phrases A phrase is a string of words forming a syntactic unit Named after the class of the most important word they contain (i.e. the head) Noun phrase Verb phrase Adjective phrase Adverb phrase Prepositional phrase Noun phrase structure premodification
head noun postmodification My house My beautiful house The
house on the hill (PP) The man (that) I love (finite rel clause) The lady
waiting outside (non-finite rel. Clause) My trip Back home (AdvP) Something Unusual (AdjP) Test to identify the words belonging to a NP: replacing it with a pronoun
Identify NPs and their internal structure Thank you for your prompt return of a signed cheque for 43. Unfortunately, although this cheque is signed, it appears to be dated 14 February 2200. No doubt just an oversight on your part. Brompton's Store cannot accept post-dated cheques as payment, and I am therefore returning it to you with the request that you return to us a signed cheque, dated with the date of signature. Alternatively you can pay by cash or on the enclosed bank giro credit slip. A leaflet is enclosed for your information. I look forward to receiving your payment. Translation problems I
Italian>English Order of the pre-modifiers determiner Adjectives with an absolute or intensifying meaning opinion Size other qualities
Age Shape Temperature Colour Pattern Origin/nationality Material Purpose/type Head noun Can be expressed by nouns with an adjectival function
Translation problems II Italian does not allow pre-modification to the same extent as English (post-modification is more common) The relation between the components of the premodification is often not explicit in English Environment department air pollution report finding scandal The scandal uncovered?/caused? by the findings of the Environment Departments report on air pollution You may well already recognise this fancy name. Bourne & Hollingsworth have been
around for longer than a minute, serving up high-end cocktails to Londoners at their vintage-inspired Fitzrovia bar and Reverend JW Simpson bar. Complex lexically dense NPs as a feature of specialized langauges Slightly dilated intrahepatic ducts A severe hepatic artery stricture An HTML editing programme Document file icon Private foreign investors
Exchange-rate policies The continuing post-industrial transformation The inner city rioting Equivalents in Italian: lack of sistematicity English Noun_Noun Italian: antibiotic resistance resistenza agli antibiotici (N_prep_N) trattamento antibiotico
(N_A) DNA ospite (N_N) antibiotic treatment Host DNA Effect of the lack of one-to-one correspondence Selectable marker > *Marcatore selezionabile? Tissue culture > dei tessuti? tissutale? Genome sequencing> Sequenziamento del genoma? Sequenziamento genomico? DNA sequencing > sequenziamento del DNA
Corpus check: selectable marker Checking against the Web as a corpus Selectable marker: 1.630.000 results Marcatore di selezione: 78.600 results Marcatore genetico: 57.900 results Marcatore genico: 308 results Noun_noun phrases
Levi (1978) Noun_noun phrases are the result of two types of process: Predicate deletion tear gas = gas that causes tears Predicate nominalization Cell decomposition (cell decompose) Birth control (to control births) N_N Eng > ? Italian generalizeable rule: If a N-A (or more rarely N_N) pattern is possible in Italian, then that is the default
option NpN as a second best breeding program cell division cell line cell membrane cell nucleus chromosome mutation cloning vector donor DNA electron microscopy endonuclease enzyme food additive
food biotechnology gene amplific ation gene encoding gene expression gene pool gene transcription genome sequencing host chromosome host DNA lambda phage marker gene membrane protein metal ion mismatch repair, MMR
triplet mutation programma riproduttivo Divisione cellulare Linea cellulare membrana cellulare Nucleo cellulare Mutazione cromosomica vettore di clonaggio, vettore di clonazione DNA estraneo miscroscopia elettronica Enzima endonucleoso Additivo alimentare biotecnologia alimentare
amplificazione genica codifica genetica Espressione genica patrimonio genetico Trascrizione genetica sequenziamento genomico /del genoma cromosoma ospite DNA ospite fago lambda gene marcatore Proteina di membrana ione metallico riparazione di errori di appaiamento mutazione di tripletta
