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1. Language change and variation in English
• concepts of change and variation: how and why• attitudes to language: standard and non-standard
varieties• the main phases in the history of English• causes of the spread of English in the world• present-day English: from English to Englishes• English as a global language: advantages,
disadvantages and future implications
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brainstorming on language change and variation
1. Do languages change in time?
2. Why do languages change?
3. How do languages change?
4. Why and how do languages vary at a given time in history?
5. What is “the best form” of a language?
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from general to expert knowledge: some concepts and terms
1. synchrony, diachrony, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, history of the language, comparative linguistics, language family, Indo-European, Germanic family, Romance or Neo-Latin family
2. causes for language change: “external” (e.g. historical events, inventions, new ideas) versus “internal” (e.g. analogy, hypercorrection, push chain processes)
3. types of change: phonological, morpho-syntactic and semantic
4. standard and non-standard varieties
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Is the study of the history and varieties of English relevant to university students of English? Yes!
1. for cultural reasons2. to understand more about present-day English
- the gap between spelling and pronunciation- the mixed nature of its lexis, e.g. “liberty” vs“freedom”- the existence of regular and irregular verbs- the linguistic situation of present-day UK vs. USA
3. to reinforce practical competence- to improve pronunciation and grammaticalcorrectness- to expand lexical competence- to be prepared to understand different varieties ofEnglish
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similarities among Indo-European languages
• English father mother three
• Sanskrit pitar matar trayas
• Greek pater mater treis
• Latin pater mater tres
• Italian padre madre tre
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the Celts
• Indo-European people who lived in Europe from 2000 BC to 100 AD
• they inhabited the British Isles before the Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions
• names of Celtic origin: London, Leeds, Avon, Thames, Kent, Cornwall
• very few Celtic words in Old English
• Celtic languages spoken today: Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic (Breton)
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historical periods and linguistic phases
1. The Anglo-Saxon period
2. The Norman period
3. Modern periodGreat Britain and Northern Ireland united under the British crown. New territories explored and stable colonies established in America, Asia and Africa
4. 20th century : from English to Englishes
English as a global language
1. Old English, OE (700-1150)
2. Middle English , ME (1150-1500)
3. Modern English, ModE (1500-1900)
4. Present-day English (PDE)
(1900 to the present)
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The story/history of English started in a small island
1. the United Kingdom (UK) of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is composed of
England (London)Scotland (Edinburgh)Wales (Cardiff)Northern Ireland (Belfast)
2. Great Britain (GB)/Britain is composed of
EnglandScotlandWales
3. The Republic of Ireland (Éire)(Dublin)
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Stonehenge (2500 BC)
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Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument, one ofthe most famous sites in the world. It is a ringmade of standing stones belonging to theNeolithic/Bronze Age.
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The Roman baths of Bath
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The Roman Baths complex is a site ofhistorical interest in the English city of Bath.
It is a well-preserved Roman site for publicbathing.
Clean spa water can be drunk by visitors.
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Hadrian’s Wall
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Hadrian’s Wall was a defensive fortificationin Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, duringthe rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the firstfortification built across Great Britain.
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Major historical events
• Stonehenge, about 3000-2500 BC• 100 BC the first Celts appeared in Britain• 55-54 BC Julius Caesar invaded Britain – the
Romans left it in the 5th century• 5th century: some Germanic tribes (Anglo-
Saxons and Jutes) arrived in England and forced the Celts to move west and north
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Old English (OE) period (700-1150)
• this term refers to Germanic dialects spokenby Jutes, Angles and Saxons: Kentish, West-Saxon, Mercian and Northumbrian
• the West-Saxon reign was the most importantreligious, military and cultural centre inEurope
• West-Saxon was considered the first standardwritten language, associated with political,military and cultural power in society
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Christianisation of Britain
• 6th century
• introduction of the Latin alphabet
• abandonment of the Runic alphabet by theAnglo-Saxons
• from the 9th to the 11th centuries manuscriptswere translated from Latin into Old English
• Latin and Greek gave Old English a wide rangeof words from the Gospel, i.e. related toreligion and spirituality
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the Scandinavian Viking invasion (793 AD)
• 8th century
• dark ages recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,namely a collection of annals in Old Englishchronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons
• the Danes destroyed all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
• King Alfred the Great raised an army and pushedthe Danes out of his kingdom
• King Alfred saved the English language
• King Alfred commissioned the Anglo-SaxonChronicle and encouraged the use of English inwriting and in speech
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Viking words
obsolete
• thorpe = settlement
• beck = stream
• by = farm
still used
• sky, skin, skirt, run, window, ombudsman
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the Gaelic (Celtic) countries in the British Isles
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an example of Old English(from Ælfric’s Colloquy, c. 998, intended to help studentslearn how to speak Latin through a conversation manual)
OE:
We cildra biddaþ þe, eala lareow, þæt þu tæce us [...]
Latin:
Nos pueri rogamus te, magister, ut doceas nos [...]
PDE:
Master, we young men would like you to teach us [...]
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features of Old English• Latin alphabet, with some differences from PDE
(e.g. the consonant thorn or þorn <þ>, now <th>,inherited from the Runic alphabet and still survivingin Icelandic)
• nouns, adjectives and pronouns were inflected forcase, number and gender (synthetic versus analyticlanguage)
• two types of verbs (strong and weak) = regular andirregular verbs in PDE
• word order was free
• lexis was mainly Germanic but included words ofCeltic (names of places, e.g. London), Latin (e.g.schol from schola) and Scandinavian origin (e.g.landes mann = PDE native)
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synthetic/inflectional language
• in linguistic typology, a synthetic language is alanguage with a high morpheme-per-word ratio
• grammar is determined by a system of inflections
• the king se cyning
• of the king thaes cyninges
• to the king thaem cyninge
PDE: The king meets the bishop
OE: Se cyning (S) meteth (V) thone biscop (O)
Thone biscop (O) meteth (V) se cyning (S)
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Middle English (ME) period (1150-1500)1066 the Norman conquest – a new ruling class coming
from France went into power: the Normans spokeFrench while Latin was the language of the Churchand education; English was still the language of themajority of the population
1204 the Normans lost their power in favour of Englishkings
1215 the Magna Carta Libertatum (in Latin) was forcedonto the king of England by his subjects, the feudalbarons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law andprotect their rights
14th century The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer:the most authoritative example of written literaryEnglish
1476 introduction of the printing press in England byWilliam Caxton – invented in Germany by JohannesGutenberg but already in use in China in 1040
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Norman Britain
• many Norman kings were often totally ignorant oftheir country’s language
• government, law and administration were conductedin French and so was the Church, together with Latin
• the Normans integrated with English society throughmarriage
• in the 12th and 13th century French/Englishbilingualism existed in the upper middle classes andnobility
• gradual shift to English
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French vocabulary
• administration: government, treaty, royal, property,accuse, office, court, crown, marry
• general vocabulary: people, age, country, flower,large, lesson
• religion: confession, prayer, abbey, tempt
• etymology of country: Middle English – from OldFrench cuntree, from medieval Latin contrata (terra)‘(land) lying opposite’, from Latin contra ‘against,opposite’
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animal vs. meat
pig pork
calf veal
cow beef
deer venison
sheep mutton
snail escargot
Old English snæg(e)l, of Germanic origin; related to German Schnecke
French, from Old French escargol, from Provençal escaragol
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Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)The Canterbury Tales
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Canterbury Cathedral
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From Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
ME:
Thanne were ther yonge povre scolers two,
That dwelten in this halle, of which I seye.
PDE:
Then there were two young poor scholars,
Who dwelt in this hall, of which I tell.
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features of Middle English
• reduction of the case system, particularly in nouns and adjectives
• development of the future with shall/will and the present progressive
• introduction of the pronoun she/shoe
• increasingly fixed word order (with some variation)
• French, e.g. marry from marier, and Latin, e.g. inferior, influence on vocabulary
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Modern English (ModE) period (1500-1900)
• Early Modern English (1500-1800)
• Late Modern English (1800-1900)
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Early Modern English (EModE) period(c. 1500-c. 1800)
• the form of the English language spoken since the GreatVowel Shift (GVS) in England, completed in roughly 1550
• the GVS was a major change in the pronunciation of theEnglish language between 1350 and 1700
• the term GVS was coined by the Danish linguist OttoJespersen (1860–1943)
• because English spelling was becoming standardized inthe 15th and 16th centuries, the GVS is responsible formany of the peculiarities of English spelling
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The Great Vowel Shift (GVS)
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Britain: a united and powerful country
• 7 million inhabitants• separation of the Church of England from the Roman
Catholic Church• Queen Elisabeth I established the power of Britain on
the seas• great flourishing of the theatre and literature, e.g.
Shakespeare, the King James Version – the authorizedtranslation of the Bible
• the English Civil War (1642-1651) over the power ofthe Parliament versus the power of the Monarchy, i.e.Parliamentarians versus Royalists
• in 1702 England and Scotland were united under theBritish Crown
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Britain: a colonial world power
• since the 17th century: English tradingcompanies in India and slave trade in Africa
• In the 17th century: stable colonies establishedin America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada,the Caribbean and South Africa
• 19th century: colonial empire in Asia andAfrica
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Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
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• 1492: America discovered by Columbus
• 1560s: Triangular trade aka Atlantic triangle
• Queen Elizabeth I backing up Sir WalterRaleigh and Sir Francis Drake in the anti-Spanish campaign in the Caribbean
→ Elizabeth: The Golden Age
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William Shakespeare(baptised 26th April 1564 and died 23rd April 1616)
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Shakespeare’s famous quotes
To be or not to be: that is the question.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Love is blind.
