Riassunto esame Lingua e traduzione inglese 3, prof. Iaia, libro consigliato Mediating Cultures, Guido

Mediating cultures: A cognitive approach to English discourse for the social sciences

Word-forms and pro-forms: Modifying, defining, and inquiring

The structure of words: Morphology

Free and bound morphemes

Tense and aspects of a verb would be meaningless without the whole linguistic context of the sentence (or co-text) within which the verb occurs, and such a co-text is created by words with their semantic categories informing lexical forms.

Morphology is the field of linguistics that studies the structure and meaning of words. It is strictly linked to both syntax and semantics. The only difference is the stretch of language to be analysed:

• Syntax and semantics deal with the structure and the meaning of whole sentences.
• Morphology deals with the 'syntax' of complex words and part of words, or morphemes, as well as with the 'semantics' of their lexical meanings (lexical semantics).

Understanding how words are formed and what semantic properties they convey through their forms enables human beings to easily recognize individual words and their meanings in discourse. Analysis at a morphological level is concerned with structural elements of meaning called morphemes.

Morphemes are classified into two types:

1. Free morpheme. This is a lexical item that takes the form of an individual word with a complete meaning (e.g., 'boy'; 'dog'; 'tree', etc.). It can stand alone as an independent word in a sentence.
2. Bound morpheme. This is a lexical item incorporated into a word as a dependent part. It cannot stand alone but must be connected to another morpheme. Bound morphemes operate in the 'connection' processes by means of:
   • Derivation
   • Inflection
   • Compounding

Derivational morphology

Derivation is that part of morphology that is concerned with the way morphemes are connected to existing lexical forms as affixes. Affixes are of two principal types:

• Prefixes are affixes attached at the beginning of a lexical item (stem, or root-form, or base morpheme); e.g., de-, dis-, un-, pre-, post-.
• Suffixes are affixes attached at the end of a lexical item; e.g., -ure, -age, -ing, -ize, -ful, -less, -able, -ness, -hood, -er, -ly.

Some examples of morphological derivation:

• Like [verb-piacere] (free morpheme) → like + prefix dis- (bound morpheme) = dislike (verb-detestare).
• Like [verb-piacere] (free morpheme) → like + suffix –able + affix –un + suffix –ness = unlikableness (noun) ['antipatia'].

Derivational morphology is not a feature of the English grammar, but it can be found in most languages, following systematic morphological principles, though with different grammatical properties.

Languages can be of three types:

• Flectional languages are characterized by verbs with a time reference, active and passive voice and words classified into singular and plural and often into cases (nominative, accusative, etc.) [like English and Italian].
• Isolating languages are characterized by invariable words with each own meaning (like Chinese).
• Agglutinating languages are characterized by words that may have various meanings but they are not interconnected to produce new ones (like Turkish).

English and Italian are flectional languages because they derive from the archaic Indo-European group, which includes also Latin and ancient Greek. The English tendency to affixation (mainly suffixation) is a typical characteristic of all Indo-European languages.

English morphology is very economical and productive, insofar as it uses a limited number of derivational affixes to produce an almost unlimited number of possible words. This is due to the fact that in English (and in Italian) derivational affixes are semantically meaningful because every affix is informed by a particular semantic schema (an image schema) capable of modifying the meaning of an already existing word and also its grammatical class.

1. Derivational affixes can cause semantic change:
   • The derivational prefixes:
     • pre- means 'before' (prequel);
     • post- means 'after' (postcolonialism);
     • un- means 'not' (unhappy);
     • re- means 'again' (retell).
   • The prefixes:
     • de- added to a verb conveys a sense of 'subtraction' (decompose);
     • dis- and un- have a sense of 'negativity' (uncover, discover).
2. Derivational affixes can also mark category change, turning one grammar category into another (such as deriving adjectives from verbs, etc.).
   • The derivational suffix –able derives an adjective from a verb, implying an 'ability' with a passive relation with its stem (radice) [like eatable = commestibile].
   • The derivational suffix –er derives a noun from a verb, indicating a human agent or an inanimate instrument [speaker; cooker].
   • The suffixes –ful and –less derive an adjective from a noun, indicating, respectively, 'addition', 'abundance', and 'reduction', 'subtraction' [careful; careless].
   • The suffixes –ure and –age derive a noun from a verb [to fail → failure].
   • The suffixes:
     • –hood derives an abstract noun from a concrete noun (child → childhood);
     • –ness derives an abstract noun from an adjective (good → goodness).
   • The suffix –ly derives an adverb from an adjective (but also adjectives can end in –ly) [easy → easily].
   • The suffix –ing derives a noun from a verb (to write → writing).

