Appunti per Linguistica inglese, prof Ulrych, libro consigliato A Handbook of present-day English

SVO O

5. : ditransitive verb: I’ve brought you some coffee

i d

SVO C

6. : complex ditransitive verb: His friends call Jimmy

d o

SVO A:

7. complex transitive verb with obligatory adverbial: I’ve put the plates on

d

the table

Marked structures: highlighting specific elements, and are less frequent. One

example is clefting, with which we divide a clause into two parts and has the function

of placing the focus on a specific element: it­clefts, wh­clefts. It was him who stole

the apple/What I want for my birthday is a cake

3.6 Coordination and Subordination

Coordination is the linking of a main clause with another main clause, through

coordinators (and, but, or). Two clauses joined by a conjunction have equal status

and could both stand alone as main clauses. Coordinate clauses form a compound

sentences.

Subordination is the joining of a main clause with a subordinate clause, through

subordinators (when, because, who). When there is a subordination, the sentence is

complex. The subordinate clause is also called dependent because it cannot stand

alone and must be embedded part of the main clause.

3.7.1 Finite Subordinate Clauses

Finite subordinate clauses contain a VP which is marked for tense. They can be

divided in 4 categories, according to their meaning and relationship with the main

clause:

a) nominal clause : integrate part of the main clause , introduced by that or wh­

words. The important thing is that you stay with us/What I can’t understand is why

you lied to me/It is expected that she will travel to Russia soon/He made me what I

am today.

relative clauses

b) : a post­mod in a NP, expands the meaning of the head noun by

defining or adding information about it. A relative clause can be:

­ defining (restrictive): define the head noun, (that cannot be used): the man who is

crossing

the road is my dad.

­ non­defining (non­restrictive): provide extra information about the noun: describe it.

The company, which is selling beautiful shoes, is making outstanding sales. Add

extra

information, but the identity of the noun is already defined

adverbial clauses

c) : describe circumstances , they all have the subordinative

conjunctions when, if, where, before… expressing a relation to the main clause. Even

the conditional clauses (of the 3 types) are adverbial clauses.

comparative clauses

d) : introduced by as/then and post­modify an AdvP/AdjP .

3.7.2 Non­finite subordinate clauses

Not marked for tense and modality. They all are subordinate since they cannot

stand on their own.

Apart from the non­finite, there is the class of the verbless clauses, subordinate

clauses without the verb element. Although not a tall man…

SLIDES + appunti

2. Discourse and text

sentence

A is the largest grammatical unit, but is seldom semantically complete. A

sequence of sentences makes up a complete semantic unit. A single sentence gets its

meaning from the context.

Morpheme, Word, Phrase, Clause, Sentence, Text, Discourse.

Discourse text

and refer to: language beyond the sentence: language in use,

spoken/written with a definable communicative function.

Text discourse.

is more specific and concrete than Text is a complex entity

consisting of more than a sum of its parts as it is made up of a web of interdependent

relationships. Discourse is a unit among interdependent units (interacts with other

discourse units and the context), a text is a unit by itself. Text is described as a system

unit of discourse observed as operating in context.

Context: a source of meaning: it gives the reader a frame of reference within

which to interpreted what had been written. Context is a source of meaning for every

language event (he delivered the punch)

co­text:

­ the linguistic context: what goes with the text.

­ context of situation: extralinguistic context, what goes on in the total environment

beyond the physical realization of language. The message cannot supply all of the

meaning of the transaction and a good deal of what is communicated derives from the

context, code, means of contact.

linguistic competence,

But variables are even the: an abstract knowledge of the

communicative competence,

language system; knowing when to speak, when not,

with whom to talk about…

REGISTER

, MADE UP OF. Function of the register: people can behave

according to the register, but also the situation can be predicted from what is known

about. Register can be defined as configuration of meanings that are typically

associated with a particular context of situation.

Field of discourse: the ‘play’, the kind of activity, as recognized in the culture, within

which the language is playing some part. The type of social action taking place:

event, participants, setting, knowledge/believes among participants.

Tenor of discourse: the set of socially meaningful participant roles, ‘players’, actors.

The social relationship between the participants, their status or power (agent roles,

peer or hierarchic relations), affect (degree of like), contact (whether they know each

other well or not, duration and intimacy), role structure (questioner/answerer,

informer/enquirer).

Degrees of formality/informality: frozen, formal, consultative, casual, intimate.