We have seen better days.
As dead as a doornail.
Bags and baggage.
Fair play.
I have not slept one wink.
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King James Version of the Bible (1611 )a translation into English from Greek, Hebrew and Latin
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the beheading of Charles I during the Civil War (1649)
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the spread of English in the colonial era
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the British Empire
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A quotation from Love’s Labour Lostby Shakespeare
I praise God for you sir, your reasons atdinner haue beene sharpe and sententious:pleasant without scurrillity, witty withoutaffection, audacious without impudency,learned without opinion, and strangewithout heresie: I did conuerse this quondamday with a companion…
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Late Modern English (LModE) period (1800-1900)
• simplification of inflection (only ‘s genitiveand -s plural in nouns, the comparative andsuperlative endings in adjectives) with theexception of pronouns
• tendency towards fixed word order
• debate between Neologisers (in favour ofwords of foreign origin) and Purists (in favourof native words)
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Standard English (SE)
• Development of a standard form of English through long processes of selection (London English) and codification through grammars and dictionaries
• Development of a standard accent:Received Pronunciation (RP)
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Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
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Samuel Johnson’sDictionary of the English Language (1755)
LEXICO’GRAPHER. n.s. [? lixicographe, French.] A writer of dictionories; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.
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the four main periods of English: a summary
Old English (OE)(700-1100)● fully inflected● free word order● Germanic vocabulary
Middle English (ME)(1100-1500)● reduced inflection● increasingly fixed word
order● French influence on
vocabulary
Modern English (ModE)
(1500-1900)
● very limited inflection
● greater use of fixed word order
● codification of language
Present-Day English (PDE)
(1900-nowadays)
● language spread and differentiation
● formation of new varieties worldwide
● English as a global lingua franca
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the reasons for the present predominance of English in the world: a summary
external reasons:
the colonial and industrial power of Great Britain inthe 18th and 19th centuries; the political, economicand technological power of the USA in the 20th
century; the number of speakers; the geographicalspread; cultural heritage
internal reasons (myths):clarity, simplicity, size of its vocabulary, flexibility in
creating new words, adaptability to distantcontexts
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Present-Day English (PDE)
(1900-nowadays)
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main political and cultural events
1. English is the official – or main – language ofmany important countries in the world, e.g. theUK, the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
2. English has been retained as the official language(along with other native languages) in more than70 former British colonies after their politicalindependence, e.g. India, the Caribbean andseveral African countries
3. English has acquired growing importanceworldwide in science, technology, internationalorganisations and business
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Why has English become a global language?
1. native varieties of English – English as a NativeLanguage (ENL or L1)
2 varieties of English as a Second Language (ESL or L2),used internationally in former British colonies in theinstitutional, media and educational fields
3. English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English as aLingua Franca (ELF), English for Special Purposes (ESP),e.g. Airspeak, Policespeak, Business English (BE),English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
4. within each category there is a continuum from aneducated standard to a very limited form ofcommunication
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The three circles of PDE
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The three-circles model for PDE by Braj Kachru
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Native varieties or “Colonial Englishes”
• a set of different but related varietieswhich share a common core of grammarand vocabulary
• differing mainly in pronunciation andlexis
• the two main native varieties are BritishEnglish (BrE) and American English (AmE)
• BrE and AmE provide the norms for EFLlearners
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Second language varieties or New Englishes
• used in institutional or educational contextsin multilingual countries, usually formerBritish colonies
• have gone through a process of languagecontact, e.g. as honest as an elephant
• have been progressively acknowledged aslocal standards, e.g. Indian English, CaribbeanEnglish, East-African English
• share common features that are differentfrom native standard varieties
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mistakes or linguistic creativity?
1. I was feeling thirsty, so I bought onesoda
2. Last time she come on Thursday
3. We are having something to do
4. Whenever we go there they be playing
5. She came yesterday, isn’t it?
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the speech community of PDE
• bilingualism or multilingualism is the norm
• languages play an important role in theconstruction of people’s identities
• language contact
• nativization, hybridization, code-switching
• new coinages: been-to = ‘a person who hasspent a long time abroad’; change-room =dressing room
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English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
- either choose one of the native standards forproduction on the basis of proximity, tradition,personal needs or taste, e.g. British English orAmerican English
- or favour a non-native model, i.e. English as aLingua Franca (ELF)
- be prepared to understand different varieties
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English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
in the past:contact languages for trade, e.g. pidgins andcreoles in Africa based on English and Africanlanguages
now:in international scientific conferences, businessmeetings or the internet, ELF based on a core ofnorms drawing on British and American Englishand intended to guarantee mutual internationalintelligibility
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the predominance of English
advantages
world languages have always existed
a world language is necessary in a globalised world
a post-national language may be useful to world democracy and citizenship
disadvantages
English is ‘killing’ other languages and cultures
people are becoming lazy in learning other languages
English expresses a particular world view and favours its native speakers (cultural imperialism)
English has become uncontrollable
What about interpreters and translators?
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Who owns English today?
“… the English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago”
(Salman Rushdie, 1991)
the future of English:
from English to Englishes
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Will English…?
1. go on being a polycentric language comprising severalmutually intelligible varieties?
2. achieve a balance between identity and internationalintelligibility?
3. remain strong until English-speaking countries arepowerful?
4. fragment into mutually unintelligible languages asalready happened to Latin and the Romancelanguages?
5. be rejected as a symbol of colonialism, e.g. Malaysia,or cultural imperialism?
6. be spoken as a simplified lingua franca by non-nativespeakers?
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Linguistic variability
all languages are open and dynamic entitieswhich adapt to the history and culture of thespeech communities in which they are in use
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Standard vs. non-standard varieties
a standard variety is the language parexcellence in terms of social prestige, languagefunctions and domains of use
e.g. the West-Saxon dialect in the OE period, the first standardwritten language (9th-11th centuries)
e.g. London English used by Caxton in the ME period (15th
century)
e.g. English used by educated speakers and the mass media allover the world (21th century)
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Sociolinguistics
• a branch of linguistics that studies therelationship between language and society,i.e. according to social variables
• social variables: class, gender (men/women),age (young/old), ethnicity, etc.
• attitudes (positive/negative) influencelanguage change: some variants may beperceived as more or less prestigious
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Labov’s analysis of the pronunciation of the phoneme [r] inNew York City according to social class and style (1960s)
(0-5 = lower class; 5-9 = middle and upper class , e.g. fourth floor)
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Hypercorrection
• speakers tend to conform to the more prestigiouslinguistic norms
• hypercorrection originates from the over-application ofa perceived rule of grammar or usage: a speaker/writerwho produces hypercorrection believes that the form iscorrect through misunderstanding of these rules, oftencombined with a desire to appear formal or educate
• hypercorrection is more typical of socially insecurespeakers such as middle classes and women
• e.g. he gave it to you and I vs. he gave it to you and me
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Historical or diachronic linguistics
the main paradigm (approach) to the study oflanguage change
1. comparative linguistics or languagereconstruction
2. the history of language: the changes in alanguage over the centuries
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Internal and external causes of change
• internal (linguistic factors): regularization, i.e.the levelling of the OE inflectional case system
e.g. OE stān/a/es/as/e/um → PDE stone
• external: extralinguistic or social factors(invasions, technological innovations,immigration waves)
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Types of language change
• phonological
• morpho-syntactic
• semantic
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Phonological change
• sporadic phonological change
• regular phonological change
• unconditioned phonological change:regardless of the phonemic environment
• conditioned phonological change: taking placein a particular phonetic environment
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examples of phonological change
• loss of <r>
e.g. OE spræc → PDE speak
• the split of /n/ and // in the 17th century
e.g. sin vs. sing
• the Great Vowel Shift (from the 15th century)
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Morpho-syntactic change
• levelling of the OE case system
• word order in ME
• grammaticalization, i.e. the change fromlexical items to grammatical items
e.g. OE wilan ‘want’ (main verb) →
PDE will (modal verb)
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Semantic change
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Phonetics and phonology
• accents of English: native, foreign, ‘nativized’
• Received Pronunciation (RP) vs General American (GA)
• phonetics and phonology
• the articulators
• graphemes and phonemes
• homophones and homographs
• International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
• English phonetics and phonology
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accents of English:native, foreign, ‘nativized’
• accent: the way in which a language is pronounced in a specific geographical area
• native: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
• foreign: where English is a foreign language, e.g. Italy, Japan
• ‘nativized’: where English is a second language, e.g. India
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Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA)
• Received pronunciation (RP) or BBC English: best described accent of English
- public schools
- upper classes
• General American (GA) or American English
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phonetics and phonology
• phonetics: the science that studies the physical characteristics of sound
- articulatory: production
- acoustic: spectro-temporal properties
- auditory: perception
• phonology: describes the organization of the sound system of a language
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the articulators
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graphemes and phonemes
• grapheme: a letter of the alphabet , i.e. a discrete mark in writing or print – between angle brackets, e.g. <t>
• phoneme: a distinctive sound in a language capable of creating a distinction in meaning between two words – between slashes (or square brackets), e.g. /d/ dog, /l/ log, /f/ fog
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silent graphemes
• <t> in castle, Christmas, often (bysome speakers)
• <k> in know, knock
• <l> in walk, talk, folk
• <w> in write, wrong
• <b> in debt, bomb, doubt
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English phonology
• segmental: describes the phonemes of a language and the way they combine
• suprasegmental: describes the units larger than the phonemes (syllables, rhythm groups and intonation phrases)
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• phonemes and allophones
• vowels
• the vowel diagram
• diphthongs
• non-phonemic symbols
• sentences in phonetic transcription
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phonetic diagram(11 vowels in English)
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trapezio vocalico(7 vowels in Italian)
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• consonants
• voicing
• syllabic consonants
• rhoticity and r-linking
• English/Italian phonemes in contrast
• passages in phonetic transcription
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consonants
• consonants are sounds produced with anegressive flow of air coming out of the mouthor the nose accompanied by obstruction orfriction in the articulators
• whereas all vowels are voiced, consonants canbe voiced or voiceless depending on thevibration or otherwise of the vocal cords
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I’ve been reading some interesting research
about how people’s moods are affected by
sunlight. People from southern countries are
supposed to be more outgoing than those
from the north. Some scientists have shown
that if you’re not exposed to a certain
minimum amount of sunlight you may well
become depressed.
