La plupart des articles de ce numéro de Neophilologica sont consacrés aux verbes supports. C’était l’idée de Gaston Gross, président honoraire de la revue, de faire, dans le numéro en cours, état de la situation théorique, descriptive et applicative des verbes supports. Gaston Gross, éminent linguiste, est aussi une figure dominante
des études sur les verbes supports. De nombreuses observations et concepts que nous considérons comme acquis dans ce domaine remontent à ses travaux fondamentaux.

Like all the major fields of research, the theoretical positions on support verbs have changed as descriptions of them have accumulated. It is surprising that it was not until the twentieth century that the notion was established. Thus, to take a beer and to take a slap have been analyzed in the same way in the grammatical tradition. I have described elsewhere how the notion of support verbs was elaborated and gradually developed (G. Gross 1993, 2004). The first works in the framework of the LADL started from lists of nominal predicates established by Maurice Gross. His first collaborators applied to these lists, each one on his own, this or that support verb, the number of which seemed to be quite small at the time. Thus, J. Giry studied the support faire; L. Danlos studied sentences with the support être Prép. From the very beginning, it was realized that the conjugation of nominal predicates was more diverse than that of verbs: a single verb has only one set of forms. R. Vivès studied the nominal predicates that take the three supports avoir-prendre-perdre. I myself have described the support verbs donner and recevoir by highlighting an active and passive conjugation thanks to the support recevoir. But all these works implied, by default, that the list of support verbs was reduced for each of the predicate nouns and for the whole. But, just as in the last century a systematic inventory of verbal conjugation was made, the time has come to make a systematic inventory of the means of conjugation for nominal predicates. This is what the present article is devoted to.

The paper proposes a formal definition of support verb as (roughly) a semantically empty verb serving as a syntactic “prop” to a predicative noun such that the phrase V(support)(N) + N is synonymous with the verb V0 derived form N: ‘V(support)(N) + N’ = ‘V0(N)’, as in ‘to give an order’ = ‘to order’ or ‘to receive an order’ = ‘to be ordered’. The following points are discussed: support verbs as collocates, representation of support verbs in terms of lexical functions, semantic and syntactic properties of support verbs, semantic additions to support verbs (in particular, causation and phasic meanings), realization verbs, and the role of support verbs in theoretical and applied linguistics.

It is a long-acknowledged fact that in a wide number of Indo-European languages, some noun phrases occur solely in the plural. As for the French language — the only one concerned in this study — examples as les semailles, les pourparlers, les environs, les pantalons, etc., are very common ones. A subclass of these plural invariable nouns (Pluralia tantum), shows specific properties, e.g., the noun phrase does not behave like a collective noun; it differs in meaning from the version in singular, and the version in plural is always diachronically posterior to the one in singular. The main point is that these plural nouns seem to involve a limited class of verbs in a privileged way. The main purpose of this study is then to question the status of support verb of these verbs, as well as their role in a possible process of idiomatization.

Pour comprendre le langage naturel, les systèmes automatiques doivent avoir la capacité et la possibilité de savoir ce qui est inféré, et si oui, comment cela est inféré, et à partir de quoi dans un texte. Les implications linguistiquement déterminées imposées par un prédicat sur ses arguments propositionnels, apparaissant dans un texte comme des inférences textuelles, sont, avec d'autres éléments, tels que la connaissance du monde, les hypothèses des locuteurs sur l'utilisation de la langue, les stéréotypes situationnels, les implicatures, etc. l'un des éléments nécessaires pour qu'un système soit considéré comme comprenant le langage naturel.

Dans cet article, nous nous concentrons sur l'une des parties importantes des inférences textuelles, qui n'a pratiquement pas été étudiée, à savoir les relations entre une catégorie particulière d'inférences textuelles constituée d'implicatifs phrastiques au sens de Karttunen (2012) et une catégorie particulière d'expressions polylexicales constituée de verbes supports.

Nous donnons d'abord une brève introduction à l'état actuel de la description des deux catégories générales : les inférences, dont un type particulier d'inférences : les paraphrases (sec. 1), et les expressions polylexicales avec un type particulier de ces constructions : les verbes supports (sec. 2), ce qui nous permet de présenter les relations entre les verbes supports et les paraphrases (sec. 3).

