Scarica Morfosintassi Inglese (Lingua Inglese 2) - Piotti e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity! THE CARACTHER OF ENGLISH English is a worldwide language, in fact it is spoken in different varieties and dialects all over the world, but merely in England. At the beginning of the 21th century it became the most important language used in international communication. It is wrong to think about English as a monolithic language, in fact it is spoken from about 1.5 billion people. There are different countries where English is spoken and we divide them into: • ENL (English as a native language): North America, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand. • ESL (English as a second language): former British colonies and the Commonwealth; English isn’t the native language, but plays a very important role in some situations such as education, commerce, government. Some examples are French-speaking Canada, India. • EFL (English as a foreign language): English is a sort of lingua franca used to communicate among people of different nationalities, or it is used to interact with English native speakers. According to the English scholar Crystal at the beginning of the 21st century there were: • 400 million people speaking English as first language. These people were spread over 4 continents: Europe (Britain and Ireland), America (USA and parts of Canada), Africa (South Africa) and Australia. • 400 million people speaking it as second language. • Between 600-700 million speaking English as a foreign language. This means that English is a world language. This position of English doesn’t depend on its pronunciation, spelling and so on, but on external factors such as economy, politics. English Variation As we have already said, English isn’t a monolithic language, so we need to take into account different types of it according to different kinds of variation. Regional and social variation Regional and social variations introduce dialects (also known as varieties). They are differences between language of different groups of speakers. We distinguish among: • Regional varieties, determined by geographical distribution of certain linguistic forms. For example we have national varieties of English: AmE, BrE, Canadian English. Even though BrE is a national variety, we can find more single local varieties in it, such as Irish English, Scottish English. • New Englishes are languages that come from the contact of English with other languages (Chinglish). These are non- native and hybrid English varieties because they have the characteristics of at least 2 different languages. • Social varieties (sociolects) are determined by social group speakers typically belong to. These varieties can be distinguished from one another in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and also spelling. In English there is no official institution that takes any decisions about how English should be used (Accademia della Crusca for Italian). So how do we know how to use the language? There is a type of Standard English that is commonly use in printing and writing, and which is also a model of foreign language teaching, in fact we find it in vocabularies, grammar books and so on. There are several national standards, especially in terms of accents and pronunciation. Actually, we know that for British the model variety is RP (received pronunciation) and General American for AmE. Historical variation We can also see historical variations in the English language. In Shakespeare’s texts we can see that there wasn’t a marked difference between V and U, furthermore the regular inflection of the third person was “th” (= hath). Only starting from the 17th century, the “s” started spreading all over England, coming from the Scandinavian languages of the South. Also past simple wasn’t given by the ending -ed, but from –‘d (asked = ask’d). The historical development of English is divided into stages: 1. Old English (600-1100): it is a period of full inflections because every word had its inflection, that actually didn’t depend on the gender of the object in the real world (maiden was neutral). The inflections also regarded the case and the number; personal pronouns of 1st and 2nd person also had the dual form (not only singular and plural). We have a relatively homogeneous vocabulary of predominantly Germanic origin. 2. Middle English (1100-1500): it is a period of levelled inflections because English started losing some of its inflections. There were a big change in vocabulary, with the introduction of French origin words. 3. Early Modern English (1500-1750): it is a period of lost inflections because all the inflections were lost. English was subject to the great vowel shift, which mainly interested English long vowels and diphthongs. Standard language gradually emerged 4. Late(r) Modern English (LModE): ca. 1700 – 1945 5. Present-Day English (PDE): 1945 – Present The criteria of the periodization of English are: the use of historical events to mark the beginning/end of the periods, the analyze of the linguistic structure of the language across different centuries and suggesting that a new period starts because that’s when we can see a significant linguistic difference in contrast to the previous centuries Studying variation in the history of English and in PDE: types of language change Phonological change It can be sporadic or regular; unconditioned or conditioned → Consonant cluster reduction: Old English /hl-/, /hr-/, /hn-/ → Moder English /l-/, /r-/, /n-/ → Present Day