Lexis and Grammar for Translation

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Lexis and Grammarfor Translation
Lingua e Traduzione Inglese I

• Dott. M. Gatto
• Lingue e Culture per il Turismo

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Language System
Use
Structure
Phonology Graphology Lexis Grammar
Communicative Functions
Context and culture (situation) (register)
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Focus on
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Structures

• LEVEL OF ANALYSIS

• UNIT OF REFERENCE

• phonology
• graphology
• morphology
• lexis
• syntax

• sound
• sign
• worpheme
• word
• phrase/clause

REMEMBER morphology syntax grammar lexis
vocabulary
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WORDS
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WORDS

• The vocabulary (or lexis) of a language is made
  up of all the words in that language.
• A word is an item that can stand alone as a
  complete unit of meaning.
• Words can be built up out of smaller units of
  meaning called morphemes.

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The structure of words
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FREE/BOUND

• GLOBE gt FREE
• -AL
• -IZE
• - ATION

BOUND
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Affixes
Suffixes
Prefixes
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Affixes
Suffixes
Prefixes
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Affixes
DERIVATIONAL
INFLECTIONAL
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INFLECTIONAL

• Inflectional morphemes signal grammar
  relationship/category
• person -s work-s
• tense -ed work-ed
• number -s book-s
• case -s
• degree -er -est (adj. or adv.)
• INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES ARE ALWAYS SUFFIXES
•  

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DERIVATIONAL

• Derivational morphemes signal change of meaning
  or change of word class
• positive/negative UN- HAPPY
• adj/noun HAPPY - NESS
• noun/adj BEAUTY FUL
• verb/noun INFORM - ATION
• and so on

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New words can be created through

• INFLECTION gt free morpheme suffix
• DERIVATION gt free morpheme affix
• COMPUNDING gt free morpheme free morpheme

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WORD FORMATION

• COMPOUNDING gt package holiday
• CONVERSION gt progress (N)/to progress (V)
• BLENDING gt motor hotel gt motel
• ACRONYMS gt laser (Light Amplification by
  Stimulated Emission of Radiation)
• BACKFORMATION gt to babysit ? babysitter
• CLIPPING gt bus (omnibus), fax (facsimile)
• BORROWING gt pasta, shampoo, zebra

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• One way of imposing order on the thousands of
  lexemes that make up the English vocabulary is to
  see lexicon in terms of structure.
• A well-established model of lexical structure
  makes us think of words as being related along
  two intersecting dimensions
• HORIZONTAL (i.e. SYNTAGMATIC)
• VERTICAL (i.e. paradigmatic)

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HORIZONTAL (i.e. SYNTAGMATIC)

• We see words/lexemes in a sequence
• There is a certain mutual expectancy between the
  words in a sentence
• The tour takes in some of the most
• spectacular scenery in the world.
• Our linguistic intuition suggests that
  spectacular scenery is very likely to occur in
  this sentence.

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VERTICAL (i.e. paradigmatic)

• We see words in terms of substituition
• In the sentence
• MY AUNT HAS BOUGHT A RED CAR
• we can substitute each word with a different
  word more or less related in sense.

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SYNTAGMATIC/PARADIGMATIC
MY? THE AUNT? UNCLE FRIEND TEACHER HAS? ? ? ? BOUGHT? SOLD FOUND LOST A? ? ? ? RED? GREEN NEW BLUE CAR BIKE BOOK PEN




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• In the vocabulary of any language words are
  linked together into a sort of gigantic spiders
  web whose organizing principles are SYNTAGMATIC
  (HORIZONTAL) relations and PARADIGMATIC
  (VERTICAL)
• Sense Relations gt paradigmatic
• synonymy/antonymy/hyponymy
• Lexical Relations gt syntagmatic
• collocation

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SENSE RELATIONS

• Synonymy the relationship that links words that
  have similar meaning gt delicate/gentle
• Antonymy the relationship that links words that
  have opposite meaning
• gradable gt large/small
• ungradable gt alive/dead
• converse gt buy/sell
• Hyponymy the relationship that links a specific
  to a general word gt animal/mouse

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POLYSEMY

• Words that have more than one meaning have enter
  in different sense relations
• SYNONYMS OF LIGHT (adj)

LIGHT (not bright) COLOURS PALE TENUE LIGHT (not much) TRAFFIC SPARSE NON INTENSO LIGHT (not heavy) TOUCH DELICATE LIEVE LIGHT (not strong) BREEZE GENTLE DOLCE LIGHT (not difficult) WORK EASY LEGGERO
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POLYSEMY

• Words that have more than one meaning have enter
  in different sense relations
• ANTONYMS OF ROUGH (adj)

ROUGH SURFACE EVEN LISCIA ROUGH SKIN SMOOTH VELLUTATA ROUGH SEA CALM CALMO ROUGH VOICE SOFT DOLCE ROUGH WORK SKILFUL ACCURATO ROUGH ESTIMATE EXACT PRECISA
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Hyponimy
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HYPONYMY

• Gorgonzola
• ?
• soft cheese
• ?
• food
• ?
• material
• ?

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HYPONYMY
FLOWER
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COLLOCATION

• You shall now a word by the company it keeps
• J.R.Firth
• Collocation can be defined as a friendship
  between words, i.e. the tendency of words to
  co-occur in language

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MONEY
SPEND
TIME
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Collocates of SCENERY

• breathtaking
• spectacular
• magnificent
• dramatic