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ENGLISH LINGUISTICS II
Lezione 1 WHAT IS A TEXT? In linguistic communication we can distinguish between: ● NON TEXT ● TEXT A NON TEXT consists of random sequences of linguistic units (sentences, paragraphs or sections in any temporal or spatial extension) which doesn’t communicate. A TEXT is an extended structure on syntactic units that is marked by both → COHERENCE among the elements and COMPLETION. Not only a unit of grammar but it’s semantic unit based not on form but on meaning. The verbal message conveyed written texts can be analysed from 3 di erent perspectives: communicative situation, textual structure and content. 1 COMMUNICATIVE SITUATION
2 TEXTUAL
STRUCTURE
3 CONTENT
Any communicative act takes place in a situation or context adresser→message(me aning+ code+channel)→adress e 3 aspects: Cohesion Coherence information structure TEXT FORMING DEVICES The meaning communicated by a verbal text may be labelled as: ● Explicit content(what is said, written) ● Implicit content(what is implied in what is said or written) ● 1 The communicative situation takes place in a situation or context where we have an adresser who conveys the message (meaning+code+channel) → Addressee (Destinatario) we share knowledge.
Analysis of the di erent function that language in communication can perform → Each function focuses on one of the components of the communicative situation. →expressive =focus on the adresser’s feelings (to apologise, to approve, to praise) →directive= focus on the addressee, we want to influence the addressee, (to order, to persuade, to recommend) →informational= focus on the meaning (to ask for/give information to describe, to declare…) →metalanguage= when we teach a language, focus on the code we use it when we talk about language itself →interactional= focus on the channel when we want to create, maintain, and end contact (talking about the weather, health) used in speaking. →contextual= focus on the context, deictic words (here, now, there, then, we, you…) but also tenses that keep the text together. →poetic= focus on the code and meaning not only in poetry, but also in ordinary language (metaphor, simile, metonymy…) = stylistic devices An example of metaphor is : America is a melting pot An example of simile is: she sings like an angel; her smile is as bright as the sunshine An example of metonymy is: the power of the crown was weakened ● 2 Textual structure which has 3 aspects: Which are the ties to identify in a text, the devices, tools etc.. 1 COHESION - when a text has linkage → FORMAL TEXT LINKAGE = So a semantic relation between an element in the text and some other element that is crucial to the interpretation of it. Ex: wash and core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish→ six cooking apples→them → COSEHIVE TIES It can be attained (raggiunto attraverso) by means of → REFERENCE - SUBSTITUTION/ELLIPSIS - CONJUNCTION - LEXICON.
- REFERENCE → Is a relation between linguistic expressions where one determines the interpretation of the other. We have the referential cohesion which are:
- CONJUNCTION → It expresses the relation between DIFFERENT PART OF A TEXT. There are di erent types of conjunctions such as temporal, causal, additive and adversative connectives. Eg Tom came in, then he sat down. Put together a di part of the text by a connective. What is connective? It is a word or a phrase that links words or sentences together (and/ but/ when → cohesive ties) COORDINATING CONJUNCTION! put together di erent components. connecting words: phrases (are parts that can’t leave on their own, they cannot consider themselves authonomes) eg: which do you prefer? Red or blue. connecting clauses: di erent with (like with but) when we talk abt clauses: ex of language where we can find subject and predicate (main clause and subordinate clauses). After, (al)though, as, before, if, since, until, when, where etc … SUBORDINATE CONJUNCTION! which needs a main clause to make a complete sentence. eg: After we had talked on the phone (S.C) I wrote down what we had decided (M.C). other eg: After, (al)though, as, before, if, since, until, when, where etc. ADDITIVE CONJUNCTION! means that we add something. Eg: and, in addition, as well as. eg: AND … TOO → to connect two words, phrases and clauses, eg: AS WELL AS → another connective that helps adding/ addition. CAUSAL CONNECTIVE → focus on the cause. The most commonly used in books are: BECAUSE, SINCE, AS so they are used to connect causes, reasons, so they simply connect cause and results. TEMPORAL CONNECTIVES → Can provoke some troubles when we have to use the future! some of them are: when, while, after, before, until, as soon as etc … ADVERSATIVE CONNECTIVES → They introduce a contrast, some of them are: BUT, WHEREAS (more formal) , HOWEVER. viene usato dopo il punto e virgola; semicoma. eg: I want to lose weight but I hate diets (so there is an obstacles presented with BUT), even though, even if.. etc
- LEXICAL COHESION!: It depends on the choice by the encoder of a PARTICULAR LEXICAL ITEMS, which are related to the relevant PRECEDING EXPRESSIONS through some recognizable semantic relation.