English Old English /gn-/, /kn/ → Modern English /n-/ > Present Day English For example: Hlaf ‘loaf’ → loaf / Hnut ‘nut’ → nu The most important unconditioned phonological change is the Great Vowel Shift (15th – 17th century). This is one of the reasons behind inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation in PDE. Moreover, it was the beginning of the distinction between RP (non-rhotic variety) and General American (rhotic variety). Morphological change Analogy: the process of modelling a language form in relation to an already existing form of that language. The extension of the use of plural inflection -s, used in most nouns which had a different plural ending in Old English. For example, hand/handa → Hands in PDE The extension of 3rd person singular present tense inflection -s in Early Modern English to replace –(a)th/-(e)th in Old and Middle English → it’s the supralocalisation of a northern suffix Verbal concord (=agreement) with collective nouns Morphs vs morphemes → Analysis of morphs: Question = verb Question + able = questionable, adjective with positive meaning Un + questionable = adjective with negative meaning → DERIVATION by means of prefixation and suffixation Analysis of morphs: References → Reference (free morph; root) + -s (bound morph; ending). Reference: noun, singular References: same noun, but plural → INFLECTION by means of endings (aka inflectional affixes) Analysis of morphemes: References →Reference (lexical morpheme = situation) + -s (grammatical morpheme = plural number) Plural/past tense endings and contracted forms (future tense, negation, possession etc.) are all bound morphs. Prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, possessive adjectives, auxiliaries, articles and negatives particles are all free morphs. Affixes All affixes are bound morphs and they can realize grammatical and lexical morphemes. Grammatical morphemes → inflectional affixes (aka endings) Lexical morphemes → Derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) Derivational affixes Inflectional affixes Either prefixes or suffixes (e.g. re-, un-, -ly, -ness, etc.) Only suffixes (-s, -er, -est, -ed, -ing, -’s, etc.) Optionally more than one per word (e.g. unfriendly; dismissal, etc.) Only one per word (e.g. cars, *cars’s, etc.) Attach to a limited number of free morphs (e.g. –ment, - (c)ation, -al, -ance/-ence for V > N, etc.) Attach to all (or more) members of a word class (e.g. –s for Sing > Pl nouns; -ed for Past simple/past participle tense of weak vbs, etc.) Have 2 functions: 1.Convert one part of speech to another (ex. Verb to noun; Adjective to noun etc.) 2.Change the meaning of original word Have 1 function: 1. Indicate grammatical meaning (pl. Number, tense, aspect, degree, case) Precede the inflectional affix (e.g. consumables) Follow derivational suffix(es) (e.g. consumables, etc.) Productive inflectional affixes of Modern English Plural number → -s (noun) Possessive case → -s (noun) Present (non-past) tense; 3rd person singular → -s (verb) Past tense/ past participle → -ed (verb) Present participle → -ing (verb) Comparative degree → -er (adjective, adverb) Superlative degree → -est (adjective, adverb) Root It’s the morph that remains when all bound morphs (affixes) have been removed. For example un-QUESTION-able. Most roots in English are free morphs and they cannot be further segmented. All roots realize lexical morphemes. They can be represented only by open word classes (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs). All foreign borrowing (ex. Dent-: dentist, dental) were independent words in source language; in PDE they’re bound morphs but some of these bound morphs • Carry core meaning • Perform the same function as roots do in other words • Unlike most roots, they’re a bound morph These are called bound roots. It’s very difficult to state their meaning; in fact, we need to know the language they come from, their history and their etymology. Examples of bound roots are: Convert, revert, subvert etc. Perceive, deceive, receive etc. Transmit, commit, remit, admit, submit etc. Transfer, refer, prefer, confer etc. Allomorphs and morphological realization rules in English Morph: the concrete segment/subpart of a word Morpheme: information realized through morphs (they can be grammatical or lexical) The distinction between morphs and morphemes is relevant with respect to the analysis of words (how morphemes are formally realized; how morphemes combine). Cat → Cats Ox → Oxen Woman → Women Shelf → Shelves Mouse → Mice They all realize the plural number (plural: morpheme) but they’re DIFFERENT MORPHS. We can have different morphs of the same morpheme; each variant morph of the same morpheme is called an allomorph. In other words, the same morpheme can be realized by several different morphs. Some morphemes realized by a bound morph which can be clearly distinguished and separated from the root; others cannot. Suppletive allomorphs Hot / Hotter / Hottest BUT Good / better / best. The same happens with verbs: Work /worked/ worked BUT go / went / gone. Sometimes the same morpheme is realized by etymologically unrelated morphs in the inflectional paradigm of a word → For example, Went / Gone (past tense morpheme) are etymologically unrelated. This phenomenon is known as suppletion; these morphs are called suppletive allomorphs. Man / woman → There’s a relationship between the two words (man), but originally was “wifman”: essere umano adulto donna. Suppletion is a feature that can be observed in many languages around the world. (Root) allomorphy and suppletion are used by synchronic linguists to account for unpredictable morphological irregularities in modern languages. In PDE we can find traces of historical language processes which are no longer productive. For example Indo-European ablaut (regular root vowel/consonant variation in the paradigm of a verb): sing, sang, sung etc. In PDE, they’re linguistic fossils. How do morphemes combine and how are they formally realized in English words? There are 3 different morphological realization rules in English, which explain how a morpheme is realized. 