1

TTHINKHINK and and BELIEVEBELIEVE in in PolishPolish:

A search for semantic motivation in construction patterns

Iwona KokorniakMałgorzata Fabiszak

Anna HebdaSchool of English,Adam Mickiewicz University,

Poznań, Poland

2

Overview

1. Cognitive Grammar (CG) assumptions

2. The Polish PWN Corpus

3. The adopted methodology

4. Results:

a. Quantitative analysis

b. Qualitative analysis

5. Research perspectives

3

1. CG assumptions:Construal vs. coding

• An event can be construed in many ways • A number of lexical items and grammatical constructions

can be used to convey these construals• “construal is partly a matter of linguistic convention and

partly of the speaker’s communicative objectives” (Dąbrowska 1997: 115):

(1) a. Peter has bought a red bike from his friend Tom. b. His friend Tom has sold Peter a red bike. c. A red bike has been sold to Peter (by Tom).

d. *Peter has been bought a bike from Tom.

4

1. CG assumptions:Coding of THINK and BELIEVE

• relations represented by the verbs are constrained by sentential context

• semantics and aspect of the verbs contribute to the construction patterns they go into

• mental verbs, i.e, they represent what originates in the subject’s mind, the ‘internal reality’ (Shinzato 2004: 862)

5

1. CG assumptions:Coding by means of cases

• characteristics of the entities designated to interact with one another in the relations contribute to the construal of the event

• case markers depicting the relationships between the participants involved in the processes are semantically motivated

• one case may be used to convey quite a number of relationships between or among participants of an event

• different cases may represent the same or similar construals, each being motivated semantically

• In Polish, there are six grammatical cases: NOMINATIVE (NOM), GENETIVE (GEN), DATIVE (DAT), ACCUSATIVE (ACC), INSTRUMENTAL (INSTR), LOCATIVE (LOC), VOCATIVE (VOC)

6

2. The Polish PWN Corpus

• 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

• 1048 out of 2882 random hits of myśleć

• 1008 out of 1147 random hits of wierzyć

7

3. The method: tagging

• Tagging categories:

a. Object case: ACC, DAT, o+LOC, w+ACC, INSTR

b. Object type: ObjNP, ObjPro, ObjPropname, ObjcompINCI, ObjINFph

c. Object semantics: ObjHUM, ObjINSTIT, ObjCONCR, ObjLOCAT, ObjABSTRACT

d. Object number: Obj1stSG, Obj2ndSG, Obj3rdSG, Obj1stPL, etc.

8

3. The method: Problems

• Object case:(2)a. Będę myślał o tym, że przed laty ten festiwal

uratował mi Zycie

[(I) will thought about this-LOC that before years this festival saved me life]

‘I will be thinking about the fact that years ago this festival saved my life’

b. wierzyliśmy w to, ze stary Marczewski ma pistolet pod poduszką

[(we) believed-1stPL in this-ACC that old Marczewski has gun under pillow]

‘we believed that old Marczewski had a gun under the pillow’

9

3. The method: Solutions

• Object semantics:(3) Pamiętasz? Obsesyjnie wierzył w Sokołów. (ObjLOCAT)

‘Do you remember? He obsessively believed in Sokołów.’(4) Czyli żyje się ze skrzatów, ale się w nie nie wierzy?

‘So one lives off brownies, but they don’t believe in them’ (ObjPro but ObjABSTRACT)

(4)a. Nie myślelismy wtedy o obaleniu komuny, lecz o poprawie życia.‘We didn’t think about overthrowing the communism’b. nie podobna było myśleć o ustawianiu rusztowania ‘It was impossible to think about mounting the scaffoldingc. nie potrafiłem juz myśleć o rozmowie naszej jako o zwykłej wymianie zdań.‘I couldn’t think about our conversation as a mere exchange of opinions’d. Wszyscy próbują nie myśleć o tym horrorze. ‘They all are trying not to think about this horror’ (ObjABSTRACT)

10

3. The method: Solutions• Object type:(5)a. myślałam, że już wstałaś. Też myślałam. [(I) thought that already got-2ndSG up. Also thought-

1stSG]‘(I) thought that you got up already. I thought so too.’

(ObjcompINCI)

b. Tego dnia Irek nie myślał już więcej o sobie. Nie myślał też i w nocy.

