English book titles in gerundial form

Abstract

The category of gerund is a symptomatic component of the grammatical system of present-day English. Numerous studies have dealt with its nature and functions as well as with its delimitation as opposed to related forms of present participle or verbal noun. No matter whether the term gerund is used or not and whether it is theoretically sustainable to differentiate between the related -ing forms, it is obvious that the -ing form that in many contexts clearly displays both nominal and verbal features plays a crucial role within both written and spoken discourse. Nonetheless, apart from the gerund operating within continuous texts, it is revealing to explore its behaviour and functions in the text-frame components, particularly the title, i.e. a text-frame component with a crucial role in the printed publication of a book type. In this context, it is necessary to present 3 basic starting points of the present study: 1. the notion of gerund as a grammatical category is retained in this study (see 2.1.3); 2. a new term - gerund title 1 - is introduced in order to capture the analyzed structures (see the detailed characterization in 2.3); 3. the analysis is largely based on the functional approach. Based on the assumptions presented above, the aim of the present study is an overall analysis of the gerund title,...

Predkhidami pnice vychazi z pracovniho pI'edpokladu, ze gerundium (tj. ing-ova forma, v niz se snoubi nominalni rysy s verbalnimi) hraje dulditou roli nejen v kontinualnim psanem ci mluvenem diskurzu, nybd i v nimcovych slozkach textu, zvlaste pak titulu. Na zaklade tohoto pI'edpokladu si klade za ukol provest komplexni analyzu soucasneho anglickeho gerundialniho titulu s diem podatjeho: 1. syntakticko-semantickou charakteristiku; 2. komunikativni charakteristiku; 3. pI'ekladove moznosti pI'i pI'evodu do cestiny, tj. typologicky odlisneho jazyka postnidajidho gramatickou kategorii gerundia. Pnice se sklada ze ctyI' zakladnich oddilu. Uvodni oddil formuluje zakladni pI'edpoklady a dIe prace (viz vyse), dale popisuje uzitou metodologii. lako reprezentativnf zdroj jazykovych dat byla zvolena Britska narodni bibliografie (dale BNB). Z t610 databaze byla vytvoI'ena mnozina kniznich titulu sphlujidch tato kriteria: (a) jazyk publikace - anglictina, (b) misto vydanf - Anglie (tzn. nikoliv Velka Britanie), (c) rok vydanf - 2004, (d) stylova oblast - neumelecke funkcni styly (tj. vecne informacni a persvazivnf funkcnf styly). Takto vytvoI'ena mnozina obsahuje 34 405 titulu a slouzf k ziskanf zakladnich frekvencnich udaju, dale pak ke zmapovani syntaktickych a semantickych rysu 30 skupin gerundialnich titulU (dale...