English Language

The English language is not in itself a neatly identifiable entity. English isn’t just the
language of England: it has various dialects in New Zealand, India, Ireland, Brazil, …
English language is also defined lingua franca: a language used throughout the world as a
means of facilitating communication between speakers of different languages.
English language is a stress-timed language: the stress occurs at regular intervals.
We will study the Standard English: an accent (a form of pronunciation), not a dialect (a
form of vocabulary and grammar).
Studying a language, in this case English, means doing Linguistic, science that studies
phenomena pertinent to language. In particular, we are going to start our studies from

PHONETICS PHONOLOGY
Description and classification of speech Study of how sounds function in a system:
sounds, independently of the study of how rhythm, duration, strength, …).
sounds function in a system.
(studio segmentale) (studio sovrasegmentale)
Same letters can represent different sounds.
Same speech sounds can be spelled in different ways.
We have more sounds than graphemes (44 sounds-26 graphemes).

All the phonetic symbols are contained in the International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A.).
They are divided into:

angled brackets < > GRAPHEME/LETTER

squared brackets [ ] SPEECH SOUND/PHONE (suono emesso, a speech sound considered as

a physical event.)

slashes / / PHONEME (L’immagine acustica che abbiamo di un suono, a unit of sound that
distinguishes one word from another in a specific language. Ex: /p/ -
/b/ in pan - ban)

ALLOPHONES are phonetically similar ways of producing a phoneme.

MINIMAL PAIRS is a pair of words contrasted by only one phoneme.

NARROW TRANSCRIPTION shows the detail of the speech produced at the allophonic level
→ square brackets and lots diacritics (symbols which describe the sound).
BROAD TRANSCRIPTION shows only the most important details of a phoneme → slanted
brackets and minimal diacritics.
The distribution of a sound category in a language is the set of positions it can occupy in an sentence.
Two classes of sounds are in complementary distribution if there is a context such that one class only
occurs there and the other class can’t occur there. (the different sounds of /n/ produce different words)
Two sounds are in contrastive distribution if they contrast with one another to produce different words.
(minimal pairs).
Articulatory phonetics is the branch of phonetics concerned with describing the speech
sounds of the languages in terms of their articulations, that is, the movements and/or
positions of the vocal organs (articulators).
The human vocal tracts are:
- Lips, Teeth, Alveolar Ridge, Hard Palate,
Soft Palate/Velum, Uvula
- Pharynx - Glottis
- Larynx - Tongue
- Vocal
Cords/Folds

There are two main kinds of sounds:

▪ Consonant sound (C)
▪ Vowel sound (V)

Consonant sounds can be descripted by:

➢ Voicing
vibration of the vocal fords. If the vocal fords vibrate, the sound is voiced; if there
is no vibration of vocal fords, the sound is voiceless.
➢ Place of articulation
ex. Labial, Dental, Alveolar, …
➢ Manner of Articulation
complete structure, partial structure, no structure.
Plosive/stops: are made by completely blocking the flow of air as it leaves the body,
normally followed by releasing the air. The air can be stopped at the lips for a bilabial
plosive [p, b], at the alveolar ridge for an alveolar plosive [t, d], or at the velum for a
velar plosive [k, g].
Fricatives: they do not form a complete blockage, instead the air escapes through a
narrow gap, producing a friction. A narrow constriction can be made between lips and
teeth producing the labiodental fricatives [f, v], between tongue and teeth producing
the dental fricatives [θ, ð], or between tongue and alveolar ridge producing the alveolar
fricatives [s, z] (noun/adjective /s/, verb /z/). If the constriction is made just behind the
alveolar ridge, post-alveolar fricatives are produced [ʃ, ʒ]. Finally, a constriction can be
made by narrowing the glottis, producing the glottal fricatives [h].
Affricates: they are similar to plosives (complete blockage created in the mouth), but in
the release stage, instead of the air being released quickly, a slower period of friction is
produced. These are the sounds [tʃ, dʒ].
Approximants: also called semivowels. The articulators come together but no friction is
produced because the space between them is too wide. There is alveolar approximant
[ɹ] in which the tongue bunches up toward the alveolar ridge. If the back of the tongue
moves up towards the velum and the lips move into a rounded position, they are called
labial approximant [w]. When the tongue bunches up further back towards har palate,
we call the sound palatal approximant [j]. Instead, when the tip of the tongue makes
contact with the alveolar ridge, but sides of the tongue bend downwards, the sound is
called lateral approximant [l].
Nasals: they are produced with complete oral closure → the velum is lowered to direct
airflow into the nose [m] and [n]. We have also the sound [ŋ]: ad esempio sing /sɪŋ/
Thrills: they are produced by a series of rapid contacts and detachments between the
tongue and a fixed organ (ex. denti)
Vowels sounds can be descripted just by voicing: there is no obstruction to the flow of
air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. Vowel sounds can be divided according to the
distance of the tongue from the base to the palate, the part of the tongue that is involved
and the position of the lips.

