BeReEm

1
BeReEm

• Belief, Reason, Emotion
• Subjective construal of THINK in Polish
• Iwona Kokorniak
• Karolina Krawczak

2
Outline

• Objective subjective construal
• Intersubjective construal
• Performative descriptive uses of epistemic
  expressions
• Semantics of prefixed THINK verbs and think in
  Polish
• Frequencies
• Coding schema
• Multifactorial analysis
• Conclusion

3
GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE NOTIONS

• (Inter)subjectivity and objectivity relate to
  conceptualization and perspectivization
• They are not coextensive with our potential folk
  understanding of the terms
• The concept of subject is a focal point

4
SUBJECTIVITY AND OBJECTIVITY

• Subjectivity issues from subjectification and
  characterizes objects/elements of the objective
  situation
• Elements of an objective situation are
  subjectified if they are relegated to the
  background, rather than put onstage
• Subjectivity is thus one of the results of the
  perspective the speaker selects to construe a
  given situation, and subjectification can be seen
  as semantic bleaching (Langacker 2006)

5
EXPLANATION

• Subjective construal necessitates that a given
  element be offstage
• Objective construal requires that it be onstage
  
• The object of conception, either a thing or a
  relation, resides in the immediate scope
• The subject of conception can construe the
  object, being (a) offstage (b) within overall,
  but not immediate scope (c) onstage

6
EXEMPLIFICATION

• be going to
• (1) He is going to meet his friends.
• (2) It is going to rain.
• Possessive have
• (1) I have a new flat.
• (2) The flat has three rooms.
• (cf. Langacker 2006)

7
INTERSUBJECTIVITY

• Intersubjective expressions are decoder-oriented
  as they are the overt realization of the
  encoders sensitivity to the decoders
  subjectivity.
• (Traugott 20052)

8
PERFORMATIVE USES OF EPISTEMIC EXPRESSIONS

• at 'utterance time' the speaker subscribes to
  and accepts responsibility for the epistemic
  evaluation underlying it.
• (1) It is probable that John made it to the
  bakery before closing time.
• (2) I think John made it to the bakery before
  closing time.
• (Nuyts 2001 384f.)

9
DESCRIPTIVE USES OF EPISTEMIC EXPRESSIONS

• the speaker reports on someone else's epistemic
  evaluation of a state of affairs without there
  being any explicit indication as to whether the
  speaker personally subscribes (i.e., is
  committed) to the veracity of the evaluation or
  not.
• (3) Mary thinks that John made it to the bakery.
• (4) Mary considers it probable that John made it
  to the bakery.
• (Nuyts 2001 384f.)

10
Prefix semantics

• do indicates an approximation to a goal or
  result some effort reaching the goal may
  involve encountering certain difficulties along
  the way, where the trajector (TR) makes every
  effort to achieve the goal despite any obstacles
  
• na indicates an intensity of an action
  expresses a cumulative process
• ob the image schema involved here refers to a
  circular motion of TR around LM
• po forms delimitative verbs to indicate (i) a
  short duration of an action (ii) a limited
  nature of an action does not involve the
  attainment of any obvious goal (atelic)
• prze may depict a three dimensional and bounded
  LM, such as a tunnel in which the TR moves from
  one end to the other, where the TR gradually
  fills the whole volume of the landmark
  (Pasich-Piasecka 1993 19)

11
Prefix semantics

• roz in its basic image schema represents the TR
  and landmark LM constituting one entity before a
  change and taking different forms afterwards.
  Thus, the comparison of the two states of the
  entity before and after the change profiles
  different senses of roz-.
• wy construal of the TRs emergence from the LM,
  or its coming into existence by leaving the
  bounded region of the LM the container image
  schema evoked
• za can represent a construal of excess with
  intransitive perfective verbs, being extended
  from the sense of going beyond a boundary
• (Dickey 2006, 2009, p.c. Przybylska 2001, 2006
  Piernikarski 1975 Smiech 1986 Tabakowska 2003)