Inflectional morphology

Inflection is a morphological process that adapts existing words so that they function effectively in sentences without changing the category of the base morpheme. English has the following inflectional suffixes:

1. Verb inflectional suffixes:
   • The suffix -s functions in the present simple as the third-person marking of the verb (to work → works);
   • The suffix –ed functions in the past simple as the past tense marker in regular verbs (to part → parted; to depart → departed – is also the result of derivational morphology);
   • The suffixes –ed (for regular verbs) and –en (for some irregular verbs) function in the marking of the past participle and, in general, in the marking of the perfect aspect (to eat → eaten; to study → studied).
   • The suffix –ing functions in the marking of the present participle, the gerund and, in general, in the marking of the continuous aspect (to eat → eating).
2. Noun inflectional suffixes:
   • The suffix –s functions in the marking of the plural of nouns (job → jobs).
   • The suffix 's functions as a possessive marker (in the so-called Saxon Genitive) [Mary → Mary's as in Mary's book].
3. Adjective inflectional suffixes:
   • The suffix –er functions as a comparative marker (quick → quicker).
   • The suffix –est functions as a superlative marker.

English inflectional suffixes are described in terms of grammatical-form choices or morpho-syntactic paradigms. Also, inflectional suffixes are semantically meaningful insofar as they are informed by semantic schemata conveying the sense of 'time', 'aspect', 'perception' (in the case of verbs), 'quantity' and 'possession' (in the case of nouns) and 'evaluation' (in the case of adjectives).

Compounding

The English language has a special process by which new words can be formed from already existing ones. In this compounding process, single words can be joined together to form a new compound word, whose meaning is given by the sum of the two meanings of the 'matrix words'. Compound words are formed by two (or more) words, each with its conceptual identity (or semantic schema) combined into one. Compounding is very productive and economical. In this kind of words, the latter one is usually the one that establishes the grammatical category of the resulting new word.

• Noun + Noun type, where the latter is the primary noun and the former is its modifier (chain smoker; trouble maker).
• Adjective + Noun type, where the adjective is the modifier of the primary noun (blackboard).
• Verb + Noun type, where the verb qualifies- and modifies- the noun (scarecrow).
• Preposition + Noun type, where the preposition modifies the noun (undertone).
• Adjective + Adjective type, where the former adjective qualifies the latter primary one (bittersweet).
• Noun + Adjective type, where the noun functions as the modifier of the adjective (sky blue).
• Prepositions + Verb type, where the prepositions function as the modifier of the verb (undermine).

Semantic analogy does not work automatically with compounds (like flour mill = is a mill that produces flour, but windmill = is a mill that is powered by wind, not something that produces it).

Morphemes, allomorphs, and diagrammatic iconicity

Morphemes are abstractions that are linguistically actualized as morphs to form words. Morphs are the formal variants of morphemes. Morphs may be realized in various ways. We have in morphology the concept of allomorph. For instance, there are some allomorphic variants for the past-tense morpheme, which can also affect the stem form, as in 'sleep'-'slept', 'take'-'took', etc.

According to Peirce, an icon is a sign in which there is a diagrammatic correspondence between its pictorial (or phonetic) representation and the real feature of the object the sign stands for. In phonetics, examples of diagrammatic iconicity are onomatopoeic words. Also, in the field of morphology, forms of words and their meanings are iconic or diagrammatic relations- and these relations are of two kinds:

• Syntagmatic relations regard the ordering of base words and affixes as logically sequential elements (syntagmatic iconicity). In derivational morphology, words like 'unhappiness' are iconically represented as a chain of morphs.
• Paradigmatic relations regard the choice of derivational/inflectional forms of the same word, one excluding the other within a phrase (paradigmatic iconicity).

