Impersonal Constructions Research Articles

Voice, impersonal construction, and zero lexeme: formalization of crucial notions

Abstract The paper considers a relatively rare verbal syntactic construction found in East Sakhalin Ainu and in Lingala: an active form of a transitive verb governs simultaneously a direct object and an agentive complement, has no overt syntactic subject and is in the 3rd person plural. In order to characterize this verb form, three sets of formal linguistic notions are introduced and described: voice (with a calculus of logically possible voice grammemes), impersonal construction, and zero lexeme; many illustrations come from Lingala and Kinyarwanda, as well as several other languages. The verb forms under analysis are shown to be the partial demotional passive.

Formal Logical Modeling of Impersonal Sentences in the English Language

Introduction. The main feature of a sentence is the predicative connection. The two main units – substantive and verbal – are represented in the sentence either through separate words – subject and predicate – or synthetically in one of the parts of the sentence. The question whether subject and predicate play equal part in a sentence remains to be clarified since there are strong arguments in support of every position. The case of impersonal constructions is especially intriguing. So, in English one can find impersonal constructions, which, at first glance, lack a subject.Methodology and sources. The present study aims to provide formal logical modeling of English independent clause with impersonal constructions based on active and passive verb, by means of the binomiality idea. In cases when a sentence begins not from the main couple, some of the passive constructions express the subject partially or don’t express it at all. The binomiality idea claims the existence of an implicit subject, as well as semi-implicit subject that includes a desemantised adverb there, thus, it explains these cases in the fullest way possible. Results and discussion. The formal logical modeling allows concluding that grammar-wise an impersonal construction is a personal one. A predicate with an active verb is accompanied by an explicit subject. In case a sentence starts from the main couple, a predicate with a passive verb can be accompanied by an explicit and (less often) semi-implicit subject, for the membrane of a passive verbal semifinitive is less relief, than the membrane of an active verbal semifinitive and can be subject to pressure from the strong space specifier. If a sentence does not begin with the main couple, then an implicit subject, as well as semiimplicit and explicit ones are possible. In declarative sentences, the implicity of a subject is provided by a strengthening element, whilst in question sentences it is done by a questioning one. Therefore, the weak space specifier cannot be used in declarative sentences, whilst in questioning sentences the strong space specifier is substituted by the weak one.Conclusion. In cases with desemantised pronoun it or desemantised adverb there the term “impersonal construction” is only reasonable in a semantic sense, but not in a grammar one. Grammar-wise the singular third person is set in all cases – through an explicit or implicit substantive semifinitive and a space specifier. At the same time a semi-implicit subject can be seen quite rarely, whilst an implicit one – very rarely. Ellipsis of subject in English impersonal constructions is impossible.

“É importante que não tome mais comprimidos do que lhe foi indicado”: estratégias linguísticas de desresponsabilização da indústria farmacêutica em folhetos informativos

Legally, pharmaceutical companies are responsible for any damage, injury or harm caused to the user by their products. However, the language present in product warnings (Dumas, 1990; Shuy, 1990; Tiersma, 2002) and in patient information leaflets (PIL) (van der Waarde, 2008; Hagemeyer & Coulthard, 2017) seem to protect manufacturers from possible litigation, transferring responsibility to the consumer or user. Therefore, using both a pragmatic and discoursive analysis approach, we aim to investigate which linguistic strategies in European Portuguese (EP) acquit pharmaceutical companies from holding liability for the users’ actions. The qualitative analysis of a corpus of 20 PIL in EP reveals that the use of passive voice, impersonal constructions, attenuation of directive acts, declarative sentences with imperative value and vague language represent intentional strategies for pharmaceutical companies to protect themselves from possible litigation. Additionally, the comprehensibility of the text is further compromised by grammatical inconsistencies, the constant calculation of inferences and the presence of technical terms, “medicalese”.

