Language Course Notes PDF

LINGUA INGLESE 3 Lezione del 18/09/24 TEXTS AND TEXT LINGUISTICS There is more than one entry for the word “text” in the dictionary. The first definition is the one that seems to represent our idea of what a text is. The third entry refers to the nature of the word “text”. The word “text” refers to...

LINGUA INGLESE 3 Lezione del 18/09/24 TEXTS AND TEXT LINGUISTICS There is more than one entry for the word “text” in the dictionary. The first definition is the one that seems to represent our idea of what a text is. The third entry refers to the nature of the word “text”. The word “text” refers to the texture, tissue. These words belong to the same word family. Texture and text may be not immediately semantically connected, but they are from a morphological point of view. The first definition is: “the wording of anything written or printed; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and sentences as written”. This notion implies a physical medium. It implies the distinction between something written by hand or something printed. A text that has been written by hand is called “manuscript”. Texts have a physical dimension. Moreover, there is the idea of “order”, that means that words follow certain rules when put into a text (grammatical sense). “…the very words, phrases, and sentences as written”: those units have a meaning, they are not just random letters. It is a bigger structure made up of smaller parts. In dictionaries people can find the meaning of entries dated. This date is the first attestation of a word in the English language. To the words “text” there is an additional sense dated back to 1993: “Linguistics. (A unit of) connected discourse whose function is communicative and which forms the object of analysis and description”. Compared to the first definition, the second one does not mention words, phrases and sentences. For that reason, a text can not follow the conventional grammar rules (example: poetry). So, the text is something that communicates something. Looking at this second definition, there is no more difference between a manuscript and a printed text. It seems that today there is no more the notion of the physical dimension of a text. This definition challenges our assumption of text and makes people think about text in different ways. The ODE makes a reference to the school of text linguistics, which was born In 1977. Since that date, people concerned about problems regarding text were labeled as students of the school of text linguistics. David Crystal is one of the most prominent British linguistics. “In recent years, the study of texts has become a defining feature of a branch of linguistics referred to (especially in Europe) as textlinguistics, and ‘text’ here has central theoretical status. Texts are seen as language units which have a definable communicative function, characterized by such principles as cohesion, coherence and informativeness, which can be used to provide a formal definition of what constitutes their textuality or texture. On the basis of these principles, texts are classified into text types, or genres, such as road signs, news reports, poems, conversations, etc.” He defined textlinguistics. The methodology is connected to a specific area and they are not valid all over the world. Textlinguistics is something specific to Europe. Text had a central theoretical status. The school of text-linguistics developed in Germany. It designates any work in language science devoted to the text as the primary object of inquiry. Though the conceptualisation of ‘text linguistics’ as a school or field of linguistics is relatively recent, note that the oldest form of preoccupation with texts can be found in rhetoric. SOURCES AND APPROACHES  1. In “Introduction to text linguistics “ the key idea is the notion of connectedness. Not all the language samples are texts. What we call text are something that have a function, connectedness and a meaning. 2. “Text Linguistics- The how and why of meaning”. We derive the systemic functional model, which understands the communicative function. Texts are made up of layers and smaller units (semantics, phonological, sintax, morphology and lexis). 3. “How to analyze texts”: the aim of the text is to provide examples of texts (empirical approach). EXERCISES TEXT - WEEK ONE Lezione del 23/09/24 THE NATURE OF TEXTS - MATERIALITY The physical setting, or the material dimension of a text is an important determinant of language choices and meanings. Depending on these, we make choices as producers of texts and will have expectations and receivers. These expectations may not always be conscious. The context is relevant for written as much as oral texts, think about witnessing a conversation vs listening to a recording of the same without knowing when, where, nor between whom it took place. It is possible to understand texts intuitively: even before starting analyzing the language it was possible to understand or guess the kind of texts. It is possible to understand texts without being able to analyze explicitly and in detail how the language is being used. Becoming able to analyze them explicitly requires specific tools. THE WH-QUESTIONS - what happens in a text, what is in it? (understanding the contents) - who are the participants (characters, the producers and the receivers), what is their relation? - where is the text taking place, in which situation? - when is the text taking place (place the text in its context of origin)? - how is the language of the text? - why is the language of the text as it is? QUALITATIVE METHODS They have to do with the description of verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. in the text. It also concerns the types of sentences (simple or complex, coordination or subordination…). It requires looking at the context, which is the linguistic surrounding of each item constituting a text. (SKETCH ENGINE). Chat and discussion can be used as synonyms but they are not the same thing. Chat tends to be associated with a certain type of media (phone, email) and between two people. Discussion is related to a group of people. QUANTITATIVE METHODS It is a way of collecting datas (how many words, how many verbs, adjectives) in order to understand the frequency of certain types of nouns, verbs,... Lezione del 25/09/24 EXERCISE: text week 2 1. what: a gorilla is passionate about Tv. A Tv got stolen 2. who: Willie B., zookeepers, friend, theft, Tennessee TV dealer, fans. The producer and the receiver  3. where: in a zoo in Atlanta (textual lever), (extratextual level) magazine 4. when: January 22 1979 (when the article was written), december, last week, sunday, the super bowl reference. The time of the article and what happened coincide: this, last (ecc.) 5. how the language is: high lexical density (more concrete nouns, common nouns, words refer to objects and people, the lexica field is the TV and humankind. Lexis contributes to humanize Willie B. There are also emotions connected to Willie B. (he has human emotions and he is like a little child). Verbs: action verbs, feeling verbs, no verbs of thinking Willie B. Adjectives: no evaluative (explicitly convey a connotation), descriptive adjectives LINGUISTIC LEVEL A formal, detailed description of the language of a text will encompass linguistic features: - lexical density - semantic fields - verbs finite/non finite, active/passive, dynamic/static (like thinking, feeling, existentials), modality (epistemic deontic), tense - syntax simple, compound, complex EXTRALINGUISTIC FEATURES - who: participants, “characters”, author(s), recipient(s) - when: any reference to time? Is the text dated? - where: any reference to place? Where does the text appear? - Do extra-linguistic features help explain why the language of this text is as it is? - Are the extra-linguistic features and language expected to be one or mismatched? Lezione del 30/09/24 KEY POINTS Patterns of vocabulary / lexical patterns / features of vocabulary help analyze texts better, understanding them is important to learn how to analyze and explain how texts work. Compulsory reading section B in textbook, key points: - referring/reference function of vocabulary - lexical and grammatical words - words and morphemes - semantic fields and word families - meaning and ambiguity - collocations - connotation - metaphors - lexical cohesion COLLOCATIONS The way is which terms occur in habitual proximity to others. Collocation is often structured in the grammar of a language (to have a drink, to have a laugh, to keep a diary, to keep a promise; a big decision…). Collocations can follow several structures, and words can have more collocations: - adjective + noun: (fierce, bloody, bitter) battle - verb + noun: to fight, to face, to win, to lose a battle Collocations can trigger a certain set of associations that can be exploited to communicative ends: a battle of ideas, a battle of words, a legal battle. CONNOTATION Connotation has to do with meaning, something that we don't see. A fundamental decision is between denotation and connotation (what words come to mind if someone says the word “dog”: love, play, friend). Denotative meaning is shared. Dictionaries may record specific connotations of words, but they always record their denotative meaning. Example: OED “dog.n”: A domesticated carnivorous mammal, Canis familiaris (or C. lupus familiaris), which typically has a long snout, an acute sense of smell, non-retractile claws, and a barking, howling, or whining voice, widely kept as a pet or for hunting, herding livestock, guarding, or other utilitarian purposes. Connotative meaning is personal, cultural and contextual. EXERCISE: no particular connotation (a); strong negative connotation (b); strong positive connotation (c) : A: vehicle, was, photosynthesis, the, morphophonemics, building, a B: slavery, torture, brat, fascism, hovel C: democracy, Rolls Royce, freedom Connotation depends to a certain extent on individual response, though certain words tend to evoke similar responses, like in the case of slavery or torture. What characterizes the words that are not leaded? - grammatical words such as articles and auxiliary verbs are less likely to carry connotations, as their meaning is grammatical rather than lexical - words that are highly specialized and are restricted to a particular area of meaning are less likely to be loaded - words that are highly general are also less likely to be loaded METAPHOR Metaphors are a figurative use of language and a powerful tool. Metaphors can enhance, clarify, reinforce existing ideas and concepts, but also create new ones. They can be used to comment on aspects of human behavior, life, society without spelling it out. Examples: - America is our ally: personification of a country, positive or negative - the evil empire: institution defined by valuta it cannot have - surgical strike: war being talked about as medical matter - ethnic cleansing: making something clean means that another ethnicity is dirty - the economy is ailing: personification (health connected to economy) Countries and places treated as people; war becomes a beneficial or medical act; politics described in terms of health and disease. The semantic fields of human relations, medicine, hygiene used to create associations. Lezione del 02/10/24 The concept of cohesion is important. Cohesion makes a language sample a text. Cohesion studies the connections across a text at a lexical level. There are a number of ways in which lexis contributes to the pattern of a text, creating connections across it:  - repetition of the same words - repetition of same concepts, but not words, through preforms (such as pronouns) or semantically related lexis (synonyms or antonyms) - the use of collocations to make different part of a text echo each other - the use of word families and semantic fields create cohesion in a text “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read". Collocations Connotation: the dog has a positive connotation Metaphor: dog and book; outside of is used in a metaphorical way (meaning besides). It's a pan on