1. Agglutinative rule Cat / cats → Plural in -s. It’s an inflectional suffix and it’s still productive Ox / Oxen → Plural is realized by adding the morph -en. It’s an inflectional suffix, but it’s no longer productive in present English (no new English word is realized by adding this suffix). 2 morphs: cats = Cat + s / Oxen = Ox + en 2 morphemes : Cat / Ox (animal) + plural Numbers There’s a 1 to 1 relationship: one morphs realizes only one morpheme at the time → each morpheme is realized by a distinct morph. Morphs are simply glued together → This is called agglutinative rule 2. Fusional rule Woman / Women → The plural is formed by replacing -an with -en. But, in this case, the pronunciation of /o/ changes: there’s an internal vowel mutation, with a change of the quality of the root vowel → We talk about root allomorphy. Woman / women : just 1 morphs (woman) – 2 morphemes (woman person + plural number). The word can’t be segmented. There’s no 1 to 1 relationship: one morph realises more than one morpheme → portemanteau morph. The two morphemes are fused together in one morph: this is called fusional rule Mouse / mice - Goose / geese In both cases, the plural is realised by the root allomorphy (a change in the quality of the root vowel) and it reflects on spelling . Morphs: geese/mice Morphemes: Goose/mouse (animal) + plural number → They are fused together in one morph. This is another example of the fusional rule. • Agglutinative + fusional rule Cliff / cliffs → Agglutinative rule. Generally, those who just add -s are more recent than the other ones. Shelf / shelves → Agglutinative rule, because we add S. But there’s also a change in the quality of the root consonant: voicing of root consonant, which leads to a change in spelling → Fusional rule 3. Zero rule Sheep / Sheep → Zero morph: a morpheme which has no overt orthographic or phonetical realization but it has a concrete realization. Morphs (sing / pl): sheep Morphemes (pl): Sheep (animal) + plural number Even though the morpheme of plural number is fused in one morph, we can recognize it. There’s always a feature in the pronunciation, in the spelling or in the context that permits recognize it. → Clipping: also known as truncation, is removing some segments of an existing word to create a synonym. Productive processes in Word Formation in PDE Some of these processes are highly productive and others are not. Derivation has been productive all through the History of English language → prefixation and suffixation. Compounding is another very productive process and it’s a mainstay of lexical creativity in English. It’s when two or more lexical free morphs are combined to create a new word. Specific subtypes of compounds are especially productive: verb-to-verb compound (as stir-fry) and compound adjectives (as well-known; good-looking). Zero-derivation (aka conversion / functional shift/ derivation by a zero morph): it has moved from a marginal to a central position among word formation processes in Late Modern English and Early Modern English. In Present English, it has become a very productive process. Acronyms and abbreviations (aka initialisms): impressively productive since early 20th century, thanks to the USA President Roosevelt, which created lots of institutions whose names were quite complex, so that people began to refer to those institution by using their initial letters. Some scholars affirm that this massive increase of initialism is also linked by the increase in literacy (scolarizzazione) Blending: squeezing together two free morph → impressively productive especially in the 21st century and in spoken language. Very common types of lexical innovation in PDE Semantic change/shift → Consists in adding a new meaning and connotation to an already existing word (no new form, just a new meaning) A very productive process of semantic shift in PDE is metonymy related to Computer-mediated communication → English verbs of CMC (mail; to chat, to post etc.) Metonymy → a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept (for example: Buckingham Palace /N.10 Downing Street has announced today…) Metaphor → a figure of speech which directly refers to one thing by mentioning another one (for example: inflation, off-shore, zap ‘move quickly’) Euphemisms (for example: Ladies; Gents) Slang (for example ‘pig’ to mean ‘person’) Word formation processes: Derivation Countable (count + able) / uncountable (un + count + able) It’s the creation of a new word from an existing one by adding a derivational affix (prefix or suffix: by the means of prefixation and suffixation). When it comes to English, some of the derivational affixes are native affixes (they date back to the Germanic origins) while others were borrowed from foreign languages, especially from French. These borrowed affixes were contained in words borrowed as unanalyzable words; affixes became productive only later, when these words became part of the English language and