Mastering Advanced English.

Chapter 1. When we talk about the analysis of word and sentence structures, it could be useful to begin
with discussing what speakers and writers are trying to communicate and how they are able to do so.
Grammar is a study of the organisation of language. It involves the analysis of each language structure on
its own, to see the ways in which we can communicate effectively in different situations and for different
purposes. Two important branches of grammar are morphology and syntax. Linguists use morphology to
study the intern structure of words; syntax to understand how words are combined together when creating
a sentence. Although speech and writing are characterised by different grammatical features and
structures, the basic process of analysis is the same. For analysis, language is usually divided into different
levels (morphological, phonetical, syntactical…) and it is also said to have a rank scale because the levels
can be arranged hierarchically ( a word is made up of groups of letters; a phrase is made up of groups of
words…)

To understand the way words, work together in a sentence it is possible to classify them. In a grammatical
context, this classification is called word classes, distinguished in two types: open and closed. In the open
class of words, we can find nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. This class is so called because this kind of
words become necessary, developing language to match changes in the society around us. Thus, these
words are also named lexical words and have a clearly definable meaning. In the closed class of words, we
can find pronouns, determiners, and conjunctions. This class is so called because it has a limited number of
words; also, they are called function words because they build up language grammatically.
Nouns. They are called naming words, used to name people, places and things. Can be divided in different
categories: common and proper nouns, concrete and abstract nouns, countable and non-countable nouns.
In written language, regular nouns add a -s to mark the plural. However, English has a lot of irregular nouns,
which make the plural form by using alternative patterns. The s ending, or ‘s also indicates another feature:
possession.
Adjectives. They are traditionally known as describing words. They provide extra information about nouns
by giving details of physical qualities like colour and shape, of physiological qualities like emotion, and
evaluative judgements. They can be used in two positions: before a noun, performing the attributive
function, and after the verb to be and, other copula verbs or linking verbs, such as to become, performing
the predicative function. They can also be graded, in order to compare them with nouns; we can find them
in two forms: comparative (monosyllabic and disyllabic with -er ending), superlative (-est ending). Some
adjectives are irregular (good—better--best). It is possible that sometimes, words from other word classes
do the job of an adjective (the running boy); in this case this kind of words are called modifiers, words
capable of describing a noun.
Verbs. They are traditionally known as doing words, but to fully understand each of their meanings and
functions, they are divided in different categories. The simpler one is the one of action and stative verbs.
There are also transitive and intransitive verbs: the difference consists whether the object follows them
(transitive) or not (intransitive). Verbs can also be lexical, modal, and auxiliary: lexical verbs express the
meaning in a verb phrase; auxiliary verbs can be used to construct different timescales, questions and
negatives, to add emphasis or to give information about the mood of the speaker; modal verbs convey
several information and mood about the likelihood an event has to happen. Last but not least, there is also
another category, the one of finite/ non-finite verbs: finite verbs change their form in order to convey
information about number, tense and person; on the contrary, non-finite verbs never change their form.
There are two tenses in English: present and past tense. The first one is used to describe events that occur
on a regular basis; the past tense refers to action and states that took place in the past. If we want to refer
to an event that is going to take place in the future, English does not have a future tense, however it uses a
range of structures, such as simple present, the modal verbs shall/will, be going+ infinitive… Then there is
the aspect that describes whether an action or state of a verb is complete or in progress; there are two
aspects that can accomplish this function: the perfect and the progressive aspect. The action of a verb and
the things responsible for it can be referred to in two ways using voice: the active voice and the passive
voice.
Pronouns. They are used instead of nouns, noun phrases or noun clauses. There are seven types of
pronouns: personal pronouns, which are divided in two classes (subjective and objective pronouns)
depending on the function they are accomplishing in the sentence; possessive pronouns; reflexive
pronouns; demonstrative pronouns; interrogative or question pronouns; relative pronouns; indefinite
pronouns.
Determiners. They always precede nouns. There are five main types of determiners: articles, which can be
definite and indefinite, possessive determiners, used to suggest the owner of something, demonstrative
determiners, which establish a close or a more distant relationship, and indefinite determiners, that usually
convey a large range of meanings. Thus, numbers sometimes can precede nouns, in this case they function
as determiners, which are divisible in two categories: cardinal numbers (one, two…) and ordinal numbers
(first, third…).
Prepositions. They usually describe relationships that exist between elements in a sentence. They describe
different relationships: place, direction, time, comparison, source, purpose.
Conjunctions. They are joining words and are divided in two types: coordinating (link lexical units of equal
value) and subordinating conjunctions (join a subordinate clause to a main clause).

Morphology is the study of morphemes, the smallest units of words. There are two kinds of morphemes:
free morphemes, which can stand alone and have an understandable meaning in isolation, and bound
morphemes, which cannot occur alone. The latest kind of morphemes are also called in general affixes,
however depending on the position in which they can occur (at the beginning or at the end of a free
morpheme), they are called prefixes or suffixes. Bound morphemes are used in two distinctive ways: to
create new words, by some processes ruled by the derivational morphology, or to change the form of the
words, controlled by the inflexional morphology. While derivational morphology often involves a change in
a word class, inflectional morphology never does. Inflections, can highlight different grammatical functions,
such as plurals of nouns, the third person of the present tense, the present participle…

Syntax is a branch of grammar. It operates on a higher level if compared with morphology, because its main
concerns are the rules by which words are combined into larger units. There are 3 units of construction we
can classify, which are larger than words: phrases, clauses, and sentences. The largest units combined
together make up text, also known by linguistics as discourse. A phrase is a single word or a group of words
that form a syntactical unit usually without a finite verb. There are 5 types of phrases, one for each open
word class and one for prepositions, which are the only closed word class to have an associated phrase
type. To identify a phrase type, it is useful to first individuate the head word. The head word is a word that
can stand alone or expand itself, being pre- or post-modified by other elements, called premodifiers or
postmodifiers (also qualifiers). A noun phrase usually begins with determiner and normally has a noun as its
most important word. It can act as a subject, and as an object or a complement in a clause. The head word
is generally a noun, but it can be a pronoun and sometimes also an adjective. the pre-modification of a
noun phrase can take these elements: pre-determiner, determiner, pre-modifier, and head; instead, the
post-modification is normally built up by prepositional phrases, non-finite clauses, and relative clause.
Adjective phrases have an adjective as their main word. Adverbs and other adjectives can pre-modify an
adjective, while as regards the post-modification, an adjective can be post-modified by a prepositional
phrase, a non-finite infinitive clause, and a noun clause.
Adverb phrases have an adverb as their main word. This kind of phrase gives extra information therefore it
is not necessary in a sentence, which will still have sense even if this element has been omitted.
Clauses are the main structures used to compose sentences. A sentence will surely be made up of at least
one main clause, which is a clause that even alone has got a specific meaning and sense. However, a
sentence may also contain one or more subordinate clauses, which are clauses that cannot stand alone and
for this reason depends on the main clause. There are 5 main types of clause elements: subject, verb,
object, complement, and adverbials. The subject normally describes the person or the actor of the action
expressed by the verb; the verb, also called predicator, is the most important element in a sentence
therefore it can never be omitted, except in a minor sentence; the object describes something that is
directly affected by the verb, and can be direct or indirect; the complement usually gives extra information
about the subject or about the object, and also follows the verb of the sentence; adverbials give
information about time, manner and place, and it is possible to add more than one adverbial to a clause. In
general, most clauses will have a subject and a verb; the other clause elements are optional, and they will
be used depending upon the information and the kind of verb selected.
A sentence is a grammatical construction that has grammatical meaning. There are simple sentences and
compound sentences: simple ones contain just one clause, whether compound ones contain two or more
simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions.
The mood of a sentence shows the attitude of the speaker to the action or event referred to in the verb
phrase. There are three moods possible: the declarative mood used for making statements. Usually, the
subject come first in the clause and is followed by the verb; the interrogative mood is used for addressing
questions, and usually in the clause first we find the auxiliary verb do, have or be; the imperative mood is
used for addressing commands or orders. Usually the clause has no subject, and the verb is in the base
form.

