LINGUIST List 14.2799

Thu Oct 16 2003

Diss: Typology/Translation: Sans�: 'Degrees...'

Editor for this issue: Takako Matsui <takolinguistlist.org>

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  • sanso, Degrees of Event Elaboration

    Message 1: Degrees of Event Elaboration

     Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 07:48:01 +0000
    From: sanso <sansohumnet.unipi.it>
    Subject: Degrees of Event Elaboration


    Institution: University of Pavia Program: Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2001

    Author: Andrea Sans�

    Dissertation Title: Degrees of Event Elaboration: Passive Constructions in Italian and Spanish

    Linguistic Field: Typology, Translation, Text/Corpus Linguistics, Semantics, General Linguistics, Discourse Analysis

    Subject Language: Spanish (code: SPN), Polish (code: PQL) Italian (code: ITN), German, Standard (code: GER), Dutch (code: DUT)

    Dissertation Director 1: Anna Giacalone Ramat Dissertation Director 2: Pierluigi Cuzzolin Dissertation Director 3: Giacomo Ferrari Dissertation Director 4: Silvia Luraghi

    Dissertation Abstract:

    Research on Italian and Spanish passive constructions has been normally conducted along the lines of formal linguistic theories. As a result, the discourse patterns followed by these constructions have generally escaped attention. This dissertation attempts to fill such a gap. It provides a systematic account of the usage and distribution of passive constructions in Italian and Spanish texts.

    The four passive constructions examined in the present work (two periphrastic passives and two middle-marker constructions) differ from one another in both the prominence they assign to agent and patient and the degree of specificity to which they represent the event denoted by the verb. The detailed corpus analysis conducted in this work will make these differences clear.

    A secondary aim of this work is to show that the integration of cognitive and typological insights pursued by the methodology of semantic maps constitutes the basis for important generalizations about the semantics of passive constructions across languages. A chapter of the dissertation is therefore devoted to passive and impersonal contructions in Dutch, German, and Polish. Data from these three languages corroborate the semantic analysis proposed for Italian and Spanish passive constructions.