Download WORD - Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Straniere

ENGLISH Chapter 3
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WORD STRUCTURES & CLASSES
SYNTAX
GRAMMAR: morphology & Syntax
MORPHOLOGY: the study of the structure of
words in a language
• MORPHEMES: the smallest unit of meaning
Orthographic words
• An orthographic word is a written sequence
which has a white space at each end but no white
space in the middle
• Orthographic words exist only in written texts,
and they have no existence in speech.
WORDS & SENTENCES
• WORD = A sequence of letters bounded by spaces
• SENTENCE = a sequence of words. The first of which begins with a
capital letter. And the last of which is completed by a full stop,
question mark or exclamation mark.
These definitions are based upon our idea of
written language.
Is it the same in spoken language?
Sentences are not primarily about how you write them,
but about the kind of structures that they have.
Word boundaries
Confusion between writing and speaking!
• …….apynamilk
• He said he wanted a pint of milk (orthographic version)
COMPOUND WORDS /Compounds
Words that form a unit made up of 2 or more
single words: e.g. Time lag; time-lag; timelag
Criteria to establish boundaries between words
In order to establish boundaries between words
linguists use a variety of criteria from several
linguistic levels:
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PHONOLOGICAL (sounds & their combination)
MORPHOLOGICAL (word structure)
SEMANTIC (meaning)
SYNTACTIC (sentence structure)
HOMOGRAPHS
• Words spelt the same, but with different
pronunciation & meaning?
e.g. bow, sow, refuse
HOMOPHONES
• Words pronounced the same, but with different
spellings & meanings?
e.g. feet/feat, practice/practise
Each sentence contains two homographs. The definition or a synonym of one of
the homographs follows the sentence. Underline the homograph that matches the
definition or synonym. The first three have been done for you.
1. Tracey didn’t feel well after falling into the well. in good health
2. Jim hunts, but he does not shoot does. female deer
3. There was a big row in the first row of the theater. fight
4. Let’s wind up the kite string before the wind gets too wild. moving air
5. If the judges are fair, our rabbit will win a ribbon at the fair. just
6. That creaking sound makes me wonder if this building is sound. in good
condition
7. The oil well is yours and the gold mine is mine. belonging to me
8. The dove dove to the ground to eat the peanut. dived
9. I found it hard to believe that he planned to found a new church.
establish, or start
10. The rose bushes rose out of the fertile ground. a kind of flower
11. I won’t shed a tear if you tear my old shirt into shreds. rip
12. The dog was happy when you dropped the ground beef onto the
ground. past of grind
HOMONYMS
• Words spelt and pronounced the same (same form),
but with clearly different meanings?
e.g. bank, stick, break
POLYSEMOUS
• Words spelt and pronounced the same (same form),
but with a number of senses or variants of a single
meaning?
e.g. grow
More than one part of speech
• Some words can be more than one part of speech, e.g.
• COOK: A cook is someone who cooks food.
• ORANGE: An orange is an orange fruit.
Use your dictionary to find out what parts of speech
these words can be:
TALK – HEAD – DRINK – FLAT START – RENT – SLICE - HEAT
WORD FORMS
• Words may have more than one spelling (medieval, mediaeval);
• There may be variant forms of the same word (Katherine,
Kathryn, Catherine);
• There might be pronunciation variants, systematic variations of
sounds (accent);
INFLECTIONS :
in NOUNS, VERBS, ADJECTIVES
Spelling and pronunciation
reflect grammatical differences
To sum up: 4 types of ‘WORD’
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ORTHOGRAPHIC WORDS = spelling
PHONOLOGICAL WORDS = pronunciation
WORD-FORMS = grammatical variants
LEXEMES =
items of meaning, headwords of dictionary
entries, 1 orthographic word
His father wants to hand on to him his hard-earned wealth, while
his mother desires to put something more valuable into his hand.
Count the number of words in the above sentence.
• WORDS as units of meaning, or items of vocabulary (Lexemes)
• WORDS as defined by spelling, orthographic, phonological words.
