analysing the data: The ANOVA test, regression analysis and chi-square test These procedures were used to examine performance of the learners over the years, possible sources of errors, and the interchangeability of English spatial prepositions in the responses to tests. The results of this study confirm that a high percentage (48%) of errors committed in the use of English spatial prepositions by Arab learners of English can be attributed to the influence exerted by their first language (Arabic). These findings support the claims of Tadros (1966), Scott and Tucker (1974) and Mukattash (1988).
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31

Bębeniec, Daria, and Daria Bębeniec. "Directional prepositions in Polish and English : towards a cognitive account." Rozprawa doktorska, UMCS, 2010. http://bc.umcs.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/5345/content.

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32

Kier, Andrew James. "The Semantics of Russian 'About' Prepositions: A Corpus-Based Study." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1357269720.

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33

Davy, Belinda. "A cognitive-semantic approach to the acquisition of English prepositions /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9998029.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-296). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9998029.
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34

Zampieri, Elisa <1981&gt. "Italian prepositions in aphasic production : evidence from three experimental studies." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/1251.

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In this work, we provide a linguistic analysis of Italian prepositions with the aid of three neuro-linguistic experiments. The first part of the dissertation is devoted to the most important linguistic theories dealing with the following topics: (i) the formation of articulated prepositions; (ii) the syntax of complex prepositions; (iii) the linguistic nature of prepositional compounds. In the second part, instead, three experiments are presented every one assessing one of the fields we have mentioned above. Articulated prepositions have been analyzed through two production tasks performed by 8 aphasic patients. Complex prepositions and prepositional compounds, instead, have been the subjects of two case studies involving two agrammatic patients. The results have allowed us to single out, among the various proposals presented in the theoretical chapters, the linguistic model which better characterizes how Italian prepositions are processed.
In questo lavoro offriamo un’analisi linguistica delle preposizioni italiane attraverso tre esperimenti neuro-linguistici. In una prima parte teorica vengono presentate le più importanti teorie linguistiche che si sono occupate di studiare: la formazione delle preposizioni articolate; la struttura sintattica delle preposizioni complesse; la natura dei composti preposizionali. La seconda parte, invece, è dedicata a tre esperimenti nei quali sono stati coinvolti alcuni pazienti afasici. Ogni esperimento riguarda uno degli argomenti teorici sopra menzionati. Le preposizioni articolate sono state analizzate attraverso due compiti di produzione somministrati ad un gruppo di 8 pazienti. Le preposizioni complesse ed i composti preposizionali, invece, sono stati oggetto di due casi di studio che hanno coinvolto due pazienti colpiti da agrammatismo. Dai risultati di questi tre studi sono state ricavate delle conclusioni teoriche che confermano alcune delle ipotesi presentate in precedenza.
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35

Stephenson, Tamina C. "Towards a theory of subjective meaning." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41695.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-212).
This dissertation develops a form of relativism in which propositions are treated as sets of world-time-individual triples, in contrast to standard views that treat them as sets of worlds or world-time pairs. This builds on existing proposals for predicates of personal taste such as fun and tasty, and has ties to approaches to de se attitudes involving centered worlds. I develop an accompanying pragmatic view in which the context set is similarly construed as a set of world-time-individual triples. The semantic and pragmatic systems together are used to account for the behavior of predicates of personal taste, epistemic modals, indicative conditionals, and a variety of attitude reports, including control constructions. I also explore ways that this account can help solve puzzles related to Moore's paradox. To give one concrete example, I propose that the proposition expressed by the sentence it might be raining is the set of world-time-individual triples such that it's compatible with x's knowledge in w at t that it's raining. On the pragmatic side, a speaker is justified in asserting this sentence in a conversation if it is compatible with the speaker's own knowledge that it's raining; by asserting it, though, the speaker is making the stronger proposal to make it common ground that it is compatible with the knowledge of the entire group of conversational participants that it's raining. If this proposal is accepted by the other participants, then the group will have established that their knowledge states are aligned in a particular way. I introduce the core semantic and pragmatic proposals in Chapter 2, focusing on epistemic modals, predicates of personal taste, and belief reports.
(cont.) In Chapter 3, I extend the analysis to indicative conditionals, showing that this solves longstanding puzzles involving the relationship between conditionals and disjunction. In Chapter 4, I extend the approach to certain control constructions, with a special emphasis on capturing their de se interpretation. In Chapter 5, I look at two puzzles related to Moore's paradox, with special attention to the meaning of imagine.
by Tamina C. Stephenson.
Ph.D.
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36

Moltaji, Niloofar. "Spatial Relations in Persian : An investigation on the locative use of prepositions with comparison to English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-134917.

