Inglese 1 - Capitoli 1-3 Functional grammar1

7/28/2019 Inglese 1 - Capitoli 1-3 Functional grammar1

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CHAPTER 1.

Text-Context Connection

Language takes place in CONTEX (cultural and situational).The linguistic level is consist by the relation between meanings and the way they are wordedand expressed with sounds.We understand the meanings of speakers because we know something of the culture in whichtexts are ambedded.The context of culture can be understood in terms of the beliefs, ideas and ideologies,

worldviews and value systems that are constructed in language.

In modern linguistic, context came to refer to the NON-VERBAL enviroment and generallyincludes who's talking to whom, when and how.

The context of situation can be described by three variables:

1. FIELD: (campo d'azione; What's going on?) is both in the kind of social activity carriedout and the topic or subject-matter.

2. TENOR: (Who's taking part?) is the pepole involved in the language event, the morepermanent (social roles or statues) and more temporary (discourse roles) relations

established.

3. MODE: (How's language being used?) in the funcion accorded to the text and therethorical aim.It includes:

the channel of comunication, whether phonic or graphic (or somecombination of the two)

the medium, degrees of spoken-ness/written-ness, whether the text is morelexycally dense and packaged, or more lexico-grammatically intricate. It has to do withdegrees of writtenness and degrees of spockenness on a continuum.

The nature of the exchange, dialogic or monologic, and whetherthe it is

spoken and spontaneous, or written-to-be-spoken, and thus prepared or at least semi-prepared.

Field, Tenor and Mode define the register to which a text belongs.

Formalist vs. Funcionalist

Formalist's phylisophy:

Grammar is an abstract set of rules that can be generated automatically by a computer;

the primary concern is with the forms of grammatical structured and with theirrelationship to one another;

Grammar= morphology and syntax; Grammarians often use made up sentences to illustrate rules.

Functionalist's phylosophy:

Grammar is a system of human communication and allows speakers to make and

exchange meanings.

The primary concern is with the functions of grammatical structures and with theirmeanings in their context

Grammar= lexico- grammar

Grammarians aim at using sentences drawn from real world sources, authentic pieces of

linguistic evidence.

SEMANTICS (MEANINGS) LEXICO-GRAMMAR(WORDINGS)


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CHAPTER 2.

TEXT SENTENCES CLAUSES GROUP WORDS MORPHEME

Rank scale

the Ranck Scale (the constituent structure of grammar) is defined as the layered part-wholerelationship that ocurs among the units of grammar.

Larger units are made up out smaller units (sentences consist of clauses, which consistof

groups of words, which consist of words, which consist of morphemes).

A TEXT is meaningful instance of language, a choerent whole that makes sense to someonethat knows the language, and the length doesn't matter; text consists of one or more

CLAUSE(s), a group of words with at least one Verb (or Verbal) GROUP (VG).Clauses can also have Noun (or Nominal) Groups (NG), Adjectival Groups, Adverbial Groups(AG) and prepositional Phrases (PP). These in turn are made up of at least one WORD.Words have both content (lexical) and function (grammatical). They are made up of at leastone MORPHEME, that are the smallest distinctive unit of grammar having meaning.The clause is the basic unit of analysis i this model and is considered to be representative of

the text as an instantiation of a meaning potential.

A TEXT can be broken down into sentences and into CLUSES. Clauses combine to form aCLAUSE COMPLEX. Each lause can be broken down into GROUPS and PHRASES.

VERBALGROUPS: We recongnised. We have recognized.ADVERBALGROUPS: They left the room quickly. They seldom come to italy.

Each group in its turn can be broken down into WORDS. Each word is identified by both its:

Content, that is, its lexical or conceptual value;

Function, that is, it relation to otherwords in the clause.

The sum of both these aspect gives the total meaning of a word.Words can be distinguish between

Lexicalwords ('content words'), which function in lexical open sets rather than in

closed grammatical systems;

Grammaticalwords (empty words), which have no lexical or conceptual content, they

have only their grammatical function.Each word can be broken down into MORPHEMES, the smallest unit of grammar (eg. -ing forthe gerund, -s for the Plural, ecc...)

TheNominalGroup

Little Texts their grammar is reduced to one NG exclusively (titles, newspaper headlines,road signs, ecc...)

The relationship between the elements within a NG can be seen from two different

perspectives:1. the logical, highlighting the hierarchical relationship between the head noun and

itsmodifiers;2. the experiental, which stresses the type of semantics, or meanings, instantiated.

EpithetandClassifier

Nouns can be modified to the left various elements, particularly Diectics (specific [The book]

and non-specific [A book]), Demonstratives [Those big reference], Numeratives [The twobooks], Posessives [My book], Epithets [The two mostfascinating books] and Classifiers

[The grammar book].

Classifier+Things structure is of particular importance in technical and scientific texts:Adjectives, but also Nouns and Participles, oftenfunction as Classifiers.Epithet (objective or subjective quality): A fascinating movie.Classifier (=what kind/type?): A DeNiro movie.Qualifier


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The elements modifying the Noun to the right are called Qualifier [Those books withcolorfulpictures]

Qualifier= often a prepositional phrase (PP) or a clause providing additional defining orcircumstantial information about the Thnig. [Cat (inboots).

Embedding

The characteristic embedded clause is the DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE (also called 'restrictive'relative clause, or 'identifying' in some formal accounts of grammar), where the relative

pronoun can be omitted. [every cup (youtaste) gives you an exquisite coffee experience]

Grammatical Subject (Subject): that of which something is being predicated, having

number and person agreement with the Verb;

Logical Subject (Actor): the doer of the action;

Psychological Subject (Theme):that which is the concern of the message, what thespeaker (or writer) has in mind to start with.


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CHAPTER 3.

Clause as Exchange

One function of language is a means of constructing interaction.Interaction is seen as a sequence of proposition and/or proposal.The communicative (or speech) functions are variously construed in the clause by means ofgrammatical choises made within the MOOD system.Mood block: it is made up of two parts, each of which is the nominal component and the Finite,the verbal component.

The Mood block

Subject = the grammatical Subject of earlier terminology, that of which something is being

predicated, having person adn number agreement with the verb.

Finite = that part of a VG which expresses TENSE (past, present or furure) by reference to thetime of uttering, or MODALITY (eg. Can, could, must, etc...) and POLARITY, positive/negativevalidity

Predicator, Complement, Adjunct

Residue: consists of elements of three kinds: the Predicator: the non-finite, the Vgminus the Finite (the main temporal information or

the modal operator); [The duke is drinking]

the Complement (one or two at most): the Object or Complement of many other

grammars; it is the element that has the potential of being the Subject, but is not; it istypically realized by a NG or an Adjectival Group; [The duke is drinking hiscupof

coffee]

the Adjunct (which may be numerous): an element giving extra, or 'adjunctive',

information about the other elements of the clause; it is typically realized by an AG orPP. [The duke never drinks coffee intheevening]

There are also elements outside the Mood and Residue structure, for example Vocatives[Stella, can you get the dog out?], Expletives [Get that bloody dog out!], Conjunctive andConjunctive Adjuncts [And don't let the dog in again!]

MOOD block and its function

The mood block has a clearly defined semantic function: it carries the burden of the clause asan interactive event .


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Inglese 1 - Capitoli 1-3 Functional grammar1