Écho des études romanes, 2012 (vol. 8), issue 1
La perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase dans une perspective historico-philologique du foyer pragois de structuralisme fonctionnelFrench
Functional sentence perspective in a historical perspective of the Prague centre of functional structuralism
Tomá¹ HOSKOVEC
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):7-25 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.001 
The "functional sentence perspective" and the "topic-focus articulation" (of a sentence) designate now two different schools within the Prague linguistic tradition. Yet to Vilém Ma-the-sius, the founder and promoter of the Prague structuralist programme, and the pioneer of functional re-search into sentence meaning, they rather represented two terminological variants. To him, a perspective was a way of bringing together sen-tences differing in their formal grammatical shape, but similar in their textual (utterance) function, so that their respective meaning differences could be described by detailed mutual oppositions. The "functional", i.e. communicative...
La notion d’échelles sémantiques dynamiques dans la théorie de la perspective fonctionnelle de la phraseEnglish
The Concept of the Dynamic Semantic Scales in the Theory of FSP Revisited
Martin ADAM, Irena HEADLANDOVÁ KALISCHOVÁ
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):27-42 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.002
The theory of functional sentence perspective (FSP) and its research methods have been considered one of the prominent tools of research into information processing. It is widely known that, combining the approaches adopted both by formalists and functionalists, the theory of FSP draws on the findings presented by the scholars of the Prague School, particularly by Vilém Mathesius. Mathesius observed the language universal of every utterance having a theme and a rheme, and formulated the basic principles of what was to be labelled FSP only later. In the framework of FSP every sentence implements one of the so-called dynamic semantic scales (FIRBAS,...
Sur l’indice suggérant sémantique dans la perspective fonctionnelle de la phraseEnglish
On the suggestive semantic clue in functional sentence perspective
Martin DRÁPELA
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):43-49 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.003
In the Brno approach to the theory of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP), four factors have been identified to work in mutual cooperation in rendering the final functional perspective of an utterance: actual linear arrangement of sentence elements, their dynamic semantic functions (the semantic factor), context, and - in spoken discourse - prosodic features. In a discussion of the semantic factor, Jan Firbas briefly describes in his monograph of 1992 the operation of the so-called suggestive semantic clue. Since this term has received little attention elsewhere, the author of the present paper attempts to show that it represents one of the fundamental...
What we have learned from complex annotation of topic-focus articulation in a large Czech corpusEnglish
Eva HAJIÈOVÁ
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):51-64 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.004
After a short summary of the theory of Topic-Focus Articulation (TFA) the present contribution documents on several examples illustrating the annotation of the basic features of TFA on a large corpus (the Prague Dependency Treebank) that corpus annotation brings an additional value to the corpus if the following two conditions are being met: (i) the annotation scheme is based on a sound linguistic theory, and (ii) the annotation scenario is carefully (i.e. systematically and consistently) designed. Such an annotation is important not only for the surface shape of the sentence but even more for the underlying sentence structure: it may elucidate phenomena...
Perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase et linguistique du texte française. L’École de Prague ... passant par la LorraineFrench
Functional perspective of the sentence and French text linguistics. The Prague School ... through Lorraine
Guy ACHARD-BAYLE
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):65-78 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.005
In this paper, I want to present the personality of Robert Martin, whose works are not well known outside France, and analyse the important role he played in the early eighties for the revival of linguistics - considering at the same time the rising influence of his colleagues Bernard Combettes, Jean-Michel Adam and Michel Charolles, that is to say the influence they had on the introduction of text linguistics in France, specifically thanks to the creation in Metz of a new journal in the second part of the seventies: Pratiques. If Robert Martin first wanted to introduce natural logics in formal semantics, he was not insensible to the Prague School's...
Note sur les articulations de la linéarité phrastiqueFrench
A note on the articulations of phrasal linearity
Rostislav KOCOUREK
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):79-94 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.006
The term structuring is here used as an equivalent of various meanings of terms sentence perspective or sentence articulation found in terms Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP), or Actual Sentence Articulation, or in phrases used in the present paper as l'articulation ordinaire or l'articulation poétique.The introductory sections of the paper deal with the typological and diachronic aspects of word order, and with the proposal to use permutation as a promising procedure preparing to obtain a complete list of meaningful sequences to be further explored. There is also a brief note on contextuality, on the spoken and written norms of language...
Perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase et diachronie : le passage de l’ancien français au moyen françaisFrench
A functional perspective of the sentence and diachrony: the transition from Old French to Middle French
Bernard COMBETTES
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):95-107 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.007
The purpose of this article is to show how the concepts and the methods of FSP can be applied to the diachronic study. By leaning on a corpus of Old French and Middle French texts, we observe at first the specificity of the communicative dynamism and the passage of Old French system, which gives the priority to the identification of the theme, to Middle French, which takes into account the degrees of rhematic phrases. The diverse thematic progressions and, in particular, the emergence, during Middle French are then studied, progressions with derived themes, connected to the expression of the background. Changes which affect constituent order, in particular...
Perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase et ordre linéaire dans les textes latins tardifsFrench
Functional perspective of the sentence and linear order in late Latin texts
Sándor KISS
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):109-115 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.008
Syntax has a double aspect : the structures manifesting the logico-semantic relationships within the sentence and the means expressing its communicative perspective limit each other mutually. These two sets of rules are linked also in the historical change of the language. My paper presents briefly the modifications of Latin word order, from the classical period to Proto-Romance, and shows how word-ordering rules become first looser and then more and more bound at the beginning of the Middle Ages. At the same time, functional sentence perspective will realize itself in the frame of a small number of fixed sentence types.
Actuality, potentiality, conventionality: some problematic issues in Mathesius' theory of the sentenceEnglish
Rosanna SORNICOLA
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):117-128 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.009
The aim of this paper is to analyse of what seems a problematic point in Mathesius’ theory of the sentence, i. e. the definition of the “customary” (or habitual, usual) nature of sentential structures.
Porre, comporre, disporre. Dai giudizi tetici agli enunciati tetici, ai temi e ai loro correlatiItalian
Porre, comporre, disporre. From thetic judgements to thetic statements, themes and their correlates
Savina RAYNAUD
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):129-141 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.010
The aim of this paper is to identify the theoretical and terminological genesis of one of the two basic notions of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP), namely that of theme, or basis, of the sentence. Its origin is found in Mathesius' 1911 article on ellipsis. The choice of such a topic permits a logico-psychological elaboration of speech units inasmuch as ellipsis is taken into consideration as consisting of a missing word, quod non dictum tamen cogitatur. The choice of one-member sentences, especially those without a verb, is convenient from two different perspectives: it recognizes non-standard structures, if compared to the ideal type of the...
La perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase et la typologieFrench
The functional perspective on the phrase and the typology
Ivo VASILJEV
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):143-150 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.011
This paper discusses the contributions of professor Vladimír Skalièka and his disciples, especially professor Petr Sgall, towards the understanding of the functional sentence perspective from the angle of Vladimír Skalièka's language typology. Based on their conclusions about the existence of an important fault line between the inflexional languages and all the other types of languages as far as the character and the interpretation of the so-called "free word order" is concerned, the author goes on showing how sentence constructions in Vietnamese, a predominantly polysynthetique language, can function in similar ways as word order does in the inflexional...
Prosodie et structure informationelle : la mobilité des noyaux prosodiques en français et en tchèqueFrench
Prosody and information structure : the mobility of prosodic nuclei in French and Czech
Tomá¹ DUBÌDA
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):151-165 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.012
The present article examines the part played by prosody in the information structure of the utterance. Proceeding from the framework of the Functional Sentence Perspective, as proposed by Vilém Mathesius in the 1920s and developed by other Czech linguists, we first study the mutual relationships between word order, information structure (theme vs. rheme), and nucleus position (final vs. non-final). In the subsequent analysis of a text sample (parallel French and Czech translation), we identify and categorise all cases where the prosodic nucleus is shifted from its unmarked position (i.e. final). Despite a comparable overall frequency in both languages,...
Structure sémantico-syntaxique de la phrase & structure thématique du texte : quelle articulation ?French
Semantic-syntactic sentence structure & thematic text structure: how do they relate?
Colette FEUILLARD
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):167-181 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.013
After recalling the principal characteristics of the Functional Sentence Perspective formulated by Mathesius and the Prague Linguistic Circle, this paper aims to propose a new approach to the informational structure of the message, which is based on referential semantics and functional syntax. The theme is defined as a salient element, which means a center of a set of relationships involving intra- or inter-sentence connections. It underlines the interaction between sentence and text.
La perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase et l’ordre des mots en allemandFrench
The functional perspective of the sentence and word order in German
Maria Paola TENCHINI
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):183-194 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.014
In this paper, elaborating on Dane¹' idea of the "three-levels approach" to syntax, we advance the hypothesis that the global information structure of an utterance is the result of a synergistic action of semantic, syntactic and Theme-Rheme structures. In particular, we focus on the structural and formal factors of the functional sentence perspective, hence distinguishing between Theme-Rheme on the one hand and Given-New and Presupposition-Assertion on the other. The latter notions, though correlated to that of Theme-Rheme, are distinct from it. We apply this theoretical framework to the German language aiming at showing how, in this language, the...
On the position of spatial and temporal adverbials in the Italian sentenceEnglish
Eva KLÍMOVÁ
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):195-204 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.015
The article deals with the position of spatial and temporal adverbials in the Italian sentence from the functional sentence perspective (FSP) point of view, in comparison with English and Czech. Firstly, all the FSP factors are introduced, i.e. linearity, context, semantics, and, in the spoken language, intonation. The main attention is paid to semantics: spatial and temporal adverbials with the aim to prove that the position of these two sentence elements is closely related to their function on the Presentation scale and on the Quality scale. For this purpose more than 1500 clauses of an Italian text and its English translation have been analysed...
Topic-focusa articulation of isotopyEnglish
Radim SOVA
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):205-216 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.016
The paper deals with linguistic phenomena at suprasentential level. In particular, it looks into how textual analysis can be enhanced by supplementing the Parisian programme of interpretive semantics, as devised by François Rastier, namely his theory of isotopies, with elementary aspects of topic-focus articulation (TFA), as well as contextual boundness (CB) and contextual non-boundness (CN), as elaborated within the Praguian linguistic tradition (V. Mathesius, P. Sgall, E. Hajièová, F. Dane¹, J. Firbas), and how the descriptive power of the former can be increased by the latter. In this respect, it is argued that two types of TFA phenomena interact...
Progressions thématiques et anaphorisation. L’apport informationnel des procédés de repriseFrench
Thematic progressions and anaphorization. Informational contribution of the anaphoric devices
Ondøej PE©EK
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):217-227 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.017
The aim of the article is to examine the relation between the functional sentence perspective and the main noun anaphoric devices. The role of anaphoric expressions is observed within the theme-rheme articulation of sentences linked by different types of thematic progressions. We show that anaphora, which is necessarily co-referential with its antecedent, may bring new information on the object of the speech. The informational contribution of the anaphoric expression depends on the lexical choice: it can be null, in this case anaphora is merely a device of textual cohesion, or not, in this case anaphora contributes to the informational progression...
Perspective fonctionnelle et types de textes. Les variantes de la construction textuelle dans Exercices de style de Raymond QueneauFrench
Functional perspective and text types. Variants of textual construction in Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style
Franciska SKUTTA
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):229-239 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.018
Based on the Prague School theory of functional sentence perspective, this essay examines the possible extension of FSP to the study of the information structure of the text. Following Firbas' theory concerning the existence of a basic distribution of communicative dynamism in language, and of deviations from it in actual utterances, the analysis of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style (1947) intends to show that each variant of the first, unmarked text (Notations) deviates from that model in a specific way with respect to theme - rheme opposition and thematic progression. These aspects of the particular texts appear to be determined by certain...
Anaphores, stratégies discursives et genres textuelsFrench
Anaphora, discourse strategies and textual genres
Brigitte WIEDERSPIEL
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):241-254 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.019
In this paper, we start with the fact that every text presents a dominating shape of anaphoric relations. We wish to experiment the communicative dynamism of anaphora in two text genres: scientific written one versus essay. Our analysis leads to these conclusions: (1) the author of scientific written text realizes its objective aim in accordance with a centrifugal homotopy and the dynamism put the topic in title to be expanded towards descriptive spaces; (2) in a different way, the author of essay conceptualizes, deforms or manipulates factual data by directing them to a creative focus, in accordance with a centripetal homotopy.
Modalisation autonymique et dynamisme communicatifFrench
Autonymic modalization and communicative dynamism
Gregor PERKO
Écho des études romanes 2012, 8(1):255-264 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2012.020
The aim of this article is to study the phenomenon of autonymic modalisation within the framework of communicative dynamism elaborated by Jan Firbas and his colleagues at the University of Brno. Special attention is given to the concept of "second instance". The autonymic modalisation, making dual use of a text item, involves two semiotic levels, object-language level and metalinguistic level, and thus two parallel communicative dynamisms. The rhematisation at the metalinguistic level is the result of an ad hoc opposition between different metalinguistic aspects of an item depending heavily on different types of contexts.