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The focus of the paper is on the semantics of the Croatian prefix uz-, or, more specifically, on its contribution to the verbal semantics and the resulting network of senses realized by all the ‘uz-’ prefixed verbs in standard Croatian. We first offer a brief overview of the extant analyses, both those that employ traditional and those that employ cognitive approaches, of this prefix in Croatian. This is complemented by a brief review of the corresponding Russian prefixes vz- and voz- and a comparison of the main senses expressed by these prefixes in Croatian and Russian. The central part deals with a detailed and systematic analysis of the semantic components and the syntactic requirements of all the Croatian uz- prefixed verbs. This approach, which takes into account both the semantic components and the syntactic behavior of verbs, allows us to create a much more finely-grained semantic network of senses compared to those presented in previous research. In the conclusive part of the paper we systemize the syntactic behavior of ‘uz-’ prefixed verbs and present the obtained semantically motivated network of senses of ‘uz-’.

The focus of this paper is on the semantics of the Croatian prefix od-, or, more specifically, on its contribution to the verbal semantics and the resulting network of senses that are realized by all the verbs with an od- prefix in standard Croatian. Following a brief review of the current most influential theoretical treatments of the semantics of the Croatian od-, which is complemented by a brief review of the (cognitively based) analyses of ot- in Russian, the central portion of the paper not only deals with a detailed and systematic analysis of the semantic components, but also with the syntactic requirements of all the Croatian verbs with an od- prefix. In the conclusive part of the paper the authors propose a semantic network that accomodates all the different meanings (senses) expressed by Croatian verbs with an od- prefix, which is paralleled by systematic syntactic requirements of verbs with the od- prefix falling into different semantic subcategories.

The focus of this paper is on the semantics of the Croatian prefix ‘do-’, or, more specifically, on its contribution to the verbal semantics and the resulting network of senses realized by all the ‘do-’ prefixed verbs in standard Croatian. Following a brief review of the current most influential theoretical treatments of the semantics of the Croatian ‘do-’, which is complemented by a brief review of the analyses of ‘do-’ in Polish and Russian, the central portion of the paper is represented by a detailed and systematic analysis and of the semantic components but also syntactic requirements of all the ‘do-’ prefixed Croatian verbs. In the conclusive part of the paper the authors propose a semantic network accommodating all the senses expressed by Croatian ‘do-’ prefixed verbs, which is interestingly paralleled by systematic syntactic requirements of ‘do-’ prefixed verbs falling into different semantic subcategories.

Prvi urednički zbornik Zagrebačke slavističke škole posvećen jezičnim pitanjima Dimenzije značenja (ur. Branimir Belaj) obuhvaća trinaest znanstvenih radova i jedan prikaz knjige. Radovi obuhvaćaju širok raspon tema, a objedinjuje ih zajednička značajka – kognitivnolingvistički pristup temama.

