Browsing by Author "Hlebec, Boris"
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Item Connectivity and indirect connection in English(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2003) Hlebec, BorisItem General attitudinal meanings in RP intonation(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2008) Hlebec, BorisThe article takes a cognitive view of the attitudinal meanings of RP intonation. A summary statement is included about previous authors’ views on attitudes conveyed by pitch direction. Data on intonation patterns concentrating on pitch level are followed by the labels of emotional attitudes from phonetic literature. These descriptive labels are brought into correlation with a large number of metaphoric phrases and fixed collocations and expressions which give a clue to structural metaphors for emotional attitudes. In this way, strict regularities in correspondences have been found between the triangle made up of nucleus + head variations, emotions as labelled in phonetic literature, and EMOTION IS TEMPERATURE metaphors. Metonymy also plays a part: emotion stands for a bodily sensation felt during the emotion. These regularities are believed to underlie and govern the use of intonation tunes. Expressing one’s general emotional attitude by means of varying pitch level is seen as a conjunction of two interrelated principal analogies: EMOTION = TEMPERATURE (metaphorically and metonymically) and VOICE PITCH = TEMPERATURE (in terms of the effect of vibrations of air molecules), which produces the expression of EMOTION by means of VOICE PITCH. Specifically, attitudes associated with a pleasant high temperature (warm) are conveyed by means of a combination of a high head and a high nucleus. The combination of the high head and the low nucleus emanates coolness (typically pleasant low temperature, untypically unpleasant low temperature). Attitudes associated with unpleasant low temperature (cold) are produced by a joint effect of a low head and a low nucleus, while associations with unpleasant high temperature (hot) are expressed as a unity of a low head and a high nucleus.Item Lexical definitions of some performative verbs(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2015) Hlebec, BorisThe author upholds Anna Wierzbicka’s opinion that unless strict scientific definitions of performatives are reached, no successful classification of these verbs can be made. The article compares definitions of the verb elect and four performative verbs (appoint, declare, excommunicate and pronounce) as presented in four English dictionaries, as well as in the form of Wierzbicka’s explicatives and the author’s formulations reached by means of the collocational method. This method seeks to gain a realistic insight into the semantic structure of lexemes because most metalinguistic elements are drawn from facts offered by the language itself. The definitions of the performative verbs, like of any other verb, can be marshalled by combining and incorporating semantic definitions of the collocating grammar words and constructions. The latter task is done by extracting the common content of the grammar words and constructions in the relevant meanings as appearing in collocations of their own. The same procedure is carried out for the noun collocates occurring in the subject and object slots of the verbs in question. The performative force within this small lexical field manifests gradation, depending on the presence of a person in authority.Item Sources of shared polysemy in English spatial adjectives(Adam Mickiewicz University, 1986) Hlebec, BorisItem Where boys, girls and children come from(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2012) Hlebec, BorisThe etymology of three very frequent English words child, girl and boy has been notoriously obscure because researchers have failed to pay attention to possible Slavic influence. This article is aimed at rectifying this major oversight by providing abundant evidence of both formal and semantic similarities between the English items and the corresponding Slavic ones and at establishing Scandinavian as an intermediary for girl and boy, no such connector being necessary for child.