Understanding Phrase and Clause Structure in English: Heads, Constituents, and Components, Appunti di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Understanding Phrase and Clause Structure in English: Heads, Constituents, and Components e più Appunti in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! 27/09 SIGHT TRANSLATE THESE: 1) The soon-to-be-dismissed manager made on last-ditch attempt to persuade the board that his decision, however unfortunate, had been made in good faith. + il direttore che sarebbe stato licenziato a breve, fece un tentativo all’ultimo minuto di convincere il consiglio di amministrazione che le sue decisioni, per quanto sfortunate (= di poco successo) erano state compiute in buona fede. The manager made one attempt: that's [The soon-ta-be-dismissed manager] ) . [made] [one last-ditch attempt] what you're talking about. We need to identify those headwords, so that we [to persuade the board] can get the best structure of our sentence and then we can build a [that] [his decisions [, however unfortunate,] had been made in good faith.] pendent. 2) In qualsiasi azienda, a prescindere dalle dimensioni, è, come è noto, di particolare importanza la funzione delle risorse umane (soggetto, che deve essere in prima posizione - inizi dal soggetto, poi il verbo) + as is well known, the human resourse function (sogg.) plays (P.) a key role (O.) in every company regardless of its size. ®* Theoneinblackisthe key part of the clause, everything else is additional information. ® The subject, the predicate and the object can't be separated. 3 separation: you do NOT separate the subject from the predicate and from the object. * Weneedto identify our key elements, put them together in a structure which is suited to the language using, and then figure out how and where we can add the other elements. * È di particolare importanza la funzione delle risorse umane: That's what you're saying. e Comeènoto,in qualsiasi azienda, a prescindere dalle dimensioni > you can move them around, put them in other positions. * Additional adverbials: as is well known, regardless of its size. So, what is syntax? Let's start from the beginning. What is language made of? Sounds (in fact, we studied phonetics). Meaningful sound: sounds are used in a meaningful way to distinguish different words. ! remember minimal pairs ! Ifati vs Sfi:t/? IDUk/ vs /Uuk/? Words are considered the most intuitively elementary “building blocks” of language. In general, it can be stated that words are perceived as being the closest one can get to a sort of “unit of meaning”, but is this concept of “unit of meaning” accurate? Not entirely true. Dog, dogs > grammatical morpheme - the final S is meaningful because it tells us something about numbers, so that tell us that there's something smaller than a word: the morpheme. Love, loving, lover > from verb to adjective to noun by adding morphemes. Morphemes build the meaning of a single word. We can say that the words, intuitively, are the “building blocks” but we can't really say that words carry meaning by themselves. Words can be classified into classes. Can we create new words? And does class matter? Textpectation: the anticipation felt when waiting for a response to a text. Unkeyboardinated: when you're unable to type without repeatedly making mistakes. Internest: the cocoon of blankets and pillows you gather around yourself whilst spending long periods of time on the internet. Words belong to different words classes. A word class is a label that includes all words that behave in the same manner and have the same characteristics. We have, for example: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs; they're typical open classes: classes where you can add new elements. And then we have closed classes: pronouns, auxiliaries, etc; the number of them is fixed. Syntax is concerned with the rules by which words are combined into larger units. - Phrases (= means sintagma, not frase; just have a group of words that clause together around a single item). - Clauses (= frase; they have a complete meaning). - Sentences (= periodo). Phrases 1. Noun phrases 2. Adjective phrases 3. Adverb phrases 4. Verb phrases 5. Prepositional phrases “the black Labrador/ was chewing/ a juicy bone/ very noisily” > this is not only a sequence of individual words. Words are organised in phrases, then in clauses (like this one) and then in sentences. Our instinctive ability to identify phrases is linked with an awareness of how clauses are structured. * The most important words, the ones that carry the meaning: Labrador - chewing - bone - noisily > these are the key words. There are the headwords: lexical items which are central to the phrase in the sense that some crucial information would