• WORDS as representatives of family variants: eg costly, costlier,
costliest ( Lemma and its word forms)
LEXEMES in dictionaries
• HEADWORDS : base forms of the word, ‘citation
forms’.
• VERBS: present tense form or the infinitive without
‘to’/ the form that is not suffixed.
• NOUNS: the singular common case form.
• ADJECTIVES: the absolute form.
• The entry under a particular headword may contain
derived lexemes (they belong to a different word
class)
MULTI-WORD LEXEMES
• PHRASAL VERB = single lexemes
- a verb followed by an adverb particle that
can be positioned after the object.
e.g. Jane has thought up a good excuse
• PREPOSITIONAL VERBS = not always regarded
as single lexemes
- a verb followed by a preposition particle (it
belongs to the following phrase)
e.g. look after, think about,
LEXICAL & GRAMMATICAL WORDS
• LEXICAL classes are open (nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs)
• GRAMMATICAL or FUNCTION words/classes
are stable (pronouns, determiners,
prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, auxiliary
verbs)
MORPHEMES
• Singing: 2 morphemes = SING + ING
• But, BRIGHT, ICE, RINK are only one
morpheme
• Unlike phonemes, morphemes have an
identifiable meaning, eg – like, -ing, -ly, etc.
Morphology
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Between the levels of phonology and syntax
Free morphemes: no addition
Bound morphemes: affixes
In English all lexical morphemes and many
grammatical ones are free.
TASK 1 - Break the following words into their morphemes
Example: prefix = 2, pre + fix
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dogs =
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trusted =
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replacements =
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crying =
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governmental =
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grandmothers =
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milder =
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bicycle =
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environmentally =
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contemplation =
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linguistic =
Break the words into their morphemes
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prefix = 2, pre + fix
dogs = 2, dog + s
trusted = 2, trust + ed
replacements = 4, re + place + ment + s
crying = 2, cry + ing
governmental = 3, govern + ment + al
grandmothers = 3, grand + mother + s
milder = 2, mild + er
bicycle = 2, bi + cycle
environmentally = 4, environ + ment + al + ly
contemplation = 2, contemplat(e) + ion
linguistic = 2, linguist + ic
List the morphemes and state whether
they are free or bound
1. creating
2. seaward
3. wastage
4. incomplete
5. modernize
6. unhealthy
7. waiter
8. reconsider
9. keys
10. astronomer
ENGLISH WORD DIVISION
Analyze the following words into morphs using the
model given below:
inequality
PREFIX(ES)
ROOTS)
SUFFIX(ES)
in-
equal
-ity
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(a) hospitalization
(b) invisibly
(c) uninteresting
(d) undercooked
(e) transcontinental
(f) ungrammatical
(g) reinforcement
(h) prototypical
(i) unforgettable
(j) impropriety
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(k) disfunctional
(l) inconsiderate
(m) postcolonial
(n) unlikelihood
(o) relationship
(p) asymmetrical
(q) hypersensitivity
(r) unfriendliness
(s) interdependence
(t) monotheism
ALLOMORPHS
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Different forms that a morpheme can take:
Plural morpheme (PL)
Past morpheme (Past)
http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/allomorph
From dictionaries to corpora
• http://corpus.byu.edu/
• Let’s explore differences and similarities
WORD FORMATION
• 3 different processes of word formation:
1) INFLECTION (English is not a highly inflected
language)
2) DERIVATION (a morpheme added that
changes meaning)
3) COMPOUNDING (2 equally free morphemes)
WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES
• BLENDING
2 words together retaining one of each, e.g. telegenic
• CLIPPING
Abbreviated words, e.g. fridge, exam, ad
• BACK FORMATION
Removal of affixes, e.g. babysitter, double-glaze
• ACRONYMS
Composed of the initial letters of the words of a
phrase, e.g UNESCO, BBC
INFLECTION
• All inflectional morphemes are suffixes
(=bound morphemes)
• Regular in form and meaning
• They do not change the class of the word, but
alter the grammatical form.