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This study is an investigation on the spatial span of Persian prepositions in colloquial speech, focusing on the locative use of prepositions. The results are compared with English prepositions as well. In order to show the functional span of various prepositions, the Typological Relations Picture Series known as TRPS or BowPed is used. This study demonstrates that the spatial span of Persian locative prepositions consists of twenty-eight prepositions, including three primary, seven compound and sixteen secondary prepositions. In some unusual relations in the BLCs (basic locative construction), the Persian prepositions reflect the opposite relation between the figure and ground. In addition, this study shows that there is greater variety of locative prepositions in Persian than English. Finally, the study concludes that like English, Persian allows the use of BLC over the entire range of the (eight) scenes; however, there is an overlap with the scope of BLC construction, which allows the use of resultative construction in Persian as well.
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37

Peate, J. "A construction grammar approach to spatial prepositions in modern standard Arabic." Thesis, University of Salford, 2012. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/38099/.

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The study adopts a construction grammar approach to examining the meaning of spatial prepositions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), critically examines traditional accounts of the semantic character and syntactic role of MSA prepositions and posits an alternative approach based on construction grammar theory and findings from interrogation of corpora. Arguments about the nature of prepositions and their role in meaning construction have long been afflicted by circularity and methodological opportunism. The theoretical premises of the study are crucially informed by the works of William Croft and Ronald Langacker on aspects of construction grammar; George Lakoff, Ronald Langacker and Leonard Talmy on grammatical theory and lexical categories; George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and others on conceptual metaphor; and Gilles Fauconnier and others on conceptual blending. The study attempts not just to address the limitations of formalist approaches, but also to develop a functionalist approach to the characterisation of MSA spatial prepositions, something largely unaddressed hitherto. The study incorporates extensive qualitative analysis and some quantitative data. It includes a critical discussion of lexically driven accounts of meaning, based on findings from this data, and posits a non-reductionist construction-based account. It addresses the distinction made between 'true' prepositions (^-*jj^ j^ 1 hurufal-jarr) and spatio-temporal contextualisers: 'conditions of place and time' (j^-j^j u^ 1 ^= zarfa al-makan wa-alzamari). It also includes comparative analysis of MSA and British English (BE), through the interrogation of a multi-genre translational corpus, to examine issues of languagespecificity in the category 'preposition'. The study suggests that MSA prepositions can be understood as a category only through taxanomic resemblances of a radial character, that their meaning is both construction- and language-specific and that they exhibit semantic diversity on a spectrum of schematicity, which is largely diachronic in formative character. The specificities of MSA prepositions cannot be adduced to universal syntactic categories and researchers need to eschew analysis framed by the categories of English or other 'reference' languages. The study finally suggests future areas of investigation.
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38

Pocock, Simon James. "Prepositions, syntax and the acquisition of English as a foreign language." Thesis, University of London, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.243437.

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39

Wang, Chun Ying. "Conceptual metaphors in the uses of prepositions in English and Mandarin." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2014. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10020860/.

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This thesis aimed to investigate the conceptual differences and similarities between English in, on, and at and Mandarin /zai...shang/on, and -±s/zai/at via a comparative analysis in order to shed light on language transfer in learning English prepositions in Taiwan. For the comparative analysis, the data was mainly from existing literatures. Conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff, 2006; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and cognitive grammar (Langacker, 2008) were the foundations of this research. Moreover, an interview with English teachers from senior high schools and universities in Taiwan and a questionnaire survey with high school and university students were conducted to examine how English prepositions have been taught and learnt. In addition, thirty seven test papers were collected to inspect the errors and further to investigate the language transfers. The findings demonstrate several conceptual differences and similarities between English and Mandarin prepositions. However, those cognitive concepts of prepositions are hardly to be found in the teaching and learning in Taiwan. In addition, students' test papers evidence that Mandarin to some extent influences English prepositions learning. The transfers might be linguistically, e.g. direct translation, as well as conceptually, e.g. different conceptualisation of space and time. The results from the comparative analysis can provide several suggestions. Both language teachers and learners can understand the conceptual differences between English and Mandarin prepositions to assist their teaching and learning. From the interview and questionnaire, I found Taiwanese students tend to directly accept what their teachers provide to them. They do not have the desire to obtain the reasons why the uses of prepositions have to be like that because of the influence of the teach-to-test education model in Taiwan. This might restrict students' cognitive development in language learning.
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40

Thibeau, Tully Jude. "English prepositions in phrasal verbs: A study in second language acquisition." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284018.