language. Cohesion: repetition of dog, antonyms (inside / outside), semantic fields (book and read). TEXT A - EXERCISES WEEK 3 Lezione del 09/10/24 GRAMMAR AND COHESION Grammatical patterns and structures help to shape meanings in text, being able to analyze specific aspects of grammatical structure recurring in texts is part of explaining how texts work. Grammatical cohesion ties the text together, makes the order of sentences sound logical, and makes the text move “forward”. It is the way grammatical features are women together across sentence boundaries through: connectives and conjunction personal pronouns reference demonstrative reference (deictic) comparative reference substitution and ellipsis CONNECTIVES AND CONJUNCTIONS Connectives and conjunctions are elements that tie the text together, make the order of the sentences sound logical, make the text move “forward”: ▪︎ Additives/alternatives: add, provide alternatives (and, moreover, or, in addition) ▪︎ Temporal: one event follows another (the, first (of all), next, later) ▪︎ Casuals: one event / idea causes another (as a result, because, consequently, so that) ▪︎ Adversatives: contradict / concede (but, although , yet, however) ▪︎ Continuatives: Indicate to continue to follow the text (anyway, surely, after all, well) PERSONAL PRONOUN Personal pronouns reference: the reader expects to have to link a pronoun with something that has already been mentioned (anaphora) or will be mentioned (cataphora). As readers when we see a pronoun in a text we link it to its reference. Pronouns as signposts: when personal pronouns reference leads outside the text (expohorix reference). An example is “you” uses to address the reader's self-referential “I” by the narrator. DEMONSTRATIVES Demonstrative demonstrates where something is, as deictis they work as verbal pointers. Deictis is a term derived from Greek and mens “to point something”, “to indicate”. They figuratively indicate something. Demonstrative may be deictis. COMPARATIVE REFERENCE Comparative reference links items and ideas, the reference point for comparison may be explicitly given or not. The term of comparison may be explicit or implicit. SUBSTITUTION AND ELLIPSIS Substitution and ellipsis: the former makes texts more economic by avoiding repetition, the latter implies shared meanings and references that do not need to be stated explicitly, and creates an informal and casual tone. GRAMMAR AND COHESION Different types of writing tend to use different types of connectors, i.e. a story will concentrate in a sequence of events(first, the, after that), an argumentative text (for instance e an academic paper), will use connectives that show how different aspects of an idea or a theme are interconnected (on the one hand…,on the other). SENTENCE TYPES Different sentences can perform different functions, therefore, the kind of sentences chosen often relates directly to what the text is trying to do. Four main functions sentences in English can perform: - Questioning, question sentences ask the reader to look for information either in the text or outside it - Stating statement offer the reader a description of the state of things - Command sentences (directives such ad imperatives) tell the reader to do something - Exclamations express emotion directly. Lezione del 14/10/24 VERBS Tense refers to the way verbs are used to signal time. Certain types of writing tend to use particular verb tenses. Example: Non-fiction information texts: intended to tell the readers about the nature of things, rules, reality Prose fiction: more likely it will employ past tense Voice also tends to vary according to the genre of the writing. Passives are a way to depersonalize a text, make it sound more natural, and a way to place emphasis on the process/event itself. MODALITY Modality refers to the way language can express a relationship with reality and truth. Modality is expressed by modal verbs and adverbs. Modal verbs (can, could, may, will, would, must, should, shall) express two main kinds of Modality: □ degrees of certainty (epistemic modality) □ degrees of desire ability or obligation (deontic modality) Adverbs such as possibly, maybe, probably, etc. are modal in meaning. Lezione del 16/10/24 STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY “A text will be defined as a communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality. If any of these standards is not considered to have been satisfied, the text will not be communicative.” 1. cohesion: connectedness of texts at grammatical and lexical level 2. coherence: connectedness at the level of concepts and ideas, its underlying logic 3. situationality: extralinguistic but also linguistic aspect (as context) 4. intentionally: centered on the text producer's attitude and intentions to attain a goal 5. acceptability: centered on the receiver's expectations 6. informativity: text centered, texts can be more or less informative 7. intertextuality: relationship between texts COHESION The connection of ideas at the sentence level. It concerns the ways in which the components of the surface text are mutually connected within a sequence. Cohesion can be achieved through: repetition, substitution, synonymy, antonymy, pro-forms, collocations. COHERENCE The connection of ideas at the logical level. It refers to argumentation, synthesizing and integrating readings, organizing and clarifying ideas. Some conjunctions, adverbs or stuctures (adverbs and conjunctions not always present) ued to link sentences with particular logical relationship: - identity / clarification, sameness: that is, that is to say, in other words - opposition, making a contrast: but, yet, nevertheless, still, though, although, whereas, rather - addition, to indicate continuation: and, too, also, furthermore, moreover, besides, in the same way, aging, another, similarly - cause and effect: therefore, so, consequently, as a consequence, thus, as a result, hence, because, since, for - concession, willingness to consider the other side: admittedly, true, of course, naturally, some