- We can find → REPETITION - SYNONYMY - ANTONYMY
-Repetition is important because they give emphasis : she like flowers, in particular wild flowers -Antonymy: boy/girls -Synonymy :henry/the wretched fool Lezione 2 Another textual structure is the → 2 COHERENCE: works on meaning (sematic) Coherence doesn’t depend on the linguistic forms in the text (though these will contribute to it) BUT on MEANING. And if we are speaking there must be a common ground between what we are saying and what the people understand. Coherence derives from an i nteraction of the text and the participants, it is always relative to a particular receiver and context. And what is the context? CONTEXT : In linguistics and discourse analysis CONTEXT is the way participants define the relevant dimension of the communicative situation of a text, conversation or message. Halliday (1991) describes CONTEXT as ‘THE EVENTS THAT ARE GOING ON AROUND WHEN PEOPLE SPEAK OR WRITE’ Factor non linguistic → like body language, Nontextual → like the setting, like the speakers, the listeners The communicative dimension it includes: whenever we analyse a speech act! ● The setting (time/ place) ● The ongoing Activity ( eg: lecture about linguistic) ● Participants and their roles ( speaker, friend, journalist) ● The Goals, Plans/Intentions ● Relationship of the Participants (sharing disciplines) What is defined as the BackGround Knowledge? Is the main resource when we try to comprehend discourse to decode messages and we have to share this type of knowledge. Human communication relies quite heavily on Context and on the Shared Knowledge that the interactants have. A TEXT CAN BE COHERENT WITHOUT BEING COHESIVE Eg: Sp 1 ‘Chocolate Biscuits’ Sp 2 ‘Me! Me!’
developed, and the comment on what has been added and divided with the RHEME technical term. What is interesting in analysing a text → continuous flow of comments. Eg: Economics borders on other important academic disciplines. Sociology, political science, psychology, and anthropology are all social sciences whose studies overlap those Economics. What is important →the Theme topic sentence is easy to identify bcs it is always at the beginning. So Theme comes at the beginning and the new information is usually at the end of the sentence. Possible question: Would you please try to find the way the information is structured in a text? For what concern → 3 The content we refer to the meaning communicated by a verbal text that may be labelled as → EXPLICIT text content (what is written) or IMPLICIT (what is implied) And in doing so → we have to say that we have 3 degrees of IMPLICIT CONTENT. ENTAILMENT → IMPLICAZIONE → what follows from a statement: if one statement is truth even the 2 is truth (logic consequence). Works on the level of the sentence. (RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO SENTENCES) Eg → she has a grey cat the entail is that she has a cat! Eg: Ann rides her bike to school every day (her poss adj makes me understand that Ann has a bike) LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE. PRESUPPOSITION → PRESUPPOSIZIONE→ it is an assumption that the speaker/ writer makes before the theme ‘I am going to write’. What is necessarily true in another statement has to be true. It indicates a background assumption that functions as a precondition. Eg: She has just left? What is the assumption before I say so? For a few minutes she was here! So the background of the subject is that i know that she was here a few minutes ago for eg. Remembr. Presupposition is PRIOR BEFORE and it is not explicit and is implicit bcs are not written or said! EXPECTATION → the type of prediction on the basis of what i read or written.
For eg: There are plans to strengthen the company’s position in the market. EXPECTATION applies fully in informational and directive language. I expect something to be a certain way. So how many levels of analysis should we pay attention to, when we analyse a text? 3 → PHONOLOGY (voice) / GRAPHOLOGY (written), GRAMMAR, LEXIS (vocabulary) These are the 3 main perspectives. We are working now in EXPLICIT: WHAT IS WRITTEN. PHONOLOGY/ GRAPHOLOGY → think of an e-mail, report, newspaper article, now we see that the visual disposition of the text on the page, (hierarchy on the ideas that are made, less imp, more imp) in fact the LAY-OUT is important in thermes of discovering meaning in a text, like capitals, italics, bold types used to foreground key words. Di erent sizes of print: used to signal the position/ hierarchy of paragraphs. Don’t underestimate the lay-out of an article/ written text! GRAMMAR → the syntactic structure, may highlight meaning, the grammar structure is used to highlight di parts of the text. Parallelism → ‘one market, one money’ LEXICAL ITEMS/ LEXICAL/ VOCABULARY→ Repetition of vocabulary, normally we find that repeating is normal bcs tends to focus to attract you, to the KEY-WORDS/MAIN CONTENT AREAS. wE CAN FIND WHAT IS CALLED. THE VERBAL PARALLELISM → Devices of intensification words are repeated in equivalent positions. Even to emphasise. Let’s take the example of Martin Luther King: I HAVE A DREAM. This is clear eg, bcs makes you feel that in a speech is necessary to intensifie. SEMANTIC REPETITION (synonyms, antonyms, quasi-synonyms) (worry-fear) ZOOMING ON VOCABULARY: THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY. Quote by David Wilkins : Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Quote by Stephen Krashe theoretician: when students travel, they don’t carry grammar books. They carry dictionaries. So the first di erence is: CONTENT WORDS vs FUNCTION WORDS.
