Appunti lezioni English Linguistic and translation II

Collegamenti

Morphology

• 1. Enclitics
• 2. Affixes
• 3. Derivational affixes
• 4. Inflexional affixes
• 5. Productivity
• 6. Blocking
• 7. Derivation
• 8. Difference between root, bases, stem
• 9. Difference between morph and morphemes
• 10. Agglutinative rule
• 11. Fusional rule
• 12. Zero rule
• 13. Null realization rule
• 14. Pronouns
• 15. Allomorphs
• 16. Composition morphological
• 17. Opaque and transparent
• 18. Endocentric and exocentric
• 19. Other criteria/processes to form new words
• 20. Clipping
• 21. Acronyms
• 22. Initialism
• 23. Blends
• 24. Lexicalization
• 25. Grammaticalization
• 26. Other processes
• 27. Reduplication
• 28. Conversion/functional shift
• 29. Back formation
• 30. Multiword expression
• 31. Binomials
• 32. Phrasal verbs
• 33. Idioms

Syntax

• 1. Lexical (full) words
• 2. Borrowings
• 3. Calques
• 4. Function (empty) words
• 5. Overt categories
• 6. Covert categories
• 7. Grammatical categories
• 8. Verbal categories
• 9. Number, gender, person, person, degree, case: dative case, genitive case, different kind of genitives, definiteness
• 10. Tense (verbal categories), use of the present in English, use of the past in English, use of the future in English
• Mood: subjunctive, imperative
• Epistemic modality
• Deontic modality
• Modals with epistemic/deontic modality
• Voice
• Aspect
• 11. Stative verbs, continuative verbs, iterative verbs, inchoative verbs, resultative verbs, transformative verbs
• 12. Adverbial modification
• 13. Phrasal aspect
• 14. Interaction between tense and meaning
• 15. Arguments
• 16. Argument structure: one argument, two argument, three argument
• 17. True arguments
• 18. Default arguments
• 19. Shadows arguments
• 20. Thematic roles
• 21. Agent, patient, force, experiencer, theme, factitive, benefactive, instrument, source, goal, location, range, role
• 22. Causative constructions
• 23. Perceptive constructions
• 24. Eventive nouns
• 25. Part of speech theory
• 26. Complex syntactic construction with eventive nouns
• 27. Predicative constructions
• 28. Light verb constructions
• 29. Light verb extensions (light verb jungle)
• 30. Complex predicates
• 31. Light nouns
• 32. Features of light verb constructions: clefting, nominalization, auxiliation, passivization, deletion of the

Semantics

• 1. Lexical semantic
• 2. Semantic analysis
• 3. Paradigmatic (vertical) axe
• 4. Syntagmatic (horizontal axis)
• 5. Polysemy
• 6. Homonymy
• 7. Synonymy
• 8. Denotation and connotation
• 9. Hyponymy
• 10. Meronymy
• 11. Oppositeness, complementarity, avowal, antonymy, dismissive, converseness
• 12. Paraphrase
• 13. Entailment
• 14. Contradiction
• 15. Anomaly
• 16. Oxymoron
• 17. Tautology
• 18. Synesthesia
• 19. Synecdoche
• 20. Metonymy
• 21. Personification
• 22. Metaphor
• 23. Sentence semantic
• 24. Text interlooking
• 25. Text cohesion
• 26. Reference
• 27. Endophoric references
• 28. Exophoric references
• 29. Personal references
• 30. Demonstrative references
• 31. Comparative references
• 32. Substitution
• 33. Nominal substitution
• 34. Verbal substitution
• 35. Causal substitution
• 36. Ellipsis
• 37. Nominal ellipsis
• 38. Verbal ellipsis
• 39. Causal ellipsis
• 40. Rejoinders
• 41. Conjunctions
• 42. Conjunctive adjuncts
• 43. Additive adjuncts
• 44. Adversative conjunctions
• 45. Causal conjunctions
• 46. Temporal conjunctions
• 47. Continuative conjunctions
• 48. Lexical cohesion – collocations
• 49. Text types
• 50. Frame semantic (frame)
• 51. Speech act theory
• 52. Locutionary acts
• 53. Perlocutionary acts
• 54. Illocutionary acts, directive speech acts, commissive speech acts, representative speech acts, verdictive speech acts, expressive speech acts, declarative speech acts
• 55. Explicit / implicit / direct / indirect speech acts
• 56. Grice’s maxims of conversations
• 57. The cooperative principle
• 58. Conversational implicatures
• 59. Synchronic – diachronic language variation (diaphasic, diastratic, diamesic, diatopic)
• 60. Differences in spelling
• 61. Differences in pronunciation
• 62. Differences in stress
• 63. Differences in vocabulary, equivalent terms, overlapping terms, inclusive terms
• 64. Differences in syntax
• 65. Differences in agreement
• 66. Differences in verbal morphology
• 67. Differences in auxiliaries
• 68. Differences in modals
• 69. Differences in tense and aspect
• 70. The mandative subjunctive
• 71. Differences with adverbs

