Parti del discorso

Nomi

La funzione dei nomi è quella di etichettare delle cose concrete e dei concetti astratti.

Possono avere funzioni di soggetto e di oggetto (diretto o indiretto).

Nomi: Come si chiama..?

n Un gruppo di pesci? A shoal of fish

n Un gruppo di lupi? A pack of wolves

n Un gruppo di pecore? A flock of sheep

n Tutti questi nomi collettivi sono utilizzati per indicare un insieme di cose

n Possono essere contable\uncontable, concrete\abstract, animate\inanimate

Nomi: Da un altro punto di vista.

n A ball of string

n An item of news

n A piece of advice

n Questi sono "Unit nouns", servono ad identificare singole parole che sono incontabili.

Nomi: Composti e attributivi.

n Sunglasses è un nome composto

n Wineglass è un attributivo

Aggettivi.

Di solito in Inglese gli aggettivi sono invariabili, non come in italiano che li accordiamo al genere e al numero, ad eccezione dei Comparativi e dei Superlativi.

L'aggettivo si trova prima del nome, per questo motivo viene chiamato pre-modifiers.

Aggettivi: Che differenza c'è tra le due frasi?...

A handsome actor

She considers him handsome

Nella prima frase l'aggettivo si trova prima del nome e viene chiamato attributivo. Nella seconda frase l'aggettivo dopo il nome viene chiamato predicative. Segue il verbo.

Aggettivi: Due principali categorie..

Qualitative adjectives

Gli aggettivi qualitativi danno informazioni riguardo la qualità del nome.

Hanno gradi diversi.

Possono avere comparativo e superlativo.

Es: Great - greater - greatest

Intelligent - more intelligent - most intelligent.

Classifying adjectives

Collocano il nome in una categoria e non possono essere modificati in nessun modo.

• A plastic bagCLASSIFYING.
• A nice thing to doQUALITATIVE
• A awful bookQUALITATIVE
• Ayoung actress QUALITATIVE.

Qualitative (or descriptive adjectives)

L'ordine degli aggettivi:

n Number (numero es: 3 - 200)

n Opinion (opinione es: nice, horrible)

n Dimension (dimensione es: big, small)

n Age (età es: old new)

n Shape (forma es: round, pointed)

n Colour (colore es: black, dark green)

n How made (com'è fatto es: hand made)

n Origin (origine es: Italian, British)

n Material (materiale es: Wooden - Stony)

Es:

n An unusual gold ring

n A good-looking young man

n A little old red car

n A small black metal box

n An interesting old French painting

Verbs.

I verbi si classificano in diversi modi (meaning, transitivity patterns, form.)

Ci sono anche delle sottocategorie (quelle seguite dalla forma dell'infinito, forma in ing ecc)

Alcuni verbi devono essere accompagnati da un oggetto (transitivi)

Altri non sono accompagnati da oggetto (intransitivi)

Verbs: transitive vs intransitive

Alcuni intransitivi possono essere utilizzati con una preposizione nella forma transitiva

Alcuni cambiano i significati quando vengono usati in forma transitiva (to run\ to run for.)

Se l'oggetto è un infinito quando do una risposta non posso omettere il "to"

Ditransitive verbs

n Give peace a chance.

n I'll teach you English, if you like.

n Give me that book, please

Alcuni verbi possono prendere due oggetti, diretto o indiretto, questi sono i ditransitive verbs.

Reflexive verbs

I verbi riflessivi sono solo tre:

n busy, content, pride

Delexical verbs

Alcuni verbi molto comuni vengono utilizzati con un sostantivo che grammaticalmente è l'oggetto del verbo ma semanticamente è parte del Verbo.

n Do the washing/ the cleaning/my hair

n Have a walk/a shower/a bath/a chat

n Take a walk/a shower/a bath

n Cfr Italian fare.

Adverbs

Molti avverbi derivano da oggetti o da nomi e si riconoscono pechè terminano in -ly.

A volte modificano l'aggettivo

Possono essere semplici o composti.

A volte la stessa parola può appartenere a diverse word class che hanno forma grammaticale o morfosintattica diversa.

