Università di Cagliari

1. Università di Cagliari Corso di Laurea in Economia e Gestione Aziendale Economia e Finanza CdL interclasse in Lingua e Culture per la Mediazione Linguistica Luisanna Fodde a.a. 2013/2014

2. The mainbranches of grammar Twodomains: MORPHOLOGY and SYNTAX Morphologydeals with the structure of words (inflectionalendings and the way words can be built from smallerunits of language). Sintax, insteaddeals with the structure of sentences The word MORPHOLOGY comes from the Greekmorphe = form + logos = word The word SYNTAX comes from Latin syntaxis and earlier from Greeksyn+assein = together + arrange= arrangetogether!!!!

3. MORPHOLOGY

4. English Morphology- Word Languages English is not an inflecting language. It is analytic, or relatively uninflected. During the course of thousands of years, English words have been slowly simplified from the inflected variable forms found in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Russian, and German (synthetic languages), toward invariable forms.

5. Modern English In English only nouns, pronouns, and verbs are inflected. Adjectives have no inflections, aside from the determiners "this, these" and "that, those." English is the only European language to employ uninflected adjectives: "the tall man," "the tall woman," Spanish: elhombre alto and la mujer alta; Italian, la donna alta, l’uomo alto.

6. MODERN ENGLISH In addition to this simplicity of inflections, English has two other basic characteristics: flexibility of function and openness of vocabulary. Flexibility of function has grown over the last five centuries as a consequence of the loss of inflections. Words formerly distinguished as nouns or verbs by differences in their forms are now often used as both nouns and verbs. One can speak, for example, of "planning a table" or "tabling a plan," "booking a place" or "placing a book," "lifting a thumb" or "thumbing a lift."

7. MODERN ENGLISH Look at the example of the word ROUND which has 5 uses: Adjective…….. Noun ……….. Verb ……… Adverb ….. And preposition……..

8. MODERN ENGLISH

9. Modern English As for verbs, if the Modern English word ride is compared with the corresponding words in Old English and Modern German, it will be found that English now has only five forms (ride, rides, rode, riding, ridden), whereas Old English ridan had 13, and Modern German reiten has 16 forms

10. MODERN ENGLISH Openness of vocabulary implies both free admission of words from other languages and the ready creation of compounds and derivatives. English adopts (without change) or adapts (with slight change) any word really needed to name some new object or to denote some new process. Like French, Spanish, and Russian, English frequently forms scientific terms from Classical Greek word elements.

11. MODERN ENGLISH Openness of vocabulary Free admission:voyage, calumet, prairie, coyote, cafeteria, canyon, marina, boss, kiosk (no change); criterion –a; pizza; spaghetti; pasta, pesto. Ready creation: e-mail, e-commerce, spam, database; underground Adaptations (with slight change): Physics; Philosophy; parliament; urban....

12. MODERN ENGLISH Openness of vocabulary The admission of words from various world languages has consequently increased the number of words denoting the same meaning. FAMOUS, WELL-KNOWN, DISTINGUISHED, EMINENT, NOTORIOUS, INFAMOUS ROYAL, REGAL, SOVEREIGN, KINGLY

13. Morphology A branch of grammar which studies the Structure of Words. It describes the properties of such diverse words as: YES HORSES HORSE - S TALKING TALK – ING UNHAPPINESS UN- HAPPI – NESS ANTI-DIS-ESTABLISH-MENT-ARI-AN-ISM

14. Morphology Many words, such as boy, a, yes, person, elephant, problem CANNOT BE BROKEN DOWN INTO GRAMMATICAL PARTS These words are made only of a BASE form (also called ROOT or STEM). In these cases, all we can do is describe the meaning of these words, and how they are pronounced or spelled (number of syllables, pattern of vowels and consonants)

15. Morphology Words can be constructed out of elements, or MORPHEMES, the smallest meaningful elements. The way morphemes operate in a language provides the subject matter of MORPHOLOGY When there is a clear sequence of elements, it is easy to analyse words HORSE-S, SUCCESS-FUL. In many languages (AGGLUTINATING L.), it is quite normal to have long sequences of morphemes: ANGYAGHLLANGYUGTUQ (Eskimo for “He wants to acquire a big boat”)

16. Morphology English has not many words of that type. ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM Agglutinating and inflecting languages, like LATIN, TURKISH, ESKIMO, ALL AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES, make widespread use of morphological variations

17. WORD FORMATION AFFIXESare meaningful, dependentelementsaddedbothbefore and after the base form: 1. PREFIXES precede the base form; 2. SUFFIXESfollow the base form.

