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Lingua inglese II syntax - Prof. Paganoni
Prima lezione 07.10.
Syntax studies the level of language that lies between words and the meaning of utterances: sentences. It is the level that mediates between the sounds that someone produces (organised into words) and what they intend to say. The importance of syntax : you need to consolidate your competences in grammar and vocabulary, focusing on key aspects of grammar and syntax, but always with a practical application (structure to usage). We will link structures to usage (and abilities!). Phrase: sintagma
Sight translation The soon-to-be-dismissed manager made one last-ditch attempt to persuade the board that his decisions, however unfortunate, had been made in good faith. [ The soon-to-be-dismissed manager ] [ made ] [ one last-ditch attempt ] [to persuade the board] [that] [his decisions [, however unfortunate,] had been made in good faith.] Il dirigente prossimo al licenziamento ha fatto un ultimo tentativo per convincere il consiglio di amministrazione che le sue decisioni, per quanto inopportune, erano state fatte in buona fede. Translation In qualsiasi azienda, a prescindere dalle dimensioni, è, come è noto, di particolare importanza la funzione delle risorse umane. E’ di particolare importanza la funzione delle risorse umane -come è noto -in qualsiasi azienda -a prescindere dalle dimensioni (1) In any company, regardless of the size, the Human Resources department is, as is known, of particular importance. (2) As is well known, the human resource function (S) plays (P) a key role (O) in every company (optional adverbial) regardless of its size. Principle of Non-Separation Some parts of a sentence can’t be separated from each other, instead of the additional adverbials ( as is well known - regardless of its size ). What does it prove?
- that “understanding it all” does not mean you can translate it all
- the syntax helps with practical tasks
- that some syntactic structures pose challenges which can be overcome by analysing them contrastively
Timeshare: multiproprietà What is language made of?
- Sounds : meaningful sounds, which means that sounds are used in a meaningful way to distinguish between different words (minimal pairs). /fıt/ vs /fi:t/ /bʊk/ vs /lʊk/
- Words : de Saussure (1916): signs are differential, not natural. The sign “apple” points to the object apple, not by any natural means, but exactly by its virtue of being different from other signs (not a “banana”, a “car”, a “cat”…). Words are considered the most intuitively elementary “building blocks” of language and are perceived as being the closest one can get to a sort of “unit of meaning”. Are words truly the smallest unit of language?
dog, dog- s → grammatical morpheme love, lov- ing , lov- er → from verb to adjective to noun by adding morphemes! Hope- less - ness Morphemes Words are sets of phonemes that form morphemes, having free and bound morphemes (both expressed in between braces). Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units that make up words and serve a grammatical function (there are no morpheme-less words). Free and bound morphemes Free morphemes are words that can stand alone and have meaning, e.g. trip (noun), long (adjective), fly (verb). Bound morphemes cannot stand alone because they have no meaning of their own, e.g. -ly, un-, dis-, -ship, -ism. Bound morphemes are also called affixes and can either be prefixes (occurring at the beginning of free morphemes), e.g. unkind , dislike ; suffixes (occurring at the end of free morphemes), e.g. kindness , friendship ; or infixes (occurring in the middle of free morphemes, although they are not common in the English language). Words can have multiple affixes, e.g. un-like-li-hood. One word - one meaning? Is there a one-to-one correspondence between words and meaning? No. The same “word” can have more meanings, for example lead or knows / nose. What about “ We have run out of handouts”? Multi-word verbs We have run out of handouts. The boss finally gave in and agreed to a raise. We can look this word up in a dictionary. Metaphorical expressions: We all would like to have our cake and eat it too (la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca). Word classes Words can be classified into nine major classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions and conjunctions) and two minor word classes (interjections and numerals). Neologisms:
- Textpectation (the anticipation felt when waiting for a response to a text);
- Unkeyboardinated (when you’re unable to type without repeatedly making mistakes) ;
- Internest (the cocoon of blankets and pillows you gather around yourself whilst spending long periods of time on the internet) - Overtourism and Staycation Syntax is concerned with the rules by which words are combined into larger units: phrases, clauses, sentences. Building larger units of meaning: the next rank after words are phrases, since words are the constituent elements of phrases. At the phrase rank, we discover that it is possible to analyse each structure in more than one way and to study this phenomenon more closely, we will look at phrase structure in English. There is a hierarchical ranking of units in terms of their potential size.