SHORT VOWEL

LONG VOWEL
A vowel sound in which the tongue changes position to produce the sound of
two vowels, and which is identifiable by having two symbols in transcription rather than
one, is called diphthong. They can be divided in Centring diphthongs (ending in /ə/)
and in Closing diphthongs (ending in /ɪ/ or /ʊ/).
Phonology
The study of how speech sounds are organised and structured in sound system of a
language.
SEGMENTAL FEATURES syllables, stress, rhythm, tone,
Phonemes intonation
PROSODY
SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES
Phonotactics studies the possible phoneme combinations of a language. Le modifiche
più comuni sono:
• Assimilation: a sound that changes because of the sound before or after it
(regressive and progressive)

• Coalescence: a particular assimilation that makes sounds founded (affricates /t+j/=

/ʧ/).

• Elision: the leaving out of a sound in speech (usually alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
are elided, but also vowels as interest or tonight).

• Linking -r: British English is a r-less language, [r] is pronounced just if there is a
vowel sound after it and it has to link two words (ex. far away /fa:r ə‘wei/).
Suprasegmental Phonology
Syllable structure can be described using:
➢ onset (O), the start of the syllable;
➢ rhyme (R), the middle and the end bit;
➢ nucleus (vowel), the core of a syllable;
➢ coda, the closing segment in a syllable.

Example:
Captain = /’kæptin/
1° syllable: 2° syllable
ONSET= /k/ ONSET= /t/
RHYME NUCLEUS= /æ/ RHYME NUCLEUS= /i/
RHYME CODA= /p/ RHYME CODA= /n/

The more prominent syllable is said to be stressed, the weaker unstressed. Stressed
syllables have higher pitch, are longer and louder than unstressed syllables.
For multisyllabic words, there are a primary stress [‘] and also a secondary stress [,]. This
is lower in prominence than the primary stress.
When words are nouns, stress is word-initial (/ˈprɒdʒɛkt/); but when they are verbs,
stress is word-final (/prəˈdʒɛkt/).
Sentence stress: it goes usually in content words (nouns, adverbs, verbs and adjectives),
instead of in function words (articles, prepositions, linkers, auxiliaries) unless we want
to emphasize their meaning.
 Morphology
è lo studio della struttura interna delle parole, non solo esistenti, ma anche per
interpretare nuove parole. In particolare, studia i morfemi: unità minima con significato
o con funzione grammaticale.
Unhappiness → un-happi-ness Walking → walk-ing
Ci sono:
• free morphemes (possono stare da soli e avere senso: word, walk, …) Si dividono
in root (parte base di una parola che può stare sola e unirsi ad altri roots o prendere
affissi) e base (un’unità a cui elementi possono essere legati: rewriting= re- + base
writing)
• bound morphemes (non possono stare da soli, sono affixes: prefix, infix, suffix: -
ed, -ly, un-, -ing,…). Ci sono inflectional bound morphemes (sono solo suffissi,
hanno funzione grammaticale, indicando il numero, il tempo verbale, …) e
derivational bound morphemes (per formare nuove parole di altre classi).
expressions: noun, 3 morphemes, root (express) e 2 bound derivational (ion) e inflectional (s)

Allomorphs: è la realizzazione diversa di un morfema in contesti differenti. (ex. a – an)

Lexeme: ciò che può essere un vocabulary item (give=lexeme; gives, giving, gave, given
sono le manifestazioni del lexeme give).
Word: l’unità più piccola che può essere manipolata dalla sintassi mantenendo il
significato (ad esempio attivo e passivo il significato rimane lo stesso)
Ci sono simple words (composte da un solo morfema: boy, cheap, sun) e complex words
(composte da più morfemi: child-ish, re-writ-ing, …).
Le parole si dividono anche in una open word class, chiamata content words or lexical
morphemes (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) e in una closed word class, chiamata
function words or functional morphemes (prepositions, pronouns, determiners).

