PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGY.

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS= lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, velum, pharinx, larinx, nose
The grapheme refers to a letter of the alphabet. A phoneme is a distinctive sound in a language
capable of creating a distinction in meaning between two words.

HOMOPHONES: words which are pronounced the same but spelled differently, such a
bear/bare/beə(r)/, meat/meet  [mi:t], or maid/made [meꞮd].
HOMOGRAPHS: words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently,for example, lead [li:d]
(condurre) e lead [led] (piombo); tear [t Ɪə] (lacrima) and tear [teə] (strappare).

PHONETICS: is one of the most important part of linguistics, which studies the sound of language, the
phonemes, from the physical point of view and their concreate realization.
PHONOLOGY: one of the main parts of linguistics, that studies linguistic sounds due to function they
have got within a linguistic system.

MINIMAL PAIRS: a set of different words consisting of all the same sound except for one. Es: dog/log.

INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA)

Used to represent the sound of the letters.

CONSONANT: A consonant is defined as a speech sound which is articulated with some kind of stricture,
or closure, of the air stream.
Consonants are classified according to four features:
1. the state of the glottis: in vibration (voiced= b as in ball, d as in dog) or open (voiceless= t, k, f, p,th di
thin, s, sh di she, h);

2. the state of the velum: lowered (nasal=m,n,[ŋ]) or raised (oral= all the consonants);
3. the place of articulation: the location where the stricture or place of maximum interference occurs
and what articulators are involved=Bilabial (lips brought together), Labiodental (lower lip against the
upper teeth), Interdental (tip of the tongue touches/gets closer to the back of the upper teeth),
Dental (tongue touches the back of the upper teeth), Alveolar (tip of the tongue touches the
alveolar ridge), Alveolopalatal (front of the tongue raised between the alveolar ridge and the
palate), Palatal (front of the tongue against the palate), Velar (the back of the tongue against the
velum), Uvular (back of the tongue touches the uvula), Pharyngeal (the epiglottis is moved
backwards against the pharynx), Glottal (brief closure of the vocal cords)

4. the manner of articulation: the amount of stricture, whether it is complete, partial (called “close
approximation”), or relatively open (“open approximation”)= Stop (velum raised, complete closure),
Nasal (velum lowered, complete closure), Fricative (close approximation of two articulators,
hissing or rubbing sound), Affricate (stop released slowly), Trill (complete closure alternating with
close approximation), Flap (momentary complete closure), Approximant (one articulator
approaches another) – lateral (lateral passage of air), retroflex (tongue curling back towards the
palate) and glide (or semivowel, involving a glide to/from a vowel, articulated as a vowel with no
stricture but functions as a consonant to begin or end the syllable)

VOWELS: -In articulatory terms, vowels are sounds articulated with no obstruction of the air
stream, that is with open articulation. There is lack of central closure of the air stream, though the
tongue may come into contact with the teeth on the sides.
-In acoustic terms, vowels are sounds that vary in pitch, which is determined by the quality of the
sound wave. Pitch is modified by changing the shape of the resonating chamber (the oral and,
sometimes, the nasal tracts) by changing the position and shape of tongue and lips and by
lowering or raising the velum.
-In functional terms, vowels constitute the nucleus, or necessary, part of the syllable.
CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS
-easier to classify than consonants as we need to consider only one
criterion: place of articulation.
-all vowels are voiced and oral.
-produced with open approximation. In articulating vowels
-The lips can be open and closed, as well as rounded (pursed) or unrounded (spread).
2 kinds of vowels:
1.A monophthong is a single or simple vowel sound constituting the nucleus of a syllable. The
position of the tongue is more or less static.
2.A diphthong consists of the tongue gliding from one vowel position to another within a single
syllable
DIPHTONG are the sound made by 2 phonemes, they are 8, and 3 different kinds of diphthongs:
/i/ + schwa (fear)
/e/ + schwa (care)
/u/ + schwa (poor)

Closing diphthongs ending in /i/

- /ei/ as take
- /ai/ as buy
- /oi/ as boy
- /au/ as cow
- /Schwa u/ as go

About vowels we have 2 additional features: 1. Tenseness (long, higher, and more marginal). 2. Lax vowels
(shorter, lower, and slightly more centralized).

LONG AND SHORT VOWELS

It depends on whether the vowel is in a stressed or unstressed syllable. There are short and long vowel pairs
such as i and i:.

SCHWA
It is the most central vowel in which the lips are in a neutral position and all the articulations are in a relaxed
position.

ASSIMILATION: can be progressive (the precedent sound modified the successes) or regressive
(modifies the precedent). Involves place of articulation and manner of articulation. Es: read this
(progressive, d modifies t), ten boys (regressive, n turns in m thanks to b).

ELISION: is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or a phrase (didn’t = didn’t)

COALESCENCE: is a sound change where two or more segments with distinctive features merge into a
single segment (would you mind? = wouldyou mind?).

