HANDBOOK OF PRESENT DAY ENGLISH

1. LANGUAGE CHANGE AND VARIATION IN ENGLISH

Languages adapt to the history and culture of the speech communities in which they are in use. All languages shows a

surprising level of variability concerning their phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical structures.

Sociolinguistics: study of the relation between language and society. It says that the language varieties suffer from

social, ethnic and racial prejudice, economic and political status.

Sociolinguistics has mainly contributed to the understanding of how language behaviour and language variability are

influenced by social factors.

Languages, in fact, encode a particular social meaning which is determined by their speakers, the speech communities

they are associated with and their functions and domains of use.

There are two approches to historical language change:

. comparative linguistics, which is based on the concept of "proto language" and "language

family". For example, English is a Germanic language.

. the history of language, the study of the changes undergone by a single language over the

centuries. There can be external or internal causes of

the

change: the external are extralinguistic or social factors,

the

internal are changes leading to balance in the system.

The History of English Language (HEL) is divided into three periods:

. Old English (OE) 700-1150

. Middle English (ME) 1150-1500

. Modern English (ModEngl) 1500-1900

Tha analysis of the language concern only the internal factors, because the analysis of the language use in social contexts

is difficult for the lack of any spoken evidence for the earlier stages of the language.

2. Types of language change

- Phonological change

It deals with any mutation within the sound system of a language and can be both sporadic and regular. Sporadic change

refers to changes which affect the sound of a limited number of words, regular change implies changes leading to the

reorganisation of the phonological inventory of a language.

Unconditioned change: sound change regardless of the phonetic context in which it

happens as in the case of the so-called Great Vowel Shift.

GVS started in the 15th Century and it affected ME long vowels: /i:/ becomes a diphthong (bite), /e:/ becomes /i:/, /a:/

becomes /e:/, /u:/ becomes /au:/, /o:/ becomes /u:/. GVS lasted until 17th Century.

Conditioned change: phonological change which is conditioned by a specific phonetic

environment, for example the development of PDE fricatives

phonemes.

OE: only one set of fricative phonemes namely /f, s, /. Each of them was used to represent two different allophones:

. /f/ --> [f] and [v]

./s/--> [s] and [z]

. --> []

- Morpho- syntactic change

It refers to any change in both the morpho-phonematic and syntactic systems of a language.

An example is the levelling of the noun ending system in the transition from late OE to early ME. The endings of the plurals

of OE changed in ME and disappeared in MODEngl.

The main mechanisms of morphosintactic change are the following:

. analogy, or the process of modelling a language form in relation to an already existing form

of that language;

. hypercorrection, or speaker's awareness of the social value of the different language

varieties within their speech community;

. backformation, or the creation of a language form which is not historically documented.

Two main examples of syntactic change are: word order, such as the order of the words ina sentence, and

grammaticalisation, or the phenomenon by which a grammatical function is given to a previously autonomous word.

- Semantic change

It refers to any mutation in the meaning of individual lexical items, which i s commonly influenced by external factors such

as socio cultural change, scientific innovation and foreign language influence, namely BORROWING.

There are different kinds of semantic change:

. Change of meaning:

- widening, or the use of a particular item in mroe than one context

- narrowing, which indicates the opposite process, eg. "meat", originally used with the

meaning of "food"

. Change of connotation:

- pejoration, which i slinked to speaker's social attitude and prejudice

- amelioration, which refers to a change denoting a positive attitude towards a certain

word, eg. queen originally meaned wife, woman.

3. The history of English

OLD ENGLISH Period

Historically English i s a Germani language. It is difficult to locate or give a date to the origin of the Germanic languages.

According to the Romanian historian Tacitus, Germanic qas the language of the population who inhabited the continental

European area east of the river Elbe, at least at the time of Ceasar (50 bC). The progenitor of Germanic is the

IndoEuropean language. It is a reconstructed language, which is considered to be the ancestor of classical languages like

Latin, Greek, Slavic and Sanskrit. The resemblance among these languages is testified by sound correspondences in some

words.

OE period: 700-1150 A.D.

The term OE refers to the dialects spoken at that time in England by germanic populations who were called Jutes, Angles

and Saxons, and who arrived in the British isles, a former partly Romanised Celtic-speaking area, in the 5th Century AD.

The Celtic inhabitants of the British isles were assimilated or forced to move westwards and northwards and the use of

their language became geographically, socially and culturally confine to those areas.

Christianisation of the island: event that most contributed to the shaping of OE language,

started from the 6th Century. MAin

consequence:

introduction f the latin alphabet, in the

socalled form

"insular script" and the progressive

abandonment by the

AngloSaxons of the Runic alphabet.

The graphemes were used for long and short vowel sounds. The consonant letters were similar to those

used today: , were rarely used.

e were used to represent both:

- the velar phonemes /k/ and /g/ when adiacent to back vowels /a,o,u/

- the palatal phonemes /t/ and /j/ before front vowels /ae,e,i,y/

9th-11th century: many manuscripts were written copied and translated from Latin to OE, namely the West Saxon dialect

of OE, the first standard written language.

Two important historical episodes for the language change during this period:

a. arrival and occupation of England by Scandinavian populations from 8th Century on

b. Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066.

a. located in the north-eastern part of England by the year 867, they had almost conquered the island. King Alfred

defeated them and pushed them out of his kingdom ad re-conquered part of the Scandinavian possessions.

b. they contributed to changing Anglo Saxon England socially, politically and culturally. A new dominant French speaking

nobility substituted the Anglo Saxon court. West Saxon language was substituted by Anglo Norman, the variety of Franch

spoken by conquerors.

OE: highly inflected or synthetic language. Synthetic means that language functions, grammatical categories and relations

and verbal conjungations are expressed by the use of a system of case markers, or inflections.

The words are formed by a root and an ending. Both -i and -a endings signal that the nouns are plural and the gender is

masculine, the case is nominative.

In OE prose you can find the following word orders:

- S V, in both main and subordinate clauses;

- S [...] V, commonly in subordinate clauses;

- V S in interrogative, negative and declarative clauses.

OE distinguishes case, number and gender for nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Nouns and adjectives show four main

cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative, three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter and two numbers:

singular and plural.

The inflection of nouns are divided into strong and weak; strong nouns mainly refer to the masculine and neuter -a stem

nouns, weak nouns include the so called consonant or -n stem nouns, which belong to the three OE nouns genders.

Adjectives usually agree with the noun they modify and are also divided into strong and weak inflections.

The most striking differences in relation to PDE concern the forms and functions of the definite article and demonstrative

pronouns. In OE, the demonstrative covered the domains of both the PDE definite article "the" and the demonstrative

"that/those". Also the demonstrative were inflected by cases, gender and number.

Personal pronouns show 4 main cases, three persons (first, second and third) and three genders.

In OE, as in PDE, there are two tipes of verbs: strong and weak. Strong verbs form their past by changing the stem vowel,

weak verbs add dental suffixes as t,d, od or ed.

Both sotrng and weak verbs show two tenses, present and preterite. Three moods, indicative, subjunctive and imperative;

two infinite forms, two participles, present and past.

There are also two main irregular verb sub categories, the socalled present-preterite past verbs and anomalous verbs.

VOCABULARY: complex process of word formation, inherited by germanic lexis, there's also influence by latin and

scandinavian.

Latin: two major stages of influence; the first period relates to the conquest of part of the british Isles by the Romans, the

second stage concerns the period of the Christianisation of the island from the 6th Century.

Scandinavian was used for technical terms for ships, warfare and legal institutions.

MIDDLE ENGLISH period

1066: Norman Conquest of England, starting point of ME period. There are three stages of this period:

- 1066-1150 a transitional stage when important sociolinguistic changes occurred. The role and functions of the West

Saxons, in the administration, the Church, education and culture were reduced because of the Norman Conquest.

- 1150-1350 an early ME period during which English recovered its status of official language, testified by the increasing

number of documents in English.

- 1350-1430 a late ME period. From the 14th Century,many sociocultural changes take place in England, such as

urbanisation, the growth of London,technological discoveries, the introduction of the printing press in England by William

Caxton in 1476.

Literacy increased and there's the need of a fixed standard language.