- Highest units: sentences which consist of one or more ➢Clauses which consist of one or more ➢Phrases which consist of one or more ➢Words which consist of one or more
- Lowest units: morphemes
Swimming in a pool Non-heads are modifiers and in one-word phrases, only the head is present. Task 1 Using the properties of phrases mentioned before, find the heads of the following phrases. Note that in some cases there are phrases within these phrases. You should find the word which is the head of the whole phrase, and not the heads of any other constituents. The great big elephant : noun phrase Several very old books : noun phrase All the women in the moon: noun phrase Excellently presented material on Lady Havisham: noun phrase Rather thick in the head: adjective phrase Most awfully pleasant : adjective phrase Delighted by their arrival: adjective phrase Sitting in the room: verb phrase Bored out of his skull: adjective phrase Having delayed writing to you: verb phrase Syncopated rhythms of Africa: noun phrase Very lovely : adjective phrase or adverbial In trouble with the law: prepositional phrase Almost out of the woods: prepositional phrase Right above his neighbour's house: prepositional phrase Singularly unimpressed with Jeffrey: adjective phrase Is eating a big dinner: verb phrase Noun phrases
NP VP AdjP
Doughnuts (headword) are really fattening
These large sugary doughnuts filled with jam and cream are really fattening
We need to proceed both in terms of formal and functional features to classify the others. Functional constituents Like all phrases, the constituents of the English noun phrase can be analysed into both functional constituents and formal constituents. From a functional point of view, the noun phrase has four major components, occurring in a fixed order:
- The determiner(s) , constituents which determine the reference of the noun phrase in its linguistic or situational context;
- Premodification , which comprises all the modifying or describing constituents before the head, other than the determiners;
- The head , around which the other constituents cluster;
- Postmodification , which comprises all the modifying constituents placed after the head. Each functional component of a noun phrase (NP) can be further subclassified. The head is usually represented by a noun, but it can also be a pronoun: The girl went to school She went to school (personal pronoun) Someone is coming (indefinite pronoun) That is true (demonstrative pronoun) When a pronoun is the head, it usually occurs without premodification. Functional aspects Those / beautiful / flowers / in the meadow.
- Those: indicates what flowers we are talking about
- Beautiful: tells us something about the qualities of the flowers
- Flowers: head
- In the meadow: tells us where the flowers are Functional classification determiner(s) premodification head postmodification
These large sugary doughnuts filled with jam and cream. Task 2 Put each functional component in the correct column: a black dress with a non-matching blazer determiner premodifier head postmodifier
A black dress with a non-matching blazer. Mixed feelings. Love for the people surrounding us. Huge relief that he has been acquitted from all allegations. Volkswagen’s plan to recall cars affected by the diesel emissions scandal. The lack of information being provided to customers. Lawyers representing motorists.
determiner premodifier head postmodifier
- mixed feelings -
- love For the people surrounding us
- huge relief That he has been acquitted from all allegations
- Volkswagen’s plan To recall cars affected by the diesel emissions scandal
the lack of information being provided to customers
- lawyers representing motorists
The young climate activist in front of the Swedish Parliament: NP The young climate activist is in front of the Swedish Parliament: Clause Can you make up complex NPs? determiner premodifier head postmodifier
The small room in my house
The grammar book for scholars
The beautiful city where I went last month
A serious difficulty to establish relationships
This brand new game released on Nintendo switch
The difficult exam I didn’t pass last year
My latest experience in England
Determiners These beautiful shoes My fantastic friends His many talents The first time I saw you Such a wonderful day Any time you want All your troubles A thousand lies A million kisses All my love
Determiners are words denoting:
- possession ( my, your, his, her, their, etc ),
- proximity ( this, that, these, those ),
- distribution ( each, every, either, neither, both, all , etc),
- quantity (how much of something or how little of something like many, few, some, several, little and the counting numbers one, two, three , etc),
- reference (both anaphoric and cataphoric like the definite article the and the indefinite article a/an ),
- order (like the ordinal numbers, first, second, third , etc). Determiners show attributes which are extraneous to the objects the nouns signify. They form a category by themselves; and they are called determiners because they determine the way a noun is used in the context. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. These boots are made for walking.
Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. His several talents were uniquely applied in advancing the interests of his discipline. These last few days have been wonderful. The first few expeditions to Bylot Island had limited success. The first three articles of the US constitution set up the threefold separation of powers.
We can have predeterminers , central determiners and postdeterminers. Please note: we can have a succession of determiners, but never more than one element for pre- and central determiners. Example: I now earn twice my first salary. I remember * the my first salary. I remember my first two salaries. Predeterminers They come before ‟regular” determiners in a Noun Phrase. All the ministers resigned from the cabinet. Both the boys are clever. Half the apples are rotten. These predeterminers are followed by the + noun or demonstrative + noun (these + noun). Of-construction with a singular noun is used to say exactly what the fraction or decimal refers to and the value is less than one. Three quarters of a mile; two thirds of a cup ; half a liter and ¼ cup of milk (one quarter) The numeral needs to be followed directly by a plural noun if the value of the fraction or decimal is greater than one. one and a third kilometres; three and a half hours; two and a quarter cups Of-construction is optional: All (of) the ministers resigned from the cabinet. Both (of) the boys are clever. Half (of) the apples are rotten. But, if pronouns are used of-construction is required: All of them resigned from the cabinet. Both of them are clever. Half of them are rotten. There are some intensifiers which are used as predeterminers, especially in conversational English: such, quite, rather and what.
predeterminers Central determiners postdeterminers
all the previous
both her second
such this five
Determiners are words that introduce nouns and provide context such as quantity, possession and definiteness. Task 4 Put the words in the correct order.
- three / first / failed / the / attempts
- difference / their / a / quite / contributions / made
- our / engineering / both / study / sons / chemical
- several / we / successes / admire / his Task 5 matching
- All a. pre-determiner
- Second b. Central determiner
- Mine c. post-determiner
- The d. Not a determiner
Terza lezione 21.10.
Modifying the noun The function of determiners is to tell us something which defines the noun they relate to in terms of number, quantity, deixis (/ˈdeɪk.sɪs/ proximity or distance from the speaker). Nouns, however, can also be specified qualitatively, for example they can be modified (qualified, described) in many ways. Modification can be placed before the head noun ( pre-modification ) or after it ( post-modification ). Premodifiers Premodifiers are words which modify the head nouns they refer to and come before the nouns themselves. These doughnuts These sweet doughnuts (adjective) Chocolate doughnuts (noun) These jam-filled doughnuts What word classes can fill the premodification slot? Premodifiers can be adjectives , nouns and nouns in the possessive form. A foolish , expensive idea A leather suitcase Several party guests The London experience Children’s playground Composer’s music Occasionally items belonging to other word classes may appear in premodifying position, but these are exceptions: The then teacher Their do-as-you please attitude A larger-than-life quality
Very (adverb) big A rather/quite nice invitation *A rather/quite invitation Nice is a phrase (it can be expanded); it is a phrase within a phrase. Embedding : [a [ [rather] AdvP nice] AdjP invitation] NP The head
Pronouns, cardinal numerals and some adjectives which can appear pronominally may function as head in a noun phrase. Anyone may come. The magnificent seven. The innocent were allowed to leave. Postmodifiers They modify the head, but come after it. The proposal for a new building which the committee put forward last week. [The proposal [for a new building] [which the committee put forward last week] ] [The proposal [for a new building PP [which will be located on the riverside] ] ] Head nouns can be postmodified by both phrases and clauses. Phrases:
- Prepositional phrases: very common ( A game of cards )
- Adverb clauses: only occur postnominally when referring to time or place ( the trip abroad )
- Adjective phrases: very rare postnominally ( the Queen Consort, the president elect, the UN Secretary-General ) Clauses:
- Relative clauses: the man I met yesterday
- That -clause: the belief that God exists
- Comparative clauses: Rachel gave a louder cry than Miriam did.