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This study examines whether grammar instruction treatment, input processing, facilitates in learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) a distinction among sets of phrasal verbs containing prepositions. Input processing emphasizes difficult grammatical forms and provides a model for the behavior of the varying roles of phrasal verb prepositions. Such instruction follows three steps: (i) explaining the relation between a grammatical form and its meaning, (ii) informing learners of language processes that adversely influence the form-meaning relation, and (iii) implementing "structured input" activities that target the form in linguistic input, facilitating form-meaning relations. Prepositions in phrasal verbs perform specific roles for exclusive purposes, for instance in verb-particle constructions eat up, clean out, send on where prepositions mark aspectual properties for "completion-of-activity" (telicity) as well as "affectedness" of phrasal verb objects. ESL students were selected for the control and treatment groups. Each group participated in a pretest and posttest. Each test included three tasks: one comprehension (yes/no multiple choice) and two production (sentence completion and written narration). Time (pretest/posttest) and instruction (informal IP/formal explanation) were independent variables. Scores were the dependent variable. Preposition use is difficult for ESL learners, yet no generalizations explain learning difficulty nor has instruction addressed this difficulty. Input Processing furnishes needed instruction and is consonant with current linguistic theory (Minimalism): Word-order phenomena obey "frame alternations" that shift meaning by varying syntactic configuration (movement to alternate sites in phrase structure). Language acquisition centers on mapping functions linking semantics with syntax; thus, pedagogical practice and linguistic theory are united. Structured input activities are likened to natural input that children are exposed to when they acquire language. Acquisition processes link meaningful items in a mental lexicon to grammatical patterns constructed by a mental computer. Second language learners create links between meaning and form because they make decisions about meaning in input structured to highlight the form in which meaning is conveyed. Statistical analyses show treatment effect for input processing instruction on the comprehension task, so subjects' ability is improved through attention to mapping. Production task data were inconclusive yet revealed significance of frequency of prepositions' functions.
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41

Coventry, Kenneth Richmond. "Spatial prepositions and functional relations : the case for minimally specified lexical entries." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26414.

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In this thesis we present a minimally specified approach to the lexical entries for spatial prepositions based on the recognition of the importance of functional relations. We begin by introducing the problem of separating our senses of a lexeme from occurrences of a lexeme, and with a consideration of methods of sense delineation, including ambiguity tests. We then consider classical approaches to the lexical entries of prepositions which favour minimal specification of lexical entries, and compare them to cognitive linguistic accounts which favour full specification of lexical entries. It is argued that classical accounts have problems with case accountability, while cognitive linguistic accounts are based on a misinterpretation of prototype theory. We demonstrate that the accounts are very similar in that they delineate senses in terms of different geometric relations in the world. Functional relations are introduced as an alternative way of understanding spatial relations. It is argued that what is important about objects is how they interact with each other, that is, the functional relations between objects. The work of Garrod and Sanford (1989) and Talmy (1988) is considered in this context, and is developed to deal more adequately with case accountability. A number of experimental studies are reported which demonstrate the existence of functional relations, and cast doubt on ambiguity tests as valid methods of sense delineation. It is proposed that a spatial preposition can be said to have two senses if a language user has a motivated reason for distinguishing between two types of relation. Evidence is provided for a distinction between spatial prepositions which involve functional components, and those that involve purely geometric components. First language acquisition evidence is reviewed which suggests that prepositions involving functional relations are learned first.
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42

Canzanella, Mary Ann. "A study of prepositions in Aphasia : experimental results and their theoretical implications." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=60040.

