Chapter I

CL  Contrastive Linguistics

Comparing two or more entities is an activity that we carry out in everyday life to
highlight similarities and differences, or to evaluate. Many academic disciplines use this
method for a better understanding of their object of study.

In linguistics, comparison is a method used for a wide range of aims; two national
varieties of a language (American English and British English) to focus on the
characteristics of each; two languages belonging to a given group, for example Germanic
languages (English, German, Dutch, Swedish etc.) to point out shared features.

Comparison is exploited in all branches of linguistics. Comparing languages to identify

language universals (what is common to all languages) is one of the goals of theoretical
linguistics, concerned with the definition of the language faculty in human beings.

Scope and aims of CL

Contrastive linguistics is a discipline which compares two languages to identify and
describe similarities and differences. Since languages are complex systems , they cannot
be compared as wholes; the only way of comparing them is to make an analysis of one
small subsystem at a time.

The term “contrastive” is motivated by the fact that the main interest in research is the
formulation of ‘contrasts’. The concept of contrast can be defined as a divergence, or
asymmetry, between language A and language B, when observed against a common
ground.

The identification of this common ground is one of the central issues in CL.

CL is a synchronic study, which analyses languages as they are in the present. It is

distinct from comparative linguistics, which is the diachronic study of genetically related
languages and their common ancestors, grouping them into ‘families’.

CL lies between the two poles: it compares two languages and tends to focus on
differences rather than similarities.

Contrastive research can be carried out for a range of aims that can be theoretical,
descriptive or applied; it is also a discipline which accounts for the functioning of
languages which may be formally divergent but are communicatively equivalent.

Origins and developments in CL

Three new developments have brought about the revival of CL:

1. Internationalization and the gradual integration of Europe have created an

increasing demand for cross-linguistic work of various kinds;
 2. A growing interest in real life communication has shifted the focus away from
language system to language usage;
3. The Information Technology revolution has opened up new possibilities of research
based on large amounts of linguistic data.

CL today
From 1957, CL has evolved in many regards and it must be pointed out that
contrastive research depends on concepts and tools elaborated by language theory.

At present, CL is characterized by the following points:

a) Languages can be compared because they share abstract similarities beneath

surface differences.
b) Each language is deeply embedded in its culture, and culture is expressed
through language.
c) Aspects of language systems as well as language uses are compared.
d) Contrastive studies are carried out mainly in connection with translation, the
description of languages and bilingual lexicography, but are also related to
other fields of research.
e) Contrastive studies do not merely outline divergences, but also bring divergent
entities into relation whit each other.
f) The linguistic items compared are contextualised: they’re examined in their
linguistic, situational and cultural context.
g) Linguistic units larger than the sentence are also considered.
h) The linguistic data analyzed are authentic.

CL and other fields of research

Inspired by Lado, contrastive analysis was originally a purely applied interprise aimed at
producing more efficient foreign language teaching.

Transfer is a major factor in learning: it is a psychological process by which learners tend

to transfer the characteristics of their mother tongue (L1) to the foreign language (L2).
Interference is the influence exercised by the learner’s mother tongue. It can be positive
or negative

It is negative when learners believe that L2 is similar to their L1 in an area where it is

different;

It is positive when there is a similarity between specific areas of L1 and L2.

Researchers have noticed that:

 Some of the errors produced are caused by L1 negative interference;

 Some errors are due to other causes;
 A contrast between L1 and L2 doesn’t equal an error or a learning problem.

1)in the area of prepositions

A: * I read it on the newspaper A.* Why didn’t you come at the party yesterday?
B. I read it in the newspaper B. Why didn’t you come to the party yesterday?
C. L’ho letto sul giornale C. Perché non sei venuto alla festa ieri ?

2) in the area of word stress

A.* I have met a French boy last summer

B. I met a French boy last summer
C. La scorsa estate ho incontrato un ragazzo francese.

Note that the interference may concern not only the language system, but also language
use, when a learner produces a sentence which is grammatically correct, but
inappropriate to a given situational context. This is referred to as ‘communicative
interference’.

CL and translation studies

Translating is a process aimed at the transfer of a text produced in language/culture A to
language/culture B. The result is the production of a target text (TT) that is in a
relationship of ‘equivalence’ with the source text (ST): the two texts must be semantically,
pragmatically and culturally equivalent.

In order to compare two items, researcher have first to verify that they are
communicatively equivalent. Translators have to fully understand the TT by identifying
semantic content, primary communicative function and cultural specificity, and express
the ‘same thing’ in the target language/culture for target receivers. In other words they
have to produce a TT equivalent to the ST.

CL and bilingual lexicography

Researchers in bilingual lexicography have always had an interest in comparing
languages in the area of lexis.
Dictionary builders elaborate on information by comparing lexemes, and incorporate the
results in bilingual dictionaries. Each word, or entry, of a language A is joined to its
equivalent in language B, that is, a word or sequence of words having a very similar
meaning.

Bilingual lexicography has recently begun to come to terms with large electronic bilingual
corpora, employed as a source of contrastive data on meaning and usage of lexemes. The
procedure is the following: researchers select lexeme X in language A and lexeme Y in
language B, which are equivalent in meaning. They extract all the occurrences of X and Y
from subcorpus A and subcorpus B ; then, they analyse them in contrast, considering
both lexico-semantic and grammatical patterns.

Since the meaning of a lexeme is partially determined by the cotext in which it occurs,
this type of analysis allows researchers to define the various meanings it can assume in
different cotexts. Another relevant aspect is that this procedure allows the identification
and analysis of the ‘collocations’ of a given lexeme, that is, the word which most
frequently occur to the left and/or to the right of the lexeme selected. Linguistic
descriptions are then compared, and the result will forma dictionaries.

CL and descriptive linguistics

CL combines a cross-linguistic perspective with a detailed analysis of a given
phenomenon in two languages. It can contribute to the accurate description of both
languages in contrast: contrastive studies can highlight characteristics of one or both
languages, which are unknown, little known or are remained unnoticed.

Let us consider word stress, which is conventionally represented on paper by an apex

immediately before the stressed syllable. In both Italian and English, wrd stress has a
‘distinctive function’: it is employed for signalling a difference in meaning between two
words.
IT: ‘ancora / an’cora, ‘faro/fa’ro (future tense and the noun)

In English, word stress is systematically employed for distinguishing between a noun

and its derived verb: ‘concord/to con’cord, ‘export/ to ex’port, ‘produce/ to pro’duce

CL and linguistic typology

Linguistic typology analyses the word’s language, while CL only analyses two languages.
Its aim is to describe the common properties and the structural diversity of languages,
and to classify them into ‘languages types’ according to their common features. CL is
concerned with divergences between languages. Yet, linguistic typology can provide tools
and information useful for CL.

The identified language types, which stand as a posteriori parameters to classify other
languages, can be used as ‘contrastive categories’ in contrastive research. 3 examples,
concerning rhythm, the structure of words and constituent order.

1) Abercrombie: identifies two types of languages with regard to rhythm: ‘syllable-timed

languages’, in which all syllables, whether stressed or not, take about the same length of
time to be uttered.
‘stress-timed languages’  where stressed syllables tend to occur at relatively regular
intervals and intermediate, unstressed syllables are blocked between these stressed
syllables.
This parameter is crucial in identifying a divergence between Italian and English; the
former has a syllable-timed rhythm, the latter a stress-timed one.

Morphological typology classify languages on the basis of how they form words by
combining morphemes.
Comrie indicated the following parameters to describe the structure of words: the
number of morphemes per word, and the extent to which the morphemes in a word can
be identified through segmentation. Applying these parameters, a relevant divergence
emerges.
 Italian can be described as a moderately synthetic language, in which words are
often variable, usually consist of two or more morphemes, and one morph
expresses more than one morpheme.
  English can be described as a moderately analytic language, in which words are
often invariable, the number of morphemes per word is very low, and each morph
expresses just one meaning.
For example, the English car consists of one morpheme vs the Italian libro
consisting of 3 morphemes: libr- + number (singular) + gender (masculine), bth
expressed by the morph –o.

The typology of constituent order considers the order of subject, verb and object in
declarative main clauses. Both languages show a basic SVO order, but Italian has a
relatively free word order, while English a relatively fixed word order.

Chapter II

Comparability
The number of languages spoken at present is about 6000 and they differ in many ways.
Linguists have employed two images to describe the different equipment of languages :
the grid and the prism. Each language works out a particular grid imposed on the real
world: it carves up reality in a particular way, thus conceptualising an classifying
aspects of the world in a specific way.
The other image is the prism the human language is the prism, and each natural
language is a face of the prism, which reflects the world from particular angle, ‘painting’
reality in a particular colour.

Contrastive research, whose aim is to account for this diversity, can provide the means
for describing it. The first question CL has to answer is : “Is it possible to compare
languages, which appear to be different entities?”.
The answer is complex. First, languages can vary extensively, but despite variations due
to cultural>/environmental factors and historical change, they are alike in many
essential ways: the biological/neurophysiological characteristics of humans place some
constraints on their language.
For example, people’s eyes can be of various colours, but not yellow or red. Similarly, the
speech organs producing the sounds employed for communicating can utter a wide, but
limited range of sounds.
Each language employs a number of sounds, selected among the sounds which the
speech organs are able to produce.
Something similar happens with thought: the human mind processes an amorphous
‘thought mass’, which is then segmented in portions and labelled by an individual
languages in specific ways.
This determines lexical asymmetries: for example, English has one lexeme, hair, for
referring to any kind of fine filament growing from the skin of humans and animals:
Italian distinguishes between capelli and peli. Vice versa, Italian labels any device for
measuring time as orologio, while English distinguishes between watch and clock.

Secondly, regardless of where they live (desert, jungle, etc) people name things, describes
states of being and actions, ask questions, discuss cause and effect.
These are but a few communicative needs of fundamental importance to human social
life. Using the technical terms of researchers, the basic function of language is to
communicate. This function is articulated in subfunctions (what people use language for)
referred to as ‘communicative functions’, which are regarded as universals: informing,
asking for information, requesting etc..

In addition, humans place constraints on their language in order to avoide ambiguities,

redundancies and obstacles to efficient communication.
On the basis of these theoretical assumptions, contrastive research has formulated the
following principle:
I. LANGUAGES CAN BE COMPARED BECAUSE THEY SHARE ABSTRACT SIMILARITIES
BENEATH SURFACE DIFFERENCES.

The tertium comparationis: the issue of equivalence

The second question which CL has to answer is: “What linguistic items are comparable?”,
and the answer is: comparability can be established referring to the tertium
comparationis, a Latin expression meaning ‘the third element of comparison’, the other
two being the two languages involved in comparison.
This expression refers to invariance, with regard to which it is possible to identify and
describe variants.
Researchers employ the concept of ‘equivalence’ as tertium comparrationis, a term that
denotes the relationship between two entities which is symmetrical, reflective and
transitive. They have formulated the following principle:
II. TWO ITEMS ARE COMPARABLE WHEN THEY ARE EQUIVALENT.