During ME three languages were spoken in England: French or AngloNorman (language of power, bureaucracy and partly

literature), Latin (language of learning, education and the Church) and English (language of the majority of the

population). Also Gaelic and Scandinavian were spoken.

ME period: complex phenomena of dialectal variation, language contact and attempts to standardise the language.

Classic ME variety, represented by Chuacher's language:

- the levelling of the OE inflectional case system;

- the fixing of SVO word order as in PDE;

- a marked foreign influence on ME vocabulary.

During the ME period the OE noun case system was totally readjusted and adjectives' distinction between strong and

weak was lost.

Demonstrative forms were reduced to an invariable form; pronouns continue almost unchanged. The verbal system keeps

the distinction between strong and weak verbs, though some changes occur in relation to person endings.

There are new tenses:

- the future tense. Sculan (shall) and willan (will) were used in OE for obligation and necessity.

- the progressive/continuous tense, they developed now, but they weren't so used until ModEngl.

- the passive voice with be.

SVO order is present in statements and dependent clauses. VS is used with commands and wishes or adverbial phrases.

ME is the period in which a large number of French words entered the English language, for example action, age, city,

country, flower, people, river, tailor, calm, certain...

ALtin continued to exercise great power on English as the language of the Church and education.

MODERN ENGLISH period (1500-1900)

Stage of the consciousness about linguistic matters, to standardise the language.

The origin of standard English have to be found in the south eastern Midland variety spoken in London. The growth of

standard English took place through a long process of selection, acceptance, elaboration of functions and codification.

English became in this period the language used where Latin and Franch were previously used, that is government, law,

literature, education and religion. The expansion of vocabulary gave rise to the opposition between the socalled

Neologisers (contributed to introduce a certain number of new words) and Purists who believed in the preservation of

native vocabulary through, for example, processes of word formation:

- prefixation, eg. the prefix un- in adjectives

- suffixation, eg. -ers in crackers.

During ModEngl both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries were compiled.

Classical languages, especially Latin, represent in this period the model for the improvement of grammar and the

codification of its rules.

The most relevant grammar was Robert Lowth's "A short introduction to English grammar".

Another issue is the correct pronunciation. Though the concept of correct pronunciation goes back to Shakespeare's time,

it is only in the 19th Century that Receveid Pronunciation is achieved through the new universal educational system.

The main changes in ModEngl concern the inflectional system of nouns, adjectives and verbs. Strong and weak distinction

of nouns and adjectives disappear. The only noun case that survived was the genitive case, which was indicated by -s and

-s' forms. As regards adjectives, the only relics of OE and ME inflectional systems refer to the comparative and superlative

-er and -est endings.

The most conservative aspect of ModEngl grammar are pronouns, which are still marked for case, number and gender.

The only difference with PDE is the distinction in use between 2nd pers. sing. thou/thee to express lack of formality and

ye/you to express politeness.

This distinction was lost at the end of the period.

The main features of ModEngl syntax can be summarise as follows:

- inversion of subject in declarative sentence,

- multiple negation,

- omission of the subject.

By the end of 19th century the standardisation of the language was almost complete, but languages change continuously.

Late ModEngl is also the period of the socalled fragmentation of the standard in which the English language and its

speakers spread and settled in different geographical and sociocultural contexts worldwide.

Three main stages can be distinguished:

- the inreasing activity of British trading companies and the slave trade, starting from the beginning of 17th century. From

the contact between English and West African, new languages were born, namely Pidgin Englishes and Creoles;

- the establishment of stable colonial settlements in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South AFrica and it

resulted in the formation of the socalled colonial standard varieties of English;

- the institutionalisation of English within colonies. This means that English started to be used as a second language and

became the official language of government, bureaucracy, education and religion in the colonies.

4. The sociolinguistic status of Present Day English

Since the beginning of the 20th century the term English has been used mainly to indicate the varieties of British English.

Since the middle of the 1980s, the focus of attenction shifted from questions of language norms and standard to matter of

linguistic variation taking place beyond the national boundaries of the language, namely the UK.

This new framework is commonly defined Englishes paradigm, focusing on:

- geographical location,

- linguistic and ethnic association,

- activities such as commerce, education, culture and technology,

- combination of locations and activity,

- fusion of English with other languages, eg. Frenglish, Spanglish.

- The diaspora of English

Three stages:

. the first refers to the expantion of English within the British Isles, namely Scotland, Wales and Ireland,

. the second is associated with the discovery of new territories and the establishment of the British colonies in the USA,

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa,

. the third stage concerns its diffusion and use as second language in contents such as Africa and Asia and it mainly refers

to 19th and 20th century American imperialism, including what we commonly define globalisation.

- The countries and speakers of English

The geographical spread of PDE has been described in terms of three concentric circles:

. the inner circle, where English is used as a native language;

. the outer circle, in which English has the status of second language or language of government, media, religion anda

education;

. the expanding circle, where English is used as a foreign language.

We have to be aware of the extensive ongoing processes of language hybridisation between the local varieties of English

and immigrant languages taking place in multicultural urban contexts such as New York and London.

- English as a global language

The world Englishes paradigm is probably the most relevant one. In addition, a pragmatic-oriented view of global English

or English for Specifi Purposes (ESP) has interpreted its use in terms of utility and strumentality.

These major aspects of English as a global language can be identified:

. the establishment of new English speaking communities in new geographical and socio-cultural contexts;

. the contact and mutual influence between English and other non-genetically related languages;

. the formation of non native varieties of English or global Englishes.

- The speech community of contemporary English

Characterised by strong ethnic and social differentiation and where social multilinguism is the norm. Their choice is

determined by sociolinguistic factors such as language attitude, language status and socio ethnic belonging.

The use of two or more varieties or languages within the same speech event, or code switching, is the most powerful

marker of language identity. It signals that sociolinguistic identities are not fixed constructs, but they are constantly

changed by phenomena of language contact.

- The varieties of English

Regional (eg. Yorkshire English)

colonial Englishes (eg. American, canadian, Australian, South African)

Immigrant Englishes (Chicano English)

Pidgin Englishes and Creoles

Shift Englishes (Aboriginal English)

English as a Lingua Franca

Global English can also be considered in two different ways:

- as a polylectal continuum rangin from standard varieties or "acrolet", which is very close to the colonial varieties and it is

used by educated people, to the low-prestigious varieties of "basilect", which is spoken by people with little knowledge of

the language and no formal or school education;

- as a cline of bilinguism. At one end of the cline we see educated English, while at the other there are varieties, like

nigerian English, which reflect a particular cultural, social and linguistic identity and show the following four functions: a)

instrumental, or English as the language of education; b) regulative, or the use of English as an administrative and

bureaucratic means; c) interpersonal referring to verbal communication between two unintelligible languages; d)

imaginative, or English as the language of different literary genres.

- The genesis of global Englishes

We need to distinguish between mistake and deviation; the former cannot be accepted, the latter from standard are

productive processes which contribute to language change.

Global Englishes have developed through five different chronologically ordered stages:

. foundation, the spread of English in non-English speaking countries worldwide;

. exonormative use, or the imposition of the varieties of English spoken by local native speakers;

. nativisation, the mixing and hybridisation of both local/native communities and English native speakers;

. differentiation, or acknowledgment and awareness of the sociolinguistic value of the new variety of English.

- Language contact: nativisation and acculturation

The nativisation and acculturation of Nigerian English may take palce in this way:

. borrowing of words from antive NBigerian languages to Nigerian English;

. nativisation of some standard English words, which are adapted with a new meaning to the local context;

. the adoption and change of the original meaning of some standard English words.

English has undergone a process of acculturation, manipulation and adaptation to new socio-cultural contexts through a

process of linguistic creativity.

- The linguistic features of global Englishes

. Indefinite and definite articles

In global Englishes the indefinite article is usually replaced by "one".

Deletion of the definite article is also common in global Englishes, in particular with proper nouns or when there's

reference to a specific context.

The reverse process, or "addition" happens where in standard English either the article would be omitted or an indefinite

article would be present.

. Number

A common feature in global Englishes is the deletion of noun plural marker -s, or the following phenomena:

. regularisation of standard English zero plural nouns

. use of post nominal forms "dem" and "them" as plural markers.