Linguistic levels of analysis

Linguistic is conventionally divided into 5 levels of analysis:

• Morphology is the study of the internal structure of word and word formation (how English can enrich his vocabulary by applying different phenomena of word formation).
• Syntax deals with the way words combine to form larger units (phrases, clauses, sentences).
• Semantics is the study of meaning words convey and the relations of meaning holding among them.
• Phonology study sounds of words, how words are pronounced and how they can be transcribed using phonemes.
• Pragmatics is the study of language in context, the meaning that can change according to the context.

These levels interact: linguistic interface.

Morphology

Two main processes of word formation: derivation and composition.

In both cases you start from a word that already exist in the language and you combined it with other elements.

Complex words are the one that are decomposable into elements (called morphs).

Two different types of morphs:

• 1. Free = can occur alone.
• 2. Bound = must be attached to another morph.

A free morph is always a root:

• Root = the smallest element that you find in a word when you decompose it and the most meaningful.
• Carries the main lexical or grammatical meaning (it depends on the nature of the root).
• Occupies the position with the greatest potential for substitution (if you keep the same pattern, you can replace the root with other words).
• May be attached to other free or bound morphs.

Root + Bound morph = derivated word.

Root + Free morph (another root) = compound.

Roots can be:

• Content (or full words) = convey lexical meaning (verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs).
• Function (or empty words) = convey grammatical meaning (empty elements: prepositions, articles, auxiliaries, modal verbs, conjunctions).

Sometimes roots can be represented by bound roots, words that does not exist in the English dictionary because they are foreign borrowings from Latin that used to be real words in the source language but they are not in English.

EXAMPLE Vert < Latin verb “vertere”, to turn.

• Convertible.
• Mit < Mittere.
• Admission.
• Cept.
• Exception.

Considered to be root in English even if they do not represent real words in English.

Semi-words = exist in English but you find them in the formation of words and not as single verbs as they used to be in Latin.

Bound morphs

They can’t stand alone:

• 1. Bound roots.
• 2. Enclitics.
• 3. Affixes.

Enclitics

Is a contraction deriving form an independent word (auxiliary, modal verb or negative particle) which must be attached to the word that precedes (ex. I'll, I'd, isn’t).

Results from the contraction between two elements.

Affixes

Most commonly found in languages.

• Carry either lexical (derivational affixes) or grammatical meaning (inflexional affixes) but never the core meaning.

Writers: –er (derivational) -s (inflexional).

• Are always attached to a root.
• Are divided into prefixes, suffixes (derivational), infixes (Turkish, Arabic).

They can be more than one.

Nationalists (1 root, 2 derivational suffixes).

The more complex a word is from a morphological level the more numerous the number of affixes is.

Derivational affixes

• Can be prefixes or suffixes.
• Can be more than one for each word.
• Can attach only to some types of roots (you need to combine them only considering the word type of your root).

2 Types:

• 1. Class-changing = turn a part of speech into another.
• -ly = adjectives > adverbs.
• -ness = adjectives > nouns.
• -ful = nouns > adjectives.
• -er = verbs > nouns.

The word class of the root changes according to the type of suffix or affix you are attaching (interface between morphology and syntax).

