Lexis and Grammar for Translation

1. Lexis and Grammarfor Translation Dott. M. Gatto Lingue e Culture per il Turismo

2. From words to word classes The stock of English words is immense… According to David Crystal there might be over 1 million words in English (scientific terminology excluded). In any language words can be classified on the basis of their features into word classes (or parts of speech).

3. There is substantial agreement about word classes in English: NOUNS VERBS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS DETERMINERS PRONOUNS PREPOSITIONS CONJUNCTIONS (INTERJECTIONS)

4. There is substantial agreement about word classes in English: LEXICAL WORDS NOUNS VERBS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS FUNCTION WORDS DETERMINERS PRONOUNS PREPOSITIONS CONJUNCTIONS (INTERJECTIONS)

5. LEXICAL WORDS (lexical meaning) Lexical words are the main carriers of meaning in a text. In speech they are generally stressed. They are characteristically the words that remain in information-dense telegrams (e.g. telegrams, lecture notes, head lines…): Arriving tomorrow Family killed in fire * Lexical words form an OPEN class

6. FUNCTION WORDS (grammatical meaning ) While lexical words are the main building blocks of texts, function words provide the mortar which bind the text together. Function words indicate the relationship between lexical words or larger units. Function words form a CLOSED class

7. Lexical words have Morphological features (it has a structure) Semantic features (it has a meaning) Syntactic features (it plays a role in the sentence)

8. NOUNS Morphological features inflectional: - Number (singular/plural): -s - Case: ‘s - Gender? derivational - -ITY; -NESS; ER; -EE; -ATION; -MENT…

9. Semantic features: Nouns refer to concrete/abstract things as well as to people or animals Syntactic features: A noun typically fills the subject slot or the object slot in a sentence TOM arrived I saw TOM A noun can complement a verb in a sentence: Tom has become an ACTOR

10. NOUNS ABSTRACT CONCRETE

11. NOUNS COUNTABLE car/cars, dog/dogs, boy/boys… UNCOUNTABLE milk, information,hair…

12. VERBS LEXICAL VERBS AUXILIARY VERBS

13. LEXICAL VERBS Morphological features Verbs are marked for: Tense (present/past): -s; -ed Aspect (ongoingness): -ing Voice (active/passive): be+ -ed

14. LEXICAL VERBS Semantic features Verbs denote: Action Process State Syntactic features They serve as the centre of the clause (predicate)

15. AUXILIARY VERBS Primary auxiliaries/Operators: BE HAVE DO Modal auxiliaries: CAN COULD MAY MIGHT MUST SHALL SHOULD WILL WOULD Marginal auxiliaries: dare, need, ought to, used to…

16. ADJECTIVES Morphological features Inflectional: Adjectives are marked for comparison: er, the …-est Derivational: -FUL; -LESS; -Y; -AL; -ABLE…

17. ADJECTIVES Syntactic features Adjectives generally occurr before a noun; they can also occurr after the noun or after the main verb: The RED box/ The box is RED

18. Semantic features Adjectives express qualities (they modify a noun), in terms of -shape -taste -size -colour -judgement

19. ADVERBS Morhological features Inflection: Adverbs have no inflections. Only a few adverbs Are marked for comparison (like adjectives) soon soon-er soon-est Derivation: -LY

20. Syntactic features Adverbs are often used as adjuncts in clauses She speaks English very well In the mornung I get up quite early Adverbs can modify adjectives: The party was terribly boring

21. Semantic features: Adverbs specify circumstances: How? When? Where? Adverbs specify the speaker’s attitude Certainly apparently.. Adverbs specify the connection between clauses However, nevertheless…

22. DETERMINERS FUNCTION: Identify a noun Identifiers (a/an; the) Possessives (my, your…) Demonstratives (This, that…) Quantifiers - numerals (one, two…) - indefinite (some, few…

23. PRONOUNS FUNCTION: replace nouns to refer to a person, thing, situation, animal Personal Indefinite Reflexive Reciprocal Possessive Demonstrative Interrogative Relative

24. PREPOSITIONS FUNCTION: prepositions express a relationship of meaning between one word (noun, verb, adjective…) and another word in the sentence in terms of: Space: in, at, on , … The book is ON the table Time: before, after, … See you AFTER the lecture Topic: about, … This is a book ABOUT tourism development

25. CONJUNCTIONS FUNCTION: conjunction links words, phrases and clauses: Coordinators (and, or, but…): they link units which have equal grammar status: Tom bought the tickets AND Mary parked the car Subordinators > link units which have different grammar status Tom bought the tickets WHILE Mary parked the car

26. Subordinating conjunctions(a sample) They express several meanings: -Time: when -Place: where -Condition: if -Concession: though -Purpose: in order to -Reason: because

27. Do-It-Yourself BEFORE is… A PREPOSITION? A CONJUNCTION? AN ADVERB?

28. BEFORE is… * She had never asked him that before * He was there before her… * Don’t go away before I arrive! ADVERB PREPOSITION CONJUNCTION

29. PAST SPORT MAGIC

30. And now… PAST SIGNS & MAGIC LIES OR Why word class matters!!!

31. PAST SIGNS… The Greeks took the easiest route to Troy, crossing the Aegean in a thousand ships. I drove a hire car from Istanbul airport to Canakkale going along roads that followed the coast. I had booked to stay in the Truva Hotel. The only problem is that Truva is the Turkish word for Troy and everything in Canakkale is named after the town's sole attraction and sports a picture of a horse on it. Driving my clattering machine past signs for Truva Tours, Truva Car Hire and Truva Souvenirs, I ended up in a rather empty-looking building on the seafront where the only language we seemed to have in common was my three words of Turkish. I was given a long thin room with a view of where the sea would be were it not so dark and windswept. It had been a long cold day but tomorrow, as Agamemnon might have said, I would be in Troy.

36. I = pronoun > IO DROVE = verb > GUIDAI PAST = preposition > OLTRE SIGNS = noun (common) > SEGNALI TRUVA TOURS = noun (proper) > TRUVA TOURS Io oltrepassai in auto insegne con la scritta Truva Tours…

37. MAGIC LIES When I was 13 I fell in love with Valparaiso. I drove in from the neighbouring town, and there it was - a semi-circle of lights ringing the bay's natural amphitheatre. The hills that run down to the harbour were carpeted in white lights, creating a magical effect. But beneath the magic lies a tough harbour town, eclipsed now by its flashier neighbour, Viña del Mar, and struggling still to recover from the twin blows of a massive earthquake in the Seventies and the loss of shipping revenue (much of it diverted down the Panama canal).

38. BUT = CONJUNCTIONBENEATH = PREPOSITIONTHE = DETERMINERMAGIC = NOUN (NO ADJECTIVE!)LIES = VERB (NO NOUN1) B

39. HOMEWORK Word Classes LAVIOSA, Linking Wor(l)ds: Chapters 5-6 JACKSON, Grammar and Vocabulary: pp.4-8 (A2); 35—37 (B2); 62-73 (C2) A Practical English Grammar: UNIT 2 (NOUNS) + Exercises English Grammar in Use: UNIT 69