Riassunto esame Lingua e Traduzione Inglese II, prof.ssa Sciacco, libro consigliato Mastering Advanced English Language, Sara Thorne

Advanced English Language

S. Thorne, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 (3aed.), Capp. 1; 3; 4; 12.

Chapter 1 - The structure of English

What is grammar?

For linguistics, grammar is the study of the organisation of language; their job is to analyse the ways in which words and sentences are made up of different units, breaking words down to their smallest parts. So, there is the study of morphology, which concerns their different constructions; and there is the study of syntax, which shows the ways words are combined in order to make sentences. Also, linguists are interested in the ways in which we construct both spoken and written discourse, which can be considered any mean of language longer than one sentence.

Language is divided into different levels, within these there are rules describing the combination and relation of the elements. Language has a rank scale, because of the hierarchic organisation of levels: a word is made up of groups of letters, a phrase is made up of group of words, a clause is made up by phrases and a sentence is made up by clauses.

Word classes

We have to classify words in order to understand how they work together. There are:

• Open-class words: also called lexical words and have a clearly meaning. New words can be added in this category, as they become necessary. In this class, there are:

Nouns: also known as naming words. They can be divided in:

• Common nouns which classify things into general categories.
• Proper nouns which refer to people and places and are written with the capital letter and don’t follow the determiners ‘a’ or ‘the’.
• Concrete nouns which refer to physical things.
• Abstract nouns which refer to ideas, occasions, times, and qualities.
• Count noun which can be counted and have a plural form. They don’t follow the determiner ‘much’.
• Non-count nouns which refer to qualities that cannot be counted and don’t have the plural form. They also don’t follow the determiner ‘a’ but can be used after quantity words such as ‘some’, ‘any’, ‘all’ or ‘much’. Example: silver, information, traffic.
• Plurals: “-s” is added to regular nouns; however, many nouns are irregular, such as: story – stories, box – boxes, mouse – mice, life – lives, child – children.
• Collective nouns have a singular form but refer to groups of people, animals, and things. Such as family, crowd.
• Possessives: to mark the possession ‘ or is added to the noun. There are different forms, such as: a baby’s bottle; the cars’ colours; the children’s problems; Thomas’ poetry.

Verbs are known as doing words and they can express actions and states, thus dividing this category into:

• Stative verbs which expresses states of being without any particular action. To know, to believe, to remember, to realise.
• Dynamic verbs which refer to physical, mental, or perceptual actions. To jump, to think, to see.
• Transitive verbs which must be followed by an object to complete the meaning; I carried the baby.
• Intransitive verbs which don’t need to be followed by an object. They can describe position or motion and are usually followed by a description of place or destination. The girl went to the cinema.

There are:

• Regular verbs which have four forms: base form (walk), to+ base form (to walk), singular present tense (walks), past tense and past participle (walked), present participle (walking).
• Irregular verbs have five forms instead: base form (show), to + base form (to show), singular present tense (shows), past tense (showed), past participle (have shown), present participle, (showing).

There are two main types of verbs:

• Lexical verbs express the meaning of a verb phrase.
• Auxiliary verbs can be used to form different timescales, questions, and negatives. They can also add emphasis or information about the mood or attitude of who’s talking. There are primary verbs, such as to be, to have and to do, and modal verbs, such as can/could, may/might, must/shall/should, will/would.

There are two tenses in English:

• Present tense which is used to describe regular, ordinary events; it has a base form, a verb which has no ending or change of vowel, and the -s/-es ending to the third singular person.
• Past tense refers to actions and states in the past, it can be used for reported speech or to refer to something that is supposed to be happening. It’s formed by adding -ed to the base form of the verb. However, many verbs are irregular and don’t follow this rule.

Future time can be formed in different ways, such as:

• The simple present; I leave tomorrow.
• The modal verbs shall/will + base form; I shall go to town later.
• Be going + infinitive; I am going to visit France next year.
• To be + present participle; They are moving to Australia next year.
• Will/shall + be + present participle; We will be waiting for you.

Aspect describes the timescale of a verb, expressing whether the action is completed or in progress. There is the perfect aspect, which is formed with the auxiliary have + past participle. The present perfect is used for an action that starts in the past but continues in the present or has relevance in the present. We have eaten in this restaurant for years. The past perfect describes something happening in a previous time in the past. The building had decayed years ago. The progressive aspect is formed by the auxiliary be + present participle, or the auxiliary have + be + present participle. It describes an action that is not completed and still ongoing. The boys are playing football.

Voice describes the person or thing responsible for the action of the verb. The active voice describes the action by linking directly to the person/thing carrying it out. The passive voice changes the focus of a sentence and it can be used for different purposes, such as suspense, fluency, or the exclusion of the person responsible for the action of the verb. The structure of the passive is formed by:

• The subject doing the verb in the active is moved to the end of the passive sentence and becomes the agent.
• The object of the active sentence is moved to the front of the passive sentence and becomes the subject.
• The active verb is replaced with a passive one, whose form follows: to be + past participle or have + to be + past participle.

Finite verbs change their form to show contrasts of number and person (he eats, they eat), and tense (she lives, she lived). Non-finite verbs never change their form, such as the -ing ending, -ed ending, base form, infinitive. Adjectives are describing words which give more information about nouns, by specifying their field of reference and providing specific details, such as physical and psychological qualities and judgements.

Several adjectives may occur in a noun phrase, and when there are many adjectives, they follow a specific order: Epithet; size; shape; age; colour; origin; substance/made of; present participle/function. Adjectives may be modified by intensifiers such as rather, very. They may be classified according to: inherent and non-inherent qualities, which indicate respectively objective and subjective qualities of a noun.

There are attributive adjectives which are placed before a noun (the large balloon), and predicative adjectives which are placed after the verb to be or after linking verbs such as to become and to seem. (The balloon is large.)

Adjectives can be graded; monosyllabic and disyllabic adjective add -er to construct the comparative form; and -est for the superlative form. Polysyllabic adjectives form the comparative form by using more and the superlative by using most before the adjective.

Adverbs are modifying words, giving information about time, place, and manner. In order to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives it’s important to look at the context of the word and its function in a sentence.

• Circumstance adverbs or adjunct modify verbs and give info about manner, time, place, and frequency. He was sleeping well. You must go now.
• Degree adverbs modify adjective or adverbs. I really missed you.
• Sentence adverbs or disjunct or conjunct modify a whole sentence. Disjuncts express speaker’s attitude (I could perhaps do the work, but surely you could get someone else), while conjuncts link sentences (firstly, I intend to go away; however, I will write).

Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to adjective and the comparative and superlative forms are made, most of the time, by using more and most. However, there are some irregular adverbs, such as: badly, worse, worst.

There are three main positions for adverbs:

• The front of the sentence. Actually, I have loved this place for a very long time.
• The middle of a sentence, after the first auxiliary, the verb to be as a lexical verb or before the lexical verb. I am actually in love with this place.
• The end of the sentence. I loved the place, actually.

Closed-class words: also known as structural words, function words or grammatical words, since their purpose is to give the basis for the grammatical formation of the language. They are preposition, pronouns, and conjunctions. This class has a fixed, limited number of words and new ones cannot be added.

Pronouns are used instead of nouns, noun phrases and noun clauses. There are:

• Personal pronouns, divided into subject pronouns used for the actor of the sentence and object pronouns which replace the noun that receives the action of the verb.
• Possessive pronouns show possession.
• Reflexive pronouns used when the actor and the receiver of the action are the same person.
• Demonstrative pronouns are used to show the relation between the speaker and the person or thing. They have a deictic function.