Scarica Morfosintassi inglese secondo anno e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese Commerciale solo su Docsity!
ENGLISH AS A GERMANIC LANGUAGE
- Typologically
- Genealogically
Languages can be classified in two different ways:
Synthetic (inflectional) languages: grammatical categories and relations and verb inflections (person,
number, tense) are expressed through case markers (inflections or endings)
From the VI up to the XI century, English was a highly inflected language (old english)
Analytic languages: grammatical and syntactic relations are expressed through word order and
function/grammatical words (prepositions and auxiliaries)
Present Day English is an analytic language
TYPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION: language features that languages synchronically have in common. No
reference to languages'history
GENIALOGICAL or HISTORICAL CLASSIFICATION: in accordance with the origins of languages and their descent
from a common linguistic ancestor or parent language.
English is a germanic language.
Germanic family:
○ North Germanic: Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish
○ East Germanic: Gothic
Low German (Afrikaans, Dutch/Flemish, English, Frisian, Modern Low German)
○ West Germanic: High German (Modern High German, Yiddish)
Genetically speaking, English belongs to the germanic family: one of the major groups of the IE linguistic family
Germanic is different from german, ofc.
Proto Germanic: it's an entirely pre-historical language, never recorded in written form. It was
reconstructed in the 19th century by methods of comparative linguistics from written evidence in
descendant languages
- Genetically related through their common origi and joint development at early stages of history
- Share some linguistic features (sound, vocabulary, grammar, sintax)
Their external history show where and when they arose and acquired their common features and how
they have developed into modern languages
All germanic languages:
- Sonund correspondences
- Grammatical evidence
- Basic vocabulary
COMMON FEATURES OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES:
All old germanic language were synthetic languages
VERBS (PDE = PRESENT DAY ENGLISH)
There was a well-developed system of strong and weak verbs, in PDE there are irregular (strong) and regular
(weak) verbs. Btw, all new verbs in PDE are regular
- Person: 1st 2nd 3rd
- Number: singular plural
- Tense: present, past
Verbs were inflected by
Much of this compexity is lost in PDE
to be (singular vs plural maintained, 1st 2ms 3rd sing maintained) vs other verbs (1st 2nd person lost)
9 ottobre pt
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
NOUNS (PRONOUNS)
Inflected for case: Nominative (subject); Genitive (possesive), Dative (indirect obj and other cases) and
Accusative (direct object)
- Inflected for number: sing, plural
- Inflected for gender: feminine, masculine and neutrer
Old languages were:
Traces in pde
- personal pronouns (I, me, my/mine)
- relative pronouns (who, whom, whose)
Case:
- only 3rd pers sing form or personal pronoun
Gender:
Germanic adjectives has two types of inflection: weak and strong
SYNTAX
Word order was flexible because morphological elements used to show how words function in a sentence.
Syntactic structure and morphological structure intertwined.
- Vb second position after time adverbs
- Vb final position in main clauses if an auxiliary is in 2nd position
- Vb in final position in subordinate clauses
- Auxiliary in final position in subordinate clauses
Flexibility is lost in PDE, but maintained in German.
In German we also find Perfective ge-
In present English there are loan words: city, they, take, beef, data, alcohol, pizza, …
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN LAYERS IN PDE
(anglo-saxon origin) the basic kinship terms: father, mother, husband, wife, son daughter, sister,
brother
i.
ii. Hybrid formations (old english + foreign language): grandmother/ - father
iii. (french/latin origin) other kinship terms: aunt, uncle, nice, nephew, family
The interplay between Anglo-Saxon, French and Latin/Greek is particulary evident in kinship terms:
9 ottobre pt
mercoledì 7 ottobre 2020 12:
2 varieties of French in the period of the Norman conquest: Norman French vs Central/Parisian French
Norman French was the language of prestige (from the norman conquest to XII century), it was used in the
court rooms and in literature.
During the early years of the XII century there was a switch to Central/Parisian French.
The 13th century is a milestone of the story of the French influence on the English language
In 1204 England lost possession of Normandy, after this loss Norman French started to loose the status of
language of prestige leaving the floor to Central/Parisian French becoming the main source of English loan
words
Candle > mod fr. Chandelle
Castle > mod fr. Chateau
Garden > mod fr. Jardin
After the 13 century, new words entered English language even if they had already entered with Norman
English > both forms have come down to us.