18. WORD FORMATION There are four (4) processes of word formation in ENGLISH: 1. Prefixation DIS-OBEY 2. Suffixation KIND-NESS 3. Conversion INCREASE (v+n) 4. Conpounding DATABASE Thereare also some lessusual ways like CLIPPINGS (ad, flu); ACRONYMS (NATO); BLENDS (brunch; fantabulous)

19. WORD FORMATION • PREFIXES in English have a purelyLEXICAL (or derivational)role. Theyallow the construction of new words, changing the meaning of their base form (root-stem): un-; de-; anti-; super- • SUFFIXES in English are of 2 kinds: • DERIVATIONAL (lexical) s. change the meaning of the base form(-ness; -ship; -able); • INFLECTIONAL s. are purelygrammatical (plural, past, possessive).

20. Blends camcorder (camera + recorder)clash(clap + crash) cosmeceutical(cosmetic + pharmaceutical) ; docudrama(documentary + drama) electrocute(electricity + execute); emoticon (emote + icon) faction(fact + fiction); fanzine (fan + magazine) flirtationship(flirting + relationship) glimmer(gleam + shimmer) Globish(global + English); infotainment(information + entertainment) moped (motor + pedal); pornacopia(pornography + cornucopia) pulsar (pulse + quasar); sexcapade(sex + escapade) ; sexploitation(sex + exploitation) sitcom (situation + comedy) slanguage(slang + language) smash (smack + mash) sportscast(sports + broadcast) stagflation (stagnation + inflation) staycation(stay home + vacation) telegenic (television + photogenic) textpectation(text message + expectation) workaholic(work + alcoholic)

21. WORD FORMATION

22. WORD FORMATION Inflectionalsuffixes, or morphemes, alwaysoccurat the very end of a word, and follow the derivationalsuffixes, ifthere are any: GRACE- s; -d; GRACIOUS; GRACIOUSLY; GRACIOUSNESS; GRACELESS; GRACELESSNESS-ES;

23. THE MORPHEME The smallestunit of a sentence with an independentfunction. Morphemes are not the sameassyllables: POSSESS, STUDYhaveonly1 morpheme(BASE FORM – ROOT- STEM) but2 syllables. The meaning or grammaticalstructure of these 2 wordscannot be simplifiedanyfurther. POSSESS-ION;POSSESS-ED; RE-POSSESS-ED

24. THE MORPHEME InflectionalMorphologystudies the way in whichwordsvary (inflect) in order to express grammaticalcontrasts: SINGULAR/PLURAL; PAST/PRESENT Derivational or LexicalMorphologystudies the principlesgoverning the construction of new words: DRINKABLE – DRINK; DISINFECTABLE; DIS-INFECT

25. Types of Morphemes FREE MORPHEMES can operate freely in the language, occurringas separate words: study ; go; yes BOUND MORPHEMEScannotoccur on theirown (anti-; -ation; -ment; -s; -ed). Aswehaveseen, boundmorphemescan be INFLECTIONAL or DERIVATIONAL

26. Types of Morphemes INFLECTIONALmorphemes express a grammaticalcontrast (comparative, superlative, plural, past, possessive, 3rd personsingular); DERIVATIONAL or LEXICALmorphemesbuild new items of vocabulary, combiningdifferentelements, both to change word class and to changemeaning: IN-DESCRIBE-ABLE

27. Inflections: adjectives Adjectivequalityisexpressed by inflections. Comparisons can be to the samedegree, to a higherdegree or to a lowerdegree: The base of the adjectiveiscalled the ABSOLUTE FORM: big, happy Adding–erproduces the comparative form; Adding–est produces the superlative form.

