Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

In all of the various sub-cases that comprise the case of what PIE tense of DO was employed to form the weak preterit, perfect origin falls somewhere in the range of “almost certain” to “quite possible”. By contrast, non-perfect origin is in most cases dependent on propositions that are either ad hoc or otherwise problematic. In the only case that at first appears to strongly favor non-perfect origin, 2SG /-dɛɛs/ can be seen as originating by “opportunistic re-interpretation” of /-dɛd-t/ > /-dɛss/ as /-dɛɛs/, with 2SG /-s/. Obscure phonological changes of the traditional kind permit the 1SG, 3SG, and 3PL to be seen as having perfect origin. All forms can be seen as having perfect origin.

Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

The present article is an empirical, data-oriented study which focuses on the problem of morphological conversion and the way this mechanism was employed in Old English as a way of deriving new lexemes. The article briefly discusses the quantitative characteristics of the attested types, presents patterns of directionality and estimates the degree of availability of conversion in Old English grammar. The main part and purpose of the study, however, concerns the semantic characteristics of conversions sampled in the corpus. Drawing on the framework of semantic categories formulated by Clark and Clark (1979) and Plag (2003), the study aims to demonstrate semantic effects of the so-called zero-affix in Old English by looking into the relation that holds between the motivating base and the resultant derivative. Despite the fact that the availability of conversion was still quite limited in the Old English period, possibly due to numerous inflections that may have inhibited the transparency of this process, the study allows us to see how this process emerged and subsequently developed into one of the most productive word-formational techniques in the English language.

Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

The aim of this paper is to explore how Czech learners of English use lexical bundles ending in that in their academic texts in comparison with novice and professional L1 authors. The analysis is based on three corpora (VESPA-CZ, BAWE and our own corpus of papers published in academic journals). The results suggest that Czech learners of English do not use a more limited repertoire of lexical bundles ending in that than professional writers. However, there are differences between the groups studied, especially in the range of various shell nouns used in nominal bundles. Novice writers, both L1 and L2, use bundles ending in that to express stance more frequently than professional writers.

Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

English as a lingua franca (henceforth ELF) is a contact language that has attracted great attention due to its unique global role. Thus, numerous studies have been conducted to determine its characteristics, among which research on such processes as, for example, simplification, added prominence or redundancy underlying language use in the ELF context is of the main interest. Therefore, the paper aims to broaden the per- spective on redundancy in ELF, focusing on negative and modal concord in spoken and written data. With the reliance on VOICE, ELFA, and WrELFA corpora, the analysis shows that both phenomena are noticeable in ELF; however, while redundancy in terms of modal concord appears in spoken and written ELF, negative concord is characteristic only of spoken data.

Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

A central tenet of critical discourse analysis spells that language in discourse meant for mass consumption is often permeated with a reproduction and/or a resistance of certain ideologies, assumptions, and knowledge characteristic of different social groups making up the society. One of such best scenarios is news headlines narrating crisis- driven national discourse in Nigeria, where almost all national discourses are driven by certain inherent ideologies and political power. In this paper, we propose a discourse chain principle uncovering the underlying socio-psychological idiosyncrasies of the participants (inclusive of agents and recipients) and processes in most national discourses in Nigeria. Combining concepts in corpus methods with critical discourse analysis, the paper shows a basic approach to operationalising ideologies in notational form. Applying corpus analytic method to 761 herdsmen news headlines extracted from Nigerian newspapers, the present paper nicely illustrates the extent to which these news headlines move the discourse-at-hand (i.e. herdsmen crisis) to discourse-around. Such movement is performed by reproducing institutionalised ideological patterns revolving around identity politics (ethnicity), religion, question of nationhood, corruption, citizenry distrust, and political power imbalance. The paper argues that this discursive movement is often driven by a chain of discourse that defines the existence of the nationhood.

Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

The paper explores the phonological awareness of L1 among advanced adult speakers of EFL in the context of L2 pronunciation training. The subjects are students of English with Polish, Spanish, Turkish and Russian L1 background. All subjects have participated in intensive English pronunciation instruction as part of their degree training, in the English Department at the Pedagogical University in Kraków. Two aspects are targeted for examination: perception of sound contrasts and awareness of contextual variants in L1, mostly those pertaining to the consonantal and vocalic inventories, all related to their L2 (English) production goals. The material is based on longitudinal examination of course test results over the span of 3 years. The analysis reveals low sound discrimination skills in the subjects’ L1, largely based on letter-to-sound correspondences and inability to see beyond print. Through explicit training in their L2 they become more sensitive to the inventory and the details of their L1 sound system, the awareness they can use to the advantage when targeting L2 sound production.

Słowa kluczowe

Streszczenie

This longitudinal case study aimed at investigating the development of metalinguistic awareness in EFL spelling and vocabulary in two Croatian learners with dyslexia who differed in age and language proficiency – a child and an adult. They attended weekly sessions that aimed at improving their English spelling and vocabulary. The data were collected for 45 weeks using the teacher’s notes and audio-recorded lesson observations. The results showed that the participants developed their metalinguistic skills; however, the age and language proficiency factor was salient. Also, the metacognitive component of the instruction had a different effect on the development of metalinguistic skills in spelling and vocabulary acquisition. Pedagogical implications are discussed.