. Gender

In global englishes the forms he, she, it are used indiscriminately.

. Personal pronouns

In English personal pronouns cannot be deleted, but it is testified in several global Englishes.

In some other cases number contrast is not signalled as in the use of singular personal pronouns for plural.

The 2nd person plural becomes "y'all" and "you people". The singular "me" is often substituted with plural "us".

. Demonstrative pronouns

They show great variation in the case of use of the singular this/that for plural forms these/those.

. Tense

Global Englishes do not use the past tenses as we do, while they use a past tense zero markin, such as the use of present

where there would be the past.

Great emphasis in research has been placed on the process of regularisation of irregular verbs.

. Aspect

English uses the present simple to denote an habitual situation, while global Englishes uses the -s inflection to mark

habituality.

The progressive form, which is expressed in standard English by the use of be + -ing participle, is usually only possible with

dynamic verbs or transition, sensation...Ing lobal englishes the distinction between dynamic and stative verbs is

overridden.

global Englishes combines two modal verbs within the same sentence and they use "would" instead of "will" for the

future.

. Concord

One of the msot widespread feature of global Englishes is the absence of the simple present 3rd person -s, or the use of

"was" for plural personal pronouns.

. Forms of "to be"

The absence of copular "be" in the present tense is commonly found in global Englishes. For habitual actions and

processes the invariant form "be" is also used.

. Word order

One of the main characteristics in global English is the ivnerted word order: Ov in declarative sentences, resumptive

pronouns in relative clauses, indirect questions.

. Tag questions

The use the form "isn't it?" for he, she, it, they.

-English as a language of power

The power of English is mainly related to its functionality in contexts such as the global economy, communication

technologies, business and education.

The knowledge of English favours social mobility and work opportunities. The aspects that reflect the global nature of

English are its socalled "range" and "depth". The former indicates the main functions and domains of use of PDE, while the

latter refers to the pluricentric nature of English and its capacity to penetrate new socio-cultural environments.

-What next?

Will English continue to be the language of global economy, trading, finance and culture?

We can foresee that an increasing divergence from the standard language, namely British and American varieties, might

result in the development of autonomous dialects, as happened with Latin and the formation of neoromance languages

such as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

The uncertainty about the future of English also relates to its status as the language of the global economy under the

control of the United States of America. Who can predict how long American hegemony and the dominance of English will

last?

2.THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

1. Accents of English

We shall focus on British English and American English, and their respective pronunciation standards, Receveid

Pronunciation (RP) or BBC Pronunciation and General American.

Variation of pronunciation is less marked in younger countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More

importantly, accent variation is connected to other factors, such as social class, age, education and even gender.

2. Phonetics and the articulators

Phonetics is the science that studies the physical characteristics of sounds. Phonetics deals with the production

(articulatory), transmission (acoustic) and reception (auditory) aspects of sounds and its applications may span across

completely different fields.

Articulatory phonetics deals with the physiology of speech production.

Any speaker is capable of making a wide range of modifications to the vocal tract in order to utter many different sounds.

The act of phonation consists in the contraction of the muscles in our chest and the production of a flow of air which

passes through the larynx, the glottis, the pharynx, and then the oral cavity or the nose.

The opening between the vocal cords is called the glottis. The closure of the glottis creates an interruption of the air

stream, called glottal stop.

The velum or soft palate is the back part of the palate which can be raised or lowered so that the air may escape through

the mouth or nose. Some consonants are called velar [k,g], because they involve a stricture between the tongue and the

velum.

The alveolar ridge is between the hard palate and the front teeth; when the tongue is in contact with the alveolar ridge we

can produce alveolar sounds such as the plosives [t, d] and the nasal [n]. The palato alveolar consonants are produced

with the front of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge and the body of the tongue raised towards the palate, as in the

production of the palato alveolar consonants [r].

The tongue is perhaps the most important articulator because it is the change of its position inside the oral cavity which

determines the type of sound produced. Lips, teeth, tongue, palate and pharynx are the main articulators.

3. Graphemes and phonemes

The term grapheme refers to a letter of the alphabet. A phoneme is a distinctive sound in a language capable of creating a

distinction in meaning between two words.

In many cases grapheme and phonemes share the same mark or symbol. In many other cases there is no one-to-one

correspondence between grapheme and phoneme eg. represents the phoneme /k/ in "cut".

Many graphemes are silent, it means that they are not pronunciated in certain English words, eg. in castle.

Some pairs of words are homophones (ortographically different but phonetically identical): aloud and allowed. Some are

homographs (ortographically identical, but phonetically different): lead [li:d] (condurre) and lead [led] (piombo).

The most widely used phonemic and phonetic notation is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a set of symbols used

for representing the phonemes and sounds of all languages.

The phonetic transcription which considers only phonemic value is called broad transcription, while the transcription

which signals a greater amount of phonetic information is called narrow transcription.

4. English phonology

Phonology is the study of the sounds which have a functional and distinctive role in a language. Suprasegmental

phonology deals with units larger than the phoneme (syllables, rhythm groups and intonation phrases) and their related

phenomena (stress, rhythm and intonation).

The phonemes have no individual meaning but they can combine to form meaningful patterns (words).

"Sit" and "set" are called minimal pairs because they differ only by one phoneme.

The different realisations of the same phonemes in different contexts are called "allophones" and are represented in

transcription by diacritic symbols added to the phonemic ones. Allophonic variation does not involve any change in the

meaning of words but it is responsible for some differences in accents. For all these reasons, phoneticians consider the

phonemes abstract entities, or rather abstract, conventional representations of a family of slightly different phones. For

example in the word "top" the "t" is aspirated, and in the word "train" the "t" is affricate.

5. The pronunciation of British English

In English there are 43 phonemes, 11 vowels, 8 diphtongs and 24 consonants. Phonetically, vowels are oral, voiced and

egressive sounds produced without any obstruction to the airstream coming from the lungs.

Diphtongs are sounds consisting of a glide from one vowel to another.

Consonants are sound produced with an egressive flow of air coming out of the mouth or the nose accompanied by

obstruction or friction in the articulators. All vowels are voiced, while consonants can be voiced or voiceless depending on

the vibration or otherwise of the vocal cords.

The final sound added to the vowel inventory is the schwa [ ]. This is a sound of English which doesn't have a proper

phonemic status because it occurs only in unstressed syllables.

The boundary between vowel and consonants phonemes is not clear-cut. As for consonants we include /j/ and /w/,

although their articulation does not involve any obstruction; but they are always followed by a vowel and, moreover, they

are preceded by the article "a".

-Vowels

Depending on the vertical distance between the tongue and the palate a vowel can be open, half open, close.

Depending on which part of the tongue is raised it may be front, central or back.

Depending on duration, a vowel can be long or short.

Long vowels are also classified as tense, while short vowels are classified as lax, with reference to the tension or otherwise

of the muscle bundles located at the back of the tongue.

Finally, the position of the lips may be rounded, spread or neutral.

-Diphthongs

It is a combination fo two vowels, or better an oral, voiced, egressive glide from one vowel to another vowel uttered with

the same emission of sound. The first element is normally more audible than the second. In English there are 8

diphthongs. Five are called "closing" because their second element is a close vowel, three are called "centring" because

their second element is the central unstressed sound [ schwa ].

Closing diphtongs may become triphthongs if a schwa is added.

-Consonants

English consonants may be oral (the air escapes through the mouth), nasal (the air escapes from the nose), voiceless (no

vibration of the vocal cords) or voiced (the vocal cords vibrate). Moreover all consonants can be described according to

two parameters, such as manner of articulation and place of articulation.

Almost all consonants are oral, only three are nasal [m, n, ].

[s] is a voiceless consonant and so you will perceive no vibration at all. Instead, if you try pronouncing [z], you will perceive

vibration because it is a voiced consonant. The voiceless consonant phoneme are: /p,t,k,f, ,s, ,h/. The voiced

consonant phonemes are: /b,d,g,v, ,z, ,m,n, , r,w,j/.

