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Morfosintassi Inglese 2
Come usare questo file Questo manuale è pensato per lo scritto a crocette e riconoscimento rapido. Non è un riassunto minimo: contiene le parti Piotti più probabili, integrate con la base Morgana necessaria per non sbagliare morfologia, word formation e sintassi. Studialo in ordine una volta, poi ripeti le sezioni “Exam trap” e “Domanda tipica”.
Mappa degli argomenti da dominare
1. Morphology: morpheme, morph, allomorph, free/bound, lexical/grammatical, inflectional/derivational. 2. Lexeme, word form e grammatical word: distinzione fondamentale per i trabocchetti. 3. Word formation: compounding, affixation, conversion, blending, clipping, backformation, borrowing, acronyms, initialisms, reduplication, eponymy. 4. Semantics completa: livelli del significato, denotation/connotation, paraphrase, entailment, inclusion, contradiction, anomaly, ambiguity, polysemy e homonymy. 5. Semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy, complementarity, converseness, hyponymy, co-hyponymy, meronymy. 6. Syntagmatic relations e MWUs: collocations, idioms, binomials, similes, proverbs, routine formulae, discourse organisers, colligation, Sinclair. 7. Word knowledge e lexical competence: perché il lessico è centrale, core vocabulary, receptive/productive competence, Kachru. 8. Word classes: open vs closed classes, content vs function words. 9. Phrase types e headwords: NP, VP, PP, ADJP, ADVP; finite/non-finite verb phrases. 10. Clause, sentence, simple/compound/complex; coordinators e subordinators; SVOCA. 11. Dictionaries, lexicography e corpus linguistics: OED, dictionary entries, online dictionaries, tokens/types, N-grams, frequency.
1. Morphology: struttura delle parole
Morphology is the area of grammar that studies the internal structure of words. In morfosintassi, non si guarda solo al significato generale della parola, ma a come la parola è costruita. Una parola può essere divisa in unità più piccole, alcune libere e altre legate, alcune lessicali e altre grammaticali. Frase da ricordare Morphology studies the structure of words; syntax studies the structure of sentences. Morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit of language. È un’unità astratta di significato.
Example: friends = friend + plural -s. Friend è un morpheme lessicale; -s è un morpheme grammaticale di pluralità. Exam trap Il morpheme non è la forma concreta: quella è il morph. Morph: the concrete realization of a morpheme. È ciò che vedi o pronunci. Example: In friends, friend e -s sono morphs concreti. Exam trap Domanda tipica: “The morpheme is the concrete realisation of a morph” = false. È il contrario. Allomorph: one of the different realizations of the same morpheme. Example: Plural in cats, dogs, watches; irregular plural in men, teeth. Exam trap Gli allomorphs non sono morphemes diversi: sono varianti dello stesso morpheme. Esempio guidato: houses houses = hous-es. Morphs: hous + -es. Morphemes: HOUSE + PLURAL. Il significato lessicale è HOUSE; il valore grammaticale è PLURAL.
2. Free, bound, lexical e grammatical morphemes
Questa è una delle distinzioni più frequenti. Devi incrociare due criteri: il morpheme può stare da solo oppure no? E porta significato lessicale o funzione grammaticale? Categoria Può stare da solo? Funzione Esempi Free lexical morpheme Sì Porta significato lessicale/dictionary meaning book, friend, run, happy Free grammatical morpheme Sì Porta funzione grammaticale and, but, the, if, of Bound derivational morpheme No Crea nuovo lexeme o cambia significato/classe un-, im-, -ness, -able, -ity, -ise
4. Lexeme, word form e grammatical word
Questa parte sembra semplice, ma è piena di trabocchetti. Il lexeme è l’unità astratta di dizionario. Le word forms sono le forme concrete che quel lexeme assume. La grammatical word è il lexeme associato a un valore grammaticale specifico. Lexeme: dictionary entry; abstract unit behind a family of forms. Example: WALK = walk, walks, walked, walking. Word form: the concrete written or spoken form. Example: walk, walks, walked and walking are different word forms of WALK. Grammatical word: a lexeme plus grammatical meaning. Example: take = TAKE + present; took = TAKE + past; taken = TAKE
- past participle. Trabocchetto: PUT I put the bag down every day; I put the bag down yesterday; I have put the bag down. Same word form: put. Different grammatical words: present, past, past participle. Trabocchetto: same form, different lexemes bear as an animal and bear as a verb (“to tolerate”) have the same word form, but represent different lexemes. Questo si collega a homonymy.
