riassunto esame prof. Luporini

Analysis of a NG

The nominal group can be divided into 3 main areas: 1. The Thing/ the Head: it's the core component in NG analysis, it's the central noun. The Thing can be modified by 2. Modifiers: depending on their position we can do a further distinction: - Pre-modifiers: elements we can find to the left of the Thing and that add something to the Thing. - Post modifiers: elements that we can find to the right of the Thing and that modify it. Tell us something more. 1) PRE-MODIFICATION DEICTICS (capital D) - Articles, possessives, demonstratives.. - are units of language that we can use to indicate the Thing. - The queen: specific article / definite article - A queen: non specific/ indefinite article. - My queen NUMERATIVES (capital N) - Quantifiers, use to quantify or to provide an order - one queen, two queen EPITHETS (capital E) - Adjectives coming before the Thing providing a descriptive quality. - It describe the Thing either in a subjective or in an objective way.

They give us Descriptive qualities- terrible Queen: subjective quality, it depends on the speaker subjective point of view.- old Queen: objective quality

CLASSIFIER (capital C) Nouns but also adjectives that instead of describing the Thing specify the class, the subclass to which the Thing belong

- apple pie: the belongs to the class of the pies made with apples

- movie Queen: subclass of queen.

E.g.: those two splendid old electric trains

Nominal group

Trains: Thing

Those: Deictic : it tells us which thing/things are being referred to, and whether it is a specific thing or a non-specific thing

Two: Numerative : how many things

Splendid, old: Epithet: give us descriptive qualities of the thing

Electric: Classifier: tell us what type or class of thing

2) POST-MODIFICATION

EMBEDDING: specific phenomenon

Embedding: a unit is expanded by the inclusion of another unit from a higher or the same rank in the rank scale.

E.g.: much [of continental Europe] is hardening its attitude [to Brexit]

- Much:

nominal group: functioning as a pronoun, stands for a good part of.

Of continental Europe: PP!

Is hardening: VG

Its attitude: NG

To Brexit: PP!

 [Of continental Europe]: this PP Phrase is a fundamental part of the nominal group that comes before.

 It’s fundamental for the sense of the clause, we can’t take it out. We can’t move it to another position in the clause

 It’s an embedded PP: you cannot move an embedded element away from its NG.

 We use [ ] for embedded PP and [[ ]] for embedded clause (with verbs)

***In order to have an embedded PP it must be a NG before.

e.g.: Harry had never believed he would meet a boy [[he hated more than Dudley]], but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.

 Post-modifiers for “boy”

 It’s a relative clause

 Embedded relative clauses also called defining relative clauses, because they define the NG they’re fixed into.

QUALIFIERS

 Qualifier: An embedded PP or embedded clause providing

Additional defining information about theThing of the NG.

Notice that you cannot move a Qualifier to another position in the clause (at least without strongly affecting the meaning).

E.g.: much [ of continental Europe] is hardening its attitude [to Brexit].

NG1: Much of continental Europe

Functions: Thing + Qualifier

NG2: its attitude to Brexit

Functions: Deictic + Thing + Qualifier

That dog with the black tail belongs to my uncle = embedded PP (=qualifier)

There was a stone in my boot (non-embedded). it does not define the stone, can be moved away from this NG.

UNIT 3

IDEATIONAL MEANINGS – FIELD-The Clause as Representation

THE TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM

Transitivity includes a set of resources for referring to entities in the world and the ways in which those entities act on or relate to each other.

The transitivity system includes:

1. A Process = the core of the speech
2. Typically, one or more Participants in the process, that participate in different ways
3. NG

Often, one

For more Circumstances, which provide additional information about the event. (where, when, how, for how long..)

Six Process categories, each with its own Participant roles

If we want to divide our reality into categories, we can identify 6 categories of Process, representing 6 kinds of event, each with its own Participant roles.

1. Material Processes
2. Mental Processes
3. Relational Processes
4. Behavioural Processes
5. Verbal Processes
6. Existential Processes

The Participants change in every Process

Material Processes:

• Material Processes are physical Processes of doing/ creating/ changing / happening , taking place in the material world.
• The Participants in a material clause are:

1. The Actor: the Doer of the Process. It may be animate or inanimate, human or not;
2. Often, but not necessarily, a Goal = an entity (human being, animal, object) that undergoes the Process (passively).