The bilabial consonants /p,b,m/ and the semivowel /w/ are pronounced with both lips brought together. For the

labiodental consonants /f,v/ the lower lip and the upper teeth are kept close to each other. The dental consonants / , /

involve the contact of the blade (front part) of the tongue behind the upper teeth.

The obstruction of the flow of air is realised in an alveolar position (the tongue in contact or raised closed to the alveolar

ridge) for /t,d,n,l/ and /s,z/.

The fricatives / , /, the affricates / , /, and the liquid /r/ are articulated with the tongue in a further back

position called palatoalveolar.

The semivowel /j/ has a palatal articulation. Finally for the plosives /k,g/ and the nasal / / the contact occurs between

the tongue and the soft palate velum and the /h/ involves a stricture in the glottis.

In the release of voiceless plosives /t,p,k/ a "h" is heard. This phenomenon is called aspiration and it occurs when these

phonemes are at the onset of a syllable.

In final position the difference between [p,t,k] and [b,d,g] also has to do with the preceding vowel, which is shorter before

voiceless [p,t,k] and longer before voiced [b,d,g].

Fricatives are also called sibilants or continuants. The air escapes through a small space between the articulators,

producing a hissing sound. Fricative consonants are: labiodental /f,v/, dental / , /, alveolar /s,z/, palato-alveolar / ,

/ and glottal /h/.

Affricates are a combination of homorganic plosives and fricatives, they are the palatoalveolar / / and / /.

In the production of the nasals /m,n/ the air escapes through the nose. / / is more difficult especially for foreign people.

The rule in English is that /g/ is never pronounced after / / at the end of a morpheme, except for the comparative -er

and the superlative -est. eg. long-->longer.

The liquid consonant /l/ has two important allophonic realisations: in syllable initial position its pronunciation is

accompanied by front resonance; in this case it is said to be "clear". In syllable final position or before another consonant

its pronunciation is accompanied by back resonance and it is said to be "dark".

The liquid /r/ presents many different types of pronunciation in English. If a word ending with silent /r/ is followed by

another word beginning with a vowel, the /r/ is pronounced to link the two words. This phenomenon is called r-linking.

In English some consonants may be syllabic, that is, they may occur as the nucleus of syllables; the most common cases

are with /l/ and /n/.

A phonetic phenomenon typical of British English is the glottalisation or glottal stop, indicated by the symbol /?/. It

consists in the complete closure of the glottis in the pronunciation of the plosives /p,t,k/ and of the affricate / / in final

position or when followed by a vowel, a liquid or a nasal.

6.The pronunciation of American English

Differences in pronunciation between British and American English are perhaps more marked than differences in

vocabulary or grammar.

-Vowels

The most important difference between the two phonemic inventories is in the open and back area.

-Diphthongs

In AmE the diphthongs / , , / are absent due to rhoticity. Instead AmE has pure vowels followed by [r].

-Consonants

British and American consonants are the same. Differences are found in the phonetic quality of the phoneme /r/, usually

retroflex and the phoneme /l/, always dark.

AmE is used to be a rhotic variety because orthographic is always pronounced, no matter whether it is prevocalic or

post-. It gives AmE its fullmouth effect.

Yod dropping: it refers to the omission in AmE of the sound [j] after dental and alveolar consonants and followed by the

phoneme /u:/ as in tune [tju:n].

T-tapping: in AmE intervocalic /t/ is tapped and voiced so that the word "latter" rhymes with ladder.

In AmE the post-nasal /t/ as in twenty ['twenti] is elided [tweni].

-Pronunciation differences

Latin-derived words ending in -ile are pronounced differently in the two varieties: missile ['misail] (BrE), ['misl] (AmE).

-Stress placement

For example the words address and cigarette in AmE are stressed in the first syllable, while in BrE they are differently

stressed.

A characteristic diffeerence between AmE and BrE is the pronunciation of the endings -ary,-ery,-ory which are compressed

in BrE, whereas they keep a full vowel in AmE.

7. Italian and English phonemes in contrast

In many cases, where English has two vowels, italian has one. The Italian speakers will tend to under-differentiate

between long and tense /i:/ and short and lax /i/, and pronounce them as if sounded the same.

Lenght is an important feature in English vowels and this is particularly difficult for Italians because in Italian vowels tend

to be long and tense.

Typical errors involve lack of aspiration of the voiceless consonants /p,t,k/ in syllable initial position and also the lack of

aspiration for the initial /h/.

The dental fricatives / , / tent to be confused by Italian with dental plosives /d/ and /t/.

Italians tend to voice syllable initial fricatives and therefore make a typical pronunciation mistake consisting in the voicing

of syllable initial [s].

As for the pronunciation of the past/participle forms of regular verbs, the -ed inflection is pronounced differently

according to the phoneme preceding it: if a voiceless consonant, the ending will be [t] as in "asked"; if a voiced consonant

or a vowel it will be [d] as in "lived " and "blowed".

8. The syllable

It is a phonological unit made up of one or more phonemes. A minimum syllable is made up of one vowel only, such as the

verb "are" [:].

Open syllables: a consonal oneset followed by a vowel (tea,zoo..)

Closed syllables: they have a vowel nucleus followed by a consonant (all, arm).

The most common type of syllable in English is that made up of consonant+vowel+consonant (CVC), like did, bag, look.

In italian the most common tipe is the open syllable.

9. Stress in words and multi-word units

Stress is the realtive prominence given to a syllable. The effect of prominence is the result of four acoustic components:

pitch (altezza), loudness (volume), duration and quality.

In phonetic transcription stress is insicated by a vertical line preceding the stressed syllable.

One syllable words are unstressed when they occur in weak position.

There are many types of stress patterns:

- 2 syllable words with primary stress on the first syllable (strong+weak) Type

e.g. money ['mni], seven ['sevn]

- 2syllable words with primary stress on the first syllable and a full vowel on the second (strong+strong) Type

e.g. phoneme ['fnim], pillow ['pil]

- 2syllable words with primary stress on the second syllable (weak+strong) Type

e.g. result [r'zlt], connect [k'nekt]

- 2 syllable words with a full vowel in the first syllable and primary stress on the second (strong+strong) Type

e.g. although [:l'], myself [ma'self].

This words may have secondary stress on the first syllabe, it depends on the speed of the speech.

-3syllable words with primary stress on the first syllable (strong+weak+weak) Type

e.g. manager ['mnd], dangerous ['dendrs]

-3syllable words with primary stress on the first syllable and a full vowel on the third syllable (strong+weak+strong) Type

e.g. telephone ['telfn], educate ['eduket]

-3syllable words with primary stress on the first syllable and a full vowel on the second (strong+strong+weak) Type

e.g. newspaper ('nju:z,pep], grandmother ['grnd,m]

-3syllable words with primary stress on the second syllable (weak+strong+weak) Type

e.g. remember [r'memb], successful [sk'sefl]

-3syllable words with full vowel on the first syllable and primary stress on the second (strong+strong+weak) Type

e.g. sensation [sen'sen], unhealthy [n'heli].

-3syllable words with a full vowel in the first syllable and primary stress on the third (strong+weak+strong) Type

e.g. afternoon [,:ft'nu:n], disappoint [,dis'pnt].

We can find also words of four or more syllable, usually compounds and derivates.

Suffixes that are stressed: -ageous, -agious, -ation, -ee, -ician

Suffixes that are not stressed: -able, -ful, -less, -ness, -ment

Suffixes that assign stress to the penultimate syllable: -ic, -ics, -ion

10. Connected speech

Connected speech impinges our ears as continuum of sound, modulated by intonational contours and rhythmic patterns

and of course pauses for breathing and thinking.

Phonetically, the transition from each sound segment to the next is characterised by articulatory accomodations and

sound variability.

This phonetic variability is caused in connected speech by 3 main factors:

- the influence of the phonetic environment in which each phoneme occurs;

- the speed of utterance

- the rhytmic pattern of the syllable in which each phoneme occurs.

There are 5 types of phonetic variation caused by the influence of the phonemic environment:

-Similitude

It involves accomodation in the articulation of a sound segment to an adjacent segment, so that they become similar in

some of their characteristics. A typical form of similitude is the sequence nasal+plosive or plosive+nasal.