Dispositional middle constructions with accusative objects in Slovenian

This paper provides a study of an impersonal type of dispositional middle construction that appears in Slovenian. This impersonal construction atypically contains an undemoted thematic external argument in syntax, but nevertheless ascribes a disposition to the internal one in semantics, which goes against previous assumptions about the way in which syntax and semantics interact in middles. On the basis of this Slovenian construction, the paper develops a new syntactic and semantic analysis of the modal phrase whose head contributes the dispositional interpretation and assigns it to the internal argument. The paper shows how such an analysis accounts for both non-canonical Slovenian middles with syntactically realised external arguments as well as the more prototypical middles without external arguments both in Slovenian and English. Finally, the paper proposes why the external argument in the Slovenian impersonal middle is – exceptionally – not an intervener for the dispositional assignment.

Pragmatic focusing techniques of negative Russia image in American media discourse

The article presents a brief study of the means focusing the negative image of Russia in the modern American media discourse, namely, newspaper publications in 2012–2017. We consider speech strategies, tactics of influencing public consciousness, as well as language tools that actualize these ways of presenting information. The purpose of the article is to analyze the most representative ways of pragmatic focusing on the global threat posed by the Russian state, according to the authors of the publications reviewed. To achieve it, we identify the most popular tactics of speech influence and the ways of their actualization at the lexical, syntactic and compositional levels. We have established that the most recurrent ways of implementing the author’s intention, aimed at creating a hostile image of Russia, are as follows: the imposition of certain propositions, demonization of the country’s image, absence of the referent, concealment of causal connections, creation of semantic redundancy and synergy effect, and use of invective labels. Actualization of these tactics is carried out through the author’s appeal to the following verbal means: desemanticized affectives, negatively colored vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, metaphorization, repetition at the lexical level; complex syntactic constructions, impersonal constructions, passive voice, inversion and antithesis at the syntactic level and, finally, reduction of the stylistic register of the text to a conversational level in order to ensure the understanding of the transmitted meanings in the context of the author’s intention.

The range of causatives with fàchere ‘make’ in Sardinian:

Sardinian has several types of make-construction: the analytic causative constructions corresponding to French faire-inf (FI) and faire-par (FP); subject control constructions similar to the colloquial idiomatic use of the pronominal Italian verb farcela ‘be able to, to manage’ (a kind of dynamic ability); and particular impersonal constructions that express the deontic modality of possibility. Furthermore, there are several lexicalized expressions that involve make, similar to Italian far vedere ‘to show’ (lit. ‘to make see’). The impersonal construction, which I call the “impersonal causative”, is of particular interest in this paper: It always selects an infinitive (not inflected, which would be possible at least in some varieties of Sardinian), introduced by a; apparently, it shows transparency effects, but it must nevertheless be interpreted as a biclausal structure; it is, in principle, only possible with the third person of the verb make; with regard to its interpretation it encodes modal possibility and is thus more related to (less strong causative) LET than to strong causative MAKE; and it shows up in two different types, at least in some varieties, with or without number agreement (the latter also with an overt subject in a personal infinitive), which has interesting consequences for the interpretation of the argument structure of MAKE.

Impersonal morphosyntax in generative grammar

AbstractImpersonal constructions describe generic statements, usually about people. In this article, I discuss implications of impersonal constructions for Generative theories of morphological features, grammatical case, verbal projections, and how referentiality is derived in the syntax.

Linguistic realizations of engagement in TED talks

The article describes linguistic items used for actualizing the engagement strategy in the oral genre of popular science discourse of TED lectures, which seems to be understudied in modern scientific linguistics literature. A huge number of studies have shown that popular science discourse is an interactive event, the success of which depends on the degree and efficiency of interaction between the speaker and the audience. However, the metadiscourse strategies employed in popular science genres, including TED talks addressed to a wide audience, remain insufficiently studied. The research gap in this area of pragmalinguistics predetermines the need to study the strategies of interaction between the speaker and the audience. The research corpus consists of 80 scripts of TED talks posted on the ted.com website. The aim of the study is to analyze linguistic items used for realizing the strategy of engagement of the audience into the discussion, their categories, pragmatic functions and frequency. In order to study the types, functions and frequency of linguistic actualizers of engagement, the methods of quantitative and interpretive analysis were adopted. The study showed that TED lecturers use a variety of language tools, the most productive of which were questions and reader mentions. It was found that at the lexical and grammatical levels, the engagement strategy was realized through imperative verbs, first and second personal pronouns, interrogative constructions, as well as impersonal constructions with solidarity adjectives. The results of the analysis suggested that TED speakers strive to construct an effective dialogue with the addressee, to engage the audience in the process of representing scientific information, making it accessible to lay listeners. It was concluded that the pragmatically correct use of the engagement strategy in the genre of TED talks is an indicator of the pragmatic competence of the speaker and the key to effective communication with the audience.