Certain communicative and linguistic conventions, that, on the one hand, have been established for the academic discourse type in general, and on the other, for this discourse type in a particular language, are noticeable in academic discourse. Objectivity, which is one of the most prominent features of academic discourse, can be achieved by using various strategies. Such strategies are described in terms of preferred and less preferred/non-preferred means of expression. As a result, the author of a scientific text is constantly faced with the challenge posed by, on the one hand, the (rhetorical) need to persuade the readers/academic community to accept his positions, opinions, methods, results and conclusions, and on the other, the demand for objectivity. One procedure for increasing the level of objectivity that is frequently advised involves a decrease in the use of evaluative adjectives and their modifiers because they directly intensify the claims. A claim made in a scientific text should obtain its “strength” or “weight” in an implicit manner from the results of research and scientific evidence, and not from explicit expressions such as evaluative adjectives (e. g.: velika važnost toga istraživanja (‘the great significance of that research’), dalo je iznimne rezultate (‘has yielded exceptional results’)) and their modifiers (e. g.: ono što je nama ovdje posebno zanimljivo (‘what is especially significant for us here’), posebno neravnopravni (‘especially unequal’), posebice je to važno (‘this is particularly significant’), takvi su prozni poslanički tekstovi vrlo važni za oblikovanje (‘such epistolary texts are very important’), imao je iznimno dobru recepciju (‘was extremely well received’), većina prije završenih skulptura izrazito je statična (‘the majority of sculptures finished earlier are extremely static’), povezuje ih izrazito samosvojno intelektualno polazište (‘are connected by an extremely individual intellectual starting point’). In order to explore the use of evaluative adjectives and their modifiers in scientific texts, the paper focuses on the analysis of texts from different scientific domains – those of linguistics and medicine. We compare texts in Croatian and English with the aim of proving or disproving the assumption that these two languages employ different strategies. The rules for writing scientific texts in English prescribe, among other things, an extremely limited use of qualifying expressions in general, and this includes evaluative adjectives. The comparison of the frequency of use of evaluative adjectives and of the nature of adjectives that appear in scientific texts in Croatian and English allows us to gain insight into the practices characteristic of these two languages. Our results indicate, that contrary to our expectations, the analysed scientific texts in English contain a greater number of evaluative adjectives than the Croatian ones and that, in general, these texts exhibit a greater diversity with respect to the evaluative adjectives used when compared to the analysed scientific texts in Croatian., U akademskome diskursu zamjetne su određene komunikacijske i jezične konvencije koje su utvrđene, s jedne strane, za taj diskursni tip uopće, a s druge strane, za taj diskursni tip u okviru pojedinoga jezika. Među spomenutim konvencijama jedna je od najnaglašenijih ona koja akademskome diskursu postavlja kao cilj objektivnost izraza. U postizanju toga cilja mogu se primijeniti različite strategije, a opisuju se u obliku poželjnih načina izražavanja (koji pridonose objektivnosti) i onih manje poželjnih/nepoželjnih (koji odmažu postizanju objektivnosti). Autor se znanstvenoga teksta tako neprestano nalazi pred izazovom koji pred njega stavlja, s jedne strane, (retorička) potreba za uvjeravanjem čitatelja/akademske zajednice u njegove stavove, mišljenje, metode, rezultate istraživanja i zaključke, a s druge zahtjev za objektivnošću izraza kao bitnoga obilježja diskursnoga tipa kojem njegov tekst treba pripadati. Među zahvatima u tekstu pomoću kojih će se povećati stupanj objektivnosti izražavanja nerijetko se savjetuje smanjivanje uporabe evaluativnih pridjeva i njihovih modifikatora jer oni izravno utječu na izrazno pojačavanje tvrdnje. Naime, „jačinu“ ili „težinu“ tvrdnji u znanstvenome tekstu trebaju implicitno davati rezultati istraživanja i znanstveni dokazi, a ne eksplicitni izrazi poput onih koji sadrže upravo evaluativne pridjeve (naprimjer: velika važnost toga istraživanja, dalo je iznimne rezultate) ili i njihove modifikatore (naprimjer: ono što je nama ovdje posebno zanimljivo, posebno neravnopravni, posebice je to važno, takvi su prozni poslanički tekstovi vrlo važni za oblikovanje, imao je iznimno dobru recepciju, većina prije završenih skulptura izrazito je statična, povezuje ih izrazito samosvojno intelektualno polazište). Kako bi se istražila uporaba evaluativnih pridjeva i njihovih modifikatora u znanstvenim tekstovima, u radu se analiziraju tekstovi iz različitih znanstvenih područja. Uspoređuju se pritom tekstovi na hrvatskome i na engleskome jeziku kako bi se potvrdila ili opovrgnula pretpostavka o različitim praksama u tim dvama jezicima. Naime pravila o pisanju znanstvenih radova na engleskome jeziku propisuju, između ostaloga, iznimno ograničenu uporabu evaluativnih izraza općenito, pa tako i evaluativnih pridjeva. Usporedba učestalosti uporabe evaluativnih pridjeva te prirode pridjeva koji se javljaju u znanstvenim radovima na hrvatskome jeziku s onima na engleskome jeziku daje uvid u različitosti dviju praksa. Rezultati ovoga istraživanja pokazuju da, suprotno našim očekivanjima, analizirani znanstveni tekstovi na engleskome jeziku sadrže veći broj evaluativnih pridjeva negoli istovrsni tekstovi na hrvatskom te da je, općenito, inventar takvih pridjeva u tekstovima na engleskom raznovrsniji.

The main requirement for Gardenfőrs’s “meeting of the minds” is that speakers’ mental spaces are sufficiently similar. If this requirement is not met, communication cannot take place. This meeting of the minds is not always easy to achieve even among interlocutors who share a mother tongue, and it becomes even more complicated when an interlocutor is speaking in his/her second language. The reason for this is that the “geometries of meaning” of different languages frequently do not match. In this paper the focus is on what happens when two languages, i.e. Croatian and English, conceptualize space in different ways, that is, when they have different geometries of space. We first look at the findings of neuroscience, psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics. Next, we compare Croatian and English and analyze what consequences these differences in the conceptualization of space have for Croatians as L2 speakers of English when it comes to English path verbs. Finally, we look at what crosslinguistic differences between Croatian and English can reveal about the English path verbs.