A volte l'aggettivo non aggiunge -ly e viene usato come avverbio

Es:

n I loved her brotherly. (avverbio)

n I loved her with a brotherly affection. (aggettivo)

Function words

Appartengono a una classe chiusa di parole

Sono generalmente invariabili

Pronouns

Sostituiscono frasi nominali e nomi

Soggetto ( I, we)

Oggetto (me, us)

Possessivi (mine, yours)

Riflessivi (myself, yourself)

Indefiniti (anyone, nothing)

Relativi (who, whose, which)

Determiners

Articoli

Dimostrativi

Possessivi

Quantitativi

Prepositions

Sono usate con nomi e gruppi di nomi per formare frasi

From Monday to Friday I work hard

Adverbial particles

Sono parole usate come preposizioni ma sono intrinseche parti del verbo.

Es: get up, look after, make up.

Auxiliary verbs

Vengono prima di un verbo lessicale e vengono utilizzati per i tempi composti (be, have, do)

Verbi modali: sono simili agli ausiliari ma hanno una forma diversa (can, could, may, might, must, should, will, shall, would)

Semi modali: be able to e have to

Modali periprastici: had better (faresti meglio), used to (facevo), ecc..

Conjunctions

In a class of their own (una classe tutta loro)

n Existential  "there"

n Negator "not"

n Infinitive marker "to"

Word class

We use different kinds of words. parts of speech or word class

n Read the following sentences:

a) Lucy plays tennis very well

b) Paul wants to play football on Sundays

c)  The president doesn't want the election to take place by the end of the next month.

• Try to group the words together in different categories.
• Try to give each category a name in English.

Two main categories of words: Content words and Function words

n Content words (lexical words) are verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs.

n Function words are the words which "cement" words in a phrase together and give meaning to the whole phrase: as, but, the.

Content words

Nouns

n Name or label concrete things and abstract concepts (pen, love)

n Act as subject or object (direct or indirect)

Love is holy

John loves his wife

John can't put up with his mother-in-law.

Nouns - how do you call?...

n A group of fish

n A shoal of fish

n A group of wolves?

n A pack of wolves

n A group of sheep?

n A flock of sheep

n All these are collective nouns, used to group other similar nouns together, being these countable/uncountable, concrete/abstract, animate/inanimate.

Nouns - on the other hand.

n A ball of string

n An item of news

n A piece of advice

n These are unit noun, used to identify a single unit of an uncountable noun.

Nouns- compound and attributive nouns

n Sunglasses is a compound noun

n While a wine glass, different than a glass of wine, is an attributive noun, as used as an adjective.

Adjectives

n In English adjectives are normally invariable

n When do adjectives change?

n Only when Comparative and Superlative affixes are added (big>bigger>biggest)

n Where do all the adjectives occur?

n In front of nouns

n So adjectives describe something or someone and therefore they modify nouns. For their position, they pre-modifiers.

Adjectives: what's the difference between the two phrases?

1. A handsome actor
2. She considers him handsome.

1. Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. .
2. Those in the second position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE adjectives. They follow the verb.

Adjectives: two main categories

Qualitative adjectives

n Qualitative adjectives give information about the qualities of the noun they modify.

n Adjectives of this type can be graded so we can comment on how much of the quality the noun has:

Intelligent > a highly intelligent student

n Qualitative adjectives can also be comparative or superlative

Great> greater> greatest

Intelligent> more intelligent> most intelligent

Classifying adjectives

n Classifying adjectives place the noun into a class or category such as pregnant, annual, and western.

n Classifying adjectives cannot be graded.

She was looking very pregnant

Adjectives: which is which?

n A plastic bag Classifying

n A nice thing to do.  Qualitative

n An awful book Qualitative

n A young actressQualitative

n An American actress Classifyng

n A wooden box Classifyng

Qualitative (or descriptive adjectives)

Order of the adjectives: what's the correct position?

n A ring- gold/unusual

n A man - good-looking/young

n A car - red/old/little

n A box - metal/black/small

n A painting- old/interesting/French

The order of the adjectives

n Number

n Opinion

n Dimension

n Age

n Shape

n Colour

n How made

n Origin

n Material

n 3 - 200

n Nice - horrible

n Big - small

n Old - new

n Round - pointed

n Black - dark green

n Hand-made

n Italian - British

n Wooden - Stony

Adjectives: check the right order

n An unusual gold ring

n A good-looking young man

n A little old red car

n A small black metal box

n An interesting old French painting

Verbs

n Verbs may be classified in different ways (meaning, transitivity patterns, form.)

n There are also subcategories of verbs (those followed by bare infinitive, a full infinitive, an -ing form.)

n Certain verbs must be accompanied by a direct object- they are transitive

n Others do not take an object - they are intransitive

Verbs: transitive vs intransitive

n The distinction is not clear cut.

n Some intransitive verbs can be used transitively when followed by a preposition - listen to, pay for.

n Some verbs change in meaning when used transitively - cfr to run/to run for.

n If the object of a transitive verb is a full infinitive, then to must be included in the short answer.