Turkic impersonal passives

Abstract. The current paper compares Sakha and Turkish through the lens of Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993) and outlines the structural differences and similarities between their canonical and impersonal passive constructions. Turkish argument structure has attracted lots of attention in the literature due to the unexpected patterns it exhibits in the domain of passive and impersonal constructions, such as double passives and passives of unaccusatives, which pose a problem for the Unaccsuative Hypothesis (Perlmutter 1978). To account for these structures, different previous approaches have argued that Turkish passive morphemes can in fact function as the overt realization of an argument in synthetic impersonal constructions (Dikmen et al. 2022, Legate et al. 2020). Building on this, I propose a new approach whereby these impersonal arguments are introduced by the general argument-introducing head i* (Wood & Marantz 2017), which allows for a more flexible account of passives and impersonals in Turkic and possibly beyond.

On the Earlier Egyptian T-Passive: Analysis, Spread, Long-Term History

Introducing the topic, .t/.tỉ/.tw-marked forms of the verb are shown to be inflectional passives like V-passives, not active impersonal constructions as advocated in a recent proposal (§1). In a process seen unfolding already in the earliest record, then further during Earlier Egyptian and into the Middle Kingdom, T-passives are observed spreading over V-passives, superseding these in many functions (§2). Like perfective aspect, the prototypical passive views the event from the perspective of its Endpoint. It is proposed that T-passives spread over V-passives in those functions in which the Endpoint was partly or entirely out of focus: in the future, in negative constructions, and in constructions that set the perspective on the event itself, away from the Endpoint. Passives from intransitives are non-prototypical in lacking an Endpoint and in setting the perspective on the event itself: they might have played a supporting role in early stages of the process. Meanwhile, V-passives continued to be used regularly in those environments in which the Endpoint was in focus, with fully asserted events and in adjunct clauses. This macro-change is inserted into the longer-term history of T-passives (§3). Looking up in time, it is proposed that Earlier Egyptian {t} is cognate to {t} found across Afroasiatic languages with varying detransitive functions, and represents the outcome of a well-paralleled path leading from reflexive to anticausative to passive. Looking down in time, it is proposed that passives from intransitives and passives with imperfective aspect, both deviating from the passive prototype, were favorable loci for alternative construals of T-passives as generalized-Agent constructions. Given several favorable conditions on other levels, these contributed to making the extension of .t(w) to active impersonal constructions, beginning in the Twelfth Dynasty, possible. In the broader sweep, the story then goes from {t} as a reflexive marker (in Afroasiatic prehistory) to {t} as an inflectional passive marker (in Earlier Egyptian, with T-passives gradually extending their functional yield over V-passives); and further to innovative uses of .t(w) as an impersonal subject pronoun (emerging during the Twelfth Dynasty and generalizing in Late Egyptian). Three themes are recurrent in this long history: the morphological transparency of T-passives, voice-aspect correlations, and the role of passives from intransitives.

