Introductory Construction Research Articles

Appellative Constructions with Epistemic Modality Predicates

The object of the study is parenthetical constructions, represented in the language by three types — modal, reflexive and appellative. Modal introductory constructions denote the modal status of a proposition. In reflexive introductory constructions, epistemic units act as reflection marking. Appellative introductory constructions have an illocutionary function — the function of influencing the addressee. The purpose of this article is to analyze appellative constructions with epistemic predicates — one of the subclasses of propositional attitude predicates, verbs of knowledge, perception and opinion. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that epistemic predicates play an important role in the processes of communication and argumentation. The results of a comparative analysis of appellative constructions in several languages — Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, German, English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are presented. Particular attention is paid to the comparison of matrix constructions with epistemic predicates, that is, constructions with a dependent clause, and appellative constructions with these predicates. The analysis of translations of foreign texts with matrix constructions into Russian made it possible to conclude that there is a tendency to replace the original matrix constructions with introductory ones, and vice versa, the analysis of translations of texts from Russian with introductory constructions indicates a tendency to replace them with matrix ones.

Russian lexical and syntactic hedges in dissertation reviews

The author analyzes Russian lexical and syntactic hedges as a rhetorical strategy for mitigating the negative evaluation of the reviewed research. The relevance of the study is due to the ongoing attempts to reconceptualize the nature of academic discourse, which is increasingly viewed both as an interactive space and an information environment. This approach determines the need to study metadiscourse as an effective strategy for constructing a harmonious dialogue between the reviewer and the author of the dissertation under review. The purpose of the study is to identify lexical and grammatical categories of hedges and their rhetorical functions in the thesis reviews. A corpus of 90 dissertation reviews published on the websites of Russian dissertation councils in 2019-2022 was used as research materials. The object of the study was the genre of a dissertation review, where for the first time the linguistic means of mitigating negative evaluation on two linguistic levels were identified. This determines the scientific novelty of this study. To analyze the lexical and syntactic realizations of the hedging strategy, the methods of quantitative and interpretive analysis were used. The quantitative analysis revealed that the hedging strategy is mainly verbalized with the help of verbs, adverbs and introductory constructions. The interpretive analysis showed that hedges perform a wide range of communicative functions: shifting the communicative focus; modal mitigation of criticism; deintensification. The research contributes to linguistics disciplines such as pragmalinguistics, text theory and discourse analysis. The prospects of the research are an analysis of lexical and grammatical categories of other metadiscursive strategies.

Субъективно-модальные синтагмы в лирическом дискурсе Е. А. Баратынского

The article is devoted to the semantics and functioning of introductory constructions in the poetic texts of E. A. Baratynsky. The complex syntax of Baratynsky shows that the desire for clarity and accuracy of expression, characteristic of the representatives of the “school of harmonic accuracy”, headed by V. A. Zhukovsky and K. N. Batyushkov, is not always compatible with the simplicity and clarity of the syllable: the task of embodying the “poetry of thought” required Baratynsky to complicate the poetic form at the syntactic level. Subjective-modal constructions, reflecting the conflict, the paradoxical nature of poetic consciousness, saturating the text with the intonations of a lively dialogue, were widely used in the lyrics of Baratynsky in the 1820s. The lyrical theme is often revealed by the young elegiac Baratynsky through the struggle, clash of voices, ideas, internal dispute, doubts and hesitations of the inner subject of the poem. The high activity of introductory syntagmascauses drama and "increased" dialogism, including in the form of auto-communication. Sometimes the form of conversation, dispute is in an open form. From the 1830s, the recognized author of psychological elegies turns into a "poet of thought", Baratynsky undergoes a significant creative evolution on an intensive path of saturation of a closed, "close" lyrical form with the most complex metaphysical content, when he creates the cycle of poems "Twilight" (1842). In the last lyrical cycle of Baratynsky, the activity of the introductory syntagmas is much lower than in the early elegies, the monologism of the utterance, the preaching pathos, is intensified.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПЕРЕКЛАДУ ДОГОВОРІВ І КОНТРАКТІВ: ЛЕКСИКО-ГРАМАТИЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article analyses the peculiarities of the translation of agreements and contracts as samples of official business documentation. It has been found that the peculiarities of these documents in the translation aspect are mostly presented at the lexical and grammatical levels. The ratio of lexical and grammatical peculiarities of the contractual documentation and their counterparts in the translated texts into English was determined on the original contracts of sale, lease of real estate, rental of housing and partnership agreements. It has been proven that to achieve the maximum equivalence of the translation at the lexical level, it is necessary to take into account terms and professionalism, naming people by a sign of their certain activity, borrowings, typical abbreviations, standard clichés regarding payments and periods in the studied texts. It is emphasized that the correctness of the translation of official business documentation requires the analysis of the text-forming function of grammatical units in the original texts and their translated counterparts. Among the grammatical peculiarities of the studied texts, the ways of expressing obligations and conditions, adequate interpretation of complex adverbs, simple sentences complicated by introductory constructions, adjective and adverb inflections, homogeneous clauses and complex common sentences were highlighted. It is noted that when translating contractual documents, the rule of parallelism and use of the passive voice both in the original texts and in their translated versions in English should be considered.