1) Comparability doesn’t presuppose an absolute correspondence, but a degree of

shared similarity.
2) Equivalence is very rarely a formal correspondence. In most cases, it concerns the
deep levels of languages: it is an equivalence in meaning, but there is more than
one kind of meaning.
st
The 1 is the semantic content of a sentence;
The 2nd is the pragmatic content, given by factors such as communicative function,
situational context and participants in the communicative event.
Then there is the cultural content: the sentence is produced in a specific cultural context
which gives a culture-specific perspective to meaning.
There is a 4th dimension of meaning, the textual meaning: any linguistic item occurs in a
text which is the main vehicle for the creation of meaning.

The examples below show pairs of equivalent linguistic items with a different degree of
similarity:
- Similarity at all levels:
(I) L’uomo fu visto nell’atrio.
The man was seen in the hall.
- Similarity at the lexical level, difference at the syntactic level:
(2) La settimana scorsa sono andati in spiaggia.
They went to the beach last week.
- Similarity at the pragmatic level, difference at the lexical and syntactic levels:
(3) Desidera?/La stanno servendo?
Can I help you?
 - Similarity at the semantic level, difference at the lexical and cultural levels:
(4) L’uomo fece il diavolo a quattro.
The man raised Cain.

So linguistic item x and item y can be compared when no matter how far they diverge on
the surface, they are semantically pragmatically, culturally and textually equivalent.
Thus, to establish comparability researchers can rely on the concept of ‘functional-
communicative equivalence in text and context’.

Homogeneity of data
If we take two plants, we can compare th leaves of one to the leaves of the other, but it
would make no sense to compare leaves to flowers. So, the 3rd principle in CL is the
following:
III. THE LINGUISTIC DATA COMPARED MUST BE HOMOGENEOUS: THE DATA IN
LANGUAGES A AND B MUST SHARE SOME FEATURES.

Homogeneity of data can be achieved by referring to the levels of analysis; in order to

analyse such complex entities as languages more easily, researcher have divided them
up into smaller and more manageable ‘layers’. Levels do not exist independently of each
other, but they re operationally spoken of as separate. Each level examines a given
segment of language, referred to as a ‘linguistic unit’.

a) Phonetics and phonology analyse speech sounds.

b) Morphology analyses the structure of words.
c) Syntax analyses the way in which words combine to form sentences.
d) Lexicology and lexical semantics: the structure of lexis, the latter the meaning of
words.
e) Pragmatics analyses language use.
f) Discourse and text analysis.

We can compare sounds to sounds, lexemes to lexemes, texts to texts. The notion of
equivalence will be called upon to establish which linguistic item can be compared.

The notion of ‘interlinguistic shift’

The technique of dividing a language up into linguistic levels ensures homogeneity of
linguistic data. Yet, different languages sometimes resort to different means for
expressing the same meaning or fulfilling the same communicative function.
Crosslinguistic comparison have highlighted that, in order to describe this type of
contrast, it is necessary to cross levels, moving from one to another, or to move within a
same level.
Although the data under examination might appear to be heterogeneous, homogeneity is
guaranteed by a shared feature expressed in both languages.
James had given a theoretical status to the notion of ‘interlinguistic shift’ in CL: it is
understood as a contrast defined operationally, that is, in terms of the operation needed
to convert items in language A into equivalent items in language B, or vice versa.
The notion is not new and overlaps with the notion of ‘translation shift’ developed in
Translation Studies in the 1960s, and evolved over time.
Catford devoted a chapter to translation shifts, defined as any linguistic change
occurring in translation of ST to TT, and classified them into two types. His classification
is now illustrated with examples concerning Italian and English :

a) level shift  a shift from the phonological level in language A to the syntactic
level in language B:
a. Leo conosce Piero. Leo knows Peter.
b. Leo conosce Piero? Does Leo know Peter ?

The interrogative sentences in (b) are distinguished from their respective declarative
sentences in (a), by employing different devices in the two languages. Italian employs the
device of intonation: a falling tone in declarative sentences, a rising tone in interrogative
sentences. English exploits syntactic devices: the insertion of the auxiliary verbs do and
re-ordering of constituents.

b) category shifts, observed within syntax, which are subdivided into:

- structural shift  a shift in grammatical structure , as in ‘Mi piace il jazz’ vs I
like jazz
- classic shift  a shift from one part of speech to another, as in uno studente di
medicina vs a medical student.
- Rank shift  where ‘rank’ refers to the hierarchical linguistic units of sentence,
clause, phrase, word. An example: phrase clause, as in Small wonder that… vs
non c’è da stupirsi se…
- Intra-system shift  which is observed within systems operating in both
languages. For example, within Italian and English article systems there are
divergences in use: amo I cavalli vs I like horses

Homogeneity of descriptions
As with the general principle of homogeneity of data, it is likewise fundamental to comply
with the principle of homogeneity of descriptions. The 4th principle states that:
IV. LANGUAGES IN COMPARISON ARE TO BE DESCRIBED USING THE SAME APPROACH, OR
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.

In other words, researchers should select one of the available approaches and use the
same analytic categories elaborated within the selected approach, in describing both
languages.
It is central to CL that the two descriptions be compared. Adopting the same approach
ensures that the contrasts emerging from comparison are due only to the different way
data ‘react’ to the approach adopted.
Some linguistic phenomena have already been described extensively, such as the sound
system of many languages.

Languages and culture: an inseparable relationship

Culture is one of the key concepts in social sciences, in language studies as well as
literary studies; the word ‘culture’ has several related meanings, but it is the sum of
behavior, values, beliefs, attitudes, all aspects of shared life in a community, where
language plays a large and significant role.
According to a more recent view, all that is not transmitted genetically is culture. So
culture can also be defined as socially transmitted knowledge, that is, the knowledge that
a person has by virtue of his/her being member of a particular society. The word ‘culture’
now has a very broad meaning, including language, behavior, norms, expectations,
religion etc.

Each language is deeply embedded in its own culture, and culture is realized in
language. Language and culture interplay in many, varied ways. We can now state the 5 th
principle:
V. LANGUAGE AND CULTURE HAVE AN INSEPARABLE RELATIONSHIP. WHEN WE COMPARE
LANGUAGES, WE ARE COMPARING CULTURES.

Robert Lado, the founder of CL, devoted a chapter of his book to ‘How to compare two
cultures?’; he thought that by comparing cultures we can predict the trouble spots
caused by differences. The trouble spots may cause cross-cultural misinformation,
misunderstanding and misinterpretation of a particular form of behavior, all constituting
serious obstacles to the understanding of the other culture.
According to Lado, cultural contrastive analysis should identify a unit of patterned
behavior, for example eating breakfast ≠ fare colazione, and analyse its form, meaning
and distribution.

a) Form  in both cultures it is the morning meal: in Italy people drink coffee and
eat something; in British culture people drink coffee/tea and eat cereal, bacon an
eggs, toast.
b) Meaning  eating breakfast is an activity for providing food and drink to the body.
Whereas in British culture breakfast is one of the three main meals during the
day, in Italy it’s a light, secondary meal.
c) Distribution  breakfast represents a time distribution within a daily cycle, and a
space distribution, at home, in the kitchen, but also at the bar in Italy.

The approach elaborated by Lado cn highlight that two equivalent words such as
breakfast and colazione, are similar in meaning, but differ culturally in their referents,
just like lunch and pranzo. Consider bread and pane : they differ by looking, ingredients
and relevance in nutrition in Italian and Anglo-Saxon cultures.
Languages contain all kinds of cultural deposits, in their lexis as well in their grammar.
But it’s lexis that more directly conveys cultural aspects: lexical distinctions drawn by
each language reflect the culturally important features of concepts, objects, institutions
and activities in the society in which the language operates.

There are cultural entities, which differentiate and classify the continuum of human
sensory perceptions, emotions and thoughts into meaningful units.
Culture may be realized in the following basic ways:
a. Cultural words which designate referents specific of a given environment and
culture.
b. Conceptualisation of reality  lexical gaps: language A has no lexeme
corresponding to lexeme X in language B.
 c. Connotation  each lexeme has a denotation (a referential meaning) and a
connotation, that is, an additional meaning which can be emotional, social,
symbolic, and may vary from one culture to the next.
d. World knowledge  chunks of world knowledge are attached to lexemes; when a
given lexeme occurs in discourse, it activates that knowledge. In two different
cultures, two equivalent words may activate totally or partially different
knowledge. For example, in American speakers, Paris, activates knowledge about
Paris in Texas and Paris in France; in Italian speakers, Parigi only activtes
knowledge about Paris, France.

Sounds and culture

When we use that imitate the sound they are denoting, and thus refer to its source, we
have what is called ‘onomatopoeia’. Onomatopoeic words can be found in everyday
language to denote noises produced by objects, cries of animals, or sounds produced by
humans.
The sounds produced n the world around us and perceived by human ears seem to be
‘filtered’ by each culture in specific ways, and a same noise or cry gives rise to different
words in different languages.

Extra-linguistic sounds  sounds that carry conventionalised meanings, but lie outside
the regular sound system of a language.

Grammar and culture

Various are the grammatical phenomena that reflext cultural specificities: for example,
the pronouns of address (English you vs Italian tu/lei/voi) and gender.

Gender is a grammatical category based on the

natural category of sex distinguished between male and female. It varies across cultures
with regard to the distinctions made and its assignment to words.

 In Italian, gender centres on the masculine/feminine opposition and applies to

nouns referring to animate beings as well as inanimate objects.

 English does not have a grammatical category of gender as such. However, centred
on the masculine/feminne/neuter opposition, gender is realized in the person
system.
 In Italian, nouns are regularly marked by gender through inflection, or derivation
plus inflection.
 In English, nouns are not marked by gender, except for a very small number of
items denoting females, human or animal. In these cases, English signals gender
distinctions by means of derivational suffixes (1-2) and compounding (3-4).

(1) cameriere cameriera waiter waitress

(2) eroe eroina hero heroine
(3) lupo lupa wolf she-wolf
(4) avvocato avvocatessa lawyer lady-lawyer
Differences between Italian and English can also be observed in gender assignment,
where gender interacts with animacy and the distinction human/non-human.
 In Italian, the assignment of gender to animate beings, as in ragazzo/ragazza and
gatto/gatta, is usually motivated by their sex, but not always. There are cases
where the gender is the opposite (la guarda, il soprano), or one word refers to both
men and women (la persona).
 In English, the masculine and feminine gender is assigned to human beings, and
the neuter to non-human entities, with some exceptions : boat, car, ship, are
referred to with the pronoun she.