were recognized as analyzable. Native (Old English) → un-; mis-; -ship; -ful; -ly; -less Foreign → dis-; de-; en-/in-; anti-; -ment; -ess Some native suffixes were, in Old English, independent words. Old English Present-Day English ‘Dom’: potere, dominio -dom (ex. Kingdom) ‘had’: stato, condizione -hood ‘scipe’: stato, condizione -ship ‘leas’: vuoto -less This leads to the phenomenon of hybrid formation : • Foreign root + native affix → Latin bases: clear-ness/ French base: faith-ful; un-botton • Foreign affix + native root → enlighten-ment / bake-ry Both native and foreign derivational affixes can be productive or unproductive, with intermediate stops within these opposite poles. The productive affixes are still used freely in Present English and added to many roots to coin a large amount of new words (for example -ful, -able, -ism, bio-). The unproductive affixes are preserved in just a few lexemes; they’re no longer used to create new words (for example the suffix -th: warmth, depth, wealth). In between, we find limited productive affixes, which can be added to a limited number of roots (for example -ship and -hood). Prefixation Prefixation: prefix + free morph → The prefix is a bound lexical morph and the root can be simple or complex (they’re decomposable in different parts). As in most European languages today, regular prefixes are class-maintaining. Vaccinationist (noun; 1851): advocate of vaccination / anti-vaccinationist (noun, 1869) Smoker (noun) / non-smoker (noun) - To use (verb) / re-use (verb) But there’s a small group of prefixes which are class-changing, but they’re no longer productive in Present English. For example: en-large; en-sure; a-broad; be-token; be-friend. Prefixes systematically affect the meaning of the word and they can be divided in many subcategories. They do not affect orthography and they do not produce any phonological change in the word they’re added to. Particularly productive prefixed in PDE are: • Neoclassical prefixes: they were contained in words borrowed from classical languages in 16th century; then used to form words that did not exist in classical languages. For example: mega-; hyper-; giga- bio-. They can be found in most European languages today. They can be found in computing, science and common speech. • Romance verbal prefixes: they’re foreign prefixes which entered the English language via Anglo-Norman (the kind of French brought over to England by the conquers in 1066). For example the prefix -de (detox, deselect, dehire). They’re older suffixes which retain their productivity. A semantic taxonomy of PDE prefixes: • Pejorative (maltreat, dislike, pseudoscientific) • Degree or size (overconfident, supernatural) • Attitude (antiwar, pro-Obama, counter-revolution) • Spatial relation (intercultural, international, transatlantic, subnormal) • Time and order (postmodern, ex-president) • Numerical value (bilingual, multitasking) • Repetition (rewrite, rebuild) • Reversal (undo, unfasten) Suffixation Suffixation: Free morph + suffix → the suffix is a bound lexical morph after a free lexical morph (root) English suffixes are class-changing: they change the grammatical category of the word they’re attached to (for example: -ful; -ly; -ify; -al). But there are also some class-maintaining suffixes (for example -ist; -ess; -hood; -kind; -ship; -ism). Vaccine (noun, 1799) / vaccinist (noun, 1804) : a person who performs vaccination Happy (adj.) / happiness (noun) Suffixes affect the meaning of the word they’re attached to and they often affect orthography (for example: deny /denial). They produce a phonological change in the root; sometimes also word stress is affected (for example: reduce / reduction – clear /clarity – electric / electricity). A Grammatical taxonomy of PDE: • Noun suffixes (largest category) -(a)tion, -dom, -ee, -ess, -ette, -hood, -ism, -ity, -let, -ness, -ment, -ship • Adjectival suffixes i/-able, al/ial, -ar, -ary, -ed, -esque, -ful, -ic, -ish, -less, -like, -ly, -ous, - some, -y • Verbal suffixes ate, -en, -ify, -ise/ize • Adverb suffixes: – ly, -wise A semantic taxonomy of PDE suffixes: • Diminutives -ling, -let, -y, -ie (e.g.: princeling, piglet, daddy, hoodie) • Feminine gender -ess, -ette, -rix, -ine (e.g.: actress, usherette, aviatrix, heroine) • Common gender -(i)an, -ist, -er (e.g.: librarian, Texan, Canadian, Marxist, Londoner, artist, etc.) • Abstract suffices -ship, -hood, -ism (e.g.: friendship, neighborhood, hoodlumism) • Meaning ‘nearly, not exactly’, as in greenish, coldish • Expressing ‘resemblance’, as in godly, lonely, childish Particularly productive suffixes in present English are established suffixes: • -wise: it means ‘concerning, in terms of’. -wise is often used in nonce-formation (words that are used once but they do not enter in the vocabulary of the language). • -ish: attached to roots from different word classes Moreover, there are recent suffixes, which are quite productive • -(el)fie (< selfie; spoken and informal).For example: nailfie, dogfie, twofie, etc. • -(a)holic (< alcoholic; spoken and written). For example: workaholic • -ish (esp. in brand names and websites). For example: Chairish, Bookish, the Ish Watch • -scape (< landscape). For example: cityscape • -gate (<Watergate; used in newspapers). For example: Qatargate, Camillagate etc. Word formation processes: Zero-Derivation (derivation by zero morph) It’s a very productive word formation process in PDE. From an original word we get a new word which exhibits the same internal structure as the original one (without any affix). What distinguished the two words is the word class they belong to. I bike to the department every day → Verb I have a new bike → Noun We must be properly resourced for the job → Verb We agreed to pool our resources → Noun (inflected according to inflectional rules of nouns) 1. The speaker encounters multi-morphemic word containing sound sequence that sounds and looks like a derivational affix → the presumed derivational affix 2. The source word was originally an analyzable unit, but it becomes synchronically analyzable as a syntagma: the speaker strips off the presumed affix. 