believe, it has been claimed that, onceit was believed, there are those who would say - exemplification, shift from a more general or abstract idea to a more specific or concrete idea: for example, for instance, indeed, in fact, of course, specifically, that is, to illustrate - argumentation, an argument is backed up by supporting facts or other evidence: as shown, as demonstrated INFORMATIVITY The extent to which a presentation is new or unexpected for the receivers. Information shapes the way people perceive and interact with the world around them. Etymology of information: “inform” = instruct, train, from the latin verb informare, which means to give form, to shape. In text analysis informing and instructing mean two different things. Instructional texts tell the reader how to do something. Content words are generally more informative than function words. Informativity interacts with cohesion and coherence: a text might be composed of elements handled in an expected way syntactically, but conceptually improbable (hence, having low informativity in cohesion but high informativity in coherence). Beugrande and Dressler defined “orders of informativity”, fro the most probable and predictable, to the least and predictable: 1. first order: fully predictable in cohesion, coherence, and planning the situation of occurrence is usually obvious, and the sign itself has a unique shape and color recognizable at considerable distance 2. second order: presence of at least some second-order occurrences would be the normal standard for textual communication, since texts purely on the first order would be difficult to construct and extremely uninteresting 3. third order: comparatively infrequent occurrences which demand much attention and processing resources, like discrepancies, discontinuities, material that seems to be missing, or patterns presented by the text do not match patterns of stored knowledge. INTENTIONALITY AND ACCEPTABILITY “Cohesion and coherence cannot provide absolute borderlines between texts and non.texts in real communication. People can and do use texts which, for various motives, are not fully cohesive and coherent. We should therefore include the attitudes of text users among the standards of textuality. A language configuration must be intended to be a text and accepted as such in order to be utilized in communicative interaction.” - Intentionality designates all three ways in which txt producers utilize texts to pursue and fulfill their intentions. - Acceptability designates all the ways in which text receivers consider the text acceptable and appropriate in fulfilling its intentions. SITUATIONALLY It concerns the factors which make a text relevant to a situation of occurrence; what is going on in a particular communicative setting. If we find ourselves in the situation of occurrence we may have immediate, direct access to these factors, if we don't, they need to be recovered. INTERTEXTUALITY The ways in which the production and reception of a given text depend upon the participant's knowledge of other texts. This knowledge can be applied by processes describable in terms of mediation. High meditation is illustrated by the development and use of text types, being classes of texts expected to have certain traits for certain purposes. Mediation is much smaller when people quote from or refer to specific well-known texts. Lezione del 21/10/24 SHORT STORIES: “Color and light” by Sally Rooney & “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison 1. Toni Morrison: the story is told in the first person narrator 2. Sally Rooney: third person narrator SITUATONALITY “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison We are in a shelter (many children sleeping in the same room). The text doesn't tell us where the story takes place, so we have to infer: - big bozo: american slang - Racial discrimination that is not so present in Britain Lezione del 23/10/24 PART B KEY POINTS 1. dimensions: time and place: - situationality (when and where) - speech and writing 2. dimensions: - point of view intentionality (why and who) - eg. persuasive vs informative texts 3. terminology and concepts - text and discourse - genre, text type, register SPEECH AND WRITING Speech and writing are not different discrete systems but interconnected:  - This book will cover two aspects of spoken and written language, but will not divide its coverage into sections on that basis. Of particular interest throughout the book is the intertwined nature of speech and writing - new technologies have brought to the fore some of the ways in which speech and writing are intertwined. In the many forms of digital communication not embedded in our everyday lives, we can write in real time in some very spontaneous ways. We can also choose to translate one type of communication into another - for example by speaking into a voice tool and having it write the result, or vice versa. All this adds up to a complex picture. - Writing is linear - that is, one thing has to happen after another. Although writing online occurs in real time like speech, there are many ways in which it is nothing like speech at all. SPEECH OR WRITING - co-presence of participants: speech - no immediate feedback: writing- intertextuality: both - the possibility of referring to extralinguistic context (for instance through deictis such as “this”, “that”, “here”) exophoric reference: speech - stress and intonation: speech - body language: speech - use of hesitation fillers: speech - loose structure: speech - accuracy: speech - punctuation: writing - accuracy: writing - layout and font: writing - use of colloquialisms and slang: speech - complex sentence construction: writing DEIXIS AND DEICTIS Speech implies deixis, that is, the possibility of referring to the physical, extralinguistic context (person, place, time) shared by both the speaker and the hearer. This entails the possibility of a larger use of deictis than in written communication. Deictis are words (for instance “I”, “you”, “he/she”, “here”, “there”, “that”, “this”, “yesterday”, “today”, “tomorrow”) that