Discourse is the linguistic term used to describe spoken or written language that is longer than a sentence.
In order to better analyse discourse, it is useful to talk about cohesion, which studies the ways in which
sentences are linked to create text. There are five forms of cohesion: lexical, substitution, ellipsis,
referencing, and linking adverbs and conjunctions.
Lexical cohesion is a kind of textual linking dependent on a writer or speaker’s choice of words. There are
several cohesive devices. For example, in collocations words are associated within phrases; many of them
are called also idioms or cliches. In repetition, words or phrases are directly repeated or substituted with
synonyms. To achieve cohesion can be used also superordinates (general words) and hyponyms
(subdivision of the general categorisation). Then, substitution occurs when one linguistic item is replaced by
a shorter one; the substituted will usually occur in the second clause so that the meaning is clear. Ellipsis is
used when part of the sentence is left out because it is recovered from elsewhere in the text. However, if
the sentence remains meaningful, it must be clear what the omitted words are. Then, there is reference. In
referencing process, pronouns and comparative sentences are often used. There are different kinds of
reference: anaphoric reference, points backwards in a text ( the reader or the speaker must look back to a
previous noun phrase to make sense of the pronoun used); cataphoric reference, points forwards in a text (
the reader or the speaker must look ahead to the following noun phrase in order to understand the
meaning); exophoric reference, points beyond a text. In this case, the discourse usually refers to something
contained in the context, so the reader or the speaker must make connections between discourse and
context. Finally, there are linking adverbs and conjunctions, which are joining words that provide links
either within a sentence or within the larger context of discourse. There are four main types, depending on
the kind of information they are giving to the text: additive, adversative causal and temporal adverbs and
conjunctions.
 Chapter 3. Grammatical patterns are used to accomplish different purposes in discourse, such as to
emphasise features or to try to engage the speaker/reader. There are several syntactical elements that a
writer/speaker can use to manipulate discourse. For example, different types of sentence are used in order
to obtain a style completely different: simple sentence usually suggest an innocence or naivety of style,
while complex sentences are used to deal with more intricate affairs. Then, it is possible to move sentence
elements to the front to highlight the most important ones for the speaker/writer. When an element
occurs in that position substituting the common thematic subject, it is called marked theme, instead the
process of moving elements to the front is called fronting or foregrounding. For example, adverbials are
the most flexible elements in a sentence, but also objects and complements sometimes function as marked
themes. However, this process is more common in spoken than in written English, because when speaking
we use stress and intonation that help us to emphasise the theme. The inverted process of fronting is called
end focus and is used to emphasise some information at the end of a sentence/clause.
It is also possible to point to the general existence of some situation through a pattern called existential
sentences. Existential sentences use the so called existential there, also known as dummy subject because
it has no meaning, its only function is to put the real subject in a more prominent position. Therefore, if the
dummy subject comes at the front of the sentence the true subject becomes a delayed subject, which is
given more emphasis because of its position. To go further, another way to alter the normal position of the
elements is to use the passive voice, because it allows the writer to change the focus in a sentence.

Literary and rhetorical devices are used by speakers/writers to intensify the power of the text they create.
Rhetoric is the art of persuasive discourse used in everyday life or in literature to persuade people to
believe thing or to help readers to engage in the fictional word the writers are presenting them. Figurative
language makes writers capable to intensify the effect of the words they use, with the possibility to say
something meaning something else. It is an important part of successful persuasive discourse because it
allows people to mix everyday life language with literary devices. It is useful to identify the strategies used
to achieve certain effects, categorised in four key areas.
Lexical choice. The choice of words may respond to three particular situations: may be influenced by the
viewpoint and tone adopted for a particular subject or situation; it may depend on the emotive response a
writer wants to evoke in the audience; or it may be controlled by the nature of the subject which requires
technical lexis.
Literary devices. They can be used to clarify a point, to intensify or for their emotive impact. They have a
figurative function, allowing writers to say one thing instead of another. Irony: is the use of a word, phrase
or paragraph with its usual meaning switched to the opposite or contrary one. Metaphor: describes one
thing in terms of another, creating in the end a sort of comparison. Metonymy: is the term used when the
name of an attribute or thing is replaced with the thing itself; it is in some ways exchangeable with
synecdoche, which is a figurative device in which the part stands for the whole. Overstatement or
hyperbole is a persuasive exaggeration used to create a comical or less than serious tone. Oxymoron: puts
two apparently contradictory words together to create a special effect. Paradox: consists of an apparently
self-contradictory statement that contains a sort of deeper meaning. Personification: is the term used
when an object or idea is given human qualities. Puns: is a play upon words; there are two types of puns:
homonyms which are words with the same sound and spelling but a different meaning, and homophones
which have the same sound but different spelling and meaning. Newspaper headlines often play with
words in a more generalised way to attract the attention of their readers. Symbolism: is the use of an
object to represent or stand for something else.
Sound patterning. Writers and speakers can also use a range of devices that play on the patterns and
sounds of words to create certain stylistic effects. These are chosen to focus the audience attention and are
called sound patterns. Alliteration: is the repetition of a consonant, often in the initial position. Assonance:
is the repetition of a vowel in a medial position (not in the initial of final position). Consonance: is the
repetition of a consonant in the medial or final position. Onomatopoeia: is the term used when the sound
of a word directly links to its meaning. Rhyme: is the repetition or partial repetition of a sound, usually at
the end of a poetic line.
Rhetorical devices. To be successful in persuading the audience, a writer or speaker also makes decisions
about the structural patterns of discourse, given by the rhetorical techniques. Antithesis is the technique of
placing two words or ideas in opposition to bring out a contrast. Branching is the arrangement and order of
subordinate and main clauses in a discourse; the order determines whether left or right branching has been
used: left branching forces the reader to wait for the main clause by using subordination at the start of a
sentence; right branching gives the important information first and then supplies a commentary on it or
additional information. Listing: has an accumulative effect and allows the writer to create a list of several
impressions. Repetition: words, phrases, clauses, or sentences are repeated to draw the attention to the
key idea. Patterning: it consists in the repetition of phrase, clause, sentence structures to give to a
discourse a sense of balance and reason.