SOCIAL ROLE VARIATION : roles, relationship btw interlocutors. FIELD OF DISCOURSE VARIATION: topic a ects style of discourse, eg academic course. Sport vs Linguistics and the choice of words are really di of course. MODE OF DISCOURSE VARIATION : written, oral. CULTURE-SPECIFIC VOCABULARY → Some words and fixed lexical phrases (similes, proverbs, metaphors) refer to specific aspects of the FL culture. Eg: college in America is University, but college in uk or australia is a private school, Public school is a private school in the UK, really expensive, in America it is a normal school. So we can notice that there is a CULTURE DIFF. Eg: eagle eyed : a person that can spott things in a quickly way (used in America) COLLOCATIONS tendency of 2 or more words that can be friends’ they can co.occur in discourse. Eg: BLONDE used for hair and not to a paper colored in YELLOW! So blonde it is exclusively with the word ‘hair’ and animate nouns like woman or lady (strong collocation). So again the relationship can be strong or not. The tendency of words to appear with greater than random probability in their textual context. Eg → COMMIT has just one possibile collocation, commit a crime, a murder, suicide, theft. We have collocations that apparently are normal but we make mistake with them, like: TALL BUILDING and NOT HIGH BUILDING. BUT if we ask people to provide a word for a phrase like this : John ______ money. We can use , need, have, spend, earn, save etc. → meaning that we have a limiting range of choices (words co-occur in pair) While A NOT STRONG COLLOCATION could be NICE, PERFECT, GREAT, we can associate it with pleasantness, such as nice view, nice car etc.. So to summarise we must know! DEFINITION OF COLLOCATION What is a collocation? ● It’s a natural combination of words
● It’is a combination of two or more words which frequently occur together ● It’s the way english words are closely associated Types of collocations: 2 approaches. ● grammatical/syntactic collocations : can also be defined as Colligations, noun, verb, adjective+preposition (ex: abide by (to obey roles, when you stick to roles, ex: access to and acquainted with (to be familiar with) ● semantic/lexical collocations: deal with the level of vocabulary or lexic such as noun, verb, adjective+preposition (ball bounces, spend money, cheerful expression) Lesson 4 AGENDA → CORPORA PRAGMATICS SHARED KNOWLEDGE GRICE: COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE In which way can we have access to this type of info? CORPORA → USE OF COMPUTERS TO ANALYSE LANGUAGE → QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS Corpora (Schnitt who is one of the founders of this part studies) DEFINITION Large collections or databases of language incorporating stretches of discourse ranging from a few words to entire books. There are so many di of corpora, modern corpora etc… And what is the consequences of this study? We don’t have words in isolation but we can study the way relationships happen in everyday life, so CORPORA has revolutionised the way we view language, words and their relationship. What can I find in it? Using a corpus? ● FREQUENCY → how frequently various words occur (word counts)
IMPLICATURES → or that which a speaker implies and which a listener infers. Practical ex: How are you? A simple question that we observe in everyday language as a routine, we know that the answer will be ‘Im fine and you’ etc… Ex: I’m hungry → the semantic meaning → the speaker feels pangs of hunger. CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES Speaker → enter tired at home and her mum is there, the PRAGMATICALLY meaning is the request of food (so it depends on the context) if pronounced by the same speaker after having completed lunch → COMPLAINT PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE → I learn pragmatic competence bcs I know how to behave in a social/ cultural context. So what is the conclusion that we can draw? → A SET OF INTERNALISED RULES ON HOW TO USE LANGUAGE IN SOCIOCULTURALLY APPROPRIATE WAYS Everything is about the SHARED KNOWLEDGE → Language users make linguistic decisions and choices based on certain presuppositions with respect to the SITUATION and the PARTICIPANTS in the COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION. Such decisions are based primarily on what is perceived as SHARED KNOWLEDGE. But remember, even if we share the same language and the same cultural background we can have a MISCOMMUNICATION → BREAKDOWN IN COMMUNICATION Grice (1975) at a tea party (in britain it is a formal setting) Vedi esempio su slide prof EXAMPLE BY GRICE To be an old bag is a negative connotation used for something not fashionable. GRICE examines data about conversation → he is an expert. COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE → without them there are no conversations Without coherence or logic links we cannot have a clear communication. ‘Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs (is it now or it refers to the past) by the accepted purpose or
direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (it depends on the purpose) Every interaction has to contribute to these principles!’ If we want to communicate e ectively we have to use descriptive maxims and GRICE developed 4. THE MAXIM OF QUANTITY: make your contribution as informative as required / giving as much information as needed, no more no less ( it is important from culture to culture) THE MAXIM OF QUALITY: Make your contribution truthful / avoid information that is not supported by evidence/ try to stick to facts without adding opinion that can be proven/ tell the truth THE MAXIM OF RELATION: Make your contribution relevant/ say things that are pertinent to the exchange of communication THE MAXIM OF MANNERS: The way which we convey our ideas / Make your contribution clear/ avoid obscurity and ambiguity, be clear on what we say. These maxims can be considered basic assumptions that people follow in their communicative interactions. BUT! Interactions violate these maxims in order to convey (implicit) information Ex: ‘What a beautiful room!’ I can show with emphasis that it is beautiful but also I can also hide it to not o end. What is the maxim that we are violating? The maxim of quality and a bit of manners. BUT! When we have two FL (foreign language) speakers we have UNINTENDED VIOLATIONS OF THE MAXIMS can easily occur when the speakers don’t share the same language/culture. The maxim of quantity may be di erently perceived by speakers of di erent cultures → BEING IMPOLITE OR EVEN AGGRESSIVE. Can pragmatic competence be taught? Are there books? The answer is NO! We can be aware of the importance of pragmatic competence by being exposed to the language, living abroad, watching films in the original film, there are lots of tools. So it is di cult to grasp it/ to achieve it bcs it is fully learned with experience!
structure? They are organised in a simple way: the main thesis (what the writer thinks about it) he will then give us extra views of information to prove his idea! With data for example. (for a typical english essay) SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTATION (sub genres of argumentative one ) : here the writer relates events, I refer to the so-called literature GENRES. I HAVE TO SAY THIS IS MY HYPOTHESES but I also have to refer to other possible research topics. Then i have to quote these documents to verify the evidence (footnotes, bibliography, etc) there are also others forms of INVESTIGATING ELEMENT (statistics, diagrams, illustration, photos etc) vedi esempio slide 121 (question in exam: identified the kind of text) There are also other features of scientific argumentation: formal and technical style - the use of a non personal third person point of view or the first person plural point of view - the use of the passive voice and probable mode (can, could, may, might) scientific register use a lot of passive form bcs the interest of the writer is to find the process. NARRATIVE TEXT : Novels/fiction, short stories etc .. The criteria/ the hinge is time, so they focus on people, relation etc but the most important is TIME. Narrative texts deal mainly with actions and events and they follow a chronological order. Their purpose is to ENTERTAIN (di erent from the argumentative text which is to convince the reader!) DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS: to create an image. The main criteria is SPACE and the purpose is to create an image, a person, a place, object or event. CLARITY and Precision are shown to the reader. The vocabulary must be extremely precise and clear (adjective and adverb, and structure such as metaphors, similis). Phenomenon - registering sentences are typical of descriptive texts. The descriptive text type is divided into: IMPRESSIONISTIC DESCRIPTION (subjective point of view) TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION (objective point of view) So don't forget these 2 di type ones tries to communicate, the other must be technical. Then we have ‘Stand alone’ descriptive text like brochure, sort of a text on its own. EXPOSITORY TEXTS : This is to EXPLAIN that normally is not so easy. The constituent elements of a phenomenon are presented and studied in neutral, objective and analytical style. These texts may explain something by contrast, cause-e ect, problem-solving or categorization. (encyclopaedia is neutral objectif thing and try to explain what phenomenon is like, but also magazine even if not in all
