FACTA UNIVERSITATIS

Vol.1, No 5, 1998 pp. 351 - 356

DISSERTATIONS Monitoring the scientific work of the teaching staff of the University of Niš, within the departments of English and Serbian language and literature studies, the Journal FACTA UNIVERSITATIS shall, among other activities, register doctoral dissertations accomplished by the collaborators of the mentioned departments.
In the present issue, we are offering brief information on the dissertations that have been defended during the past few years, but not published so far. We intend to follow this manner in future.
Upon publishing such, as well as other kinds of monographs, we shall spread relevant information to the scientific public in forms of reviews and commentaries.

Editor

WORD ORDER ACQUISITION WITH SERBIAN SPEAKERS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Slobodanka Kitić
Faculty of Philosophy, Niš University, Yugoslavia

In this study the author investigates the phenomenon of word order acquisition with Serbian speakers learning English as a foreign language. The study comprises both theoretical and empirical research of the phenomenon.
The problem is theoretically investigated in two chapters. In chapter 2, word order acquisition is viewed in the context of the relevant linguistic phenomena: linguistic competence and performance, language learning and language acquisition, i.e. in the realm of the prevailing language learning theories - the audio-lingual habit formation and the cognitive code learning theory. With all these facts in mind, the author establishes the distinctive features between first and second language acquisition on one hand and foreign language learning on the other. In chapter 3, which deals with linguistic universals, the author focuses on the universal and typological features of word order. Having defined the phenomenon in each of the two contrasted languages - English and Serbian - she establishes the formal correspondence of word order between them. On the basis of the identified points of similarity and difference, in the defined theoretical framework, the author puts forward the word order hypothesis of predictability. Therefore, since the aim of the investigation is to establish some specific features of the Serbian-English approximative system, as opposed to some general features, the investigated phenomenon is represented in relation to the hypothesis of interlanguage and the theory of universal grammar.
In chapter 4, the author presents the results of her experimental research with 451 elementary and high school Serbian students leaming English as a foreign language. In the experiment carried out in 1992, the researcher tested the main hypothesis that most of the word order errors would be due to mother tongue interference.
In chapter 5, the author suggests that findings like these, theoretically postulated and empirically proved, with all the relevant linguistic and psycholinguistic implications, can provide some insight into the process of foreign language learning, and thus are pedagogically applicable.
Key words: acquisition, learning, word order, interference, mother tongue, second language, foreign language, interlanguage, contrastive analysis and error analysis.

HUMAN NATURE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SURVIVAL
IN THE WORKS OF W. GOLDING AND M. ATWOOD
Vesna Lopičić
Faculty of Philosophy, Niš University, Yugoslavia