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The Italian language accepts English words easily. Some are used in Italian with completely different meanings. An example is the word flipper, the game called pinball in English.
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CDs have taken over from records which developed from a machine called phonograph. However the inventors of the phonograph never thought it would be used for music.
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Idioms are not a separate part of the language which one can choose either to use or to omit. Instead they form an essential part of the general vocabulary of English. Present-day English is changing and becoming more idiomatic.
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Mass tourism in the mountain regions of industrializedcountries began after the Second World War. This new phenomenon was a result of many factors includingincreases in urban population, vacation time and mobility. Today because of cheap global air travelalmost no mountains in any corner of the world are out of reach. Damage to the environment caused by tourists has become increasingly frequent in recentyears but it is not necessarily a destructive force. Tourism should be better integrated into mountain areas with a minimal impact on the environment.
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OALD www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com
CALD dictionary.cambridge.org
MEDAL www.macmillandictionary.com
LDOCE www.ldoceonline.com
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Supra-segmental Phonology
• the syllable
• stress
• stress patterns
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stress
• prominence given to a syllable
• the result of four acoustic components:
- pitch (altezza)
- loudness (volume)
- duration (lunghezza)
- quality (qualità)
• in phonetic transcription stress is indicated by a vertical line (stress mark) preceding the stressed syllable
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Underline the word which does not have the same stress pattern in the lists below.
trouble Britain cigar jingle poker
alone perhaps respect Turkey deny
colleague outline someone control Monday
upstairs divert goodbye thirteen freedom
president dictation Arabic diplomat visitor
imitate photograph glorify wonderful obedient
newsreader important grandfather homecoming headhunter
vacation sincerely suspicion professor library
vibration lefthanded dangerous unlikely organic
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• connected speech
• similitude
• linking
• assimilation
• elision
• vowel reduction and weak forms
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Connected speech
• continuous stream of sound
• characterised by articulatory accommodations and sound variability
• three main factors:
- the influence of the phonetic environment
- the rhythmic pattern
- the speed of the utterance
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• American English
• rhythm
• intonation
• functions of intonation
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punctuation
• pay attention to English punctuation:
comma (,), colon (:), semi-colon (;), full
stop/period (.), dot-dot-dot (…)
• pay attention to initial capital letters:
English, Italian, I, Monday, March, etc.
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The Grammar of English
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Definitions of grammar
• a set of rules which allow the production of well-formed sentences and utterances
• educated native speakers intuitively follow the rules of grammar
• foreign learners study grammar in an explicit way in textbooks
• non-native speakers may develop new rules which deviate from standard rules
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examples
• *I never did nothing to upset her.
(rule: multiple negation is not permitted in English).
The correct sentence is:
I never did anything to upset her)
• *She came yesterday, isn’t it?
(rule: the tag question must contain an auxiliary in
accordance with the type of verb used in the main
clause). The correct sentence is:
She came yesterday, didn’t she?
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Descriptive vs Theoretical grammar
• Descriptive grammar describes how a language
works, drawing on a long tradition of
grammatical studies, using both traditional and
new terminology (e.g. subject, embedding)
• Theoretical grammars are new analytical models
developed by linguists to describe a language
(e.g. Systemic-functional Grammar).
• ‘metalanguage’
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Morphology and Syntax
• Morphology: the area of grammar dealing with
the internal structure of words
• Morphology can be divided into derivational and
inflectional
• Syntax: the area of grammar dealing with the
way in which words combine to form larger units
such as phrases, clauses and sentences.
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The Units of Grammar
• A hierarchy of units (rank scale)
Top down
text
sentence
clause
phrase
word
morpheme
Bottom up
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Morpheme: the smallest linguistic unit of meaning
and grammatical function
e.g. un- , -less, and, glad, -s
Word: linguistic unit preceded and followed by
spaces in written language
A golden sun filled the air with light and the green
sea lapped the sand (15 words)
Phrase: a linguistic unit made up of a word or a
group of words
A golden sun (Noun Phrase= sintagma nominale)
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Clause: a linguistic unit made up of one or more
phrases, containing at least a verb phrase
e.g. A golden sun (NP) filled (VP) the air (NP)
Sentence: the largest linguistic unit made up of one or more clauses
e.g. A golden sun filled the air with light and the green sea lapped the sand
John told me that he would like to move to Paris
Text: a sequence of sentences which is coherent and cohesive
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Word
• a word is a linguistic unit which in the
written form has a space on either side
(orthographic criterion)
but: weekend, week-end, week end
brother-in-law (cognato)
identity card
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Other criteria of wordhood
• Internal stability:
Elephant, elephants
but
brother-in-law, brothers-in-law
• A word expresses a single concept:
but
the (function word), dry, get (polysemy)
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Lexeme, word-form
• LIST v. (lexeme)
list, lists, listing, listed (word-forms)
• LIST n. (lexeme)
list, lists (word-forms)
• TEACH (lexeme)
teach, teaches, taught, teaching (word-form)
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Lexeme: a unit of vocabulary which includes
different variant form, called word-forms
• Lexicography: entry (voce), headword (lemma)
walk n. lexeme1 (passeggiata)
walk v. lexeme2 (passeggiare)
bank n. lexeme1 (money)
bank n. lexeme2 (river)
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How many words are there in this sentence?
I asked him to list all his books, but
instead of listing them all, he listed
only the relevant ones and his
favourite book
24 or 16?
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Word / word-forms / lexemes
List / listing / listed =
3 word forms of the lexeme TO LIST
Book / books = 2 word forms of the lexeme BOOK
He / him / his = three word forms of the lexeme HE
(24 word-forms, 16 lexemes)
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Word classes (parts of speech)
• 9 major word classes:
nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, determiners, pronouns, auxiliary verbs
• 3 minor word classes:
inserts or interjections (Wow, Hey), wh-words, numerals
• some word-forms may belong to more than one class (e.g. round n. adj. v. prep.
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Divide the following words into 2 groups:
pig, autumn, me, explain, they, which,
sing, suddenly, from, today, biology, and,
truth, could, the, extraordinary, since, hot,
announce, in
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• pig, autumn, explain, sing, suddenly,
today, biology, truth, extraordinary, hot,
announce
• me, they, which, from, and, could, the,
since, in
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Open and closed classes
• open-class words lexical words content words
4 classes:
nouns, (lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs
• closed-class words grammatical words function words
5 classes:
conjunctions, prepositions, determiners, pronouns, auxiliary verbs
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open-class words
• length: (generally) polysyllabic
• origin: (generally) Latin, Greek, French,
Germanic origin
• frequency: less frequent
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closed-class words
• length: (generally) monosyllabic or
disyllabic
• origin: (generally) Germanic origin
• frequency: more frequent
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Nouns (N)
• Nouns are lexical words which refer to concrete
objects or entities
e.g. house (common, concrete, countable), Mary,
London (proper), love (common, abstract), sugar
(common, concrete, uncountable)
• they may take the ’s genitive case (genitivo
sassone)
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Verbs (V)
• open class denoting actions or states
• lexical/main/full verbs e.g. I like English
He walked to school
• auxiliary verbs (or auxiliaries) are added to lexical
verbs for various purposes
e.g. I could go faster. (modality)
John is going nowhere. (aspect)
Do you go to school? (question)
I do love him! (emphasis)
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Lexical Verbs (V)
• dynamic: referring to physical processes = allow the progressive form
e.g. to play, to walk, to drink
• stative/state: referring to states and conditions = do not allow the progressive form
e.g. to know, to love, to believe
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Adjectives (Adj)
• Adjectives are lexical words which describe qualities and properties of things, people, etc.
e.g. happy, blue, wonderful
- gradable (very happy)
- ungradable (dead, married)
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• attributive function: before a noun
e.g. the extraordinary boy
• predicative function: after copular verbs (to be, to seem, to appear)
e.g. John is tall
• some adjectives are only used in either attributive or predicative function
e.g.the child is afraid (predicative)
*the afraid child
e.g.the main task (attributive)
*the task is main
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Adverbs (Adv)
• Adverbs are lexical words which carry out several functions:
- degree adverbs express degree (very, really, totally)
- circumstance adverbs provide information about the circumstances of an event or state, i.e., how, when, and where (yesterday, now)
- disjuncts allow the speaker to comment on the whole utterance (probably, unfortunately)
- linking adverbs or conjuncts: connect one sentence or part of a sentence to another (besides)
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Fortunately, today the dog has eaten his food very quietly outside.