We can define word classes by their form (its affixes), function (the role of the word in
the structure of a sentence) and meaning.
There are 11-word classes:
▪ 4 content words - N.A.V.A. (Nouns, Adverbs, Verbs, Adjectives)
▪ 7 function words (Determiners, Pronouns, Prepositions, Conjunctions,
Auxiliaries, Numerals, Discourse markers).
Determiners: sono gli articoli, gli aggettivi dimostrativi e indefiniti (ex.: the, an, this,
these, all, some, any, each, many, which, what, his, our)
Discourse markers: first of all, for example, first/secondly, goodbye, greetings, hey,
okay, right, response words: yes, no.
Phrase
It’s a single word or a group of words acting together as a unit, linked grammatically,
but that do not usually contain a finite verb.
They are classified according to their form and their function (subject, object, adjuncts)
in the clause.
Each of the four content word classes can be the main word of a phrase:
- noun phrase (NP)
- adjective phrase (AdjP)
- verb phrase (VP)
- adverb phrase (AdvP)
Example: My hair has been growing very untidy just recently. ⇒ clause: the
basic unit of grammar. It must contain a verb and it is typically made up of a
subject, a verb phrase and, sometimes, a complement.
- prepositional phrase (PP): inizia per preposizione ed è completata da una noun
phrase.
Example: We went to town in the afternoon.

Complex sentences are made up of a main clause and a subordinate clause.

The subordinate clause also contains a subject and a verb, but it can never stand alone
as a complete sentence, because it cannot make sense on its own.
An embedded clause is simply a subordinate clause which has been embedded or placed
in the middle of the sentence and that can be removed without altering the general
meaning of a sentence or compromising its grammatical construction. (For example:
prepositional phrases are made by noun phrase and a preposition, called post modifier)

Noun Phrase (NP)

The head of a noun phrase can be a noun, pronoun, genitive, adjective,
There can be pre-modifiers (words preceding the head of a noun phrase): determiners,
numerals, adjectives, nouns, genitives, adverbs.
And also, post-modifiers of the head: prepositional phrases (ex. the best day of my life),
clauses, adverbs, adjectives, embedded noun phrases.
The function is that they are usually subjects or objects of the clause.

Verb Phrase (VP)

The structure of a verb phrase is made up by two elements: the main verb and auxiliaries.
The main verb can be finite (present or past tense) or non-finite (
The auxiliaries are optional and precede the main verb.
Auxiliaries can be modal (will, can, could), perfect (have), progressive (be) or passive
(be). And they modify the main verb in modality, aspect or active/passive voice.

Prepositional phrases (PP)

There isn’t a Prepositional Phrase without a Noun Phrase embedded in it. The structure
is:
preposition + noun phrase
on a bright, cold, foggy afternoon.

Adverb Phrases and Prepositional Phrases are also called Adjuncts because their function
is that they give us manner, place and time of the main phrase.

Clause: a group of phrases. A clause contains only one subject and one verb, usually
finite.
The structure is NP – VP – NP (S.V.O. = Subject-Verb-Object) + Adjuncts (Manner-
Place-Time).
This is a fixed order so much that English is called also SVO Language.
Clauses are signalled by square brackets.
[(Actually)(we)(quite often)(eat)(at Tiffany’s)]→A.S.A.V.A.

After certains verbs, especially the verb to be, an NP is not an Object. Instead, it is called
a Complement (or Predicative Complement – C) and tells something more about the
subject.

If we take a clause with the structure SVO (where V

is an active VP), it is possible to turn it into a passive
clause. The Object of the active clause becomes the
Subject of the passive one. The Subject of the active
clause becomes the agent of the passive one (it can be
called agent phrase). And of course, the active VP is
replaced by a passive VP.
The agent phrase is an Adjunct, it is optional and it can be omitted: a passive clause
without the agent is called agentless passive.

In a clause, there can be zero, one or two objects (one direct and one indirect).
1. I have been writing. SV
2. I have been writing a letter. SVO
3. I have been writing her friend a letter. SVIODO
Clauses types:
• Declarative
He lost his job.
• Interrogative
When did she leave him? How tall are you?
• Imperative (request, instruction or suggestion)
 Let’s go to the beach!
• Exclamatory
What a nice girl! How tall you are!
Clauses can be:
Finite (I remember it.),
Non-Finite, usually it has no subject and it has infinitive, participle and gerunds,
(Waiting for you, he got nervous.)
Verbless (Yes, quite often!).