Departing from Talmy’s (2001b: 52) list comprising 20 English path verbs, we explore the semantic and syntactic properties of these verbs, focusing on their (im)possibility to select a prepositional phrase. Of particular interest in this respect are those combinations in which the (elements of) Path encoded in the PP share central semantic components with the (elements of) Path encoded in the verb (e.g. enter into). Furthermore, we explore the verbs, i.e. their various sentential realizations (taken from the corpus) from the crosslinguistic perspective, looking at the way the motional structures are realized in Croatian. We also compare and contrast the semantico-syntactic properties of the English translational equivalents for each Croatian structure under scrutiny. Interestingly, we notice that a subcategorization of English path verbs is possible on the basis of whether, in Croatian, they are rendered by a prefixed verb followed by a prepositional phrase where the form of the prefix and preposition is repetitive (e.g. ući u), or not. In conclusion, we try to systematize the crosslinguistic picture pertaining to semantico-syntactic properties of path verbs, identifying four levels of crosslingusitic systematicity (with what we call ‘the Source – Goal axis’ being the most coherent i.e. systematic one)., Polazeći od Talmyjevoga (2001b: 52) popisa koji sadrži 20 engleskih glagola koji izriču put, u ovome radu istražujemo semantička i sintaktička svojstva tih glagola fokusirajući se na to mogu li ili ne uzeti prijedložnu frazu. U ovome su smislu od osobitoga interesa one kombinacije u kojima (elementi) Puta kodirani u prijedložnoj frazi dijele središnje semantičke komponente s (elementima) Puta kodiranima u glagolu (npr. enter into). Nadalje, glagole, odnosno njihova različita semantička ostvarenja, istražujemo iz međujezične perspektive promatrajući sintaktičke realizacije struktura koje izriču kretanje u hrvatskome. Također, uspoređujemo i kontrastiramo semantičko-sintaktička svojstva svih hrvatskih prijevoda ciljanih engleskih struktura. Zanimljivo je da je moguće provesti kategorizaciju engleskih glagola koji izriču Put temeljem toga mogu li se na hrvatski prevesti prefigiranim glagolom nakon kojega slijedi prijedložna fraza u kojoj su oblik prefiksa i oprijedloga isti (npr. ući u), ili ne. U zaključku nudimo sistematizaciju međujezične slike glagola koji izriču Put i identificiramo četiri razine međujezične sistematičnosti (s time da je ona koju nazivamo ‘Ishodišno-Ciljna Os’ najkoherentnija, odnosno, najsistematičnija).

This paper focuses on the Croatian P-elements od ‘from’ and do ‘up to’, which productively appear as both verbal prefixes (yielding either source- or goal-oriented motion verbs) and prepositions; in motion contexts these lexicalize TO (i.e., goals) or FROM (i.e., source paths). Furthermore, the pair allows for a very interesting alternation: a prefixed od-/do- motion verb is frequently followed by an od or do prepositional phrase. The resulting possible combinato-rial patterns are interesting with respect to their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic properties. A careful look at the various possibilities opens the way for analysis of what seems to be a previously undescribed property of the Croatian spatial prepositionless dative: a possible dual reading, generally of the adlative/ablative type., Ovaj rad istražuje hrvatske ‘P-elemente’ od i do koji su vrlo česti i kao prefiksi (tvoreći glagole kretanja koji kodiraju polazište ili cilj) i kao prijedlozi. U kontekstima koji opisuju kretanje leksikaliziraju OD (polazište) ili DO (cilj). Nadalje, ovaj par dopušta vrlo zanimljivu alternaciju: prefigirani od-/do- glagoli kretanja često su popraćeni prijedložnim frazama koje započinju s od ili do. Rezultirajuće moguće strukture zanimljive su s obzirom na semantička, sintaktička i pragmatička svojstva. Pažljivo proučavanje raznih mogućnosti otvara put analizi onoga što je prethodno neopisano svojstvo hrvatskoga prostornog dativa bez prijedloga – mo-guće dvojno čitanje, uglavnom adlativno/ablativnoga tipa.

This paper focuses on the Croatian P-elements od ‘from’ and do ‘up to’, which productively appear as both verbal prefixes (yielding either source- or goal-oriented motion verbs) and prepositions ; in motion contexts these lexicalize TO (i.e., goals) or FROM (i.e., source paths). Furthermore, the pair allows for a very interesting alternation: a prefixed od-/do- motion verb is frequently followed by an od or do prepositional phrase. The resulting possible combinatorial patterns are interesting with respect to their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic properties. A careful look at the various possibilities opens the way for analysis of what seems to be a previously undescribed property of the Croatian spatial prepositionless da-tive: a possible dual reading, generally of the adlative/ablative type.