Lexis and culture

There are some areas of lexis that reflect cultural peculiarities more clearly. Two
examples. In the lexical field of similarity terms, we find cultural differences in perceveing
and expressing family relationships: Italian has only one term, nipote, whereas English
has 4 terms: nephew and niece for denoting the son and daughter of one’s sister or
brother; grandson and granddaughter for denoting the son and daughter of one’s son or
daughter.

Taboo words  this is a universal phenomenon realized in different ways in different

societies. Within each society, some words denoting a specific range of events, actions, or
things, are deemed offensive or hurtful, and therefore ‘censured’, so that they are avoided
by the members of that society. Since people however need to talk about the forbidden
subjects, taboo words are substituted by ‘euphemisms’

Which are more ‘pleasant’, inoffensive

words. But people sometimes use ‘dysphemisms’, which are colloquial or vulgar words.

The analysis of linguistic interdiction requires an ‘ethnolinguistic’ approach, which

studies how languages relate to human groups, taking social and cultural factors into
account.

Phraseology and culture

 The area of lexis including various types of fixed expressions. They re sequences of
words that have a fixed structure, constitute a lexical and semantic unit, and, in
most cases, are non-compositional: their overall meaning does not correspond to
the sum of meanings of its parts.

Another characteristic of these expressions is that they are very frequently culture-
sepcific, reflecting world visions, beliefs, values or customs of a given culture. The fixed
expressions that shall be examined are:

a) Idioms, having a phrasal structure;

b) Proverbs, which represent a cultural fund of wisdom, and have a clausal
structure;
 c) Conventional similes, comparisons composed of a part interpreted literally and a
part interpreted figuratively irreversible binomials, consisting of two words of the
same part of speech joined by conjunction.

Because of their non-compositionality, fixed expressions can be compared when

semantically equivalent as holes. Comparing them in Italian and English, only few show
a total correspondence at the various levels, because referring to a common stock of
cultural values or beliefs.

Chapter 5
Introductory notes
A basic distinction is that between simple and complex words. For example, tree is
simple because we cannot break it down further; trees is a complex word, which is made
up of two part, tree and the plural ending –s. the parts that make up a word are called
‘morphemes’, defined as the smallest meaningful units.

Morphemes are divided into two classes : free morphemes (which can stand alone as
independent words) and bound morphemes (which cannot stand alone, but must be
attached to a free morpheme.

Such a distinction cannot account for a morphological characteristics of Italian: no

morpheme can stand alone, so they can only occur with another morpheme, as in alber-o

For this reason, the most useful distinction is that between ‘lexical’ morphemes,
expressing lexical meanings, and ‘grammatical’ morphemes, expressing grammatical
meanings.

Complex words are formed on the basis of three general processes:

1. Inflection  the production of various word-forms of a singles lexeme, for example,

finds/found (forms of the verb find) and fiore/fiori;
2. Derivation  the creation of a new lexeme from an existing one, for example
play  player, felice felicità
3. Compounding  the creation of a new lexeme by joining two words which can also
occur as independent words, like scolapasta and textbook

Italian and English differ in that the former privileges inflection, the latter compounding.
Inflection and derivation take place by altering the stem in some systematic way:

a) Affixation  the addition of affixes to the stem.

Prefixes (beginning of the stem)
Suffixes (end of the stem)
Infixes (incorporated into the stem)

b) internal modification of the stem, occurring as alternation in vowels or consonants

and stress shift;

c) suppletion, consisting of the replacement of one form by another, for example

è/sono, go/went
A relevant concept in morphology is “productivity”: we say that a particular kind of
morphological process or device is productive when it’s still available for the creation of
new words. A device is nonproductive when it was used fro creating words in the past,
but doesn’t form new words at present.

The converse of productivity is “lexicalisation” : a sequence of words which was earlier

analyzable as being composed of parts is inserted in the lexis as a single unit.

Inflection
Inflection serves to ‘complete’ a word usually by adding suffixes which are applicable to
any item of a given word class. In each language some part of speech are variable, or
inflected, occurring in various forms, others are invariable.

Italian and English differ in many aspects:

 Italian is an inflectional and synthetic language: several parts of speech are

inflected and consist of to or more morphemes (prend-er-ò).
 English is an isolant and analytic language: several parts of speech occur in an
invariable form.

There is another difference between the two languages :

 Italian inflection is realized by substitution (a morph is substituted by another

morph, fior-e/fior-i)
 English inflection is realized by addition ( a morph is added to the stem, tree/tree-
s)
 In Italian, four parts of speech are invariable (adverb, preposition, conjunction,
interjection) and five are inflected ( nouns, articles, adjectives, pronouns, verbs)
 In English, the parts of speech which are regularly inflected are: nouns, adjectives,
verbs.
 In Italian, suffixation is central, while the other devices are marginal phenomena.
 In English, the two types of alternation are extensive and typical.

Derivation
Both Italian end English have an extensive derivational morphology which usually occurs
by affixation. Each language has a set of affixes which are attached to stems according to
precise morphological rules, which establish:

 The word-class of the stem to which the affix can be attached

 The category of the word formed.
Italian derivation mainly occurs by affixation; English derivation occurs by
affixation and ‘zero derivation’, or conversion
Derivational affixes can be either prefixes or suffixes in English. They can be
prefixes, suffixes or infixes in Italian.
In both languages a word may contain more than one derivational suffix and if
there is also an inflectional suffix (industry-al-ise) , this must follow any
derivational suffix. (play-er-s)
 In both languages most prefixes don’t change the word-class of the stem to which
they are attached (obey –verb)  disobey

The formation of verbs and nouns

In Italian, there is a class of verbs, called ‘parasynthetic verbs’, formed from adjectives by
adding prefix and a suffix simultaneously to the lexical base:

Duro  indurire
Largo allargare

The verbs formed are ‘causative’ verbs, conveying the meaning ‘make X’, where X is the
meaning expressed by the adjective. In English, causative verbs are formed by adding the
prefix –en or the suffix –en to the adjective:

a) en + Adj

allargare : large enlarge

arricchire: rich enrich

b) Adj + en
indurire: hard  harden
addolcire: sweet  sweeten

Italian parasynthetic verbs can also be formed from nouns:

Noun  V
Bottone abbottonare
Zeroazzerare

In this case, a systematic pattern is found in English, which involves a shift of word-class
without any affix:
Abbottonare: button  to button
Azzerare: zero  to zero

In English, a productive way of forming verbs is that of adding the suffix –ify or the more
productive –ise/-ize to the base:

Terror terrorise
Colony colonise
Mummy mummify

Let’s see the formation of nouns from verbs. In English, the suffix –er, which is very
productive, is attached to verbs for forming nouns:
(1) Write  writer
(2) Play  player
(3) Slice  slicer

The nouns formed mean ‘a person who does X’ (1-2), and ‘an instrument that does X’ (3).
Italian:
(1) writer  scrittore/scrittrice
(2) player  giocatore/giocatrice
(3) slicer  affettatrice

We see that in Italian examples (1-2), the meaning ‘a person who does X’ is expressed by
the masculine suffix –tore or the feminine suffix –trice: in (3), the meaning ‘an instrument
that does X’ is conveyed by the suffix –trice.

The suffix –er forms an ‘agent noun’ (a person who does X); the suffix –ee forms a ‘patient
noun’ (a person who is X-ed).
(4) datore di lavoro impiegato
(5) allenatore -
(6) esaminatore esaminato

The passive use of the past participle as equivalent to –ee nouns, and a lexical gap in (5).
In Italian, highly productive suffixes are –ione and –mento, an in rapire rapimento,
operare operazione

Zero derivation
One way of forming new words is zero-derivation, or conversion: a word may be shifted
from one word-class into another without adding an affix.
Zero derivation is usually said to be peculiar to English.
Italian : vecchio (adj)  il vecchio (N)

Compounding
It is a productive morphological process in both Italian and English; but language-
specific rules establish what parts of speech can be combined, in what sequence and
what part of speech is formed.

A key notion in analyzing and classyfing compounds is ‘head’: the head is the primary
component of a compound that expresses the basic meaning of the whole compound. We
identify 3 types of compounds in both Italian and English :
- Endocentric compounds  where the head is contained within the compound
itself:
IT: cassaforte, camposanto
EN: blackboard, birdcage
- Exocentric compounds  where the head is not expressed, but it’s to be recoverd
outside the compound:
IT: portalettere (a person who delivers letters)
EN: redhead (a person with red hair)
- Coordinative compounds  which have two heads, that is, the constituents are of
equal status and there is a relationship of coordination between them:
IT: agrodolce (agro e dolce)
EN: bittersweet (bitter and sweet)
A relevant difference between the two languages is observed in endocentric compounds:
in Italian, the head is (usually) the left-hand constituent of the compound, and in
English, the right-hand one:
IT: head + modifier , as in cassaforte
EN: modifier + head, as in darkroom

a) noun + noun  noun

IT: capostazione, cavolfiore
EN: bedroom, sail boat But there are some differences. First, (b) is
productive in Italian, but not in English.
b) verb + noun  noun Second, the two languages differ in the way
IT: posacenere, portaombrelli they mark the plural of compound nouns. In
EN: pickpocket, cut-throat
IT, compound inflection is very irregular: the
first constituent may be inflected (navi
trahetto), or the second one (ferrovie) or
both (cassepanche). In ENk, the 2nd
constituents is usually inflected (blackbirds)
Another divergence is when the same
parts of speech are combined, but in a
different sequence :
IT: Noun + Adj  Noun : cassaforte
Adj + Noun  Noun : biancospino
EN: Adj + Noun  Noun: fast-food

In IT, both sequences are observed, but they are no longer productive. In EN, the
sequence is very productive, reproducing the typical word order Adj+Noun.