She wasn’t free to go to New York at Christmas and besides she couldn’t afford it.
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Prepositions (Prep)
• show the relationship between two items
• are typically followed by a noun phrase with which they form a Prepositional Phrase (PP)
e.g. the dog ran under the table
[the table]=NP [under [the table]]=PP
• simple: single word
e.g. under, over, at, on
• complex: more than one word
according to, on behalf of, with regard to
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Determiners (Det)
Function words used before a noun to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness, quantity, possession, etc.
e.g. all these sugary cookies filled with jam and cream
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Subclasses of determiners
• articles (indefinite and definite): a, an, the
• demonstrative: this, that, these, those
• possessive: my, your, his, her, their, our, its etc.
• quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every, each, any, etc.
• cardinal numbers: one, two, fifty, etc.
• ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc.
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Pronouns (Pron)
closed class of words which replace words avoiding repetitions
e.g. Michelle was offered an exciting new job and she decided to take it
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Subclasses of pronouns
• personal pronouns
e.g. They love football (subject) She loves them(object)
• possessive pronouns
e.g. This book is mine
• demonstrative pronouns
e.g. This is my friend Tom
• reflexive pronouns
e.g. She hurt herself
• interrogative pronouns
e.g. Whose car is this?
• relative pronouns
e.g. This is the car which/that I want to buy
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Auxiliaries (Aux)
A closed class of verbs which accompany lexical verbs
Two subclasses:
• primary auxiliaries
have, be, do
e.g. Liz is looking for a job, Do you speak English? She has studied a lot
• modal auxiliaries (modality)
can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must,
e.g. I must go now! Would you like a cup of coffee?
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Wh-words
A frequently used expression to refer to function words beginning with wh-
adverbs (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. When did you call her?
pronouns (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. Whose car is that?
determiners (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. Which book did you choose?
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Numerals
• cardinal, e.g. one, two, three, etc.
• ordinal, e.g. first, second, third, etc.
• numerals may function as nouns
e.g. The Magnificent Seven
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Morphology
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Morphology
inflectional morphology deals with changes in the
form of words that have grammatical meaning
e.g. -est signals the superlative of adjectives
derivational morphology deals with the process of
new word formation
e.g. happy unhappiness
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What is a morpheme?
unhappy un-happy
cats cat-s
• A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or grammatical function
• free: can stand alone as words
- lexical e.g. pen, book
- functional e.g. if, the
• bound: cannot stand alone and must be linked to another morpheme (called base or root) e.g. -ly, un-, -able, -ee
- derivational e.g. -ness, -able
- inflectional e.g. -s, -ing
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morphemes and morphs
played play-ed {PLAY} + {past}
unhelpful un-help-ful {negative} + {HELP} + {adjective}
impolitely im-polite-ly {negative} + {POLITE} + {adverb}
words morphs morphemes
(concrete) (abstract)
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root and base
root = the core of the word, the morpheme which determines the meaning of the word
e.g. happy is the root of happiness
bound root = a root that is not independent
e.g. dent- in dentist, dental, dentistry (Latin dens, dentis)
base = part of the word to which any affixes are attached (inflectional or derivational)
e.g. happy is the base of unhappy; unhappy is the base of unhappiness
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Identification of units (clauses, phrases, words, morphemes) in a sentence
example: The young lady bought a pair of very expensive shoes and walked out of the shop. (sentence)
clauses: the sentence consists of two clauses which are joined by the coordinating conjunction and:the young lady bought a pair of very expensive shoes walked out of the shop.
phrases: the young lady (NP), bought (VP), a pair of very expensive shoes (NP), walked (VP), out of the shop (PP).
words: the, young, lady, bought, a, pair, of, very, expensive, shoes, and, walked, out of, shop.
morphemes: the, young, lady, buy, -ed (inflectional morpheme), a, pair, of, very, expense, -ive (derivational morpheme), shoe, -s (bound inflectional morpheme), and, walk, out, of, shop
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Morpheme identificationhandwriting, unmarried, uncomfortable, walked, volleyball, smaller,unhappiness, employee, unemployment, blackboard, pubs,businesswoman, headteachers, cheerful, unkindness, unfaithfulness,dishonest, singers
hand+write+ing
un+marry+ed
un+comfort+able
walk+ed
volley+ball
small+er
un+happy+ness
employ+ee
un+employ+ment
black+board
pub+s
busy+ness+woman
head+teach+er+s
cheer+ful
un+kind+ness
un+faith+ful+ness
dis+honest
sing+er+s
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Morpheme identificationunthinkable: un- (bound, derivational prefix), think (free, root), -able (bound, derivational suffix)actors: act (free, root), -or (bound, derivational suffix), -s (bound, inflectional suffix).computerize: compute (free, root), -er (bound, derivational suffix), -ize (bound, derivational suffix).unbelievable - incredible - decolonialised
unbelievable: un- (bound, derivational prefix), believe (free root), -able (bound, derivational suffix)
incredible: in- (bound derivational prefix), cred- (bound root), -ible (bound derivational suffix)
decolonialised: de- (bound derivational prefix), colony (free root), -al (bound derivational suffix), -ise (bound derivational suffix), -ed (bound inflectional suffix)
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PDE regular inflections
nouns -s plural, nouns -’s possessive caseverbs -s 3rd pers. sing.verbs -ed past tense, verbs -ed past participleverbs -ing gerundadjectives -er comparativeadjectives -est superlative
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• some nouns have irregular plural endings
e.g. children, teeth, mice, oxen, curricula, sheep
• uncountable nouns:
e.g. evidence, advice, equipment, information
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verb inflections
most English verbs are regular and have a paradigm of 5 word forms and 4 verb inflectionse.g. love / loves / loved / loved / loving
there is a smaller number of very frequently used irregular verbse.g. take, took, taken
put, put, putspeak, spoke, spokenlose, lost, lostgo, went, gone
auxiliaries are very irregular, e.g. the verb to be has forms that differ from one another, e.g. am, are, is, was, were, been, being (suppletion)
most modal verbs do not inflect and have only two forms, e.g. may, might, can, could
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gradability of adjectives and adverbs
synthetic comparison:
-er ending (comparative) e.g. warmer
-est ending (superlative) e.g. finest
analytic comparison
more and most e.g. more/most interesting
more quickly
• irregular comparison (process of suppletion)
e.g. good, better, best; little, less, least; much, more, most; well, better, best; bad, worse, worst
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pronoun inflection
pronouns, personal pronouns in particular,
have retained a certain degree of inflection in PDE
e.g. personal pronouns express number, gender and case often through suppletive forms
I - me; we - us, you - you, he - him, she - her, it - it, they - them
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phrase
• a unit of syntax made up of one or more words
• it contains an obligatory headelement and optional modifiers
The black labrador (NP) was chewing (VP) a
juicy bone (NP) very noisily (AdvP)
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types of phrases
Noun Phrase (NP)
Verb Phrase (VP)
Adjective Phrase (AdjP)
Adverb Phrase (AdvP)
Prepositional Phrase (PP)
• except for prepositional phrases (PP), phrases can be constituted by a single lexical item
• all phrases can be extended by pre-modification or post-modification
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types of Noun Phrases
determiner pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier
- - John -
My leather (n.) suitcase -
A large, old, blue
(size, age,
colour)
suitcase with wheels
(PP)
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more Noun Phrases
det. pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier
The London experience -
- London’s churches -
The - London I know
(clause)
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build Noun Phrases
Determiner pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier
The ugly, tabby cat on Paul’s
computer
desktop/on the
desktop of
Paul’s
computer
A nice,
Australian
bloke with a red
Ferrari
The tall, modern building in the centre of
town
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ambiguity in NPs
• The French history teacher
the (det.) French (pre-mod.) history (pre-mod.)
teacher (head)
[the] [French] [history teacher]
(the teacher of history is French)
[the] [French history] [teacher]
(the teacher teaches French history)
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tree diagram (the teacher of history is French)
NP
det. mod. head NP
mod. head
The French history teacher
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tree diagram (the teacher teaches French history)
NP
det. mod. NP head
mod. head
The French history teacher
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TREE DIAGRAM
“An interesting government report about air
pollution”
NP
det. mod.(adj.) mod.(n.) head mod.PP
head C (NP)
mod.(n.) head
An interesting government report about air pollution
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relative clause as a post-modifier of a NP
The man who came to dinner
NP
det. head (n.) mod. (clause)
the man who came to dinner
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relative clause as a post-modifier of a NP
The man who came to dinner
NP
det. head (n.) mod. (clause)
S:NP P:VP
V A:PP
h(prep.) C:NP
h(pron.) h(v.) h (n.)
