Scarica Morphology and Semantics of Language: Understanding Phonemes, Morphemes, and Meaning e più Appunti in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity!
Phonems : speech sounds Graphemes : written letters Morpheme : smallest meaningful units of language 1 Free morphemes: they can stand by their own as fully fledged words 2 Bound morphemes: can only survive by being attached to free morphemes Suffixes : bound morphemes that follow the root Prefixes : bound morphemes that come before the root Infixes : bound morphemes in the middle of the root Lemma : root word [word that you would search on the dictionary] Compounding : when 2 or more free morphemes are combined Borrowing : in the sense that english “stole” words from other languages (new words) anglicising the pronuce Shortening : some words that are borrowed, get shortened (ham burger → burger) Anacronysm : can be atomic (each element is pronounced separately ex FBI) or molecular (pronounced as a genuine word ex NASA) Retronysm : words created in responce to later developments Neologism : new coinages words Semantics : referes to the construction of meaning in languages Pragmatics : refers to meaning construction in specific interactional contexts (called meaning in interaction) Sense :central meaning of a linguistic form and how it relates to other expressions Reference : relationship between language and the world → referring expression ( a word or phrase that defines a particular entety in the world Deixis : blend of semantic and meaning in context Deictics expressions: expressions that change meaning depending upon who is using them; 5 kinds: 1 Person deixis [i, you,her, Peter] 2 Place deixis [here,there,this,that] (^3) Time deixis [now, today, yesterday] 4 Social deixis [madame, sir, doctor] 5 Discourse deixis [when i said that] Grammars : theories about how languages work Sentence : systemic structure of word in well-formed phrases; these phrases are put in a well-formed position called clauses These well-formed clauses have a complete and meaningful unit: this unit stands as the subject of the verb 5 kinds of phrasal categories : 1 Noun phrase (NP) 2 Verb phrase (VP) 3 Adverbial phrase (AdvP) 4 Prepositional phrase (PrepP) 5 Adjectival phrase (AdjP)
Kinds of morphemes: 1 Indipendent (free): can stand on their own 2 Dependent (bound): must be attached to a free morpheme 3 Grammatical: give grammatical information and mark the role of the word in the sentence 4 Creative (derivational): form new words
Homophone : words that have the same sound but different meaning Synonym : words that have same or similar meaning Polyseme : word that have several meanings
Metaphor : A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. Idioms : units of language with a fixed grammatical and lexical content; the meaning cannot be worked out from a study of individual words contained in the idiom [they work in a metaphorical level] Corpus ( plurale di corpora ): collection of texts from various sources Denotation : literal or primary meaning of a word (dog=carnivous quadruped...) Connotation : Personal or emotional meaning that the word carries on it (dog= ginger); dipends on personal (individual) responses.; Hypernysm : words that have a classification function (fruit, animal, flower) Hiponysm : words with a more specific meaning than hypernysm words (apple, orange;dog, cat, lion…) Etymological information : info about the origins of the word Sentences : made up of individual groups which form patterns with other groups of words; pattern can be fixed but the have to follow a certain order. Nouns : are the most prominent of forms in language, quite a few text can be made up just with nouns; they form patterns with other words and make naun phrases
Verbs : create links usualy between a grammatical subject and a grammatical object (the man (sbj) in walking (vrb) the dog (obj)); the absence of verbs in a text removes any sense of time (if there is no verbe there is no tense Pronouns : [personal (i, you, your, his, her) to identifyng speakers] [possessive (my, your, her, his) indicate ownership] To create an atmosphere of constant action and movement it’s best to use no finites verbs in the main course in the text. Finite verb : verb which tells you when something happened (past/present) how may were/are involved (plural/singular) and who the participant are ( I, we, you) Non finite verb : (-ing form) can be reffering to any number, tense, first, second and third person Modality : the relationship between the writer and the reader of a text Modal verbs : [Reassurance/possibility (may, could, will, would)] [control(must, should, shall, may) established through an extensive use of imperative form] Formality : it’s important in making shure that the correct relationship is established Ellipsis : grammatical marker of informality; grammatical structure in which jey grammatical words are left out or are left to the listener reader to fill in. Active/passive form: to pass from an active form to a passive form:
- Move the subject of the active word to the end afo the sentence making it the passive agent. Add “by”.