A 3rd case is when Italian and English differ in the parts of speech selecte for forming
compounds. For example, sequences that only occur in Italian are:
a) Verb+ Verb  Noun : saliscendi, giravolta
b) Adverb + Adverb  Adverb : malvolentieri, sottosopra

Sequences that only occur in English are:

A) Verb + Particle  Noun : fallout, stand-by
B) Verb + Particle  Adjective : wrap-around
C) –ing form +Noun  Noun : fishing rod, sleeping bag

A case study: the compound adjective

A major difference between the two languages is that compounding is a process much
more exploited in English than in Italian.
Compound adjectives show a wide range of morphological patterns:

- [Adj+Adj]  there are some lexicalized items with this structure (bittersweet, deaf-
mute). The pattern is highly productive, as in colour terms (grey-green), ethnic
(Swedish- Irish) and technical (concavo-convex)
- [N+Adj] the pattern is frequent and productive, and the noun can pay different
roles: it can indicate a standard of comparison, whose function is to intensify
(crystal-clear, bone-dry), or to specify a particular shade of colour (bottle-green)
 - [Adv+Adj] Semantically transparent, this pattern reproduces an adjectival
phrase ( fiercely competitive, politically correct)
- [Adj+V.-ing] (good-looking, long-lasting)
- [N+V.-ing] this is a very productive pattern, where the noun corresponds to the
object (animal-loving, self-cleaning)
- [Adv+V.-ing]  The left constituent, modifying the verb, can be an adjective
functioning as adverb (hard-working) or an adverb (never-ending)
- [Adj+Past Participle]  British-born, French-built. The formations including the
past participle of transitive verbs have a passive meaning.
- [N+Past Participle] this is a highly productive pattern where the noun generally
corresponds to a prepositional phrase that can be agentive, locative, instrumental:
church-owned (owned by the church), home-baked, London-based, hand-painted.
- [Adv+Past Participle] the pattern, where the adverb modifies the verb, includes a
number of lexicalized formations having well, long, ill as the first constituent (well-
known, long-established, ill-judged)

Besides ‘standard’ compound adjectives, there is a number of other types of productive

compounds that are used as modifiers of nouns:
 Formations with the patterns [[Adj+N]+ed] and [[N+N]+ed], called DERIVATIONAL
COMPOUNDS. they are found in literary text, and express the meaning of
‘possessing, providing with’, characterized by [adj+N]/[N+N], as in grey-haired,
blue-eyed
 Formations including a numeral: [Numeral+N] and [Numeral+N+Adj]. They are
temporal or spatial measure terms, such as five-mile (walk)
 Compound nouns with varius patterns: [Adj+N] (second-hand car), and [N+N] (fall-
winter collection)
 Formations including particles: [particle+V] (incoming); [V+particle] (see-through)
 Formations that are on the boundary between affixation and compounding . Their
pattern is [N+like/type/fashion/style]. Start Trek style command seat, California
type barbecues
ITALIAN:
 [Adj+Adj]  it is the most common pattern, in which the constituents are of equal
status. It includes various lexicalized units (agrodolce, sacrosanto), but is very
productive. 3 main subgroups can be identified:
1. ethnic formations (Greco-romano)
2. technical formations (economico-monetario)
3. colour adjectives combing 2 colour terms (grigioverde), or a colour term plus an
adj that semantically modifies it (grigio chiaro, bianco sporco)
 [Adj+N] it is a pattern producing colur terms that specify a particular shade of
colour (verde bosco, rosso mattone).

Comparison
Comparing the ‘standard’ compound adjectives, we notice 9 types of adjective in English
vs 2 types in Italian. The pattern [Adj+Adj] is the only symmetry between the two
languages. A ‘covert’ symmetry is represented by the Italian pattern [Adj+N], producing
colour adjectives, which semantically corresponds to the English pattern [N+Adj].
English compound adjectives can constitute a challenge to researchers in CL as well as
translators when looking for their equivalents: within a same morphological pattern, the
relationship between the constituents can vary, posing a problem of interpretation;
because of their productivity, many of the compounds used are not listed in dictionaries.

In order to answer the question “what are the Italian equivalents to the many English
compounds?” , we have consuted a bilingual dictionary. What emerges from the
examples is the wide range of equivalents: simple words, inflected or derived words,
adjectival or prepositional phrases etxc. So Italian seem to select either ‘shorter’ or
‘longer’ means, exploiting morphological as well as syntactic resources.

ENGLISH ITALIAN TYPE OF EQUIVALENT

everlasting; far-off eterno; remote simple adjective
poverty-stricken poverissimo inflected adjective
water-proof impermeabile derived adjective
easy-going accomodante present participle
far-reaching di vasta portata prepositional phrase
self-assured; earth-bound sicuro di sè; incapace di adjectival phrase
volare
sea-sick che soffre il mal di mare relative clause

Let’s consider now the compounds with other patterns used as modifiers. In this group
too, we find more patterns in English than in itlian; the only symmetry is represented by
[N+N].
ENGLISH ITALIAN TYPE OF EQUIVALENT
simple-minded ingenuo simple adjective
lion-hearted coraggioso derived adjective
four-roomed (flat) di/con 4 stanze prepositional phrase
built-in incorporato past participle
nine-year-old di nove anni prepositional phrase
ten-year-old decenne compound
see-through trasparente present participle

When the numeral is up to 9, the equivalent is a prepositional phrase. When it’s from 10
to 99, the equivalent is a compound whose pattern is [Numeral+enne]. When the English
adjective refers to the age of objects, the Italian equivalent is a prepositional phrase or a
relative clause.
Cases of interlinguistic shift
We shall illustrate some shifts involving the morphological level.
The 1st shift is observed from one morphological process to another: we shall see how
meanings expressed through compounding in English are expressed through inflection
or derivation in Italian.
In distinguishing between nouns referring to fruits and those referring to the trees that
bear them, Italian shows a recurrent pattern: the fruit name is lexically identical to the
tree name, but different in gender – the fruit is feminine and the tree is masculine.
While Italian exploits the inflectional suffixes –a and –o, English exploits compounding; it
joins the word tree to the word denoting the fruit to form the word denoting the tree:
Apple-tree, peach-tree, apricot-tree.
Let’s now consider a case of shift from derivation to compounding. Italian uses the
derivational suffix –eto, attached to nouns denoting plants: roseto,uliveto,pineto/a
The English equivalents re compounds consisting of Noun+ Noun, where the noun on the
left denotes the plant: rose bed (roseto), pinewood (pineto), olive grove (uliveto).

The next type of shift concerns ‘alternatives’, derivational suffixes that express a
subjective judgment ‘as to the value’ of the lexical base. In Italian, it is a large and very
productive set of suffixes, which are usually divided into the following groups:

a) Diminutives : -ino, -etto, -uzzo

b) Augmentatives: -one
c) Pejoratives: -accio,-ucolo,-astro

Pejoratives are clearly evaluative, indicating ‘bad’, ‘nasty’ and their meanings are usually
expressed lexically in English:
Ragazzaccio bad boy
Vitaccia rotten life
Cagnaccio nasty dog

Diminutives and augmentatives express a semantic value and can take on pragmatic
values. Diminutives can be attached to nouns (casetta), personal names (Luigino),
adjectives (piccolino), and adverbs (benino), without changing the word-class of the base.
In British English, the set of alteratives, which are usually attached to nouns, is small
and not very productive:
- y/ie is the most productive suffix in present-day English. It can be attached to
nouns (granny), and personal names (Johnny) to express intimacy and affection. It
sometimes involves a modification of the lexical base (husband hubby,
stomachtummy).
The suffix can also be attached to some colour adjectives, as in greeny.
- -let can indicate ‘small size’ (booklet) or the off-spring of animals (eaglet)
- -ette can express ‘small size’ (kitchenette, diskette), or a derogatory evaluation, as
in novelette.
The values expressed in Italian by diminutives are conveyed in English by a variety of
linguistic means, which can be grouped into: a)lexical means, b)diminutives, c)a
particular type of compounds.

Other word-formation processes

Italian and English also exploit minor morphological processes for creating new words.
o ‘back formation’  only occurs in English. It is a process by which a simple word is
analysed as a complex word made up of two constituents and one of them is then
removed to form a new lexeme. For ex: peddler, as analysed as being composed of
peddle+er and the new word, the verb to peddle, entered the vocabulary.
o ‘clipping’  it involves the shortening of a word by omitting some part. This process
is observed in colloquial spoken discourse in both languages:
IT: tele(visione), auto(mobile), prof(essore)
EN: lab(oratory), ad(vertisement), (in)flu(enza)
 o ‘blending’  it forms new words from parts of existing words. The formations are
called parole macedonia, or incroci in Italian and ‘blends’ in English:
IT: Palasport (palazzo dello sport), Polfer (polizia ferroviaria)
EN: smog (smoke+fog), brunch (breakfast+lunch)
o ‘acronymy’  it forms words from the initial letters of a group of words. This
process has its basis in written language:
IT: TAR( tribunal regionale amministrativo), ASL (azienda sanitaria locale)
EN: ATM (authomatic teller machine), LA ( Los Angeles)
o ‘coinage’  it is the creation of new words to name new commercial products. The
trade names for a company’s product can become common nouns denoting any
version of that product.
IT: pennarello, borotalco
EN: Frisbee, Kleenex
At the interface of morphology and syntax- the –ndo and –ing
suffixes
The Italian –ndo and the English –ing suffixes show similarities, but exhibit differences in
their nature and the types of construction in which they occur.
 The Italian –ndo is an inflectional suffix attached to the lexical base of verbs to
form a non-finite verb form, like mangiando.
 The English –ing, which is attached to the lexical base of verbs, can be inflectional,
producing a non-finite form like sleeping, or derivational, when forming nouns
from verbs.
The Italian –ndo form occurs in two kinds of construction.
1. It is found in the verbal periphrasis stare+V-ndo, which conveys a progressive
meaning. This construction, sometimes described as similar to the English verb
form be+V-ing, differs from it in some respects.
2. The Italian –ndo form is also found in non-finite subordinate clauses functioning
as adverbials.

Chapter 6
Introductory notes
The smallest unit of syntactic analysis is the word, understood as word-class, or part of
speech. There are 9 parts of speech: noun, article, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb,
preposition, conjunction and interjection.
Each word-class has certain typical distribution uses.
Whenever we arrange words to form a sentence, we do so in a systematic way, according
to the rules of our mother tongue, that establish which arrangements are possible, and
which are not.

The largest unit of syntax is the sentence  consists of one or more clauses. Clauses
have parts called ‘phrases’, which belong to a limited range of types and have a specific
functions. Phrase have parts: a ‘head’ and often a number of related elements, known as
‘modifiers’.
category label example
noun phrase NP that ancient book
(Det+Adj+N)
 verb phrase VP saw a redbreast (V+NP)
adjective phrase AdjP eager for ice-cream (Adj+PP)
prepositional phrase PP behind the door (prep+NP)
adverb phrase AdvP very late (Adv+Adv)

A clause consists of NP+VP. A NP consists of a noun (the head) and of either one or more
modifiers, which add information. The VP consists of: a verb (the head), some elements,
such as NP or PP.
Phrases have specific roles to play within their clause, and these roles are called
‘syntactic functions’. Functions are essentially relational concepts: to specify the function
of a phrase is to say what its relation is to the construction containing it:

(1) The man gave a leaflet to John.

The man is a NP functioning as a subject

Gave is the predicate
A leaflet is a NP functioning as Object
To John is a PP functioning as Indirect Object.

So a NP may stand in different relations to the verb. Consider :

(2) This is a good idea.
(3) The minister is responsible for the decision.