STRESS: involves, in articulatory terms, a rise of the air pressure, in acoustic terms, the stressed syllable is
perceived as longer, louder and of higher pitch. We have 3 level: primary level (marked by an acute accent);
secondary level (marked by a grave accent); unstressed level (unmarked or marked by breve acc).
It can distinguish different part of speech, a noun forms a verb, a noun forms a phrase…

WORDS STRESS: words with more than one syllable carry an accent or stress on one syllable.

A SYLLABLE: is composed by different part: nucleus, onset, coda (nucleus and coda together form the
rime). With polysyllabic words, the question of the syllable division are rises. If there is no medial
consonants, the syllable division falls between the vowels as in “po.et”, “gi.ant”. In articulatory. A
ambisyllabic: means that it belongs to both syllable. If stress falls on the initial syllable speakers syllabifies
sometimes with the consonants as coda of the 1st syllable, sometimes as onset of the second (read.y).
MORFOLOGY.
Is the area of linguistics that deals with the structure or form of words. Words can be subdivided into
smaller units called Morphemes, which have 2 characteristics: must be contribute to the meaning of the
word and must be identified from one word to another.

TYPES OF MORPHEMES.
- Lexical Morphemes express lexical, or dictionary, meaning. They costituite open categories, to
which new members can be added. Lexical morphemes are generally indipendent words or parts of
words.
- Grammatical Morphemes express a limited number of very common meaning or express
relations within the sentence. They do not constitute open categories. Grammatical Morphemes
may be parts of words or small but independent “function words” belonging to the minor words
classes: preposition, article, demonstrative, conjunction, auxiliary and so on (ex: the, that, and,
may…)

In the case of the morpheme we must also recognize the level of the morph. The morphs are represented
by phonetic forms. The morph distinct form the morpheme because sometimes although we know that a
morpheme exists, it has no concrete realization, in this case we speak of a Zero Morph, one which has no
phonetic realization. Ex: past tense of Let.

TERMINOLOGY.
MORPHEME 🡪 the smallest unit of language
FREE MORPHEME 🡪 a morpheme that can stand alone as an indipendent word (es. item), which can be
divided into Functional and Lexical.
BOUND MORPHEME 🡪 a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an indipendent word, but must be
attached to another morpheme/word (-s).
BASE 🡪 an element to which additional morphemes are added, also called Stem, they consist of a single
root morpheme or can also contain more than one morpheme.
ROOT🡪 a morpheme around which words can be built up through the addition of affixes 🡪 es.
Dehumanizing (without de-, -ing, -ize you get human). Roots are also occasionally bound morphs, called
bound roots (often are foreign borrowings) ex: -vert, -mit, -ceive, -fer.
AFFIX 🡪 a bound morpheme which attaches to a base (root or stem), are bound morphemes 🡪 english has
two types of affix: Inflectional and derivational
PREFIXES 🡪 attach to the front of a base
SUFFIXES 🡪 to the end of a base
INFIXES 🡪 are inserted in the middle of words.

INFLECTION.
Is the process which affixes combine with roots to indicate basic grammar categories such as tense or plural,
for ex. Cats, talked. Basically is the process of adding very general meanings to existing words, not the
creation of new words (words do not change class). In English there are only Inflectional Suffixes (8) which
are added to nouns, verbs and adjectives.
8 INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES 🡪 1. Nouns -> -s (plural), -‘s (possessive); 2. Verbs -> -s (third person), -ed
(past), -ing (gerund), -en (perfect participle); 3. Adjectives -> -er (comparative), -est (superlative).

DERIVATION.
Is the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words. Ex: Modern-ize (words change
class). Derivational affixes are either prefixes or suffixes.

WORD FORMATION

REDUPLICATION.
A process in which the initial syllabe or the entire word is doubled, exactly or with a slight phonological
change. There are three different kinds of reduplication:
- Exact Reduplication. Ex: goody goody, pooh pooh…
- Ablaut reduplication in which the vowels alternates while the consonants are identical. Ex: zig zag,
mish mash…
- Rhyme reduplication in which the consonants change while the vowel remains the same. Ex: hocus
pocus.

COMPOUNDING.
Is the combination of two or more free roots. If we know the meaning of two roots, we cannot necessarily
predict the meaning of the compound.

BLENDS.
Involves two process of word formation: Compounding and Clipping. Two free words are combined and
blended, by clipping of the end of the first word and the beginning of the second word, altough sometimes
one or the other morpheme is left intact. Ex: smoke + fog = smog.

BACK FORMATION.
Speakers derive a morphologically simple word from a form which they analyze, on the basis of derivational
and inflectional patterns existing in English, as a morphologically complex word. Ex: sing+er= singer.

SHORTENING.
English has 3 types of shortening: Acronyms, Initialisms, Clipped Forms (this one is the result of
deliberately dropping part of a word, usually either the end or the beginning or both). These types have in
common the deletion of sound segments without respect to morphological boundaries. Ex: adv, fan.

