Linguistica Inglese 2, Appunti di Linguistica Inglese

Scarica Linguistica Inglese 2 e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity! LINGUISTICA INGLESE 2 Prof. Monica Turci – Anno accademico 2020/21 Lexical metaphor Lexical metaphor exploits simultaneous similarities and differences with the correspondent literal expression. The metaphorical expression has some elements of similarity with the literal expression, but also some elements of difference. It is thanks to this “clash” that we actually perceive its metaphoricity. Es. My lawyer is a shark (identifying process) - elements of similarity: aggressive, ruthless - elements of difference: the lawyer is human, the shark is an animal Metaphors are a question of word choice: to express a meaning we have a choice between a more congruent or a more metaphorical wording. Es. My lawyer is a shark VS My lawyer is ruthless To fall in love is a very old lexical metaphor in the English language (attested from 1520s). Meaning of fall: to pass suddenly and passively into a state of body or mind. Some common lexical metaphor in English: he has no direction in life; he is lost; we are at the crossroads; don’t let anyone stand in your way -> life is a journey. I can’t digest the entire book; those ideas are half-baked; that’s food for thought; let me stew over that one -> ideas are food. Politic is conflict A study by Jonathan Charteris-Black has focused on a corpus of post-war manifestos of the 2 major political parties in the UK. He found that is common for both parties to include the use of terms such as fight, battle, protect, threat to illustrate policies. ES. We will defend the fundamental rights of parents (Conservative) We will defend the agricultural environment (Labour) Politicians and Rhetoric – The persuasive power of metaphor Charteris-Black writes that metaphors are powerful vehicles of persuasion. Used as a bridge between the familiar and the literal, they transfer meaning from what is easily understood to more complex concepts that are harder to grasp.  attingendo a schemi culturali profondamente radicati, i politici sono in grado di rappresentare le loro convinzioni e le loro politiche come missioni eroiche e loro stessi come eroi epici. Allo stesso modo, sono in grado di demonizzare i loro nemici e descrivere le politiche opposte come malvagie. March 2017, attack in London “Although it was a “lone wolf” assault of the sort seen several times during the past year in France and Germany, the British-born killer may have had helpers” (The Economist, March 25th, 2017)  “the lone wolf” gave the idea of unpredictable, solitary, cruel. “The Trail of Terror Across Westminster Bridge” (Graphic by The New York Times, March 22nd, 2017)  visible, durable in time. Metaphors and Covid: the virus/disease is seen as an enemy. Covid as a World War ES. “NHS and private hospitals join forces to fight the coronavirus crisis. Transitivity Processes ! When you write a procedural/instructional text, use whenever possible material and relational processes. Robinson Crusoe: the actor is Robinson Crusoe; the Goals of his actions are things, basic commodities. The most frequent process is material process  Crusoe is constructed as someone who is markedly more concerned with spiritual, intellectual or cultural values; he’s a materialist. This novel is “a fragment of the culture that produces it”: it’s a fiction, but it mirrors the values of the industrial revolution, the social mobility and the myth of the self-made man.  Processes and participant roles show that this novel is an illustration of materialism and capitalism. Pride and Prejudice: we find mainly emotive mental process, but there’s one instance of cognitive process. The predominance of mental processes, including cognitive ones, is linked to the literary genre Pride and Prejudice belongs to: the late sentimental novel. This is a revisitation of the sentimental novel that explores the relationship between feeling and reasoning, rationality and irrationality etc. and in so doing it constructs a complex description of the social condition of the Victorian woman and her personal dilemmas. Relational Processes are commonly used in scientific discourse Here we have 2 ways of saying the same thing: 1. “A continuous rise in complexity in Cambrian life was one of Darwin’s predictions”: single clause with relational process connecting 2 concepts. It provides a relation between 2 nominal groups communicating a fact. 2. “Darwin predicted that Cambrian life would become more and more complex”: it expresses the same meaning with a clause complex (main clause = mental/verbal Process + Senser/Sayer (Darwin), followed by a projected clause reporting Darwin’s idea). It reports Darwin’s opinion, it does not state a fact. The choice of the different process and type affects the style of the writing and the message. A transitivity analysis aims at analysing the choice of types of processes and participants involved. Transitivity is concerned with the semantic structure of clauses and refers to who does what to whom and in what kind of circumstances. An analysis of transitivity concerns actions in relation to participants. Certain process types are better used in certain text types. In English, a single form may be used to express more than one type of modality (es. must and may have 2 distinct uses which are often referred to distinct senses, epistemic or deontic). MODAL ADJUNCTS: lexical resources to express modality. - probability: probably, possibly, certainly, definitely, no