Literature at its best offers deep insights into the workings of the human mind and as such stands as one of invaluable means of achieving a better knowledge of the interplay of numerous elements constituting one's own psyche. Though this important function of literature is well acknowledged by scholars in all walks of life, general public is mostly unaware of the role literature plays in the lives of those who occasionally or regularly savour a good book. People usually lay their trust in science, when it comes to acquiring practical knowledge useful for real life. In this context literature is disregarded, being considered as amusement which is still inferior to the factual knowledge of life offered by science. The main purpose of this dissertation is to prove the possibility of achieving the same insights into human nature via these conventionally opposite routes: literature and science. The thesis developed and supported in the paper holds that the phenomenon of neoteny has had a constituting effect upon the formation of human mind, which realisation was parallely reached and, naturally, given different expressions both by biologists and other scientists and creative writers. This fact has determined both the title of the thesis: Human Nature and the Possibility of Survival in the Works of W.Golding and M.Atwood (373 pages) and the structure of the paper which falls into two parts: Human Nature According to the Theory of Neotenical Origins of Man and The Possibility of Human Survival in the Works of W.Golding and M.Atwood.
After the Introduction of 40 pages in which the author juxtaposes the poetics of Golding and Atwood pointing out numerous similarities in their world views, usually unrecognised, the thesis focuses on one element common to their oeuvre - the presence of poetic insights equal in value to scientific truths, which qualifies their work for further analysis and comparisons from that standpoint.
The first part (97 pages) consists of four chapters dealing mainly with neoteny. In the first chapter, The Theory of the Neotenical Origins of Man, organised into six sub-chapters, the author gives the definition of this biological phenomenon and studies its complex effect upon man constantly referring to Huxley's novel After Many a Summer as a literary rendering of the findings of science. In the second chapter, Mutational Theory of Evolution, through four sub-chapters, the genetic source of neoteny is explored starting with Ted Hughes and his vision of human nature. The third chapter, The Theory of Cataclysmic Evolution, depicts a possible backdrop for the occurrence of the slight but crucial genetic mutation which was instrumental in inducing neoteny and consequently influencing not only the physical but the psychic aspect of man as species. Darwin, Kenneth Hsi and Immanuel Velikowsky were the main authors analysed in the eight sub-chapters of Chapter 3. The last chapter of the first part, The Theory of the Neotenical Origin of Man, is divided into seven sub-chapters in which the author studies the implications of the peculiar mechanism which produced human psyche as a side-effect. Experiments of Eugene Marais and philosophical ideas of Edgar Morin and Miguel de Unamuno were found relevant for the subject in question.
The second part of the thesis (174 pages), The Possibility of Man's Survival in the Works of W.Golding and M.Atwood, concentrates on two representative novels of these authors. Golding's Inheritors is analysed in the first chapter, Golding's Vision of Man's Origin, from the standpoint of neoteny. By means of his poetic ability Golding probes the depths of time and depicts the critical moment of the appearance of first humans, Cro-Magnons, who not only displaced but also assimilated the species preceding them on the evolutionary tree, Neanderthals. Through seven sub-chapters the author traces the consequences of this dramatic event for the modern man, claiming that human psyche was basically formed in these critical moments and that it has remained the same ever since. The second chapter, The Fate of Modern Man in the Poetics of Margaret Atwood, builds on the previous one, developing the idea that human nature has not essentially changed in the course of time. Atwood's Surfacing is used as an illustration of the ability of the poetic creative talent to ponder truths buried deep in the human psyche usually believed to be accessible only to professional psychiatrists. The realisation that the destiny of modern man is coded in his genes does not necessarily mean that man is left helpless. Quite the contrary - both Golding and Atwood imply that it is in man's power to give a desired shape to his own life by devising and fighting for an acceptable model of living.
The closing argumentation, Socio-Anthropological Constituents of Man's Survival (40 pages), reinforces the idea that the creative potential of man is decisive in realising a dignified life for man as an individual. This thesis is supported by referring to a number of renown sociologists and essays by Golding and Atwood.
The bibliography lists 233 works quoted in this Ph.D. dissertation.
Key words: human nature, neoteny, mutation, cataclysm, creativity, literature, survival.

THE TYPES OF LAUGHTER
IN SERBIEN BELLETRISTIC PROSE
Goran Maksimović
Faculty of Philosophy, Niš University, Yugoslavia