Mitigating Devices to Save Face in Sellers and Buyers Communication in Bukittinggi Traditional Market

Due to their content and ways of expression, several speech acts have the potential to threaten the participant's face during an interaction. Mitigating devices can be employed to reduce the harmful effects of these face-threatening acts (FTAs). In this study, the researchers focused on interactions between sellers and buyers in the traditional market in Bukittinggi, West Sumatera, which makes use of the colloquial Minangkabau language. This descriptive qualitative research was aimed at investigating the mitigation functions that exist in buying and selling interactions. In addition, it sought to identify the different types of mitigation strategies used by participants. Research data was collected by recording the exchanges between sellers and buyers. To complete the data, a questionnaire was also handed out to Minangkabau-speaking sellers and buyers in Bukittinggi's traditional market. The data analysis technique used in this study was contextual analysis, which involved evaluating the data that had been collected, recognizing it, and classifying it using the dimensions of context. The result showed that the face of the interlocutor was protected in this purchasing and selling encounter using a variety of mitigating devices. The most commonly used mitigation device is indirect speech. Other techniques, including disclaimers, impersonal constructions, hedges, euphemisms, question tags, and apologies, were also found as mitigation devices used by communicators. The purpose of using these mitigation devices is to carry out mitigation functions such as self-defense, prevention, or repair. Both the buyer and the seller are capable of carrying out all of these functions.

Carbon stock assessment of mangrove forests along Macajalar Bay, Misamis Oriental, Philippines

Mangrove ecosystems are widely recognized for their crucial role in mitigating climate change through carbon storage and sequestration services. These ecosystems possess significant carbon reservoirs, particularly in their soils. Nevertheless, the unremitting development of coastal areas and alterations in land use constitute impending threats to these ecosystems, endangering the continuity of their invaluable services. Recognizing the crucial role of mangrove ecosystems in mitigating climate change, this study meticulously evaluates the cumulative carbon stocks encompassing the aboveground and soil components within three mangrove-protected areas in the Macajalar Bay region of Misamis Oriental. The study adheres to a logical structure with causal connections between statements, presents information in clear and concise sentences, and follows conventional academic writing formatting. Vocabulary is precise and avoids biased or emotional language. The text adheres to grammatical correctness, consistently uses technical terms, and employs a formal register. The study is free from filler words and employs a passive tone and impersonal construction. Additionally, the text features a consistent footnote style and accurately cites sources. The research findings show that soil carbon makes up a significant portion, ranging from 40% to 90%, of the total carbon stocks in the three study areas. This emphasizes the crucial function of mangrove soils as carbon repositories. Furthermore, the study establishes a direct connection between the age of mangrove stands and the occurrence of large-girth trees, both of which add to the rise in carbon stocks. Despite their substantial carbon storage capacity, mangrove forests in the Macajalar Bay region are still facing encroachments due to urbanization pressures. This assessment of carbon stocks in these coastal ecosystems plays a critical role in developing localized strategies that align with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) REDD+ initiatives, thus preventing further degradation of these vital carbon sinks.

When Modality and Tense Meet. The Future Marker budet ‘will’ in Impersonal Constructions with the Modal Adverb možno ‘be possible’

ABSTRACT This paper examines Russian impersonal constructions with the modal word možno ‘can, be possible’ with and without the future copula budet ‘will be,’ i.e., možno + budet + inf and možno + inf. My contribution can be summarized as follows. First, corpus-based evidence reveals that možno + inf constructions are vastly more frequent than constructions with copula. Second, the meaning of constructions without the future copula is more flexible: while the possibility is typically located in the present, the situation denoted by the infinitive may be located in the present or the future. Third, I show that the možno + inf construction is more ambiguous and can denote present, gnomic or future situations. Fourth, I identify a number of contextual factors that unambiguously locate the situation in the future. I demonstrate that such factors are more frequently used with the future copula, and thus motivate the choice between the two constructions. Finally, I illustrate the interpretations in a straightforward manner by means of schemas of the type used in cognitive linguistics.