be missing without the headword, and the phrase would seem structurally incomplete. The noun phrase Sentence: before going to bed, my sister Ann always reads a few pages from one of her favourite books. Before going to bed + clause (non-finite, secondary = could easily do without it) my sister Ann always reads a few pages from one of her favourite books + Clause (finite, main). ® mysister Ann/ always / reads / a few pages from one of her favourite books 3 phrases = note: “a few pages from one of her favourite books” is a NP which contains (embeds) other phrases. * My/ sister / Ann > words Finding the head is the first thing you must do. On other level of analysis: (functional point of view) my sister Ann / always / reads / a few pages from one of her favourite books - my sister Ann > subject - always > adverbial (optional) - reads + predicator - a fewpages from one of her favourite books > object the elements in a clause the classification of clause constituents can be carried out in different ways: Can you make up complex NPs? Possible solutions CONE premodifier -—HEAD CERI DA Ta] Crue Et DT petti serious TI A E i game ofan American Recall ® Speech is made up of words, which are organized in large units. Word > phrase 3clause 3 * Eachunitcan be analysed both from a formal and from a functional perspective ®* Thenextunit after the word is the phrase ® Thereare five phrases in English O NP (noun phrase) O AdjP (adjective phrase) © AdvP (adverb phrase) O VP(verb phrase) O PP (prepositional phrase) - the only one whose head cannot stand alone! The form-function interface [the smart cat] [has caught] [a mouse] - Formally: NP, VP, NP - Functionally: S, P, do [the smart cat] NP > [the] [smart] [cat] - Formally: definite article, adjective, noun - Functionally: determiner, premodifier, head (Central Determiner Noun Phrase È mine [Preposiional Phase (i che afternoon) [peative Clause (ih vas reading riat b058) se Clause (Mockad By tia nine) Tnnfiniive Clause (10.208) Determiners These beautiful shoes My fantastic friends His many talents The first time I saw you Such a wonderful day Any time you want All your troubles A thousand lies A million kisses All my love Determiners are all this: - Possession (my, your, his, her, etc.) - Proximity (this, that, these, those) tribution (each, every, all, both, either, neither etc.) -. Quantity (how much of something or how little of something like many, few, some, several, little and counting numbers one, two, three, etc.) - Reference (both anaphoric and cataphoric like the definite article the and the indefinite article a/an) - Order (like the ordinal numbers - first, second, third, etc.) Determiners show attributes which are extraneous to the objects the nouns signify. They form a category by themselves; and they are called determiners because they determine the way a noun is used in the context. Few examples: A thing of beauty is a joy forever. These boots are made for walking. Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. His several talents were uniquely applied in advancing the interests of his discipline. These last few days have been wonderful. The first few expeditions to Bylot Island off the northern tip of Baffin Island had limited success. The first three articles of the US constitution set up the threefold separation of powers. We can have SR ù | ee cnuuzyland a We can have a succession of determiners, but never more than one element for pre- and central determiners. Pre-determiners They come before “regular” determiners in a noun phrase. £ | the ministers resigned from the cabinet. E the boys are clever. ‘he apples are rotten. Of-construction is optional - All (of) the ministers resigned from the cabinet + both correct, with of or without it. Note: if pronouns are used of-construction is required. - Allof them, both of them, half of them. > we're obliged to use of. There are some intensifiers which are used as pre-determiners, especially in conversational English: such, quite, rather, and what. They indicate the attitude of the speaker. They are followed by a/an and a noun or an adjective. - Heissucha darling! - lt was quite a calm place - Itis rather a small house - Whata pretty girl! Maultipliers like twice, three times, etc. are pre-determiners. They're followed by the noun. Post determiners Post-determiners come after regular determiners in a NP. They precede nouns but follow regular determiners in a NP. Cardinal numbers like one, two, three, four etc. and ordinal numbers like first, second, third etc. are post- determiners. Examples: the first three apples; the first six boys. Note: ordinal numbers always precede cardinal numbers. General ordinals like last, next, other, etc. are also post-determiners. Premodification: terrifying / near-death Post modification: lived by the 1980s earthquake survivors (non-finite clause) By the 1980s earthquake survivors 3 PP The 1980s earthquake survivors > embedded NP (head: survivors) 1980s earthquake > NP (it premodifiers survivors) 1980s > N, it premodifiers earthquake! noun phrases can be particularly long and complex, and contain several nouns; Therefore, it may be particularly difficult to identify the correct head noun: e The extremely important effects of globalization on contemporary western societies ® The history book chapter students found impossible to learn. Adjective phrase/Adverbe phrase An adjective phrase consists of an adjective and all its modifiers and complements. The smallest possible adjective phrase therefore consists of just an adjective. - Sally wantsa really big car > “really” is part of the adjective phrase of which “big” is the head! Adjectives are always the heads of adjective phrases. adjPs function in two ways: 1) Whitin a NP to modify a head noun or pronoun. 2) Directly in a predicate, to predicate something about a subject or object (interface with clause structure!). Position of adjectives * Noun-modifying (attributive and postmodifying). AdjPs that appear within the NP can either precede or follow the head! If the head is an indefinite pronoun, then an AdjP that modifies it must follow the pronoun! O Example: anybody clever should be able to turn that thing into something quite useful. But, A clever person should be able to turn that thing into a quite useful object. O Sharon is clever; The medicine tastes nasty; They called me stupid; | found the medicine disgusting / | found the disgusting [premodifier! Attibutive function] medicine effective. Predicative function! * Predicate: AdjP can also function directly in the predicate. Predicate adjective phrases describe or qualify a NP in the clause. O Ifapredicate adjective phrase is about the subject, then the AdjP is a subject complement O Ifitis aboutthe object, then it is an object complement Constraints 1) Some adijectives can only appear as heads of attributive adjective phrase O Thelate (=the one who recently died) king of France liked toads - *Someone late liked toads - *I consider the king of France late - *The king of France is late 2) Adjective phrases with certain heads are typically postspositive O The concert proper lasts 2 hours, but the event is much longer. 3) Some adjectives can be the heads of postpositive or predicate adjective phrases, but not of attributive adjective phrases. O Thechildren present watched the accident in horror - *The present children watched the accident in horror O The small children were afraid - *The afraid children were small The adjective phrase in English has three functional constituents: premodification, those modifying, describing, or qualifying constituents which precede the head; the head, which is an adjective or participle serving as the focus of the phrase; postmodification, that modifying constituent which follows the head; o complementation, (the major subcategory of postmodification here) that constituent which follows any postmodification and completes the specification of a meaning implied by the head. [Premodifier = Adverb Phrase (extremely, very hanpil, 100, ver) [A djeetive (ich, poor, hot, beautiful n [ed faded, tived, escape Adina Phrase [ag (aoprising, calculatvig, interesting) [a dverb (enough or indeed only) PS pr] [Infinitive Clause (to see) Exercise: In the following examples (they are all CLAUSES!!!!), identify the adjective phrases, focusing on their constituents (i.e., the elements which appear in them) o o o ooooo0oo Mary is happy The little boy was excited indeed The weather is supposed to be partly cloudy tomorrow She may be old, but she is clearly young in spirit Paul is very energetic for his age Susan is so extremely sweet This sounds too good to be true This sauce is hot enough for me Mary is quite worried about the results of the test It's unusually sunny for this time of year Notice that the order of constituents in the adjective phrase, like all other phrase structures in English, is relatively fixed, helping us determine the constituent elements. Adverb phrase An adverb phrase consists of an adverb head and all its modifiers; only adverb phrases can modify adverbs; but adverbs can have various types of complementation. In the following examples, identify the adverb phrases, focusing on their constituents (i.e., the elements which appear in them) She walked quietly past the door. Quite honestly, I don't know what to say. She works very hard indeed. However fast you may run, you will never beat Bolt. ooo She left really early. I didn't know she could skate so very well indeed. We drove past too quickly to