the man who came to dinner
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complex post-modification
• The proposal for a new building which
the committee put forward last week
- for a new building (PP)
- which the committee put forward last
week (relative clause)
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activity
• Analyse the constituent parts
of the following NPs
illustrating with tree diagrams:
1) A luxury apartment in the heart of Oxford
2) That rather disgustingly dirty carpet
3) A very interesting book about Renaissance art
in Italy
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frequency of NPs in English
• pre-modification is more common
than post-modification in all registers
• complex pre- and post-modification is
typical of some registers such as
written academic prose and
newspaper headlines
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English vs. Italian NPsTranslate these noun phrases into Italian and notice the differences between
the two languages
1. The Los Angeles Police DepartmentIl Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles
2. Air pollution L’inquinamento dell’aria
3. The Birmingham train Il treno per/da/di (?) Birmingham
4. Stansted airportL’aeroporto di Stansted
5. The proposal of a national curriculum La proposta di un curricolo nazionale
6. The country’s leading expert on youth cultureIl maggior esperto del paese sulla cultura giovanile
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Italian versus English NPs
English favours premodification (to the
left of the head). NPs are concise and
at times ambiguous • The Los Angeles Police Department
Italian favours postmodification (to the
right of the head) and the use of
prepositions. NPs are longer and more
explicit• Il Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles
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Verb Phrases: finite/non-finite
• finite verbs or VPs: marked by tense
e.g. John plays the guitar
I enjoyed the concert
• non-finite verbs or VPs: not marked by tense, person or number
e.g. To arrive on time was their objective
She travelled accompanied by her father
She broke her leg while skiing
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Verb Phrases:
tense (form) vs. time (meaning)
• tense: property allowing the verb to
differentiate between present and past
e.g. Jane likes music / Jane liked music
• Unlike in Italian, there is no morphologically
marked form to express the future in English
but a range of forms such as will/shall+
infinitive, going to, simple present, present
progressive
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Verb Phrase: aspect
property allowing the verb to give information about the state or the action
• progressive (or continuous): the action is in progress
Sarah is helping her sister
• perfect: the action is complete, that is it occurred at an earlier time and continues to the time of utterance or is relevant to it
Sarah has helped her sister to take her degree
• perfect + progressive: (often called ‘duration form’) stresses continuity in the past and includes the time of utterance
Sarah has been helping her sister since she was 12
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Translate into Italian and identify the main
differences between the two languages
1. Sarah helps her sister every Thursday
Sarah aiuta sua sorella ogni giovedì
2. Sarah is helping her sister a lot
Sarah aiuta/sta aiutando molto sua sorella
3. Sarah has helped her sister to recover from illness
Sarah ha aiutato sua sorella a guarire dalla malattia
4. Sarah helped her sister one year ago when she was ill
Sarah aiutò sua sorella un anno fa, quando era malata
5. Sarah has been helping her sister since last May
Sarah aiuta/sta aiutando/ha aiutato sua sorella dallo scorso maggio
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Translate from Italian into English
1. Sono andata a Londra molte volte
I’ve been to London many times
2. Vivo a Londra
I live in London
3. Vado a Londra ogni anno
I go to London every year
4. Vivo a Londra da 5 anni e ne sono felice
I’ve been living in London for five years and I’m happy
5. Ho vissuto a Londra per cinque anni prima di tornare in
Italia
I lived in London for five years before moving back to Italy
6. Vivevo a Londra quando ho incontrato John
I was living in London when I met John
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verb phrase: voice
(active vs. passive)• The singer performed the song
• The song was performed by the singer
• NP1+VP+ NP2 NP2 +be+VPed+ by+NP1
• The singer was performing the song
• The song was being performed by the singer
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functions of the passive
• the agent is unknown or irrelevant
Mr Constable has been murdered
• the focus is on the process to convey objectivity, especially in academic prose
The results of the tests have been checked several times
• to disclaim responsibility
He is said to be a womanizer
the passive is more frequent in scientific writing and in the press
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Discuss the concepts of “tense” and “aspect” in the English verb system
and illustrate with examples.
Tense and aspect are grammatical categories of
verbs. Tense refers to the distinction between
present and past forms of verbs (I think vs I
thought), while aspect refers to the state of the
action (progressive or perfect). In English we
may distinguish between progressive and perfect
aspects: I’m reading a book describes an action
in progress and still incomplete, while I’ve read
an interesting book describes a completed action
which is still relevant to the time of the utterance.
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In English it is also possible to combine the
progressive and the perfective aspect in
sentences like I’ve been living in London for five
years/ I’ve been living in London since 2007.
Unlike Italian, English does not have a
morphologically marked future tense. To
express future events the most common forms
are will+verb, be+ going to+verb or the present
progressive form, eg We are going to buy a new
car. Tense does not coincide with time. In fact, it
is possible to say The games start next week.
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The Verb Phrase: summary
• The VP consists of a head verb, either alone or
accompanied by one or more auxiliaries
• If the VP contains only one verb, it must be a
lexical verb (arrived)
• If the VP contains more verbs, one is a lexical
verb and the others are pre-modifying
auxiliaries or modals (is arriving, has arrived,
may arrive, might be arriving, etc.)
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The role of auxiliary verbs
• They are used to express grammatical categoriessuch as aspect, voice and modality.
• The primary auxiliary be is used to form the passive voice (the man was hit by a car) and the progressive aspect (I am working)
• The primary auxiliary have is used to form the perfect aspect (I have worked)
• The primary auxiliary do is used to form the negative and interrogative forms (I don’t know, Do you know?)
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modal verbs and modality
they are frequently used in English and belong to the Germanic core of the language
they express a wide range of meanings referring either to actions controlled by humans (deonticmodality) or to the levels of certainty of an event (epistemic modality)
the same modals can express different meanings; the same meanings can be expressed in different ways
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the main meanings of modal verbs
1. permission e.g. Can I ask you a question? Could I
borrow your notes? (Am I allowed to ask a question?)
2. ability e.g. I can ski (I know how to do it)
3. possibility e.g. She may be ill. She might be ill
(Perhaps she is ill)
4. obligation e.g. You must stop talking. You should pay
attention.
5. logical necessity (probability) e.g. She must be ill (She
is very likely to be ill)
6. volition e.g. I’ll do it for you
7. prediction e.g. It will rain tomorrow
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what about modal verbs in Italian?Translate the following expressions into English:
1. Devi smettere di fumare
You must (personal)/have to (external) stop smoking
2. Dovresti smettere di fumare
You should stop smoking
3. Posso fumare?
Can I smoke?
4. Potrei fumare?
May I smoke?
5. Domani può piovere
Tomorrow it may rain (possibility)
6. Domani potrebbe piovere
Tomorrow it might rain (remote possibility)
7. Domani pioverà
Tomorrow it will rain (forecast)/is going to rain (certainty)
8. Sa sciare molto bene
He can ski very well
9. Sapeva sciare bene quando era giovane
He used to be able to ski well when he was young
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Italian has the verbs potere, sapere and dovere
Some modal expressions are expressed through the conditional mood or the future tense, which do not exist as morphologically marked forms in English
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other phrases
• Adjective Phrase (AdjP)
e.g. extremely important, very unhappy, good at languages
• Adverb Phrase (AdvP)
e.g. very badly, perfectly well
• Prepositional Phrase (PP)
e.g. in the garden, to London
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Syntax
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How can a clause be analysed?
Subject (S) + predicate (P), i.e. VP +
other optional/obligatory elements
John (what is talked about) is English
(what is said about the topic)
S and P are the main functional elements
of the clause
S and P are the “immediate constituents”
(Chomsky) of the clause
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Clause and clause elements
• A clause is a syntactic unit made up of one or
more phrases, containing at least one VP:
e.g. Run!
John sang.
My brother gave me a beautiful dress.
Did you like the concert last night?
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5 major clause elements (constituents)
• Subject (S)
• Verb (V)
• Object (O)
• Complement (C)
• Adverbial (A)
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Word Order
• Translate the following clauses into English:
Seguiranno alcuni esempi
Some examples will follow
Nel capitolo 3 verrà presentata la grammatica
Grammar will be presented in Chapter 3
Giovanni parla molto bene l’italiano/l’italiano molto bene
John speaks Italian very well
Odio stirare
I hate ironing
Piove forte da molte ore
It’s been raining heavily for many hours
• C’è un gatto in giardino
There is a cat in the garden
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• The unmarked word order in English is
SVO, while in Italian this order can vary to a
certain extent
• The subject is compulsory in English and
not in Italian
• If there is no subject, a ‘dummy’ subject will
be used (it/there)
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The Verb
the verb is the central part of the clause since it
determines the other elements (e.g. verb
complementation or valency)
She was laughing one-place verb
She was playing the piano two-place verb
She was very beautiful two-place verb
She gave him a kiss three-place verb
She made him happy three-place verb
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clause elements
S V O C A
The black
labrador
(NP)
has bitten
(VP)
Mr Allington
(NP)
in the garden
(PP)
Optional A
He (NP) put (VP) the keys
(NP)
in his bag
(PP)
Obligatory A
Sue (NP) is feeling
(VP)
very
sleepy
(AdjP)
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S V O C A
It (dummy
subject)
is going
(VP)
to rain
(non- finite
VP)
Armstrong
(NP)
became
(VP)
the first
man on the
moon (NP)
Chris (NP) made (VP) Sara (NP) really angry
(AdjP)
yesterday
(AdvP)
What I don’t
understand
(clause)
is (VP) why you
lied to me
(clause)
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S+V+Oi+Od (di-transitive)
S V Oi
(Indirect Object)
Od
(Direct Object)
My
friend
told me a lie
Sue gave her sister a glass of wine
John showed his friends his new car
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SV (intransitive verb): no complementation
The black labrador was barking
clause
S:NP P:VP
det. mod.(adj.) head (n.) aux. head (v.)
the black labrador was barking
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A new teacher has arrived
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SVOd (monotransitive)
Andrew bought a sports car
clause
S:NP P:VP
V Od:NP
head (n.) head (v.) det. mod. (adj.) head (n.)