depend on the context in which they are used. They are context dependent. In writing, references to person, place and time must be included within the text itself, either explicitly or implicitly. In other words the extralinguistic context, though not physically present, must be verbally created. STRESS AND INTONATION Oral communication can avail itself of stress, pitch, and intonation to emphasize information units, to convey the message as well as emotions more effectively. To the same purpose, the hearer can underline his speech with forms o non-verbal communication, such as gestures, facial expressions, posture, actions and behavior. Body language is an integral part of oral communication. In writing, we cannot use intonation and non-verbal forms of communication such as gestures and facial expressions, although we can underline a concept with the aid of punctuation and other graphic devices such as italics, bold types, type-size, page, layout, pictures. In e-writing and mobile messaging we can also add emojis to express intonation and feelings visually, although this device cannot equal the multitude of nuances offered by body language. FILLERS, REPETITIONS, REFORMULATIONS A feature of speech is the use of words and phrases like “well, kind of, you see”, which do not add much information but tell us something about the speaker's attitude or they perform a metadiscursive function, drawing attention to language and the discourse itself. Hesitation fillers while we think of what we want to say. Failure to complete a sentence, or lose track of our sentences and mix up one grammatical construction with another. repetitions and reformulations are generally accepted in oral communication to the point that they are not even perceived. STRUCTURE Broadly speaking, speech is more loosely structured than writing. It is difficult to divide a spoken conversation into separate sentences; we have, rather, a sequence of information units identifiable by means of intonation. Syntactically, speech presents itself as a chain of main clauses, with fewer subordinate clauses than in written texts. From a syntactic point of view, written texts are more hierarchically constructors: structural prominence is given to that which is more important i.e. through syntax. Written sentences are usually more complex than spoken utterances: subordinate clauses and embedding are frequent. (IN)ACCURACY Grammar mistakes, which are tolerated in oral communication, are not normally allowed in writing. Even in the Internet and in mobile texting, which are very close to orality, grammar mistakes and structural randomness are tacitly accepted only in the informal exchange, whereas professional email, blogs, etc. are usually more accurate. Lezione del 28/10/24 TEXT AND DISCOURSE The word “discourse” has a long and complicated history. Now it means slightly different things inside and outside the academic world and it can also mean different things in different academic subject areas. It has been used to refer to extensive communication. It has been used in the social sciences to refer to patterns of thinking, knowing and behaving. It has been used to refer primarily to spoken language. TEXT TYPES AND GENRES “Texts are characterized by such principles as cohesion, coherence and informativeness, which can be used to provide a forma definition of what constitutes their textuality or texture. On the basis of these principles, texts are classified into text types, or genres, such as road signs, news reports, poems, conversations.” Crystal seems to be treating “text type” and “genre” as equivalent terms. Many linguists use “text type” instead of “genre”, adopting the former as linguistic terminology and the latter as literary terminology. According to others they should be distinguished. - Genres: open ended set, which changes in time and varies across cultures - Text types: closed set with limited number of categories, because it is defined by cognitive categories of purpose - Different genres can be similar linguistically (newspaper and magazine articles) - Text within particular genres can differ greatly in their linguistic characteristics (texts in newspaper articles can range from narrative and colloquial to informal and elaborated)  - linguistically distinct texts within a genre may represent different text types while linguistically similar texts from different genres may represent a single text type (news or editorial in a newspaper / news in a newspaper or newcasts) - communicative functions and text types, being properties of a text, cut across genres. “In contrast to genre, whose members are, by definition, entire texts, single text types mainly refer to parts of texts depending on whether the passage exhibits the semantic profile in question or not. As a rule, the definition of text types is based on text-internal data whereas definitions of (non-literary) genres follow various text-external criteria alike”. One important consequence that follows from this definition is that narrative as a genre is distinguished from the text type narrative. A novel belongs to the genre narrative but probably no novel contains only the text type “narrative”. An experimental novel belongs to the genre narrative, even if it is mainly characterized by another text type (e.g. “description”). “Ekphrasis” denotes a descriptive genre, whereas “description” denotes the text type usually dominating ekphrasis. Yet description is by no means restricted to this latter use, and the term “ekphrasis” mainly refers to literary descriptions depicting pieces of visual art. REGISTER There are two mainly approaches: - context-based (Halliday and Hymes): specific lexical and grammatical choices as made by speakers depending on the situational context, the participants of a conversation and the function of the language in the discourse. - text-based (Biber): dependent on the grammatical characteristics of different text types, registers are distinguished by the relative use of linguistic features, such as