3. The speaker ‘invents’ meaning for the leftover part by subtracting the meaning of the presumed affix The most common type is from nouns to verb Some examples: a. Editor → to edit / Television → to televise / Orientation → to orientate The source lexeme is a borrowed noun, mainly from French or Latin. Perceived suffix: agent, instrument b. Burglar → to burgle The source lexeme is a native word. Perceived suffix: agent c. Babysitter → to babysit / housekeeper → to house-keep / typewriter → to typewrite The source lexeme is a compound word from native bases only. Perceived suffix: agent, instrument Established lexical-semantic correlates in English: 1. Deletion of suffix (the most common type) Action noun in -ation → verb in -ate Foreign nouns in the scientific register : • Nouns ending in -ysis → verbs ending in -yse • Nouns ending in -osis → verbs ending in -ose • Nouns ending in -ion → verbs ending in -ise 2. Deletion of prefix The prevailing types of prefixes subtracted are: dis- / un- → Productive types of back-formation in English Time span: 13th century – 1960s According to Pennanen, there are 6 types (we only see 4 of them) according to grammatical category and meaning of input lexeme and grammatical category and meaning of the output lexeme. Type I Noun: instrument/ agent noun (supposed or real) Verb: action denoted by an instrument/agent noun Editor → to edit / dealer → to deal Type II Noun: action noun (supposed or real) Verb : denoted action by action noun Enculturation c to enculturate (the opposite of nominalization) Type III Adjective: taken to be a derivative form of the verb (ex. Present or past participle) → Verb Anonymized → to anonymize / computer-generating → to computer-generate Type IV Adjective : taken to be a derivative form of the noun → Noun Flashy → flash / greedy → greed / foggy → fog → Back formation in PDE English According to Stašková (2012), from 1960s to nowadays there are 9 types of back-formation processes: Pennanen’s types (from I to VI) + 3 (Types VII – IX) Type I (agent/instrument noun > V) : fairly productive in first half of 20th century Type II (Action Noun > V) : the most productive type over whole 20th century. It has experiences a dramatic growth since 2nd half of 20th cent. Also verbs from nouns denoting state/result rather than action: ex. bibliography → to bibliograph Type III (Adjective taken to be a derivative from the verb → V) : almost disappeared over 20th century Type IV (Adjective taken to be a derivative from the noun → N) : almost disappeared in 2nd half of 20th cent. Clipping A multisyllabic word is reduced in size, usually to one or two syllables Fiche – Phone - Glam – Limo – Spite – Venture - Flu How does it work? 1. A word comes into more common usage (for example: its frequency increases) 2. Speakers find they don’t need to use the full version to identify the concept 3. Speakers create a more quickly and easily pronounced version. It’s highly productive in informal spoken English. The output word is a stylistic variant of the old one Typically clipped words are longer neo-classical words: information → info / examination → exam / university → uni There are 3 types of clipping: • Back clipping (the largest group): glam(orous)/ limo(usine)/ memo(randum)/ lab(oratory)/ ad(vertisement)/ photo(graph)/ exam(ination)/ mike (microphone)/ Carb (carbohydrates)/ Veggie (vegetarian) • Front clipping: (micro)fiche/ (tele)phone • Mixed clipping: (in)flu(enza)/ (re)fridge(rator) Examples of crating clipping in PDE: PDE Hamburger (steak) → German Hamburger Splitting the word into its components, English grammar deduces that: ham-burger → ‘type of burger made of ham’ → burger → veggie/beef/cheeseburger Blending Blending means compounding clipped words. We have 2 words which are clipped and, then, smooshed together. The meaning of new words is connected to meanings of the originals. The vast majority of blends are nouns. Type a → 1st word: back clipping / 2nd word: front clipping Smog : smo(ke) + f(og) Infomercial : info(rmation) + (com)mercial Motel : mo(tor) + (ho)tel Type b Docudrama : docu(mentary) + drama → 1st word: back clipping / 2nd word: intact Filmography: Film + bi(ography) → 1st word: intact / 2nd word : front clipping Blog : web + log → 1st word: front clipping, but only final sound is retained / 2nd word: intact Blends are very popular in journalism, advertising and technical fields. Blends tend to belong to a more informal stylistic level. Acronyms and abbreviations : extreme economizing It’s the most important process based on shortening in the 20th century → CIA, NATO, AIDS, PIN, UN. Words consist of a number of first letters (aka ‘initialisms’). There are two groups: • Acronyms: they are pronounced as single phonological words according to spelling conventions of English. There are some well-established acronyms: NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization PIN : Personal Identification