Riassunto Esame Lingua e Traduzione Inglese 1, Prof. Sturiale, libro consigliato The Frameworks of English

Riassunto completo esame di lingua e traduzione inglese 1 – Prof. Sturiale Massimo

The frameworks of English (summary)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Language: it's something with which we are very familiar and which we are competent at using. Human language is as complex in its own way as any of the anatomical functions of the human body.

Framework: it's a structure which holds something together. Knowing the frameworks of a language enables you to understand how that language is structured and its rules.

• Language is divided into 4 parts:
  • Lexis: the words of the language.
  • Grammar: the way words are combined into sentences.
  • Discourse: the way sentences are combined into texts.
  • Phonology: the sounds of the language.

Morphology: it studies how English words are structured and the different strategies employed to create new words.

• Grammar = inflections + principles + syntax
• There's an infinite number of possible sentences → range of ways to construct sentences

Sentence: the largest unit of construction in grammar.

• Prosodic features = pitch + intonation

Semantics: it's the study of meaning. Meaning is not an aspect of language which can be delimited in the same way as the lexis of the language. Meaning operates in a different dimension from the other levels and in conjunction with them all.

Meaning: it's constructed as more information is received and it is not a unit of construction in the same way as other aspects of language because it is often dependent on context. Without understanding the context, we can't understand the meaning of the sentence.

• Language can be spoken, written, and signing.
• Speech: it's the primary mode of communication. Humans learn to speak as part of their natural biological development → instinctive process
• Writing: it's important for its permanence and its codes employed in society.

British English (BEng) vs. American English (AEng) → variations in the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar of English.

• Standard British English is a dialect (*) and the yardstick (**) used by linguists.
• (*): the dialect is the lexis and the grammar of a particular language.
• (**): a yardstick is a reference model.
• Accent: pronunciation of the language.

Chapter 2: Word Classes

Any definition of «word» has to be specific to a particular language because words don't behave in the same way in all languages.

• Compound words: words such as word-class or word power made up of two existing words, which might be written with a hyphen or a space between them.
• Multi-word verbs: verbs which consist of more than one element (Ex.: put off; run up) but its meaning is a single unit.
• Idioms: little groups of words whose meaning is not retrievable from the individual parts of the idiom. They are fixed expressions.

Word = minimal free form.

Word in isolation = utterance (affermazione – enunciato)

A word is a free-standing unit and it can be substituted by another word, but not by anything less than a word. They also have mobility. A word can't be divided to put something else between it but multi-word verbs can be divided.

• Homonym: a word-form the same as another word-form even though their meanings are unrelated.
• Lexeme = word = lexical item
• Vocabulary (of a specific language) = words collectively = lexis
• Lexical level = to examine a language in relation to its lexis.
• Lexical set = group of closely related words of the same word-class.

All words belong to a particular grammatical category → word classes. There are 11 word classes: 9 major word classes and 2 minor word classes. The first 9 word classes are: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions, and conjunctions; the last 2 word classes are: interjections and particles.

• Numerals can be divided into 3 categories (cardinal numerals, fractions, ordinal numerals) and sometimes they are considered as a separate word-class.
  • Cardinal numerals → 1, 2, 3...
  • Fractions → two thirds ⅔ ...
  • Ordinal numerals → 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd...

Impossibility to create a list of all the words of a language → the language is constantly changing: + new words − obsolete words.

• Word classes can be open or closed. The open class words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The closed class words are pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions. The first type of class words is a large group which contains words that can't be listed because of their changing; the other one is a small group which has the possibility to list words because they change very slowly.

• Lexical words / content words → words of the open classes
• Grammatical words / function words → words of the closed classes
• Lexical words may be monosyllabic or consist of 2/3/+ syllables.
• Grammatical words contain just 1/2 syllables. (disyllabic: words of 2 syllables; polysyllabic: words of 3/+ syllables)

Nouns

Simplistic definition: a noun is a naming word.

• Nouns are the most useful elements in constructing a basic sentence. To test if a word is a noun you have to isolate it and check if it's possible to place «the» before it. If it's possible, they are common nouns. Common nouns can be concrete nouns (measurable objects) and abstract nouns (concepts and things without material existence).

COMMON NOUNS ≠ PROPER NOUNS

• Proper nouns name someone or something and in writing, they are written with a capital letter. They are the names of people, places, pets, rivers, mountains, months, days... . Therefore the definite article «the» doesn't work on them.

Lexical Verbs (Full Verbs / Main Verbs)

Verbs are of central importance as a class of words and sometimes are defined as “doing words”. Verbs don't always refer to actions but also to states. These ones are divided into dynamic verbs (physical processes) and stative verbs (states and conditions). The term “lexical verbs” is used to distinguish verbs like “work, relax, park, feel” from auxiliaries or auxiliary verbs. Auxiliaries indicate that the process is complete.

Adjectives (usually called “describing words”)

This kind of words has 2 features:

• The position in which an adjective appears in sentences
• Their ability to be graded

• Central adjectives → they're before a noun and they give information about an attribute of the noun (attributive function) // after verbs like “be, appear” → they're part of the verb (predicative function).
• Gradable adjectives → intensifiers: they precede adjectives but not nouns.
• Absolute adjectives → “perfect, unique”

Adverbs

• Many of them have a describing purpose.
• If a word can't appear in attributive position then it's an adverb.
• Adverbs allow people to comment (ex. Fortunately) or give information about how, where, when.
• -ly have the function of comment/how.

Adverbs can be adjuncts, conjuncts, and disjuncts. The first category (adjuncts) is the largest and gives information about how, where, and when.