The same word entered the English language via two different languages.
- Words with different phonological form and morphology
- Same root
- Arrived through different routes (in this case, Norman or Central French) and at different stages
This phenomena resulted in the " LEXICAL DOUBLETS "(pair of words):
ANGLO-SAXON/GERMANIC (low register)
FRENCH/LATIN (high register)
Example
Anglo-saxon: Cow, Calf, Sheep
Borrowed from French: Beef, Veal, Mutton
Originally, the French borrowings were synonyms of those animals.
Then, those words were specialized to refer to the edible flesh of those animals
A loan word synonym of an indigenous expression typically develops some semantic difference from the native
word. Pattern observed widely in European languages
NON-NATIVE AFFIXES: foreign affix + native bases/roots
- North European terms into Common Germanic (before 2000BC)
- Latin terms from the Romans into West Germanic (100BC- 400AD)
- Christianized Latin terms into Anglo Saxon (after 587AD)
- Old Norse into Anglo Saxon (700-900AD)
- Norman French into Middle English (1066-1300AD)
- Ancient Latin and Greek into Modern English (1500- through the present)
- French and Italian into Modern English (1500-throught present time)
- Present-Day English: Other IE and non-IE languages
MAIN SOURCES OF BORROWINGS IN ENGLISH
THE ANGLO SAXON CORE
Many English lexemes have always been there – in the sense that they arrived with the Germanic invaders, and
have never fallen out of use: they represent the ANGLO-SAXON CORE
The Anglo-Saxon character of the English lexicon continues to dominate everyday conversation: grammatical
words (in, on, be, that), lexical words (father, love, name), or affixes (mis-, un-, - ness, - less) are Germanic in
origin.
Anglo-Saxon lexemes comprise only a relatively small part of the total modern lexicon; yet they provide almost
all the most frequently used words in English
16 ottobre pt
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
LATIN LOANS
The borrowing began soon after the Anglo-Saxon arrived in the British Isles (5th century). In Old
English (5th century up to 1066), there are very few CELTIC loans, but the influence of Latin is strong,
especially after the arrival of Christianity (e.g. bishop, church, priest, etc.)
SCANDINAVIAN LOANS
In the 8th century the Vikings invaded the British Iles. In this period about 2000 Scandinavian words came into
English. Most of them replaced Old English words: dirt, egg, skirt, take, skin, sky, leg, skill, window
FRENCH LOANS
- The Norman Conquest (1066): the most significant change of direction in the history of English vocabulary. By
1400 about 10,000 new lexemes had come into the language from French and several thousand more had
entered from Latin. By the end of the MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (1066 up to the late 15th century), the surviving
Old English lexicon was already in the minority
French loans were originally part of the class dialect of the new rulers but they have, in the meantime, lost their
connotations of prestige, social superiority and have become part of the central core of English lexis
French loans contributed a great many terms from the realm of power, art, architecture, fashion, war and
politics, but they are especially prominent in food (pork, beef, chef, boil, fry, grill), cooking and names of
tradesmen (barber, tailor, butcher, carpenter)
THE RENAISSENCE
By the end of the Renaissance (a.k.a. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH), the growth in classically derived vocabulary,
especially from Latin, had doubled the size of the lexicon again
These periods represent the peaks of the borrowing activity in the history of English; yet, there was no
reduction in the underlying trend during later centuries
Classical loans have provided English with countless technical terms in all branches of human knowledge, a need
that was strongly felt by English humanists of the 16th century, who wanted English to become a medium of
expressing the most refined thoughts, on a par with Latin and Greek (Lexis, lexeme, lexical, lexicographer,
diction(ary) and vocabulary are all derived from Latin and Greek elements, while only the rarer items word,
book and word stock are Germanic in origin)
PRESENT DAY ENGLISH
Since the 1950s, the emergence of English as a world language has promoted regular contact with an
unprecedented number of languages and cultures, and the borrowings have shown an immediate and dramatic
upturn. New fauna and flora, political groups and institutions, landscape features, industrial products, etc. have
all generated thousands of new lexemes, and continue to do so
Still classified as a Germanic tongue because its grammar and basic vocabulary are Germanic, but it is actually a
mixture that contains words from nearly every major language of the world.