nous, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Genre: a particular style or category of works of art; especially a type of literary work characterized by a particular form, style or purpose. Genres: newspaper, essay, letters, drama (comedy, tragedies), novel, poetry, review, recipe books, medical recipes, prose (novel, treaties). Crime and romances are two subgenres. Text types: narrative, descriptive, argumentative, instructive, expository, informative. Register: formal, informal, neutral, colloquial, familiar, technical, specialized, academic, legal, scientific, slanging. Lezione del 04/11/24 TEXT TYPES: MODES OR TYPE Werlich identified five idealized text types based on on cognitive and rhetorical properties: - description: details the characteristic features, it involves the differentiation and interrelation of perceptions in space - narration: series of events and actions in time, it involves the differentiation and interrelation of perceptions in time - exposition: explanation or understanding of general concepts through differentiation by analysis or synthesis - argumentation: what happens in debates putting forward opinions, it involves the evaluation of relations between concepts though the extraction of similarities, contrasts and transformations - instruction: it involves planning of future behavior with option (advertisements, manuals, recipes)  without option (legislation, contracts) TEXT TYPES: PURPOSE Text types have also been conceptualized in terms of their communicative functions, what they intend to “do”: - inform - instruct - persuade - entertain TEXT TYPES AND GENRE There are many varying classifications and typologies. REGISTER DEFINITION It is a sociolinguistic concept, subjected to variation (cultural background of the speaker, provenience, profession, occupation…) Halliday: broad concept of register, no set of clear-cut registers provided, only distinction between closed (language of games) and open reisters (language of instructions, informal narrative, spontaneous conversation…). Quirk et al.: five term distinction into very formal, formal, neutral, informal, very informal. Very formal= distant, rigid or frozen; very informal = intimate, casual, slangy or hearty. Bieber: four major registers: conversation, fiction, newspaper language and academic prose. They can be further subdivided: news reportage, editorials, reviews (newspaper language). Other possible labels: technical, literary, humorous, archaic. The notion of text type is more precise. Genre and register have to do with speakers and culture. FUNCTIONAL MODEL Functional model: we are concerned about the communicative function of the language. In this way we understand text in the sense that they communicate something. Micheal Halliday's theory of functional grammar shows how language is influenced by the context in which it is produced. Two levels of context are recognised by Halliday: the context of culture (genre) and the context of situation (register). The genre of a text or communication is determined by its purpose (why is the text being produced?) (In Halliday's model genres are predictable and patterned ways of using language). The register of any text is broken down into three main areas: - the field (what the communication is about) - the tenor (who is taking part in the communication) - the mode (how things are being communicated) These three parts form the context of the situation. REGISTER CONTINUUM - filed (what is the text about): texts can range from everyday topics to technical - tenor (who the participants are, what is their relationship): form formal to informal, form familiar to unfamiliar, from novice to informal - mode (how is the text): from spoken to written, form “here and no” to distant, form shared context to not shared context (shared background experiences). Lezione del 11/11/24 SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE AND POPULARIZATION Essential timeline 1600-1800 science studied by restricted groups of scholars (Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, founded in 1660) 1800-1900 science and technology were exposed to the public, particularly with the invention of the steam-powered printing press, which sped up printing considerably. Newspapers and magazines become cheaper and their diffusion increases 1900 - science began to be communicated to the public in various ways: in traditional journalism (newspapers, magazines, television and radio), in live events such as conferences, museums, public lectures and debates, and on the Internet. From a one-way to a two-way form of communication: “With the invasion of new media and electronic modes of communication in public life, on the one hand, and the more recent increase in the interdisciplinary nature of academic and professional discourse, appropriation of lexico-grammatical resources and discoursal strategies across discourse communities and genres is becoming increasingly common.” (Bhatia, Worlds of written discourse,12) PARTICIPANTS AND CONTEXTS The possible communicative configurations are four: - Intraspecialistic level = from specialist to specialist in same field - Interspecialistic level = from specialist to specialist across fields - Didactic/pedagogical level = from specialist to non-specialist - Popular level = intended for the largest audience possible With effects on linguistic and textual features. NOTE: especially at the popular level there is a gap between the participants in terms of knowledge and competence. Producers will ‘construct’ their average reader presupposing a degree of knowledge or ignorance as a function of genre (will the popularizing text appear in a magazine, newspaper, website or be a self-standing piece of writing?). INTER AND INTRA-SPECIALISTIC = DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE Primarily horizontal (among peers) within a community of interest (for instance, scientific discourse within the academic community, legal discourse among lawyers, etc.). DIDACTIC AND POPULAR = DISSEMINATION OF KNOWLEDGE - Targeted to and tailored on