- Move the object of the active verb to the front of the sentence, making it passive subject.
- Replace the active evrb phase by a passive one, usualy a form of the auxiliary verb “be” followed by the “-ed” participle. Get-passive form (got):
- Commonly used with personal pronouns; use to describe things which have happenend to us personally.
- When is used, is often used without reference to an agent (the agent is the source of responsibility of the action done)
- (^) It’s more emotive
- frequently suggest things which are problematic
[1]HOW WE UNDERSTAND TEXTS
We normaly use various kinds of knowledge which we draw on as we understand language in use; When interpreting a text we naturaly draw on years of experience not only of words and grammar but also of how language is used in real life (we interpret the utterance as a request of some sort, we also know that the function of language can be quite different from its form)
- Text themselves are only one factor of comprehension
- In tryng to achieve comprehension we draw on our prior knowledge
- Every interpetation in different one from the other (cause our prior knowledge is different)
- In comprehension we also draw on elements of the context Macro level aspects (higher order features) Level Type of knowledge World Shared general knowledge of the world Society & culture Socio-cultural knowledge (understand social relations and social roles Context Pragmatic knowledge (speech act) & physical factors Text & genre Intertextual relations, genres (including function e structure of genres), discourse models Conceptual structures Mental models, schematic knowledge (schemas, frames, scripts) Micro level aspects (lower order features)
Level Type of knowledge Cohesion Cohesion & cohesive devices Sentence Syntax Word & concept Lexis, concepts Element Sound/ letters or script
Macro -> Micro= top down Micro -> Macro = bottom up Jeffries says: “The levels model of language is a metaphorical device to visualise the relationship between different sizes of a unit but they all occur in the same stream of speech” Guardare pagina 10/11 per esempio su testo
Frame : non sequentialy ordered information Script : sequentialy ordered information, (like schemas the precice makeup of scripts will be different from person to person, from culture to culture, in terms of their elements and sequence)
So schemas set up expectations which help us to predict what we will find in any new situation, scripts help us predict what will happen next; A reader or listener combines his knowledge of the world (party structured in the form of schemas and scripts, together with knowledge of lexis and grammar, in order to build up interpretations. e Types of schema : 1 World knowledge: including encyclopedic knowledge and previous knowledge of the speaker; to help us construct a content schema for a text 2 Knowledge build up from the text so far 3 Previous experience of this type of text (a text schema) Formal schema : concerning the form of the text Content schema : concerning the content Ex pag 44 The genres are ideal while texts are the actual; texts are free, flexible, they can borrow from more genres (or none) and in the practice of comprehension it’s not a problem. In literature it’s difficult to make classifications account for all texts (because most times texts are hybrids, or draw from many genres) so like concepts they are fuzzy and flexible.