Nous passons ensuite à une discussion sur les implicatifs, y compris les implicatifs phrastiques (sec. 4), au sens de Karttunen (2012) et nous présentons une esquisse de la description de certains types de constructions à verbes supports du point de vue de leur pouvoir implicatif (sec. 5).

Les analyses du type présenté sont à poursuivre et doivent être étendues à toutes les constructions du type analysé et font en même temps partie d'un projet beaucoup plus général. Elles sont un début d'une implémentation systématique à faire sur les matériaux français et polonais en corrélation avec l'anglais de la combinatoire des valeurs de vérité, "signatures implicatives", des prédicats, qu'ils soient verbaux, adjectivaux ou nominaux.

Dans cette contribution, nous tenterons d’appliquer le modèle classique des verbes supports à une sphère hautement abstraite du lexique ‒ les « noms coquilles » comme opinion, information ‒, négligée jusqu’ici par la recherche. Notre étude porte essentiellement sur les combinaisons entre ces noms et les verbes être et avoir, soumises à des variations diachroniques que les corpus de Frantext permettent de retracer depuis la langue médiévale. Les faits relevés suggèrent l’hypothèse que la combinatoire des mots d’aujourd’hui reflète souvent la catégorisation du monde correspondant à l’imaginaire d’hier.

Light verb constructions (LVCs) permeate the oral and written productions of native (and non-native) speakers of typologically different languages (e.g., Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, and Sino-Tibetan languages, among others). From a cross-linguistic perspective, LVCs share basic combinatory and predicative features. However, semantic and morphosyntactic contrasts are visible even in closely related languages such as Spanish and Italian. Therefore, this paper aims to show some of the most significant asymmetries existing between Peninsular Spanish light verb constructions and their equivalent forms in Italian. The ultimate goal of this research is to highlight some of the systematic contrasts that affect specific semantic classes.

Light verbs are generally considered on semantic grounds: Light verbs are contrasted with predicative verbs because the former lack argument structure. In this paper, I argue that light verbs should rather be considered on syntactic grounds, i.e., in terms of the structure of the sentence. From this point of view, light verbs highlight the central property of verbs tout court: namely, to construct a VP. In § 1, I argue that only on this basis can light and predicative verbs be consistently contrasted. In §§ 2 and 3, I address the question of the structure of a VP with a light verb. In § 4, I address the question of the relationship between argument structure and semantic richness.

In this paper, I analyse the noun forms derived from the prototypical verbs of visual perception, see and look. The descriptors used to process verbal polysemy must prepare the correspondence between verb classes and noun classes. This involves indicating whether perception verbs have nouns as associated forms. I also show that if the predicates and arguments are fundamental for the interpretation of the sentence, the actualizers are fundamental for its grammaticalization. The actualization will condition the reading of the nominal predicate. I show how this actualization will allow us to elaborate classes of predicates and thus to renew the approaches of polysemy.

This article is a contribution to the research on noun predication in Polish. More specifically, it focusses on the role of the support verb (Vsup) in verb-noun constructions. In this type of structure, also called verb-noun collocation, or conventionalized syntagma, the verb is collocated with an abstract noun. In this paper, Grażyna Vetulani discusses some crucial aspects of the role of the Vsup in Polish. Despite its apparently subordinated non-predicative role, the Vsup brings important semantical and grammatical information to the meaning of the whole syntagma. In particular, Vetulani argues that, it is a unifying element for the class of predicative nouns (Npréd); it indicates the register and aspect of the compound; it determines its class in the set of predicative nouns; it restricts the polysemy of the predicative noun.

Les verbes supports et autres actualisateurs du prédicat nominal <comparaison> constituent l’objet de cette étude. Nous soumettons aux analyses les constructions retenus dans les textes scientifiques appartenant à la discipline de Science humaine. Le choix de travailler sur le corpus bien défini n’est pas arbitraire, car non seulement le contexte linguistique détermine le sens d’un prédicat mais aussi le contexte et le genre de discours peuvent délimiter l’emploi du prédicat. Les analyses proposées se réfèrent aux travaux sur l’actualisation du prédicat nominal et s’inscrivent dans la lignée des recherches actuelles sur les structures lexico-syntaxiques spécifiques au genre.

