Appunti lezioni English Linguistic and translation II

Passive and Middle Voice in English

The wall was painted (by John)? The movie was seen (by me) not so acceptable. My leg was pulled (by him) impossible – it is an idiom and it can’t have a passive form.

Atypical Phrases

The form is active but the meaning is passive = the syntactic subject undergoes the action

• This shirt washes easily (by me) - no periphrasis
• I had my hair cut (by the hairdresser)
• I had my homework done (by Mary)
• The cake is ready to eat (by everyone)

These constructions present an idiosyncrasy between their syntactic realization and the semantics they convey

Active form + passive meaning = middle voice

V.C. 4) ASPECT

The event can be presented in different ways by attaching to it different aspectual shades

It identifies how the event described by a predicate is considered or perceived:

1. TENSE ASPECT = the speaker’s intentions (decide to present the event finished or unfinished by choosing different tenses and by expressing different aspect)
2. LEXICAL OR SEMANTIC ASPECT = in the

meaning of the verb (according to semantics, adverbs can perform, express different aspectual shades)

3. PHRASAL ASPECT = in the syntactic context in which the verb appears (according to context different verbs can have different aspectual shades)

Tense Aspect

It means that the English speaker has a number of tense expressions which are used to mark an event as:

• complete or whole -> perfective aspect (perfective tenses)
• 0 form (for the present)
• One form for the past (present perfect)
• I have run for one hour
• One form for the future (future perfect)
• When you arrive, I will have run for one hour already
• incomplete or ongoing -> imperfective aspect (progressive tenses)
• One form for the present (present continuous)
• I am eating a sandwich
• Two forms for the past (past continuous/present perfect continuous)
• I was running
• I have been running for one hour
• One form for the future (future

(continuous)This time tomorrow I will be flying over Spain

DIFFERENCES AND MEANING

Present continuous: the event is taking place and going on right at the time of speaking

Past continuous: the event is taking place and going on at some moment in the past (when something else occurs)

Opposition between something ongoing and something finished

Punctual action (= something immediate which interrupt something that was going on in the past) represented by the past simple

Present perfect: the event started in the past and has just ended when I'm speaking

Present perfect continuous: the event started in the past and it's still taking place now

In both (present perfect / present perfect continuous) there is an opposition between a perfective aspect and an imperfective one

Future perfect: the event takes place in the past but it is considered as having a result in the future

Opposition between a punctual event and an event that is seen as finished in the future

Future continuous:

The event is seen as ongoing at some moment in the future.

Semantic (or lexical) aspect

First studied by Vendler in 1967, also called "aktionsart".

According to him, all verbs in a language could express 4 different types of aktionsart:

1. States
2. Activities
3. Accomplishment
4. Achievements

Bertinetto's taxonomy (1995) is based on Vendler's work but it includes two more classes:

1. States -> statives
2. Activities -> continuatives
3. Accomplishments -> resultatives
4. Achievements -> transformatives

According to its implicit semantics, any verb conveys a specific type of aktionsart, connected with the meaning of a predicate:

1. Statives
2. Continuatives
3. Iteratives
4. Inchhoatives
5. Resultatives
6. Transformatives

Statives

Denote unchanging situations, a state, a state of mind, a feeling or a cognition.

Usually in English they don't take the progressive form.

EXAMPLE:

• to be
• to own
• to understand
• to realize
• to like
• to love

Or verbs connected to

senses: to see, to smell, to hear

Continuatives

Denote dynamic situations going on in time and involving an activity or the iteration of an activity (The action is fluid, it continues). Very often take the progressive form because the activity goes on in time.

EXAMPLES

to study, to eat, to drink, to run, to swim

Iteratives

Iteratives are similar to continuatives but they denote a repetition of the same event with some interruption in between or you may get iteratives using a dedicated prefix like re- or a periphrasis to keep + gerund.

EXAMPLES

to clap, to sip, to reload, to review, to replay, to keep walking, to keep studying

To drink (continuative)

To sip (iterative)

VS

Inchoatives

Mark the beginning of a process or a state. In English, you get them by periphrasis.