Andrew bought a sports car
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My sister plays the piano
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SVA (+ an obligatory Adverbial)The taxi is waiting outside
clause
S:NP P:VP
V A:AdvP
det. head (n.) aux. head (v.) head (adv.)
The taxi is waiting outside
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The waiter put the bread on the table
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SVCs (copular verb)
The weather has turned very nasty
clause
S:NP P:VP
V C:AdjP
det. head (n.) aux. head(v.) mod.(adv.) head(adj.)
The weather has turned very nasty
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The news sounds very interesting
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My 80-year-old grandmother is in good health
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Copular verbs
• be, feel, seem, appear, look, remain, stay, become, sound, taste
e.g. I am/feel rather tired (C: AdjP)
She became a nurse (C: NP)
You look extremely happy (C: AdjP)
Mary appeared in good health (C: PP)
That is what I mean (C: clause)
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SVOiOd (di-transitive)
Gill told her child a bedtime story
clause
S:NP P:VP
V Oi:NP Od:NP
head(n.) head(v.) det. head(n.) det. mod.(n.) h(n.)
Gill told her child a bedtime story
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She should tell me the truth
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Di-transitive verbs
• Give, tell, bring, buy, show
e.g. John showed me (Oi) his new car (Od)
They bought him (Oi) a new racket (Od)
Tell us (Oi) the truth (Od)
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SVOdCo (complex transitive)
The judges declared Jackie the winner
clause
S:NP P:VP
V O:NP Co:NP
det. head (n.) head (v.) head(n.) det. h(n.)
The judges declared Jackie the winner
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Rebecca considers her brother a genious
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SVOdA
Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin
clause
S:NP P:VP
V O:NP A:PP
head (n.) head(v.) det. h(n.) h (prep) C:NP
det. h(n.)
Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin
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The driver threw the bottle out of the
window
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The 7 basic clause patterns
• SV (intransitive) The dog is barking
• SVA (intransitive+obligatory A) They are waiting outside
• SVCs (copulative) You look great
• SVOd (monotransitive) I miss my family
• SVOiOd (di-transitive) John showed me his new car
• SVOdCo (complex-transitive) The judges declared
Jackie the winner
• SVOdA (transitive with obligatory A)
The waiter put the bread on
the table
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In the summer A:PP
high humidity levels S:NP
make P:VP
the weather O:NP
unbearable Co:AdjP
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Complement
• Cs (complemento predicativo del soggetto)
It follows copular verbs be, feel, seem, appear, look…
I am/feel tired
You look/ appear/seem tired
• Co (complemento predicativo dell’oggetto)
It follows a direct object and occurs with complex
transitive verbs make, elect, consider, find, call…
This experience made me stronger
I found his reaction stupid
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Adverbial
• Optional elements added to the obligatory
elements of the clause
• Circumstance adverbial: additional information
e.g. The taxi is waiting outside
• Stance adverbial: speaker’s feeling / attitude
e.g. Hopefully I will pass all my exams in June
• Linking adverbial
e.g. In conclusion, all’s well that ends well.
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Obligatory adverbial
• Adverbials that are required to complete
the meaning of the verb
e.g. Sally put the bread on the table
(obligatory Adverbial)
vs. Sally cut the bread on the table (optional
Adverbial)
Verbs: put, last, live
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Adverbials vs. complements
• John was very quiet (C)
• John was in bed (A)
• They are in danger (C)
• They are in the garden (A)
• You should stay sober (C)
• You should stay here (A)
Complements describe or characterize the S (or
O)
Adverbials typically express place or direction
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main and subordinate clauses
1. Mary had been waiting for more than an hour
2. Suddenly, she stood up and went out
3. She said that she was not feeling wellbecause the air in the room was stuffy
4. She wanted to get some fresh air
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• a main clause always contains a finite verb and typically contains an overt subject
• a subordinate clause cannot stand alone and needs to be attached to a free-standing clause
• a non-finite clause is always subordinate
• simple clauses consist of a clause, compound clauses consist of two coordinate clauses, complex clauses consist of a main and one or more subordinate clauses.
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Types of Clauses
typical functions of clause types
Form Function
declarative statement
interrogative question
imperative directive
exclamative exclamation
You’re wearing a new dress.
Are you wearing a new dress?
Buy yourself a new dress!
What a lovely dress you’re wearing!
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declarative clauses
• declarative clauses are normally used to make
statements
• declarative sentences typically have an overt
subject, a verb element and any necessary verb
complementation
• declarative sentences may also have optional
adverbials
Philip will see his dentist in London today
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interrogative clauses
• yes-no questions: Are you happy?
• wh- questions: Where do you live?
• question-tag : She’s Australian, isn’t she?
She doesn’t love him, does she?
So, you have changed your mind, have you?
• the interrogative structure implies a subject-operator
inversion
• any auxiliary which is used to make interrogative
sentences is labelled operator (be, have, do)
• questions tags may have contrastive or constant polarity
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marked structures: clefting
• to highlight a particular element of
the sentence
• the focussed element is introduced by
a dummy Subject and followed by a
relative clause
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it-cleft structure
Terry plays jazz piano for fun.
It is Terry who plays jazz piano for fun.
It’s jazz piano that Terry plays for fun
It’s for fun that Terry plays jazz piano
The man hit the boy
It was the man who hit the boy
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wh-cleft structure
I would like a book for my birthday
What I would like for my birthday is a book
I want a book for Christmas
What I want for Christmas is a book
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sentence
• the largest unit of syntactic structure
• a sentence must consist of at least one clause (main clause)
I agreed to go with them although I wasn’t really happy with the idea.
• in writing, a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop
• in speech sentences are not always complete
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types of subordinate clauses
1. Nominal
I just hope (that) they will understand
2. Relative
The man who is sitting next to Tom is John
3. Adverbial
Call me as soon as you get home (time) because I have to talk to you (reason). The boy stood on the box so that he could see better (purpose). Eventhough I am tired (concession), I’ll do it.
4. Comparative
This hotel is not as nice as I expected
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types of relative clauses
In what ways do the following relative clauses differ?
which relative pronouns can be used in each
context?
This is the best hotel (that, which, who, whom, whose,
zero pronoun) I was able to find
This hotel, (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero
pronoun) was renewed last year, is one of the best
in the city
The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero
pronoun) you see in the photo is my brother
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The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) is coming towards us is my brother
The music (that, which, who, whose, whom, zero article) we are listening to is Mozart
We stayed in a lovely hotel, (which, that, who, whom, whose) owner is a good friend of mine
We stayed in a lovely hotel, (which, that, who, whom, whose) we booked on the Internet
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rule of relative clauses
Relative clauses can be either defining (or restrictive) or non-defining (non-restrictive) depending on whether they definethe antecedent or add extra information (no commas)
The tourists who got up early could see the dawn on the Nile
The use of relative pronouns is conditioned by the antecedent, whether it is human ( who,whom, whose, that) or non-human (that, whose, which), whether it plays the role of subject (who, that, which) or object (whom, that, which, zero pronoun), whether it is defining (who, whose, whom, that, which) or non-defining (who, whose, which). (commas are required)
The tourists, who got up early, could see the dawn on the Nile
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conditional sentences
0) If you don’t water plants, they die (obvious)
1) If the weather is nice, tomorrow we will go
to the seaside (it is an open possibility)
* If the weather will be nice, …
2) If the weather were/was nice, we would go to
the seaside (it is unlikely)
*If the weather would be nice,
3) If the weather had been nice, we would have
gone to the seaside (it did not happen)
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• My friends sent me an invitation to their
wedding.
• I put some poison for the mice in the garage.
• Chris made Sara really angry yesterday.
• Yesterday the doctor told the patient the good
news
• The car keys are on the table.
• The cash machine is faulty.