Ce texte présente une analyse sémantico-syntaxique contrastive français-polonais  des constructions nominales à verbes supports  avec comme application une base de données  bilingue. Notre recherche s’inspire directement du livre de Gaston Gross Description systématique des verbes supports (à paraître). Nous avons étudié les verbes supports de la classe d’objet <attaques> pour trouver leurs équivalents polonais. Une telle analyse dévoile deux  difficultés majeures : parfois manque de construction équivalente nominale en polonais et souvent le nombre moins élévé de verbes supports en polonais par rapport au français, le polonais étant une langue moins ‘riche’ lexicalement, plus généralisante sémantiquement. La recherche des verbes supports adéquats en polonais exige une analyse sémantique approfondie pour saisir les différences de sens et d’emplois .Pour le faire nous appliquons la méthodologie de la grammaire basée sur la combinatoire sémantique, complétée une étude des sens aspectuels et de la phraséologie liés aux verbes supports dans les deux langues.

The article aims to analyze the demetaphorization process in translation in the context of contemporary Italian literature. The problem is framed from the point of view of the focal adjustments of R. Langacker, in particular the selection and the figure-background alignment. Apart from the obvious problems of untranslatability, the role of the metaphorical potential played in the demetaphorization process is analyzed.

The aim of the article is to present the origins of regional diversity of Brazilian Portuguese. The paper defines diatopic variation and describes the influence of other languages on Brazilian Portuguese over the years, especially at the phonetic and lexical levels. The analyzed languages are: European Portuguese (the language of the colonizer), South American indigenous languages, African languages, the Arabic language, as well as European languages (Dutch, French, Italian, German and Spanish).

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the functioning of the lexeme fear [strakh] in the text of the Scriptures in the sphere of sacrum—profanum; the authors have described the method of research of emotional vocabulary in the linguistic aspect. The semantics of the mentioned word in a profane expression has been considered and based on the method of dictionary definition, etymological, contextual and conceptual analyses, and a complex approach. The authors have traced the understanding of fear in the sacral manifestation (fear of God), relying on the divine nature of this occurrence, which goes beyond the natural understanding of the studied phenomenon. The fear of God in the Bible should be considered as blahohovinnia [awe], which has three levels of manifestation: initial: it arises as gratitude to God for forgiven sins and leads a person to awe before the Lord and helps to salve his soul. A higher level is the feeling of blahohovinnia which resides in a person when they stand before God and is ready to obey Him in everything. The highest level of awe is the concept of absolute service to God when there is no fear but only love.
The source language clearly distinguishes the concept of natural fear and supernatural fear, whose linguistic signs are separate lexemes, whereas in the Ukrainian language (as well as in Ukrainian translations of Scripture) the expression of these meanings occurs with the help of lexemes strakh [fear], bohobiynyi [God-fearing], pobozhnyi [pious], boyatysia [to fear], shanuvaty [to honour] that does not correlate with the primary source.

The paper deals with Dontsov’s “phraseological speech” in the framework of cognitive linguistics. The ways of creating partially-authorial (biblical) and authorial (anthropocentric) phraseologisms are discussed and their assignment to different phraseological-semantic microfields is suggested. A number of Dontsov’s phraseologisms are viewed as linguomental pictures of the world that are potentially acceptable for a wider use.
Methodologically, the research presents a cluster of general scholarly methods and those used in cognitive linguistics as well as special approaches developed in modern anthropocentric research. Methods of cognitive linguistics are of the utmost importance and include categorizing the phenomena of the objective reality and the interdisciplinary method of interpretation related to the correlation of language data with cultural studies, political science, ethnopsychology and other disciplines. Semantic and contextual analyses are also used as supplementary methods. The potential value of the research is ensured by its contribution to the modern anthropocentric linguistics that aims at studying language through its speaker.
Structural-and-logical scheme illustrating the cognitive stages of generating a phraseologism is suggested and the importance of categorization of lingual phenomena is emphasized. Dontsov’s phraseologisms are claimed to be means of exposure of the national Ukrainian lingual picture, symbols of the national worldview, and the prism of the world perception and understanding.