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This thesis proposes to lay some of the groundwork for an investigation of the prepositional deficit in aphasia. We observe that (i) the status of the category PREPOSITION is problematic for linguistic theory and (ii) patterns of loss in aphasia do not affect prepositions uniformly. In accordance with the view that such sets of theoretical and aphasiological observations can and must be related, an overview of the structural (linguistic) properties of prepositions, an examination of a compatible sentence processing (psycholinguistic) model, and an exhaustive review of the literature on prepositions and aphasia were undertaken. A set of refined predictive hypotheses was then extracted. Preliminary results from a case study suggest that the theoretical argument/adjunct distinction is indeed valid on a processing level. Furthermore, they suggest it might be useful to re-frame the issue of how prepositional structures are compromised in pathology by considering how verb retrieval problems can affect the processing of those structures.
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43

Alcorn, Rhona Jayne. "Pronouns, prepositions and probabilities : a multivariate study of Old English word order." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5496.

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It is widely accepted that Old English personal pronouns often turn up in ‘special’ positions, i.e. positions in which functionally equivalent nominals rarely, if ever, appear. Leading theories of Old English syntax (e.g. van Kemenade 1987, Pintzuk 1991, 1996, Hulk & van Kemenade 1997, Kroch & Taylor 1997) account for the syntax of specially placed pronouns in different ways, but all treat special placement as a freely available option. Focusing on pronominal objects of prepositions in particular, this thesis shows, firstly, that current theories fail to account for the variety of special positions in which these pronouns appear and argues that at least three special positions must be recognised. The central concern of this thesis, however, is whether special placement is the freely available option that leading theories assume. Drawing on evidence from a number of descriptive studies of the syntax of pronominal objects of prepositions (e.g. Wende 1915, Taylor 2008, Alcorn 2009), statistical evidence is presented to show that, in a number of contexts, the probability of special placement is either too high or else too low to be plausibly ascribed to free variation. The thesis explores the linguistic basis of each of the statistically significant parameters identified, finding answers in some cases and intriguing puzzles in others.
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44

Maillot, Catherine DIMON PIERRE. "LE TRAITEMENT DES PREPOSITIONS SPATIALES DANS UN SYSTEME DE TRADUCTION AUTOMATIQUE FRANCAIS-ALLEMAND, ALLEMAND-FRANCAIS BASE SUR L'UNIFICATION /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1997. ftp://ftp.scd.univ-metz.fr/pub/Theses/1997/Maillot.Catherine.LMZ9718_1.pdf.

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45

Ström, Victoria. "Preposition Selection in EFL by Swedish EFL Learners : An exploratory study investigating language transfer and the impact of implicit and explicit knowledge in EFL." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-104742.

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This study investigates how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) whose first language (L1) is Swedish select prepositions in the English language. The study involves two groups, the participants and their respective controls. The participants are advanced EFL students at a Swedish university and their controls are intermediate EFL speakers who are no longer enrolled in an EFL course. The aim of the present psycholinguistic investigation is to elucidate the process of the preposition selection in EFL by means of a think-aloud-protocol. The present study involves the assumption that preposition selection by Swedish EFL learners is based on both implicitly and explicitly acquired knowledge. Data analysis indicates that the participants’ EFL preposition selection is influenced by their L1 knowledge. The results suggest that EFL preposition selection does not differ significantly between the two groups. However, the results are indicative of a variation in EFL preposition selection between the two groups in an EFL proficiency test and a think-aloud-protocol.
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46

Ferrier, Gillian Maver. "A geometry without angles : the case for a functional geometry of spatial prepositions." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1996. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2045/.

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This thesis develops the view that the semantics of spatial prepositions are more fully realised within a framework of functionality, incorporating knowledge of the world, than within the spatial, geometrical framework more often used to analyse prepositions. It is argued that previous approaches which support full specification of lexical entries through the use of polysemy and prototype notions are not satisfactory or psychologically valid. It will also be shown that the minimal specification Classical approaches fail to account for all uses of the locatives described. It is suggested that minimal specification of lexical entries can be achieved by means of functional controls that can provide a more psychologically valid account of the semantics of spatial prepositions. Functional geometric control relations of fContainment, fSupport and fSuperiority are proposed for IN, ON and OVER respectively. These focus on the importance of location control in prepositional choice. It is argued that such controls underlie the use of spatial prepositions. The controls are suggested to be inherently dynamic and state that the relatum object is some way able to control the location of the referent object. For example, the use of the preposition IN is guided by the principle of fContainment which operates on the basic premise that the relatum (y) controls the location of the referent (x) such that when y moves there will be a correlated movement in x (or uncorrelated movement within the convex hull of y) by virtue of some degree of enclosure. The control relation that guides the use of OVER is fSuperiority and it operates on the basic premise that x threatens to come into contact with y as a consequence of gravitational force. Finally, the use of the preposition ON is suggested to be guided by notions of fSupport which operates on the premise that the relatum protects the referent from the force of gravity.
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47

Granath, Solveig. "Verb complementation in English : omission of prepositions before that-clauses and to-infinitives /." Göteborg (Sweden) : Acta universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1997. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37619985f.