• 2. Class-maintaining = there is no change at a syntactic level (-hood, -dom, -ish*).

No interface.

*-ish can be both, it depends on the root.

(fever > feverish Root = nouns = class changing)

(green > greenish Root = adjective = class maintaining)

Not all derivational suffixes are used in the same way and with the same frequency to create new words in English, it’s common to have recent creation with some particular affixes because they are connected to productivity.

Inflexional affixes

• In English they are always suffixes, you always put them after your root (only one for each word).
• Always occur last.
• Carry grammatical meaning.

Number - attached to nouns.

Degree - attached to adjectives.

Tense - attached to verbs.

• Always attachable to all members of a certain word class (it depends on the word class of the derivated word).

Tabella su slides.

Productivity

In linguistic a rule is said to be productive when it can be used synchronically (taken into account a specific phase in the history of the language) in the creation of the new form.

If you can use frequently a rule to create new words in contemporary English, that rule is said to be productive.

(-er -blogger, spoiler-dom used to be productive in old English)

Even if a rule is productive it may happen that that rule is not applied (blocking).

Blocking

In linguistic we call blocking the non-occurrence of a form because of the existence of another form (opposite of productivity).

When a form which is theoretically perfectly acceptable is not created because of the existence of another form -> there’s no reason to create a word that conveys the exact meaning of a word which is used synchronically.

EXAMPLES

Stealer, wideness, longness.

Derivation

Derivation takes places through the addition of derivational affixes and can imply:

• 1. A shift in word class (v>n, n>a).
• 2. Phonological and/or stress change (change in accent).
• 3. Orthographic change.

EXAMPLES

• Reduce > reduction (different in the phonological structure).
• Produce > production (different in the phonological structure).
• Photograph [stress on the 1 syllable] > photography [stress on the 2] syllable (different in the stress).
• Electric stress on the 2 syllable] > electricity [stress on the 3 syllable] [(different in the stress).
• Include > inclusive (different in the orthography).
• Drama > dramatize (different in the orthography).

Orthographic changes that are systematic are used when you attach specific suffixes (change in the word class).

• Mercy > merciful.
• Pity > pitiful.
• Deny > denial.
• Happy > happiness.

Roots vs bases vs stems

• Base = root + derivation affix(es) -> at least two derivational affixes: one inside the base and one outside.

To which other derivational affixes are added.

• Stem = root + derivational affix (you can have only one).

To which only an inflectional affix is added.

These two are morphological units that are superior to a root (formed by a root + something else).

To have a base and a stem you need a very complex word in which there are at least two derivational affixes.

EXAMPLES

• Nationalists.

Nation = root.

National = base (nation – al).

Nationalist = stem.

• Reduplications.

Duplication = base.

Reduplication (leaving out the inflexional) = stem.

• Helped.

No base.

No stem.

• Actors.

Act = root.

-or = derivational suffix, class changing conveying lexical meaning.

-s = inflexional suffix, class maintaining.

Actor = stem.

No base.

Morphs vs morphemes

Morphs are segments of a word, real elements that form the structure of the word. When you create a word, you create also a new meaning, that didn’t exist before.

Morphs = concrete segments and are used to realize units of meaning.

Morphemes = abstract units of meaning.

Morphs realize morphemes (morphemes are the semantic counterpart of morphs).

In the same word it can be done another type of analysis that connects morphs to the meaning they represent (2 types of analysis: morphological analysis and morphemic analysis).

• Morphological analysis = words are analysed into morphs following formal division (you only examine the structure of the word, what are the elements that compose the word).
• Morphemic analysis = words are analysed into morphemes, recognizing the abstract units of meaning they carry (you identify meaning these morphs represent).

There isn’t always a one-to-one correspondence between the number of morphs and in a word-form and the number of morphemes it realizes.

Since English is an isolating language (unlike Italian and other romance languages that are called flexive), we can have two or more morphemes represented by a single-morph word.

EXAMPLE: Love (it can be a noun or a verb)

The morph is one but the function is more than one.