IDIOMS.
An idiomi is a sequence of words which functions as a single unit. The meaning of idioms is often thought to
be metaphorical or proverbial. They are frequently colloquial. Ex: Steal the show, spill the beans…

ENCLITIC.
Is a kind of construction, a bound from which derives from an independent word and must be attached to
preceding word. In English we have two kinds of enclitics: contracted auxiliaries, which are attached to the
preceding subject, and the negative contraction –n’t. Certain auxiliaries cannot be contracted.

CONVERSION
the word doesn’t change, its grammatical class does.

SAXON GENITIVE.
A term for the forms of the possessive associated with the Apostrophe. So called because, along with the
plural ending, they are the only noun inflections surviving from Old English or Anglo-Saxon.
Usages: with a place reference (restaurants, shops), subjective genitive, the objective and the descriptive.
And also the possessive form nouns referring to people, countries, animals and for “Belonging to” or
“Ownership” and relationships.

LEXICAL WORDS
nouns (common and proper nouns), lexical verbs (lexical verbs, auxiliary verbs=can, will, primary verbs=
be, have, do), adjective, adverbs.

FUNCTION WORDS.
determiners (clarify the meaning of the nouns), pronouns (fill the position of a noun or an entire phrase),
auxiliary verbs (primary= be, have and do, modal= will, can, shall, may, must, would, could, should, might),
preposition (linking words linked to a preceding verb), adverbial particles (used to build phrasal verbs,
closely linked to verbs, used to build phrasal verbs=about, across, along, away, back, up, under, in, off),
conjunction (coordinators as relationship and subordinators to introduce clauses)
Function words usually indicate meaning relationships and help us interpret units containing lexical words,
by showing how the units are related to each other.

TOKEN VS WORD TYPE.

Token: each occurrence of a word in a written or spoken text is a separate token.
Word types: are the different vocabulary items that occur in a text.
↪ The birds and the deer and who knows what else : 10 tokens and 8 word types.

PRIMARY AUXILIARIES.
There are two kinds of auxiliary verbs: primary auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries. Both are 'auxiliary
verbs' in the sense that they are added to a main verb to help build verb phrases.
● They are added to a main verb to help build verb phrases.
● They precede the main or lexical verb in a verb phrase.
● Contracted forms (-‘s, ‘re, ‘ve, ‘d, ‘ll)
There are three primary auxiliaries: be, have, and do. They have inflections like lexical verbs, but are
normally unstressed. The same verbs be, have, and do can also act as main verbs.
● The auxiliary have is used to form the perfect aspect.
● The auxiliary be is used for the progressive aspect or 'continuous' aspect.
● The auxiliary be is also used for the passive voice.
● The auxiliary do is used in negative statements and in questions; this is known as do insertion.

9 MODAL AUXILIARIES.
There are nine modal auxiliary verbs. As their name suggests, they are largely concerned with
expressing 'modality', such as possibility, necessity, prediction, and volition. The modals are: will, can,
shall, may, must, would, could, should, might.
● Express modality, such as possibility, necessity, prediction, and volition.
● Each model is historically the past tense of the model directly above it (will-would, ect., exept
must)
● Invariable function words, with no inflexions.
 ● Contracted forms (‘ll, ‘d, n’t)
● Occur as the first verb in a clause and are followed by the base form of another verb, usually
the main verb.
● Marginal modal form: be going to.

SINGLE WORD CLASSES.

The three words considered in this group are special in that they are each unique, grammatically, and do not
fit into any other class. That is, they form single-word classes.
Existential there
Existential there is often called an anticipatory subject. Existential there should not be confused with the
place adverb there.
The negator not
The negator not is in some ways like an adverb, but in other respects it is unique. The main use of not (and
its reduced form n't) is to make a clause negative. Apart from negating whole clauses, not has various other
negative uses (as in not all, not many, not very, etc.).
The infinitive marker to
The infinitive marker to is another unique word (not to be confused with the common preposition to). Its
chief use is as a complementizer preceding the infinitive (base) form of verbs. In addition, infinitive to
occurs as part of two complex subordinators expressing purpose: in order to and so as to.

PHRASE VS CLAUSE + EX.