[That day Irek not thought-3rdSG yet more about himself-LOC. Not thought-3rdSG also and in night]

‘On that day Irek didn’t think about himself any more. He didn’t think at night either.’ (ObjPro)

11

4a. Quantitative analysis: myśleć

Table 1: Myśleć: Direct object characteristics

12

4a. Quantitative analysis: wierzyć

Table 2: Wierzyć: Direct object characteristics

13

4a. Quantitative analysis: wierzyć

Table 3: Wierzyć: Indirect object characteristics

14

4a. Object type vs. verb type: Pearson's chi-square

• CompINCI: myśleć (633) vs. wierzyć (248) p<0.001

• NP: myśleć (180) vs. wierzyć (280) p<0.001

• Pro: myśleć (96) vs. wierzyć (98) p=0.663, p>0.05

15

4a. Object semantics vs. verb type: Pearson's chi-square

• ABSTRACT: myśleć (115) vs. wierzyć (281) p<0.001

• HUMAN: myśleć (71) vs. wierzyć (27) p<0.001

• CONCRETE: myśleć (31) vs. wierzyć (7) p<0.001

16

4a. DObj & IObj semantics vs. verb type: Pearson's chi-square

• ABSTRACT: myśleć (115) vs. wierzyć (327) p=0.004, p<0.01

• HUMAN: myśleć (71) vs. wierzyć (160) p=0.759, p>0.05

• CONCRETE: myśleć (31) vs. wierzyć (20) p<0.001

17

4b. Wierzyć: Object semantics continuum (6)a. A w co wierzysz?... w Boga wierze! ‘And what do you believe in? I believe in God.’b. Niezbyt wierzą w szczerość intencji liderów tej organizacji. They do not quite believe in the honesty of the leaders of this organization c. Wszystkie kobiety wierzą w Roberto.‘All women believe in Roberto’ (PERSON FOR SKILLS)d. W biskupów popierających Radio Plus wierzą tez niektórzy szefowie lokalnych stacji .

‘Also some bosses of local radio stations believe in the bishops supporting Radio Plus’ (PERSON FOR SPEECH ACT)

e. Związkowcy twierdzą ponadto, że nie wierzą zapewnieniom rządowym.Union members claim that they do not believe in government declarations’(SPEECH ACT FOR INSTITUTION)f. Nie wierzą żadnej ekipie. ‘They do not believe any crew.’ (INSTITUTION FOR PEOPLE)g. Zadeklarował więc, iż nie wierzy papieżowi.‘He declared that he did not believe the pope.’

18

4b. Wierzyć: Qualitative analysis

• wierzyć: imperfective aspect • The internal aspect of the mental process is

displayed by the w+LOC nominal phrase• w+ACC - being in a privileged position, not easy

to gain access to; “being valued or judged as positive in some way” (Evans –Tyler 2004: 26)

• social interaction is reflected by the dative construction

• Dative nominal phrase – cause of the experience

19

4b. Myśleć: Object type continuum

(7)a. „śpi, odsypia wczorajsze", myślałem, wchodząc po schodach‘“s/he is sleeping, making up for yesterday”, I was thinking as I was climbing up the stairs’b. Myślałem, że żartuje, a ona mówiła to serio‘I thought she was joking, but she was serious’c. do końca myślał tylko o swojej dziewczynie‘he thought of/about his girlfriend till the end’d. Myślał nad ścisłym, rozumnym wyjaśnieniem…‘He was thinking about a logical and accurate explanation…’e. Niezależnie od tego, co naprawdę czuli i myśleli...‘Regardless of what they felt and thought…’

20

4b. Myśleć: Qualitative analysis

• Myśleć: imperfective aspect

• o+LOC - an indefinite constant circular movement round the focal point

• nad+LOC – extendedness of the LM

21

5. Research perspectives

• Subject continuum• Impersonal constructions (myśli się

myślano ‘It is/was thought’ wierzy się, wierzono ‘It is/was believed’)

• Aspectuality • Genre specificity• Discourse markers (wierz mi… ‘believe

me…’, myślę, że ‘I think that …’• ...

22

Thank you for your attention

kokorniak@ifa.amu.edu.plfagosia@ifa.amu.edu.plahebda@ifa.amu.edu.pl