Appunti Inglese - morfosintassi

CORPUS LINGUISTICS

A corpus is a collection of written or spoken texts. It is computer-based/digital. I put the texts into a software to analyze them. I want to know how people use English in different situations. For example, I take all the tweets from Coldplay and see how many times they have written the word 'band'. I put them in a corpus and search. For example, I search for the word 'approach' and see how it is used in English. I see that it is often followed by the verb 'to be'.

Corpus linguistics is evidence-based (software). It is useful because you have information about frequency and distribution, so how often that word is used and where.

Greta Pontieri

Collocation

Collocations are combinations of words. I search the corpus for a word whose collocation I don't know and see that the word is always accompanied by another:

• terribly sorry
• well aware
• virtually important
• fast asleep
• wide awake
• were brutally murdered

Verb + noun = take a vacation

Adj + noun = light rain

Adverb + verb = completely forget

Adverb + adjective = incredibly beautiful

Collocations differ from compounds in that the combinations do not result in new lexemes.

With a compound you form a new lexeme lip + stick= lipstick. you don’t create a new

Whereas, with a collocation if you combine two words dead + drunk(ex. Weak tea, extremely beautiful…)lexeme.

Multi-word verbs/ phrasal verbs are examples of collocations.

A feature of multi-word verbs is that they can often be replaced by a single-word lexical item:Put off= postpone; run up= accumulate…

They have idiomatic meaning.

Instead, another type of collocation are Prepositional verbs, that cannot be replaced by a single-word lexical item. listen to….Reach for; agree on; keen on; always followed by that preposition.

They do not have an idiomatic meaning.

COLLIGATION. Difference between collocation and colligation is in the examWe talk about

The grammatical patterns of that word. Ex. The verb WANT requires the infinitive with TO; LEARN ABOUT...feelings is a collocation. But I notice a grammatical pattern, that before 'true feelings there... Ex. True -> is always a pronoun (my/her/his true feelings) colligation. -> I SUGGEST THAT colligation (in English suggest is often followed by that) 'you are red in the face' it doesn't mean it means the same in Italian: If I say in English Red in the face: embarrassed Blue in the face: angry non c'è in inglese Yellow in the face Greta Pontieri ESERCIZIO: ... 1. The coach thought it was unlikely that the team would lose. - Terribly - dreadfully - exceptionally - highly -> collocation: HIGHLY UNLIKELY 'faintly amused', it means that they found something hilarious. 2. If someone is - True - False -> FAINTLY AMUSED = vagamente divertito... 3. The new kettle I bought is useless! It broke as soon as I made a cup of tea! - very - highly - utterly

TERRIBLY SORRY Greta Pontieri–EXERCISES COLLOCATION vs COLLIGATIONWord that are easily confused

I can’t help thinking about my next^1. travel trip

I guess this is a problem that doesn’t have to^2. deal do only with Trento

She ensured assured me that I have all the documents I need^4.

A city next to near/ close to Trento. Next to+ person

Sorry if I didn’t write you dopo devo dire qualcos’altro^5. earlier sooner. Se metto before

I feel a little pressured under pressure this semester^6.

There are some nice places and promenades paths where people can have a walk

I’ve^8. known met many pleasant colleagues

I have to notice admit that unfortunately many courses are a copy of what I have alreadydone^10.

Passing by ancient old buildingshope is that this course will provide me…^11.

My major biggest^12.

I will wait for you to come look forward to seeING you and visit me

All the university’s buildings, the^13. canteen food hall and the libraries^14.

This is

complex phrases:

• Cats like cream
• All cats are known to like fresh cream

All cats/ NOUN PHRASE (inside I have a determiner: all; and a noun: cats; but the head is 'cats' so it is a noun phrase)

Are known to like/ VERB PHRASE

Fresh cream NOUN PHRASE (you can have a simple NP or a very complex one)

Se dobbiamo dividerne i due grandi elementi, per prima cosa guardiamo il verbo se richiede o no un oggetto (buy è transitivo e richiede un oggetto dopo di lui). In questa frase non posso dividere "I / bought / a new computer game" perché "I bought" da solo non può stare. Quindi i due grandi elementi sono:

/I bought a new computer game NounP / VerbP

I: The NounP is simple, there is only one element, pronoun.

The VerbP is complex, the biggest element is the verb "bought", plus the NounP within the VerbP: a new computer game.

Greta Pontieri

The NP has different elements in it, I need to find the head of this NP: computer game. In generale poi vedo da cosa sono.

The disgustingly fat dog chased the amazingly thin girl.

The disgustingly fat dog : NP

chased the amazingly thin girl : VP(chased è transitivo quindi richiede un oggetto, da solo non ha senso e quindi non posso dividerlo)

NP: The disgustingly fat dog the head is dog.

Within this NP I have an AdjP: disgustingly fat (composed by an Adv and an Adj)

determiner: the

VP: chased the amazingly thin girl the head is chased

Within this VP I have a NounP: the amazingly thin girl

Within this I have an AdjP: amazingly thin (Composed by an Adv and a Adj)

Determiner: the

[The VP chased the amazingly thin girl is composed by a V and a NP the amazingly thin girl

The NP is composed by a N, determiner and a AdjP amazingly thin

The AdjP is composed by an Adj and an Adv.]

Quando dici che c'è una NP poi togli la P e dici che N e l'altro elemento...è composto da

Quando cito la NP è li che metto il Determiner

At the exam I have a sentence like this and she asks me to identify the AdjP the answer is:

Disgustingly fat

Amazingly thin

And NOT the amazingly thin girl. Determiners are NOT included

Amazingly thin: is called a Modifier because they modify the nouns or the verbs.

They can come before the noun or after: premodifier and postmodifier.

Ex. These (DET) large sugary doughnuts (HEAD) filled with jam and cream.

2 modifiers:

Large sugary: premodifier

filled with jam and cream: postmodifier

Not always if it is before the noun, it is a modifier:

- A rather nice invitation : AdjP

For a new building: PrepP because it is introduced by a prep.

Relative clauses (which the committee...) are considered as one single element as a postmodifier.

You DON'T need to analise the phrases within this relative, just consider it as one postmodifier element.

So nouns or head nouns can be postmodified also by phrases. Greta Pontieri

MAY function, not always

Verb Phrases can be interrupted by adverbs!! :-They have

certainly been told

They (NP)/ have certainly been told off (VP)

You have an adverb inside the VP certainly: AdvP-They have been severely told off

Modifiers of verb phrases are typically:

• adverb phrases
• Prepositional phrases
• Noun phrases

In the exam you don't have to know the type of adverb on the left

AdjP and AdvP are usually premodified by intensifiers.

• The hungry cat was feeling very aggressive
• My new shoes pinched me rather uncomfortably

Occasionally they can be postmodified by adverbs such as enough or indeed.

Prepositional P: a preposition cannot stand alone as the head word of the phrase.

Jackie (NP) was searching (VP) in the cupboard (PP)

Within the PP there is the NP (the cupboard) Greta Pontieriother element (NP,...)

In every PP you have the head that is the preposition, and then you have

Everytime a phrase starts with a preposition, it is a PP.

Within the PP can be:

• Preposition + noun phrase (in the cupboard)
• Preposition + adverb (above here)
• Preposition + clause (thank you)

For coming

EXERCISE

Write the tree of this Noun phrase:

• A white dress with a dropped waistline
• The east gate of the park

CLAUSES AND SENTENCES

A clause is a unit of syntactic structure larger than a phrase and normally containing a subject element, a verb element (typically finite), and any verb complementation. (If the verb is transitive I have the verb complementation).