КРИТЕРІЇ НАПИСАННЯ ТА АНАЛІЗ ЛІНГВІСТИЧНИХ ОСОБЛИВОСТЕЙ CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS У РОЗВИТКУ НАВИЧОК АКАДЕМІЧНОГО ПИСЬМА (НА МАТЕРІАЛІ АНГЛОМОВНИХ ТЕЗ ДОПОВІДЕЙ ДЛЯ НАУКОВИХ КОНФЕРЕНЦІЙ)

The article examines not only the issue of determining the list of criteria for successful writing of conference abstracts, but also views the ability to carry out a linguistic analysis of conference abstracts to ensure the development of academic writing skills. It outlines the meaning of key concepts, abstracts, and conference abstracts, known as secondary genres of scientific discourse. The article describes textual characteristics and application of rhetorical strategies in writing effective conference abstracts. The methods of content analysis and systematization have been used to determine linguistic features of the analyzed conference abstracts. Moreover, it claims on the importance of considering the established conventions of their meaningful writing not only for post-graduate students but for young scholars as well, since it is a common problem for all groups. Failing to meet the requirements, conference abstracts are to be denied by the committee board hosting the future scientific conference. Addressing this problem, experts of blind viewing suggest that it may be attributed to poor command of English, lack of knowledge of academic writing skills and of lexical and stylistic features. The results suggest that familiarizing students with the recent scientific data and methodology is crucial but not sufficient to develop their academic writing skills. Implementing the method of content analysis, the study places emphasis on examining various authentic scientific texts. Thus, the conclusion has been made about the significance of following the accepted format of writing conference abstracts and maintaining appropriate rhetoric strategies in the development of academic writing skills. Among the analyzed materials of the English-language conference abstracts, the most typical linguistic characteristics of this type of genre of academic writing were established: the use of Active Voice constructions, mainly verbs of the present indefinite tense, impersonal constructions, personal, possessive, and indicative pronouns in plural form which act as the subject, abbreviations and negative sentences are rarely used.

Translation of Modal Verbs in Media Texts: Corpus-Based Approach

The main modal verbs of the English language (can, could, may, must, should, need, will, would) in media texts have been studied, namely the ways of their translation into Russian. Using the method of continuous sampling, 50 concordances were selected and analyzed for each of the 8 modal verbs. The material of the study was examples in the field of journalism from the National Corpus of the Russian Language, namely, a parallel subcorpus composed of original texts and their translations. Additionally, a ranking was carried out according to the frequency of modal verbs in the parallel corpus NKRYA (language pair Russian-English) and the English web corpus WebCorp. When comparing, the absolute frequencies of modal verbs were used, since the first corpus is static, and the second is dynamic (replenished daily). The need to supplement the parallel corpus was revealed, since the sorting results were not identical. Based on the analysis of translation transformations, the following was found: literal translation, grammatical substitutions and omission were most often used in the translation of modal verbs in media texts. It has been established that impersonal constructions were often used, and modality was transmitted using linguistic means of another level.

Hebrew copulative perception verbs

Abstract Copulative perception verbs such as English sound have received scant attention relative to other perception verbs, especially in non-European languages. In Hebrew, these verbs can take both adjectival and adverbial complements, a fact which sets Hebrew apart from previously studied languages, and which has heretofore been overlooked. This article investigates the usage of Hebrew copulative perception verbs with adverbial complements, with adjectival complements, and in impersonal constructions. A large-scale corpus study and a preference experiment reveal that each of these three constructions has a different interpretation. With adverbial complements, the verbs have an “attributary” meaning, attributing properties to perceptual impressions of objects. The complement slot in these cases is restricted to subjective multidimensional properties, which previous accounts of the attributary meaning fail to predict, motivating a novel analysis in terms of dimension selection. With adjectival complements, as well as in impersonal constructions, the verbs have a parenthetical meaning, taking and modifying a proposition argument. The two constructions are not equivalent, however. With adjectival complements, the verbs encode evidential but not epistemic information, and vice versa in impersonal constructions, reinforcing the need to maintain a distinction between the classes of evidentials and epistemic modals.

TEACHING TRANSLATION IN LEGALESE

The present paper focuses on the main translation mistakes that Romanian students in Law make when faced with original texts in legalese. Taking into account all the features that characterize legal English in comparison to plain English (apud Tiersma 2008), i.e. specific vocabulary, verbosity, lengthy convoluted structures, complex syntax, conjoined phrases, redundancy and repetition, negation, impersonal constructions, vagueness, ritualization, etc, the subject of our analysis bears on how these difficulties are usually tackled in specialized translation seminars. The paper also proposes various repair work strategies materialized in different types of exercises specifically aimed at the study of legalese.