• Ctrl. Pp. 77-80
DERIVATION
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A morpheme added to the base form
They change the word class
Corresponding change in meaning
Less regular and less comprehensive than
inflection
• Ctrl. P. 80-82
DERIVATION: adding to an existing word (affixes).
A linguistic process (historic), different word-classes (e.g. –ion),
another kind of word (e.g. -hood), meaning (e.g. dis-, un-).
- ation: derives a noun from a verb,
- ful : derives an adjective from a noun,
- ify : derives a verb from an adjective or from a noun,
- ly : derives an adverb from an adjective,
- ment : derives a noun from a verb,
En- : derives a verb from a noun,
Re- : .means ‘again’,
Be- : derives a verb from an adjective
COMPOUNDING
• The compounding of 2 free morphemes into as single
word
• The meaning of the resulting word is not simply the
sum of its parts
• Compound can only be understood if the meaning is
already known
• The grammatical category of a compound word is
always the same as the category of the second
morpheme
• Ctrl. P.82
New Words
COMPOUNDING:
combining 2 or more existing words in order to
form a third word.
Most word-classes may contain compounds.
E.g. double-glazing, motorway, into, yourself…
CONVERSION:
a word is converted from one word-class to another
without change of form.
LEXICAL WORD CLASSES
• Lexical & grammatical words
• NOUN: mass or countable, or countable nouns,
propoer nouns.
• Function of a noun: to be the head of the noun
phrase and to work as subject, object, complement or
adverbial
• VERB: describing doing and being
• NON-finite forms (-ing, -en, i- forms)
• FINITE-forms: do not need an auxiliary verb
(Table 3.1)
• Ctrl p. 86-89
Transitive & intransitive verbs
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Intransitive: I’m dying
Transitive: she hates you
Ditransitive: they gave me a beautiful present
Intensive verbs: She was really tired
ADJECTIVE & ADVERB
• Gradable adjectives: comparative &
superlative
• Non-gradable adjectives: semantic groupings
Ctrl. P.89-90
• Adverbs: intensifiers & prepositional phrases
Ctrl. 90-92
Gradable adjectives
They are adjectives that describe qualities that can be measured in
degrees, such as size, beauty, age, etc.
They can be used
1) in comparative and superlative forms
2) with grading adverbs (such as 'very' or 'extremely')
3) to show that a person or thing has more or less of a particular quality.
Examples
• angry, busy, happy, important, big, cold, hot, frightened,
kind, nice, expensive, risky, complex, profitable, high,
helpful, interesting, difficult.
Non-gradable adjectives
• 1) classifying adjectives: these describe
qualities that are completely absent or
completely present. They do not occur in
comparative or superlative forms
• Examples: chemical, indoor, married,
wooden, pregnant, English, useless, green,
nuclear, domestic, digital.
Non-gradable adjectives
2) extreme adjectives: these are adjectives that mean "very" + adjective
• Examples:
• ancient (very old )
• amazing ( very surprising )
• boiling ( very hot )
• brilliant ( very intelligent )
• deafening (very loud)
• delighted (very happy /pleased)
• disgusting (very bad /unpleasant)
• excellent (very good)
• exhausted ( very tired )
• fascinating (very interesting)
3) absolute adjectives:
dead, impossible, unique, perfect, supreme, final
GRAMMATICAL WORD CLASSES
• Small number & they rarely change
• Pronouns (table 3.3)
• Determiners: articles, demonstrative
adjectives, possessive adjectives
• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Auxiliary verbs
There is a gradation between completely lexical (e.g.nouns) and
completely grammatical (e.g. articles) word-classes, with many
classes falling somewhere between 2 extreme points. (p.16-17)
NOUN
PREPOSITION
PRONOUN
DETERMINER
(e.g. the, this)
VERB
CONJUNCTION
ADVERBS
like here, now
AUXILIARY
VERB
ADJECTIVE
QUANTIFIER
POSSESSIVE
Determiner
(e.g.my)
ADVERBS
in - ly
ADVERBS
(like however)
Least lexical
Least grammaticalMost grammatical
Most lexical
TED TALKS
• https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_po
pular_talks_of_all
• Choose 3 TED talks
• Watch them without subtitles
• Ask questions about each of them
• Watch them again with subtitles, what has
changed in your understanding?