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The English Lexicon:
From Words to Phraseology
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PART 1. Brainstorming on lexis
PART 2. The English lexicon: general
features
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some old and new concepts and terms
word/word-form/lexeme
grammatical word/lexical word
vocabulary/lexis/(the) lexicon
entry/headword/lemma
lexicology/lexicography
phraseology
semantics
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Lexical level
lexical level = word level
vocabulary: to talk about words collectively
(e.g. large vocabulary, small vocabulary)
lexis: to talk about the vocabulary of a specific variety
(e.g. English lexis, Italian lexis)
lexicon: to indicate a list of words with additional information
(e.g. computer lexicon, mental lexicon)
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lexis is dynamic
Three processes of lexical innovation:
1. the creation of completely new words (coinage)
e.g. computing terms google (search through Google
engine)
neet= not in education, employment or training
2. the borrowing of words from other languages (loanwords)
e.g. Anglicisms in Italian (spam)
e.g. Italianisms in English (spaghetti)
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3 word formation processes internal to the language
(derivational morphology), e.g. prefixes, suffixes,
compounding, semantic shift, etc.
e.g. “to zap” from “moving quickly” to “ keeping
changing TV programmes with a remote control”
lexis is the level of language most rapidly and
deeply affected by social, historical and cultural
change
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meaning is complex
the relationship between “things” and “words”
some words imitate sounds (onomatopoeic) but most words have an arbitrary connection with “things”
miagolare
to mew/to miaow
chicchiricchì
cock-a-doodle-do
acqua
water/wasser/eau
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defining word meaning may prove difficult
William Shakespeare is …
… a famous English playwright of the 16th century
… the greatest playwright of all times
… the author of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and many other tragedies and comedies
… the father of British theatre
… a writer of the Modern English period
… my favourite dramatist etc.
words refer to, or denote, entities in the world, but this relationship (reference) can be expressed in different ways
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defining the adjective “honest”
A person who is honest does not tell lies, cheat people or violate the law
A person who is honest always tells the truth, respects other people, obeys the law and pays taxes
Someone who is honest can always be trusted
Someone who is honest does not hide things from you
Someone who is honest can be trusted with valuables and money
etc.
the meaning of words can be culturally conditioned
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defining the noun “bird”
A bird is…
… an animal with the body covered in/with feathers, with two wings and a beak, which is able to fly. Female birds lay eggs.
… an animal with feathers, two legs and two wings, which is able to fly.
But what about penguins and ostriches?
We conceive a general image, a mental PROTOTYPE based on our experience and containing the most distinctive characteristics of the class. Some members are less central than others.
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“butterfly”
Butterflies live only one day
She is a butterfly when she dances
words denote objects and concepts, but
may have emotional or stylistic connotations
words can be used in a figurative sense
(metaphorical)
e.g. I’m a domestic god/goddess!
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denotation and connotation
words refer to, or denote, objects and concepts
e.g. lion: a wild animal living in Africa
words have stylistic and emotional connotations
e.g. He was a lion (courageous)
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Different types of lexemes
1. The computer is an electronic machine which is used for storing, organizing and finding different types of information
some words have only one referent or meaning (monoreferential)
2a Mary is a great host
2b The host represents the body of Christ
some words have different unrelated meanings (homonymic)
3a. I saw a mouse running around the kitchen floor
3b. I’ve just bought a brand new mouse for my PC
some words have several related meanings (polysemous)
the nature of lexemes affects the organisation of entries in dictionaries
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Semantic links between words
1. freedom vs. liberty
(near)-synonymy
2. black vs. white; fast vs. slow; brother vs. sister; married vs. single
antonymy (or complementarity)
3. flowers, roses, daffodils, violets, tulips, daisies
hyperonymy (superordinates) and hyponymy(subordinates)
4. cook, roast, simmer, fry, bake, boil, barbecue, etc.
semantic field
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Collocations and phraseology
1. I would like to win a post-graduate scholarship to do research (not *to make research)
2. How do you do?
3. The ups and downs of life (not *the downs and ups)
4. The early bird catches the worm (not *the early cat catches the mouse)
5. Torrential/heavy rain in Bangladesh (not *strong rain)
6. He has spilled the beans (not *spilled the peas)
7. Headache (not *pain in the head)
“words keep company with other words” and tend to co-occur in preferred or fixed collocations (Sinclair’s idiom principle versus open-choice principle )
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Lexis
is dynamic
refers to the external world
refers to mental concepts
has emotional and stylistic connotations
has one or several referents and meanings
relates to other words in the language
may co-occur with other words in fixed or
semi-fixed patterns
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What does knowing a word mean?
receptive vs. productive competence
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Part II
The English lexicon
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How many words are there in
English?
The problematic notion of words does
not make it easy to count them
There are different ways of counting words:
1. dictionaries
2. corpora
3. speakers’ competence
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Samuel Johnson’s
Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
about 42,000 entriesLEXICO’GRAPHER. n.s.
[? lixicographe, French.] A
writer of dictionories; a
harmless drudge, that
busies himself in tracing
the original, and detailing
the signification of words.
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The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (OED)
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OED features
The project started in the second half of the 19th century
It covers English since the 14th century
The second print edition in 20 volumes + 4 additions has 616,500 headwords and derived words and phrases
A CD-ROM and an online version, which is regularly updated, are also available
www.oed.com
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OED: a selection from the entry
“spaghetti” [It., pl. of spaghetto thin string, twine.]
1. a. A variety of pasta made in long thin strings. Occas., a dish of spaghetti.
1888 MRS. BEETON Bk. Househ. Managem. §2952 Maccheroni, or Spaghetti, a smaller
kind of macaroni,..generally follows the soup.
2. An Italian: usu. contemptuous. slang.1931 ‘D. STIFF’ Milk & Honey Route iii. 38 Italian hobos are equally rare. They
are the ‘wops’ or ‘spaghettis’.
3. Complex roadways forming a multi-level junction, esp. on a motorway. colloq
1966 Guardian 4 June 14/2 Details of one of the biggest pieces of
motorway spaghetti so far designed in Britain were published ...
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Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary:
the American counterpart to the OED
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Webster’s
It covers American English since the 18th
century
Its 1963 edition contains about 114,000 word families (a headword accompanied by its inflected and derived forms)
It is regularly updated. There are several print editions and an online edition, which is freely available
www.m-w.com
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other types of dictionaries
in size (college dictionaries, desk dictionaries,
pocket dictionaries)
in addressees (learner’s dictionaries, from 60,000 to
80,000 entries, or for native speakers )
in contents (general or specialised, varieties of
English)
in number of languages (monolingual, bilingual,
multilingual)
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learners’ dictionaries
1. Spelling variants
2. IPA phonetic transcription
3. Grammatical and syntactic information
4. Information on frequency
5. Definitions of various senses
6. Examples of usage
7. Sense relations, e.g. antonymy
8. Register labels (e.g formal, slang)
9. Frequent lexical collocations
10. Usage notes
11. Typical learners’ errors
12. Use of colours, symbols and figures
13. Special sections
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electronic corpora
corpora are collections of text in electronic form thatare meant to represent a language, or a register of it
several corpora are available for English that can be analysed through specific software in terms of frequency and use of words in context
e.g. The British National Corpus (BNC)
The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
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What are the most frequently used words in
English?
from the BNC
1. the determiner
2. of preposition
3. and conjunction
4. a determiner
5. in preposition
6. to infinitive
7. it pronoun
8. is verb
9. to preposition
10. was verb
11. I pronoun
12. for preposition
13. that conjunction
14. you pronoun
15. he pronoun
16. be verb
17. with preposition
18. on preposition
19. at preposition
20. by preposition
grammatical words are the most frequently used
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frequency of lexical words (BNC)
The 10 most frequent nouns are time, year, people, way, man, day, thing, child, Mr, government
The most commonly mentioned animal is horse, followed by dog
The 10 most frequent adjectives are other, good, new, old, great, high, small, different, large, local
The most frequently mentioned colours are black, white, red andgreen (the order coincides with the hierarchy of colors which scholars have observed in many languages)
The top ten frequency adverbs are never, always, often, ever, sometimes, usually, once, generally, hardly, no longer
rarer nouns are fax, ribbon, ant, colitis, wheat, spelling, holly, monarch, voltage, morale
rarer adjectives are rude, faithful, ministerial, innovative, controlled, conceptual, unwilling, civic, meaningful disturbing
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How many words do native speakers
of English know?
It depends on variables such as age, education and use (receptive or productive)
According to research
a two-year old child: very limited vocabulary but growing at great speed
an English university student: 20,000 word families
an adult educated speaker: 50,000 lexemes
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The mixed nature of English lexis:
Germanic vs. Romance words
PDE is made of a core (about 40%) of high-frequency
Germanic words that are usually short and refer to
common actions and concepts (e.g. man, woman, day,
child, bread, to go, to get, phrasal verbs)
and
a wider component (about 60%) of less frequently used
words of classical or Romance origin which are usually
longer and used in specialised or formal contexts (e.g.
encyclopaedia, tonsillectomy, parliament, infrastructure)
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Germanic/Romance near-synonyms
discover e.g. Columbus discovered a new continent
find out e.g. Her parents found out that she had a boyfriend
continue e.g. The treatment has to be continued for 4 weeks
go on e.g. We can’t go on like this any longer
pig/cow = the living animal
pork/beef = the meat you eat
regal, royal e.g. royal family, regal powers
kingly e.g. kingly manner
return
come back
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“true” and “false friends”
between Italian and English
similarity may help (true friends)
e.g. problem, result, company, million,
community
similarity may be misleading (false friends)
e.g. actually, eventually, argument, factory,
educated, lecture, library, magazine
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English loans in Italian and other
European languages
From a “borrowing language” English has become a“donor language”. Why?