Phrase consists of one or more words (noun p, verb p, adj p, adv p, prep. p), clause consists of one or more
phrases. (verb, subject, object=”direct,indirect”, predicative= “subject p, obj d” , adv= obligatory to
express place, manner...to complete the meaning of the phrase, optional to add more information)
The main classes of adverbials
We divide adverbials into three major classes by their functions: circumstance adverbials,
stance adverbials and linking adverbials.
Circumstance adverbials
Circumstance adverbials are the most common type of adverbials, adding something about
the action or state described in the clause. They answer questions such as: How? When?
Where? How much? How long? Why? They include both obligatory adverbials and optional
adverbials.
Stance adverbials
Stance adverbials add speakers' comments on what they are saying or how they are saying
it. Stance adverbials fall into three categories: epistemic, attitude and style adverbials.
Epistemic stance adverbials focus on the truth of the information in the
clause. They comment on factors such as certainty, view point and limitations of truth
value. (She definitely looks at her mobile).
Attitude stance adverbials express speakers' evaluations and attitudes towards the content
of a clause. (Fortunately, this is far from the truth).
Style stance adverbials convey on a speakers' comment on the style or form of the
communication. Often style stance adverbials clarify the speaker's manner of speaking or
how the utterance should be understood. (Technically speaking, I guess it is burnt). Stance
adverbials often have scope over the entire clause and they are always optional.
Linking adverbials
Linking adverbials serve a connecting function, rather than adding information to a clause.
They show the relationship between two units of discourse. (Furthermore, however, ecc...).
Long verb phrases
A long verb phrase, also called an 'umbrella costituent', is a notion of verb phrase including
not only the verb phrase in this sense, but also any another clause elements which follow
the main verb (object, predicative, adverbial), depending on the valency of the main verb
(monotransitive, ditransitive). (My mother was born in Canada). Some clauses consist only
of a long verb phrase, as with imperative constructions. The long verb phrase corresponds
roughly to a traditional grammatical notion of predicate'.
Valency pattern:
• Intransitive S+V
• Monotransitive S+V+DO
• Ditransitive S+V+IN+DO
• Complex transitive S+V+DO+OP / S+V+DO+A
• Copular S+V+SP / S+V+A

PHERIPHERICAL ELEMENTS.
They are often set off from the rest of the clause by punctuation, intonation or being placed immediately
before or after the clause.
● Conjunctions: are fixed in the initial part of the clause, even ahead of other peripherical adverbials.
● Parenthetical: are often set of from the surrounding clause by parentheses or by dashes.
● Prefaces are noun phrases placed before the subject, which typically have the same reference as a
personal pronoun in the clause.
● Tags: are added at the end of the clause, and can be either noun phrase tags, question tags, and
declarative tags.
● Inserts: are extra word that can be “Slipped into” spoken discourse (yeah, you know…).
● Vocatives: are nouns or noun phrases which generally refer to people and serve to identify the
person being addressed.

SUBCATEGORIES OF NOUNS CONCRETE VS ABSTRACT NOUNS.

Concrete nouns refer to physical entities (person, objects, places) or substances. Abstract nouns refer to
abstractions such as events, states, times and qualities. The distinction between concrete and abstract
nouns is purely semantic: it has no real grammatical role.

PACKAGE NOUNS.
They have a function of packaging together a range of entities. Package nouns are often followed by of-
phrases:
Collectives nouns: refer to groups of people, animals or things (army, family, staff). These nouns behave like
ordinary countable nouns (the team, a team, the teams, teams)
Unit nouns: allow us to cut up a generalized mass or substance into individual units or pieces. They are
countable nouns, but they are usually followed by an of phrase containing an uncountable noun. (a bit of, a
piece of)
Quantifying nouns: are used to refer to quantities, which are usually specified in a following of phrase
containing either a plural noun or an uncountable noun.(a pile of, a kilo of)
Species nouns: are another class of nouns often followed by an of phrase, but they refere to the type rather
than the quantity of something. Can be followed by countable or uncountable nouns. (these kinds of,
certain types of).

COLLECTIVE NOUNS (ppl, animal, things).

refer to groups of people, animals or things.
They behave like ordinary countable nouns, but also proper nouns naming official bodies or organizations
(the BBC, the Senate, the UN, etc.)
One special class of collective nouns frequently have a negative effect: especially, bunch, gang and pack.

Determiners: Zero article, indefinite, definite, possessive, demonstrative, quantifier, numeral; Are
function words that specify the kind of reference that a noun has; they can occur more than once in a
phrase and are placed in a specific position: central determiners, predeterminers, postdeterminers.
The articles:
• “A,AN”: Used with singular countable nouns, refers to an indefinite member of a class, also used to
introduce a new entity into a discourse
• Zero article: indefiniteness of uncountable nouns or plural countable nouns (meals and places as
institutions, transport/communication, time, block language)
• “THE”

INDIRECT USE OF THE AND GENERIC REFERENCE +DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

ANAPHORIC AND CATAPHORIC THE.
The goes with both countable and uncountable nouns. It marks the noun as referring to something or
someone assumed to be known to speaker and addressee (or writer and reader).
• Anaphoric use of the: it is used after unknown entities have been introduced, they can be treated
as ‘known’ and named by the in later references (anaphora: the phrase with the refers back to a
previously mentioned item);

• Indirect use of the: in indirect anaphora, the earlier noun is not repeated, but an associated noun is
used with the (the Mercedes ... The steering wheels);

• Use of the with synonyms: sometimes, indirect anaphora involves the use of a different noun
referring to the same thing or person (I found the car in the garden. The vehicle was...).