Chapter 11. In the past, newspapers were used by the governments, for promoting their political interests.
As a result, their style and structure were quite formal. Instead starting from the nineteenth century and
still today, the British press renowned itself and became popular for its distinctive headline styles and its
personal idiosyncratic reporting.
Newspapers have been often divided into two main categories: tabloids and broadsheets. The difference
between these two categories is in general made because of their size: a tabloid usually is printed on A2
size paper, folded to A3, whereas a broadsheet is printed on A1 and folded to A2. Furthermore, in recent
years people have given to this two terms also a connotative meaning: broadsheet papers are considered a
‘’serious’’ kind of press, opposed to the tabloid papers, which people have been considering as the
‘’popular’’ ones. In very general terms, broadsheets provide information, so they aim for factual
representation of the truth, while tabloids provide sensation and gossip, so they aim at the entertainment
value of their stories. But it is also important to remember that the stylistic differences between tabloids
and broadsheets are not always unequivocal, because sometimes broadsheets adopt the stylistic features
typical of the other category. Other than tabloid and broadsheet, there is another category: these are some
popular broadsheet, such as The Times and The Independent, that more recently have moved to a compact
form being brought to a tabloid size; because of the pejorative connotations often associated with the
tabloids, the new smaller size broadsheets have been named compacts. The name allowed editors to make
the change in size while distancing their publications from the traditional tabloid papers. Compacts shows
some differences on the layout: for example, in general the cover focuses on headlines, while the main
reporting is saved for the second and the third page. Critics of the new format suggest that there is a lower
story count with shorter, less complete texts, larger photographs and headlines that no longer have the
same opinion-forming style of broadsheets. For advertisers, the compacts offer great opportunities,
because a compact will usually have both pages open simultaneously, and this ensures that advertising
revenues are convenient. Moreover, there is another category useful to know: the middle-market target.
This fall between tabloids and broadsheets and although their A3 format, they reject any claims that their
contents are only devoted to entertainment or scandal.
Whether the format of a newspaper and its category of belonging are important characteristcs, the point of
view of its editors controls the kinds of stories printed and the political or moral ideology communicated to
the readers. Between the main categories, the style of tabloids is the most distinctive, with its sensational
approach and its dominant front-page headlines. However, tabloids, compacts and broadsheets choose to
attract their audience of readers in different ways: they choose different stories to publish on the front
page; they select different angles in presenting their material; and they use different formats (balance of
images and texts, different column length…).
If in the nineteenth century, newspapers were used only to convey news, in the twenty-first century they
deal with both news and entertainment information. National papers convey information of several
matters of our everyday life; their articles can cover different fields, such as international, national, and
local news, but also reviews of books, films, and art, reports of sport events… whereas local newspapers act
as community bulletins, conveying local news and issues in a more specific way.
Different kind of people buy different papers. Traditionally, broadsheet tend to be associated with a well-
informed audience, while tabloids with the traditional working class. The middle-market papers attract an
audience in between of these two. In general, people may buy a particular paper because of its ideology,
because they like the style of a journalist, or because of the front-page news, however many readers do not
fall completely into a specific category.

The analysis of newspapers involves equally headlines and reporting styles, because they reveal us a lot
about the ideology and aims of a paper.
There are three kinds of headlines: the main headline, that tends to be larger than the others and may be
printed in colour to draw the attention of the readers; the strapline or overline, which is the secondary
headline above the main one, used to provide extra information clarifying the main headline; the sub-
headline, which follows the main headline qualifying it. In order to catch the readers’ attention, these must
be simple, easily readable and appropriate to the category of newspaper they belong. The choice of words
depends on different factors, such as the expressed ideas, the kind of readers associated with the paper,
and the paper house style. Tabloids frequently use capitalisation and colour to draw attention to a front-
page report, whereas broadsheets/compacts rarely capitalise the whole headline and use colours only for
front-page images, advertisement and for some features. The lexis chosen indicates something about the
political persuasion of the newspaper and about the intended audience. By analysing some features, like
connotations, it is possible to understand the aim of the report. Moreover, the style is another important
feature because it needs to be simple but also create an effect on the reader at the same time.
Broadsheets/tabloids accomplish this goal in different ways and always with informative and
straightforward headlines. A tabloid, however, will aim for a different kind of simplicity, for example
through the use of puns instead of collocations. This gives the headline an informal tone and suggests that
the journalist is not being so serious about the issue. On the other hand, this kind of informal approach can
result in a very personal and emotive appeal to their readers.
Headlines differ from everyday language because of the omission of some grammatical function words,
copula verbs and auxiliaries. This specific style is often referred to as telegraphic and two of the most
common features are the use of simple sentences and passive voice. Sometimes headline meanings can
also result ambiguous to the reader: in some cases, this is something created on purpose by the writers,
other times is simply accidental.

Reports give a particular point of view of events, and the information that is excluded can be as important
as the information that is included. When a newspaper reports or not a certain event while others do or do
not, is an example of selective perception, also called BIAS. This means that although reports might cover
the same event, the information included may not be the same. Some newspapers claim to be impartial,
but anyway it is possible to identify the ways in which a distinctive point of view is conveyed.
Lexis and syntax of news reporting can reflect whether a paper is a broadsheet or a tabloid, also influence
the reader. The expected audience dictates the lexical choices made by journalists. As seen, vocabulary may
be formal or informal, depending on the newspaper category of belonging.

The grammar of newspaper reports varies in tabloids and broadsheets/compacts: the first ones tend to use
simple and compound sentences, thus, paragraphs are rarely more than three sentence long; the other
ones use a range of sentence structures and develop paragraphs more fully. In journalists’ training manuals,
reporters are advised to avoid the concentration of too many ideas in just one sentence. It is important,
anyway, that a successful reporter will be able to vary the type of sentence structure to retain readers’
interest.
There are several ways in which newspapers can reorder the material in their sentences to draw attention
to certain elements. For example, for giving prominence to some elements in the sentence, journalists use
marked themes and the passive voice. Newspapers use both direct and indirect speech because they can
report the exact words spoken by the individuals or those words indirectly. Direct speech is made up of a
quoting clause and a quoted clause. Through this, journalists can recreate the personal experiences of
common people or speak for eminent people without any intervention of them. Tabloids often quote
eminent people directly, to encourage a feeling that even the rich and famous are the same as the readers;
in this sense, they quote their readers to make them feel to have a voice; broadsheets/compacts tend to
use direct quotation to give prominence to their arguments. The use of quotation can also make the article
more interesting to read.
The sources of information are important because they represent another way used to distinguish tabloids
from broadsheets/compacts. While a quality paper will always cite official sources, like the police, the
parliament…, tabloids quote ordinary people who have no authority and official value. Variation in sources
can clearly affect the credibility of any statement made.