- A range of non-finite clauses: the storm brewing at sea (preparando); a place to stay (both are non-finite relative clauses). Postmodification The people in the queue started complaining. [The people in the queue] started complaining. The woman sitting in the front seat of the car was talking on the phone. [The woman sitting in the front seat of the car] was talking on the phone. Students interested in the trip should sign up by tomorrow. [ Students interested in the trip] should sign up by tomorrow. This is not a book to read at night unless you love having garish nightmares. This is not [a book to read at night] unless you love having garish nightmares. This is a more interesting conference than the one I attended yesterday. This is [a more interesting conference than the one I attended yesterday]. Realisation of postmodification
Task 4 How do you divide the following NPs?
- Some very old cars: [[Some] [very old] [cars] ] "Very" modifies old not "cars!
- Six plants in the shop: [[Six] [plants] [in the shop]] Make up possible postmodifiers
Identify the functional elements in the NPs highlighted below Growth across the eurozone economy has accelerated, driven by a strong performance from the exporting powerhouse Germany.
Eurozone GDP rose by 0.3% in the final three months of 2014. That is an improvement on the 0.2% growth in the previous quarter, raising hopes that Europe’s weak economic recovery is picking up pace.
The many interesting case studies collected in this book helped me understand the problem. The first three theory-oriented chapters set the stage for the following ones.
Quarta lezione 28.10.
Adjective phrase: structure An adjective phrase consists of an adjective and all of its modifiers and complements. The smallest possible adjective phrase therefore consists of just an adjective. Sally wants a really big car Really (adverb) is part of the adjective phrase of which big is the head. Function of AdjP Adjectives are always the heads of adjective phrases and AdjPs function in 2 ways:
- within a NP to modify a head noun or pronoun;
- directly in a predicate, to predicate something about a subject or object (interface with clause structure). AdjP have an attributive or a predicative function /prɪˈdɪk.ə.tɪv/. Toyota manufactures hybrid _ vehicles. The company is_ profitable.
There are several
new _ models in the pipeline. At the_ recent _ launch, the press were_ present in scores. The new intern is very
knowledgeable. The canteen is always
crowded. Position of adjectives (1) Noun-modifying (attributive and postmodifying position) AdjPs that appear within the NP can either precede or follow the head and if the head is an indefinite pronoun, then an AdjP that modifies it must follow the pronoun. Anybody clever should be able to turn that thing into something useful. (postmodified) BUT: A clever person should be able to turn that thing into a useful object. (attributive) Compare The new _ intern is very_ knowledgeable . VP The canteen is always crowded
. VP The new _ intern is a very_ knowledgeable person . NP The canteen is always the most crowded _place _. NP Constraints (2) Some adjectives can only appear as heads of attributive adjective phrases (adjectives that cannot be put in a postmodified position, but only in the attributive position). The late (=the one who recently died) Queen of the UK liked horses. *Someone late like horses *I consider the Queen of the UK late *The Queen of the UK is late The sole reason *the reason sole *the reason was sole Adjective phrases with certain heads are typically postpositive. The concert proper lasts 2 hours, but the event is much longer. (3) Some adjectives can be the heads of postpositive or predicate adjective phrases, but not of attributive adjective phrases. The children present watched the accident in horror. *The present children watched the accident in horror. When used predicatively, present describes the current existence or attendance of a person or thing, as opposed to its absence.