• Cataphoric use of the: cataphora can be thought as the opposite of anaphora; here definite
reference is established by something following later in the text, especially some modifier of the
noun;
 • Situational use of the: the often occurs because an entity is known from the situation: either the
immediate situation in which speech takes place, or the wider situation which includes knowledge
of the national situation, the world, or even the universe (at the door, the government);

• Other uses of the: shared knowledge; idiomatic use (by the way, at the end of the day, in the main);
generic reference (He plays the trumpet).

DETERMINERS OF QUANTITY AND QUANTIFIER.

Some determiners specify nouns in terms of quantity or amount and are therefore called quantifying
determiners (or simply quantifiers). Quantifiers can be broadly divided into four types:
• Inclusive: some inclusive quantifiers are all, both, each, every. All refers to the whole of a group or
mass; both refers two entities, and goes with a plural noun. Each and every refer to all the individual
members of a group but, in contrast to all, combine only with singular countable nouns. Each
stresses the separate individual, every stresses the individual as a member of a group. Each can
denote two or more, while every denotes three or more.

• Large quantity: many and much denote a large quantity: many with plural countable nouns, and
much with uncountable nouns. They are used especially with negatives, interrogatives and
combinations (very much/many, so many/much, too many/much, a great many, a good many).
Other determiners signifying a large amount are multi-word units, like a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a
great/good deal of. A lot of and lots of often replace much and many in casual speech.

• Moderate and small quantity: some usually denotes a moderate quantity and is used with
countable and uncountable nouns. A few and a little are used to indicate a small amount (number).
Few and little (without a) mean ‘not many’ and ‘not much’.

• An arbitrary or negative individual or amount: any denotes an arbitrary member of a group, or an

arbitrary amount of a mass. Either has a similar meaning, but it is used to denote a member of a
group of two, and occurs only with singular countable nouns. Any and either usually occur with
negatives or questions. On the other hand, no and neither have a purely negative meaning: no is
used for countables as well as uncountables, and neither is used for a choice of two.

GENITIVE OF TIME, DURATION, DISTANCE.

Genitives of time and measure The genitive is often used to specify time, duration, distance or value: -
duration: a month’s holiday; - distance: I held the telephone at arm’s lenght and stared at it; . monetary
value: She had to buy fifty pounds’worth.
Independent genitives Independent genitives are genitive phrases standing alone as a noun phrase. Some
are elliptic genitives, which are genitive phrases whose main noun head can be recovered from the
preceding text. For example: This isn’t my bag. It’s Selina’s. Other independent genitives refer to people’s
homes. For example: She’s going to a friend’s.
Double genitives In this construction, either the independent genitive or a possessive pronoun occurs in the
phrase. For example: This was a good idea of Johnny’s.

The choice between genitives and of phrases It depends on:

- The semantic class of the noun. Personal nouns are more likely used with the genitive form
than inanimate nouns, which, on the other hand, are used with the of-construction. For example: The
future of socialism- dad’s car.
- The meaning relation between the two nouns. Meaning relations favoring the genitive are:
possessive genitive (The family’s car) –attributive genitive (Martha’s courage) –subjective genitive
(Chiang’s recognition).
-Collocation> genitives tend to occur in fixed collocations: at death’s door, god’s sake...
-Length of phrases: end-weight: genitive constructions are generally short, whereas of-phrases are often
longer. This pattern follows the principle of end-weight
-Information flow: end-focus: English tends presenting given information first , and new informations at
the end of a construction

Gender: masculine, feminine, personal, and neuter

Gender is not an important grammatical category in English: unlike many European
languages,English has no masculine and feminine inflections for nouns or determiners. Gender is
an area where the language is changing. Four semantic gender classes can be distinguished:
• Masculine nouns and pronouns refer primarily to male people (Tom, a boy, the man, he,his,
him)
• Feminine nouns and pronouns refer primarily to female people (Sue, a girl, she, her, hers)
• Personal gender nouns and pronouns refer primarily to people, regardless of whether they are
female or male (o Journalist, who, someone)
• Neuter gender nouns and pronouns refer primarily to Inanimates (including abstractions) (a
house, the fish, It, what, which)
Masculine and feminine noun reference
There are major ways of specifying masculine and feminine contrast in nouns:
• Using totally different nouns (son-daughter, bull-cow, etc.)
• Using derived nouns with masculine and feminine suffixes-er/or, -ess (walter-woltress,
octor-actress, but also lion-lioness)
• Using a modifier, such as male, female; man, woman, women (male nurse, woman doctor)
• Using nouns in-man, - woman (choirmon, Englishmon, policewoman) - man pronounced
in both the singular and the plural/man/
The derivational endings-er/or and -ess are not of equal status. While-ess always has female
reference, -er/or can be used for box sexes with personal gender words like doctor and teacher.
Further, -ess can be added to a noun without-er/or to form the female variant: lion-lioness;
priest-priestess.
Gender bias in nouns
There are two reasons for the preference of male terms over female terms:
• Speakers and writers refer to males more frequently than to females
• The masculine terms are often used to refer to both sexes,
Both these factors amount to a blas in favour of the masculine gender. In recent decades, efforts
have been made to avoid masculine bias by using gender-neutral nouns in-person instead of -man
and - woman. However, this trend has had limited success so far.
Gender bias in pronouns
English has some personal-gender pronouns that are neutral for female/male, such as somebody,
everyone, you, they, and who. But in the key case of singular third-person pronouns, there is no
personal-gender form corresponding to he (masculine) and she (feminine). When there is need to
refer to 'male or female', the traditional choice, again, is in favour of the masculine: using he to
refer to both sexes or either sex. Three main ways of avoiding this gender bias have been
adopted In recent decades:
• Use of coordinated pronouns and determiners (he or she, his/her);
• Use of the plural instead of singular pronouns (somebody left their keys);
• Avoiding the problem by using the plural throughout: converting the phrase into the
generic plural (The teacher finds that he or she needs more time - Teachers find that they
need more time).
Personal vs. neuter reference with pronouns
There is a choice between neuter it and personal reference by she or he in the case of babies and
animals (particularly pets). It, however, may be an offensive way to refer to a child in talking to its
parents. She can also be used to refer to nations and ships, as a conventional form of
personification. It can refer to human beings when used as an introductory subject followed by be
(Who is it? It's me), there is nothing offensive in this usage.