Many of these words we don't even think of as borrowed: mosquito (Portuguese or Spanish); pajamas (Hindi);
bungalo (Bengali); tulip, turban(Turkish); taboo (Tahitian); okay (Chocktaw); So long (Malay).
- As a result of this propensity to borrow, and due to mixing with Old Norse and Norman French, English has
changed more radically over the past 1500 years than any other European Language.
16 ottobre pt
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
NEW WORDS VIA MEANING CHANGE
- Widening:
- Narrowing:
- Amelioration:
- Pejoration:
Meaning change is quite flexible, there are a few recognisable paths of change:
WIDENING
A more specific concept is widened to a more inclusive concept
Manage : originally meant handle a horse , nowadays it means handle anything difficult successfully
NARROWING
Its the opposite of widening. Inclusive concept> specific concept
Deer: in Old English meant animal, nowadays it means large four-legged wild animal which eats grass and
leaves
AMELIORATION & PEJORATION
New meanings that words gets moving upwards or downwards on the social register. If we use the wrong
register we get negative social consequences. Register can change over time.
Nice: stupid, simple> nice
Fond: foolish > affectionate towards, in love with
Lower to higher register> AMELIORATION: casual and slang becomes high and polite
Bully : lover, sweetheart> abusive person
Terms for female roles have undergone pejoration
Higher to lower register> PEJORATION: high and polite becomes low and rude
Amelioration and pejoration can combine with widening and narrowing
Are these words really new? No
16 ottobre pt
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS
An introduction to English morphology
MORPHOLOGY: a branch of linguistic that studies the internal structure of words. It deals with the correlation of
form and meaning within the word
Morphological relationships in English:
Beggar > beggarly > beggarliness
Friend > friendly > friendliness
Lord > lordly > lordliness
Man > manly > manliness
Mother > motherly > motherliness
The adjectives in column 2 are suitable for column 1 (a friend is friendly) and the nouns in column 3 are
characteristics for column 2 ( friendliness is a characteristic for friendly ppl)
- Relationship in meaning: person of some kind
○ Man/woman: pronounced different
○ Beggar/mother: same pronunciation but spelled differently
- Not reflected in any shared form (unlike column 2 where all the words end in - ly)
- So there is semantic relatedness but no shared morphological structure
Column 1:
Words in column 2 end in - ly but there are words in English that also end in - ly but they don't belong to column
Assembly, belly, hopefully, early, lily, silly> they have a relationship in form with words in column 2 but the
meaning is different. There is no morphological relationship even though we find phonological/orthographic
relatedness.
Another set of related words:
Shopkeeper, party-goer, singer > related in form as they end in - er, but also in meaning (they refer to a person
who does that activity: a shopkeeper is a person who keeps a shop, a party goer is a person who goes to parties,
a singer is a person who sings)
BUT for example words like hammer or spreader have relationship in form (the ending in - er) but not in meaning
(hammer is a tool) > verb + - er = tool that people can use to make that action
Column 1: words reference to people
Column 2: adverbs or adjectives
Column 3: nouns reference to an abstract notion
21 ottobre
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
- Either prefixes or suffixes ( re-, un-, - ly, - ness )
DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES
- Optionally more than one per word
( un friend ly , dis miss al , …)
Attach to a limited number of free morphs ( -
ment, - ation, - al )
- Convert one part of speech to another
- Change the meaning of original word
- Have 2 functions:
- Precede the inflectional suffix (consum able s)
Only suffixes ( - s, - er, - est, - ed, -
ing, - `s )
- Only one per word (car s )
INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES
Attach to all (or more) members of a
word class
Indicate grammatical meaning
(number, tense, aspect, degree)
Follow derivational suffixes
(consumable s )
PRODUCTIVE (still used nowadays) INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES OF MODERN ENGLISH
Plural number - s noun
Possessive case - s noun
Present (nonpast) tense, 3rd p s - s verb
Past tense/past participle - ed verb
Present participle - ing verb
Comparative participle - er Adj/adv
Superlative degree - est Adj/adv
Hood: head covering
Ship: seagoing vessel
They can be suffixes but they dont share the same meaning _(motherhood, hardship)_ , the fact that theyre
spelled in the same way it`s simply accidental
How many morphs can there be?