Number Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus Acronyms can be compounded too → scuba-diving • Abbreviations : they’re pronounced as a series of letters, read out one at the time. Well-established abbreviations are: CIA : Central Intelligence Agency BBC : British Broadcasting Corporation ELF : English as a Foreign Language But: CD-ROM → Half abbreviation, half acronym Abbreviations can combine with neo-classical affixes → EURO.NM (neo-classical affix + abbreviation) Historically speaking, initialisms represent the more recent group of shortenings Idioms An idiom is a sequence of words which functions as a single unit: it is syntactically fixed and semantically conventionalized. Characteristics of idioms are: • No or little variation is allowed • The semantics of idioms is usually not predictable for the meaning of individual words (non-compositionality) • The meaning is often metaphorical or proverbial • They are quite colloquial THE NOMINAL GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF ENGLISH Word formation consist in creating new words out of existing ones by combining bound and free morphs. It conveys lexical notions: entity, action, quality… Inflection consists in endings which are added to free or bound roots : grammatical morphemes. It conveys grammatical notions/categories: number, tense, gender, person… Grammatical categories in English: • Nominal categories are applied to nouns, personal/relative/possessive pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, articles and demonstratives (this / these / that / those) → Number, gender, person, case, degree, definiteness • Verbal categories: person, number (singular/plural), tense, aspect (simple/perfect/progressive), mood Some of them can be formally expressed by means of: • Morphology: through inflection (for example: endings), suffixation (derivational affixes) and compounding • Syntax: through word order or periphrasis (a phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection → For example: will future vs present simple for future time / Saxon genitive vs ‘of’) • Lexis: through separate forms (separate words which are totally unrelated) Some of these are regular and systematic formal means of expression (very few), while others are idiosyncratic and lexical (for example ‘dual’: both, two etc.) formal means of expression → They depend on the context and cannot be predicted on the base of morphological rules and principles of English: for example the Saxon genitive cannot be used in all context, but only when the possessor is animate. Number There are two terms of this category in English: singular and plural. Number is expressed by inflection in nouns (with the bound morph -s), demonstratives, 1st and 3rd person of pronouns. The concept of generic number (which incorporates both singular and plural) is used when one doesn’t want to specify number, is expressed in PDE in three ways: • Definite article + singular noun (for example: the tiger may be dangerous) • Indefinite article + singular noun (for example: a tiger may be dangerous) Tense Tense is the linguistic indication of the time of an action. In fact, tense establishes a relation: it indicates the time of an event with respect to the moment of speaking → deictic category. The only tense distinction expressed inflectionally in English is that between present and past. Mood Mood is a grammatical category of verbs and it is used to distinguish between facts and non-facts. This distinction perceives the action, on the attitude towards the event. Mood is mainly represented by inflection, but in some cases, we can also find periphrasis. When we talk about facts or conceivably real situations, we tend to use the indicative (= fact mood). It is normally expressed by simple and compound tenses of lexical verbs (= non-modal verbs) in English. When we talk about non-facts, we have two options: subjunctive or imperative. Subjunctive The subjunctive (= thought mood / what-if mood) is used to talk about situations that are hypothetical or contrary-to-fact, either with reference to the present or to the past time. In PDE it is realized through: • The inflected form of the subjunctive: 3rd p.s. without -s / be in the present / were in the past. • Modal auxiliaries to express possibility, probability and obligation: must, could. • Phrasal equivalents to the previous modal auxiliaries: have to, need to, ought to. • Modal adjectives / adverbs: necessary, probable, possible, possibly, maybe, perhaps. • First-person parentheticals: I think, I guess. • Polite use of past tense: I was hoping you would help. We can distinguish among different meanings and functions of the subjunctive. 1. Formulaic subjunctive which includes formulas expressing wishes: • Positive wishes or blessing are called optatives → God save the queen! • Negative wishes or curses are called maledictives → Satan take your soul! Formulaic subjunctive also includes fixed expressions in a few fossilized contexts: “there’s always food in the freezer if need be” / “Be it that John ask me, I’ll answer him” / “He gripped his brother’s arm lest he be trampled by the mob” 2. Mandative subjunctive which is used to express obligations, orders and intentions. It is very popular to find the periphrastic construction with should or inflected forms of the subjunctive in a that-clause. 3. “Were” subjunctive which is used in hypothetical situations or wishes. It remains like this in all persons. Imperative The imperative (= will mood) is usually used in events that are desired by the speaker to become true, so that he can order other people make that situation happen. Imperative can have different functions: 1. Rejection, insult. 