way, hardly, maybe, perhaps - usuality: generally, usually, often, sometimes, occasionally, seldom, rarely, never - willingness: willingly, readily - obligation: definitely, absolutely - temporality: yet, still, once, eventually, sonn - typicality: occasionally, generally - comment adjuncts : unfortunately, hopefully, surprisingly, of course, in my opinion, frankly, to be honest, apparently, no doubt, provisionally ! Actually expresses counter-expectancy [una contro aspettativa], the truth or facts of a situation; it’s a synonym od really. ! Most of noun after utterly are negative ! Most of noun after entirely are neutral or positive Modalization and modulation can be expressed also through multi-word expressions - modalization: “It is usual for”, “It is likely that” - modulation: “It is necessary”, “It is required that”, “X is supposed to”, “X is willing to” Value of modality Modality value concerns the extent to which a writer or speaker commits him/herself to the validity of what she/he is writing or saying. This can be high, median or low. Modalization Modulation Probability Usuality Obligation Willingness HIGH certain always required must determined MEDIAN probable will usually supposed should keen LOW possible might sometimes allowed may willing High: must, ought to, have to, need, (is) required, (is) determined, always, certain Median: shall (depending on the context), should, (is) supposed, (is) keen, will, would, usually, probable Low: may (depending on the context), might, can, could, (is) allowed, (is) willing, sometimes, possible ! If shall is used in a legal document its value is high ! If may is used for degrees of probability its value is median Orientation of modality Source of modality: the speaker/writer/narrator or someone whose views are being reported. It’s important to identify the source of modality in all text type. The analysis of the source of modality and its orientation provides linguistic clues for understanding writers/speakers’ social roles, their attitude towards their cultural context and the power relations they entertain with their audience in the communicative/situational context. Proposition: the content of a sentence EXERCISE: 12 Angry Men All the jury agrees that the boy is guilty, all except one: we can say then that the jury is aligned except for one. At the end of the scene, one member of the jury signals that because of the incident of the knife, he might change his mind. He says: «You know, it is interesting that he found a knife exactly like the one the boy bought» How does the speaker orient himself in relation to a proposition ? The proposition (he found a knife…) is preceded by another clause (It’s interesting) that explicitly provides the speaker’s opinion in relation to the proposition. Ho does the speaker show that he accepts responsibility for what he says? The speaker thinks that the finding is interesting, but he is cautious; he does not say “I am interested” but “It’s interesting”: by doing so he objectifies his interest and take distance  he’s not ready to take a stand against the other characters (disalign), he remains aligned with the others. POINT OF VIEW  explicit (I think it is…)  “I think” provides an explicit instantiation of writer/speaker’s orientation/ opinion. “I think” is a projective clause (it projects a proposition): here orientation is encoded in a clause that is separated from the proposition.  implicit (It could be…)  simple clause, it’s the proposition and it also express the writer’s orientation with the modal could.  no point of view (It is…) Explicit orientation - subjective (I think it is…): the pronoun “I” shows that the orientation is the subjective position of the writer. - objective: (It is possible/interesting that it is…): the pronoun “it” shows that the orientation is objectified and that the writers take distance. The difference is not in the clause that express the preposition, but in the clause that express the orientation. Implicit orientation - subjective (It can be...): the writer expresses his opinion in relation to the proposition with the modal verb “can”, which is a finite verb and it’s grammatically close to the subject - objective (It is probably…): the writer expresses his opinion with the modal adjunct “probably”, which is not grammatically connected to the subject. ! Finites are marked by tenses, polarity and modality EXPLICIT FORMS: more than one clause; there has to be a projection (or a multi-word expression) with the projecting clause expressing speaker’s orientation + the projected proposition. IMPLICIT FORMS: modal verbal operator or modal adjuncts are in the Mood Block of one clause/proposition. Explicit subjective: orientation is expressed in the projecting clause with Senser/Sayer + projecting process. Explicit objective: orientation is expressed by an “It Clause” as projecting clause. Implicit subjective: modality is expressed by a modal verbal operator. Implicit objective: modality is expressed by a modal adjunct or expressions of modality. Engagement The Engagement System, like Orientation of Modality, is concerned with “resources for positioning the speaker’s or the author’s voice with respect to the various propositions or proposals conveyed by the text” 2 MEANINGS 1. Engage someone in = to involve someone in a conversation 2. Engage in or be engaged in = to participate or become involved in Engagement question - How many points of views or voices? - Does the speaker encourage dialogue, confrontation of opinions and evaluation? - Does the speaker opens himself up to listeners opinions or does he disregard them?  