* clonativo * proteina membranale * appaiamentali * triplettari Why? Tentative explanation: N_A (or N-N) perceived as more lexicalized than N_prep_N As scientific discourse aims at precision and monoreferentiality, a higher extent of lexicalization resembles more closely the oneterm-for- each-referent ideal
Also register differences testify in favour of this explanation In Italian if both N_A and N_prep_N are possible, N_A is (or is perceived) as more technical, hence more scientific Nucleo cellulare vs nucleo della cellula Latte vaccino vs latte di mucca Carne avicola vs carne di pollo Carne suina vs carne di maiale Carne equina vs carne di cavallo Other factors affecting N_A vs N_prep_N choice textual distribution: N_A in headlines and topicalised (thematized) position
Translation task Today is the first day of the European Flower Week, which will promote the EU's eco-label in nine European Countries. A wealth of different marketing activities aimed at consumers and events for children will take place, raising the profile of the Flower and showing people how to find products and services that have been awarded the prestigious European eco-label. Launched in 1992, the Flower certifies that a product complies with strict ecological criteria but also satisfies high performance standards. The Flower Week campaign is a co-operative venture involving retailers and producers, consumer and environmental groups and national authorities; activities range from competitions in schools to in-store advertising campaigns and fashion shows. (EU Commission press release)
Translation task: make hypotheses as to the equivalents of the following noun phrases Today is the first day of the European Flower Week, which will promote the EU's eco-label in nine European Countries. A wealth of different marketing activities aimed at consumers and events for children will take place, raising the profile of the Flower and showing people how to find products and services that have been awarded the prestigious European eco-label. Launched in 1992, the Flower certifies that a product complies with strict ecological criteria but also satisfies high performance standards. The Flower Week campaign is a co-operative venture involving
retailers and producers, consumer and environmental groups and national authorities; activities range from competitions in schools to in-store advertising campaigns and fashion shows. (EU Commission press release) Check them against reference texts Patricia Proia, dell Organismo Nazionale francese per lEco-label e presidentessa del gruppo di gestione del marketing (GGM), ci parla dellevoluzione recente del Fiore e delle azioni che dovrebbero essere organizzate in futuro. Patricia, hai diretto il gruppo di gestione negli ultimi tre anni e hai contribuito allaffermazione del Fiore (con un aumento del 130% delle imprese con marchio di qualit ecologica in tre anni). Secondo te, quali sono stati gli eventi pi significativi di questo periodo? Sicuramente levento di marketing pi importante stato la Campagna per la
Settimana del Fiore europeo: per la prima volta in 10 anni stata organizzata una campagna di comunicazione di tale portata, rivolta direttamente al consumatore europeo. [] Il progetto stato realizzato con il coordinamento dellAgenzia danese per la protezione dellambiente e in collaborazione tra le autorit nazionali, i produttori, le organizzazioni dei commercianti e dei consumatori. Vs about 30.000 for marchio di qualit ecologica Translation task: key EU eco-label > marchio europeo di qualit ecologica
/ambientale; Marketing activities > Attivit promozionali The Flower Week campaign > La campagna per la settimana del fiore Europeo High performance standards > Elevati standard di qualit Oggi il primo giorno della settimana del Fiore europeo, intesa a promuovere il marchio europeo di qualit ecologica in nove paesi europei. Sono in programma molteplici attivit commerciali e promozionali mirate ai consumatori, come pure animazioni per i bambini, il tutto finalizzato a conferire notoriet al Fiore e ad orientare il pubblico nella ricerca dei prodotti e dei servizi che si fregiano del prestigioso marchio ecologico. Creato nel 1992, il Fiore certifica la conformit di un prodotto a rigorosi requisiti ecologici e, nel contempo, ad elevati standard di qualit e di rendimento. La
campagna per la settimana del Fiore europeo uniniziativa realizzata in collaborazione tra produttori e dettaglianti, associazioni di consumatori e ambientalisti, autorit pubbliche; tra le attivit previste si annoverano concorsi nelle scuole, pubblicit nei punti di vendita, sfilate di moda.