12
Semantics of myslec think

• myslec one of mental verbs representing what
  originates in the subjects mind, the internal
  reality (Shinzato 2004 862)
• internalized (and abbreviated) speech, which is
  thus tantamount to self-awareness (Fortesque
  200117f.)
• This private, internal activity can be further
  specified into at least three kinds of processes
• evaluating someone or something,
• believing in the truth of a proposition
• mulling over some mental content (Fortesque
  200130)
• THINK treated as one of semantic primes
  (Wierzbicka 1996)

13
The meaning of prefixed forms of myslec

• domysli/ac sie focus on the end point and
  result intensive-resultative verb (Dickey 2009)
• namysli/ac sie focus on cumulative nature
  process, and goal attainement
• obmysli/ac the mental process has a circular
  nature, which means that the object of thinking
  is considered from many different perspectives
• pomyslec beginning of an action but no end or
  result, focus on process A prefix overlaps with
  the meaning of a source verb enough to produce a
  compound verb whose meaning is identical to that
  of the impf source verb save for aspect (Dickey
  2006 12)

14
The meaning of prefixed forms of myslec

• przemyslec/iwac implies the in-depth nature of
  the mental activity may point at its
  completeness and duration
• rozmyslac - the activity is represented both in
  the basic and the prefixed form of the verb the
  difference may lie in the duration and intensity
  of the activity (Przybylska 2001 271). The same
  observation is made by Dickey (p.c. 14), who
  calls this type of verbs procedural ones, as they
  do not alter the basic lexical meaning of the
  source verb
• rozmyslic sie an observed change in the
  subjects mental state - between the normal
  process of the mental activity represented by the
  unprefixed form into the changed mental state
  represented by the prefixed one
• the reflexive pronoun emphasizes the internal
  mental change of the subject, which may also
  bring about a change in the subjects behaviour
  frequently conceived of by observers as a
  negative one (Przybylska 2001 279-280)

15
The meaning of prefixed forms of myslec

• wymyslic refers to a mental activity as a
  result of which one or more ideas emerge from
  ones mind completeness of the process, which is
  conscious and goal-oriented punctual in nature
• zamyslic sie an absorbtive verb, as it
  construes a continuous process whose subject, by
  becoming deeply engrossed in the activity, loses
  control over it
• the mental activity occurs independently of the
  subjects will, some adverse consequences may be
  expected (Dickey p.c.)

16
The Polish PWN Corpus data

• extracts from 386 books, 977 issues of 185
  newspapers and magazines, 84 recorded
  conversations, 207 websites and several hundred
  promotional leaflets
• 40 million words demo online version of the
  corpus used 7.5 million words
• 1000 random hits of myslec coded

17
Verb frequencies PWN Corpus

• Ja to uzupelnie

18
Coding schema

• Person V1, V2, V3, VPersNA (e.g. nalezaloby sie
  domyslac one should guess)
• Mood Conditional, Indicative, Imperative,
  Interrogative
• Adverbial modifiers
• currently categories limited to
• INTENS, MANNER, INSTR, TEMP, FREQ, ADD, CONTR,
  HYPO, LOC

19
STUDY QUESTIONS

• Correlation between subjective/objective
  construal THINK verbs
• Correlation between subjective/objective
  construal adverbs used with THINK verbs

20
METHODS OF ANALYSIS

• Multiple Correspondence Analysis
• Logistic Regression Analysis

21
MCA 1 VERB PERSON VERB FORM
22
CORPUS EXAMPLES
23
MCA 2 Verb Person Adverb

• Goal
• Instrumental

24
EXAMPLES
25
Logistic Regression for Construal
26
EXAMPLES FOR NON-OBJECTIVE CONSTRUALS
27
Conclusion

• Prevalence of the subjective construal viewing
  with prefixed forms, corresponding with the
  descriptive stance on epistemic verbs
• Strong correlation between objective construal
  and myslec think in Polish
• Important correlation between non-objective
  costrual and hypothetical adverbs