• Write a summary of each of them and try to say it
aloud.
TED TALKS
• https://www.ted.com/playlists/117/words_wo
rds_words
• Choose one of the TED TALKS about language,
identify main features of spoken language and
write a short summary of the main ideas.
English - Chapter 4: PHRASE
Phrase structures.
• Noun phrase
• Verb phrase
• Adjective phrase
• Adverb phrase
• Prepositional phrase
Types of grammatical units
If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it
1 sentence
If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it
2 clauses
If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it
7 phrases
If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it
12 words
If I wash up all this stuff some body else can dry it
13 morphemes
A unit consists of one or more elements
• A CLAUSE (proposizione) consists of one or more phrases.
• A PHRASE (locuzione) consists of one or more words.
• A WORD (parola) consists of one or more morphemes
• MORPHEMES (morfema) are parts of words, i.e. stems,
prefixes, suffixes
e.g. Unfriendly: un+friend+ly = 3 morphemes
• MORPHOLOGY (morfologia):
the part of grammar dealing with morphemes
• SYNTAX (sintassi):
the part of grammar dealing with other types of
grammatical units (words, phrases, clauses and
sentences)
The ways in which
words are combined to make phrases
Phrase structures
• In English, phrase classes reflect the 4 major
lexical word classes.
There are noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective
phrases and adverb phrases.
Each is centred on a head word of the relevant
class.
What makes a structure a phrase
and not a clause?
• Clauses have a conceptual completeness
that is missing when a phrase is uttered
alone.
• Phrases, like words, form part of larger
structures and are not usually complete in
themselves
Prepositional phrase:
• On my chest of drawers near the window.
Noun phrase:
• The longest walk I ever did.
Adverbial phrase:
• Absolutely brilliantly!
Noun phrase (NP)
• It is based around a head noun, which is the
core of the phrase and the shortest possible
version of the noun phrase
Ex. Power made him crazy.
a single head noun
A noun phrase can only have one determiner
There can also be pre-determiners &
enumerators
p.105-106
Noun phrase
• The noun phrase in English is made up of 3
functional elements:
• Pre-modification
• Head
• Post-modification
(p. 113)
Noun phrases
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A noun phrase includes a noun—a person, place, or thing—and the modifiers
which distinguish it.
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You can find the noun dog in a sentence, for example, but you don't know which
canine the writer means until you consider the entire noun phrase:
ex. that dog, Aunt Audrey's dog, the dog on the sofa, the neighbor's dog that chases
our cat, the dog digging in the new flower bed.
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Modifiers can come before or after the noun. Ones that come before might
include articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, adjectives, and/or
participles.
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Articles: a dog, the dog
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Possessive nouns: Aunt Audrey's dog, the neighbor's dog, the police officer's dog
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Possessive pronouns: our dog, her dog, their dog
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Adjectives: that dog, the big dog, the spotted dog
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Participles: the drooling dog, the barking dog, the well trained dog
VERB PHRASE
• The verb phrase fulfils the role of
predicator in the clause and introduces
a process (action or event).
• The simplest verb phrase will be a main
lexical verb on its own
• The party started about 9 o’clock.
• My brother always sings in the bath.
MODAL AUXILIARIES
• may, might, will, would, shall, should, can, could,
ought (to)
• Modality is an important semantic contribution to
the interpretation of any text
• Epistemic modality: likelihood
• Deontic modality: desirability
• She should be here by now (I know that she left in
plenty of time).
• She should be here by now (It’s not polite to be so
late for a wedding).
• P.121
ADJECTIVE, ADVERB & PREPOSITIONAL
PHRASES
• Adj.P: an adjective on its own, or premodified by
an intensifying adverb:
She is pretty
• Adv.P: the simplest of all English phrases, being
made up of only an adverb and any premodifying
intensifiers that are also part of the adverb class:
. . . very closely
• Pre.P: it is made up of a preposition and a noun
phrase
In a moment or two the cortege will emerge from
the Abbey .