TENSES, ASPECT, VOICE, MODAL.

There are six major kinds of variation in the structure of verb phrases. These are illustrated below with verb
hear:

Tense: -present (hears); -past (heared);

Aspect: -unmarked or simple aspect (hears); -perfect (has heard); -progressive (is hearing); -perfect
progressive (has been hearing);

Voice: - active (hears); -passive (is heard);

Modality: -unmarked (hears); -with modal verb (will/can/might hear);

Negative: -positive (hears); -negative (doesn’t hear);

Finite clause type (“mood”): -declarative (you heard); -interrogative (did you hear?);
-imperative/subjunctive (hear);

These structures can be combined in numerous ways, as you will see throughout the chapter. The parts of
the verb phrase – and therefore the auxiliary verbs associated with each part – follow a consistent order.

Example: will (modal) have (perfect) (form of have) being (progressive) (form of be) been (passive) (form of
be) eaten (main verb)

Verb phrases with all of these structures are extremely rare, but are possible. The variations in the verb
phrase are related to many differences in meanings. However, it is not possible to figure out the meaning
simply by looking at the form. Rather, a single form can be used to express several meanings, and the same
meaning can be expressed by more than one form.

TENSE
Tense: finite verb phrases can be marked by present and past tenses or may include a modal, while non
finite verb phrases (to/ing) do not include either.
• Simple present tense and present time: describes a state that exists in the present time, a habitual action,
an action happening, it can also be used to refer to past (historic past time) or future time
• Simple past tense and past time: Despite being used for past time, it can also be used to refer to the
present time, giving information about stance (think, wonder, want); it is also used to show hypothetical
conditions and in reported speech
• Future: usually marked with modal or semi-modal (be going to) since verbs cannot be tensed for the future
Aspect: it adds time meaning to the expressions of the tense. They are divided into perfect (refers to
something happening in a certain time) and progressive aspect (refers to an action in progress or
continuing), verbs that are not marked are called simple aspect. The perfect aspect is common with physical
and communication verbs, while progressive includes both dynamic and static verbs. Present perfect refer to
a past action that has effects on the present time, while past perfect refers to actions completed and ended
in the past.
Voice: Active and passive (be+ed or the get-passive); passive ca occur either as short (agent not specified) or
long passive (by-phrase); the passive voice focuses the attention on the receiver of the action. Voice and
aspect combinations are possible and common.

BE PASSIVE VS GET PASSIVE.

The get-passive is rare in all registers but is occasionally used in conversation (used with only five verbs:
married, hit, involved, left, stuck).
be passives: ex. I was married for a couple of years in the eighties.
get passives: ex: She got married when she was twenty.

MODALS AND SEMIMODALS.

There are nine central modal verbs in English: can, could, may, might, must, should, shall, will, would.
• They act like an auxiliary verb in verb phrases.
• They do not take inflections to show agreement or tense. That is, the form does not vary.
• They precede the negative particle in not negation.
• They precede the subject in yes-no questions.
• They take a bare infinity verb as the main verb in the verb phrase.
• They express stance meanings, related to possibility, necessity, obligation, etc.
Semi-modals, (‘periphrastic-modals’ or ‘quasi-modals’) are multi-word constructions that functions like
modal verbs: (had) better, have to, (have) got to…
Semi-modals express meanings that can usually be paraphrased with a central modal verb:
• I have to read it again. (I must read it again)
In addition, some semi-modals are fixed expressions, which cannot be inflected for tense or person.
However, some of the semi-modals, like have to and be going to can be marked:
• Past tense: He had to go to police
• Third-person agreement: Maybe she has to grow up a little more
These semi-modals may sometimes co-occur with a central modal verb or another semi-modal:
• Co-occurrence with a modal: I might have to tell him
• Co-occurrence with another semi-modal: I think the teachers are gonna have to be there
There are also some lexical verbs and adjectives that have meanings similar to modal auxiliaries, in that they
express stance meanings, but they are neither idiomatic nor fixed expressions. Rather, these verbs and
adjectives express their core lexical meanings of desire, obligation, possibility, etc. Examples are: need to,
dare to, want to, be able to, be obliged to, be likely to, be willing to, etc.
Shall occurs with progressive aspect when used:
• We shall be campaigning for the survival of local government in Cleveland.