These relations are regulated by some typological parameters of Natural Morphology which Dressler (1990) exemplifies as:

1. The morpho-semantic transparency parameter, according to which words are understood quicker if the semantic meanings of each morpheme are clear, and the sum of their meanings is equivalent to the meaning of the entire word (book keeper).
2. The morpho-tactic transparency parameter, according to which words are understood quicker when the morph-boundaries by which they are 'attached' are not blurred, but still clear (goodness).

These two parameters determine the degree of complexity of words and they have to do with the structure of words too.

Mental processes

Syntactic and semantic dimensions of mental processes

Mental vs. material processes

The continuous aspect of the verb is principally used to express actions that are intentional (actions that people do deliberately/happen deliberately). This explains why the present continuous form syntactically constitutes the unmarked tense and aspect for the semantic representation of the material processes of doing (Halliday). These processes represent actions involving the doing of things and, as semantic representations, they are part of the ideational function of language. A semantic representation of a material process of doing, in Halliday's view, can be represented:

• By an actor (the doer of the action);
• By the goal, possibly (the actor's objective).

Actor → Material Process → Goal

Material processes can be either transitive or intransitive in their representation of actual actions:

(1) John [Actor] is eating [Material Process] (intransitive)

(2) John [Actor] is eating [Material Process] the sandwich [Goal] (transitive)

Some actions are not intentional, but involuntary, representing feelings, perceptions, and states of mind that just happen unintentionally, unconsciously. These actions are usually expressed by the verbs of affection, cognition, and perception. The present simple form syntactically constitutes the unmarked tense and aspect for the semantic representation of these verbs as mental processes of sensing (Halliday), which are inherent in the ideational function of language. Verbs representing mental processes are not normally used in the continuous aspect. Moreover, they are always transitive, since they involve both a senser and the phenomenon.

Senser → Mental Process → Phenomenon

(3) John [Senser] knows [Mental Process] the whole story [Phenomenon] (transitive)

(4) John [Senser] knows [Mental Process] (transitive, with an implicit phenomenon: the whole story)

Mental processes of sensing can be grouped as follows:

• Processes of affection: verbs of feelings and emotions;
• Processes of cognition: verbs of mental activity;
• Processes of perception: verbs of the senses.

Processes of affection: Verbs of feelings and emotions

These are verbs that express the senser's emotional states, such as: adore, desire, detest, dislike, like, prefer, fear, hate, loathe (detestare), love.

(5) I like/love my new job

The simple aspect indicates a permanent and wholly unintentional, unconscious state of mind that the senser cannot change at will, by an act of reason.

Occasionally these verbs may be informally used to indicate the senser's intentional, conscious reflection on the duration of such a state of mind (feeling or emotion). In this case, the continuous aspect is adopted to emphasize this sense of duration, as in:

(1) I've been loving you for more than ten years!

(2) She's hating her job!

Verbs of feelings followed by –ing nominalization

These verbs are followed by a gerundive nominalization of the verb that follows them (Chomsky). This nominalization occurs according to a morphological process of derivation according to which a noun is derived from a verb by adding the suffix –ing to the verb infinitive form.

(9) I like skiing

This proposition would make more sense if the verb in the –ing form, following the verb of feeling, were interpreted as a verb-nominalization, that is to say as:

(a) Verb of Feeling + Verb-Nominalization (-ing form)

To perceive the difference when you have a verb-nominalization, you can add the determiner the before the nominalized verb:

(10) I like the skiing

The –ing form attached to the verb expresses a general condition which is linguistically expressed by the syntactic category of noun in a noun phrase.

Verbs of feelings followed by to-infinitive

A different schema representation occurs when a verb of feeling is associated with a specific action that may take place in the future. This case differs syntactically because of the presence of the auxiliary would preceding the verb of feeling which is followed by the to-infinitive of another verb:

(11) I'd [would] like to ski

The diagram representing this syntactic structure is:

(c) Verb of Feeling + auxiliary would ('d) + to-Infinitive

In the case of verbs of feelings followed by to-infinitive, the focus is on a specific action, a particular process which may be performed by the senser in the near future.

• When a verb of feelings or emotions refers to a general condition which normally provokes the denoted feelings in the senser, then such a condition can be expressed by means of a verb nominalization (with –ing suffixation - also defined as gerundive nominalization);
• When a verb of feelings or emotions refers to a specific action which may take place in the future...