Contrasting the Polysemy of Prepositions in English and Albanian
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UNIVERSITAT JAUME I Contrasting the Polysemy of Prepositions in English and Albanian P.h. D. Dissertation presented by: Ardian Fera Supervised by: Professor Titular. Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando Castelló de la Plana, November, 2019 Doctoral Program in Applied Languages, Literature and Translation University Jaume I Doctoral School Contrasting the Polysemy of Prepositions in English and Albanian Report submitted by Ardian Fera in order to be eligible for a doctoral degree awarded by the Universitat Jaume I Doctoral Student Supervisor Ardian Fera Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando Castelló de la Plana, November, 2019 This is a Self-Funding Doctorate Thesis DEDICATION TO MY BELOVED PARENTS RESTING IN PEACE AND TO MY TWO LITTLE DAUGHTERS, ESTREA AND NEJMIA WHOM I LOVE SO MUCH This paper intentionally left blank Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the prodigious, incomparable, heuristic and great help of my supervisor, Professor Titular. Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando, who stood close to me every step, whenever I needed, and provided everything necessary for the progress of my thesis. Many thanks go, too, to Renata Geld, Head of the English Department at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Zagreb, Croatia, who, very conventionally conduced promising facilities during my Research Stay, there. Certainly, there’s also a place here to thank the head of the English Department and many of my colleagues at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Tirana, Albania, who willingly shared with me very useful scientific knowledge throughout the days while at work. I would also like to thank the representatives of the University departments of Jaume I, who were always ready in fulfilling and replying many of my queries while working on my dissertation. Last but not least, as the saying goes after Shakespeare, I would like to thank my father and especially my mother who, although resting in peace, were a strong encouragement and along with my two most loving daughters Estrea and Nejmia renewed and shaped my previous and actual scientific information in the field of linguistics by giving me peace, love and tenderness. On the whole, I would like to thank everyone who in a way or another finds this work useful and serves them hereafter. Abstract Learning a foreign language has become quite trendy today no matter how good or bad you write or speak it. Certainly, everyone is concerned in providing and interpreting simple words in different collocations in the most possible authentic way. However, committing errors is unavoidable. The nature of errors is quite miscellaneous, but I think the most crucial, of course, are errors committed when you are not aware of the exact meaning (definition) or its semantics, and especially when the word is ambiguous. Thus, it is very significant to understand how the meaning of a word is conveyed and how it can be perceived. Interactive communication when we convey those words to each other reveals a scope of language known as interference or transfer and like in many other scopes studies have been carried out by many scholars in order to find the ways how to correct the errors committed not deliberately. Prepositional errors are the most frequently committed among English learners (L2). Therefore, studying them and doing a research on their use and transfer is a very useful work. It has been proved that error commitment in a sentence happens because of prepositional occurrence. Thus, studying them remains an ordeal. To be plain, not much research or study has been done towards prepositional contrast between English and Albanian, however, there is a positive trend lately with scholars and linguists not only in Albania but scholars and linguists abroad too. I am optimistic that this trend will continue into the future. Abbreviations CA: ……………………………………………………..Contrastive Analysis CAH: ………………………………………………… Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis EA: …………………………………………………… Error Analysis EFL: …………………………………………………… English as a Foreign Language ELT: …………………………………………………… English Language Teaching ETP: …………………………………………………… English Test Paper FL: ………………………………………………………Foreign Language GTG: …………………………………………………….Generative Transformational Grammar L1: ……………………………………………………….First Language L2: ……………………………………………………….Second Language ME: ………………………………………………………Middle English NL: ……………………………………………………….Native Language NP: ……………………………………………………….Noun Phrase OE: ……………………………………………………….Old English PP: ……………………………………………………… Prepositional Phrase PP: ………………………………………………………..Pseudo-Passives SL: ………………………………………………………..Second Language TL: ………………………………………………………..Target Language UG: ……………………………………………………….Universal Grammar VP: ………………………………………………………..Verb Phrase List of Tables Table ………………………… Number of words and rate Table 1 page 59 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 2 page 60 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 3 page 62 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 4 page 63 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 5 page 64 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 6 page 65 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 7 page 66 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 8 page 67 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 9 page 68 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 10 page 69 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 11 page 70 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 12 page 71 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 13 page 72 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 14 page 73 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 15 page 74 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 16 page 75 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 17 page 75 Table………………………… Number of words and rate Table 18 page 76 CONTENTS 0. Introduction .............................................................................................................I The Aim of the Study: for the students; for the readers 1. Chapter I. Language transfer........................................................................1 1.1. Types of Transfer…………………………………………….............2 1.2. Positive transfer……………………………………………………...3 1.3. Negative Transfer…………………………………………………....5 1.4. Contrastive Analysis………………………………………………....8 2. Chapter II. Contrastive Analysis and Language Transfer Theory …………………………………………………….........................................17 3. Chapter III. Linguistic Characteristics of English and Albanian Prepositions…………………………………………………………28 3.1. Morphology and Morphological Characteristics of Prepositions in English and Albanian……………………………………………………….30 3.2. Syntax and Syntactic Properties of Prepositions in English and Albanian.............................................................................................................31 3.3. Lexicon and Prepositions in English and Albanian…………………....40 3.4. Semantics and Prepositions in English and Albanian…………………44 4. Chapter IV. Indo-European Stratum of English and Albanian Prepositions………………………………………………………………………..56 4.1. Indo-European Stratum of English Prepositions [after, at, fora, in, mid, of, ofer, on, to, under, ymb, etc.]……………………………………58 4.2. Indo-European Stratum of Albanian Prepositions [para (=fora), në, prapë (of), mbi/mbë (=ymb), etc.]…………………………………………71 5. Chapter V. Defining Ambiguity as a Notion and a Concept……………………………………………………………………………...77 6. Chapter VI. Ambiguity of English and Albanian Prepositions in Sentences………………………………………………………………………..88 7. Chapter VII. Ambiguity in Lexical Semantics……………………..103 8. Chapter VIII. Classifying Ambiguity…………………………………..124 8.1. Lexical Ambiguity…………………………………………………………...126 8.2. Structural (Surface and Deep Structure) Ambiguity…………………..131 9. Chapter IX. The Contrastive Analysis of the English – ING Clause as Prepositional Complement and Its Albanian Correspondents………………………………………………………………….143 10. Chapter X. Categorization of the Differences, Similarities and Identities between the English –ING Clause as Prepositional Complement and Their Albanian Correspondents………………………………………………………………….153 11. Chapter XI. How can standard Albanian help students in using English prepositions?...........................................................................164 11.1. Difficulties in Learning English Prepositions………………………....164 11.2. Prepositional Errors……………………………………………………….167 11.3. Substitution…………………………………………………………………..172 11.4. Addition............................................................................................................174 11.5. Omission……………………………………………………………………...176 12. Chapter XII. Study Strategies and Additional Supportive Research Data …………………………………………………………………...179 13. Chapter XIII. General Conclusions ……………………….....198 14. Chapter XIV. Resumen …………………………………………….201 15. References ……………………………………………………………….206 16. Appendixes ………………………………………………………………217 0. Introduction The Aim of the Study: for the students; for the readers For years and years now students worldwide and learners of a foreign language (L2), encounter various and difficult grammatical and lexical difficulties which affect their general abilities in using a language properly and sufficiently. Scholars and linguists on the other side have always tried to simplify and clarify at the same time learners’ dilemmas coming forth while improving the gaps discerned throughout the learning process. Learning a foreign language requires devotion, patience and time above all. Taking all of these into account and as a doctorate student I decided to concentrate my study on the scope of language transference,