A Predicate (P) may consist of V, as in (1) or be + predicate complement (C), such as NP in

(2) or an AdjP as in (3).
Other syntactic functions are those of the Complement – the elements required by the
verb – and the Adverbial, an optional element in the clause structure, which may be
realized as AdvP, PP, or a clause. Look at the following examples:
(4) He stayed in the garden (complement)
(5) He spoke to her in the garden (adverbial)

In (4), the PP in the garden is a complement required by the verb stay; in (5), it is an
adverbial because it is optional and supplies additional information.
A sentence may consist of one or more clauses. When there are two or more clauses, they
are joined in two basic ways:
a) Coordination, employing coordinators such as and, but, and the correlating
elements either…or, not, only…but, also
b) Subordination, employing a number of subordinators (words belonging to the
category of conjunctions), such as that, when, because, if…

Subordinate clauses may be finite, when containing a finite verb-form with a tense
marker, or non-finite, when containing a non-finite verb-form. They are of 3 kinds:
a. The relative clause  It’s typically a constituent of the NP, and is introduced by a
‘relativiser’  a relative pronoun or relative adverb, such as why, when, where –
which points back to the head of the NP, referred to as ‘antecedent’. Relative
clauses may be ‘restrictive’, when supplying essential information for the
 identification of the antecedent, or ‘non-restrictive’, when giving additional
information.
(6) The girl that came is his sister. (restrictive)
(7) My television set, which is portable, is battery-operated. (non-restrictive)

b. The noun clause  it fills a position that a NP typically occupies in the main
clause.
(8) Tell me what you want. (object position)
(9) That he mentioned Mary is interesting. (subject position)
(10) He decided to stay. (object position)

c. The adverbial clause  it plays the same role as the AdvP in the simple sentence,
and is introduced by a subordinator.
(11) He’s taller than I expected. (comparative clause)
(12) Play it where I can’t hear you. (locative clause)
(13) He resigned after the takeover as completed. (temporal clause)

Word order in declarative sentences

We have to distinguish between an ‘unmarked’ order (where no element is highlighted),
and ‘marked’ order (where some element is highlighted).
UNMARKED:
- Italian is a language with a relatively free word order. English is a language with a
relatively fixed word order, which is the main device signaling the relation of
subject and object.
(1) Giovanni ha risolto il problema. John solved the problem.
(2) Succedono strane cose. Strange thing are happening.

In Italian, we find SV order in (1) and VS in (2). In English, we find SV in both sentences.

- In Italian, the subject is optional. In English, it is compulsory  the subject slot is

always filled by some element, a noun, a pronoun or a dummy subject like it,
there or here.
(3) E’ uscito. He went out
(4) Piove It is raining
(5) Ecco il tuo libro Here is your book

- In Italian, sentences with transitive verbs are accompanied by O and by IO

realised as PP. in English, there is a class of verbs, called ‘ditransitive verbs’, such
as give, leave, make, pour etc., which allow two constructions.
(6) Ho dato un libro ad Anna. I gave a book to Anna.
-- I gave Anna a book.
(7) Ha fatto un golf per Giovanni. She made a sweater for John.
-- She made John a sweater.
- Asymmetries are observed in the position of adverbials.
Stance adverbs  provide a kind of comment on the content (obviously, actually,
probably) or style (technically, speaking, frankly) of the sentence.
a. Ovviamente, penso che hai ragione. Obviously, I think you’re right.
 b. Penso, ovviamente, che hai ragione. I, obviously, think you’re right.
c. Penso che hai ragione, ovviamente. I think you’re right, obviously.

In Italian they are characterized by freedom of movement. In English, all 3 occurrences

are possible, but initial position is more common.

A general rule in English establishes that frequency adverbs are placed between S and V,
with other adverbs at the end of the sentence. When there is more than one adverbial in
the sentence, some preference is observed for the following ordering:
Manner- place- time
I met John at the theatre yesterday.
I ate something rapidly in my office during the interval.

Marked constructions
Marked constructions differ from their unmarked counterparts in the way the
informational content is presented. This is done by placing a constituent (x) in a strange,
unusual position. In Italian, word order is more flexible than in English, and two
constructions are not found in English.

CLEFTING (frase scissa)

Here, information that could be given in a single clauses, is broken up into two clauses.
a. Ho cucinato una torta per Giovanni. I baked a cake for John.
b. E’ una torta che ho cucinato per Giovanni. It was a cake that I baked for John.
c. E’ per Giovanni che ho cucinato una torta. It was for John that I baked a cake.

The 2nd type, called ordinary wh-clefts in English :

a. Ho bisogno di una bevanda fresca. I need a cold drink.
b. Ciò di cui ho bisogno è una bevanda fresco. What I need is a cold drink.

This construction of a relative clause + essere/be + the highlighted constituent, which

presents new information.

The 3rd called reversed wh-clefts in English, show the final position of the relative clause:
Un fine settimana è ciò che desidera. A weekend break is what he wants.

In this type of construction, the highlighted constituent expresses new information.

DISLOCATION:
It has to do with information flow and emphasis, and typically occurs in conversation.
There are two major types of constructions: left dislocation and right dislocation.

a. Non sopporto Giovanni. I can’t stand John.

b. Giovanni, non lo sopporto. John, I can’t stand him.
c. Ho detto la verità a Franco. I told the truth to Frank.
d. A Franco gli ho detto la verità. --
in Italian, left dislocation, the object (O) or the IO is dislocated to the left of the sentence,
followed by a comma, corresponding to a pause in speech. Left dislocation serves to
establish a topic in discourse and is very frequent in Italian for topicalisation, while
English uses the passive in many cases.

Right dislocation is similar to left dislocation: a constituent is dislocated to the right of

the clause, preceded by a comma and a conferential pronoun is inserted.
a. Non sopporto Giovanni. I can’t stand John.
b. Non lo sopporto, Giovanni. I can’t stand him, John.

Its function is to clarify or underline the reference of the dislocated constituent .

POSTPONING OF THE SUBJECT

a. Viene Piero. –
b. Rimangono molti problemi. –

This construction is not found in English, which exhibits another construction:

here/there + V + S, where the postponing of the subject entails the insertion of here or
there in the subject slot:
a. Here comes Peter.
b. There remain many problems.

HANGING TOPIC (tema sospeso)

a. I giornali, compro io

This construction, not found in English, serves to establish the topic in discourse.

FRONTING
Fronting (anticipazione) refers to the initial position of a constituent which is normally
found in post-verbal position.

a. Su una parete erano appesi tre Van Gogh. On one wall hung three Van Gogh.
b. Più serie erano le ferrite alla testa. More serious were the head injuries.

Fronting is closely connected with inversion, and can serve various functions in
discourse.

PASSIVE
a. Il bambino è stato attaccato dal cane. The child was attacked by the dog.

The passive construction is examined in its functions in discourse. In both languages, it

is more frequently used in writing and serves three pragmatic functions in discourse:

I. The demotion of the agent: this construction is used in scientific and technical
discourse to convey an objective detachment from what is being described or
reported. The phenomenon is known as ‘depersonalisation’.
II. Focalisation: it is used to focus on the action/event expressed by the verb.
III. Topicalisation: it gives topic status to the patient, that is, the patient is the topic of
discourse, and permits topic continuity.

Other sentence types

In Italian, interrogatives are distinguished mainly by variation in intonation, in English
mainly by variation in structure.

(1) a. Maria è ritornata. Mary has come back.

b. Maria è ritornata ? Has Mary come back?

IT  S+P+rising intonation EN: Auxiliary + S + V

In English, when there is no other auxiliary verb, a do-support is used, as in Did you buy
the book?
A second kind of interrogative are wh-questions:
(2) a. Che cosa stai leggendo? What are you reading?
b. Quando è partito Giovanni? When did John leave?

These sentences are called wh-questions in English because they include an nterrogative
element beginning with wh, and domande-k in Italian, because most of the interrogative
elements begin with the sound /k/.

Another difference can be observed when the interrogative element is accompanied by a

preposition:
(3) a. Con chi stai parlando? To whom are you talking?
b. -- Who are you talking to?

In Italian, the whole interrogative phrase must be fronted in English permits two
constructions:
1) the fronting of the whole interrogative phrase in (3)a;
2) the preposition standing in (3)b, where the element is fronted and the preposition
stays in the canonical position of PP, after the verb.

English also allows ‘multi-interrogatives’, that is, questions containing two or more wh-
elements, of which only one is fronted.

(4) a. What did they do to whom?

b. Who said what to whom?

This type of structure is unknown to Italian, but in recent times researchers have found
occurrences of Italian questions reproducing the English structure. They suggest that
this is a case of ‘syntactic calque’, a phenomenon taking place when language A borrows
a productive syntactic pattern from language B.
A 3rd type of interrogative is the tag-question: a question is attached to a declarative
clause to ask for confirmation of its content:
(5) a) Non parli spagnolo, vero/non è vero? You don’t speak Spanish, do you?
b) Giovanni è gentile, vero/non è vero? John’s kind, isn’t he?
Italian requires an ‘invariable’ tag which can be attached to any clause.
In English, a positive tag is attached to a negative clause (a) and a negative tag to a
positive (b).

A 4th kind of interrogative is the ‘alternative question’:

(6) Rimani o vai via? Are you staying or going?

This question includes to alternatives, linked by the coordinator o/or, and has answers
the set of alternatives given in the question itself. They have the typical structure of yes-
no questions, and are logically equivalent to their yes-no counterparts. They may be used
to emphasise the choice.

Let’s now consider the imperatives, which are constructions used for issuing requests
another communicative functions:
(7) a. Vieni qui Come here.
b. Venite qui Come here.

In both languages , imperatives have V in initial position with the omission of the
subject, but may be accompanied by some form of address, called ‘vocative’. Italian
employs two different verb-forms, whose selection is made referring to the situational
context:
 the second person singular imperative in (7a) when the speaker addresses one
person;
 the second person plural imperative in (7b) when s/he addresses more than one
person.
 English employs a verb stem without any marker.

‘let-imperatives’:
(8) a. Apriamo la finestra. Let’s open the window.

‘pseudo-imperatives’:
(9) Vai al diavolo! Go to hell!

Exclamatives express exclamatory meaning signalled either by intonation or syntactic

means. These constructions open with an initial exclamative phrase containing an
exclamative word (come, quanto, che, how, how much, what).

(10)a. Come è gentile Giovanni! How kind is John!

b. Quanto tempo ha sprecato Maria! How much time Mary wasted!

Negation
Each sentence type can be positive or negative. Negative sentences are formed using
words expressing, negation. Both Italian and English have a sentence negator (non, not)
and specific lexical items with negation built into them.
The two languages differ in two aspects:
1) the first concerns single vs multiple negation: in English, only one negator can occur
in a clause; in Italian, the negator non can co-occur with one or two negative items:

(1) a. Non ho mai incontrato Giovanni. I have never met John.

b. Non ho visto né uno né l’altro. I haven’t seen either one or the other.
c. Non ho detto niente a nessuno. I didn’t say anything to anyone.