In english we find an upper normal limit of six: antidisestablishmentarianism
SUMMARY OF MORPHS TYPES
23 ottobre pt
lunedì 5 ottobre 2020 18:
MORPHS VS MORPHEMES
MORPH:
Free or bound
- roots: central part of word, most are free but some are bounds
Affixes: all bound; prefixes (only derivational), suffixes (both derivational and inflectional), infixes (only
derivational), endings (only inflectional)
- Affixes: productive vs non-productive (no longer used)
It's a concrete segment or component, in English, 1- 6
Ex. Explorationists > explor(e)-ation-ist-s
▪ Explorationist-s: more than one explorationist
▪ Explorarion-ist: one that performs the action of exploration
Explor(e)-ation: the action or process of exploring ▪
▪ Explore: conducting a systematic search
If you split the word into its components, English grammar deduces that:
▪ Explore: to conduct a systematic search
▪ - ation-: the action
▪ - ist-: one that performs the action
- s-: more than one ▪
Each morph has its own function and meaning
MORPHEMES:
- Lexical meaning: lexical morphemes
Grammatical meaning: grammatical morphemes (number, gender, tense, aspect, person, degree, case,
Morphs have meanings: the several meanings that morphs can provide when attached to a word is named
"morphemes"
Grammatical categories motivated by grammar/syntax (number, case, person, tense, aspect, mood,
voice, definiteness, degree)
- Can be realized by free morphs (function words)
- Can also be realized by bound morphs (inflectional affixes, endings and enclitics)
GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES:
- Things, qualities, events, actions
- Form a large open set: nouns, adjs, advs, verbs
- Can be realized by free morphs (content words to witch bound morphs can be added)
- Can be realized by bound morphs (derivational affixes, bound roots)
LEXICAL MORPHEMES:
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
28 ottobre
lunedì 5 ottobre 2020 18:
The morpheme of gender in English is not usually represented by an affectional morpheme, but there are
some exceptions(actor/actress, god/goddess). There are some morphs that can turn masculine nouns into
feminine ones
To sum up morphological rules
Agglutinative: 1 morph : 1morpheme (e.g. taller)
Fusional: 1 morph : 2 + morphemes (e.g. caught/wrote, he, teeth, etc.
Null (realisation): 0 morphs: 0 morphemes (e.g. pers. on English vbs), etc.
Zero: 0 morphs: 1+ morphemes (e.g. cut, put – past tense)
Fusional and agglutinative: e.g. men’s
COMPOSITIONALITY within words:
Meanings of components compose meaning of entire word
Meaning of each component fits together with meanings of others to give meaning of the whole
Cran-morphs: bound morphs but meaningless (non compositional words)
- abstract elements (cfr. lexemes, phonemes)
- are realized as morphs
- some have a lexical meaning
- some have a grammatical meaning
Morphemes:
30 ottobre pt
lunedì 5 ottobre 2020 18:
LEXICAL CHANGE IN TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGLISH
Lexical innovation is where linguistic change in progress is most apparent and obvious.
As concerns English, OED lexicographers stated that there are 7000 new English words (neologisms) every year.
NEOLOGISM: the most salient type of neologism has a new form and a new meaning. But a neologism is also a
word with a new form and no new meaning or concept (colloquial terms or emotive terms of dis/approval)
On the other hand, is very common to have a semantic shift, that's to say no new form but new meaning (ex.
English verbs of communication, chat or mail )
- Borrowing
- Creating new words from raw material of sounds (small number of cases)
- Drawing on the language's own productive WF (word formation) process
MAJOR TRENDS OF LEXICAL INNOVATION
- Compounding: bookshelf
- Derivation: nailfie (selfie alle unghie)
- Zero-derivation: google/to google
- Reduplication: fifty-fifty
- Acronyms: NATO
- Abbreviations: GMO
- Blends: frenemy
- Back-formation: offshoring > to offshore
- Combining forms: mega-, hyper-, cyber-
PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATION > derivation, zero-derivation/conversion, reduplication, compounding,
blends, acronyms, abbreviations, back formations, root creations
Beneath confusing variety of individual new words, is there stability in underlying inventory of productive WF
mechanisms?
▪ Compounding: mainstay of lexical creativity in English.