EXAMPLES

To get (bored, dressed, fat, annoyed, warm, cold, tired, etc.), To start (+ v-ing) (writing, singing, reading), To fall (in love, asleep, prey, sick), To adj. + -en (blacken, darken, sweeten, lighten, flatten, widen)

Resultatives:

• Complex verbs implying a process (1 event) + a resulting state (2 event) (+telos)
• It doesn't matter if you stop the action

EXAMPLE:

To build (you have the process of building and then the final state which is the completed creation)

To build a house (2 events)

1. The act of building
2. The house was built

Transformatives:

• Single-event verbs denoting a quick change of state (+ telos) without any prior process involved (it doesn't matter)
• State -> another state / initial stage -> final stage (a telos)
• If you stop transformatives verb, the action doesn't take place = they are justified only by the reaching of the telos, the final state

EXAMPLES:

• To die (even if you are sick you are still alive)
• To arrive (even if you are on the way you still aren't there)
• To lose/to win (connected to the ending point of a match)
• To lose the keys (until you lose them, you have them, there is nothing in between)

Both transformatives

and resultatives are telic verb

ADVERBIAL MODIFICATION

Since this semantic classes focus on different semantic characteristics of the verbs you may use:

Punctual expression with inchoatives and transformatives

• Can be modified through the adverbial expressions "in x time", "time after time", "immediately" (you single out the beginning of a state)
• he arrived in five minutes

Durative expression with continuatives and iteratives

• Can be modified through the adverbial expression "for x time"
• he spoke for thirty minutes, she cried for hours

Resultatives can be modified through all the adverbial expression we have considered

• (in one case you are focusing on the first subevent – the process, in another case you are focusing on the second subevent – the final result)
• a) The house burnt for thirty minutes
• b) The house burnt in thirty minutes (the house is not there anymore)

Phrasal Aspect

The syntagmatic context in which you use your verb may

1. There is a slight change in meaning when transformatives verbs are inflected in the imperfective tense: it's the aspect that prevails (the meaning is "I'm about to...")
2. I'm dying (useless because if you say that you are still alive)
3. I'm arriving (if something stops you along the way you can't say that)
4. If you use this expression the event is not telic anymore and they give the idea of predictions ("I'm about to die, I'm about to arrive")
5. Stative verbs + imperfective tense = no longer denote a state but a temporary feeling
6. I'm hating you (now)
7. A stative verb like "be" can also take in English the progressive form and give rise to a construction meaning "to act as a"
8. To be childish (semantics= stative)
9. I'm being childish (imperfective tense)

event described by the predicate – subj, obj, indobj.)

These “actors” are called in syntax “arguments” and can be of many different types according to the syntactic realization and the semantics of the verb

Given the number and the type of arguments that predicate may take we talk about “argument structure”

ARGUMENT STRUCTURE

It is impossible to have 0 argument verbs in English impossible because it is a non-pro-drop language (= pronoun dropping)

The subject in English must always be expressed

1. One-arg verbs are represented by two kinds of predicates (=verbs that require only one participant to the event)
• Intransitive verbs

involve only one participant in the event they describe

she runs (require only one argument to be expressed)

• Sub-category of intransitive verbs called “inaccusative verbs”: the difference is in the role played by the subject (the subject undergoes the action and you don’t have power, the semantic role of it is very

Two-arg verbs:

• Transitive verbs require a subject and an object.
• The subject performs the action and the object receives the action.
• Examples of two-arg verbs include "give," "eat," and "throw."

One-arg verbs:

• Intransitive verbs only require a subject.
• The subject performs the action without affecting any object.
• Examples of one-arg verbs include "run," "sleep," and "laugh."

Zero-arg verbs:

• Zero-arg verbs do not require any arguments.
• They can be used with a dummy or empty subject.
• Examples of zero-arg verbs include "rain," "sink," and "place."

Take a dummy/empty subject:

• Verbs like "it rains" or "it's 7 o'clock" use a dummy subject.
• The subject is a syntactic instrument but doesn't perform any semantic function.