2) the second difference concerns the placement of the sentence negator non and not. In
Italian, the negative sentence is structurally similar to the corresponding positive
sentence.
a. Non conosco Giovanni.
b. Non ho incontrato Edoardo.

In english, clauses are negated by inserting the negator not, or the contracted form n’t
used in speech, after the first auxiliary.
a. She isn’t happy.
b. He has not studied.

The noun phrase

A NP is a construction which typically has either a noun or a pronoun as head, and
optional constituents (determiners and modifiers), which tell us something about the
head. We distinguish between pre-modifiers, occurring before the head, and post-
modifiers, occurring after the head.
(1) a. Il /un libro the/a book
b. quel libro that book

In Italian the possessive adjective occurs before the noun and can be preceded by
articles, demonstratives and quantifiers. So, we have the sequence: determiner +
possessive adj + N.

In English, the possessive occurs before N except when the noun is also preceded by a
determiner. In this case the possessive element occurs as a post-modifier in a
construction N +of+ possessive pronoun.

This divergence is determined by the fact that the possessive element has a different
syntactic status in the two languages: in English, it belongs to the category of
determiners, and since two determiners cannot co-occur (a sequence like *that my book
in ungrammatical) a re-ordering of elements is required. In Italian, it belongs to the
category of adjectives, so it can be preceded by any determiner.
There is another divergence between the 2 languages. In Italian, the possessive adjective
doesn’t occur with nouns denoting inalienably possessed entities, like body parts. In
English, its presence is obligatory in these cases:

2) a. Il bambino ha alzato la mano. The child raised his hand.

In Italian, the adjective may also precede the noun, although its position is not free, but
determined by semantic and syntactic factors. There is a small class of adjectives which
may precede or follow nouns with a difference in meaning.
In pronominal position the express an evaluative meaning, while in postnominal position
they describe an objective quality of N. the two meanings they can convey are expressed
by different lexical items in English:

3)a. Un vecchio amico. Old friend (evaluative)

b. Un amico vecchio Aged friend (descriptive)
4)a. Un uomo povero A poor/needy man
b. Un pover’uomo An unfortunate man

ORDER OF THE ADJECTIVES:

evacuative adj+size+shape+age+colour+nationality+ material +N

when we have an AdjP consisting of Adjective+modifier, in both languages it is placed

after the noun:
(5) L’unico giorno adatto per la riunione. The only day suitable for the meeting.

Considering other modifiers of the head noun, in both languages a modifier that typically
occurs after N is the PP:
(6) La ragazza dietro a Pietro. The girl behind Peter.

Asymmetries are found in the genitive construction. It can include a variety of meaning
relationships, the most common of which is possession. Italian has the ‘Romance’
genitive, which is indicated by means of a preposition:
(7) il padre del ragazzo head noun+di+modifier (NP)

English has 3 constructions:

1) The ‘Romance genitive’ : head noun+ of+ modifier (the roof of the house);
2) The ‘Saxon genitive’: modifier+’s+head noun (Italy’s future)
There are variants of it:
a) ‘group’ genitives (the captain of the ship’s lawyer, Tom and Sarah’s house)
b) double genitives (a play of Shakespeare’s)
c) location genitives (at the doctor’s)
d) elliptical genitives (this book sells better than Ken Follet’s)
3) Typical of Germanic languages, the 3rd construction is the simple juxtaposition of
constituents without any grammatical marking: modifier+head noun. One or more
nouns are placed before the head:
N+head: computer screen, speed limit
N+N: home delivery service
N+N+N+ head: community centre finance committee.
The postmodification of N (Romance genitive) in Italian and the premodification of
N in English exemplify a syntactic divergence: Italian is characterized by left-to-
right constructions, English by right-to-left constructions.
 The phrase N+head can be distinguished from N+N compounds like sailboat by
applying a syntactic test: the phrase allows modification, that is, the insertion of
other modifiers, while the nominal compound excludes modification:
(8)a. London colleges (noun phrase)
b. London [and Oxford] colleges
c. two London [theological] colleges.
(9)a. ice cream (compound)
b. *ice Italian cream

the Italian equivalents to N+N phrases consist of head noun+di+NP:

(10) luci della città city lights
(11) college di Londra London colleges

RELATIVE CLAUSE:
(12) non conosco la ragazza
che studia a Perugia. I don’t know the girl who studies at Perugia
(13) L’uomo che ho visto ieri è
partito questa mattina. The man Ø I saw yesterday left this morning.

The first asymmetry is that in Italian the relativiser cannot be omitted, while in English it
can be omitted in non-subject position.
The second asymmetry concerns the position of the relative clause. Its canonical position
is immediately after its antecedent in Italian as well as in English. But in English, when
it is long and predominantly restrictive, the clause can also occur far from its antecedent,
at the end of the clause containing the NP.

The second type of clause is the –ing clause, only found in English, which has a relative
clause as equivalents in Italian :
(14) Uno sconosciuto che sembrava A stranger came into the room who
proprio lo zio Giovanni entrò nella stanza. looked just like uncle John.

The third type is the past-participle clause, which is found in both languages:
(15) Gli Stati Uniti hanno accolto la The US welcomed a proposal made
proposta avanzata dai presidenti by the presidents of Colombia and
della Colombia e del Perù. Peru.

Finally, we find the infinitve clause:

(16) Ho molte cose da dirti. I’ve got a lot of things to tell you.
Impiega molto tempo ad asciugarsi. It takes a lot of time to dry.

The verb
Italian and English have highly complex verb systems that differ in many aspects; the
main divergence is that Italian privileges syntactic means (inflection), while English
privileges analytic means: tense and mood are central in the Italian verb system, whereas
auxiliaries, in particular modals, are central in English.
  Italian has 48 verb-forms, English has 3 (bakes, baking and baked). In both
languages, we also find ‘compound forms’, which are build up with auxiliaries.
Auxiliaries are a class of verbs showing various differences in the two languages,
in Italian it includes essere and avere; in English, it includes verbs classified into
primary auxiliary verb (be, have, do) and modal auxiliaries (can, could, will,
would, shall, should, may, might, must). In both languages, they can be used as
markers for one or more semantic categories.
 In Italian, essere and avere can be used in active voice and essere only in passive
voice.
 When the verb is monovalent the auxiliary is usually essere with verbs of
motion (è uscito), and avere with the others (ha dormito), with a few verbs that
can occur with both auxiliaries (Ho corso per tre ore/ sono corso subito via)
 When it is di-valent, the auxiliary is avere (I due presidenti hanno firmato il
trattato).
 When the verb is zero-valent, both auxiliaries can be used (è piovuto/ ha
piovuto).
 In English, have is used in active and be in passive voice. Auxiliaries can be
chained together in sequence, each having a fixed position in the chain.
 In both languages, ‘periphrastic forms’ are also found. They are morpho-syntactic
structure consisting of two verb forms, its value resulting from a semantic
integration of its constituents.
 In Italian, they are build up with a verb marked for tense and non-finite verb
form (-ndo form, infinitive, past participle) of the main verb.
 In English, the 2nd element is the bare lexical base of the verb.
What emerges is that Italian exploits periphrases mainly for expressing aspectual values,
and English for modal ones.

Time and tenses

Tense is the grammatical realization of the semantic category of time; it is used to
express the location of an event or a state of affairs at some point of time.

The three basic temporal distinctions in our conceptualization of time are: PRESENT,
PAST, FUTURITY. Italian grammaticalises the temporal notions of PRESENT, PAST AND
FUTURITY in the tense system, while English grammaticalises PRESENT AND PAST. The
notion of FUTURITY in English, is ‘implicitly’ conveyed by modal auxiliaries, which
express modal values involving a reference to a future world-state.

To sum up, Italian attaches a greater relevance to the temporal value of FUTURITY than
to modal values. Conversely, English attaches a greater relevance to modal values than
to FUTURITY. What complicates the situation is that tenses can express temporal as well
as aspectual or modal values: in Italian, the imperfetto expresses both temporal location
(PAST) and aspectual information; in both Italian and English, the present tense can also
take on aspectual values.

When considering the tenses in the Indicative mood, the main differences between Italian
and English are the following:
 a) The presence in Italian of the three tenses unknown to English: the trapassato
remoto, which is rarely used, the imperfetto and the futuro;
b) The ‘formal’ symmetry between the passato remoto and simple past, and the
passato prossimo and the present perfect, which yet differ in their uses;
c) The central role of the opposition simple tenses vs progressive forms in English.

In Italian, the present tense is a wide-ranging tool for communicating a number of

temporal and aspectual values, some of which are not conveyed by the English simple
present. In addition, being a tense of the indicative mood, it also conveys the modal value
of ‘certainty’. It expresses the temporal value PRESENT, which can be represented as the
congruence of all three points:
Present tense E,S,R

(1) a. Penso che tu abbia torto. (state) PRESENT

b. L’arbitro fischia un rigore (reporting) PRESENT
c. Vi dichiaro marito e moglie. (performative) PRESENT

The present tense can also express other temporal values:

(2) Ieri vado al cinema e chi ti incontro? Giovanni e Maria. PAST
(3) Domani vado a fare la spesa. FUTURITY

The ‘historic present’ occurs in spoken and written discourse; the present tense
expresses FUTURITY when accompanied by a time adverbial explicitly referring to the
future, as in (3).
The present tense can also express 4 distinct aspectual values :
1. Aoristic aspect refers to states or events that are seen as timeless, as in
scientific statements: L’acqua bolle a 100°;
2. Omnitemporal  as in geographical descriptions: Londra sorge sul Tamigi.
3. Habitual behavior Vanno a scuola in autobus
4. Event in progress Carlo dorme adesso.
5. Continuous aspect (iteration)  Edna guarda l’orologio ogni 5 minuti

In english, the simple present can express the values conveyed by the italian present
tense. But it’s commonly used for 2 major values: to describe a state existing at the
present time, or to present habitual behavior:
(4) I like jazz. STATE
(5) John drinks heavily. HABIT

But it does not express the values ‘progressive’ and ‘continuous’, which can only be
expressed by the progressive form:
Whenever the verb describes an action or event which is in progress or continuing at the
time indicated by the tense, the progressive form is used.

English employs the present perfect when the verb is stative, and the present perfect
progressive when it is dynamic.
The present perfect can describe the duration of a state, event or activity that began
sometime in the past, and continues to exist up to the present time .
  It is typically accompanied by adverbials indicating the beginning point or a time
span , such as since and for .
 It can denote activities that imply a resultant state in the present.
 It can also refer to an event that is close to the present.
 It is also used to highlight news of current relevance in newspapers, or to imply
the continuing validity of earlier findings or practices in academic discourse.