28. Inflections: adjectives There are no inflectional ways of expressing the same or lowerdegrees. Thesenotions are expressedsyntactically (as in Italian) As big as; lessinterestedthan; the leastinterested of all Thereisalso a syntactic – or periphrastic – way of expressinghigherdegree: MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN; THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ALL

29. Inflections: adjectives There are no inflectional ways of expressing the same or lowerdegrees. Thesenotions are expressedsyntactically (as in Italian) As big as; lessinterestedthan; the leastinterested of all Thereisalso a syntactic – or periphrastic – way of expressinghigherdegree: MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN; THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ALL

30. Inflections: nouns Mostnouns – VARIABLE NOUNS -have a singular and pluralform. In the regular pluralform, nounssimplyadd an –s; INVARIABLE NOUNS do not show a contrastbetweensingular and plural: JEANS, ECONOMICS, SHEEP There are only a fewhundrednouns with an irregularpluralform: FEET; CHILDREN; WIVES; WOMEN

32. Inflections: nouns Cases Only2 casesleft in Modern English: A common case (no ending) A genitive case (adding –s to the sing. form) Choice of genitive use isbased on gender and style Personal nounsand the higheranimals(nowalsoname of nations, companies, institutions) take the genitive form; Inanimate nouns take the of-genitive

34. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDInflectional Morphology Unlike the English language, which has a limited number of inflectional morphemes, the Italian language has a very articulated inflective system. Through morphemes, many grammatical elements can be distinguished: ?????

35. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDInflectional Morphology • Gender distinction in both nouns and adjectives; such distinction only occurs in English for animated nouns, thanks to the 3rd person personal pronouns: he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its • • Grammatical tenses: past, present, future; in English such distinction is only limited to present and past tenses

36. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDInflectional Morphology 3. PERSON in verb inflection (non-existent in English, except for 3d person singular) 4. MOODS (indicative, conditional, conjunctive, imperative). Such distinction no longer exists in English.

37. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDInflectional Morphology 3. PERSON in verb inflection (non-existent in English, except for 3d person singular) 4. MOODS (indicative, conditional, conjunctive, imperative). Such distinction no longer exists in English.

38. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology Both English and Italian use prefixes and suffixes to enrich lexis. English, however, uses a greater number of affixes, due to its German origins and the Romance influences throughout its history. This makes English derivational morphology slightly more complex than the Italian one.

39. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology Number of adjectivalsuffixes of • Germanorigin: -ful, -less, -en(wonderful, penniless; drunken) - Romance origin: -ate, -esque, -ary(compassionate; burlesque, contrary) All the abovehaveonlyonemorphemicfunction.

40. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology At the same time, English hasvariousboundmorphemes with more thanonefunction: i.e. prefixesun- e dis-, of German and Romance originrespectively, bothhaving 3 functionsrespectively: NEGATION, OPPOSITION, PREVATION (unable, uncomfortable, unavailable, unhappy) (disagree, disarmament; disfunction; disoriented)

41. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology La possibilità di avvalersi di un numero elevato di morfemi legati comporta, di conseguenza, anche complicanze lessicali sia sul piano della comprensione sia sul piano della produzione. Il fatto di potersi servire di morfi diversi aventi la stessa funzione morfemica può infatti portare alla creazione di parole che formalmente si distinguono solo per un prefisso o un suffisso, ma che hanno significati lievemente diversi, non sempre facili da ricavare.

42. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology Per esempio: i termini unsatisfactione dissatisfactionesprimono insoddisfazione a livelli diversi – il primo in senso assoluto, il secondo in senso circoscritto. - gli aggettivi continuouse continualesprimono rispettivamente una continuità senza sosta e una continuità a più riprese.

43. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology Allo stesso modo, anche la produzione di derivati può diventare più complicata quando basi pressoché uguali (ad esempio i verbi performe deform) usufruiscono di diversi suffissi per formare dei nomi (in questo caso perform-ance e deform-ation).

44. ITALIAN AND ENGLISH COMPAREDDerivational Morphology È quindi nel lessico che si può cogliere una divergenza significativa fra l’italiano e l’inglese, che deriva dalla diversità delle loro origini linguistiche. Il fatto che la lingua inglese, a differenza di quella italiana, abbia origini sia germaniche sia romanze trova riscontro in un lessico che è, in primo luogo, composto da più elementi di quanto non lo sia quello italiano e, in secondo luogo, che possiede un numero più elevato di lessemi – spesso corrispondenti a diversi registri della lingua per esprimere ogni concetto.