Linguistic Foundations for Teaching Introductory Constructions of the Russian Language

Linguistic Foundations for Teaching Introductory Constructions of the Russian Language

PROBLEMS OF GENERAL THEORY AND METALANGUAGE OF COMPOSITE SENTENCES WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CLAUSE

The article touches upon the problems of general theory and metalaguage of one more invariant type of the sentence, that is, a composite sentence with an introductory clause along with the three traditionally accepted structural-semantic (compound, complex and mixed /semi-composite/) types and the taxonomy of the latter in language. The main focus here is made on the so called parenthetical, rather introductory constructions represented by introductory words, phrases and sentences, specifically verbalizing the universal concept of subjective modal assessment” of the fact (action, quality, quantity, state, etc.) expressed in the main body of the sentences, to which the latter are canonically introduced. The author here makes an accent on the status of the so called simple sentences with an “introductory element”, expressed by a clause in language(s) which have been traditionally treated as “simple sentences of the complicated structure”, although they are characterized by their natural surface and deep structures like a composite sentence with at least two predicative units, each of which having its own grammatically expressed subjectpredicate structure. Critically approaching the treatment of such composite sentences as “complex sentences with a parenthetical clause” in special literature, the author considers them to be “composite sentences with an introductory clause”, for the latter can’t be segmented into principle and subordinate clauses, and proves his own approach by illustrating them through convincing examples from fiction materials, which paves the way to four–membered taxonomy of composite sentences replacing the traditional three –membered one.

Uttered Free Indirect Speech in Russian and English Literature: Characteristics and Introductory Constructions

Uttered Free Indirect Speech in Russian and English Literature: Characteristics and Introductory Constructions

Internal Converse in Modern Media Discourse

The article reveals specificity of internal converse practice in the media discourse. The converse is defined as a speech-and-cognitive category that characterizes a constructive principle of the media text manifested in insertion of other person's utterances into the monospeech of a journalist. It is stated that the major means of converse practice is citing direct speech of some other person, which enables precise marking of citation boundaries in media texts. The other person's utterance insertion is marked by the use of reporting verbs that nominate processes of saying or communication in oral or written forms of media discourse, indicating the source of citation with introductory constructions, as well as the names and nicknames of radio listeners who sent their questions. Direct speech may be introduced into the author's text without any special linguistic markers. The sources of quoting relevant for the media text are revealed, including radio listeners, journalists, writers, economists, public and political figures, heroes of modern books and popular movies, mass media. Four functions of the cited utterances are considered relevant for the modern media text: compositional, authoritarian, interpretive and constructive. The types of converse relations that arise between the author's and other person's cited speech are determined.

ЛЕКСИКО-СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ МЕДИЦИНСКОГО ТЕКСТА ХIХ В.

Цель. В статье выявлены и проанализированы лингвистические особенности медицинских текстов ХIХ в., основанные на лексико-семантическом анализе терминологической лексики, на основании чего изложены положения о состоянии научного стиля русского литературного языка ХIХ в.Материалы. Материалом статьи послужили научные медицинские тексты ХIХ в., сохранившиеся в библиотеке Тверского государственного медицинского университета. Обращение к диахроническому аспекту обосновывается тем, что медицинская терминология данного исторического периода является наименее изученной в сравнении с современной медицинской терминологией.Результаты. Сравнение языковых особенностей научного стиля двух исторических срезов (современного и ХIХ в.) выявило ряд произошедших исторических изменений, которые описаны в статье. Показаны и проанализированы произошедшие изменения в функции, форме и степени использовании латинского языка в русском научном медицинском тексте. Приведены данные о наличии в медицинской терминологии ХIХ в. стилистических синонимов, уменьшительных форм имен существительных, развернутых метафорических наименований, что указывает на незавершенность процесса формирования научного стиля языка. Личностный характер изложения научного материала в текстах ХIХ в., проявляющийся употреблением вводных конструкций с использованием личных местоимений 1 л. ед. ч., в дальнейшем будет вытеснен отвлеченно-обобщенной манерой изложения современного научного текста. Строгий отбор языковых средств и тяготение к нормированной речи, не всегда соблюдавшиеся в текстах ХIХ в., станут обязательными в современных научных текстах, в том числе медицинских.Область применения результатов. Данное языковое исследование позволяет дополнить информацию о периоде развития научного стиля в России в ХIХ в.