Chapter 5: Clause & Sentence
• Clauses, the building block of English sentences
and utterances
• Clauses can be combined to make complex and
compound sentences.
• A complete clause must contain a predicator (the
verbal element) and other clause elements such
as: subject, object, complement, adverbial.
Clause functions
• Relationship between various phrase classes
(noun/verb/adjective phrases) and their clause
functions = the role that a unit plays in the larger
structure
5 clause elements in English:
• Subject (S)
• Predicator (P)
• Object (O)
• Complement (C)
• Adverbial (A)
Although clause elements are parts of a clause,
at times they are made up of subordinate clauses.
SUBJECT
p.126
• The SUBJECT is a syntactic function, mainly
fulfilled by noun phrases but also by a
subordinate clause.
• When is a predicator not preceded by a
subject?
• Go to bed!
• After closing the curtains she turned on the TV
• Subjects usually ‘do’ something, unless the
verb phrase is in the passive form
PREDICATOR
p.127
• The only place where form and function map onto each
other.
• All full clauses contain predicators.
• In main clauses and finite subordibnate clauses the
predicator normally follows the subject.
• All my children are tall
• Only verb phrases function as predicators, but at times
some parts of the verb take on noun or adjective-like
functions, ex.
• My broken heart (will never mend)
• Her playing (was sublime)
• The predicator is the first element in non-finite
subordinate clauses with no-subject, ex.
• Having identified the body his wife was very upset
OBJECT
p.128
• It may be direct or indirect
• Its function is fulfilled by noun phrases, but
a clause may also take its place.
• I crossed the street
• She hopes that he will come back to her
• It usually corresponds to the element
affected by the verb, but it may have other
semantic relationships with the process, ex.
• My mother knitted a tea cosy
COMPLEMENT
p.129
• A syntactic function fulfilled by a nominal
or an adjectival element
• They occur after ‘intensive’ verbs, or by
verbs of ‘change’.
• SUBJECT Complement: She seems nice
• OBJECT Complement: Paul’s training made him a doctor
ADVERBIAL
p.134
• Also called ADJUNCT
• Different forms fulfill the function of an
adverbial clause element, and not all of
them are based on adverbs.
• Prepositional phrases may have an
adverbial function
• They answer implicit questions such as:
when, where, how, why.
• Positioning of adverbials
Form-function relationships
CLAUSE ELEMENTS = FUNCTIONS
WORD, PHRASE, CLAUSE CLASS = FORMS
Simple clause structures: p.138
• 5 elements: S P O C A
• 7 basic clause structures:
SP-SPO-SPC-SPA-SPOO-SPOC-SPOA
• P. 140 instructions
Subordinate structures
Coordinated structures
p.141
COORDINATION is the simpler process.
SUBORDINATION or EMBEDDING is the
more complex.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep (R.Frost)
• The woods are lovely and dark
• The woods are lovely but dark
• The woods are lovely or dark
COORDINATION
p.143
• Coordination with phrases:
See Table 5.2
• Coordination with matching structures:
See Table 5.3
• Coordination with different structures:
See Table 5.4
SUBORDINATE STRUCTURES
• Subordination = Embedding
• A higher level unit is included in one of the
lower level units.
• Main form of subordination: where phrases
contain other phrases
• The chair in the corner of the room in my
house in Tuscany
• She took her dog to the vet on Stainbeck
Lane in Meanwood
Subordination of clauses
p.146
• 1st level : clause element, the embedded
clause takes the place of a complete clause
element.
• 2nd level :embedding of clauses in the noun
phrase as relative clauses (a way to postmodify a noun phrase)
The bag that I took to the festival
Structure of sentences
p.148-149-150
• T. 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9
INFORMATION STRUCTURE
P.151
• Cleft sentences
It was… that…
• Fronting: inversion
• Transformations (passive)