There are:
1. Noun Clauses, it completes the meaning of the text and it is usually the
subject/object of the main clause (Complement Clause);
2. Relative Clauses, it can work as a postmodifier of a NP. Sometimes the pronoun
“that” can be omitted, the clause is so called Zero Relative Clause;
3. Adverbial Clauses, it starts with a “subordinating conjunction” or adverb (if,
when, because, while, …). They are also Adjuncts.

SENTENCE
A sentence is a grammatical construction that makes sense on its own, it is the largest
unit of syntax.
There are:
- Simple Sentence, subject and verb, just one clause (one verb phrase), described as a
main clause MCl → She took a cab to the airport.
- Compound Sentence, two or more main clauses linked by co-ordinating
conjunctions (and, but, so, or, for). → I’m a teacher and my brother is a lawyer.
- Complex Sentence, main clause and one or more subordinate clauses, linked by
subordinating conjunctions (if, even, because, when) → Let me know if you need
help.
- Compound-Complex Sentence, one or more independent clauses and one or more
dependent clauses. → If you want to drive, pay attention, or you might get in
trouble.
Morphological processes:
➢ Conversion: cambiare da una classe sintattica a un’altra (ex. support-to support)
➢ Affixation: aggiungere un prefisso, suffisso o infisso (ex. player, mother-in-law)
➢ Internal Change: realizzata cambiando una vocale nel root (ex. foot-feet o ride-
rode)
➢ Exponence: da una relazione tra il morfema e le sue caratteristiche
morfosintattiche. (ex. s del plurale→simple exponence o s della terza persona
singolare del tempo presente → cumulative exponence, da più informazioni)
➢ Suppletion: l’uso di due o più radici diverse per forme differenti della stessa parola
(ex. good – better → total suppletiton o bring – brought → partial suppletiton)
➢ Syncretism: due distinte categorie morfosintattiche sono espresse nello stesso
modo (ex. put-put-put o you singolare e plurale)
➢ Reduplication: creazione di una nuova parola per mezzo della ripetizione totale o
parziale di una parola esistente (ex. bye-bye → full o exact reduplication o easy-
peasy → partial o rhyming reduplication o zig-zag →ablaut reduplication o chef-
shmef → shm reduplication: repeating the same word with shm in front, taking away first consonant, giving a
bad connotation)
➢ Compounding: parole complesse contenenti almeno due radici che sono a loro
volta parole. Vi sono endocentric compounds in cui la parola a sinistra è un
modifier della parola a destra, detta headword, e exocentric compounds, il cui
significato non è rappresentato né dal modifier né dell’headword. (ex. flower shop
o self-made o teapot o cold shoulder)
➢ Coinage: creazione di una nuova parola riciclando parole già esistenti, nomi di
aziende o parole con suoni similari (ex. Kleenex o Hoover o Hobbit (da rabbit))
➢ Eponymy: creazione di una nuova parola riprendendo il nome/cognome di una
persona (ex. Diesel o Cardigan)
➢ Backformation: rimuovere un affisso, lasciando la radice input (ex. babysitter –
baby sit)
➢ Blending: combinazione di parti di parole per formarne di nuove (ex. smoke +
fog=smog o breakfast + lunch=brunch)
➢ Clipping: accorciare la parola esistente eliminando l’inizio (fore clipping ex.
Telephone – phone), la fine (back clipping ex. Examination – Exam) o la parte
centrale di essa. (middle clipping ex. Influenza – Flu)
➢ Hypocorism: aggiungere -y o -ie a radici monosillabiche per ridurre una lunga
parola ad una sillaba, per creare forme informali di nomi comuni. (ex. Vegeterian
– Veggie o Michael – Mickey)
9. Semantics
Semantics studies the meaning of words, phrases and sentences; in particular the
conceptual meaning and the associative meaning too.
The conceptual meaning is related to the descriptive meaning: what the word actually
is.
There are 3 main approach to semantics:
1. Referential approach: meaning should be defined in terms of reference (something
outside language in the real world).
Referring expression → referent
Bed → piece of furniture
Reference can be definite or indefinite.

