Appunti - Inglese B

Take → “They took on (up) the job” On → “Switch on the light, please”

Bring → “They brought off a great success” Away → “Don't run away from this opportunity”

Turn → “Turn off the water” Back → “Give back the books when you have finished”

Keep → “Keep off the grass” Through → “I can't go through with this ordeal”

Look → “Look after the children”

Linguistic Devices:

Semantics:

● Meaning by reference to a recognisable thing/person.

● Meaning by denotation (literal neutral).

● Meaning by connotation (cultural, associative)

Linguistic Devices → Collocation - Connotation - Metaphor and Idioms - Clichés, Proverbs, etc.

Collocation:

How words are used together:

- to have lunch, make a mistake,

- change your mind

- a loaf of bread, a pint of beer

- utterly depressing

- a beautiful day, view, baby

Delexical verbs:

- Take: take a train; take it easy

- Get: get a bus; get married

- Have: have a break; have children

- Make: make an effort; make do

- Do: do exercise; do the dishes

Order of expressions in Bi-nominals andTri-nominals:

- Black and White

- Romeo and Juliet

- Fish and Chips

- Sweet and Sour / Rough and Smooth

- Ups and Downs / Left, Right and Centre

- Blood, Sweat and Tears

Collocation Examples:

1. Adjective + Noun collocation:

Nouns often have typical adjectives which go with them. Here some examples:

- You can describe something in great detail (not: in big detail)

- Some adjectives go with restricted range of nouns

→ a formidable task/opponent/amount/person

2. Verb + Adverb collocation:

Often, verbs have typical adverbs that collocate with them.

- “She always drives too” → quickly / fast

- “Let’s move” → fast / swiftly

- “It’s something i feel strongly about” (not: “I feel powerfully about”)

- “If i remember rightly, it happened at about six-thirty” (not: “If i remember perfectly”)

3. Adverb + Adjective collocation:

Is useful to learn which adverbs most typically modify particular types of adjectives. For example, the

adverb “utterly” (which means totally or completely) generally occurs before an adjective.

The majority of these adjectives have a negative connotation.

Typical examples are: “alien”, “appalling”, “blank”, “dismal”, “depressed”, “disgusting”, ecc.

4. Verb + Object collocation:

Verbs and their objects often from collocation:

- You raise your hand to ask a question (not: “lift your hand”)

- You can raise a family (not: “lift a family”)

- You can visit/go to/check out a website on the internet

5. Language of Advertising:

“top-quality”,”family-size”,”chocolate-flavoured”, “longer-lasting”,”Buy one, get one free”, ecc.

Connotation:

Words and expressions which have a particular cultural significance to speakers of a language:

→ “Once upon a time”, “One giant leap”, “9/11”, “Whistleblower”

The feeling or ideas that are suggested by a word, rather than the actual meaning of the word. This may vary

between users → Dog, Lion, Sheep, Wolf, Shark, Black Cats, Iron Lady, ecc.

For example, the word “cowboy”, as used in expression like “cowboy builders” or “cowboy plumbers”, has

associations of dishonesty and unreliability.

The connotations which words are often exploited in advertisements. For example, an advertisement for an

Indian firm of builders took the slogan: “You’ve tried the cowboys. Now try the Indians”.

This slogan draws on two sets of connotation: the cowboy association mentioned above and the association of

cowboys and Indians as from Wild West films. It neatly suggest that Indians, as the traditional opponents of

cowboys, embody as builders opposite characteristics of honesty and reliability.

Metaphor:

Metaphor is a way of expressing something by comparing it with something else that has similar characteristics.

If we call a city a jungle, for example, we are using a metaphor.

→ We are suggesting that a city is like a jungle in that it’s wild and full of dangers.

Many idioms are metaphorical expressions which are in common use. For example:

- “to be on the ball” → to be very aware of things an ready to act.

- “to keep someone or something on a tight rein” → to have a loto of control over someone/something.

Many words in English are so frequently used in a metaphorical way that English speakers may no longer notice

that they are metaphors. Here are some examples:

- Intelligence is equated with light → Clever person = “bright” / Less intelligent person = “dim”

- Time is equated to money → both can be spent or wasted or used profitably.

Idiom:

A complex lexical item which is longer than a word form but shorter than a sentence and which has a meaning

that cannot be derived from the knowledge of its component parts.

Concerned with:

● The individual (kick the bucket)

● The world (going to thedogs)

● Interaction between individuals (lead you up the garden path)

● Interaction between individual and the world (hit the nail on the head)

Cliche:

Repetition leads to loss of original meaning and sincerity.