2. Wish. 3. Encouragement. 4. Comment to somebody. 5. Threat 6. Directive imperative for orders, commands, instructions, requests, advice, permissions and prayers. The use of directive imperative presupposes an unequal power relationship between speaker and hearer; there can be a sort of authority, but in some cases, there isn’t (such as in instructions). Advice is based on the expert power: the speaker has access to knowledge that the hearer does not have access to. Voice Voice is an indication of whether the subject is performing the action of the verb (active voice) or whether the subject is being affected by the action (passive voice). The active form is expressed by the simple forms of the verb, while the passive is expressed periphrastically. Another distinction of voice is middle voice, in which the action of the verb reflects back upon the subject; in English, the middle is normally expressed with a reflexive pronoun. Determining word class Word classes are purely a matter of language. Traditionally, 8 are recognized. Words are devised into: • Content words, which carry the primary communicative force of an utterance, are variable in form, they make up a productive and open class and they fall into the major parts of speech. • Function words, which carry less of the communicative force of an utterance, express grammatical meaning, are invariable, make up a close class and fall into the minor parts of speech. LEXICAL SEMANTICS Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. We distinguish among lexical semantics (meaning of individual words), sentence semantics (relationship between parts of sentence), discourse semantics (rel. utterances used in context). Traditional semantics Traditional semantics says that the meaning of a phrase consists of a sum of the meaning of its parts. Therefore, it ignores the meaning of individual words, of the grammatical structure and of the context. Other assumptions: • The correspondence between word and thing is simple and direct → actually it’s quite complex. • Words name thing in the real world → actually many words denote abstractions or function words. • It’s possible to treat the meaning of individual words separately → actually words refer to the real world by means of concepts existing in the mind, or meanings internal to language (sense of a word). We distinguish between: • Extension of a word = set of entities that a word denotes in the world (its referents). • Intension of a word = set of properties shared by all the referents of a word (their defining characters). The distinction is important because the extension may be the same while the intension differs à the same man may be denoted by “Mr Jones” / “my neighbor” / “an accountant”. Basic semantic relationships 1. Paraphrase: an utterance is a paraphrase of another when it has the same meaning, but is expressed differently. 2. Entailment: an utterance entails another when the 2nd is a logically necessary consequence of the 1st (= implication). 3. Inclusion: one utterance encompasses another → entailment ≠ inclusion → I am allergic to dairy INCLUDES I am allergic to cheese and ENTAILS I get sick when I eat it. 4. Contradiction: a statement is logically contradictory. 5. Anomaly: an utterance has no meaning in the everyday world; it violates semantic rules. 6. Lexical ambiguity: a word or phrase allows more than one meaning in context. 7. Denotation / connotation: words have literal meaning (denotation), but also evoke feeling (connotation). 8. Polysemy: a word has more than one meaning out of context; the meanings are related to one another. 9. Homonymy: two words sound and are written the same, but are different in meaning. Homonyms represent different entries in the dictionary, while the meanings of a polysemous word are listed under a single entry. 10. Meronymy: a word denotes part of a whole. 11. Presupposition: what is assumed beforehand by an utterance, or what is taken for granted. Structural semantics Structural semantics was elaborated by John Lyons, who recognizes three major types of relationship. 1. Synonymy denotes sameness in meaning or sense. It is context-dependent: two words may have the same meaning in a particular context, but not necessarily in all contexts. It recognizes only their denotations and can differ in degree. 2. Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion or entailment. There are co-hyponyms that include the meaning of a superordinate term → “red” is the superordinate term for “scarlet, vermilion, pink”.. 3. Oppositeness. Lyons recognizes three different relationships of oppositeness: • Complementarity is a relation of contradiction, in which the denial of one term is the assertion of its complementary term → dead ≠ alive / on ≠ off / asleep ≠ awake / single ≠ married. • Antonymy refers to gradable concepts, which may be explicitly or implicitly compared à rich ≠ poor. • Converseness denotes a kind of reversal, expressed by verbs of reciprocal and reverse action, expressions of time and space, kinship terms and professional relationships à buy ≠ sell / husband ≠ wife. Componential analysis Componential analysis is an attempt to give a semantic analysis of words in terms of semantic features. These components are assumed to be the most basic notions expressed by linguistic meaning (= semantic primitives). These features are thought to be universal. In theory, every