Zero derivation (aka conversion): from a marginal to a central position among WF processes in late ME
and early Modern English
▪ Acronyms & verb-to-verb compounds: impressively productive since early 20th century
New words exemplify existing productive mechanisms of WF
SEMANTIC CHANGE/SHIFT (old form, new meaning) > metonymy, metaphor, euphemism, slang
4/7 novembre
lunedì 5 ottobre 2020
ZERO DERIVATION
ZERO DERIVATION: a distinguishing word formation process of English. An existent word is made into a new
word. (conversion, functional shift)
Lexemes belongs to more than one PoS (part of speech)
Movie > to movie
To doubt > doubt
If/but > the ifs/buts
It's a derivation by means of a zero morph
Conversion/functional shift: new lexemes are formed by assigning an existing lexeme to a new class/syntactic
category/part of speech without changing its form in any way
Thanks to its association with other lexemes having the same derivate relationship expressed by an overt morph
DERIVATION
- Legal (adj) > to legalize (v)
- Atom (n) > to atomize (v)
- To bake (v) > baker (n)
Zero derivation is typical of English, there …
How do we know which is the original word and which is the converted one?
- Semantic > meaning of the converted word compared to the other. We can easily figure it out.
- Morphological > regularity of inflection
- Word history
3 main clues:
- semantic clues: the converted word (vb) includes meaning of the original: n > vb
But! To butter < butter "to smear or spread with butter"
- Morphological clues: Converted form > regular productive inflection – Never remnant or irregular inflection
Ring (transitive): to provide with a circle > the connection with the noun ring is clear
Ring (intransitive): to call
- Word stress: a large set of converted forms
- Commonization: a proper noun > common word
a. Mass nouns > count nouns
b. Transitive verbs > intransitive verbs with a passive meaning
Secondary shift: a word which belongs to one subclass is converted into another within the same word
class
FURTHER EXAMPLES OF ZERO-DERIVATION IN ENGLISH
ZERO-DERIVATION
▪ Clean (adj) > to clean (v)
▪ Skype (n) > to skype (v)
▪ To cook (v) > a cook (n)
11/18 novembre
lunedì 5 ottobre 2020 18:
SHORTENING
- Back-formation
- Clipping
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- Blending
It's a word-formation process.
1. BACK - FORMATION
Editor > to edit
Typewriter > to typewrite
Babysitter > babysit
Burglar > to burgle
Transcription > transcript
Television > to televise
Orientation > to orientate
Greedy > greed
Foggy > fog
Speaker encounters a word containing a sound sequence that sounds and looks like a derivational suffix (a
presumed derivational suffix is part of the root)
- Speaker strips off presumed suffix
- Speaker "invents" a meaning for the leftover part by subtracting the meaning of the presumed suffix
New words "by mistake" (back formation)
2. CLIPPING:
new words by economizing
A multisyllabic word is reduced in size, usually to one or two syllables
Fiche, phone, glam, limo, spite, venture, flu
Clipping or back formation?
Back formation > pays attention to morph boundaries, what is left out is a part that looks like and sounds like a
derivational bound morph.