the pages) third person, generalisation, neutral style (these underline the purpose of this kind of text) INSTRUCTIVE TEXTS: basically what to do, it instructs as, it can be technical but not formal (simple, immediate) The structure is imperative and ‘suggestion’ forms, the communication purpose is to give instructure (like recipe). ACADEMIC TEXTS TYPES: When you write your ‘tesi’ characteristic? → Formal or semi formal vocabulary - sources are given - Objective, impersonal style (it is not my own opinion but shared by community) Complexity is the key word on this kind of text and also Formality and precision, i have to provide my readers with facts, figures like charts, and visual elements to support the presentation, Objectivity and another criteria Explicitness (organise, concession (guide the reader) which parts of text are given explicitly) and Accuracy in the choice of vocabulary. Hedging → to be absolutely careful in expressing opinion: using conscious vocabulary and language; eg: the use of modals, like could, should are extremely important and this has to do with the choice of the language. Responsibility → provide justification, quotation, citing the sources, and if I am adding something personal so hedging, then a clear organisation. Lesson 6 ● THE READING PROCESS ● SCHEMA THEORY ● WAYS OF READING ● TIPS FOR EXAM FOCUS TODAY: How to read an academic text! The reading process → what happens in our mind when we read. In the past reading was considered as a passive skill - reading, active skill - but facts has demonstrated the opposite Bcs it involves mental operations that take place at the same time. I have to interpret what is in the print form (convention simbol) to recognize those signs but simultaneously, working on the semantic
A ‘SCHEMA’ is an organised unit of knowledge for a subject or event / possessing a mental framework based on my past experience which allows us to make sense of those settings. And they play an important role in our comprehension as a natural part of the reading process (EXPECTATION) eg: of the restaurant in the slides. Eg: text which I don’t possess any ‘schema’ I will surely won't be able to understand and some of the 3 levels we saw will be active, like vocabulary. For example, the economic text we read with the teacher → vocabulary like a traditional floor is translated with piazza a ari, but we are not specialists in this field so we may have doubts when translating and interpreting. WHICH SCHEMATA? The ‘Floor Community’ schema is generally possessed by NYSE DIFFERENCE WAY IN WHICH WE CAN APPROACH A TEXT. EXPLORATORY READING ANALYTIC READING CRITICAL READING In real life why do we read, and how do we read? Knowledge, pleasure, to get information, and how do we read? Selectively → in order to catch some ideas, in everyday life we read selectively, eg: getting information from a newspaper or when we log in a web and you select the article. The selective reading is also known as SKIMMING (like the milk) I want to GIST which refers to its general meaning, SCANNING. Scanning is reading a text quickly in order to find specific information, e.g. figures or names. It can be contrasted with skimming , which is reading quickly to get a general idea of meaning. Exploratory reading aims to get an OVERALL VIEW OF THE TEXT. How? By finding out the MAIN TOPIC of each paragraph - by focusing on most immediate aspects of the content / form - by singling out specific pieces of information. ANALYTIC READING → careful reading and main idea. What type of attitude? More intensive! How? By studying the linguistic and rhetorical features of the text. By paying attention to what the text tells you about the author. CRITICAL READING → To understand your own response to how the code/text sounds in your own opinion, and discuss the way it relates to your
own values and beliefs. sometimes it is di cult when reading the foragne language (like irony bcs change from country to country). READING ACADEMIC TEXTS: bibliography is the first step. Every academic text has a TITLE and SUBTITLE (google the author, if he/she is well known) What has he/she published? It is important to know how many texts are available, the EDITION is important too so how old is the book? Survey the text features normally we find abstract, the contents, introduction or preface, references, bibliography and index). Abstract → a kind of brief summary to allow researchers to decide if it is worth reading the full article. Standard structure of an abstract : Background position (what does it imply)
- Aim and thesis of the paper - method of research - results of research. What are the suggested steps? Analysis of the textual features: ext types (argumentative, descriptive etc..) the genre, the general structure. Analysis of interpersonal features of the text: Voices it includes/ relationship writer-reader. Focus on the world that is represented by the text: THE THEMES THE MAIN TOPICS FOR THE EXAMS ● TEXT/NON TEXT ● TEXTUAL STRUCTURE ● COHESION -> REFERENCE -> anaphora, cataphora, exophora (individuali nel testo) ● COHESION -> substitution, conjunction, lexis ● COHERENCE -> context ● INFORMATION STRUCTURE -> theme/ rheme ● CONTENT ● IMPLICIT/EXPLICIT ● LEVELS OF LANGUAGE ANALYSIS ● PHONOLOGY/GRAPHOLOGY ● GRAMMAR ● VOCABULARY -> function words/ content/ polysemy/ register etc.. ● PRAGMATICS -> shared knowledge ● GRICE -> cooperative principle ● GENERES