Passive Voice in Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew in the Historical Linguistic Perspective

Abstract Passive diathesis in Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew is expressed by four morphological categories: Qal passive stem, Niphal stem, Qal passive participle, and impersonal construction. The distribution and functions of these categories are not proportional at different stages of the development of these languages. This paper concentrates on the distribution of Qal passive and Niphal stems. In the language of Ugaritic poetry G passive is the prevailing category; in the language of Ugaritic prose both G passive and N-stem are used to express passivity. In the languages of Classical Biblical Hebrew prose there are examples of Qal passive and Niphal in the passive function, but the situation is essentially different from Ugaritic: in Hebrew the lexical overlap between these stems is broader, and Niphal can be used in impersonal passive constructions. In Late Biblical Hebrew Qal passive is practically out of use. In Qumran Hebrew the Qal passive forms are sporadically attested, apparently as an archaizing retention.

HEDGING THROUGH THE USE OF IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN INDONESIAN OP-ED ARTICLES

The presence of an opinion editorial (op-ed) page has provided room for the public to articulate their ideas about the recent salient issues at no cost. The notion that the authors of an op-ed article could express their ideas and arguments in public space makes them need certain devices like hedges to protect themselves from any negative consequences such as rejection from readers if in fact their argument is considered false. This article is intended to investigate the use of impersonal constructions as hedging devices in 45 Indonesian opinion editorial articles published by three leading national newspapers: Kompas, Tempo, and Republika. Impersonal construction in this case refers to a grammatical construction that avoids the use of a human subject in the sentence. This construction includes the use of agentless passive voice and abstract rhetors. A qualitative research design is applied in this study. This study reveals 56 occurrences of impersonal construction with details of 53 data belonging to the agentless passive voice category and 3 data belonging to the abstract rhetors category in the 45 articles examined. The use of such constructions in op-ed articles can be a means to protect the authors from the consequences of being blamed if in any case, the argument they stated is different from the reality. Furthermore, this construction can also be used to avoid the subjectivity of the claim and direct the focus of the argument to the content of the text and not the authors.Â

DIGITAL PRACTICES OF MEDIA FANDOM

The article explores the digital practices of media fandom and highlights how the development of information technologies and the emergence of new media have revolutionised cultural production. Since the mid-1990s, the widespread use of Internet technologies has led to significant changes in the circulation of information and various forms of cultural expression. Each community of individuals with similar interests now has the opportunity to create their own virtual universe, allowing representatives from various cultural groups to communicate about their shared hobbies, regardless of their location. In particular, online interactive communities such as fans of popular literature, TV series, and shows have experienced significant growth in numbers. It has been established in academic discourse that the notion of media fandom is employed to designate fan communities of the digital age. These communities are brought together by their dedication to particular mass culture products, and are active in the digital realm of new media, advancing specific digital practices. Members of a media fandom generate fresh cultural works, closely linked to a specific storyline of a popular mass culture product. Media fandom is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon within contemporary culture, which blurs the boundary between creator and consumer. It is a characteristic of digital culture that requires objective evaluation due to its subjective nature. Causal connections between statements are necessary to ensure comprehensibility and logical structure. Technical term abbreviations should always be explained when first used. Maintaining conventional structure, including regular formatting and factual, unambiguous titles, is vital. Clear, objective language should be used, avoiding biased, emotional, figurative, or ornamental language. The passive tone and impersonal construction should be employed, avoiding first-person perspectives unless necessary. Aim for a clear structure with precise word choice and balance without bias. Finally, maintain grammatical correctness, adhering to style guides, consistent citations, and formatting. It finds that fandom is a global platform for the creation and distribution of content on favourite topics, a type of participatory culture that involves a person who was previously only a consumer of cultural and social meanings in the state of producer. The author formulates the main characteristics of media fandom: it appears in the era of new media, it creatively rethinks the products of cultural industries, it represents the space of amateur production, it has a collective nature of activity, and the participants are engaged in creativity for their own development and enjoyment.