Genre : diverse ways of acting, of producing social life, in ste semantic mode; it comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some aet of communicative purposes (function) Jargon : specific language to a particular occupation or social group (ex cooking terms) Table 3.1 pag 50
Smith’s division of discourse modes:
- Description
- Narrative
- Argument
- Information
- (^) Report [table 3.3 pag 57] Style : the general way in which language is used in any written or spoken text (in terms of it’s fromality/informality); the main determinant ( van Dijk) is the context of use, but this does not mean only the physical location (the reason the style choice is the social occasion)
So while the genre of conversation is something of structured which users can recognise and respond to, style is the general informal (or formal) way of talking. [Summary of genre, styles and discouse modes page 60/61]
Discourse modes differ from genres because they do not have a specific social function in themselves Narrative: Used mainly to entertain, to seek the reader’s attention and interest and maintain it through the use of the story
UNIT FOUR: Sentences and structured Grammar is only one level of the linguistyc analysis (interpreting grammar is not the same as interpreting a discouse)
Sentence : made from groups of words which form patterns whith other groups of words. (these patterns have to follow a certain order)
Nouns patterns: Nouns are one of the most prominent of forms in language (quite a few text can be made uo by only nouns (ex london is a noun and can stant on its own in a signpost) Nouns are not only single words, they can create patterns whith other words to create noun phrases (such phrases can stand on their own ex home-made celery soup )
Without main verbs (ommision of main verbs) there is no clear relation between the objects of the noun phrase (objecs either seem not to act upon one another or have no particular “action” of theire own) The absence of main verbs in a text also removes any sense of time (if there is no verbs there is no tense) The words ending with -ing are called present participles (theire function is to create sense of continuing, if suspende, acrion)
Prounoun patterns: Personal prounouns are the main mean of identifying speakers addresses and others ( I, You, He, She, It, We, They ); Possessive prounouns indicate ownership ( My, Your, Her, His, Their, Our )
Nouns can be used in a pre-modifying position (more nouns there is more tecnical or specialized the reference will be) Main finite verbs provide a kind of anchor for the action (main finite verbs is thus a verb that tells you when something happened (present/past) how many were involved (singular/plural) and who the participants are. By contrast when a non finite (-ing) form is used it can be refered to any number, tense, first, second and third person [look at page 114/115 for expls]
Modals and modality Whenever instructions are given, modality enters the relationship between the writer and the reader, of a text (modality takes a number of different forms but the presence of modal verbs is particulary significant) Control modal verbs: Must, should, shall, may (extensive use of imperative form which unambiguously inform us what to do and what not to do) Possibility medal verbs: Can, could, will, would Modality in language underlines our subjective assessments of things
Formality : it’s important in making sure that the correct relationship is established between producer of a text and the receiver of the text (getting formality wrong can lead to problems with comunication) The clearest grammatical marker of formality is the use of ellipsis ( ellipsis is a grammatical structure in which
active/passive da 128 a 132
UNIT FIVE: Text and context Discourse analisys is used to refer to the analisys of both spoken and written text. (in the past it refered to only spoken text) Speakers make an effort to give their interactions shape and coherence (not in a conscius way but in a integral part of co-operating with other speakers to make meaning) Usualy we use the metaphor of weaving ( loose the thread of th conversation) so when we talk we “weave” to create a pattern of some fabric. Not only spoken language runs but written language too so modern use of discourse can also be used in written text.
Tense : Refers to the way verbs are used to signal time (it can be marked to show that an action happened in the past; normaly by adding -ed) [information texts usualy use present tense verb forms because they are intendet to tell the reader about “the nature of things”] [fiction text usualy use past tens verb forms] (exeptions are possible) Voice : refers to the way different emphases can be given to sentences; they are two tipe of voices: Active : Subject- angent subject [he sold the car] Passive : Agent Phrase- subject [the car was sold by him] (add to be) In the passive voice sometimes it can be left out the agent phrase Passive voice is often a way of depersonalising a text, because in leaving out the Ag. Phr. The people and forces behind actions can be downplayed, leaving the process itsef to major focus. Any written genre wanting to highlight istitutional procedures rather than individual concerns (ex. Legal documents) will tend to choose passive structures rather then active ones.
Theme : referes to the first part of the sentence, which is where the subject matter of the sentence is usually laid out for the reader. It coveres all the material before the main verb. The end of a sentene is called focus. The focus of a sentence can become the theme of the next sentence.
The context for any text is the larger culture which surrounds it, and the reading of any text is the result from the interplay of the text it self and the cultural framework that the reader brings to it. (culture seen as all the factors that bind groups together in all aspects of social life)
Cohesive= adjective