«Инсценированный» эгоцентризм как принцип смысло-речевой организации текстов в реальной коммуникации

The paper is devoted to the scientific analysis of German egocentric texts in real communication, which are formulated from the 1st person of a “other”, who replaces the true author. In the article the egocentric text is understood as a speech product, in which special personal textual meanings are actualized. This actualization is carried out through egocentric language and speech means, in other words, pointers to oneself as a cognitive and speech subject. The semantic and communicative-pragmatic core of the model of the egocentric text is the paradigm of the 1st person personal pronoun (Ger. ‘ich’). In this function, the pronoun “I” can radically affect the potential of other textual units that do not have egocentric meaning in the language system, and thus provide contextual increments of egocentric meaning to their basic semantics. These include, for example, performative and modal verbs, verbs and verb phrases with mental and emotive semantics. Entering into syntactic constructions (introductory constructions, elliptic sentences, various types of subordinate clauses, infinitive constructions and other), these units build syntagmatic relations with each other and with other textual elements and also give different shades of the egocentric meaning to other elements of the text compositional speech structure. In the texts, which formulation is based on the “staged” egocentrism, the pronoun “I” gets a complex referential structure, because it implies a double authorization subject — real and fake. In the article, the problem of “staged” egocentrism is highlighted on the examples of such egocentric texts as authorized announcements and blog posts. Analysis of these texts allows to make a conclusion that the method of staging the egocentric position of a “other” is based primarily on suggestion, which implies an impact on the addressee, primarily not to encourage him to perform certain post-communicative actions, but to change his mindset, his emotional state and to call him for the co-thinking and empathy.

An exploratory study in the use of direct quotation by L2 entry level Bachelor students

This study examines the use of direct quotation in essays on English literary analysis written by entry level L2 (Czech) Bachelor students. A corpus of 188 student essays was compiled, tagged and interrogated to explore the lexical and typographic form of the direct quotations as well as the students' surrounding co-text. The five areas studied were: frequency, source, typographic accuracy, citation accuracy and method of textual integration including reporting verbs. The results show that L2 Bachelor students with no previous experience with EAP do use direct quotation extensively in their academic writing and most cite their source appropriately at least once per essay. There were however, issues regarding textual integration. As well as the usual integration methods of embedding and introductory constructions, most students use an idiosyncratic and non-standard form of free-standing quotation, and/or ‘shoehorned’ quotations. Shoehorned direct quotations are defined in this article as typographically embedded quotations that are contextually free-standing. Because these forms of integration lack any original lexis written by the student which cohesively links the quotation to the co-text, coherence and rhetorical function are at risk of being compromised. The use of such methods can be considered part of the L2 EAP writing development stage.

Introductory constructions in legal discourse: structural and functional peculiarities

Introductory constructions in legal discourse: structural and functional peculiarities

Традиции русского застолья: глаголы, обозначающие ритуализованные вакхические действия

The article is devoted to the study of verbs denoting ritualized Bacchic actions. The author continues a series of works devoted to the study of Bacchic action in a broad sense in relation to the national picture of the world and mentality. Verbs obmyt’ and sprysnut’ meaning ‘to celebrate any event’, their compatibility are considered, and also frequency of forms is analyzed. Thus, the most frequent form of the designated verbs is the infinitive in combination with the modal-characterizing word nado . The prescriptiveness of the action, its expectation by community is represented in the introductory constructions kak voditsya , po russkoy traditsii , soglasno vekovym traditsiyam , etc. According to the author, use of verbal nouns obmyv , sprysk shows that the actions-rituals are interpreted as “entities” outside of time and space. Attention is paid to the ritual Church verb prichastitsya . The transition of the verb from the sacred to the profane sphere is noted, which is linked with the change of the axiological component. The profanical interpretation of the action, denoted by the verb prichastitsya , becomes possible with the expansion of its valence properties (in combination with a noun in the instrumental case - prichastitsya russkoy vodochkoy ). The material for the study was the examples of modern artistic and journalistic texts extracted from The National Corpus of the Russian Language.