**Identification of Adverb phrases** In the following examples, identify the adverb phrases, focusing on their constituents (i.e. the elements which appear in them). _She walked_ **_quietly_** _past the door Quite_ (premodified by intersifier) **_honestly_** _, I don’t know what to say She works very_ (premodified by intensifier) **_hard_** _indeed However_ **_fast_** _you may run, you will_ **_never_** _beat Jacobs She left really_ **_early_** _I didn’t know she could skate so very_ **_well_** _indeed We drove past too_ **_quickly_** _to see well_ (complementation) _Rosalie,_ **_formerly_** _of Cincinnati, died on Tuesday in Miami They won more_ **_easily_** _than ever_
AdjPs and AdvPs can occur in fairly similar (but crucially different) structures. The hungry cat (NP) was feeling (VP) aggressive (AdjP predicative) The hungry cat (NP) snarled (VP) aggressively (AdvP refers to the verb) AdjPs and AdvPs are fairly similar in their range of possibilities for pre- and post-modification! Adjectives and adverbs are usually premodified by intensifiers : The hungry cat was feeling very aggressive The new shoes pinched me rather uncomfortably Occasionally they can be postmodified by adverbs such as enough or indeed : She works hard enough. He is happy indeed. They can also be postmodified by prepositional phrases and infinitive clause : Mary is upset about her failure. Susan was talking too softly to hear her. Expand the AdjPs and AdvPs you find in these clauses Mary is busy.
- Mary is too busy to go out for a drink with us. Sue was running fast.
- Sue was running so fast that we could not catch her. Gordon was upset.
- Gordon was very upset.
- Gordon was extremely upset at his failure. Lola behaved aggressively.
- Lola behaved much too aggressively for her standards. Identify all the AdjPs and AdvPs
“The major challenge facing the company during the next twelve months will largely be the considerable execution risks associated with the rapid ramp up in production of a [[totally] new] vehicle,” Bruce Clark, senior vice-president with Moody’s, said. “Tesla faces significant risks as it attempts to take production of the Model 3 from a targeted rate of 5,000 per week in early 2018 to 10,000 per week by year-end 2018. This targeted plan could put full-year production in excess of 350,000 units. This compares with a U.S. market for full electric vehicle that was approximately 85,000 units in 2016.”
“Such a [ startlingly ] rapid ramp in production is an important element in Tesla staying ahead of the [ likely ] competitive surge that will come from other more established automakers and, potentially , technology firms such as Apple and Google,” Moody’s analysts wrote in the research note.
“We expect the deal will sell and perform well in a hot market, but we see 5.25% as inadequate compensation for the risks of the business and weak asset protection”. What does weak modify? [weak [asset protection]] or [[weak asset] protection]? Some companies are [ just ] better than others. It could be name recognition, innovation, market share or any number of other attributes that makes a good company stand out from the herd. The important thing for an investor is being able to spot the eventual winners before they become household names. In this article we’ll take a look at three key attributes that make a company successful. Learn to spot them early , and you could find yourself riding the coattails to success too.
In 2024, ChatGPT is being discussed on an unprecedented scale. If you run a business, you’re [ probably ] aware of the revolutionary changes this technology brings. To name a few, ChatGPT is believed to improve customer experience, reduce costs, increase efficiency, and generate leads. The remarkable potential of ChatGPT makes it [ exceptionally ] beneficial to businesses. However , its potential risks must not be overlooked. Additionally , compared to most AI chatbots, ChatGPT stands out by remembering and learning from the current conversation, making the experience [ more ] personalized.