Clipping > pays attention to phonological boundaries, it retains the longest possible syllable according to English
phonological rules
- A word comes into more common usage, its frequency counts increases especially in speech
- Speakers find they don't need to use the full version to identify a concept
- Speakers crate a more quickly and easily pronounced version of the original word
- Front clipping: (micro)fiche, (tele)phone
- Back clipping: glam(orous), limo(usine), memo(randum), lab(oratory), ad(vertisement), mike (microphone)
- Mixed clipping: (in)flu(enza), (re)fridge(rator)
3 types of clipping
Engl Hamburger < Ger. Hamburger (named after Hamburg)
Engl: Hamburger steak > hamburger
Splitting word into its components, English grammar deduces that: Ham-burger > burger veggie / beef /
cheeseburger
Clipped words can be compounded, esp. In military-speak: e.g. CENTCOM (< CENTral COMmand), CAPCOM
(capsule communicator, Nasa)
20 novembre pt
lunedì 5 ottobre 2020 18:
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF ENGLISH
○ Nominal categories (number, gender, person, case, degree, definiteness)
○ Verbal categories (tense, aspect, mood, voice)
- Different grammatical categories in English
- Distinction made within each category
Inflection
Periphrasis (phrase contains a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection, for
example will used to express future actions)
- Word order
- Systematic and regular
Idiosyncratic and lexical
- Means by which they are expressed in English
This section:
NOMINAL CATEGORIES
GENDER
- Grammatical gender: it's arbitrary, not related to the sex of object in the real world
Natural gender: depends upon sex of object in real world (English: masculine, feminine, common gender,
neuter gender)
- separate forms for different genders: Nouns
- suffixation: nouns
- compounding: nouns
- inflection: pronouns
Gender in English is expressed by:
Gender distinctions made in language: 2 systems
For MASC. and FEM.: bride/groom, son/daughter, king/queen, stallion/mare (cavallo/cavalla),
bachelor/spinster (scapolo/zitella)
- For MASC., FEM. And COMMON gender: boy/girl/child, rooster/hen/chicken
Separate forms: (covert category)
- Feminine suffixes derives from the masculine nouns
- ine: heroine < hero - ess: goddess < god
- Common gender suffixes derives from other nouns, verbs or adj
- ian/-ist: librarian < library / artist < art - er: baker < bake - ard: drunkard < drunk
Suffixation:
- The feminine form comes from the common gender
Woman- : woman doctor Girl-: girlfriend - woman: chairwoman
- Masculine < common gender
Male-: male nurse Boy-: boyfriend - man: chairman
Compounding: (overt category)
- Only applies to pronouns at the third person singular: he/she/it
Inflection:
There is no common gender: he or she, his or her
You get common gender using I, we, you
They has some particularities
- feminine < masculine (waiter > waitress ) but there could be some exceptions (widow < widower)
- masc. Typically doubles as the common gender form: dog/bitch exceptions (cow/bull, goose/gander)
➢ None of these means is systematic, but there are some recognisable patterns:
25/27 novembre
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
CASE
Can be defined as an indicator of the function of a noun phrase or the relationship of a noun phrase to a verb or
to other noun phrases in the sentence.
It marks the function of a word/relationship of 2 or more words to each other in sentence.
Case applies to nouns and personal/interrogative/relative pronouns
- Nominative (function of subject)
- Genitive (function of possessor)
- Objective (function of object)
- Dative/instrumental
In English:
- Inflection: in the two grammatical categories of nouns and personal and interrogative/relative pronouns
- Periphrasis: using function words in front of the noun
- Word order: the order of the words within a sentence.
In English, the notion of case can be expressed by:
INFLECTION:
▪ Nominative: I, we, you, she, he, it, they, who
▪ Genitive: my/mine, our/ours, his, her/hers, its, their/theirs, whose
▪ Objective: me, us, you, him, her, it, them, whom
➢ dative/instrumental cases: preposition + pronouns > PERIPHRASIS
Most fully expressed in personal/interrogative/relative pronouns
But what about English nouns? We have seen that pronouns and determiners most rely on inflection and
periphrasis.
➢ Common case (all the other cases, non-genitive: nominative, objective, dative and instrumental)
Cat, cats / man, men
➢ Genitive case
Cat's, cats' /man's, mens'
As for inflection in the English nouns we have:
While orthographically there appear to be four distinct forms of nouns when singular and plural, common and
genitive case are considered, the apostrophe is merely orthographic so that the forms cats, cat's and cats' are
phonologically indistinguishable. Only irregular plurals such as the noun man actually distinguish four forms
both orthographically and phonologically.
Beyond this, nouns can be said to distinguish nominative and objective case only by WORD ORDER, by the
placement of the noun before or after the verb, respectively, in the usual position for subjective and object in a
Subject-Verb-Object language such as English.
The dative and instrumental cases in English nouns is only expressed by means of PERIPHRASIS
1. INFLECTION:
❖ Personal/Interrogative/Relative pronouns: nominative/genitive/objective cases
❖ Nouns: common case/genitive case
2. PERIPHRASIS:
❖ Personal/interrogative/relative pronouns: dative/instrumental cases
❖ Nouns: dative/instrumental cases
3. WORD ORDER:
❖ Nouns: nominative/objective cases
RECAP:
The ways in which English distinguishes different cases reflects how English used to be as a highly inflectional
language in the past. At the very beginning, English followed the typical Germanic language prototype (all the
grammatical functions were distinguished by means of inflection)
27 novembre pt
venerdì 28 agosto 2020 17:
