Lingua Inglese e Laboratorio, Riassunto Esame di Inglese

English language

Word classes

If we base on a definition such as an adjective being a “describing word”, this is very loose: an adjective may well be descriptive in one sense, while an adverb may be equally descriptive in another. You could even argue that nouns and verbs ‘describe’ too.

Major word classes

Noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb, determiner, conjunction.

The following words have all been classified as nouns: dog, elbow, mud, hat, happiness, joy, football, child.

→ Nouns are typically “naming words” living beings (= esseri viventi) or concrete things we can see or touch.

The following words have all been classified as pronouns: I, you, it, them, ours, mine, herself, who, whom.

These words have all been classified as determiners: a, an, the, any, all, each, my, her, his. They help identify the noun in front of which they appear.

The following words have all been classified as adjectives: unclear, good, wide, older, logical, remarkable, grateful, youngest, persuasive, fabulous, darker, newest. Adjectives can supply an attribute to a noun.

The following words all have been classified as verbs: haul, lifts, must, played, singing, would, feels, illustrate, dignify, be, am, were, lacking, had. Verbs are traditionally thought of as “doing words”.

The following words all have been classified as prepositions: at, of, on, since, then, besides, within, past, alongside.

The following words all have been classified as adverbs: very, rarely, quickly, unfortunately, suddenly, gradually, quiet, sideways, never, soon, outside. Can you see a connection between them?

At the end, we find some words that were classified as conjunctions: but, or, and, yet, whereas, while, so, if, although.

Fuzzy grammar

It’s not always easy when you look at a word by itself to say what kind of word it is. One word can have multiple meanings. It can also belong to different word classes, depending on how it is used in a sentence.

For example, laugh (= ridere) can be a verb (1) or a noun (2):

1. He does make me laugh though;
2. Ice skating was a laugh except I have forgotten everything.

Form and function

The difference between grammatical form and grammatical function is important in grammar:

• Grammatical form: is to do with the building blocks of a sentence or clause, and what labels we give them. The word class labels (noun, adjective, adverb, preposition, verb), phrase labels (noun phrase, adjective phrase, preposition phrase) and clause labels (main clause, subordinate cause) are all to do with form;
• Grammatical function: refers to the grammatical role that the various building blocks in a sentence perform. The function labels are subject, object, adverbial and modifier (note that we can use capital letters for function terms).

Our teacher wrote a poem on Monday

He bought a dog last week

The train will arrive when the sun has set

Nouns

Nouns are typically words for people, places, animals and objects; and many words for abstract things such as feelings, emotions and qualities. They can:

• Show number in the singular form, where there is just one, or plural form, where there are more than one: tiger/tigers, bus/buses, child/children;
• Be in the possessive form: teacher’s book;
• Follow a determiner: the lesson, a teacher, your book, some chocolate;
• →Be modified by adjectives: the brilliant lesson, or after verbs the lesson was brilliant;
• Be modified by relative clauses: the teacher who sings loudly;
• Be followed by a prepositional phrase: the book on the shelf;
• Be replaced by a pronoun: so, my sister can become she.

Noun phrases

Noun phrases are formed by two or more words of which the most prominent one is a noun:

• This noun can take Modifiers;
• These can be individual words (e.g. determiners, adjectives, or other nouns), entire phrases (e.g. preposition phrases or adjective phrases) or entire clauses (e.g. relative clauses).

Noun phrases can be “built up” in ways like this:

• The girl (determiner + noun);
• The quiet girl (determiner + adjective + noun);
• The quiet school girl (determiner + adjective + noun + noun);
• The quiet school girl in the classroom (determiner + adjective + noun + noun + preposition phrase);
• The quiet school girl in the classroom who loves to read (determiner + adjective + noun + noun + preposition phrase + relative clause).

Expanded noun phrase

Any noun phrase that has elements in it other than a determiner and a noun is called an expanded noun phrase, as in the last four examples above.

Count and noncount nouns

A count noun refers to people or things that can be counted. You can put a number before this kind of noun. If the noun refers to one person or thing, it needs to be in the singular form. If it refers to more than one person or thing, it needs to be in the plural form: one desk, one book, three desks, fifty books.

A noncount noun refers to general things such as qualities, substances or topics. They cannot be counted and have only a singular form: food, air, money, intelligence.

Noncount nouns can become count nouns when they are used to indicate types: “the wines of California”, “the fruits of the Northwest”.

Noncount nouns only have a singular form; while most count nouns have a singular and a plural form: the plural form for most nouns has an – s or – es ending. However, there are other singular and plural patterns.

When a noun is used as an adjective, it takes a singular form. Collective nouns refer to an entire group: when a collective noun indicates a period, a sum of money or a measurement, it takes a singular verb. Some nouns end in – s but are singular and take singular verbs: academic subjects mathematics, politics, physics, economics, civics, statistics; diseases measles, mumps, herpes.

Nouns are used as subjects, complements and objects.

Quantifier

A quantifier is a word that indicates an amount or quantity. Some quantifiers are used with both plural count nouns and noncount nouns: all, any, enough, a lot of, plenty of, more, most, some, lots of.

Some quantifiers are used only with noncount nouns: a little, much.

Some quantifiers are used only with count nouns: both, many, a few, several.

Some quantifiers are used only with singular count nouns: another, each, every.

Adjectives

Adjectives modify nouns. They can:

• Appear before nouns (“the blue car”) or after verbs like be, seem and appear (“the car is blue”, “Nadia seems happy”);
• Be used in the comparative form to compare two things (“Your cake is bigger than mine”, “That car is more expensive than mine”);
• Be used in the superlative form to show the most extreme example of something (“This is the biggest cake you’ve ever seen”, “That is the most expensive bicycle I’ve ever owned”);
• Be modified by adverbs (“very hot”, “extremely hot”, “really quiet”).

Adjective phrases

Adjective phrases are formed by two or more words of which the most important one is an adjective.

For example: “This café is very noisy”. “At the end of the day we were all quite tired”.

“Nested” adjectives

Adjective phrases can be “nested” inside other phrases. For example, we can insert the adjective phrase very noisy inside the noun phrase the dog to create the very noisy dog.

Idioms

Why use idioms?

• Idioms exist in all languages;
• Important part of vocabulary;
• Both formal and informal;
• More common in informal speech;
• Idioms are not slang.

We use idioms for:

• To be amusing or witty: funny or to seem funny;
• To play with words;
• To be different;
• To put other people at ease, even in the most formal situations;
• To express something which other words do not quite express;
• To communicate more clearly, more visually.

Understanding idioms

• →Many idioms are easy to understand: for example “There’s no smoke without fire”, if you understand “smoke”, “without”, and “fire”, there’s a good chance you’ll understand the figurative meaning of the idiom;
• →But some idioms are more difficult to understand for example: “like looking for a needle in a haystack”.

Many English idioms can be translated into other languages word for word, many others can be understood because they are translatable, but not the actual words for example the meaning, while others are impossible to translate these are often idioms which express cultural concepts.

Grammar and idioms

The most common grammatical patterns in idioms are the following:

• →Verb + noun: example face the music;
• →Adjective + noun: example red tape;
• →Prepositional idioms: example at loggerheads;
• →Combinations of the above: example bang your head against a brick wall.

Some idioms have grammatical restrictions, others have usage restrictions, which means that they are most used in a grammatical form. The three most common problem areas for learners are: negative or positive, singular or plural and active or passive.

Negative and positive

Most idioms can be used in both a positive and a negative way, some are restricted to one or the other, and others are more commonly used in one of the two ways. The idiom make headway is more commonly used in a positive way.

Singular and plural

The following idioms do not allow any singular or plural change: smell a rat, with flying colours, at your fingertips, from the horse’s mouth, the icing on the cake, stick to your guns.

Warning!

Phrases become idioms when they are not used with their original literal meaning. Native speakers often play (= use) double meaning, literal and figurative, for amusement sometimes, in a conversation, we change idioms. Consider a few areas these idioms derive from.

Examples

“Eurotunnel, understandably, is much happier than the ferry companies, given projections which suggest it will leave them high and dry”: if someone leaves you high and dry, they leave you in a difficult situation and you are unable to do anything about it. This idiom originally applied to ships, which were literally left high and dry when the tide (= marea) went out.

Origins

Here is a list of common origins for the idioms:

• The Sea and Navy;
• The Army;
• Domestic life;
• Farming and Animals;
• Sports and Games and Parts of the Body.

Pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns or noun phrases → “We like Nadia”. We like her; “I like my new smartphone”. I like it.

Personal pronouns usually refer to people or other living beings. They can:

• Be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, singular or plural (I/we, you, she/he/it, they);
• Take special forms (me, her, him, us, them) after prepositions or when they function as Object;
• Be possessive (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs);
• Be reflexive (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves).

Demonstrative pronouns

They are used for “pointing to” objects or events: this, that, these and those “I love these, but not those”.

Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns include: any, anyone, everyone, everybody, some, someone, no one. For example: “Everyone loves someone”.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses: for example “The new phone that I bought”, “My neighbour who helped me; the glasses which dropped”.

Correct form of pronouns

“When you see the African lions in the park, you see

them in their true environment”. Both pronouns “you” are in the subject position. The pronoun “them” is the object pronoun and refers to the lions. The pronoun “their” is in the possessive form because the environment discussed in the sentence is that of the lions.

Pronoun used to refer to parts of the body

Possessive pronouns are usually used with reference to parts of the body: “She put the shawl over her shoulders”.