| Research
History
2003
- 2006 Doctoral Research: Time conceptualization in Thai with Special
Reference to D1ay1II, Kh3oe:y, K1aml3ang, Y3u:I,
and C1a
Supervised by Dr Katarzyna Jaszczolt, Department of Linguistics, University
of Cambridge, examined by Prof Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, and
Prof Johan van de Auwera, University of Antwerp
Supported
by a scholarship from the Royal Thai Government
Summary:
This thesis contributes to the question concerning the relationship of
language and conceptualisation in the domain of temporality. To investigate
time conceptualisation in Thai, I examine the way information relating
to time reference is conveyed in the language, concentrating on five putative
temporal expressions, including d1ay1II (past), kh3oe:y
(past), k1aml3ang (present), y3u:I (present), and c1a
(future). In the parentheses are the types of time reference they are
conventionally claimed to have. Occurrences of these items are explored
in excerpts from news articles, magazine articles and fiction and natural
conversations among native Thai speakers. On my analysis, the 'temporal
expressions' do not turn out to be best treated as temporal markers but
modal (d1ay1II and c1a) or aspect (kh3oe:y, k1aml3ang,
and y3u:I) markers. Relevant modal or aspect meanings are missing
in their absence. When they are represented in Discourse Representation
Theory (Kamp and Reyle 1993), several Discourse Representation Structures
may be obtained with varying temporality. I further analyse these expressions
in the framework of Default Semantics (Jaszczolt 2005). The temporal interpretation
of the expressions can be argued to be merely their default readings,
which sometimes do not arise. The merger representation serves to be an
ideal tool to represent a message of temporality in Thai utterances, as
the latter is given not by time markers but by a combination of such linguistic
items as modal and aspect markers and the context. This observable fact,
on the assumption that language can be regarded as a window on the conceptual
inventory of its speakers, implies that at the conceptual level temporality
is closely related to modality and aspect in Thai. Finally, arguments
for the universality of time conceptualisation are considered. Proposals
of futurity as modality (e.g. Enc 1996, Jaszczolt 2003), pastness as evidentiality
(Ludlow 1999) and universality of modality conceptualisation (Nuyts 2001)
are discussed. An observation has been made that other tenseless languages
such as Burmese and Dyirbal also express time by means of modal markers
(Comrie 1985: 50-51). It therefore seems justified to pose an informed
hypothesis that conceptualisation of time as modality is universal.
References
Comrie, B. (1985) Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Enc, M. (1996) Tense and Modality. In: S. Lappin (ed.), The Handbook
of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Jaszczolt, K. M. (2003) The Modality of the Future: A Default-Semantics
Account. In: P. Dekker and R. van Rooy (eds.), Fourteenth Amsterdam Colloquium
Proceedings. University of Amsterdam.
Jaszczolt, K. M. (2005) Default Semantics: Foundations of a Compositional
Theory of Acts of Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kamp, H. and U. Reyle. (1993) From Discourse to Logic: Introduction to
Modeltheoretic Semantics of Natural Language, Formal Logic and Discourse
Representation Theory. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Ludlow, P. (1999) Semantics, Tense, and Time: An Essay in the Metaphysics
of Natural Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Nuyts, J. (2001) Epistemic Modality, Language, and Conceptualization:
A Cognitive-Pragmatic Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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2001
- 2003 A Case Study of Differences in 'Thinking for Speaking' about Past
Eventualities in Thai and English
Supported
by a grant from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
Summary:
This
study compares and contrasts descriptions of past eventualities from memories
and as depicted in a sequence of three pictures by five native speakers
of Thai and English of four different age groups each, focusing on frequencies
of occurrences of the formal expressions of temporal locations, temporal
structures, and temporal relations. It constitutes an attempt to demonstrate
that 'thinking for speaking' (Slobin 1996) about past eventualities in
Thai and English, as reflected in language use of native speakers of the
two languages, is different, as they are influenced by dissimilar systems
of past temporal expressions. The findings suggest that Thai native speakers
and English native speakers give evidence of language-specific patterns
of 'thinking for speaking' while speaking about eventualities in the past.
Reference
Slobin, Dan I. (1996) From "Thought and Language" to "Thinking
for Speaking." In: John J. Gumprez and Stephen C. Levinson (eds.),
Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. |
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1997
- 1998 M.Phil. Thesis: Pragmatic Equivalence: Evidence from Thai-English
Translation
Supervised by Dr Katarzyna Jaszczolt, Department of Linguistics, University
of Cambridge, examined by Dr Kirsten Malmkjaer, then Research Centre for
English and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, now School of
Arts and Education, Middlesex University
Supported
by Cambridge-Thai Foundation Bursary
Summary:
The thesis attempts to propose a definition of pragmatic equivalence in
translation and aims to answer these questions: what it is that we translate,
what we do when we translate, and what we have to take into consideration
when we translate. Contemporary translation theories are examined, and
various pragmatic theories are utilized. Distinctions are made between
what is said and what is communicated, and pragmatic factors involved
in translation are investigated, for instance context, culture, humor,
and metaphor.
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