Mode of discourse: the ‘parts’: functions assigned to language in the situation +

channel. The particular functions assigned to language in particular situation: how

language is being used . The channel of communication: media (written, spoken,

written to be spoken), instrumentality (phone, tape, email), type of presentation

(prepared extempore). Speaking and writing are manifestations of the same linguistic

system but differ in various ways: spoken language is more dependent to the context.

A further feature to the mode, is the way information can be presented in theme

and rheme and back/foregrounded

­ context of culture: Language is an integral part of culture, (il rosso dell’uovo),

different partitions (infancy), context of culture (eskimos have 4 words for snow).

Context of translation (USA and cars, Italians and coffee), and the problem of

translating a concept: Lamb of God becoming Seal of God.

Genre: a speaker will be looking for the linguistic sources that are most

appropriate to any given situation. Appropriateness is highly culture­specific. Genre

is a set of communicative purposes identified and mutually understood by the

members of a community. Each genre carries conventions which allow the member of

a community to produce and predict the moves involved.

Genre ≠ register: to reconstruct the context I can use the questions related to field,

tenor, mode. (the topic is potatoes, the person who produces it is an advertiser, the

text is written). From that, I can have the evidence of its genre. (an advertisement).

3. Language Varieties

Two main kinds of language varieties:

dialects:

­ relate to permanent characteristics of the user in language events.

Linguistic identity, birthplace, class, education, sex, age, ethnic group.

idiolect: individual dialect: unconscious expression of my personality, speech

habits in a particular time of life (vocabulary items, pronunciations…)

temporal dialect: changes in language through time.

geographical/regional dialect

social dialect: membership in a class, education, wealth, race, religion.

standard dialect

There is a defined in terms of intelligibility (not prestige), linked

to some institution (media, education…), i.e. Estuary English.

diatypes

­ (registers): realted to the user’s use of language in different events.

Registers, because people take part of social encounters, and different languages are

needed for different purposes. The concurrence of field, tenor and mode produces text

varieties called registers defined in terms of phonological, lexical and grammatical

features. Registers can help us predicting text from context and viceversa. Members

of the community construct a model of the context in their minds and assign to it a

field (what is going on), tenor (recognizing relationship), mode (what is achieved by

language). Register forms part of an individual’s communicative competence.

Dialects can say the same things differently, registers can say different things

according to the type of occasion. Dialects tend to differ in phonetics and phonology,

vocabulary, grammar but NOT in semantics. Registers differ in semantics and

therefore in grammar and vocabulary and phonology.

Genre:

Cultural dimension goal oriented. A package of components that typically go

together in the culture: people do certain things on specific occasions and attach

meanings and values to them.

Register: contextual configuration of a single text in terms of mode, field, tenor.

Genre: conventionally­recognised purposeful activity, event, situation.

4. Cohesion Texture,

Which features must a text possess to be called a text? the way of holding

the clauses of a text together coherently (continuity of sense) and cohesively

(sentence linked to each other to form a unified whole). So: it reflects the real world

and is pragmatically coherent.

Cohesion:

Grammatical Cohesive devices

Reference:

­ some items make reference to other items in the context or co­text for

interpretation. endophoric

The reference can be (co­text), so anaphoric or cataphoric, or

exhophoric (context). It can be: personal (through personal pronouns), deictic

(through location), definite (article the), comparative.

Substitution:

­ with pro­forms as: one, ones, do, so… it is different from reference,

because it is not a relationship of co­reference, there is a difference between the

presupposing items and the presupposed.

Ellipsis:

­ omission of those elements whose meaning is understood and

recoverable from the context

Conjunction:

­ explicit linking devices, but at times conjunctions can be implicit.

They are used to guide the reading logical step after logical step.

Lexical Cohesive Devices

Reiteration:

­ repetition, Synonymy, Antonymy, Hyponymy/Hyperonymy (the

classification of experience in orders of more generic terms. General,

superordinate=hyponymy, specifical=hyperonymy), Meronymy (the part­whole

relations).

Reiteration includes distinct forms of the same word: explore and exploration.

­ Collocation: lexical items that have a strong tendency to co­occur in language,

related associatively in the lexical system.

Cohesion gives texture to a text: with them the text gains unity. The more

components enter into a chain, greater the number of chains, the closer the chains

overlap and contribute to its unity.

Coherence: the organization of meaning: the elements of a text correspond to

natural world. A text is coherent when it makes sense as a whole at an ideas level.

semantically app