As part of this paper we want to question the possible link between prosody and linguistic realization of irony. In other words, we want to determine if the speaker who utters an ironic statement transmits prosodic signals to allow his interlocutor to recognize the irony. Indeed, in the literature on the subject, many authors believe that, in some contexts, prosody is the only indication of the interlocutor’s recognition of irony (Eggs, 2009 for ex.). Some researchers even speak of intonation peculiar to irony (Fonagy, 1991). The existence of this specific intonation, however, has never been demonstrated, as no real consensus exists on the subject in the literature. Thus, Bryant and Tree (2005) showed that only rhythmic aspects play a major role in the production of an ironic statement. According to these, a slower speed would be the only prosodic feature associated with irony. To verify or refute these assumptions and assess the nature of the relationship that may exist between prosody and linguistic realization of irony, we intend to base our argument on an experiment conducted on a group of speakers we asked to read a statement categorized as ironic, then we asked them to read the same statement categorized as neutral.

The present paper focuses on some of the uses of the Future Simple Tense and the analysis of their Polish equivalents. The material for the analysis is taken from the corpus of French literary texts and their Polish translations. The author concentrates on the modal uses of the tense expressing probability (Ce sera le facteur), command (Tu mettras la table !), and those whose function is to soften a statement (Je te dirai que cela ne me plaît pas). Polish, in the above mentioned contexts, makes use of the Future Tense as well, but, as the analysis of the corpus material shows, there are some contexts where some other structures are used, such e.g. as: forms of the imperative mood or the conditional, modal particles (pewnie, może), constructions with the verb musieć, polite phrases with proszę, etc.

This paper focuses on two questions. Firstly, how the use of argumentative anaphora to express an opinion / truth dissociation (Perelman) should be described in terms of grammatical / lexical resources. The other question has a methodological dimension: in which aspects could this approach distinguish itself from linguistic or discursive studies?

The aim of this work is to verify which acoustic clues allow listeners to differentiate stutteringlike
disfluencies (SLD) and other disfluencies (OD). Furthermore, we would like to distinguish OD and SLD on the articulatory level by observing the laryngeal activity. The results show that listeners’classification of a disfluency as stuttering-like or other is based on abnormal prosodic structures and localization of the disfluency.

The paper offers an analysis of rhetoric-lexical-syntactic structures typical of a scientific text, that is a text that follows quite a stable and rigid structure. A corpus-based analysis, achieved through the use of the Scientext corpora, runs across two dimensions. The first dimension is constituted by the subject matter of the text, while the other dimension concerns the relation between the author of the text and the recipient. The analysis presented is a two-stage process. At the first stage, rhetoriclexical-syntactic structures are singled out. The second stage is to assign those structures to the particular parts of the text, such as Introduction, Main body, Conclusion. The final objective is to arrive at a lexical-syntactic template of a scientific text.

The subject of this study is to broach the problems associated with polysemy and its treatment on the example of the verb regarder. The traditional lexicographical approach to the polysemy of the verb regarder consists mainly of listing synonyms. A huge disparity emerges among the proposed synonyms. We show here the importance of semantic classes to solve the problems of polysemy and thus treat various uses of the verb regarder. A sufficiently precise description can predict the link between semantics and syntax. The use of “controlled semantics” by the facts of language reflects many correlations among configurational, combinatorial and syntactic features of the verbs and their semantic characteristics.

This article presents several lexical and syntactic structures characteristic of scientific texts. Markers of comparison such as être identique à, différer de, comme are one element of the analysed structures. The proposed analyses treat phraseology in a wider context (phraséologie étendue) and are a part of a broader research on motive.

The aim of the present paper is to analyse the French ‘ne explétif’ for the purpose of its machine translation into Polish. The method of the study is based on object-oriented approach by Wiesław Banyś. In the first part, the author attempts to give a brief overview of the theories on the expletive negation. The second part is the analysis of the different uses of the ‘ne explétif’ and their Polish translations. The author distinguishes two types of the French ‘ne explétif’ in Polish : ‘nie without the value of negation’ and ‘pure expletive nie’. The results of the research are presented in ten syntacticsemantic schemes, i.e. in one of the computationally implementable formats of description used in the object-oriented approach.

The present paper deals with the denomination of colors in Polish, and investigates the ways colors are conceptualized in two types of practices, artistic and decorative. Contrary to the universal approach advocated by Berlin and Kay (1969) which focuses on basic colors terms and which has been largely followed by scholars in linguistics and cognitive science, the present study shows how colors are expressed by a variety of lexical structures revealing the diversity of semantic domains from which they are drawn. Following Dubois and Grinevald (1999, 2003) and Dubois (2006, 2008, inter alia), the study points out to different modes of conceptualizing colors in artistic and decorative domains in order to show that color denomination is closely associated with specific cultural practices.

The purpose of this research is to clarify concepts of basic color terms, semantic class of color vocabulary and their classification according to the principle of derivation. The study is mainly centered on the ways color terms are perceived and described, especially on problems related to their lexicographic definition. The initial phase involves the study of methods to determine color terms in monolingual dictionaries. At the final phase, the Authors discuss the idea of a special description which is crucial for color lexicon as a language subsystem, for which five models of lexicographic definition are considered.