COPULAR VERBS STATE OF EXISTENCE, SENSORY PERCEPTION.

Copular verbs: they usually associate an attribute with the subject of the clause (expressed by the SP);
many copular verbs.
are also used to locate the subject in time and space (expressed by an Adv)
Current copular verbs: continuing state of existence (be, seem, appear) or sensory perceptions (look, feel,
sound).
Result copular verbs: a result of a process of change (end up, become, turn, grew).

PRONUNCIATION OF SUFFIXES.

-ing: /ɪŋ/

-(e)s:
/s/ after voiceless consonants except /ʃ , ʧ , s/ (looks, hopes, laughs)
/z/ after vowels and voiced consonants except /ʒ , ʤ , z/ (tries, moves, minds)
/ɪz/ after / ʃ , ʧ , s , ʒ , ʤ , z/ (passes, reduces, recognizes, pushes, watches, manages, massages)

-ed
/t/ after voiceless consonants except /t/ (watched, looked, pushed)
/d/ after vowels and voiced consonants except /d/ (tried, moved)
/ɪ/ after /t, d/ (waited, wanted, included)

SEMANTHIC CATEGORIES OF LEXICAL VERBS (7).

So many verbs have more than one meaning, we found it useful to distinguish 7 semantic categories:
activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of occurrence, verbs of existence
or relationship and verbs of aspect.
ACTIVITY VERBS
Activity verbs usually refer to a volitional activity, that is an action performed intentionally by an agent or a
doer. activity verbs can be transitive, taking a direct object, or intensity, occurring without any object.
activity verbs are also sometimes used to express the even that occur without the volition of an agent. EX
bring, buy, come and follow
COMMUNICATION VERBS
Communication verbs are a special subcategory of activity verbs that involve communication activities,
particularly verbs describing speech and writing.EX ask, offer, call, speak

MENTAL VERBS
Mental verbs are referred to mental state and activities. These verbs do not involve physical action. Some of
the verbs convey volition others do not. Mental verbs express range of meanings:
Mental states or processes, emotion, attitude, or desires, perceptions, the receiving of communication
Other mental verbs are more stative in meaning, that is they describe a state rather than an action. These
include verbs describing mental state, such as believe, remember, and understand, as well as many verbs
describing emotion or attitude, that are enjoy, fear, hate and prefer. EX believe, consider, expect and
feel
CAUSATIVE VERBS
Causative verbs indicate that some person or thing helps to bring about a new state of affairs. these verbs
often occur with a derived noun as the direct object which reports the action that was facilitated. The use of
derived nouns with causative verbs in particularly common in academic. In other cases the resulting action
or event is expressed in a complement clause that follows the positive verbs. these verbs are: allow, help,
let, require.

VERBS OCCURRENCE
Verbs of occurrence report events that occur without an actor. Often the subject of these verbs are affected
by the events that is described by the verb. EX become, grow, change, happen, dvelop. occur, die

VERBS OF EXISTENCE AND RELATIONSHIP

verbs of existence or relationship report a state of existence or a logical relationship that exists between
entities. EX appear, contain, stand and look

VERBS OF ASPECT
verbs of aspect characterize the stage of progress of an event or activity. These verbs usually occur with a
complement clause following the verb. begin, continue, keep, start, stop

VERBS WITH MULTIPLE MEANINGS

Many verbs have more than one meaning. In some cases The verb’s meaning covers two or more semantic
categories. the physical activity aspects of hesitating and pretending as well as the Mental aspects. Activity
verbs often have secondary meanings in other contexts. The 12 most common lexical verbs in English are all
activity or mental verbs.
Activity verbs: get, go, make, come, take, give
Mental verbs: know, think, see, want, mean
Communication verb: say

COMPLEX NOUN PHRASE.

Noun Phrases can be expanded with modifiers.
Premodifiers (e.g., attributive adjectives) occur before the head noun.
Postmodifiers (e.g., relative clauses) occur following the head noun.
In total, noun phrases can be composed of four major components:
determiner + premodifiers + head noun + postmodifiers
All noun phrases include a head, while determiners, premodifiers, and postmodifiers are optional. A
pronoun can substitute for a noun or a complete noun phrase, so they can be a head in a noun phrase.
Pronoun-headed phrases usually do not include determiners or premodifiers, but they may have
postmodifiers:
There are several different types of premodifiers and postmodifiers.
Premodifiers include adjective, participials and other nouns:
● Adjective as premodifier:
 A special project
An internal memo
● Participial premodifiers:
Written reason
Detecting devices
● Noun as premodifiers:
The bus strike
The police report

Moreover, we have clausal postmodifiers which can be either finite or non-finite.