word can be accounted for by a unique set of features. So, features can be used to compare words and talk systematically about sense relations. • Features for nouns: ± common, ± count, ± concrete, ± collective, ± animate, ± human, ± male. • Features of modals: ± epistemic (matter of belief = inference, deduction), ± deontic (matter of action = duty, command). • Features for verbal predicates: ± stative → involves changes or not ± durative → the situation goes on in time or occurs at a moment in time ± telic → the situation has a goal or has no necessary conclusion ± voluntary. “States” denote unchanging actions that are continuous over the entire time period / “Activities” are dynamic situations that go on in time / “Accomplishments” are situations with an endpoint which is necessary for them to be what they are/ “Achievements” are situations conceived of as occurring instaneously (punctual acts or changes of state). Prototypes An alternative to feature analysis is called prototype theory. It argues that we understand the meaning of a word • Intransitive verbs do not require a complement, or complements aren’t allowed at all → the package arrived yesterday. • Transitive verbs require a complement, which is a NP functioning as a direct object → I kill him. • Ditransitive verbs have a NP as indirect object and a NP as direct object → he sent me flowers. • Copulative verbs have a complement which serves as subject complement → Bill is the leader. • Complex transitive verbs combine the transitive and the copulative structures. The first NP is a direct object, while the second one in an object complement. We distinguish between locative and nonlocative → I consider him a real friend. • Prepositional verbs have an entire Prepositional Phrase (PP) that serves as complement → Mary stood on her tiptoes. • Di-prepositional verbs are verbs which can often be prepositional, with a slight difference in meaning → we talked with our parents about buying a house (diprepositional) ≠ we talked with our parents (prepositional, more general). One of the difficulties of verb subcategorization in English is that it is sometimes possible to omit the direct object when it is understood from the context (latent object) à he ate (dinner). Auxiliary Auxiliaries are specifiers of the verb and are divided into: • Primary: be and have • Dummy: do • Modal: will, can, shall, may and must Auxiliaries normally have special inflectional features and a special distribution; they cannot stand alone in a sentence; instead, there must be a lexical or main verb present, which functions as head of the verb group. The verb or auxiliary carrying tense is called ‘finite’, all other forms are called ‘non-finite’. In order to create a correct auxiliary form, we need to attach the affixes by means of a rule called “affix hopping”. This rule stipulates that each affix attaches to the verbal element immediately following it and forms the relevant word. Passive For what concerns the passive form, we can distinguish between agented passive and agentless passive, which is the most frequent one in English. In this case, the “by” phrase is not present. Considering the verb subcategorization: intransitive and copulative verbs can’t be passivized. Prepositional verbs, which are nonlocative, may usually be passivized, and di-prepositional can sometimes be passivized. Adverbials Adverbials are optional modifiers and we distinguish 3 different types of adverbial functions: 1. Adjunct adverbials generally answer to Wh- questions. They are said to modify the verb, but they are better understood as modifying both verb and its complements. The 4 common types are manner, time, place and reason. 2. Disjunct adverbials are called “sentence adverbs” because they modify the entire sentence. They denote the speaker’s attitude toward or judgement of the preposition, expressing, for example, the speaker’s degree of truthfulness. 3. Conjunct adverbials express textual relations, serving to link clauses. They have no function in their own clause. Postverbal prepositional phrases The functions of postverbal prepositional phrases include prepositional complement, adjunct adverbial and postmodifier of the noun. If the PP has at least some of these qualities, it is an adjunct adverbial: • It is optional and hence can be omitted. • It can occur in a separate predication. • It can usually be moved to the beginning of the sentence. • It may be replaced by a lexical adverb. We must also distinguish between prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs consist of a verb, a direct object and a particle, which is movable, occurring either before or after the object. With prepositional verbs, the prepositional isn’t movable. Negative form /Questions 1. Yes / no (truth) questions are formed through a subject-auxiliary inversion. This structure also occurs in some non- interrogative sentences such as those beginning with never, seldom, rarely → never have we seen so much food. 2. Negative statements are created with the introduction of the negative element “not” after tense and the first auxiliary element → David is not leaving soon. 3. When we want to form a negative or interrogative sentence from a sentence that has no auxiliary other than tense, we use the do-support → did the children stand by their fathers? 4. Tag questions follow a comma and consist of the tense and the first auxiliary of the main clause; a pronoun identical with the subject of the main clause; a marker of negative polarity → I should have known, shouldn’t I?