see well. Rosalie Taylor, formerly of Cincinnati, died on Tuesday in Miami. They won more easily than ever. ooo AdjP and AdvP can occur in fairly similar (but CRUCIALLY DIFFERENT!) structures. NP ve AdiP The hungry cat was feeling aggressive NP ve AduP The hungry cat srarled | aggressively AdjP and AdvP are fairly similar in their range of possibilities for pre and postmodification! * Adjectives and adverbs are usually premodified by intensifiers O The hungry cat was feeling very aggressive O Mynew shoes pinched me rather uncomfortably * Occasionally they can be postmodified by adverbs such as enough or indeed O Sheworks hard enough. O Heishappy indeed. ®* Theycanalso be postmodified by prepositional phrases and infinitive clauses O Maryis upset about her failure. O Susan was talking too softly to hear her prepositional phrase/Verb phrase prepositional phrases differ from the other types of phrases in that a preposition cannot stand alone as the head word of a phrase. A preposition has to be accompanied by a prepositional complement. Typically, this is a noun phrase. Jackie was searching inthe cupboard NP VP PP PP consist of: * Preposition+noun phrase (in the car) * Preposition+adverb (above here) * Preposition+clause (thank you for coming) Examples: O Tomgave Kate a large bouquet of roses Heidi cycled fifty miles for charity [a [white]AdjP dress [with [a [dropped]AdjP waistline ]NP]PP]NP [the [east]AdvP gate [of [the park]NP]PP]NP [those [large]AdjP paintings [by [Renoir]NP]PP]NP [the [[rather]AdvP [frightening]]AdjP bats [up under [the eaves]NP]PP]NP use of two prepositions in a row! Compare complex/compound prepositions! E.g., out of, because of, relating to... a tall, bald man [with a bushy moustache] o [a [longlAdjP vacation (head) [on [the Caribbean island [of [Trinidad]PP_ or [amaica]NP]PP]NP]PP]NP Trinidad or Jamaica: coordinated NPs (via the conjunction OR) o [his [[most]AdvP recent]AdjP, [[very]AvP provocative]AdjP novel]NP ooo 0 o lis aptto «is -aboutto is bound to is due to is going to is likely to is meant to ‘is obliged to > win is supposed to is willing to has to has got to dares to needs to Lought to Voice Voice systems allow speakers to view the action of the sentence in different ways without changing the facts involved. English has two voices, active and passive. - Liz encourages Emily. (active) - Emily is encouraged by Liz. (passive) The passive voice is signalled by the use of a form of be and the -ed participle, be + V-ed. “Do” as supporting auxiliary Lastly, English also employs the verb do to function as a supporting auxiliary in verb phrases that require an auxiliary for certain grammatical processes (for instance in the interrogative mood, or when constructing negative clauses). - Emily sleeps well at night. - DoesEmilysleep well at night? Notice that dohas all the hallmarks of an auxiliary: e it occurs in clause-initial position as other auxiliaries do in the interrogative mood e it is marked for tense like all first verbs in the finite English verb phrase. Somre Examples of (he Verb Phrase in English FUNCTION Ausiiarios Main Verb © do (©) con do X [(c) may [nave gone Al) is qoing M |) has [been ‘naiting Pf might have [bee viti L_l were ired E |M are being rired Sl should bo sing © might [nave [beon being nterviewed FORM Moda! |Partoct [Progressive [Passive |Auxilary Support [Main Vero To sum up: A verb phrase may include only a lexical verb (which may be a multi-word verb) or it may include one or more auxiliaries up to a maximum of four e Primary auxiliaries (aspect and voice): be, have, do e Modal auxiliaries (“future”, permission, volition, ability, obligation etc.): can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, must, might a) The company is filing for bankruptcy. b) The delivery may have been delayed. c) I have to be going now. d) This might be considered risky. e) We will not be launching any new products soon. f) It had been brought to my attention that there was a problem. g) You needn't have worked so hard - the deadline is not until next week. h) She was writing a letter when the telephone rang. i) She did turn up eventually, but it was too late. j) You should not have insisted. k) That can't be true. 1) This time next year we will be studying for our third-year English test. m) By next week | will have been told whether my application has been accepted. n) During the whole time he was working for the company, John must have been being followed by a private investigator. DESN] ET TA TSE) * filing. may nave been delayed should nave insisted have to de gong might be considered will be launching nad been brought needn't nave worked was riti did tum vp cart be will be studying will have been told must have been being followed I must have