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48

Enzinna, Naomi R. "The Processing of Preposition-Stranding Constructions in English." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/889.

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One of the prominent questions in modern psycholinguistics is the relationship between the grammar and the parser. Within the approach of Generative Grammar, this issue has been investigated in terms of the role that Principles of Universal Grammar may play in language processing. The aim of this research experiment is to investigate this topic. Specifically, this experiment aims to test whether the Minimal Structure Principle (MSP) plays a role in the processing of Preposition-Stranding versus Pied-Piped Constructions. This investigation is made with a self-paced reading task, an on-line processing test that measures participants’ unconscious reaction to language stimuli. Monolingual English speakers’ reading times of sentences with Preposition-Stranding and Pied-Piped Constructions are compared. Results indicate that neither construction has greater processing costs, suggesting that factors other than the MSP are active during language processing.
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49

Ursini, Francesco-Alessio. "The Language Of Space : The Acquisition And Interpretation of Spatial Adpositions In English." Doctoral thesis, Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-85019.

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This thesis by publication presents a study on English adpositions (e.g. to, in, at, from, in frontof, through). It attempts to offer a solution to the following three outstanding problems, whichare presented in each of the three parts making up the thesis, preceded by a general introduction(chapter 1) and followed by the general conclusions (chapter 7). The first part includes chapter2, and discusses the problem of What is the relation between adpositions and the non-linguistic,visual content they represent. The second part includes chapters 3 and 4, and discusses theproblem ofwhat is a proper compositional theory of the Syntax and Semantics of adpositions.The third part includes chapters 5 and 6, and discusses the problem of what is the psychologicalreality of this theory, regarding adults and children’s data.The following three solutions are suggested. First, the relation between adpositions and theircorresponding visual information is an isomorphism: adpositions capture how we “see” possiblespatio-temporal relations between objects, at a flexible level of fine-grainedness. Second, aproper compositional treatment of adpositions treats each syntactic unit (in front, of ) as offeringa distinct semantic contribution, hence spelling out a restricted instance of a spatio-temporalpart-of relation. Third, this compositional treatment of adpositions can also stand as a theory ofon-line interpretation in adults and a theory of their acquisition in children.These three answers are couched within a single theoretical approach, that of Discourse Representation Theory, and offer a unified solution to three apparently distinct problems regardingspatial adpositions and their linguistic properties.
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50

Santana, Davi de Oliveira. "Prefixos derivados de preposições em textos de língua portuguesa dos séculos XVII e XVIII." Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras e Linguística da UFBA, 2006. http://www.repositorio.ufba.br/ri/handle/ri/11641.

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Esta pesquisa, de cunho funcionalista, intitulada Prefixos derivados de preposições em textos de Língua Portuguesa dos séculos XVII e XVIII, objetiva identificar os processos e os princípios de gramaticalização aplicáveis à mudança preposição > prefixo, bem como analisar os aspectos semânticos dessa mudança com base nas teorias do localismo e dos protótipos. A partir de um corpus constituído de 41 cartas do século XVII (Cartas do Maranhão, de Antônio Vieira, 8580 linhas) e 127 cartas do século XVIII (Cartas Baianas Setecentistas, 5500 linhas), comparam-se esses dois períodos entre si, com os dados etimológicos encontrados, principalmente, em Cunha (1991) e Romanelli (1964) e com os dados do século XIV, referentes às preposições, analisados por Poggio (2002). Julgou-se apropriado complementar a análise com a nova proposta de estudo multissitêmico da mudança lingüística de Castilho (2003), haja vista que os pressupostos da teoria da gramaticalização relacionados com o princípio da unidirecionalidade, que inclui a premissa do enfraquecimento ou “desbotamento” semântico dos itens que adquirem um maior caráter gramatical, têm sofrido muitas críticas em parte da literatura contemporânea sobre a gramaticalização, e também em razão das dificuldades encontradas em se comprovar a aplicabilidade de tais pressupostos em todos os casos de mudança preposição > prefixo analisados.
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