Actor = active VS Goal = passive

The presence of the Goal depends on the choice of the verb:

transitive verbs have Goals, - intransitive verbs can't have a Goal.
*** Note that conjunctions (e.g.: and) have NO function in Transitivity.
e.g.: the sun (Actor) rose (Material Process) on the same tidy front gardens (Circumstances).
And (no function) the sun (Actor) lit up (Material Process) the brass number four (Goal) on the Dursley's frontdoor. → The brass number four: is the passive receiver of the action of the Actor.
The brass number 4 was lit up by the sun. (passive)
Material Process
The brass number 4: is the subject (has person and number agreement with the verb) BUT not the Actor.
The sun is still the Actor (Prepositional Phrase)
***SO the subject is not always the Actor.
Mental Processes
● Mental processes express thoughts, feelings, desires, perceptions... they typically have ONLY animate Participants as Doers. They can project clauses (as we'll see in unit 4).
● The main Participants in a mental Process are:
- The Senser = the human or human-like

Participant who thinks, feels, wants, sees, hears...→e.g.: this computer hates me personification, the computer is the Senser- Often, but not necessarily, a Phenomenon = the entity that is “sensed”, perceived.e.g.: He (Senser) tried to remember (Mental Process) the dream [[he had been having]](Phenomenon)→ !! the embedded clause goes with the dream, and this is really important in transitivity.e.g.: Harry (Senser) heard (Mental Process) her [[walking toward the kitchen]] (Phenomenon)

Relational Processes
Relational Processes express states of being and having.They can be either attributive (= they assign an attribute, a generic quality, to an entity), or identifying(= they assign an identity to an entity).
The Participants in an attributive relational Process are:
- the Carrier
- the Attributee.g.: but (no function) Dudley Dursley (Carrier) was no longer (relational Process) a baby (Attribute)
e.g.: he (Carrier) had (relational Process) a funny feeling (Attribute)

relation of possession.

in an identifying relational Process they are called- Identified- identifier

e.g.: Dudley Dursley (Identified) was (relational process) Harry's only cousin (Identifier)

specific quality of Dudley Dursley

***try and change the position of the Participants possible if it's an identifying relational Process, not possible

if it's an attributive relational Process.

Verbal Processes

verbal Processes express what is said.

Like mental Processes, they can project other clauses

The main Participants in a verbal clause are:

• The Sayer = the human or human-like entity that carries out the Process;
• The Receiver= the addressee.

There may are other Participants as well; however, not all of them are necessarily construed(i.e.,present) in the lexico-grammatical structure of the clause.

e.g.: "get up!" (Projected clause) she (Sayer) screeched (verbal Process)

notice that we're dealing with a clause complex: 2 clauses (get up- she

Get up can be analysed in transitivity

Material clause, e.g.: "are you up yet?" (projected clause) she (Sayer) demanded (Verbal process)

are you up yet relational process

Behavioural Processes

Behavioural Processes are in-between material and mental. They indicate (largely involuntary) psychological and physiological activity, e.g. cry, cough, sneeze, smile, grumble.

They typically have only one Participant, the Behaver (= the Doer of the Process), e.g.: Harry (Behaver) groaned (behavioural Process)

Existential Processes

Existential Processes express existence and typically take the form "there" + verb to be.

There is only one Participant= the Existent (=the entity – person, thing, abstraction..- that is said to exist).

***Note that the element "there" has NO function in Transitivity, e.g.: There (no function) had been (existential Process) a flying motorcycle (Existent) in it (Circumstance).

To summarise:

Transitivity describes our experience of the world: ideational experiential meaning

It falls within Field/ What is going on?/ clause as representation

It is analyzed in terms of Processes, Participants, and Circumstances

The order in which Participants occur does NOT change their experiential role (e.g.: They make food - Actor- mat. Process- Goal, but "food is made by them" - goal- mat process- actor).

UNIT 4

IDEATIONAL/LOGICAL MEANINGS - Field

Clauses in combination

We still dealing with the Clause as representation BUT we're considering also different ways in which Clauses can work to create a Clause Complex. (with Transitivity we deal only with the single Clause)

Ideational Metafunction: language functions to represent extra-linguistic reality

That are divided into:

1. Experiential Transitivity

2. Logical Clauses in combination (Clauses cobne with each other according to logical processes)

The system of Lexico-Grammar is divided in 2 subsystems :

1. Taxis

rdinators (e.g. and, but, or) are used in parataxis, while subordinating conjunctions (e.g. because, although, if) are used in hypotaxis. Examples of parataxis: - I went to the store and bought some groceries. - She is smart but lazy. Examples of hypotaxis: - Because it was raining, we stayed indoors. - Although he was tired, he continued working. In parataxis, the clauses are equal in importance and can stand alone as separate sentences. In hypotaxis, one clause is dependent on the other and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. It is important to note that the distinction between hypotaxis and parataxis is based on the semantic relationship between the clauses, rather than the grammatical structure.