Defrozeness and the modifications it brings to a predicative scheme in a frame of functional linguistics are subjects to many formal linguistic researches. While the three primary functions — predicate, argument and determiner — abide by some predicative scheme, incomplete lexical constructions caused by defrozeness require reconstruction of schemes. However, the reconstruction process is somehow conditioned. The study of a corpus shows that permutations of the primary functions depend on textual and contextual conditions. Different predicative schemes can be thus established in relation to the interpretations of each contextualized defronzened sequence.

The aim of the present paper is to present and discuss the differences between Italian and Polish verbs of motion in terms of lexis and semantics. The classification of verbs of motion on the basis of the above listed criteria is aimed at bearing out the hypothesis that many Italian verbs communicate modality of the action of motion as well as a direction of motion. Furthermore, several possible translator’s dilemmas are outlined and an emphasis is put on the processes which are crucial in order to select the best possible Polish equivalent of the verbs under consideration here.

The objective of the present paper is to propose a semantic model of intensification considered as a second order predication, which corresponds to a result clause having two variants, habitual and specific. The realization of this model and its frequency depends on the semantic variant and on the type of discourse.

The purpose of this article is the contextual analysis of the se faire entendre construction. The choice of the corpus of fantasy texts is not coincidental. Conducted studies have clearly shown that the functioning of the structure depends on the type of text in which it appears. The same se faire entendre construction gives complete causative structure in the corpus of press, while in the corpus of fantasy texts dominating options are consecutive and inchoative, which block the agent. Unexpressed reason becomes the source of a disturbing result. This syntactic and semantic procedure creates stylistic effect, which intensifies fear and builds what is called fantasy atmosphere. The present research forms part of the work to create lexical and syntactic matrix of fantasy literature.

The elements and phenomena of physical space are a very fertile area for different ways of conceptualizing the world. As a result, they give rise to conceptual constructs which are then reflected by linguistic expressions in many languages. Our conceptualization of the world is mostly based on experience, especially physical one, that is to say, we conceive abstract concepts in terms of concrete ones. Among the theories dealing with cognitive linguistics, in the present paper the author makes a particular use of cognitive grammar, i.e. with a focus on the process of imagery in language, proposed by Ronald W. Langacker, and a relevant notion of linguistic image of the world elaborated by Polish researchers, Jerzy Bartmiński and Ryszard Tokarski. The paper is an attempt to present a cognitive analysis of the concept of paese (country) in Italian. It endeavors to explain how the Italians conceive and perceive the concept in question in opposition to its Polish and English equivalents.

The aim of the present paper is the analysis of how others are perceived in the computer-mediated exchange. Special emphasis is laid on what linguistic mechanisms underlie various strategies of self-presentation and of others’ presentation in a virtual interaction. Some conclusions are drawn with respect to what properties help define the identity of individuals being engaged in the process of performing illocutionary activities. Finally, the significance of these identity-defining presentations in a felicitous completion of communicative acts is discussed.

The main objective of this paper is to discuss the issue of perception, comprehension and well acquired phraseological structures that are perceived as idiomatic expressions. First, the author will investigate a spectrum of methods used in perception of idiomatic meanings. Then, the author will present the results of a wide range of research and analysis in the field of phraseological units and their acquisition.

Among the many linguistic means that enable us to express axiological judgement there are extended senses of different lexemes. The present paper deals with the axiological charges of such senses of French lexemes clair (clear) and sombre (dark) and their derivatives. While many examples show that the clair — sombre opposition coincides with the axiological opposition positive — negative, it is possible to find the reverse valuation, especially in the domain of auditory perception. Adopting the Cognitive Linguistics perspective, the author outlines the main postulates of axiological semantics (e.g. Krzeszowski, 1997, 1999) and its criticism (e.g. Hampe, 2005). After a brief presentation of the general tendency that concerns the axiological charge of clair — sombre in the domain of intellect, morality, and emotions, the author focuses on the axiological dimension of the extended senses of the two lexemes in auditory domain. The central question that is asked in the course of the analysis is the motivation behind this kind of axiological valuation.

The present paper examines in detail the predicative nouns of smell and of sound in contemporary Russian. It more specifically focuses on the structures ‘Noun of smell or odor + specifiers (“noun” in the genitive)’. The predicates mentioned are divided into groups according to the semantic nature of the specifiers: concrete noun, abstract noun, place name. They express the cause of the smell or sound. The features of each subset are described emphasizing the similarities and differences existing between the sounds on the one hand and the smells on the other.

The present paper is intended to analyze the most frequent phraseological units containing the French productive lexem main and the Spanish lexem mano. The first part of the paper revolves around the most important basic structures of the phraseological units with selected nouns, as well as all types of grammatical categories of which those structures are composed. Then, the Author proposes several exercises devoted to support the natural acquisition of the presented expressions. The aim of the paper is also to show the utility of phraseodidactics, or didactics of phraseology, as a new field of applied linguistics and its domain phraseology. The author stresses the importance of the development of phraseological competences in the process of foreign languages didactics and the need to develop methods of teaching and learning phraseological units such as idioms, proverbs, in the second and additional language(s).