individuals and groups who are not part of the same community of interest - Aimed at sharing scientific or professional knowledge - Language used so as to facilitate access (no use of jargon unless providing explanations, leaving room for interpretation, building bridges between researchers and users, between experts and the general audience) - Connecting researchers and knowledge users who might not otherwise have an opportunity to interact, enable dialogue, stimulate learning and capture and disseminate knowledge VARIATION NOTE: within scientific discourse there is also disciplinary variation (eg. medical and legal discourse as sub-genres of the scientific). Disciplinary variation is connected to language variation: even if the text type is the same, certain aspects will vary or be specific of certain genres, e.g. legal discourse will be characterized by technical terminology, archaic use of the modal ‘shall’, repetition and redundancy, pro-forms (the aforesaid, the same, the said...); medical discourse’s typical features are terms of Latin and Greek origin (but also in legal discourse), use of acronyms, preference for passive and impersonal forms, and high frequency of compounds. TEXT TYPE Scientific knowledge has been traditionally conveyed through expository texts. The text type is connected with the diffusion and the dissemination of knowledge. Its main features: - intends to provide facts (informativity from the point of view of contents will be high) - intends to be educational and purposeful (with effects on the language, different producers of expository texts will resort to different strategies) - intends to expose the truth through reliable sources (low mediation intertextuality) - is clear, concise, it gets to the point quickly and efficiently (how coherence and cohesion are achieved) Examples of expository texts: textbooks, articles, instruction manuals (but also recipes and city or country guides, etc.). LEXIS 1. Intraspecialistic level displays high lexical density, noun strings (complex compound noun phrase)(or lexical bundles, eg. premodification, compounds, multiword expressions), abbreviations, latinization 2. Interspecialistic level: lexical density, noun strings, abbreviations, latinization 3. Didactic/pedagogical level: use of some abbreviations, Anglicization (rather than a latinate term) 4. Popular level: use of few abbreviations, over-Anglicization (even when it is not strictly necessary. SYNTAX 1. Intraspecialistic level: use of conciseness, premodification, sentence length/complexity, nominalisation, passive voice, depersonalisation 2. Interspecialistic level: use of conciseness, premodification, sentence length/complexity, nominalisation, passive voice, depersonalisation 3. Didactic/pedagogical level = moderate sentence complexity or simplicity, depersonalisation/personalisation, 4. Popular level = coordination, little nominalisation, personalisation, apposition or postmodification (prepositional phrases, relative clauses, etc.) TEXTUAL FEATURES 1. Intraspecialistic level = anaphoric reference, thematic sequence, hedging (argumentation), omissions, crypticity (exclusiveness) 2. Interspecialistic level = anaphoric reference, thematic sequence, hedging, exemplification, omissions, standardization 3. Didactic/pedagogical level = schematisation, exemplification, illustrations, (over)simplification, definitions, explanation 4. Popular level = schematisation, exemplification, oversimplification , definitions, reformulation, analogy, explanation, (multimedia elements). Within the text as cohesive devices to make contents clear and accessible, but also across texts: popularization involves a form of re-writing of a source scientific text (intertextuality). POPULARIZING DISCOURSE May resort to Irony Humor: to keep the reader involve and to make the text more palatable Understatement Dialogism (multiplicity of perspectives and voices, direct addresses to the reader)  Question-and-answer forms as catechetic/instructive device Modifiers are words or phrases that influence the meaning of another word or phrase. They may come before the word (=pre-modifiers) or after it (=post-modifiers). Premodifiers may be determiners (a, the), quantifiers (some, many), cardinal or ordinal numbers, adjectives or adverbs, as in the following example: "A particularly disturbing feature of scientific writing is excessive premodification". In a noun phrase several may be used together, creating a heavily pre-modified noun phrase, such as: "A mobile hopper fed compressed air operated grit blasting machine." (= A mobile grit-blasting machine, fed from a hopper and operated by compressed air). Post-modification may use Adjectives: Something strange happened; Adverbs: It wasn't cold enough; Relative clauses: The woman who interviewed me reminded me of you Non-finite verbs: The person to ask is David; Prepositional phrases: The restaurant near the office...; That clauses: I thought that he'd never go Pre-modification is more common in written language. Lezione del 19/11/24 MYSTERY PLAYS The plays originated as verbal embellishments of liturgical texts, and slowly became more elaborate. At the beginning performed in Latin by the clergy. They became very popular, and vernacular forms emerged. The performance of the mystery plays was sometimes taken over by non-religious organizations like the trade guilds. Non-biblial passages were added along with comic scenes. The Mystery Plays developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 115th century before being rendered obsolete by the rise of professional theater. Cycles = the mystery play developed, in some places, into a series of plays dealing with all the major events in the christian calendar, from the Creation to the day of Judgement. By the end of the 15th century, the practice of acting these plays in cycles on festival days was established in several parts of Europe. It included an account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. INTERLUDES Before the construction of the public theater, the playing companies