Using the tools of rhetoric and critical discourse analysis, the paper describes the discourse of slimming diets in the Italian men’s magazine “For Men”. The study covered 49 monthly issues published in 2013—2022. The research has shown the presence of numerous persuasive techniques based on building the credibility of theses presented to the readers (mostly using the argument of authority). There are numerous references to popular topoi that increase the competitiveness of the proposed nutritional regimes. Some techniques influencing the emotions of readers were used to a lesser extent. The discourse of diets is present in every issue of the magazine under study, and much space is devoted to it, creating the impression that it is an important and interesting topic for contemporary Italian readers (permanent columns present). In addition, phenomena such as scientization and medicalization of nutrition, fragmentation of the male body were observed. Many of the examples cited could be found in the Italian women’s press published about 15 years ago.

Le lingue naturali differiscono non solo nel lessico, ma anche, o forse soprattutto, nella grammatica. L’importanza di alcune strutture grammaticali o la loro frequenza d'uso possono variare tra le lingue. Ci sono lingue che le usano o le descrivono in modo diverso. Nella grammatica polacca contemporanea non troviamo informazioni sul modo congiuntivo. Tuttavia, cercando di confrontarla con altre lingue, come l’italiano, notiamo alcuni fenomeni nella lingua polacca che non sono formalmente descritti, eppure assomigliano al congiuntivo. Tuttavia, un ricercatore, che consulterebbe studi precedenti, potrebbe scoprire che la descrizione della grammatica polacca è cambiata in modo abbastanza significativo e potrebbe essere in grado di effettuare alcune nuove osservazioni. Questo testo è un tentativo di mostrare che nonostante la mancanza di una descrizione formale la lingua polacca usa il congiuntivo, ciò si evince in base ad un confronto con la lingua italiana.

L'objectif de cet article est d'examiner les difficultés auxquelles se heurte toute étude d'une unité polysémique. A travers l'exemple du nom français journal, l'auteure analyse la diversité de ses effets interprétatifs. L'article présente différentes solutions adoptées par les linguistes telles que : notion de facette sémantique, celle de métonymie dense et de métonymie intégrée pour traiter le contenu sémantique de mots complexes. Les problèmes soulevés par la polysémie sont nombreuses et de nature différente. Elles sont sont vivement discutées, mais il y a encore beaucoup de questions à régler en la matière, comme celles liées au sens et la réalité extralinguistique. L'une des difficultées à affronter est la distinction précise entre la polysémie et les emplois d'ordre métonymique.

Metaphor, although by many still associated exclusively with poetic and artistic language, is a ubiquitous phenomenon. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), it plays a key role in understanding of the world. Metaphors, the use of which we often do not realise, also facilitate everyday communication. 
The aim of this research is to answer the question: in what way metaphors change in the process of translation? The analysis covers selected examples of metaphorical expressions taken from the original novel by Aldous Huxley “A Brave New World” in English, and its translations in Italian and in Polish. The comparison of the three language versions is intended to show similarities and differences both on the lexical and cognitive levels, as well as to identify the translation techniques used.

In this article, Beata Śmigielska describes the questions used to determine the number and nature of arguments of predicates within the framework of Stanisław Karolak’s semantics-based grammar. Since syntactic structures do not directly reflect the semantic structures of predicates, the distinction between arguments and adjunct elements (modifiers) often becomes problematic. This fact is related to the lack of a single methodology by which this can be done in a simple and unambiguous way, resulting in different results of analyses of the same predicates. To solve this problem, it is necessary clearly to define the theory within which we work, because it is the adopted perspective and its well-defined principles that will decide both the path of thought during the research and its results. In her analyses of the selected predicates, Śmigielska defines the tools that can be used in predicate description such as the semantic decomposition of predicates into simpler elements, supplemented, where necessary, by contradiction tests and paraphrasing.