In present-day Italian there are many different types ofAnglicisms and people have different attitudes towardthis phenomenon. What is happening in otherlanguages?
Comment on the following Anglicisms in Italian. Do theyhave an Italian counterpart?
film, mission, management, welfare, governance,briefing, week-end, pub, scannerizzare, mouse,computer, talk-show, report, devolution, boom,impeachment, ghost writer
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escort
1 person or a group of people or vehicles that go
somewhere with someone to protect them or prevent them from escaping 2 someone, especially a man, who goes with another person to a formal social event as their partner 2asomeone who is paid to go out socially with another person. Escort is sometimes used as a polite way of referring to a prostitute
(Macmillan English Dictionary 2007)
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escort
1. sost. m. e f. inv., accompagnatore turistico.
2. sost .f. inv., donna giovane e avvenente che partecipa, a pagamento, a cene, serate in locali notturni e sim., non escludendo a priori rapporti sessuali mercenari. sin. hostess.
(GDU 2007)
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shopping spese
look aspetto
baby-sitter > bambinaia
body building > culturismo
coffee break > pausa caffè
team < squadra
match < partita
coach < allenatore
sprint > scatto
snowboard > tavola
record > primato
goal > rete
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variation in English
1. user-related variation
e.g. geographical area (the UK, the USA, etc.),
age, education
2. use-related variation or register model
what is talked about (field or topic)
the medium used (e.g. spoken/written,
electronic language)
the relationship between speakers/writers, e.g.
formal, informal (personal tenor)
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Some lexical differences between
BrE and AmE1. He lives in a lovely apartment in New York
AmE/flat BrE
2. The autumn term will start in September
BrE /fall AmE
3. Where can I find a gas station?
AmE/petrol (BrE)
4. 11/9/2001 BrE
9/11/2001 AmE
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Register variation
Tonsillectomy is needed
The doctor recommended that you remove/take out your tonsils
Influenza A/H1N1 broke out in Mexico last year
Swine flu broke out in Mexico last year
These are my children
These are my kids
This is my offspring
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core/basic vocabulary
Choose the most neutral and general lexeme to refer to someone “who has very little fat on his/her body”and, with the help of dictionaries, identify the differences in meaning:
emaciated, skinny, slender, lean, slim, thin
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word-formation processes1. compounding or compounds
two or more free lexemes are joined to form a new word (with a new meaning) e.g. schoolday, day school (not a boarding school)
2. affixation
one or more bound derivational lexemes are added to a free morpheme either at the beginning or at the end
e.g. e-mail, childish, childhood, kingdom
3. conversion or zero derivation
a change of word class without a change in form
e.g. bottle (noun)/to bottle (verb), hard (adj. adv.)
4. acronym or initialism
the initial letters of a complex expression
e.g. AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency SyndromeSCUBA = Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
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5. clipping
by eliminating the beginning and/or the end of a lexemee.g. flu/influenza
6. blending or blends
the merging of two words into one
e.g. glocal = global + local, motel = motor + hotel
7. semantic change or shift
the change of meaning of existing lexemes
“to zap” from “moving quickly” to “keeping changing TV programmes with a remote control”
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some observations on compounds
1. a blackbird/a black bird
un merlo/un uccello nero
compounds vs. noun phrases
2. bedroom/paperback
endocentric, exocentric
3. mother-in-law, forget-me-not, state-of-the-art, sell-by date
multi-word compounds
4. green tea, checklist, user-friendly
different ways of writing compounds: two words, one word (solid compounds), hyphenated
5. green card, user-friendly, handout (v. and n.)
different word classes (nouns, adjectives, verbs)
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Observe the differences between English
and Italian compounds
1. green tea
tè verde
2. trademark
marchio di fabbrica
3. zero tolerance
tolleranza zero
4. coffee break
pausa caffè
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some prefixes and suffixes
unhappy, incomplete
immorality, non-morality
maltreat, miscalculate
pro-Obama, antiwar
postmodern, recycle
bilingual, polyglot
multitask, multifunctional
prefixes are usually class maintaining and affect meaning in many ways (e.g. opposite, pejorative, attitude, time)
trainer, reader (nouns)
trainee, employee
formation, pollution
socialism, liberalism
kindness, happiness
reliable, eligible (adjectives)
faithful, beautiful
useless, careless
specialize/se, advertise (verbs)
honestly, carefully (adverbs)
suffixes form nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, and are usually class-changing
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some old and new affixes
ecology, ecosystem, ecodiversity
psychology, morphology, biology
Europhile, Europhobe, Eurocrats
many prefixes and suffixes are of classical origin (neo-classical affixes)
workaholic, chocaholic
-aholic from work+alcoholic; chocolate+alcoholic
Cartergate, Camillagate, Katrinagate, sexgate
-gate from the Watergate scandal involving the American president Richard Nixon in the 1970s
e-mail, e-commerce, e-business
some new affixes are linked to recent trends and events
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conversion or zero derivation
bottle (noun)/to bottle (verb)
to download (verb)/download (noun)
dry (adjective)/to dry (verb)
round: adjective, preposition, adverb, noun, verb
very common process in PDE because of the
reduction of morphology
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read and recognize the following acronyms or
initialisms
IT
Information Technology
WWW
World Wide Web
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation
IRA
Irish Republican Army
VIP
Very Important Person
RAM
Random Access Memory
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
acronyms are read as words whereas in initialisms each letter is read independently
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phraseological phenomena
According to the linguist John Sinclair, there are two different principles in language:
the IDIOM PRINCIPLE refers to the existence in language of multi-word lexical patterns that are units of meaning
the OPEN-CHOICE PRINCIPLE refers to the part of language that functions according to predictable grammatical rules
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types of “prefabricated language”
social routines (or pragmatic idioms)
e.g. see you later, I’m looking forward to hearingfrom you, Have a good day, Can I help you?
discourse organisers
e.g. in other words, to sum up, first of all, for example, e.g. (exempli gratia), i.e. (id est)
idioms
e.g. to beat about the bush, to kill two birds with onestone
binomials
e.g. back and forth, pros and cons, bed and breakfast
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proverbs
e.g. A friend in need is a friend indeed, Too many
cooks spoil the broth, The more the merrier
simile
e.g. As ugly as sin
slogans and famous quotations
e.g. Ask not what your country can do for you but
what you can do for your country ( J. F. Kennedy)
Yes, we can (B. Obama)
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from transparent to idiomatic
(opaque) expressions
1. to see the light at the end of the tunnel
2. to give someone the green light
3. white wine
4. white lie
5. to take up knitting
6. it’s a piece of cake
7. it’s my cup of tea
8. to go Dutch
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lexical collocationsa pervasive feature in English and a major difficulty for learners
Fammi un favore
Do me a favour
Fammi una torta
Make me a cake
Sono stanco morto
I’m dead tired
Era ubriaco fradicio
He was dead drunk
Un edificio umido
A damp building
Un clima molto caldo e umido
A hot and humid climate
Occhi umidi
Moist eyes
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from “frozen” to restricted lexical collocations
1. He shrugged his shoulders
He nodded his head
He shook his finger
2. He is growing a beard
He is growing vegetables
*He is growing his children
(He is bringing up his children)
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lexical collocation
the preferred co-occurrence of two lexemes that
belong to two different word classes and retain
their independent meaning
a word “keeping company” with another word for
reasons other than grammatical ones
e.g. to take up/start/pursue a career
*to make career
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open questions in lexicology
1. Eskimos have many words to refer to different
types of snow. What does it mean?
2. Is there a close link between the character of a
language and the spirit of a nation (W. von
Humboldt 1767-1835)?
3. Does a language determine its speakers’ world
view (Sapir and Whorf’s cultural relativism,
20th century)?
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words reflect changes in society
HI-FI, TRANSISTOR, VIDEOTAPE
(in the 1950s)
GREEN/GLOBAL WARMING/CHAIRPERSON
(in the 1970s)
WEBSITE/WORLD WIDE WEB
(in the 1990s)
TWEET
(2012)
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Computing:
a rapidly developing terminology
1. program, window, menu, mouse, address, disk, bug, spam
words borrowed from general language and acquiring a specialised meaning
2. floppy disk, hard disk, blog (from web + log), modem (from modulator + demodulator), download, search engine, to google
word formation processes
3. CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory), FAQs
(Frequently Asked Questions)
acronyms and abbreviations
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political correctness:
some taboo areas
1. negro (nigger), black, Afro-American, African-American
2. Mr, Mrs, Ms
3. chairman, chairwoman, chairperson, chair
4. lawyer, lady lawyer, woman lawyer
5. husband and wife, acompanying person, spouse, partner
6. disabled, handicapped, differently able, physically impaired
to be politically correct means to refer to different ethnic
and social groups in a respectful and accepted way
the most sensitive areas are race, gender, religion, the
human body and death
the debate started in the USA in the 1970s and it is rather
controversial
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The future of English lexis
PDE lexis will accept considerable
geographical variation (e.g. AmE , BrE,
Indian English, Caribbean English)
but
will be shared by global communities of
scientists, professionals and Internet users
(English as a Lingua Franca)