Property very common in the English language that is called conversion = phenomenon thanks to which the same lexeme without any morphological change can perform more than one syntactic function.

In morphemic analysis you have to account for all the semantic function of the word, even if in morphological analysis the word can’t be divided into morphs.

In order to establish a correspondence or a lack of correspondence between the number of morphs and the number of morphemes in morphology you can apply 4 different rules called morphological realization rules.

• Agglutinative rule.
• Fusional rule.
• Null realization rule.
• Zero rule.

They help you establish the number of morphs and the number of morphemes one lexeme represent.

Agglutinative rule

Two morphemes are realized by morphs which remain distinct and are simply glued together. The number of morphs and the number of morphemes is exactly the same.

(each morph carries one piece of information)

EXAMPLES

• Writers -> 3 morphs, 3 morphemes.

Fusional rule

Two morphemes are realized by morphs which do not remain distinct but are fused together (inside the single-morph word).

Feet = 1 morph (can’t be divided).

Stands for FOOT + PLURAL (2 morphemes fused together).

Null realization rule

A morpheme is never realized as a morph in any word of a certain word class (nouns - singular, adjective – positive) you have to represent the number for nouns and the degree for adjectives.

You have an open mark for plural (-s, -es, -ves) and you have another open mark for comparative, superlative (-er, -est).

EXAMPLES

• Friend (single morph word).

Friend + singular (morphemic analysis).

• Nice (single morph word).
• Nice + positive (morphemic analysis).

You have to consider them by default to describe noun and adjective (even if their realization is not visible).

Zero rule

A morpheme is realized as a zero morph in some members of a word class (verbs).

Not as a systematic rule (you can have some exceptions, we have to account for the tense).

EXAMPLES

• Helped.

Help = root.

-ed = inflectional suffix class-maintaining.

2 morphs - 2 morphemes.

• Put (1 morph – the root).

Put (can mean present, past and past participle).

Pronouns

In order to identify the meaning of pronouns you have to identify all the grammatical categories represented by that pronouns.

I = identifiable in terms of morphemes as: [1] + [sg] + [subj] st.

In pronouns you never represent the morpheme connected to meaning because pronouns are referential (if I am talking it is me) and can change its meaning according to the person who is speaking and the people you are referring to.

The only element that define a pronoun are the grammatical categories carried by that pronouns (person, case, number and in some case, gender).

Her [3] + [sg] + [fem] + [obj] (case) as a pronoun rd.

If it’s not subjective it is objective.

Her [3] + [sg] + [fem] + [poss] (possessive) rd.

2 morphemic analysis.

Allomorphs

= specific morphs that realize the same morpheme but that have in specific context a different realization.

(the meaning they carry is the same but they look differently according to the context in which they are used)

An allomorph is an either phonetically or grammatically conditioned member of a set of morphs representing a particular morpheme.

They are semantically similar and in complementary distribution (if in one context you use a specific allomorph you can’t replace it with another one even if the meaning is the same, their use is conditional by grammatical, phonological and etymological reasons).

1. The morpheme [neg]

Un- -> /il-/, /in-/, /ir-/, /im-/ (the meaning is exactly the same).

• Illegal.
• Irrelevant.
• Illogical.
• Irrational.
• Inaccessible.
• Immoral.
• Inedible.
• Immobile.

2. The morpheme [pl]

-s -> /-es/ , /–a /, /–en /, /–ves/.

• Churches.
• Children.
• Foxes.
• Women.
• Bushes.
• Men.
• Data.
• Halves.
• Criteria.
• Thieves.
• Phenomena.
• Lives.

-s -> /-ies/, /-ices/, / Ø /, /v.a/ (vowel alternation).

• Cities.
• Sheep.
• Galaxies.
• Deer.
• Appendices.
• Mice.
• Indices.
• Geese.

Composition

In both cases (derivation and composition) you start from a root, from a word that already exists in the language, and you combine it with other elements.

Root + free root = compound word.

• Composition is a morphological process that produces compounds.
• Compounds share special syntactic and semantic features.

EXAMPLES

• Ice-cream.
• Armchair.
• Boyfriend.

Composition.