Similitude can also occur between a consonant and a vowel, like in "keep", "cool" or "cup".

-Linking

It is realised across word boundaries between consonants and vowels, between different consonants, between the same

consonants. Between vowels and semivowels the linking sounds [w] and [j] are added to obtain a smooth transition across

word boundaries.

-Assimilation

It occurs in the same cases as similitude, but it is distingued from it because it involves the actual replacement of a sound

with another owing to the influence of an adjacent one. It usually occurs at the boundaries between syllables, between

words and in compounds.

Assimilation can be "contextual", and it occurs when utterances are spoken at normal speed.

-Elision

It is the dropping of a sound which once existed (historical elision), like castle, know, walk.. or which exists in slow speech

(contextual elision).

Smoothing: reduction of the elements of diphthongs and triphthongs, for example the word fire is usually smoothed to

[fa] or even [f:].

-Vowel reduction and weak forms

Vowel reduction is responsible for remarkable differences between the pronunciation of words in isolation and of the

same words in connected speech.

Generally, the vowel reducted becomes , or the short vowels i, or u,.

Vowel reduction is characteristic of grammatical words such as auxiliaries (are,have), modals (can,must), articles (a,the),

conjunctions (and,but), personal pronouns (you,he) and preposition (to, from).

11.The rhythm of connected speech

We perceive the sens of rhythm which arises out of a feeling of alternation between strong and weak beats. The

assignment of rhythmic prominence is called "tonicity".

The alternation of weak and strong beats in connected speech determines its rhythm.

The time interval between one strong beat and the next is said to be "isochronous", that is, each chunk is given an

approximately equal amount of time.

A typical error is to produce utterances in which all the syllables are prominent, as if each was pronounced in its strong

form.

12. Intonation

Intonation is the variation of voice pitch in connected speech. When we speak our voice changes pitch all the time. Only

machines speak in a monotone. Intonation helps the listener to undestand what the speaker says.

Intonation includes two other features: tonality and tone. Tonality refers to the segmentation of long stretches of

connected speech into shorter meaningful chunks, called intonation phrases. An intonation phrase is an utterance having

its own intonation pattern or tone and containing a nucleus.

Intonation is much more than just decoration of the speech. The term tone refers to the way pitch is modulated in

language. A tone may be rising or falling or a combination of these two tones.

The rising tone is felt to convey a sense of non-finality and is generally associated with questions or incomplete clauses.

The falling tone is felt to convey a sense of finality and is generally associated with statements.

The fall-rise tone is felt to convey a sense of uncertainty and doubt.

The rise-fall tone is felt to convey surprise and admiration, or strong emotional feelings.

The main functions of intonation in spoken English are:

-Attitudinal, is that of conveying the different attitudes and feelings that can be expressed

when we speak, such as enthusiasm,scepticism..

-Grammatical, it is related to the segmentation of speech into meaningful units. If we move

the boundaries of intonation phrases, the meaning of utterance can change

completely.

-Accentual: it involves the placement of stress on the nucleus, thus indicating where the

focus of the information is centred.

-Discoursal: the nucleus is normally found at the end of an intonation phrase. This happens

because speakers tend to place new information at the end of utterances.

13. Pronunciation in dictionaries

Many English dictionaries for native speakers do not use IPA notation but employ a modified form of ortography, called

"respelling". The reason is that native speakers do not normally learn the phonetic notation in a systematic way as foreign

people do.

Pronunciation dictionaries are exclusively devoted to pronunciation and therefore offer more complete information than a

general dictionary.

14. The pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca

In the 20th century English achieved a primacy as a global language and today it is used as a lingua franca by millions of

non-native speakers.

On this point, some linguists have raised a debate arguing in favour of a new model of English as a lingua franca. This

model is base don a core of nuclear forms, drawing on British and American standards, which is intended to guarantee the

preservation of mutual intelligibility for international communication.

the goal of teaching English as a lingua franca should no longer be the fine details of native speaker norms, but those

pronunciation features.

The lingua franca Core includes the phonetic features which have proved to be essential for intelligibility: the correct use

of most consonants sounds, including the aspiration of the voiceless consonants.

3. THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH

1-Definitions of grammar

The word 'grammar' refers to a set of rules which allow the production of wellformed sentences or utterances.

There is a distinction between descriptive and theoretical grammar. The former describes how the language works,

drawing eclectically from the long tradition of grammatical descriptions and using both traditional and new terminology.

Theoretical grammars are analytical models elaborated by linguists.

These models introduce new metalanguage, i.e. terms and concepts proper to these new theories.

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. It can be divided into derivational and inflectional morphology.

Syntax is the study of the way in which words combine to form larger units such as phrases, clauses and sentences. A

central feature of English syntax is word order.

-The units of grammar

Grammatical units can be ordered according to a hierarchy of units, or a rank scale, and can be analysed from the largest

to the smallest (text,sentence,clause,phrase,word,morpheme).

A text consists of one or more sentences, which consists of one or more clauses, which consists of one or more phrases,

which consist of one or more words, which consist of one or more morphemes.

A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit of meaning or grammatical function. A word is a linguistic unit phonologically

preceded and followed by pauses,ortographically preceded and followed by spaces or puntuation marks.

A phrase is a linguistic unit made up of one or more words. Phrases can be noun phrases (NP), verb phrases (VP), adjective

phrases (AdjP), adverb phrases (AdvP) and prepositional phrases (PP). E.g. The boy (NP) has given (VP) extremely

interisting (AdjP), very fast (AdvP), in front of the cinema (PP).

A clause is a linguistic unit which is made up of one or more phrases and which tipically contains at least one verb phrase.

A main clause is emantically indipendent and it can stand alone.

A sentence is the largest linguistic unit and can consist of one or more clauses.

A text can be defined as a written or spoken stretch of language, a sequence of sentences which is coherent and cohesive.

-Word, word-form and lexeme

An ortographic word is a linguistic unit which in the written form is preceded by a space and followed by a space or a

puntuation mark. The word can be defined using phonological criteria, as the linguistic unit sorrounded by pauses, and

having only one main stress.

Internal integrity: a word is an indivisible unit which cannot be interrumpted by inserring other material in it. In fact,

insertions can only be made between words.

A word can be also defined in terms of meaning: a word can express only a single cocnept.

An important sense of the term 'word' refers to the words we find in dictionaries, which are called lexemes. A lexeme is an

abstract unit of vocabulary which underlies different variants known as word-forms.

Lexemes are represented in linguistics by using capital letters, while words or word-forms that realise lexemes are written

using italics.

In lexicography the technical terms used to refer to the abstract dictionary unit are 'entry', 'headword' and 'lemma'. A

dictionary entry is an independent lexical unit which is listed in a dictionary in alphabetical order. It consist of the head

word tipically followed by information on its spelling,pronunciation,word class,inflections,meaning and examples of use.

This 'canonical' form is also called 'lemma'.

-Word classes

Words are traditionally grouped into different categories called word classes or parts of speech according to their

meaning, their structure and position in a sentence.

Nouns, verbs,adjectives and adverbs constitute open classes of words because they can admit new members, as new

words are often created. They are called lexical or content words, because they are the main carriers of meaning in a text.

Closed classes contain a smaller number of items and new words are rarely added. They are also called function or

grammatical words, and they are conjunctions, preposition, determiners, pronouns and auxiliary verbs.

"All" can behave as a determiner (all the students), as a pronoun (that's all I have), or as an adverb (she got all wet).

"Inserts" are more frequently used in the spoken language and are considered as more marginal since they carry

interactonal and emotional meaning. (hey,yeah,right,well).

Nouns (N) are lexical words which commonly refer to concrete objects or entities. They can be common or proper nouns.

Common nouns can be countable or uncountable.

Verbs (V) are words which express actions, events, states, processes and show the relationship between the participants

in what is referred by the verb. Verbs can be lexical, also called main verbs, or auxiliary.

Adjectives (Adj) are lexical words which describe qualities and properties of thing or people, and state of affairs. They

provide information about nouns or pronouns. Adjectives can be gradable, that is their meaning can be modified in terms

of scale, or non-gradable, they cannot be modified.