5. Word formation processes
Word formation riguarda i processi attraverso cui l’inglese crea nuovi lexemes. Questa è una delle parti più probabili dell’esame: spesso chiedono di associare una parola alla strategia corretta. Affixation: Aggiunta di prefissi o suffissi. Example: unhappy, sadness, publicise, quickly Exam trap Se c’è un affix riconoscibile, pensa ad affixation. Se crea nuovo lexeme è derivational; se adatta grammaticalmente è inflectional. Compounding: Combinazione di due o più free morphemes/lexemes.
Example: bookshop, lockdown, ready-cooked, mother-in-law Exam trap Il compound può essere scritto attaccato, con trattino o separato. Non guardare solo lo spazio grafico. Endocentric compound: Il significato è comprensibile dalla head interna: X è un tipo di Y. Example: bookshop = a type of shop Exam trap La head di solito è l’ultimo elemento: bookshop è un tipo di shop. Exocentric compound: Il significato non è direttamente dentro il compound. Example: redhead, paperback Exam trap Serve sapere a cosa si riferisce nel mondo reale. Copulative compound: Entrambi gli elementi contribuiscono allo stesso livello. Example: African-American, bitter-sweet Exam trap Non c’è una head dominante nello stesso modo degli endocentrici. Conversion / zero derivation: Cambio di word class senza cambio di forma. Example: friend (noun) -> to friend; Google -> to google; social distance (verb) Exam trap Conversion e zero derivation sono due nomi dello stesso processo. Blending: Fusione di due parole, spesso tagliando pezzi. Example: brunch, edutainment, guestimate, hairapy, Brexit Exam trap
Example: to hoover, sandwich Exam trap Hoover come verbo = eponymy/brand-based formation. Reduplication: Ripetizione o variazione ritmica di suoni. Example: flip-flop, walkie-talkie, goody-goody Exam trap Attenzione ai tre tipi sotto.
Types of reduplication
Exact reduplication: ripetizione identica. Example: so-so, goody-goody, mama Ablaut reduplication: consonants remain similar, vowel changes. Example: zig-zag, criss-cross, flip-flop Rhyme reduplication: la rima resta, cambiano consonanti iniziali. Example: hodge-podge, fuddy-duddy
6. Semantics: study of linguistic meaning
Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. In Piotti non basta sapere questa definizione: devi riconoscere i livelli di significato, le relazioni semantiche e i tipi di ambiguità. La parte di semantics è una delle più importanti del corso. Lexical semantics: studies the meaning properties of individual words or lexical items in isolation. Example: greasy as applied to engine, chips, hair, or person has different effects. Sentence semantics: studies the meaning properties of sentences and the semantic relations among sentence parts. Example: Alan lives in Toronto entails Alan lives in Canada. Discourse / utterance semantics: studies meaning in extended discourse and context.
Example: The meaning of an utterance may depend on speaker, situation and previous discourse. Traditional semantics vs modern view Traditional semantics assumes meaning is simply the sum of word meanings and that words name objects directly. Piotti stresses that this is incomplete: stress, grammar, context, pragmatics, concepts and sense relations matter. Extension: the set of entities a word denotes in the world. Example: The extension of dog is the set of all dogs. Intension: the set of defining properties shared by the referents. Example: DOG includes properties that make something count as dog, not cat. Perché extension/intension conta Two expressions may have the same extension but different intension: they point to the same entity/set, but conceptualize it differently.
7. Basic semantic relationships between utterances
Paraphrase: two utterances have the same meaning or very similar meaning. Example: Philip purchased an automobile = Philip bought a car. Exam trap È simile alla synonymy, ma tra utterances/sentences, non solo tra parole. Entailment / implication: one utterance logically implies another; if the first is true, the second must be true. Example: Alan lives in Toronto -> Alan lives in Canada. Exam trap Non funziona sempre al contrario: Alan lives in Canada non implica Alan lives in Toronto. Inclusion: one utterance includes a more specific meaning. Example: I like fruit includes I like apples in the sense of broader category.