been being followed. Must: Epistemic modal; indicates deduction Have: indicates perfect aspect Be: indicates continuous aspect Be: indicates passive voice How do you translate this into Italian? - Somebody must have been following me. - Somebody was following me for sure. Remember: verbs can be marked for present or past - 1walkto university every day - 1walked to university When a verb is marked for tense, it is finite. When it is not, it is called non-finite. - Walking to university, | ran into my friend. If a finite VP is composed of a single lexical verb, it will be marked for tense; - IsawAnninthe cafeteria. If auxiliaries are present, the first will be marked for tense - Ididn'ttalkto her. NB: there are restrictions on the order of auxiliaries!!! - Fred might have arrived by now - *Fred have might arrived by now Primary auxiliaries (have, be) are used to indicate aspect and voice Aspect: e progressive (she is walking; he was sleeping) e perfect (she has eaten; he had fallen asleep) Voice: e Sue gave Ann a lift ZIAnn was given a lift. Present/past progressive: - Sheis helping her sister - Shewashelpingher sister Present/past perfect: - Shehashelpedher sister - Shehadhelped her sister The auxiliary triggers a specific verb form (present or past participle)! From VERB to CLAUSE The verb is the core of the clause; Around the verb cluster all the other elements that the verb requires, first and foremost the subject. a) The baby is sleeping. b) My sister likes dark comedies. c) Tom was leaning against the wall of the garage. d) *I put on the shelf. e) I put the book on the shelf. Notice that d) is unacceptable - the verb put requires an object! phrases are groups of words clustering around a HEAD. In clauses, the key element is the verb. The next level up is the sentence, where you have two or more clauses joined together. - The company have been working for the last three years 3 phrase - The company | work for is relocating to Poland. 3 clause - Avery successful milk-based product recently launched in Italy 3 phrase - Although sales figures are acceptable, the company is planning to discontinue production. > Sentence (two clauses!) Clause What is a clause? Clause: group of words which includes a subject and a predicate, i.e., at least two separate functional units which depend on each other to make sense. A clause can be finite (if it contains a finite verb); or non-finite (if the verb is a non-finite form). In these examples we have both finite and non-finite clauses: e I had something to eat before leaving. e After having spent six hours at the hospital, they eventually came home. e Helped by local volunteers, staff at the museum have spent many years on the project. e In this case we have a predicator (manufactures) and a direct object (electronic devices). e Predicators are pivotal elements which specify the “bare-bone” content of the sentences in which they occur (Arts 2001: 15). They “say something of something else” NB: predicators determine the number of obligatory elements in the clause! Other constituents: direct object Consider this example: [My sister] [found] [this book] - We assign the function of direct object to this book - Howcanwe characterise the notion of Direct Object? In semantic terms, we can define them as “constituents that refer to entities that undergo the activity or process denoted by the verb”. Typically, therefore, subjects have an agentive role, whereas direct objects have a patient role. But.... “Tom received a letter from the bank” > Semantic definitions such as this one do not always apply Apart from the semantic properties of Direct Objects, we need to define their structural properties. Exercise: Identify the predicates and then say if what follows is to be considered a direct object. The crisis in Europe is existential. It is a question of whether the EU survives as a recognisable entity. The history of the union is a chequered one, but it has chalked up great successes in its history so far. It has brought together a divided continent following the second world war and the fall of the Soviet empire. The single market has generated high levels of internal and external trade. The EU has fostered humanitarian projects around the globe. Critics say its component nations have sacrificed large parts of their sovereignty. The counterargument, however, is that in a globalising world, by pooling areas of their sovereignty each nation gains more control over its affairs than it would otherwise have. 1. Direct Objects are often noun phrases; 2. Their usual position is after the main verb; 3. They have a strong relationship with the verb that precedes them. Additionally, 4. They become the subjects of passive clauses NB: a verb that requires a direct object to complement its meaning is a transitive verb. By contrast, verbs that do not need a direct object are called intransitive verbs: William blushed; Sean cried; Thomas slept. Special cases? 