2. Relational approach: the sense of a word comes from its relations to other
expressions in the language. There can be syntagmatic relations (coherence and
co-occurrence) or paradigmatic relations (relation between an expression to other
expression that can occur in the same syntactic slot: boiling spaghetti/boiling
eggs).

Paradigmatic relations suppose the use of:

- near synonyms [buy-purchase; can-may], modal verbs have different modality:
the attitude of the speaker (obligation, necessity, possibility, prediction);
- opposites [complementary opposites (dead-alive) or antonymic opposites
(good-bad) or directional opposites (arrive-leave)];
- meronyms [nose/face] il naso è una parte di faccia;
- hyponyms [dog/animal] il cane è un tipo di animale.

3. Denotational approach: it has to do with semantic features, categories that allows

us to distinguish expression from one another:
Stallion: horse + male + animate + not human being + adult
Dog: animate + not human being (Dogs can’t read!!)
Prototype theory is made by the essential characteristics for each expression.
Words are related with each other by different conditions.
Lexical relations:
• Homophones [bare-bear].
• Polysemous words, same form in different but related sense [Father (of a child or of
something)].
• Metaphors, a concept from one semantic domain is used to refer to a concept from
another domain.
• Metonymy, a feature associated with a certain concept serves for the entire concept.
Meaning & Mind: Some linguistics (Sapir and Whorf) stated the hypothesis of
Linguistic Relativity, that says that the way people think is influenced by their mother
tongue and by their perception of reality.
11. Standard English and Standardization
Standard English is the one that does not show any regional variations (English exists in
many forms). It follows written norms, such as grammar, dictionaries, etc.
It has many differences between Northern England English and Southern England
English, between written English and speech English, …
Standardization is the reduction in variability in terms of grammatical and vocabulary
choices. It is a process leading to standard language and it has taken ages to be completed.
English variates by social class, gender, region, ethnicity, time, …but also by power
relations in the society and by ideologies.

History of English Language:

❖ Old English (449 – 1100), it is the language of the Germanic tribes (Angles,
Saxons and Jutes), that invaded Northern Britain.
It was made up of four different dialects, it is an inflected language with a particular
alphabet made up of runes (futhork alphabet) inscripted on stone, wood or horn.
In 597, with Christian missionaries, the roman alphabet arrived in England.
Thanks to King Alfred the Great, a process of people's literacy begins and books in
which the historical events of the year start to be written annually.
❖ Middle English (1100 – 1500), it is a language brought to England by the Norman
conquest of 1066. The writing style was gothic or black letter.
Chaucer contributed to the development of this kind of English, thanks to his
masterpiece the Canterbury Tales: written in London dialect.
❖ Early Modern English (1500 – 1750), developed thanks to the invention of the
printing press in 1476 by William Caxton. Many words were re-spelled following
the Latin examples. A deep change was also the Great Vowel Shift (1400-1700):
long vowels changed (ex. Life: /li:fǝ/ - /laɪf/).
In general, we had a spelling standardization thanks to monolingual dictionaries,
the expansion of literacy and the printing press.
❖ Late Modern English (1750 – present), developed thanks to the north American
declaration of independence in 1776.
❖ Present-day English
The standard English development had to follow four stages:
o Selection, London variety of English was selected because there the first printing
press was established, so printed book was written mostly in that dialect which
soon becomes the familiar language everywhere (also outside the country)
o Elaboration, ensuring the language is capable of being put to all the uses required,
it has to face up with French (used for official state affairs), with Latin (used for
scientific tasks), …
o Codification, production of grammar rules, dictionaries, etc.
The first dictionary, “A Dictionary of the English Language”, was written in 1755
by Samuel Johnson.
 Then, Prescriptive Grammars were written in 1762 by Bishop Lowth and in 1795
by Murray.
o Implementation, making the language accepted everywhere, in particular thanks
to the Education Act of 1870: teaching of Standard English was accepted in
England.
Received pronunciation is a phonetic counterpart to Standard English referred to an
upper-middle and upper-class accent. It has been promoted by the BBC programmes.
In particular because in 1940s BBC workers started using their regional accents and
there were many complaints. Fortunately, in 1960s the BBC policy changed and there
is no strict use of this received pronunciation.
Nowadays there is another prestigious variety called Estuary English (1984), spoken in
Southern England.
English spelling is very different from English sounds. In 2009 Baron, Rayson and
Archer invented a software, Vard-Dicer, to explore spelling variability and to identify a
large number of variants across many texts, genres and centuries.