Clichés often deliberately signposted and exploited by reference and modification.

● Please do not hesitate to contact me.

● It never rains, but it pours (as very say).

● A stone's throw from …

● Long, sandy beaches –sun-drenched bays

Register:

Register​ → Recognisable language patterns employed by users in particular contexts for particular objectives

(e.g. different modal verbs used to make requests, differences between, written and spoken language, etc.)

= Fundamentally intra-linguistic

Genre:

● Culturally recognisable phenomena, e.g. crime fiction, recipe, sermon, company financial statement

● Not necessarily connected to usage and choices of specific individuals

● Not based on recognisable language patterns

● Extra-linguistic

Style:

● A given style (or styles) may appropriate to a particular genre (e.g. the revelation of ‘whodunit’ from a

group of suspects in crime fiction, the list of ingredients and the procedural instructions in recipes, the

(encouraging) forecasts in business reports.

● Style is rather an individual (or standardised) way of doing something, a language repertoire.

● Half-way between extra- and intra-linguistic.

Genre, Style and Register

Genre can include various Styles

→ Style can include various Registers

→ Register describes a specific use of language

Types of Register (or Genre or Style)

● Literary forms (poems, drama, historical novels, crime fiction)

● Business usages: advertising, presentations, customer supplier- competitor interactions

● Specialised vocabulary (doctors, experts, defined groups (jargon, domain language)

● Type of communicative objective (informative, persuasive, descriptive); Text Type

Elements of Register:

1. Regional and geographic variations

2. Pronunciation differences (Received Pronunciation)

3. Uses of dialect and accents

4. Historical variations:

a. recognisable elements of historical usage

b. old-fashioned

c. neologisms

5. Modifications in ‘standard’ usage over time

6. Impact of social context on language usage:

a. Interaction with peers

b. Interaction with (hierarchical)superiorS

c. Interaction with children (dependents)

7. Gender

8. Class (Education, Economic Status)

Elements of Register - Medium/Mode:

● Spoken Language:

○ Conversation – Public Speaking

○ Listener-oriented

○ Collaborative, Interactional, Social

○ Simpler, monosyllabic, high-frequency (Germanic) vocabulary, weak forms (can't, I'll see you

tomorrow …), short phrases

○ Spontaneous, frequent, uncorrected grammatical 'errors'

○ Imprecision (lack of concentration, informal context or subject matter (what do you call it?,

stuff, loads of, greenish, etc.)

○ Intensification (unbelievable, horrible, ace, top-notch) – hyperbole Neologisms (mega, maxi,

workwise)

○ Discourse markers: you know, like, hmm, well …

○ Deictics: this one here, you, her,now.

● Written Language:

○ Literature –Academic Prose –Texting Message-oriented

○ Uni-directional

○ Transactional

○ Informational – Directive

○ Sophisticated, select, polysyllabic (Latin) vocabulary Structured, checked and revised for

mistakes

○ More complex sentence structures : passives, impersonal forms More subordination than

coordination (maybe?)

Elements of Register - Tenor:

Levels of Formality → Frozen - Formal - Consultative - Casual - Intimate

- Determined by closeness of interaction

- Determined by perception of difficulty

- Determined by application of pressure to achieve aim

Example: “Can I ask a question?” - “May I ask a question?” - “Could I ask a question?” - “Might I ask a question?”

“Do you mind if I ask a question?” “Would you mind I asked a question?”

● Formal language makes use of complex sentence structures:

→ In 2018, they signed the deal. This was good politically. Two countries united.

● Formal language does not use contractions

→ If you'd been more careful, it wouldn't have happened.

● Formal language is objective

→ I think the economy will be a big issue at the meeting.

● Formal language does not use colloquialisms

→ The President completely lost it when she saw the news paper reports.

● Formal language focuses more on vocabulary choice:

→ The assistant checked out the problem and got back to him the day after

● Formal language makes use of the discipline specific vocabulary

→ New laws will help prison inmates. Detainees will benefit from the adoption of new legislation.

“There are many friends to whom one would hesitate to entrust one's own children”

“There's a lot of mates (who) you would not wanna to trust your own kids with”

- 'There are' (that maintains concordance with 'many friends') in place of 'there's'

- 'Whom' in the object form for 'who’

- Preposition at end of sentence • Use of 'one' for 'you'

- Prefixed verb replaced with phrasal verb (entrust/trust with)

- Specific verb replaced with generic verb (hesitate/not want to)

- Neutral lexical items replaced with informal items (friends/mates, children/kids, many/a lot of)

- Spoken language