Aspect
It is a semantic category that takes into consideration the process expressed by the verb
in its internal constituency and the peculiar ways in which it develops. Aspect can be
expressed by grammatical means (inflection, auxiliaries), or lexical means.
Verbs can be classified into:
- Stative verbs  denoting stable states (know, seem, belong);
- Dynamic verbs  denoting events;
- Punctual  which correspond to a point on the rect representing time (sneeze);
- Transformative  denoting a change in state (arrive, die)
- Continuative  describing an activity, a state or a process having a duration that
can be interrupted (live, stay, wait, sleep)
- Resultative  describing a process having some duration and aimed at an
achievement (write, build)

The major distinction is between perfective and imperfective: the former describes states
as accomplished, the latter as unaccomplished.
In perfective aspect, the process is presented in its totality, as in He went to school
(accomplished), stated as true regardless of time as in The sun rises in the east (aoristic).

Within the imperfective aspect, the process is viewed with focus on an internal phase or a
feature of the temporal flow. The verb describes habitual behavior (habitual), presents an
event as in progress at a specific time (progressive).

 English grammaticalises the progressive aspect in the verb system through

progressive forms: it expresses the dynamic quality of events or actions that are in
progress, and their limited duration.
 The Italian verbal periphrasis stare + V-ndo is sometimes described as similar to
the English progressive form, yet differs from it in some aspects. Semantically, it
focuses on a single action or event, and describes it as in progress. The Italian
construction is subject to morphological and syntactic restrictions.
Not considering its regional uses, stare a + infinitive replaces stare+V-ndo in negative and
imperative clauses , and is used in past tenses (Non sono stata a sentire tutta la
conferenza).
Stare + V-ndo tends to occur in the main clause when there are time adverbials
indicating a limited time span (ancora, in quel momento) , and in subordinate clauses
introduced by mentre:
a. Mentre stavo leggendo, hanno suonato alla porta.
b. Sto ancora cercando l’appartamento.
The progressive periphrasis, which is rather frequent, is extending its use in
contemporary Italian, a phenomenon that might be due to the influence of the English
progressive form.
The difference between the two languages is that in English, the progressive form is
subject to no restrictions, and the choice between simple tenses and progressive forms is
required by the system.
In Italian, the selection of the progressive periphrasis is free, as in “Che fai?/che stai
facendo?”. Its pragmatic function in discourse is illustrated as in “Vai ad aprire la porta,
per favore?-Non posso, sto cucinando”: it is used when the speaker intends to highlight
that a specific activity is in progress when s/he think that the explicit expression of the
progressive aspect is relevant in discourse.

Another divergence is that the Italian periphrasis only expresses the progressive aspect,
while English progressive forms can convey two aspectual values (progressive or
continuous), can combine ‘progressive’ and ‘habitual’, and ‘progressive’ and a passive
voice:
1) He’s writing a new novel PROGRESSIVE
2) Whenever I see him, he is working at the computer CONTINUOUS
3) Over the last days I am getting up a 6 o’clock. PROGRESSIVE+HABIT
4) He is now being interrogated by the police PROGRESSIVE+PASSIVE

The Italian present tense covers all the values expressed by the English present
progressive. The verb of motion venire within the periphrasis metaphorically gives an
idea of activity in progress.
Let’s now consider some examples of the English past progressive, and their
corresponding verb forms in Italian:
5) Industries have been pouring liquids of all sorts into the river.
6) The Australians have been making wine for over one hundred years.

In both cases, English makes explicit the idea that the process began in the past and is
still going on. In Italian, we find two different verb forms depending on the presence or
absence of time adverbials indicating a time span:
7) Le industrie hanno scaricato liquidi di ogni sorta nel fiume.
8) Gli Australiani producono vino da oltre cento anni.

In (7), Italian cannot express the value grammatically, but can convey it employing laica
means: Le industrie hanno scaricato, e stanno tuttora scaricando […]. In (8) we find the
present tense that, because of the time adverbial, takes on a durative value.

It’s sometimes supposed that the progressive form occurs only with verbs denoting
activities or events. However, it can also occur with stative verbs in English: they lexically
describe a permanent state, as in (9a), which the progressive form can turn into a non-
permanent one, as in (9b).
9)a. He is difficult. (permanent) E’ una persona.
b. He is being difficult. (non-permanent) Intrattabile.

There is another aspect: the progressive form of continuative verbs like live, wait and stay
serves the function of making temporary an activity described as durative, as in (10):
10)a. He lives in Florence (durative) Vive a Firenze
b. He is living in Florence. (temporary) --

Modality
It is a semantic category that indicates the attitude of the speaker towards the
prepositional content of the sentence; s/he can express certainty, possibility, permission,
obligation.
3 types of modality are identified :
Epistemic modality  is concerned with matters of belief and knowledge and
includes semantic values such as probability, possibility, certainty, prediction.
Deontic modality  is concerned with action by others or by the speaker
him/herself and includes obligation, necessity, permission.
Dynamic modality  is concerned with ability and disposition.

The first divergence between Italian and English is that the former has a system of four
moods, the latter two. The English subjunctive mood, when resent, is noticeable through
the absence of the verb-form that might otherwise be expected:
(1) E’ necessario che lui la veda subito. It is necessary that he see her immediately.
(2) Si augurò che fosse morto. He wished that he was dead.

In both languages, the indicative mood is a member of the epistemic system: the speaker
expresses certainty about the content of the sentence. It is also defined the mood of
factuality.
The imperative, which is a member of the deontic system, is the mood of non-factuality.
The subjunctive mood in Italian grammaticalises non-factuality; like the conditional
mood, it can occur in main clauses as well as in embedded clauses where it also works
as a marker of subordination. The subjunctive can express various semantic values
usually conveyed in English by modal auxiliaries.

Other divergences concern modal verbs. Italian has 3 modal verbs (dovere, potere, volere)
which are not distinguished from other lexical verbs. They are regularly inflected, can co-
occur (Può voler uscire), but do not occur in the imperative.
Another feature of modals is that each of them can convey more than one meaning.

English modals are auxiliary verbs and include nine central modals and the marginal
modals (need, dare, ought to) .They constitute a homogeneous group differing from lexical
verbs both in their morphological and distributional characteristics. Modal auxiliaries
lack inflections and are always followed by a bare lexical base, as in:

a. He can go.
b. You should come.
c. They must do that.

They cannot occur after to; in negative sentences, they precede the negator not, and in
interrogative sentences, precede the subject.
Each English moal auxiliary can express a range of meanings, which are often expressed
in different ways in Italian.
CAN:
a. She can stay as long as she likes. PERMISSION Può rimanere per quanto tempo
desidera.
b. Water can still get in. POSSIBILITY. L’acqua può ancora entrare.
c. She can speak French. ABILITY Sa parlare francese.

Italian employs the modal verb potere to express the epistemic values (permission,
possibility), and the verb sapere to express the dynamic value (ability).
WILL:
a. We can’t find a publisher who will do the whole thing. INTENTION Non riusciamo a
trovare un editore che intenda/voglia pubblicare il tutto.
b. I’ll give you the book on Thursday. VOLITION  Ti do/darò il libro giovedi.
c. Immunisation will provide protection for at least 5 years. PREDICTION  La
vaccinazione dà una protezione che dura almeno 5 anni.
d. You will do as you’re told. OBLIGATION  Fai/farai come ti viene detto.

Will conveys semantic values that imply a reference to future events. Volition- will
usually expresses a stronger volition than verbs like want and intend, and is
accompanied by action verbs.
The difference between volition and intention is subtle: typical occurrences of volition are
sentences with first person subject, as in (b), and occurrences of intention are sentences
with third person subject.
Volition is expressed lexically with volere or intendere and the other values
grammatically: prediction with the future tense, intention and obligation with the present
or the future tense.

A relevant point is that modals can take on pragmatic values depending on the co-text
and/or situational context in which the utterance is produced.

(1)a. You can choose from a spacious family room or interconnecting rooms.
b. You can start your meal off with a luxury pre-dinner cocktail.
(2)a. As our VIP guests you will be greeted with a welcome drink on arrival.
b. You will not find a better venue in the area.

Both modals usually take you as their subject. Possibility-can expresses ‘opportunity’:
the receiver is told what the product gives the opportunity or power to do. Prediction-will
expresses a promise, as (2a), or the infallibility of the claim as in (6b).

Let’s now consider the pragmatic value of will in spoken discourse:

(3) Move and I’ll shoot. THREAT
(4) Will you hurry up? REQUEST FOR AN ACTION
(5) Will you come to the party? INVITATION OR REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

WOULD:
It can expresses modal or aspectual values:
(6) a.He would help him. HABIT IN THE PAST
 b. He said he woud come. INTENTION IN THE PAST
c. And aunt Mary? She would be alone, as always. PREDICTION IN THE PAST

- Would (habit) ∙ ∕ ∙ essere solito/imperfetto

- Would (intention and prediction in the past/unreal/hypothesis) ∙/∙ conditional mood

Voice
The voice, also called diathesis, of a verb describes the relationship between the action
that the verb expresses and its arguments. The basic distinction is between active and
passive voice. When th subject of the clause is the agent of the action, the verb is in the
active voice; when the subject is tha patient, it is in the passive voice.
An active voice clause can be transformed into a semantically equivalent passive voice
clause:

ACTIVE Il cane ha attaccato il bambino The hunter killed the bear.

PASSIVE Il bambino è stato attaccato dal cane. The bear was killed by the hunter.

The passive construction differs from its active counterpart in that subject and the direct
object switch syntactic functions.

Another divergence between Italian and English, ist that in the former, the direct object
(O) only can be promoted to the subject position, while in the latter, constituents other
than the object can be promoted:
a) I gave a book to Anna. A book was given to Anna. O
b) I gave Anna a book. Anna was given a book. IO
c) They talked about the problem. The problem was talked about. O of prep

Another divergence is the use of the passifyng si, peculiar to Italian, as in Si sono viste
molte cose strane.

Passive voice interplays with aspect. Standard passives are typically resultative: the
process or action expressed by the verb at a certain point in time results in a state. But
there are also dynamic passives constructed by means of verbs other than the auxiliary
essere/be:
(1) Ora viene speso più denaro per l’abbigliamento.
(2) I documenti sono andati distrutti nell’incendio.
(3) Le pagine vanno numerate.

In (1) and (2), we find the verbs of motion andare and venire that metaphorically convey
the idea of an activity in progress, in consequence expressing [passive + progressive
aspect] . In (3) andare+ past particple expresses a deontic value [passive+ necessity], thus
showing an interplay with modality.
In English, we find the get-passive, which is generally rare and restricted to spoken
discourse. The verb get describes the process, expressed by the past participle, with a
meaning similar to become, as in : He got involved in a car accident.
A third type is the middle voice. It is said to be in the middle between the active and the
passive voices because the subject often cannot be categorized as either agent or patient
but may have elements of both. A major divergence is observed in the middle
constructions; in English, there is a group of verbs, called ‘ergative verbs’; which can
take as subject the agent as in(4a) or the patient as in (4b):
(4) a. The burglar broke the window.
b. The window broke.

