Lexis and Grammar for Translation Dott. M. Gatto Lingue e Culture per il Turismo Lingua e Traduzione Inglese I

Noun Phrases Structural features Semantic features Syntactic function

A lady An English lady An old English lady A strange old English lady with blue dress with a blue dress

Structure A An English An old English A strange old English lady with a blue dress

Structure A strange old Englishladywith a blue dress PREMODIFICATION HEAD POSTMODIFICATION

Semantic role Noun phrases typically refer topeople, animals, objects, places, institutions, emotions, phenomena….

Syntactic Function Subject Object Indirect Object Complement of preposition Apposition Subject/Object predicative

Focus on structure A Noun Phrase is composed potentially of three parts: HEAD (i.e. WHAT we are talking about): the minimial requirement for the occurrence of the phrase; it is generally realised by a noun or a pronoun (he, one, someone, books, journey…) other elements (optionally occurring) which add further information about the head itself: - PREMODIFICATION - POSTMODIFICATION

Premodification A lady An English lady An old English lady A strange old English lady with a blue dress

POSTMODIFICATION qualifiers > add further information concerning extrinsic features the beautiful girl in the corner the red book on your desk

Focus on HEAD A NOUN : John, girl, cat… A PRONOUN (no pre-/post-modification): he, she, we… AN ADJECTIVE (with articles): the rich, the poor…

Focus on determiners Determiners: - articles > a/an, the, Ø - demonstratives > this/that ; these/those - possessives > my, your,… - s genitive > Toms, the moons… -quantifiers > much/many; (a) little/(a) few... -partitives > some, any, no -distributives > each/every, either/neither ; - all/no(none) ; both/half

Focus on… ARTICLES

Translation problems: Different use of the definite article in English and Italian: ITALIAN > generic context > IL TURISMO, LA LETTERATURA ENGLISH > generic context > TOURISM, LITERATURE ITALIAN > preference for definite articles Si è rotto LA gamba ENGLISH > preference for possessives He broke HIS leg

The functional perspective The use of articles is generally associated by student to a number of rules to be learned by heart. Lets address the problem from a different perspective by trying to grasp the function of articles in English

The use of articles depends in English on two basic factors: the grammar status of the noun as mass/count the context as generic/specific

MASS COUNT In English when we use a NP, the language obliges us to make it clear whether the referent is perceived as a discrete, countable entity OR an indivisibile, non-countable mass entity.

* It is a grammar category (it cannot be inferred from the observationof reality): E.g. MILK = MASS/ INFORMATION = MASS * It is language-specific (it changes from language to language): E.g. UN LATTE (?)/UNINFORMAZIONE

Articles and massnouns: Ø article + singular > e.g. milk > mass: Ø milk [*A milk (inaccettabile)] Also consider double use: coffee (substance) > mass: Ø Coffee is stimulant coffee (cup) > count: May I have a coffee, please? work > mass: Ø Work in cooperation is… job > count: Tom is looking for a job What about translation?

Grammatical markers of count: car/cars > count: I bought a car / The car I bought… / All the cars…/ Ø Cars are… * all articles (a, the, Ø ) are used

GENERIC SPECIFIC The use of definite and indefinite articles helps us understand if reference to something is generic or specific

Generic reference is given by: Ø + mass > childhood A/AN; THE + count sing. > a/the child Ø + count plural > children

Specific reference is given by: THE (mass +count) THE + mass > THE childhood [of many 19 th century writers was unhappy] THE + count sing. > THE child THE + count plural > THE children [The children I saw in the garden…]