Структурні й функціональні особливості вставних конструкцій в українському науковому дискурс

Scientific style is one of the functional styles, which is now actively and dynamically developing. It aims to reflect the phenomena of linguistic reality and the processes of the society modern development. The mandatory features of the scientific texts syntax can be completed to the abstractivness and generalization, which are manifested as the exception of a personal subject of action (deagency) from the sentence structure and the wide applicability of nominalizing structures (the nominal nature of a statement). One of the ways to implement the deagency and nominal nature of a statement of scientific thought is the use of introductory constructions. Activation of introductory units in modern Ukrainian scientific speech is an innovative phenomenon. They have different extralinguistic nature and perform tasks that implement various communication patterns. The use of introductory constructions in a scientific text is necessary not only for the expressiveness of the message, but also for semantic integrity, which is ensured by combining all parts of the text around one topic. They help to realize such categories of the text as coherence, modality, consistency, and articulation. The specificity of the choice of introductory units depends on author's individual style, his thoughts about a particular problem, and predetermines the choice of linguistic means for conducting scientific discussion or argumentation. The article traces new trends in the communicative and pragmatic organization of modern Ukrainian scientific discourse due to the use of various types of introductory constructions. Their main functions and stylistic manifestations within the most important semantic groups are identified; the ways of structural and grammatical, and functional and stylistic diversity of introductory words, word combinations and sentences are established. Analyzing the actual material regarding the use of introductory words, phrases and sentences in modern Ukrainian scientific discourse, we state that they acquire a wider use and stylistic weight, serve as a means of implementing several communicative and pragmatic functions: text and connectedness, accent and affirmative, accent and hypothetical, and appraisal functions. There is a noticeable tendency towards the predominant use of the Ukrainian proper introductory words, phrases and sentences, which are increasingly confidently squeezing out of use common early introductory units, which testifies to the Ukrainization of scientific speech.

DE LO FÓRICO A LAS PERSPECTIVAS EN LA ENUNCIACIÓN. ANÁLISIS DE CONSTRUCCIONES PRESENTATIVAS DEFINIDAS EN ESPAÑOL

Este artículo trata sobre la ocurrencia, en español, del verbo ‘haber” con artículo definido, revisando algunas interpretaciones a la luz de teorizaciones sobre la enunciación que cuestionan la unicidad del sujeto hablante. La consideración de las perspectivas y voces en la enunciación conduce a focalizar un tipo específico dentro de las construcciones presentativas definidas, sobre el cual se informan búsquedas en corpora y conclusiones acerca de su potencial en el funcionamiento argumentativo.------------------------------------------------------------------------------DO FÓRICO ÀS PERSPECTIVAS NA ENUNCIAÇÃO. ANÁLISE DE CONSTRUÇÕES APRESENTACIONAIS DEFINIDAS EM ESPANHOLEste artigo trata sobre a ocorrência, em espanhol, do verbo ‘haber” com artigo definido, revisando algumas interpretações à luz de teorizações sobre a enunciação que questionam a unicidade do sujeito falante. A consideração das perspectivas e vozes na enunciação conduz ao enfoque de um tipo específico dentro das construções apresentacionais definidas, sobre o qual se informam buscas em corpora e conclusões acerca do seu potencial no funcionamento argumentativo.---Artigo em espanhol.

Enhancing Construction Education: Implementing Habitat for Humanity Projects as Service-Learning for Construction Materials

Service-learning is considered a valuable approach in applying concepts from the higher education classroom in real-world settings, and has become quite common in some disciplines. Engineering educators in the United States are making efforts to incorporate service-learning activities and to study their benefits for student learning and engagement. This article describes the design and results of implementing a Habitat for Humanity service-learning project in an introductory construction materials course. Study results collected from two semesters of service-learning implementation show students respond positively to the hands-on active learning of real-world activities related to the course content. Service-learning activities in particular were not only found to enhance student learning and interpersonal skills, but also increase student awareness of their intended profession and society as a whole. Overall, students reported positive perceptions of the service-learning experience and its contribution to their learning of course concepts.

Constructing Understanding: A Developing Strategy for Teaching Introductory Construction Courses

Constructing Understanding: A Developing Strategy for Teaching Introductory Construction Courses