The intransitive version of an ergative verb implies the absence of an agent, and for this
reason, it is used by journalists wishing to avoid assigning blame to a particular agent,
as in Eight factories have closed this year.
In Italian, middle constructions are signaled by grammatical markers, and one of them is
the clitic si placed before the verb:
(5) a. Mario aprì la porta.
b. La porta si aprì lentamente.

Chapter 7
Comparing lexemes
Lexis is a highly complex system, which consists of all the lexemes of a language.
Two distinct disciplines are concerned with lexis. Lexicology analysises the structure of
lexis, for example, investigating lexical fields.

A lexical field is a set of lexemes

constituting a conceptual domain within which lexemes are organized on the basis of
some semantic relation.

The other discipline is lexical semantics, which analyses the meaning of single lexemes.

A lexeme is understood as a cluster of

semantic components with binary choices; a binary component allows three possibilities:
it is present, it is absent, or it may be present or absent.

How semantic components combine into lexemes: the verbs of

motion
The motion event can be analysed in terms of 6 components:
o The general concept of Motion  when an entity changes its location in space;
o Figure  the entity which is moving;
o Ground  the reference-object with respect to which Figure is moving;
o Path  referring to the course followed by the entity;
o Manner  how motion is accomplished (for ex, referring to the speed of movement
or the vehicle used)
o Cause  since motion may be caused by some entity.

In addition to these components, a motion event may have a Source of Motion and
Direction, a deictic component that refers to whether the entity is moving toward or away
from the speaker. It is found incorporated into verbs like come/go and andare/venire.
1) Il ladro tornò furtivamente nell’appartamento.
2) Attraversò a nuoto il fiume.
3) L’uomo salì le scale di corsa.
4) Uscì correndo dall’edificio.
5) Andò a Monaco in macchina.
6) Con un calcio il ragazzo mandò il pallone nello sgabuzzino.

In (1), il ladro functions as Figure and nell’appartamento as Ground; the verb expresses
the return trip of the entity along a horizontal axis; the adverb furtivamente expresses
Manner, that is, the way in which the entity is moving.
In (2), the verb attraversare expresses a course along the horizontal axis, perpendicular
to the side of Ground (il fiume); the prepositional phrase a nuoto expresses Manner.
In (3), the verb salire expresses a course along the vertical axis, down to up; the
prepositional phrase di corsa expresses Manner.
AND SO ON…

o Italian verbs tend to lexicalize motion and path, and also Cause in (6). Manner is
expressed as an independent constituent called a ‘satellite’, which can be an
adverb, a prepositional phrase or a gerund.
o English verbs tend to lexicalize Motion and Manner, sometimes Cause as well. The
component Path is expressed by satellites which are usually prepositions (to, into,
out). The component Manner cn convey information referring to :
a) the speed of the movement
b) the vehicle used
c) psychological traits and attitudes
d) the limbs involved in the movement
e) sound accompanying Motion.

One point worthy of note is that English has some verbs that lexicalize manner
metaphorically; this is the case of verbs formed by zero-derivation from nouns denoting
animals, like to snake (to move like a snake), to hare (run very fast), and to worm (one’s
way).

The structure of a lexical field: colour terms

The lexical field of colour terms has attracted the attention of researcher for its mix of
universal tendencies and culture-specific features. All languages provide their users with
a range of words that enable them to describe a multicoloured world.
From the point of view of human perception, colurs are identified according to 3 main
parameters [hue (green, red), saturation(deep, pale) and brightness (light, dark)].
Languages differ in the way in which they divide up the colour spectrum. They can
encode from a minimum of 2 basic terms to a maximum number of 11 terms.

Colour terms may take on figurative meanings: in English, blue may mean ‘depressed’
(I’m feeling blue), ‘indecent’ or ‘pornographic’ (blue films). In Italian blu doesn’t express
any of these additional meaning; but consider azzurro in squadra azzurra, and giallo in
romanzo giallo.
BASIC COLOUR TERMS:
In analysing colour vocabulary, the central issue is to determine the basic terms,
distinguishing them from non-basic ones.

a) A basic term is monolexemic;

b) Its meaning is not included in that of any other term;
c) Its application is not restricted to a narrow class of objects;
d) It is psychologically salient for all informants: 1) it tends to occur at the beginning
of elicted lists of colour terms: 2) it shows stability of reference across informants
and across occasions of use; 3) it is present in the idiolects of all speakers.

NON BASIC TERMS:

They are terms which don’t satisfy the criteria outlined in section: they are regarded as
belonging to boundary categories, whose denotations are characterized by a high rate of
fuzziness.

a. Terms formed from basic terms through derivation;

b. Compounds
c. Terms constituted by or containing nouns which identify colour hues y referring to
concrete objects functioning as colour referents;
d. Loan words
e. Terms applied to a limited class of objects.
f. Terms hose meaning is included in a basic term.

ITALIAN:
Italian presents the following types of non-basic colour terms:
I. The terms, used only as adjectives, are formed by adding a number of alterative
suffixes to a basic tem: -astro (biancastro), -ino (giallino), -iccio (rossiccio), -etto
(violetto). The only basic term which doesn’t produce a derivative is arancione,
being formally a derived word which contains the suffix one.
II. Compounds. there are 3 possible sequences:
1) (bt+bt): grigio verde, rosso arancio;
2) (bt+Noun): grigio antracite, blu notte;
3) (bt+Adj): verde scuro, marrone chiaro.
III. Terms containing nouns denoting elements existing in the world: (color+noun)
color albicocca.
IV. Loan words: beige, bordeaux
V. Terms applied to a limited class of objects: biondo, castano
VI. Terms whose meaning is included in a basic colour term: bruno, scarlatto

ENGLISH:
1. The terms, used as adj only, are formed by adding a suffix to the basic colour
term: (bt+ish) : reddish, yellowish;
(bt+y): greeny, purply;
2. Compounds :
a) (bt+bt) : blue black, red brown
 b) (Noun+bt): navy blue, blood red
c) (Adj+bt): dark green, light blue.
d) other combinations : rustcoloured, violetlike.
3. Terms which are also nouns denoting elements existing in the world : sand,
cinder.
4. Loan words: beige.
5. Terms applied to a limited class of objects: blond, auburn (hair)
6. Terms whose meaning is included in a basic colour term: maroon, indigo.

COMPARISON:

Both Italian and English make use of suffixes. English has two suffixes: -ish,
which can be added to any basic colour term, expressing the meaning
‘approximately X’; -y, a diminutive expressing the meaning ‘a pale shade of X’.
Italian has various alteratives. Most of them indicate ‘approximately X’, sometimes
conveying a negative evaluation (nerastro).
The internal structure of compounds is different in the two languages. In Italian
the sequence is [basic term+modifier], whereas in English it is [modifier+bsic
term], where the modifier can be another basic term, an adjective or a noun
denoting an object.
The structural difference lies in the fact that English forms the colour term by
simply naming the object, while Italian forms it by explicating that the object
functions as a colour referent : cream shirt -> camicia color panna.
Italian and English share the loan word beige.
Both languages present terms specifically applied to parts of the human body, but
in most cases there are asymmetries.
Comparing/establishing equivalence between boundary terms is quite
problematic, because the identification of the hue designated is difficult, and
involves a high degree of approximation.

Lexical collocations
A collocation is a combination of lexemes in which an element selects just one or a very
limited number of lexemes, for expressing a given meaning. The major types of lexical
collocations in both Italian and English are illustrated below:

A. verb + NP
Fare il bagno  have/take a bath
Preparare la tavola  lay/set the table

B. Noun+ Verb
Il fiume scorre  the river flows
Il sangue circola  blood circulates
C. Noun+ Preposition+ NP
Typical cases are combinations denoting:
 An unspecified amount of something :
Un mazzo di carte  a pack of cards
Un mazzo di fiori  a bunch of flowers
 Un pizzico di sale  a pinch of salt

 A group of animals:
uno stormo di uccelli  a flock of birds
un gregge di pecore  a flock of sheep

 Types of sound:
scoppio di risa  roar of laughter
scroscio di applausi  burst of applause
ronzio delle api  hum of bees
 Container and its content:
bicchiere di acqua  glass of water
lattina di coca-cola  can of Coke

D. Noun + adj / adj+noun (italian), or adj+noun (english)

Pioggia battente  driving rain
Grosso guaio  deep trouble

E. Adverb+ adjective
Profondamente addormentato  sound asleep

F. Preposition + noun phrase

Allo scopo di  in order to
Sulla base di  on the basis of

Collocations often constitute a problem in language learning because they are arbitrary
and non-predictable;
(1) Preposition+NP: su consiglio di  on advice of
(2) Verb+ Noun : risolvere un problema  to solve a problem
(3) Noun+ Adj: grosso errore  big mistake

The Italian and English collocations (1) (3) are lexically equivalent, and syntactically
parallel.

Cognates
In two historically or culturally related language it is possible to find a set of words or
expressions which are similar in form, called ‘cognates’, having their origin in a common
element.
Cognates can develop in the course of time, determining different cases:
a) their original meaning has remained the same
b) their meaning has changed partially
c) their meaning has changed totally.

 True cognates: two lexical items are similar in form and convey the same meaning.
Dentist/dentist, satellite/ satellite, boicottare/to boycott. This phenomenon is due to
the fact that English has a heterogeneous vocabulary, which incorporated many
words from Latin and Greek.
 False cognates: two lexical items are similar in form but convey two different
meanings. Fattoria/factory, ignorare/to ignore.
 Partial cognates: two lexical items are similar in form, but share only one or few
meanings. Carattere/character, terrazzo/terrace.

When languages/cultures come in contact

 Borrowing  when a word from a language A is incorporated into language B, referrre
d to as ‘loanword’:
 Loan translation  when a compound word or an expression from a language A is
translated literally into language B, referred to as ‘’semantic calque’.
 Formation of new words  in culture A for labeling new objects imported from culture
B
 Nativisation of loanwords: in the course of time, their pronunciation, spelling and
morphology are adapted to the system which is incorporated them
 Semantic shift  when the meaning of a word in language A is extended beyond its
usual sense under the influence of a word from language B.

The most extensive phenomena are borrowing and loan translation.

False borrowing  a word that formally looks like a word from language A is in fact an
autonomous formation in language B. the phenomenon is observed in Italian as well as
English, where we find false Italianisms, such as stiletto. In Italian, false anglicisms are 3
types:
1. Autonomous creations, which can be derived or compound words (IT:
autostop/EN: hitchhiking)
2. Reduced forms of English compounds (IT: night/ EN: night club).
3. English words that have taken on a meaning different from the one conveyed by
the original words:
ENGLISH WORD ITALIAN ENGLISH
miss vincitrice di un concorso di form of address (unmarried
bellezza woman)
golf maglione sport