1. Harold moved the table Harold moved. 2. Jane walked the dog. Jane walked. Is the verb in the first sentence in each pair the same as the one in the second (recall: Sue runs every day vs. Sue runs her own company; Tim opened the door vs the store opened on Tuesday)? 3. Pat was reading a book. Pat was reading ?. (we can decide to put or not a DO) 4. Tomwas eating a sandwich. Tom was eating ?. > understood or implicit Direct Object Besides DIRECT OBJECTS, verbs can also require INDIRECT OBJECTS. s PO) 0(d) My friend / lent / me / his book Please note: you cannot have an indirect object without having also a direct object! * My friend lent me. * My friend lent his book A verb may require a direct Object only! + | borrowed a book; You do not need to add any other constituent in order for the clause to be complete! Look at the following examples: ® We gave the boys the books ® The publisher sent her a review copy of the book. ® She lent the student a pen. e My father always told us stories. how can you define Indirect Objects semantically? s P_ Oli) Od) My friend / lent / me / his book. Ss > Agent O(d) > Patient/Undergoer O(i) 3 Goal/Receiver or Beneficiary Please, note: s P Ni) O(d) The child / gave / the can / a kick. 5 R Oli) Old) The child / gave / his mother / a kiss. Can you see why we talk about Beneficiary (the mother!) or Goal (the can!)? And Undergoer (an inanimate object!) or Patient (an animate entity!) Notice also ® We gave the books to the boys. e The publisher sent a review copy of the book to her. ® She lenta pen to the student. e My father always told stories to us. In all these cases, the indirect object has been posposed. This movement entails the introduction of a preposition! This is called an oblique construction. What are the syntactic characteristics of O(i)? 1. Theyare usually NPs 2. They cannot occur without a following direct object; 3. They always precede the direct object. When they are posposed, they take an oblique form 4. Like direct objects, they can become the subjects of passive sentence Complement e Complement element e Most frequently, the element of a clause which follows a copular verb such as be or seem (Ballard 2001: 262) “The word complement literally means ‘completing’, so this function is used not to introduce something entirely new into the sentence but to complete what we know about something or somebody already mentioned”. complements occur after particular (copular) verbs, including be, seem, appear - in this case they are SUBJECT COMPLEMENTS. Sofia is a teacher. Carrie is tall Jennifer seems clever. Subject complements can also occur with verbs of change: become, but also make, paint, colour, rub self became 3 diri Carlos became very angry. Verbs of change can also refer to the object; in this case we have an OBJECT COMPLEMENT *Mary made SÉ succ *Carrie painted the door red. *Sam's training made him a doctor. Object complements can also occur with verbs of perception, such as think and consider. *Jim thought Sarah immature Object vs Complement in structures NP + VP + NP + NP - My mother made me (Od) a tennis player (C) If the two NPs refer to the same person, the first is an indirect object, and the second a complement of the object This is a clause of the type SPOC - My mother made me (Oi) a cup of coffee (Od) The two NPs are not referred to the same item, then the first one is an indirect object, and the second is a direct object This is a clause of the type SPOO Objects can be made the subject of passive clauses; complements can not. e A cup of coffee was made [for me] by my mother e * A tennis player was made me by my mother What happens when the O is a clause? * 1 find / this course / tough. * 1 find / studying for this exam / tough. * I find/ /tough/ to study for this exam. > the 3" is wrong (there's a missing “it”). This is an example of object extraposition. Exercise: Identify as many complements as you can find in the following excerpt. The ECB is squeamish about the sort of quantitative easing the Bank of England has gone in for. Yet its monetary policy is liberal. The three-year long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) scheduled for February 29th is likely to be as big as the first one in December. The ECB's 23-strong governing council has only just set the terms by which banks can pledge “credit claims”. This will be especially helpful for banks that fund smaller companies. These companies find it tough to access credit. The Bank of England's efforts to unblock bank lending in Britain seem leaden-footed by comparison.