Engagement functions rhetorically to construct relations of alignment or vice versa, disalignment, between the speaker/writer and the listener/reader. Engagement is concerned with whether the  APPRECIATION : evaluation of phenomena (es. “This essay is well-structured”) To make an EVALUATION we need: - an appraiser: the thing/person that makes the evaluation (in a written text this is generally the writer, but it can also be somebody the writer mentions in the text). - an appraisee: the thing/person that is evaluated. Evaluation can be positive or negative. All word classes can construe evaluation. Evaluations can be implicit or explicit. AFFECT  it is concerned with registering positive or negative feelings. It is a resource for enacting the emotional responses of participants to phenomena or people. - dis/inclination: desire – fear - in/security: confident – anxious - un/happiness: happy – sad - dis/satisfaction: pleased – angry Affect as a quality attributed to a participant through: - epithet (es. the happy prince) - circumstance of manner (es. the prince sang happily) - behavioural process (es. the prince laughed) Affect as a comment: - modal adjunct (es. gingerly, in he came) JUGEMENT  it is concerned with the institutionalization of feeling regarding the norms about how people should and should not behave. It concerns evaluations appraisers make regarding character and behaviour of people. Judgement values are triggered by superficially neutral, ideational meanings which nevertheless have the capacity in the culture to evoke judgemental responses (depending upon the reader’s social/cultural/ideological position). Social esteem: - normality & usuality : how un/usual someone is (es. He is usually calm) - capacity & ability : how capable they are (es. He can be calm) - tenacity & inclination : how resolute they are (es. He is keen to start the course) Social sanction: - propriety (ethics) : how ethical someone is (es. I must visit my granny at the hospital) - veracity (truth) : how truthful someone is (es. This may be an honest report). It can be explicit (there’s a word that express evaluation) or implicit (there’s no word that express evaluation) Expressing Judgement - classifiers (proper, fair) - things (integrity, bigotry, racism, terrorism) - processes (look after) - circumstances (rightly, wrongly, fairly) APPRECIATION  the system of evaluation of products and processes. It encompasses [comprende] values which fall under the general heading of aesthetics, as well as a non- aesthetic category of “social evaluation” which includes meanings such as significant and harmful. ! JUDGEMENT (evaluates human behaviours) ≠ APPRECIATION (evaluates natural objects, manufactured objects, texts as well as more abstract constructs such as plans and policies). Humans may also be evaluated by means of APPRECIATION (rather than JUDGEMENT) when viewed more as entities than as participants who behave. With appreciation we provide evaluation of things and natural phenomena (what such things worth, how we value them etc.) Appreciation can be divided into the following values:  reaction to things (do things catch our attention?)  aesthetic impact - impact (did it grab me?) - quality (did I like it?)  composition of things (balance and complexity)  compositional - balance (did it hang together?) - complexity (was it har to follow?)  value of things (how innovative, timely, authentic etc. they are)  valuational - significance (was it worthwhile?) Like AFFECT and JUDGEMENT, values of APPRECIATION have either positive or negative status. Explicit (Inscribed) Appraisal It needs the appraiser and the appraisee to be expressed overtly and appraisal to be recovered in the text. ! When this is not the case it doesn’t mean that there is NO appraisal Implicit (Evoked) Appraisal Proposition as a whole can have an implicit (evoked) emotional/evaluative impact without either an explicit appraiser or appraise, or an explicit marker of appraisal. In this case, the context of culture is of key to understand what kind of evaluation has been made. EXAMPLE: “My classmates helped me to revise for my exams” VS “My classmates generously helped me to revise for my exams”  “generously” explicitly evaluates what remains only implicit in the first sentence There are instances of overlapping between JUDGEMENT and APPRECIATION EXAMPLE: “These hotels were excellent, because they were very clean” On the surface, "excellent" refers to "hotels" as things (APPRECIATION), but what implicitly makes hotels excellent in this context is people's behaviour, their hard work (JUDGEMENT). This is an example of inscribed APPRECIATION (quality) + implicit JUDGEMENT (social esteem: capacity and tenacity) BUT if we have “These hotels were excellent because they were very central”, we have only inscribed APPRECIATION (quality) because this quality does not depend on people but on hotel’s location. Graduation Within Graduation, we are concerned with values which scale other meaning. Graduation is connected to evaluations  evaluations are often a matter of degree; this means that they can be gradable. The most common type of graduation is Graduation – Force. This consist of a set of resources used for the strengthening or weakening of: - feelings - people’s behaviour - worth of things AFFECT, JUDGEMENT and APPRECIATION are all gradable resources, we can grade them up or down. “She is very generous”  amplification “It is merely sufficient”  minimisation