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
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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)

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POLYSEMY

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

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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