Language can change because of phonology, semantics, lexical, spelling, …

But also because of new social structures, new inventions….
We say Borrowing when an entire expression used in a language contact is taken and
used as our language; we say Loan Word when it is borrowed just a single word.
In Old English, some words were borrowed from Celtic, Germanic vocabulary (place
names), Latin (medicine, religion, …) or vikings’ language.
In Middle English, some words were borrowed from Norman conquerors, in particular
from Latin(for religion, science) and French.
In Early Modern English we have a decline of the use of Latin, but also a great scientific
development in which the new words required were borrowings from Latin. We assist
to a process called Nativization, an adaptation of loanwords to the English linguistic
system (ex. Balcone in ita – Balcony in ing)
There are also internal lexical changes, for example word formation, lexicalization (new
words added to the language) or grammaticalization (turning lexical items in
grammatical items, ex.by+cause=because). Recently, we assisted to computer-mediated
communication, due to internet and new technologies.
Semantic change is referred to the changing of the meaning of words and grammar
constructions (ex. now silly means stupid, before silly meant innocent).
Traditional theory of meaning is based on the meaning: when a word actually denotes
but the meaning is very subjective: we assign meanings to words also because of our
thoughts, studies, experiences, …
In fact now it is used the Prototype-Theoretical Semantics and the Traditional
Classifications:
• Melioration, a word takes a more positive meaning than before;
 • Pejoration, a word takes a negative connotation (ex. sinister)
• Broadening, a generalization of the meaning (ex. mouse, virus, holiday)
• Narrowing, a specialization of the meaning (ex. meat before was in general for
food, now just for carne)
• Metaphorical Change, a comparison between two concepts.
• Metonymy, a part for the entire(ex. number 10 we refer to Prime Minister)
• Totum pro parte (ex. Manchester: we refer to the soccer club)
• Language internal/external factors, due to social changes.

Another theory is Subjectification, a process in which the change from relatively

objective meanings into increasingly subjective ones. Firstly an individual process, then
a propagation.
This change is due to time:
- Diachronic change, happen through time
- Synchronic change, starting in some speaker’s here and then spread to all
members of the speech community.
Translation

“Translation is an impossible task...languages are never sufficiently similar to express the

same realities.”- Mona Baker
La lingua che usiamo è molto condizionata dal mondo in cui viviamo.

Translation is a product (book, song, novel, ...) but a process, too, that brings the source
language (SL) into target language (TL).
• source text and target text (the text translated by the translator);
• Inferencing (developing hypothesis through the text while translating adding relevant
words and explications)
Translation is due to transferring of meaning: both the referential one, the figurative
one and the connotative one. The translator has to avoid ambiguity (not just using near
synonyms), to maintain the communicative aim (force) of the author of the text, to
adapt the source text to its new context of use and to produce an equivalent and
acceptable effect as it has in the source text (deve produrre la stessa “risposta” richiesta
al lettore in Lingua originale nel nuovo lettore).
The meaning is given by co-text and context, by user-related varieties as geographical
factors (dialect), social factors (workings-class) and temporal factors. Meaning is given
by context of culture too. Text become vehicles of socio-cultural images of that
environment.
During translation, we can’t translate word by word, but by unit of translation.
(a group of words with a complete meaning). We need translation shifts, for example
word class change (ex. Travelling from London? In partenza da Londra?), omissions,
compensation, borrowing (ex. touch screen) or word order change.
While translating there isn’t a one-to-one correspondance between orthographic words
(type−scrivere a macchina).
Every word is a lexical unit, that has its own meaning and that is different from the
other. The lexical meaning is acquired through usage in the linguistic system.
Words have 4 types of meanings:
➢ Propositional; it comes from the relation between the word and what it refers to, as
conceived by the speakers.
➢ Expressive, it relates to the speaker’s feeling or attitude rather than what words refer
to.
Due parole possono essere denotativamente uguali (propositional), ma con
connotazione diversa (expressive) (ex. Be quiet vs Shut up).
Possono avere anche sia un significato proposizionale che espressivo
contemporaneamente.
➢ Presupposed, it is related to co-occurrence restrictions due to word that might occur
before or after the lexical unit. Selectional Restriction, certe parole hanno bisogno di
altre specifiche lexical unità prima o dopo (ex. to read ha bisogno di un human being
come soggetto), or Collocational Restrictions (gruppi di parole che vengono usate
insieme: to brush one’s own teeth e non wash teeth).
➢ Evoked, it is related to dialect (geographical, temporal and social varieties: differenti
classi sociali) and register variations (field:content, tenor:level of formality, attitudes
between speakers, dare del lei, mode:written or spoken, broadcast, recorded, lesson,
essay, ...).
Per esempio: Car ha un propositional meaning, auto un evoked meaning e banger un
expressive meaning.
Semantic Fields
Holidays: relax, summer, seaside, travelling, friends, no school, … (semantic fields)
The vocabulary of a language can be seen as a set of words that refer to a series of
conceptual fields (SEMANTIC FIELDS), personals and “imposed” by the linguistic community
on the own experiences. (per esempio: per holidays, nessuno ha detto snow, mountains,
ecc.)
Semantic fields are composed hierarchically: from the more general (superordinate) to
the more specific (hyponym). But many words can’t be classified in semantic fields
(function words as just, but, never, …)
Many semantic fields are common to most languages (shape, distance, …), but no so
many equivalents for some other.
Understanding semantic fields is useful to a translator to understand the value of the
author’s choice and to develop strategies for dealing with non-equivalence.