Adverbs (adv) are lexical words which can carry out several functions. They can comment on an adjective by expressing

degree, accompany another adverb or give information about the circumstances of an action, event, process or state.

They are called 'circumstance adverbs'. 'Stance adverbs' are adverbs which can express the speaker attitude, feelings or

point of view. 'Linking adverbs' are adverbs that link sentences or clauses.

Conjunctions (Conj) are function words which link linguistic items such as words, phrases, clauses and sentences. We can

identify two types of them: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions, that join clauses where one is

subordinated to the other.

The main subordinating conjunctions express time (since),place (where), condition (if), concession (although), purpose (so

that), reason (since).

Prepositions (Prep) are function words that link words or syntactic elements and express the relationship between them.

They can show a relation in time,space or of another kind between two events or people or things. Most common

prepositions consist of one single word and are therefore called simple prepositions, but there are also complex

prepositions which are made up of two or more words.

Determiners (Det) are function words that are used before a noun to indicate the type of reference the noun has.

Determiners can indicate definiteness or indefiniteness, quantity, possession. The main determiners in English are: articles

(a,the,an), demonstrative determiners (this,that,those,these), possessive determiners (my,your,his,her,its,our,their),

quantifiers (some,many,enough,more,few,a little,all).

Pronouns (Pron) are function words that are used to replace nouns when we want to refer to a person, an object, a

situation, an event or a place which has been mentioned before or whose referent can be deduced from the context of

the situation or the sorrounding text.

Auxiliary verbs (Aux) are a small class of verbs which accompany a lexical verb and cannot usually occur alone. We

distinguish two types of auxiliaries: primary (be,have,do) and modal (must,should,may,can,need..)

Wh-words are function words which begin with wh- and introduce clauses. They do not form an indipendent word class

since they belong to different word classes according to their use.

These words are mainly used in two ways: to introduce interrogative clauses, to introduce relative clauses or exclamation

clauses.

Numerals are a set of words referring to number or quantity which are used as determiners or as heads in noun phrases.

-Grammatical functions

A word can have the function of subject (S), verb (V), object (O), complement (C) and adverbial (A).

The Subject is what the sentence is about, its topic. It usually precedes the verb and determines whether the verb is

singular or plural.

The verb is what is said about the subject.

The object can be direct (Od) or indirect (Oi).

The complement can be a subject complement (Cs) or an object complement (Co).

Adverbials are elements which are usually, but not always, optional in a sentence and which express a wide range of

meanings. They can be circumstances, stance or linking adverbials.

2.Morphology

Morphology is the area of linguistics which deals with the structure or form of words. It describes the ways in which small,

meaningful elements called morphemes can combine to make up words and contribute to the construction of meaning

and the creation of new words.

Inflectional morphology deals with changes in the form of words according to the grammatical context in which they

occur; Derivational morphology deals with the process of word formation through affixations.

Polymorphemic : words composed of more than one morpheme (fortunately)

Monomorphemic : words composed by only one morpheme (play,the,girl...)

-Morphemes,morphs and allomorphs

Morphemes are abstract entities, while morphs are their concrete realisation.

Morphemes are usually written between curly braces { }. The lexeme is written in capital letters whereas the abstract

features specified by the morphemes are written in normal letters. An allomorph is one of the different phonetic or

graphic realisations of a morpheme.

. The morph that indicates {past tense} in English is -ed.

. The plural morpheme in English nouns is realised ortographically by adding the morph -s, which however has three

different phonetic realisations, [s] (cups,lamps...), [z] (hands, days), [z] (beaches, judges...).

. The morphs in-, im-, il-, -ir are graphic allomorphs of the same morpheme meaning {not} or oppositeness of meaning.

. An example of graphic allomorphs is given by the English indefinite article which has two ortographic shapes, a/an,

depending on the word that follows it.

-Types of morphemes

Not all the morphemes have the same charachteristics, functions and status. For example, in "cheerfulness", -ful and -ness

are not simply joined together; cheer carries the core meaning and can stand alone as a word, -ful is attached to it and

cannot stand on its own as a word, and the same can be said for -ness.

There are two types of morphemes:

. Free morphemes can stand alone as words. "The" and "a" are morphemes that function as determiners, "in" is a free

morpheme that belongs to the class of prepositions,etc.

Free morphemes that belong to lexical words and carry the semantic core meaning of the word are called "free roots". In

the sentence "The books were printed last year by a local publisher", free lexical morphemes are book, print, last, year,

local, publish.

A root is the core of a word, he morpheme which determines the meaning of a word, with no affixes attached to it.

Free functional morphemes are morphemes belonging to the class of lexical words, which do not carry semantic content.

In the example above, free functional morphemes are the, be, by, a.

. Bound morphemes are morphemes which cannot occur on their own as separate words, but need to be attached to

another morpheme. There are two main types of bound morphemes: affixed and bound roots.

a. Affixed morphemes are morphemes attached to the beginning or end of another

morpheme, for example -s, -ed, -ing, -ful, -ness, un-, dis-, mis-, -ly. All afixes in English

are bound morphemes and they can precede (called prefixes) or follow (called suffixes)

the other morpheme. Affixes can be further divided into two functional categories,

derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes.

- Derivational morphemes are affixes (prefixes and suffixes) used for derivating new

words when attached to other morphemes, for example in "sadness" -ness turns

an adjective to a noun, un- implies oppositeness of meaning, -able added to a verb

creates an adjective meaning 'that can be done'.

- Inflectional morphemes, which are always suffixes in English, are used to express

grammatical relations or functions, e.g. -s in "books" implies the plural, -ed

expresses past tense, -er comparative...

b. Bound roots are roots (core of the meaning) which cannot occur on their own as

independent words, but need to be attached to another morpheme. An example of

bound root is the morpheme -ceive which can be found in words such as receive,

conceive, perceive, deceive. The words liberal, liberalise, liberating, liberty contain the

bound root liber-, which is combined with other morphemes and which carries a core

meaning related to freedom and derived from Latin.

The word "unhelpful" consists of three morphemes (un+help+ful) = {negative} + {HELP} + {adjective}. These morphemes

are represented by three morphs: the bound morph prefix un-, followed by the free morph 'help', to which another bound

morph, the suffix -ful, is attached.

-Inflectional morphology

Morphology is traditionally divided into two branches: derivational and inflectional morphology.

Inflectional morphology deals with changes in the form of the words according to the grammatical context. It is concerned

with inflections that carry grammatical meaning and thus allow us to form plurals, past tenses or the comparative degree.

Words change their form if they need to express specific grammatical categories such as gender, number, tense,

superlative.

Moden English has a more limited presence of inflectional morphology compared to Old English. In present day English

syntax and word order play a grater role in signalling grammatical relations in sentences.

Present day English has regular inflectional suffixes and also some irregular inflections for the members of the word

classes of nouns, verbs, adjectives and few adverbs.

The grammatical categories that apply to nouns are gender, number and case (when indicating possession).

The gender is not expressed in English, singular carries no inflection since it is unmarked, whereas the plural is inflected.

Regular plurals countable nouns are formed by adding -s at the end of the lexeme. Non countable nouns or proper nouns

do not have a plural form.

Irregular plural forms include nouns such as child-children, sheep-sheep, foot-feet, mouse-mice.

Let's analyse some word:

. Cars: consists of the two morphs car+s, which realise the morpheme {CAR}+{plural}.

. Singers: inflected form of the lexeme SINGER which is made up of three morphs sing+er+s,

morpheme {SING}+ {-ER}+{plural}.

. Teeth: inflected form of the lexeme TOOTH, one morph teeth and two morphemes

{TOOTH}+{plural}

. Sheep: inflected form of the lexeme SHEEP, one morph, two morphemes {SHEEP}+ {plural}.

. Oxen: inflected form of the lexeme OX, made up of two morphs: ox+en, two morphemes

{OX}+ {plural}.

. Women's: inflected form of the lexeme WOMAN, who morphs: women+'s, three

morphemes {WOMAN}+{plural}+{possessive}.

Regular English lexical verbs have five word-forms:

. -s inflection 3rd person singular, simple present tense.

. -ed inflection, simple past tense.

. -ed inflection, past participle.

. -ing inflection, present participle and gerund.