When they are finite, they are relative clauses.
Non-finite postmodifier clauses have three different forms: to-clauses, ing-clauses and ed-clauses:
● relative clause as postmodifier:
A footpath which disappeared in a landscape of fields and trees
Beginning students who have had no previous college science courses
● to-infinitive clause as postmodifier:
The way to get to our house
Enough money to buy proper food
● ing-clause as postmodifier:
The imperious man standing under the lamppost
Rebels advancing rapidly southwards
● ed-clause as postmodifier:
Fury fanned by insensitive press coverage
Products required to support a huge and growing population

Phrasal postmodifiers consist of two main types: prepositional phrases and appositive noun phrases.
● prepositional phrase as postmodifier:
Doctors at the Johns Hopkins Medical School
Compensation for emotional damage
● appositive noun phrase as postmodifier:
The Indian Captain, Mohammed Azharuddin

Occasionally, adverbs can also be premodifiers or postmodifiers in noun phrases:

● adverb as premodifier:
The nearby guards
● adverb as postmodifier:
A block behind

Noun complement clauses are different from postmodifiers in structure and meaning, although they also
occur following noun heads. They involve primarily special kinds of that- and to-clauses:
The idea that he was completely cold and unemotional
A chance to do the right thing

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES.
1 Opinion ,2 size, 3 age, 4 participles, 5 shape, 6 colours, 7 substances.
Es: he was a beautiful (1), tall (2), thin (3), young (5), black haired (6), Scottish (7) man.

bisexuality
Although we are in the 21st century, there are still problems concerning homosexuality or
bisexuality, because those people are still not treated like normal and their love is yet to be defined
as natural. Unfortunately, episodes in which a person does coming out and immediately refused by
his/her parents are still very frequent. This problem is worldwide, not in specific countries. Recently,
on 9th of April 2021, in Italy, precisely in Florence, this happened to a girl, called Marika, 22 years
old, who wrote a letter to her parents in which she stated that she fell in love with another girl. This
caused the rage of her family, who immediately kicked her out of the house, changing the door
lock, so that she could never come back home. Furthermore, she’s been death threatened by all
the members of the family and they said that she will never have a successful life. In addition to
this, the next day in which she’s been kicked out, she came back home with the police, so that she
can have her things back, but her mother faked saying she didn’t know that girl. I personally think
that being homosexual or bisexual isn’t wrong, like others think, and that this is completely natural.
We cannot be forced by others to love someone ot the other sex. We must love what we want to
love, but some people will never understand. Obviously, things improved through the years, as
many years ago homosexual and bisexual were threated like criminals. I believe that people should
change their mind because they are simply mentally old, when we live in a society in which
changes happen faster than light and to accept those changes we need to be open minded.
Unfortunately, this problem does not concern just people, but also the church, in particular priests,
who are still far behind mentally. Luckily, our Pope Francis is open minded and understand love
between two people of the same sex, stating that this is completely normal and people have to
accept it. But, people don’t even listen to his words…
An example of non-acceptation of bisexuality can be found in “Margarita with a straw”, a film set in
India and in New York, in which the protagonist is a girl who suffers of mental diseases and, later in
the film, finds out that she’s bisexual. First she fell in love with a member of a band, but the love
was not corresponded, secondly, while in New York to study, she fell in love with a blind girl and
lastly, in the meantime she was in a relationship with this girl, she had an escapade with a guy.
Luckily the two girls remained together. When she declared to her mother that she was bisexual,
her mother didn’t take this so well, arguing with her. This is related to the fact that people are still
old minded and need to convert their mind by opening it, accepting the changes.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEES

bees, and the same goes for other insects, are under threat because of humans. They are vital to
our ecosystem as they contribute in the process for the survival of it. bees are known for their key
role in providing high quality food, like honey, royal jelly and pollen. Furthermore, they give such a
great contribution in the pollination of nearly three quarters of the plants in the world that produce
90% of the world's food. Cultivated plants that in fact depend on pollination are an important
economical source for farmers, especially for the little ones. Bees are also vital for the preservation
of biodiversity and for the ecological balance, as, with their service, i.e. pollination, they contribute
to the production of food. But, if humans continue to destroy nature, and also to kill bees, all the
system collapse, causing economical and ecological problems. So, in order to preserve the lives of
bees, on the 20th of May it is held the world bee day, in order to raise awareness for the bees.
The goal is to strengthen measures in order to protect bees and other pollinators. This means that
this would contribute to solving the problems of starvation in the world and in particular to help the
poorest country, in order to eliminate hunger in developing countries\poorest countries.