There are some non-equivalence problems:

• Culture-specific concepts (ex. House of Commons, Speaker, privacy, sarde a
beccafico, Camilleri)
• SL Concept non lexicalized in the TL (ex. a landslide: an extremely large number
of votes)
• Semantically complex concept in the Source Langugage (ex. Thatcherism of
Margaret Thatcher or the Italian “ribaltone”)
• Lack of superordinated/hyponyms (ex. House – cottage, mansion, manor, …)
• No direct equivalence for the TL and a word used in the SL text.
• Different perspectives
• Different expressive meaning
• Different forms (ex. Translationese lingua usata nel tradurre)
• Loan words in the SL text

False Friends e Cognates

Actually: in realtà - Annoyed: infastidito - Brave: coraggioso - Confidence: fiducia -
Educated: istruito - Education: istruzione - Factory: fabbrica - Firm: ditta - Library:
biblioteca - Miserable: infelice - Wreched: miserabile - Pavement: marciapiede -
Realize: capire - sensible: sensato - vacancy: vuoto - Fabric: tessuto - Comprehensive:
esauriente - Fulfil: realizzare - Sensitive: sensibile.
Cognates are words that look similar and have a similar meaning (ex. Dictionary)
False Friends....
Strategies
Using superordinates (ad esempio Lily tradotto com fiore), using less expressive and
more neutral words (anziché mumbles usiamo suggerisce), cultural substitution (la
Cream Tea inglese viene tradotto con pasticceria), paraphrasing with related words,
omissions, ...
Lexical Patterning
Collocations (ex. blonde hairs not yellow hairs) contents words (or chunk) that occur
together as part of a set phrase. There are weak collocations (just to have a better style,
ex. Blood relative, learn by heart), strong collocations (break rules, pay a visit, a bar of
soap, a bunch of flowers, a lump of ice,..) and unique collocations.
They are cultured bound (as bread and butter) so there might be deep differences and
we need to find a collocational range (words that are compatible together), working
both on the SL collocations and the TL ones.
Sometimes there are unusual collocations (marked collocations) used to create irony,
unexpected images,...(ex. Peace breaks out come the war).
Accuracy is important in translation, but its not enough: a translator need to use
common target language pattern to be understood by the target readers.
Idiomatic expressions
1. It’s raining cats and dogs
2. You should call a spade a spade
3. To get cold feed = perdersi d’animo
4. Fit as a fiddle = sano come un pesce
5. Out of the blue = all’improvviso
A group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning. Sometimes they are
easily recognisable because they violate truth conditions (storm in a cup of tea) or they
start with “like”that can’t be interpreted literally (like water off a Duck’s back).
Some of them have both literal and idiomatic meanings and they are difficult to
translated in TL because there aren’t exact idioms or they are cultural specific.
To translate them a translator has to borrow SL idioms, paraphrase, finding similar
idioms in meaning and/or form,...

Fixed expressions
By the way, upside down, all the best,...
Try to translated them mantenendo evoked meaning.