Example: fox = clever/cunning person. Exam trap Molto probabile a crocette: denotative meaning vs connotative meaning. Polysemy: one word has several related meanings. Example: domestic = relating to home/country; domestic = house servant. Twitter = bird sound/social network. Exam trap I significati sono collegati storicamente o concettualmente. Homonymy: same form but different, unrelated lexemes/meanings. Example: bug = insect / spying device / software defect; bear noun vs bear verb. Exam trap Il confine polysemy/homonymy può essere difficile: per l’esame segui gli esempi dati dal corso/domande. Homograph: same spelling, different pronunciation/lexeme. Example: lead metal vs lead verb. Homophone: same pronunciation, different spelling/lexeme. Example: meet/meat.
9. Paradigmatic semantic relations
Paradigmatic relations are relations of substitution/exclusion. They hold between words that can occupy similar positions or belong to the same lexical field. Piotti le collega al mental lexicon e alla capacità di organizzare il lessico. Synonymy: two lexical items have the same or nearly the same meaning in a given context. Example: exit = way out; begin = commence. Exam trap Absolute synonymy is rare. Near synonyms differ by register, collocation, variety or context.
Hyponymy: relation of inclusion: X is a kind/type of Y. Example: blue is a hyponym of colour; apple is a hyponym of fruit. Exam trap Hypernym/superordinate = category above; hyponym = specific item below. Co-hyponymy: two or more items at the same level under the same hypernym. Example: knives and forks under cutlery. Exam trap Non è antonymy: sono “sibling terms” nello stesso campo lessicale. Meronymy: part-whole relation. Example: head is part of body; wheel is part of car. Exam trap Se ti chiede parte/tutto: meronymy. Antonymy: gradable oppositeness. Example: hot/cold, long/short, rich/poor. Exam trap C’è una scala intermedia: warm, cool, quite hot. Quindi non è complementarity. Complementarity: absolute opposition: denying one means asserting the other. Example: true/false, alive/dead. Exam trap No third possibility, not gradable. Converseness: reciprocal relation where terms imply each other mutually. Example: buy/sell, husband/wife, teacher/pupil. Exam trap Non sono contrari: descrivono la stessa relazione da due prospettive.
Exam trap È una frase completa, non solo un gruppo di parole. Routine formula: fixed social/discourse expression used in interaction. Example: How do you do? You know. Exam trap Serve a gestire la comunicazione, spesso formulaica. Discourse organiser / linker: expression used to structure discourse. Example: as I said, on the other hand, on the downside. Exam trap Serve a collegare parti del discorso, non a descrivere un oggetto. Colligation: regular association between lexical item and grammatical pattern. Example: I noticed him hanging around; on the downside. Exam trap Collocation = words together; Colligation = word + grammatical pattern. Non tra due parole singole, ma tra una parola e una costruzione grammaticale. Sinclair: open choice principle Language can be seen as a set of slots filled freely by the speaker, constrained mainly by grammar. Sinclair: idiom principle Much of language is semi-preconstructed: speakers use ready-made or semi-fixed sequences. Words do not occur randomly; they tend to come in patterns.
11. Word knowledge, lexical competence and
varieties
Piotti dedica molto spazio al lessico perché lexical knowledge is central to communicative competence. Non basta conoscere la traduzione di una parola: conoscere una parola significa sapere forma, pronuncia, spelling, significati, connotazioni, collocations, register, variety, frequency e contesto d’uso. Pronunciation and spelling: sapere come una parola si pronuncia e si scrive. Example: lead metal vs lead verb: stessa grafia, pronuncia diversa. Meaning and functions: sapere che cosa significa e che funzione grammaticale svolge. Example: Google as noun vs to google as verb. Register/formality: sapere se è formale, informale, slang, technical. Example: sack/fire/downsize differiscono per registro. Variety: sapere in quale varietà è usata: BrE, AmE, AusE, regional/social varieties. Example: holiday/vacation differiscono anche per varietà. Holiday e vacation sono near synonyms , non perfect synonyms, perché cambiano per: variety / register / context Non sono sempre intercambiabili. Frequency: sapere quanto una parola è comune. Example: core vocabulary contiene parole molto frequenti. Collocational behaviour: sapere con quali parole tende a comparire. Example: heavy rain, strong coffee, commit suicide. Connotation: sapere se la parola ha valore positivo, negativo o neutro. Example: greasy engine neutral; greasy hair/person negative. Receptive vs productive lexical competence Receptive/passive competence = parole che riconosci leggendo/ascoltando. Productive/active competence = parole che sai usare parlando/scrivendo. La competenza ricettiva è normalmente più ampia. Core vocabulary Core vocabulary consists of essential, highly frequent words shared by adult speakers. Per i
Domanda tipica Nouns, adverbs, lexical verbs and adjectives are open word classes because newly created words can be added to them = TRUE. Determiner: word that introduces a noun phrase. Example: the board, our several achievements. Postdeterminer: item after a central determiner and before adjectives/noun. Example: our several achievements: several = postdeterminer. The many problems the = determiner many = postdeterminer problems = noun My two brothers my = determiner two = postdeterminer brothers = noun These three books these = determiner three = postdeterminer books = noun Regola veloce da esame Se una parola come: many several few two three sta dopo un altro determiner e prima del noun, allora è spesso: postdeterminer Formula da ricordare Determiner = introduce the noun phrase.