There are different types of newspaper reports. The first one is action stories, which often wrap up news as
entertainment. Their structure is chronological, and they tend to focus on the human results of an event.
The introduction establishes what has happened; the news lead develops the narrative chronologically, and
the conclusion often provides kind of assessment or evaluation.
Statement or opinion stories deal with issues rather than just narrative. Their goal is summarising an
argument giving at the same time, key information to the readers. Even if a report is triggered by a specific
event, the event will only be the starting point for a wider consideration of related issue. The introductory
paragraph usually presents the reader with the most important news points and with supporting direct
quotation, if appropriate; the rest of the report summarises other points and develop the argument, while
the conclusion draws all the points together.
Running stories require the journalist both to report new information and to recap the previous one. This
ensures that readers can keep up to date and understand any new developments in context. The journalists
write running stories because they hope that as far their readers will be interested in their stories, they will
continue to buy the newspaper to keep up to date.

The function of newspapers is to inform and entertain people, and to present them with a particular
ideology and an interpretation of events. The impartiality of the press is often questioned. This is a
consequence of paper editors, which dictate which stories or facts are to be included or excluded. This
selective selection may influence the way in which the reader responds to the world and to specific events.
 Tabloids
Headlines are typed in bold print and may extend
across the whole page. They are often capitalised.
Paragraphs are usually only a few lines.
The typographical features are very varied: the first
paragraph uses larger print and is often bold; the
second paragraph is slightly smaller; the third one uses
standard print size.
Punctuation is used sparingly.
Dashes mark parentheses, which make the style quite
formal and chatty.
Alliterative patterning is used to make the text more
memorable.
Sentence structure is often simple or compound,
although the structure of one main clause and one
subordinate is common. Construction may resemble
speech.
Adverbials at the start of sentences change the focus
and keep readers interested. Cohesion is created
through the use of simple connectives.
Lexis is often invented and emphatic. The tone is
informal, and colloquialisms are common.
Bias may be obvious.
Premodification is used for emotional effect.
Broadsheets
Headlines usually only extend over two columns; the
print tends to be smaller.
Paragraphs are longer so the reader has to
concentrate for longer periods of time.
The typographical features are more standard. The
same size of print is used throughout, except for
headlines, strap-headlines and sub-headlines.
Punctuation is used traditionally and more formally.
Dishes are less frequent.
Rhetorical patterning is more complex.
Sentence structure is varied to sustain the interest of
the readers. Few paragraphs are of only one sentence.
Adverbials are used in a variety of positions,
depending upon the emphasis most appropriate to the
meaning. Cohesion is created through referencing and
lexical repetition rather than through conjunctions.
Lexis is more specific, formal, and restrained. Vivid,
dramatic lexis is not used merely to sensationalise.
Bias less obvious.
Premodification and modifiers are used to provide
accurate detail.
Chapter 12. Nowadays we are surrounded by advertisement. Its aim is to draw attention through
announcements paid by a single person or a group of people who wishes to inform an audience about a
specific product. In the past, most advertising was straightforward and informative, doing that using a
formal and respectful language and style. In the latest years however, the evolution of the mass market
changed all of this. Most of advertisers now choose a biased approach because they try to persuade people
to buy, give or vote for a particular product or service. Their marketing campaigns try to encourage
‘’customer loyalty’’ by establishing a clear and distinctive identity. They focus their advertising on specific
groups of people usually divided by age, gender, or social class. This helps them to target the people most
likely to buy their products. On commercial television, programming schedules always try to run certain
kinds of programmes at certain hours of the day for a target audience; for this reason advertisers buy time,
because it is easier to focus on a specific audience than on a general one. A different situation is that of
newspapers and magazines: in this case the target audience is clearer because publishers and advertisers
are more aware of the kind of people who buy their papers. Certain newspapers attract a high spending
power audience. Because of this, advertisers will be prepared to buy advertising space. In this sense,
newspapers like broadsheet or compacts, which usually do not have high circulating rates, can still survive
because they sell advertising spaces. On the contrary, tabloids only have to count on high circulation
because advertising entries are quite low and depend on their audience, who do not have the same
amounts of disposable income.
Advertisements work by raising interest in a product or service. Research has shown that people remember
an advertisement if the product shown is different, if the adv is itself unusual, or if the advertisement has
some personal relevance. Because they are thought to draw the attention of some target people,
advertisers use stereotypes. In this way, they can be sure that their target audience will associate good
things with their products or services. Props help to create these stereotypes, for example glasses
symbolises cleverness, or books symbolise education and so on… Women are usually portrayed in the
house; men drive expensive cars; happy families visit holiday resorts… nowadays advertisers have begun to
put in their advs the recent changes of the society by challenging such stereotypes, even if some of them
still remain. This changed because advertisers recently understand that people like to see ordinary people,
they are tired of seeing ‘’size zero’’ women or handsome young men.
The main function of adv is to persuade, in linguistics is called conative; consequently, adv also provides
information, so it also has a referential function. Each type of adv uses different ways and techniques to
persuade and inform. Some advs highlight a particular background as more important than the product, so
that the image of the product is the selling point, others count on the associations between the product
and a particular context. To persuade people to buy a car, an advertisement will try to convince them that
they will be more stylish and cool if they will by that particular model; other adv may suggest instead, that
wearing certain clothes will make you more desirable or powerful. In each case, the aim of adv is to
persuade someone to buy something. This effect is created thanks to the choices of language and content
made by the advertiser.