28
References

• Dickey, Stephen M. 2000. Parameters of Slavic
  aspect A cognitive approach. Stanford CSLI.
• Dickey, Stephen M. 2009. Subjectification and the
  East-West aspect division. (Paper presented at
  the 9th Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Conference,
  16th Oct. 2009.).
• Dickey, Stephen M. (personal communication).
  Subjectification and the Russian perfective.
• Glynn, Dylan. 2009. Polysemy, syntax, and
  variation. A usage-based method for Cognitive
  Semantics. In New Directions in Cognitive
  Linguistics, Vyvyan Evans and Stéphanie Pourcel
  (eds.), 77-106. Amsterdam John Benjamins.
• Glynn, Dylan. 2010 Synonymy, lexical fields, and
  grammatical constructions. A study in usage-based
  Cognitive Semantics. In Cognitive Foundationsof
  Linguistic Usage-Patterns, Hans-Jörg Schmid and
  Susanne Handl (eds.), 89-118. Berlin Mouton de
  Gruyter.
• Langacker, Ronald. 1991. Concept, image and
  symbol The cognitive basis of grammar. Berlin
  New York Mouton de Gruyter.
• Langacker, Ronald. 1990 Subjectification. In
  Cognitive Linguistics 1-1, 5-38.
• Langacker, Ronald. 2006.Subjectification,
  grammaticalization and conceptual archetypes.
  In Subjectification. Various Paths to
  subjectivity. Athanasiadou, Angeliki et al.
  Berlin Mouton de Gruyter.
• Nuyts, Jan. 2001. Subjectivity as an evidential
  dimension in epistemic modal expressions. In
  Journal of Pragmatics 33 383-400.
• Pasich-Piasecka, Agnieszka. 1993. Polysemy of
  the Polish verbal prefix prze-, in Elzbieta
  Górska (ed.), Images from the cognitive scene.
  Kraków Universitas.
• Piernikarski, Cezary. 1975. Czasowniki z
  prefiksem po- w jezyku polskim i czeskim Na tle
  rodzajów akcji w jezykach slowianskich. Verbs
  with the po- prefix in Polish and Czech In the
  background of Aktionsarten in Slavic languages.
  Warszawa PWN.

29
References (cont.)

• Przybylska, Renata. 2001. Struktura
  schematyczno-wyobrazeniowa prefiksu
  czasownikowego roz- Image-schematic structure
  of the verbal prefix roz- Polonica 21
  269-286.
• Przybylska, Renata. 2006. Schematy wyobrazeniowe
  a semantyka polskich prefiksów czasownikowych
  do-, od-, prze-, roz-, u-. Image schemata and
  semantics of Polish verb prefixes do-, od-,
  prze-, roz-, u-. Kraków Universitas
• Shinzato, Rumiko. 2004. Some observations
  concerning mental verbs and speech act verbs,
  Journal of Pragmatics 36 861-882.
• Smiech, Witold. 1986. Derywacja prefiksalna
  czasowników polskich. Prefix derivation of
  Polish verbs . Wroclaw Ossolineum.
• Tabakowska, Elzbieta. 2003a. Space and time in
  Polish The preposition za and the verbal prefix
  za-, in Hubert Cuyckens, Thomas Berg, René
  Dirven and Klaus-Uwe Panther (eds.). Motivation
  in language. Amsterdam John Benjamins, 153-177.
• Tabakowska, Elzbieta. 2003b. The notorious Polish
  reflexive pronouns A plea for Middle Voice.
  Glossos 4. (http//www.seelrc.org/glossos/issues/4
  /tabakowska.pdf) (date of access 9th Nov. 2008)
• Traugott, Elisabeth. 2005. From ideational to
  interpersonal perspective from
  grammaticalization. Handout of paper presented
  at University of Leuven, Feb. 10th 2005