Irregular verb form the past tense and past participle in different ways and can be grouped according to the type of

process or pattern they show:

. Zero morph: hurt-hurt-hurt, put-put-put, let-let-let, cut-cut-cut. The two forms have no

inflectional suffix.

. Vowel mutation: swim-swam-swum, come-came-come, sing-sang-sung, ring-rang-rung.

Change of the base vowel.

. Vowel mutation and irregular inflection -en: speak-spoke-spoken, take-took-taken, shake-

shooke,shaken...

.Replacive morphs: lose-lost-lost, keep-kept-kept, make-made-made...The past tense and

past participle forms are identical and they are formed irregularly

through the replacement of one ore more phonemes with other

phonemes.

Suppletion: go-went-gone, be-was-been. Two or more forms of a lexeme are phonetically

different and seem unrelated.

Modal verbs do not inflect for person and number, and only have two forms: can-could, may-might, shall-should,

will-would.

. Cooking: COOK, two morphs cook+ing, two morphemes {COOK}+{present participle}

. Taken: TAKE, one morph, two morphemes: {TAKE}+ {past pasticiple}.

. Cut: CUT, one morph, different combination of two morphemes: {CUT}+{present}, {CUT}+

{past},{CUT}+{past participle}.

. Went: GO, one morph, two morphemes {GO}+{past}.

. Runs: RUN, two morphs, two morphemes {RUN}+{3rd person singular present}.

Most adjectives and some adverbs can be graded.

Gradable: I'm a bit nervous, very nervous, extrmely nervous, not nervous at all.

Ungradable: dead or married.

Gradable adjectives and adverbs can be graded to express comprative and superaltive degree. The comparative degree

of short adjectives is formed by adding the suffix -er, the superlative by adding the suffix -est.

Two or more syllable adjectives adopt periphrastic forms with more and most.

Irregular: good,well-better-best

bad-worse-worst

much-more-most

little-less-least

They are suppletive forms.

. Colder: COLD, two morphs cold+er, two morphemes {COLD}+{comparative degree}.

. Worst: BAD, one morph, two morphemes {BAD}+{superlative degree}.

Some determiners and pronouns are affected by inflection, as they have more than one form depending on the

grammatical context in which they occur.

Determiners such as demonstratives like 'this' and 'that' must express the category of number, we cand fin them in

singular (this,that) or plural (these,those).

Pronouns express the grammatical category of number, but also those of gender and case, since some of them show the

contrast between singular-plural, masculine-feminine, subject-object, possession. We could also add the genitive case

which is expressed by some pronouns and some possessive adjectives (mine,yours,his,her(s),its,our(s),their(s)).

.Him: lexeme HE, one morph, 5 morphemes {HE}+{3rd person}+{singular}+{masculine}+

{object}.

.His: lexeme HE, one morph, 5 morphemes: {HE}+{3rd person}+{singular}+{masculine}+

{possession}.

3. Syntax

It deals with the structur of larger linguistic units such as phrases, clauses and sentences and with the rules which allow

speakers to combine words into a larger meaningful units.

- Word order

The grammatical function of subject in English is not expressed by case, but by the position of the word or phrase in the

clause and its relation with other constituents.

In English declarative clauses the subject is generally before the verb, while the object goes after it. One difference

between English and Italian is that in present day English the order of constituents is quite fixed, whereas in Italian it can

vary to a certain extent.

- Types of phrases

Words combine with other words and are arranged into larger constituents or phrases.

A phrase is a meaningful syntactic unit which is made up of one or more words. Its minimal form consists of a single word,

but it can also be much longer. A phrase is constructed around a head word, called the head of the phrase.

Accompanying words, which are called modifiers as they define and modify the head, are divided into pre-modifiers (when

they precede the head) and post-modifiers (when they follow the head).

Phrases can be of 5 types:

.noun phrases (NP) : a phrase which has a noun as its head;

.verb phrases (VP) : a phrase which has a verb as its head;

. adjective phrases (AdjP): a phrase which has an adjective as its head;

. adverb phrases (AdvP): a phrase which has an adverb as its head;

. prepositional phrases (PP) : a phrase which has a preposition as its head, but it is always

followed by another element, which is

usually a NP.

- The noun phrase

It consist of a noun head (H) either alone or accompanied by other words before or after it (determiners, premodifiers and

postmodifiers).

Determiners indicate the specific reference of the noun and they occupy the first position in the NP; modifiers usually

express some charachteristics of the head noun, and some post modifiers complete the menaing od the head noun.

NP phrase can be a pronoun phrase: 'My brother' can be replaced with 'He'.

The role of determiner (Det) can be filled by articles, demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers and numerals.

The role of premodifier (Pre-Mod) can be filled by an adjective or adjective phrase (a new car, an old house..) or by nouns

or NPs (summer clother, a newspaper article...)

The role of post modifier (Post-Mod) can be filled by:

. a PP (an apartment in the heart of Oxford, the old man with a hat...)

. a relative clause (a young girl who was using the pedestrian crossing)

. non-finite clauses (a solitay man walking with his dog, the dress for you to try, many thing to do before Christmas)

. some types of AdjPs (something similar)

. some AdvPs (your holiday abroad, the car outside)

. a that clause (the belief that our children are likely to be spending...)

. appositive NPs, they add information about the head noun by being placed next to it (the President of the United States,

Barack Obama).

The internal structure of phrases can be illustrated by using tree diagrams.

The NP following the preposition is called prepositional complement or complement of the preposition (C).

When one of the constituents elements of a phrase is a clause, it can be considered as a whole unit and not broken down

further into its constituents.

If a PP, an AdjP or a AdvP occur within a NP as pre or post modifiers, we can say that they are embedded in the NP or they

are subordinate to the NP. We can talk about subordination within phrases, as the phrase which acts as a modifier is

subordinate to the other one.

We can also talk about coordination of phrases.

NPS may become more difficult to interpret when there is more than one noun in pre-modifying position.

Post-modification is frequently adopted in academic prose. In particular, PPs are the most common post modifiers.

- The verb phrase

A verb phrase (VP) consist of a head verb, either alone or accompanied by one or more other verbs. The structure of the

English VP is never exceedingly long since it can only consist of a lexical verb accompanied by its auxiliaries. If the VP

contains only one verb, than it is a lexical verb, whereas if there are more verbs there is a lexical verb pre-modified by one

or more auxiliary verbs.

Auxiliary verbs have a specific function in the VP. They are used to express grammatical categories such as aspect, voice

and modality and to signal negation and clause type.

The primary auxiliary BE is used to form the passive voice and the progressive aspect; the primary auxiliary HAVE is used to

form the perfective aspect, while DO is adopted to create the negative and interrogative forms. Modal auxiliaries combine

with the lexical verb to express modality (obligation/necessity), permission/ability, possibility, prediction/volition.

VPs can be finite or non-finite.

A finite VP contains a verb in its finite or tensed form, which means that the verb indicates tense.

A non- finite VP contains a verb in its non-finite or non-tensed form, which means that the verb does not show tense

(e.g. Having been told, to bring, accompanied).

The English VP can give different kinds of information, it can express:

. tense (present or past);

. aspect (unmarked, perfect, progressive or perfect progressive);

. voice (active or passive);

. modality (unmarked or expressing nuances of meaning with modal verbs);

. mood (indicative, subjunctive or imperative);

. negation (positive or negative);

. finiteness (finite or non-finite);

. clause structure type (declarative or interrogative).

Tense is a grammatical category which in English is marked through verb inflections. VPs which signal tense are called

finite VPs. English has only two tenses: present and past. The present tense can also be used to refer to future time. The

simple past can be used also to refer to the present time when the speaker wants to be polite and indirect.

The most common forms to express future time are:

. will/shall+verb: used to predict events based on the present evidence which is not so

obvious, when the future reference is based on a decision taken at the

moment of speaking, to make a promise, to offer to do something, to

make an offer, to talk about plans and intentions.

. be+going+to+infinitive

. the present progressive form: used to talk about something that has already been

arranged and organised

. the present simple: used to make references to fixed events in the future that cannot be

changed.

. be to+infinitive: used when we want to refer to immediate future events which are seen as

obligations or parts fixed of a plan.