Advs for different media use different techniques, but a number of features are common to both spoken
and written ones. It is always important to establish: the advertiser (brand name, logo), the target audience
(age, gender, social status), the message of the adv (buy this, join us). Thus, also selling techniques are
important: a product-based approach praises the features of a product or a service, hoping to gain
costumers; an audience-based approach tries to convince the target audience that they need that product;
an impact-based approach aims to draw attention firstly in a linguistic and visual way.
Another very important thing that sometimes might influence the audience is the design of the adv. The
use of slogans, images, copies, and logos create together a certain view of a particular product or service.
Images, called non-verbal communication, will mostly attract the attention of the expected audience.
Language of Adv is quite often associated with everyday life conversational language. This is because the
tone is most of the times informal and chatty, and a lot of colloquial expressions are used. Also, the use of
verb contractions shows a common aspect of informal spoken language. However, adv language is distinct
from conversation, and other linguistic features make this field a variety.
A slogan is one of the most important things if an adv wants to succeed, because it is this specific part of
the advertisement that will stick in people’s minds. The structures are varied, with a copious use of noun
phrases, simple or complex sentences. Advertisers can also use puns, collocations, or work on our
emotions, but anyway the slogan will always be eye-catching.
Lexical choice triggers also come effects on the audience, so it is crucial to the effect of an adv. As seen
before, the copy of an adv can have two functions: conative and referential. The language of advertising
can also influence the contemporary vocabulary. During the period of a campaign, slogans and phrases may
become part of the everyday usage, like colloquial expressions, adjective phrases, and particular sentences.
Nevertheless, because advertising language changes so fast, some expressions become old very soon and
then they are replaced with new expressions. Modifiers are a distinctive feature of advertising language
because of their attractive power. Using them in strings, advertisers can arouse emotions, stimulate
desires… for these reasons, they are called trigger words. Some of them, like big, long, or double refer to
specific physical characteristics that can be proved; others, like wonderful, elegant, or incredible, are
intangible and cannot be measured. Advertisers often prefer to use these words on purpose, because of
their vacuity. Because each new campaign must attract attention, advertising language is innovative:
advertisers coin very often new words, called neologisms, to make a brand more memorable. New words
are also coined by using the brand name of an item as the basis for a word.
The grammar of adv is also similar to informal spoken language, because it can be abbreviated. For
example, slogans will often omit verbs. Using variations in mood, advertisers appeal to their audience to
take notice and to act. Verb tenses permit them to convey some different meanings. Simple present tense
emphasises features of a product; simple past tense and the perfect aspect are useful to make
comparisons; future time, makes premonitions about what is likely to happen if the listener/reader uses
that particular product or service. Pronouns help advertisers create personal relationships with consumers.
For example, the use of the pronoun ‘’you’’ makes advs appeal directly to the readers, aiming to make
them feel special. Other features like this, called interactive features, are for example coupons, which
encourage consumers’ direct participation. Sentence structures are also unusual because elements are
often left out to keep the shortness of sentences. As a result, verbless clauses, simple sentences, and co-
ordination are the most common syntactic features. Co-ordinating conjunctions are often used in the initial
position, a very common feature of informal spoken language.

Sentence organisation uses grammatical patterning to organise the sentence elements in order to draw
attention to key information. This is a way used by advertisers to control the order in which we receive
information. Advertisers also use literary devices to attract attention to the product, often escaping from
the ordinary and conventional language. They can construct different shades of meaning: metaphors link
emotive associations to a product, useful to influence the expected audience; symbolism encourages the
audience to make certain connections; personification or animation can create a mysterious or comic
atmosphere; puns can be clever or humorous in their manipulation of language. Ambiguity can both create
humour and raise interest. Sound patterning is crucial or slogans and copies. Rhetorical devices create
patterns at the level of clauses or words: antithesis sets key words in opposition or dramatic effects, or to
distinguish between different attitudes or brands; listing indicates specific features that may attract the
audience; patterning balances similar or contrasting features to draw attention to a product or its
characteristics; repetition highlights key points or a particular brand name.
The typographical features of adv are also important because they can help the consumers to identify
certain brands or products. Print size, shape and colour, and layout are used pretty much throughout a
campaign, and these became as crucial as the language used to persuade consumers.

There are many different types of advs, which require different effects from the intended audience. Advs
can be persuasive, using they hard sell approach, or they can be informative, relying on the influence of
technical data to help the consumer make an informed choice, or finally they can be competitive, aiming to
gain a new share of the market.
Besides distinguishing them by their approach, it is possible to classify them according to the content.
Classified Advs try to sell products or services to people who already know what they are looking for. For
this reason, they tend to be straightforward. Because of their brevity, abbreviations are commonly used.
Although they are more likely to be informative than persuasive, some value words may also be used.
Point of sale advertising is pretty much the same. Local people write out a card and place it where other
local people shop. It is a kind of advertising directed specifically at the local community and therefore its
audience is pretty limited.
Direct mail comes straight to people’s homes. The form of advertising is usually a letter that tries to
convince a person to buy something. The tone is informal and direct address is used to try to create a
personal relationship between sender and reader.
Service advertising is very similar to product adv, even if in this case is offered a service instead of a
concrete product. A distinctive category is the one of charity advertising, because of it being non-profit. In
this case, the persuasive techniques are used to reach a different goal: the audience is persuaded non to
buy, but to give, to donate. Charities depend upon reminding the public that there is a continuing need for
donation, and advertising campaigns, especially the sensational or emotional ones, aim at this purpose. In a
competitive market, charity advertisers have to find effective ways of convincing people to donate
voluntarily. Their distinctive campaigns allow them to say something about the people who give, as well as
about their own work and aims. A similar category is the one of information advertising. Most of the times
this advertising campaigns are associated with the government and its departments. They may wish to
inform the population of some changes in its services, or it may wish to educate or warn. Sometimes a
commercial company uses advs to inform its customers of a change in policy or problem. Toy
manufacturers may discover that a certain product has a fault and place advertisements in national
newspapers to alert people.
Register, Genre and Style.

Chapter 1. Generally speaking, we use the three terms register, genre, and style to refer to three different
perspectives on text varieties. The register perspective joins an analysis of linguistic characteristics that are
common in a text variety with analysis of the situation of use of that variety; some of the linguistic features
are common in a register because they are functionally adapted to the communicative purposes and
situational context of texts. In contrast, the genre perspective focuses on the conventional structures used
to build a complete text. Finally, the style perspective also analyses the use of linguistic features that are
common in text, but it differs from the register perspective because here the use of the linguistic features is
not functionally motivated; style focuses indeed on the aesthetic preferences of an author or an historical
period. Even if all the three categories are important, the register perspective is the most interesting one
because any text of any type can be analysed from this perspective.

Variability is a constituent of human language because people use different linguistic forms on different
occasions, and because different speakers of a language will say the same thing in different ways. Most of
these linguistic variations occurs continuously in everyday conversation. Speakers of a language make
choices in pronunciation, word choice, morphology… depending on the number of non-linguistic factors.
These may include the speaker’s purpose in communication, the relationship between the speakers, the
situation, and the social characteristics of the speakers. Considering the big picture, linguistic variation is
realised as different languages; whereas in particular, it is realised as the differences between one speaker
and another, or as the differences between two texts produced by the same speaker.
When we talk about different varieties of a language, everybody always thinks of dialects. There are
commonly two categories of dialects: geographic dialects are varieties associated with speakers living in a
particular location, whereas social dialects are varieties associated with speakers who belong to a
particular group of people (women vs men, different social classes). In dialect variation, linguists usually
focus on linguistic features that do not trigger any meaning differences; these can be for example,
phonological variant like the pronunciation or not of the letter ‘’r’’ in park. This does not trigger any
difference in meaning however it says a lot about the region or the social group that the speaker identifies
with. These kinds of linguistic differences are not functional. As a result, the linguistic variables used in
register studies are exactly the opposite: register variables are functional, whether dialect ones are not,
they are instead conventional. Linguistic variables in dialect studies almost always consist of a choice
between two linguistic variants. Although most linguistics studies have preferred to focus on linguistic
differences among dialects, the linguistic differences among registers are more extensive. The associated
linguistic differences are functionally motived, and for this reason more dramatic.
The term text here means in general, a natural language used for communication, whether it is realised in
speech or writing. It is important to distinguish a complete text from an excerpt: the first term refers to a
fluid concept; complete texts can both be considered a chapter of a book, as well as the entire book, but in
general the term is referred to a text with a clear start and finish. Excerpts are segments of discourse
extracted from a larger complete text. The term variety is used for a category of texts that share the same
social or situational characteristics. There are some varieties associated with different groups or speakers,
called dialects.