often performed short plays calle interludes that were stage dialogues on religious moral and political themes. The structure of such plays reflected the training in argumentation that students received in Tudor schools and in particular the sustained practice examining both sides of a difficult question. MORALITY PLAYS The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life oer one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. They represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theater. In this period there are still influences of the medieval period. Also in Shakespeare we can find elements of old morality. The moralities function as a bridge from the medieval king of allegory spectacle to a more modern one because of the figure of the villain. The most important figure is the “vice”, which is the villain in the play. Vice has more liberty. The angles had to stick to the message of the Bible, the language is soft, correct and profound. The devil could come on stage, dressed as he wanted, shouting, dancing and many other things. They could say many bad words and they can invent. We don't have the character of the dev fixed. From the vice, we pass to the villain in the play. The villain in the play became the most free character and from the villain the writer had to invent the whole society. The villain can come from legends, old literature and sso on. HOW WERE THE COMPANIES RUN? Companies put themselves under the patronage of wealthy aristocrats. There were so many laws against vagant people. These actors were in danger and they were accused. But if the company had patronage they were much more secure. Shkespeare's company was first called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later to become servants of James I and known as the King's Men. Some players formed groups of shares, and owned their own companies. It was the sharers (azionisti) who commissioned plays from playwrights and then owned the outright. Companies that had not a playwright buy the script from a playwright and then become the owner of the manuscript and because of the absence of the copyright they could change the plot. Therefore, there are many versions of the same play. There was also an illegal traffic of plays. Large profits could be made, and there was a huge demand for new plays. Queen Elizabeth and James I loved theater. Since everybody went to the theater, new plays had to be staged frequently. The English Renaissance stage had its own levels, scaffold, stages. The most obvious shape of the theater was circular. People either stand on the ground or they could sit in the galleries, if they paid something more. Theaters had no roof, as there was no electricity. Light depended on torches and fire, but fire was dangerous. Therefore plays were played during the afternoon. WHERE WERE THE PLAYHOUSE BUILD? The corporation of London was against performances. therefore often outside the jurisdiction of the city. Some troupes toured in different cities. Why? - disorder (noise, traffic, crowds moving), public health, security, prostitution and corruption, idleness, crosss-ressing and makeup considered immoral. SYMBOLIC ASPECT OF THE RENAISSANCE THEATER Renaissance playhouses had no elaborate mechanism for illusion. Everything on stage was considered a sign. The scenes were changed before the spectator's eyes. Costumes were aso symbolic, and by no means accurately historical. The playhouses contained mechanical devices spectacle. Imaginative play proclaimed the impossibility of a literal representation. THE ACTOR'S ROLE An actor could: - impersonate an individual - figure in allegory, moral or psychological - take on the role of a chorus - actorshad to sing, dance, play the fool, fight - women's parts were performed by males (only after the Restoration women started to perform) - actors had to develop their moral rhetorical skills (actors had to be able to memorize a lot, but also to invent on stage being sophisticated) Players must had: good memory, capacity to interact with the audience and improvising abilities. PERFORMANCES / ACTORS New plays usually every three weeks. Companies were small. Actor played a double part (it was the rule to spare money). tHE STAGE AS CHRONICLE OF THE TIM Players regarded as chronicles: they addressed public issues. Players needed the protection of the powerful. The powerful appreciated propagande in their favor. Shakespeare’'s plays were set in Italy in order to talk about the issues in England. EMMA SMITH, HAMLET - INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY King Hamlet is the king of Denmark and his son is called Halet too. the ambiguity about who is who and the role of the people of the play which has been exploited to the psychoanalytic study of the play. Freud sees the play as a representation of the Edipus problem, as Hamlet is also in love with his mother. The King of Denmark Hamlet has been killed by his brother, Claudious, who marries the widow and becomes the king. The doubling of names affects the kingdom of Norway (Fortinbras is the Kind and the name of his son), the father Hamlet and the father Fortinbras had a fight before the start of the play and Fortinbras died. Therefore, Fortinbras the son wants to take revenge and to retake the lands his father had lost. The protagonist is the son of a death king, who he loved and he is subset of his mother's remarriage. He is summoned by the ghost of his father. The reason why Hamlet is modern and beloved is due to the ambiguity between sane or mad person, murder or not, guilty queen who knew about the murder or not, young man who really wants to take revenge or not? Fortinbras in the end becomes the king of Norway, as in the end everybody dies and there is nobody else who can rule Norway. Claudius poisoned king Hamlet in the ear, then he dies and Gertrude entrs and she is sad, but then she marries the murderer. Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius but in the end he doesn't, as he wants Claudius in the hell and so he waits until he commits something bad.