. be about to +infinitive: used to talk about future events which are considered as occuring

in the immediate future.

Aspect is another grammatical category which is also related to time, since it shows the speaker's attitude towards the

time of an event/process/state. There are two aspects in English: the perfect aspect (refers to completed actions) and the

progressive aspect (ongoing, incomplete action or state).

The progressive aspect indicates that the action is in progress at the time of utterance.

Aspect is not signalles by inflections but through syntactic means: it is constructed using the auxiliary verb BE followed by

the -ing form of the lexical verb.

English uses the present perfect if the situation started in the past and continues to exist in the present time, or has a

relation with the present, while the simple past must be used when the situation took place in a specific moment in the

past and is over.

Voice is another grammatical category which can be expressed by some English verbs. Transitive verbs can occur in the

active or in the passive voice. In the active voice the S is the agent and performs the action expressed by the VP, while in

the passive voice the S is actually the recipient of the action. Passive VPs can also be constructed using the verb GET and it

is used when one doestn't know or doent's want to specify the agent, or if one wants to highlight the receiver or affected

entity of the action. The passive voice is also frequently adopted in academic journal articles or essays.

The VP can also express a distinction in terms of shades of meaning through the use of modal verbs. There are nine central

modal auxiliary verbs in English: can,could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must. English has some semi-modals,

which are multi-word verbs which behave like modal verbs. These are need, have to, have got to, ought to, had better,

used to, be supposed to, be going to.

Modal verbs are considered unmarked for tense, although some of them can be used to make time distinctions

(shall/will), while other seem to refer to the past (could, might, would..). Modal auxiliaries express point of view or stance,

they can be divided into three main groups according to their meaning:

. permission/possibility/ability;

. obligation/logical necessity;

. volition/prediction.

Modality can be of two main kinds:

a. Deontic or intrinsic modality. It refers to actions or events that can be controlled by

humans. This type of modality involves permission and ability, obligation and advice,

volition or intention. Modal verbs that can express deontic or intrinsic modality are can,

could, may, might, must, should, have got to, had better, ought to, need to, be supposed

to, will, would, shall, be going to.

b.Epistemic or extrinsic modality refers to different levels of likelihood or certainty of a

specific event or state. It is related to human judgement of whether an event or state is

possible, probable or certain. This type of modality involves possibility, necessity and

prediction. Verbs: may, might, can could, must, have to, have got to, be supposed to,

ought to, will, would, shall, be going to.

-The adjective phrase

It is a phrase which has an adjective as its head. It can consist of a single adjective or of an adjective with pre- and/or

post-modifiers.

A head adjective is usually pre-modified by an adverb.

Pre-modifiers in AdjPs can be:

. adverbs (extremely important)

. occasionally, a NP (he's fourteen years old)

Post-modifiers in AdjPs can be:

. adverbs (that's not good enough)

. a PP made up of Prep+NP (I'm unhappy with your decision)

. a preposition followed by a VP (I'm bad at cooking)

. a that-clause (I'm pretty sure that I locked the door last night)

. a to-infinitive clause (she seemed to be happy to see me)

. an -ing clause introduced by a preposition (he was unhappy about being sacked)

- The adverb phrase

It is a phrase which has an adverb as its head. Modifiers are similar to the ones found in AdjPs. An AdvP conveys

information related to circumstances such as manner, frequency, time, modality, place, degree and point of view, or it

links clauses.

As regards their syntactic role, AdvPs can modify:

. an AdjP (I'm really angry),

. a VP (she arrived extremely late)

. a clause, if they express modality, point of view (perhaps you should invite her)

- The prepositional phrase

It is a phrase which has a preposition as its head, which i sfollowed by another element, usually a NP. The element that

follows the preposition is called the complement of the preposition (C). The C of the preposition may sometimes be a

clause. PPs can post-modify head nouns as in the following examples: a flat in the city centre, a man with a gun, a bottle of

wine...

- Clause elements

Each clause element has a specific gramamtical fucntion in relation to the linguistic system. There are five major clause

elements: subject (S), object (O), verb (V), complement (C) and adverbial (A).

The subject (S) element in a clause is its topic. The S is obligatory in English, and its position is typically before the verb,

except in itnerrogative clauses, where it is placed after the auxiliary verb. In terms of form, the S element is most tipically a

NP or a pronoun.

There are also clauses which contain a dummy S, which do not carry semantic content. The dummy S 'it' or 'there' fills the

S slot before the verb element, but it is semantically empty, while a second S follows the verb and is called extrasposed S.

The construction with 'there' as a dummy S is called 'existential there' structure.

The lexical verb in the VP dictates what type of clause element, if any, can follow the verb. This close relationship between

the lexical verb and the other elements preceding or following the verb in the clause is called 'verb complementation'.

Verbs can be one-place verbs (they combine only with a S), two-place verbs (they combine with a S and another element),

three-place verbs (with an S and other two elements). Depending on the verb complementation or valency pattern they

allow, lexical verbs can be classified as follows:

. intransitive: clause pattern S+V, the verb requires no complementation, it only requires a S.

. monotransitive: clause pattern S+V+Od, the verb requires a direct object.

. ditransitive: clause pattern S+V+Oi+Od, the verb requires two objects, an indirect and a

direct object.

. complex transitive: two clause patterns: 1. S+V+Od+Co or 2. S+V+Od+A. The verb requires

a direct object followed byeither an object complement or an

obligatory adverbial.

. copular: two clause patterns: 1. S+V+Cs or 2. S+V+A. The verb requires a subject

complement or an obligatory adverbial.

The verb 'make' can take both monotransitive and complex transitive patterns.

A clause can be divided into two parts: the subject and the predicate. The predicate consists of the verb element and its

verb complementation.

The object element follows the verb and it is affected by it. Objects only occur after transitive verbs. There are two types

of objects: direct (Od) and indirect (Oi).

The direct object refers to the entity which is directly affected by the process or action denoted by the verb.

Note that when the direct object is a pronoun, it needs to be in its accusative case.

The indirect object is the entity which receives something or benefits from the action or process expressed by the verb.

The indirect object is found only with ditransitive verbs (give, tell, buy, bring, show...). The indirect object is usually placed

between the verb and the direct object and immediately follows the verb element.

It is typically a NP, but it can also be a prepositional clause. The indirect object can be paraphrased using the prepositions

'to' or 'for'.

The complement (C) is an obligatory clause element which characterises or describes the S or the O, providing information

about them. There are two types of complement: subject complement (Cs) and object complement (Co).

The subject complement follows a copular verb such as be, feel, seem, appear, look, remain, stay, become, turn, sound,

taste. The Cs corresponds to the Italian 'complemento predicativo del soggetto'.

The object complement follows the direct object it characterises, and occurs with complex transitive verbs such as make,

elect, consider, name, find, regard, call, see, get.

Adverbials (A), also called adjuncts, are usually optional elements added to the main, obligatory elements of a sentence.

They can be of different types:

. Circumstance adverbials: they add information about the circumstances of the event,

situation or state described by the clause. They

answer the

questions Where? When? How? How much? Why?

How

long? They can be adverbials of place, time,

manner, process,

reason, purpose, condition, degree.

. Stance adverbials: they add extra information about the speaker's feelings, attitude and

opinion towards what is being said by the clause. Examples are 'to be

honest, frankly, luckily,definitely, perhaps,surprisingly'.

. Linking adverbials: they connect clauses or parts of clauses, therefore they do not add

information as to what the clause is about. Instead they have a

linking function. (however, in conclusion...)

The syntactic or grammatic role of adverbial can be filled by:

. adverbs and AdvP

. PPs

. NPs

. subordinate clauses

Adverbials are usually optional. However, some verbs require As to complete their meaning. In such cases we refer to an

obligatory adverbial, since the clause would be incomplete if we omitted it. Obligatory adverbials typically express place or

direction, but they can also add information regarding manner or time. The difference between a Complement and an

Obligatory Adverbial may be difficult to understand. Cs are those obligatory elements which provide information about,

describe and characterise the S or the O. Obligatory adverbials are those clause elements which provide information about

the circumstances of an event, whose presence is needed in order to complete the meani