By means of analytic description and on the bases of phenomenologic aestetics of laughter, the predominant comic devices (verbal humour, situational humour and humour of characters) have been identified in Serbian belletristic prose - starting from the end of the 18. th century (Dositej Obradović, Mihailo Maksimović), until the beginning of the 20. th century (Stevan Sremac, Branislav Nušić, Radoje Domanović, Svetozar Ćorović, Petar Kočić), and also the role of these devices in establishing belletristic prose genres has been pointed out: both in novel and short story, as the most developed fictional prose genres of Serbian 19. th century literature, as well as in autobiographic and memoir prose and historic and travel-writing prose, as the most distinctive non-fictional ones. The comical is, therefore, viewed as an individual psyhological phenomenon manifested through the ethos of laughter which "determinates the inner attitude towards the comical" (Nikolai Hurtman).
The first part of the thesis examines the function of the comical as an element of the narrative structure in didactical and sentimental prose (in which Dositej Obradović, Mihailo Maksimović and Milovan Vidaković have been chosen as paradigmatic representatives); then in documentary and historical prose (Vuk Karadžić, Nićifor Ninković, Prota Mateja Nenadović); in autobiographical prose (Sava Tekelija, Kiril Cvjetković, Jakov Ignjatović, Branislav Nušić, Simo Matavulj), travel-writing prose (Ljubomir Nenadović), picaresque and biedermeier prose (Jakov Ignjatović), folklore prose (Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša, Milovan Glišić), and psyhological prose (Laza Lazarević). In all cases, the comical is presented as acting as a constituent of the narrative structure. It is in complementary relations, for example, with the didactical, but antithetic with the sentimental in didactic and sentimental prose. In historical and documentary prose, the comical element appears as a functional element while in autobiographical prose, it contributes the fictionalization and receptivity of the narrative discourse. In travel-writing prose, the comical is and equal factor of all the segments of the narative structure (both in those parts dominated by objective and subjective observation and the personal experience of the travel, where the travel-writing features in the narrow sense are the most dominent, and also in those parts dominated by the author's speculations, where the travel-writing model tends towards the essayistic pattern). In psychological prose, the comical takes role of additional psychological motivation in actions and in characterisation of the protagonists. In picaresque and biedermier prose and in folklore prose the comical becomes an aven more prominent belletristic factor (the comical types as the main protagonists, anecdotal model from prototype reality as the nucleus of the plot structure, proverbial expressions as elements of parabolic and anecdotal compositional arrangement), so that it occupies a border line position among the comic genres.
In the second part of the thesis the predominant comical genres have been identified and the tripartite typology of laughter has been established: parody, humour and satire. It has been noticed that the typology of Serbian laughter in prose genres of the 19. th century, resists precise categories and that the comical has been realised in the complex symbiosis of humour, satire and parody. For example, the ironic and the grotesque do not manifeste themselves as independent types, but together with other artistic devices theuy function as an affective laghter-creating procedure. Thus, in the third part of the thesis, titled "The Comic Procedures", we have pointed at a great number of the most important devices of verbal humour, situational humour and humour of characters, as well as at their belletristic functionality and laughter-creating dimension. In parody, humour and satire, the comical contributes to the forming of the narrative structure on two levels, first, through the three-part compositional scheme (ABA), analogous to the model of ironic comedy, and second, through the procedure of comical augmentation and exaggeration, based on caricatural, hyperbolical and grotesque techniques.
Key words: comical, laughter, humour, satire, parody, irony, caricature, hyperbola, grotesque.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE –ING PARTICIPLE IN ENGLISH AND ITS SERBIAN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENTS
Nada Kvačanović
Faculty of Philosophy, Niš University, Yugoslavia

This dissertation deals with the functions of the –ing participle in English and its Serbain translation equivalents. It consists of four chapters. Chapter I is an introduction , formulating aims and rationales. Chapter II is an extensive review of the relevant literature addressing the problem of the participle/ gerund distinction. Chapter III discusses the syntactic and semantic properties of the following participial constructions: the attributive (pre)modifier and postmodifier (qualifier) participle, the predicative participle after stative and dynamic copulas, the semi-predicative object complement participle and the looser free adjuncts and absolutes. Chapter IV is a discussion of results and implications.
The participle has been defined as an –ing form in an intensive relationship with the noun, which the verbal adjective specifies (attributive participle) or qualifies (predicative participle).A subdivision of -ing participles can be made on the basis of their grammatical behaviour and their meaning. Participial adjectives derived from internal perception verbs behave as central adjectives: they can be used both attributively and predicatively, they are gradable and can be geminated. Peripheral participial adjectives are derived from physical process predicates, i.e. predicates with external, objective denotation.
Copulative and complex - transitive verbs can be followed by central or peripheral adjectives. Stative copulas and mental perception verbs call for attributes denoting permanent properties associated with the predication subject/object. Existential copulas and direct sensory perception verbs require attributes which are descriptive of more transient features, features characterizing a particular time as well as a particular entity.
The verbal adjective thus 'polarizes' perception, which can be seen as referring to an internal or an external process, a subjective or an objective experience on the part of the non-agentive, passive-recipient experiencer.
Depending on its meaning, position and function the verbal adjective can , thus, be more of an adjective or more of a verb. Adjectives differ from verbs in that they tend to refer to features that are 'timeless' or which are viewed without any reference to time. Verbs are, on the other hand, inherently linked with time. A higher degree of 'adjectivehood' entails typically adjectival features: generality, potentiality, non-agentivity, intransitivity as opposed to the pre-eminently verbal features of specificity, agentivity and transitivity.