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the weather [ in Vancouver] PP [ on [any given day [ in winter] PP ] NP] PP Please notice that “in winter” postmodifies “day”: we are talking about “any given winter day!” (k) the high wooden fence around our yard the [high] [wooden] fence [ around [our yard]] (l) a serious conversation with Sharon about her problems a serious conversation [ with Sharon] [ about her problems] Task 2 : Analyse (a) She wrote a book on a linguistic topic. PP (b) She sent the manuscript to her publishers. PP (c) They considered the book publishable. AdjP predicative adjective (d) The book might become a best-seller. NP (e) She was pleased with the sales. PP (f) The book got surprisingly good reviews. AdvP noun phrase embeds the adj phrase premodified by an adverb (g) She gave all her friends copies of the book. NP (h) Book sales made her a millionaire. NP Predicate of the verb, object of the verb (i) The book was on the best-seller list for many months. PP (j) She has appeared on several TV talk shows. NP (k) She has received rather large royalty checks (diritti d’autore). AdjP rather is an adverb (l) She was in on the plans from the very beginning. PP (in on = compound preposition) (m) Some people regard her as a guru. PP (n) She hasn’t responded to the critics. PP Prepositional phrase embeds the noun phrase (o) The book is not highly-regarded by some. AdjP (p) She has agreed to the terms of the contract. PP Towards clause structure Effective from 2024 (AdjP), the AI Act (NP) introduces [stringent requirements [for high-risk artificial intelligence systems] PP ] NP [across the European Union] PP. In vigore dal 2024, la legge europea sull’intelligenza artificiale introduce criteri vincolanti per i sistemi ad alto rischio di IA in tutta l’UE. Effective from 2024: adjective phrase which intern contains a prepositional phrase. Verb phrase The verb phrase includes the verb plus all the compulsory elements which go with the verb. Susan is sleeping Meggy drives carefully Meggy is cleaning her room Bob put the shopping bag on the table, then left
- Susan accompanied.
- Mary became. Some clauses can be incomplete (and ungrammatical) because the verb requires something else to go with it (verb + compulsory elements). Reasons for looking at the VP + embedded elements Taking the view of the VP enables us to focus on the type of verb we are dealing with; it also helps us identify the clause constituents which are determined by the verb (crucial if we want to learn to use language correctly!), but it detracts from the lexical verb proper. For the purpose of this part of the course, we will focus specifically on the verb itself (through keeping the previous points in mind).
- What kind of information does the verb phrase carry?
- What elements carry this information?
- What is the structure of the verb phrase?
Verb phrase answers It carries information about mood , tense , modality , aspect and voice and it is structurally really different from all the other phrases (NP, AdjP, AdvP). There are 2 functional parts:
- the auxiliary , a grammatical morpheme carrying information about mood, tense, modality and voice;
- the main verb , a lexical morpheme carrying its lexical information and often an inflection.
Use of auxiliaries If a finite VP is composed of a single lexical verb, it will be marked for tense ; I saw Ann in the cafeteria if auxiliaries are present, the first will be marked for tense. I did n’t talk to her. There are restrictions on the order of auxiliaries ( Fred might have arrived by now * Fred have might arrived ). Task 3 : Identify types of auxiliaries Mary goes to the gym every day. Does [support, marked for tense] Sue like it? I do n’t [support, marked for tense] think so. Tim is [aspect: continuous] working on a new project. He may [modality] be [aspect: continuous] travelling to Ireland next week. Has [aspect: perfect] he been there before? Lexical verb been He will [modality: future] like it for sure. He might [modality] want to stay longer. He has [aspect: perfect] been [aspect: continuous] telling everybody about his trip. He will [modality] probably be [aspect: continuous] talking about it for many months to come… He has [aspect: perfect] been [voice: passive] selected from a large pool of applicants.
- is travelling next week: morphologically continuous, but aspect is future The mood The mood system in English is divided into four subcategories: - Indicative ( Liz can do that ) - Interrogative ( Can Liz do that? ) - Imperative ( Do that! ) - Subjunctive ( Had Liz done that, … / If Liz does that… ), its forms were absorbed, it is not marked, but it is still there. The indicative mood indicates It conveys to the listener/reader that the speaker/writer is making a statement , referring to the real world in an honest, direct, relevant way (cf. Grice’s maxims). The majority of our expressions are indicative in mood and speakers signal the indicative mood by using word order : when the auxiliaries take their ‟usual” position following the ‘subject,’ we interpret the clause as being in the indicative mood.