Postdeterminer = follows the main determiner and gives quantity/number. Esempio perfetto: our several achievements our = determiner several = postdeterminer achievements = head noun.
14. Phrase types and headwords
A phrase is a group of words organized around a headword. La headword è la parola centrale che determina il tipo di phrase. Questa è una delle parti più presenti nelle domande.
- Noun Phrase (NP): headword = noun or pronoun. Example: the strict teacher; some further patchy light rain; an impressive multiplicity of economic aspects. Exam trap In “some further patchy light rain”, headword = rain.
- Verb Phrase (VP): headword = main lexical verb. Example: may have been discovered; was watching TV; is not. Exam trap Auxiliaries are not usually the headword: in “may have been seen”, headword = seen.
- Prepositional Phrase (PP): starts with a preposition and includes its complement. Example: with the president; of homework; for the next day; at playing basketball.
Esempi di preposition: in, on, at, with, by, for, from, to, after, before, of, about, against.
Exam trap A PP can be inside an ADJP: good at playing basketball.
- Adjective Phrase (ADJP/AP): headword = adjective. Example: quite good at playing basketball; extremely bored with his job; particularly useful; not bad.
Headword method
- Identify the phrase boundaries. 2. Ask: what is the central word? 3. The central word determines the phrase type. “I’m quite good at playing basketball”: whole phrase = ADJP, headword = good.
15. Finite and non-finite verb phrases
Finite verb phrase: marked for tense/person and connected to a subject. Example: Katie was watching TV when the phone rang. “was watching” is finite because it has subject Katie and tense. Non-finite verb phrase: not marked for tense/person; often -ing, infinitive or past participle without finite auxiliary. Example: We found him smoking behind the shed. “smoking” is non-finite. Domanda tipica Just telling somebody they can overcome adversity isn’t enough: “telling” is a non-finite verb phrase.
16. Clause, sentence and sentence types
Phrase: unit organized around a head; does not necessarily have subject + verb. Example: with the president, very quickly, the strict teacher. Clause: unit with subject and verb; smallest grammatical unit expressing a thought. Example: Paul runs a bookshop. Sentence: largest unit of syntactic structure; must contain at least one main clause. Example: Amy watches football on television, but she never goes to a game. Simple sentence: one independent/main clause. Example: We took a taxi home after our wonderful evening at the theatre. Exam trap Long does not mean complex. “After our wonderful evening” is a phrase, not a clause,
because it has no subject + verb. Compound sentence: two or more main clauses joined by coordination. Example: Amy watches football, but she never goes to a game. Exam trap and/but/or often signal coordination, therefore compound, if they join clauses. Complex sentence: one main clause plus at least one subordinate clause. Example: If you give your details to our secretary, we will contact you when we have a vacancy. Exam trap Subordinators like if, when, because, that introduce dependent clauses. Coordinator: joins elements of equal grammatical level. Example: and, but, or. Subordinator: introduces a dependent/subordinate clause. Example: if, when, because, although, that.
17. Clause elements: S V O C A
Le clause possono essere analizzate con funzioni sintattiche: Subject, Verb, Object, Complement, Adverbial. Questa parte serve soprattutto per riconoscere pattern come SVOC. Subject (S): the element the clause is about; often before the verb in declarative English. Example: The news made her popular: The news = S. Verb (V): the verbal element/predicator. Example: made = V. Object (O): entity affected by the verb. Example: her = O. Complement (C): element that completes the meaning and refers to subject or object.