In general terms, a register is a variety associated with a particular situation of use. Register can be
described thanks to three major components: the situational context, the linguistic features, and the
functional relationships between the first two components. Linguistic features tend to occur frequently
because they fit well with the purposes and situational context of the register. This is because the linguistic
component of it requires the identification of the pervasive linguistic features in the variety, which are
linguistic characteristics that might occur in any text but are especially common in the target register.
These are considered clearly functional.
Situational varieties can also be described by analysing language features that characterise complete texts,
being part of the genre perspective. However, genre features are not pervasive because they might occur
only one time in a complete text, usually at the beginning or end of a text; they are also conventional rather
than functional; in contrast, registers differ in their characteristic distributions of pervasive linguistic
features, not the single occurrence of an individual feature. Moreover, register variations depend on three
relevant aspects of situational characteristics: field= the topic of the discourse; tenor of discourse= the kind
of relationship between the participants; mode of discourse= the channel of communication.

The methodological process for analysing registers can be briefly illustrated by considering face-to-face
conversation. The first step is to describe the situational characteristics of the register, focusing on
characteristics that distinguish it from others. This kind of text(conversation) requires direct interaction
between at least two people who are together at the same time, in the same place. Both participants must
speak. The second step is to analyse the typical pervasive linguistic features of the register. Three linguistic
features are the most common in a conversation: first-person pronouns, second person pronouns, and
questions. Finally, the third step is to interpret the relationship between situational characteristics and the
pervasive linguistic features in functional terms. The characteristics become easier to find if an analysis
contrasts two different registers.
Registers differ in both their situational and linguistic characteristics. However, the situational ones are
more basic. All speakers use indeed language in different contexts, under different circumstances, for
different purposes. All these aspects are not derived from any linguistic phenomena. In contrast, the
linguistic differences among registers, can be derived from situational differences, because linguistic
features are functional. A very few registers can be identified by unique lexical or grammatical features.
Instead, in order to continue a register analysis is more important to understand to what extent some
linguistic features are used, to understand which of them are pervasive and common in a specific register.
For example, it is not true that conversation uses only pronouns, whereas news only nouns. Both registers
use noun and pronouns. However, they use them with a different distribution. The linguistic analysis of
registers is based on such differences.
The linguistic differences among registers are not arbitrary. Register analysis always include description of
the situational context and functional interpretation of why particular linguistic features commonly occur in
that context. There is no single correct level on which to identify a register, but it depends on the goal of
the study.

As we said before, the same text can be analysed from register, genre, and style perspectives. In the genre
perspective, the focus is on the linguistic features that are used to structure complete texts, while in both
the register and the style perspective, the focus is on the pervasive linguistic features of representative text
excerpts from the variety. Because the register perspective focuses on words and grammatical features
that are frequent and pervasive, the analysis can be based on a sample of text excerpts rather than on
complete texts. In contrast to this perspective, the genre one focuses on language characteristics that occur
only once in a text. For this reason, genre studies must be based on analysis of complete texts from the
variety. So, register and genre perspective differ in the extent to which they can be applied (complete texts-
excerpts). However, complete texts analyzed from a genre perspective can also be analyzed from a register
perspective. Some linguistic features, such as passive voice verbs and reported speech, are distributed
throughout some kinds of texts (news reports), and thus they can be identified in either complete texts or
texts excerpts.
Finally, the style perspective is similar to the register one in that it considers the typical linguistic features
associated with a collection of text samples from a variety. Nevertheless, the two perspectives differ
because once again the linguistic patterns associated with style are not functional but associated with
aesthetic preferences chosen by the writer/speaker and depending on his attitude about language.
Particular styles are often associated with individual authors. For example, authors like Virginia Woolf
preferred a fictional style with extremely long complex sentences mixed in very short, single clause
sentences. But styles can also be associated with different groups of authors or different historical periods.

The literary genre are all the varieties of literature that employ different textual conventions. By
convention, fictional prose is presented in paragraphs where each line fills up the entire page. Fictional
prose also normally employs complete sentences, and standard sentence punctuation. Drama has different
conventions: it reproduces conversational dialogue, therefore has a format that identifies who the speaker
is, followed by the utterance of the speaker. Drama is intended to be performed in speech, even if its
nature is written. As a result, a dramatic text also includes language that gives instructions for the
performance. There is an extensive variation among the texts within a literary genre, and this is where the
style becomes far more important, because it describes the characteristic discourse associated with
different authors or time periods.

To sum up, register variation focuses on the pervasive patterns of linguistic variation across such situations,
while genre variation focuses on the conventional ways in which complete texts of different types are
structured. Taken together, register/genre variation are a fundamental aspect of human language, because
all cultures use language in different situations for different communicative purposes.

Chapter 5. In this chapter, we will analyse news reports and academic prose throughout the different
perspectives we talked about. When the situational characteristics of registers are clear, certain similarities
and differences become more evident. In this case, one common characteristic for news and academic
prose is that some characteristics are not specified, which means that since these are general written
registers, many situational characteristics vary among the sub-registers. For example, news has different
sub-registers with different purposes. And editorial is meant to express an opinion overtly and to persuade
readers to that opinion, whereas a news report is only expected to describe an event without trying to
persuade the audience. At the same time, even if research articles and textbooks are sub-registers of the
academic prose, they have different specific purposes as well as different relationships between readers
and writers. Moreover, some situational characteristics vary by the individual situation.
Another similarity is that there is no direct relationship between the reader and the writer. They have no
personal relationship, no direct interaction, and they do not share the same setting. Further, both have
generally an informational purpose. The content is usually factual, not fictional, and the overt expression is
not expected. However, they also have some differences linked to the situational characteristics. One is
about their communicative purposes: news reports are only limited to describe an event and what
happened, without any interpretation of it; academic writing usually goes further than that because it
needs to explain and interpret the presented information. The two registers also differ in their topic areas.
News reports are usually about current newsworthy events, whereas for academic writing it is impossible
to focus on just one topic because they concern different disciplines.

