Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

On Word Order from the Communicative Point of View

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2014

Abstract

The presented thesis is focused on the Czech word order of contextually non-bound verbal modifications. It monitors whether there is a basic order in the contextually non-bound part of the sentence (significantly predominant in frequency) in the surface word order (cf. narodit se v Brně v roce 1950 vs. narodit se v roce 1950 v Brně; literally to be born in Brno in 1950 vs. to be born in 1950 in Brno).

At the same time, we try to find out the factors influencing the word order (such as the form of modifications, their lexical expression or the effect of verbal valency). Finally, we briefly compare the word order tendencies in Czech and German.

For the verification of the objectives, mainly the data from the Prague Dependency Treebank are used. The work is based on the theoretical principles of Functional Generative Description.

Research results demonstrate that, at least in some cases, it is possible to detect certain general tendencies to use preferably one of two possible surface word order sequences