Ditransitive verbs

n Give peace a chance.

n I'll teach you English, if you like.

n Give me that book, please.

Some verbs can take two objects, direct and indirect, so they are known as ditransitive verbs.

Reflexive verbs

n What is a reflexive verb?

n They were busying themselves tidying all the mess.

n He prides himself on his skill as a cook.

n The object of the verb is the same as the subject and is expressed in the form of a reflexive pronoun.

n Only three verbs are used as reflexive: busy, content, pride.

Delexical verbs: replace the chunks with single word verbs

n Dave had a date with a girl he had made friends with that afternoon. He took a shower and had a shave. He then got dressed with the utmost care, did his hair and went out to have a dinner in the best restaurant in town.

n He had the audacy to give her a kiss, to which she responded by giving him a resounding slap across the face. Realising what a mistake he had made he took his leave before making a worse impression.

Delexical verbs: replace the chunks with single word verbs - Keys

n Dave was going to meet a girl he had befriended that afternoon. He showered and shaved. He then dressed with the utmost care, brushed/combed his hair and went out to dine in the best restaurant in town.

n He had the audacity to kiss her, to which she responded by slapping him resoundly across the face. Realising what a mistake it had been he left before making himself look even worse.

Delexical verbs

n Some very common lexical verbs are used with a noun which grammatically is the object of the verb but semantically is part of the verb.

n Do the washing/ the cleaning/my hair

n Have a walk/a shower/a bath/a chat

n Take a walk/a shower/a bath

n Cfr Italian fare.

Adverbs

n Many adverbs are derived forms of adjectives and nouns and are easily recognised thanks to the -ly ending.

n Adverbs, adverbs phrases and adverbials are often connected to the verb in the main phrase, informing on how, where and when the activity takes place.

n Adverbs may modify an adjective: they are submodifiers of degree, emphasis, and extent.

n Adverbs can be simple (really, properly) or compound (anywhere, sometime)

n Sometimes the same word form can belong to two or more different word classes, that is two grammatically distinct words have the same form- grammatical or morphosintactic words.

n Cfr the case of words which end with - ing

n Jimmy is living in Rome.

n Living in Rome is fantastic.

n Jimmy was looking for more living space.

n Sometimes an adjective does not add -ly when it is used as an adverb:

A fast car

The car runs fast

n I loved her brotherly.

n I loved her with a brotherly affection.

n Brotherly can be used both as an adjective and an adverb.

n I worked hard this weekend.

n I hardly work on the weekend.

n Sometimes an adjective does not add -ly when it is used as an adverb.

Function words

n They belong to the closed class of words.

n They are usually invariable

Pronouns

n They substitute nouns and nouns phrases.

n I saw your sister yesterday. I saw her at the market.

n Subject (I, we)

n Object (me, us)

n Possessive (mine, yours)

n Reflexive (myself, ourselves)

n Indefinite (anyone, nothing)

n Relative (who, whose, which)

Determiners

n Articles

n Demonstratives

n Possessives

n Quantifiers

Prepositions

n They are used with nouns and noun groups to form prepositional phrases:

n From Monday to Friday I work hard

Adverbial particles

n They are words which look like prepositions but which are an intrinsic part of a verb - cfr phrasal verbs:

n Get up

n Look after

n Make up

Auxiliary verbs

n Auxliary verbs come before the lexical verb.

n The primary auxiliary verbs are: be, have, do.

n Modal verbs are another kind of auxiliary verb, but they have only one form: can, could, may, might, must, should, will, shall, would.

n Semimodals verbs are: be able to and have to and periphrastic modals such as had better, used to, etc.

Conjunctions

In a class of their own

n Existential there

n Negator not

n Infinitive marker to