(Here we study the linguistic features typically used in news and academic prose, connecting them to the
situational characteristics discussed previously. Firstly, we contrast both of these general written registers
with conversation, and then move on through the comparison of the two written registers to each other.)

Nominal features are one of the most obvious difference between these two registers and conversation. All
features regarding noun phrases are much more common in the written registers, while a conspicuous use
of personal pronouns is more common in conversation. News and academic prose have a general purpose
of informing, and because of that, they require precise noun phrases. Writers of these two registers have
plenty of time for planning and editing the language, therefore this time allows them to product denser
noun phrases. Conversation, on the other hand, is produced and processed in real time, by people who are
face to face. In sum, there are major linguistic differences between conversation and informational writing,
associated with the major situational differences between these general registers.

Although news reports and academic prose appear quite similar to each other if compared to conversation,
there are also some linguistic differences between them. For example, academic prose uses a lot more
present-tense verbs than past-tense verbs, while in news reports they are equally used. But news has more
time adverbials than others even if also the other categories are used, while in academic prose neither
place nor time adverbials are common. These characteristics reflect the focus of these two registers: news
reports focus on current events and this can explain those verb tense and adverbial choices. Another
linguistic difference between academic prose and news consists in the use of nominalizations: the first one
tends to have a higher frequency of them. Moreover, since this kind of register is expected to develop
arguments rather than simply report events, linking adverbials are more common; data in an academic text
is not just reported, but it must be interpretated in order to reach some conclusions.
These two registers differ also in the devices used to identify sources of information. Research articles
create references with names and dates using parentheses, whereas news reports rely on less precise
attribution, using the phrase ‘’according to’’.
Finally, the dense use of passive verbs in academic prose is interesting because there are also functional
factors that affect the choice of passive. In fact, the subject of an active voice would just refer to a vague
group of researchers, while the use of passive voice is easier to read and at the same time informative. It
allows concepts and objects to be the grammatical subject of the sentence, making the discourse topic
clearer. Passive voices occur in news reports less frequently but with the same functions.

News reports vs news editorials. In general, news reports are expected not to state overtly opinions about
an issue, whereas editorials have the specific purpose to discuss explicitly about an opinion. Thus, since all
editorials evaluate what happens and what should happen, they use specific linguistic features to
accomplish this function. They also tend to have a high concentration of conditionals to discuss
hypothetical events. In conclusion, even if news reports and editorials are included on the same website
and read by the same audience. They have distinct communicative purposes.
Research articles vs textbooks. Research articles and textbooks are two sub-registers of academic prose.
The most obvious situational difference between them consists in their participants and their
communicative purposes. Research articles are usually written by professionals who are experts in that
field, for an audience composed by other professionals. In contrast, textbooks are written by experts for
novices in the field, such as students for example. Moreover, their specific purposes vary: research articles
add new knowledge to a specific field and also try to convince other experts that this knowledge has
scientific merit; on the other hand, textbooks generally try to inform students of knowledge that has been
already studied and is established in the field. There are also some linguistic differences between them.
One of these consists in the use of complex noun phrases. Usually, a research articles uses more noun
phrases than a textbook because complex noun phrases are used to facilitate precise identification of the
referents. Another difference concerns the use of passive voices. Textbooks tend to use passive voices less
often that research articles.

Fiction gives yet another example on how register can vary. As said before, in this general register a great
deal of linguistic variation comes not from specialized sub-registers, but from deliberate choices made by
authors. From situational perspective, fiction is one of the most complicated registers, because the external
situational characteristics have almost no influence on the linguistic features of a fictional text. The relevant
situational context is the fictional world that the author creates in the text. Thus, fictional characteristics
interact with one another in that fictional word, even if the author never interacts with readers. One of the
most important factors that influences fictional style is the perspective that the author chooses for
narrating a story. A story can be narrated from a first-person perspective, or from a third-person
perspective. This distinction obviously has immediate linguistic consequences. In first-person perspective is
common the use of the pronoun I, it seems like someone is narrating an event that he/she personally lived.
In contrast, a third person perspective uses the point of view of an external observer. In this case, the
book’s narrator can be a normal observer, or a super-human observer who is aware of the inner thoughts
and feelings of characters. In this case, the description of events is relatively ‘’objective’’.
A second parameter of variation among fictional stories is the extent to which the author decides to report
the dialogue of characters. The style of fiction of fiction employs many of the grammatical features that are
common in face-to-face conversation, such as second-person pronouns, present-tense verbs, questions,
contractions, and ellipsis. An alternative style is to narrate the story as it is being told orally or in a personal
letter to a specific addressee. In this case, there is little direct reported dialogue, but there are numerous
linguistic features of conversation, because the story is written as if it were an oral telling of the personal
events, feelings, and attitudes of the narrator. A final parameter of variation among fictional novels is
whether the story is told as a narration of past events, or as a description of events as they occur at the
time of the telling. In a few cases, the story is written as if the narrator is describing the events in real time,
as they are occurring. This style of discourse results in frequent features like present-tenses and time
adverbials, describing events that are equally in progress.
In summary, fiction is one of the most complex varieties to analyze from register perspective, because the
author must create a fictional world and can choose to describe that world from many different possible
perspectives. These choices are all stylistic choices.

Chapter 7. (We begin with the first used form of electronic communication, e-mail; we compare it to
conversation and academic prose. Then we study other two electronic registers, internet forum posts and
text messages. Finally, we study the latest developed electronic register, tweets).

Email is an electronic register, sent via computer, from one mail account to another. It can involve single or
many receivers and can be used for many communicative purposes. These purposes may be mass
advertising, fraudulent attempts, and social communication among friends. In their situational
characteristics, personal email messages have at the same time some common aspects to and some
differences from conversation. One of the common aspects is that both the registers are interactive,
because they allow people to communicate with each other. The social roles of the participants can vary,
but the most important thing is that the speaker or the writer usually expects the other person to respond.
Moreover, both typically convey feelings and attitudes in addition to specific information. However, for
workplace messages, the level of personal feelings varies depending on the workplace contexts.
One of the
main differences concerns mode and medium. Conversation is spoken ì, while email is written and then
sent electronically. As a result, email is not as reactive as conversation, but because it is written has the
potential to be more planned, revised and edited. Since email are sent by a software, they automatically
follow certain formatting conventions. Email recipients always see the sender’s email address, name, the
day when the email was sent, information about the path the email took, and a topic line (subject line).
Another difference consists in the extent to which the addressor and addressee share time and place: in
conversation, both space and time are shared, so the speaker can refer to right now, over there knowing
that the listener will understand; whereas, in personal email messages, time and space are shared to a
lesser extent.
More specific linguistic features in email messages clearly reflect the situational characteristics. Email are
similar to conversation in their use of lexical verbs. The use of pronouns is also far more common if
compared with another register, academic prose, but it is not equal to face-to-face conversation. Finally,
they are very similar to academic prose in their use of nouns, which are more common than in
conversation. In some ways, email messages could be similar to the informational academic prose, but
emails are rarely focused on abstract concepts, or on explaining information and developing arguments.
Their focus is usually interpersonal or task-focused, more like conversation. Another feature is the use of
pronouns: because email messages are interactive, you might expect that pronouns would be used to the
same extent as in conversation. Instead, we find more pronouns in conversation, but more nouns in emails.
The first-person and the second-person pronouns are equally used in both registers. However, the
occurrence of third-person pronouns is completely different: common in conversation, but rare in both
email messages and academic prose. This is because in email messages would be difficult to understand
when the addressee is not in the same physical space.
To study email sub-registers, they have been divided into three sub-registers: emails from friends and
family on non-professional topics, emails from colleagues on professional topics, and emails from strangers.
One obvious difference is the length. Email messages to friends and family tend to be shorter than email on
professional topics. This is because emails to friends can assume much more background knowledge and
therefore require much less explanatory information. In contrast, professional emails to strangers tend to
be much longer, because writers need to introduce themselves, state the reason for writing, provide any
necessary background, and frame the whole discussion in a polite manner. Workplace emails between
colleagues tend to fall between these two categories. Although the linguistic differences among the three
types are small, they are entirely consistent: friend and family emails are more similar to conversation in
everyday life, whether professional stranger emails are closest to academic prose. For example, activity
verbs and time/place adverbs are much more common in the friend and family category, reflecting the
primary focus on everyday activities rather than conceptual discussions.
Talking about email messages, there are particular conventions used for opening and closing a message and
variation in the use of these conventions depending on the role of the participants. In friends and family
emails it is rare to find the recipient in the salutation used to open a message. Many of these emails begin
with a simple greeting, like hi, while others begin directly without any salutation at all. Only about 30
percent of friends/family emails identify the recipient in the salutation. As a contrast, professional email
messages to strangers almost always identify the recipient in the salutation, usually using the formula title+
last name (Dr. Biber). This reflects the formality and distance between the writer and the receiver. There
are some regular patterns concerning the closure of an email message as well. In most of the friends and
family emails is used the signature with just the first name, sometimes preceded by an expression of
affection, such as hugs, love. In contrast, professional emails are concluded with more formal expressions
like sincerely, best wishes…

Forums are websites where users share messages about certain topics, they are interested in. People who
use forums are considered part of a community, people with the same interests. Because of their
communicative purpose, they can be similar to face-to-face conversation of club meeting. They can also be
a way for participants with some problems or questions to get help from more experienced ones. In sum,
they are a new way of discussing through a computer. In forums, there is usually a moderator who makes
sure that discussions remain civil and focused on the topic. After signing up, the participants can write a
post on the forum, either adding a comment below other posts or starting a brand-new thread.
Posts of a forum are similar to email because they are written and interactive: people of the community can
reply to a post in minutes or days and weeks after. There also some differences from emails. Forum posts
are similar because they also show the name of the sender, the day and time, and the topic of the post. But
they show some adding information missing in emails, such as the date when the sender joined the
community, their home location, and the number of posts they have made. Some forums categorize their
users by their number of posts with specific names like ‘’wizards or apprentices’’. Another difference is that
forum posts are a mixture of personal and group interactions, rather than being an interaction between
individuals. The forum is more like a multiple party conversation. The focus on a specific topic in a forum is
another difference. In forums, all the issue must be strictly related to the chosen topic, and the moderator
for the site can delete posts, move them, or even block individuals who break the rules. Forum users do not
share a physical context, as in conversation. However, photographs attached to a post solve in part this
problem. A participant can use a deictic expression when referring to an attached visual. In
general, the forum posts follow the traditional rules of grammar and punctuation. Nevertheless, there are
some posts which are not attentively studied by the users, and where capitalization and punctuation are
not used in the traditional way. Linguistically, posts can include some cases of ellipsis, with the omission of
subject pronouns. This is more common in conversation than in writing and it is a result of the interactive
nature of the forum posts. Emojis and abbreviations (LOL) are also common between the users. Compared
to emails, forum posts are quite similar to them from a grammatical point of view. Pronouns, nouns and
adjectives are recurrent, but adverbs are the most frequent function words. They are used to provide more
details about the manner, actions, experiences, associated with the verbs. Compared to emails, first-person
pronouns are common in both, but second-person pronouns are more common in emails and third-person
ones in the forum posts. This is because the forum posts are addressed to a community.

Text messages (short messaging services or SMS) are written messages sent electronically to a receiver’s
phone. The situational characteristics can be compared to other similar e-registers. Regarding participants,
text messages are sent from one individual to another or to a small group; in both cases the participant
have a personal relationship. The nature of text messages is far more interactive than that of emails. This is
a result of the immediate exchange of information between the participants, which takes place over a
period of just more than one minute. Then, there are some messages that do not necessarily require a
message back, because the participants are going to meet face to face. Shared background knowledge is
also high in this register. Even messages that could appear clear turn out to have more specific meaning,
shared between the participants. However, business related text messages tend to share less information
and to be more contextualized.
Texting is a superior form of communication in places where you are expected to be quiet or do not want
to disturb other people or places that are too noisy for talking on the phone.
There are six general purposes of text messages. The first one is social organizing: it is an extremely
common purpose for SMS. People use messages of this category to look for someone to get together with,
to invite someone to do something, to confirm schedules… The second one is to stay connected while on
the move: a lot of people use messages to locate a person or a place, or to inform someone about current
issues… The third purpose is the one of information sharing, text messages ask for or provide specific
information. Some of these messages continue a discussion about a topic previously discussed. May
messages are just a way to keep in touch with people. And finally, there are some messages with a business
prompt.
Talking about linguistic features, text messages have a higher frequency of verbs and nouns than in
conversation. Adjectives are also common, especially in the latest years. The high occurrence of verbs is a
consequence of the common purpose for discussing about activities… Pronouns are also common, even if
recent studies show that they are less used as before. Nevertheless, first-and-second-person pronouns use
remain higher than in conversation.

Finally, we will investigate another e-register, the one of twitter, from the style perspective. Twitter was
created for providing shorts status that only family and friends would care to read; so it’s similar to
messages but at the same time it differs from them because the tweets are public rather than private like
SMS. Twitter became through the year more and more popular and a means of broadcasting news of all
kinds (advertisement, pollical campaigns…). It is accessible through various apps, and in some countries
through SMS services. Any registered user can post a tweet, which is readable by anyone who visits the
platform, even if it is possible for users to limit their tweets only to their ‘’friends or followers’’. In a tweet it
is possible to find a wide range of emojis, some of them with a symbolic meaning, but also pictures and
videos attached to it. Twitter has thus the capacity for interpersonal interaction, but it also serves to
provide information or opinion without direct interaction. With this variable capacity, level of interactivity
can also be a factor in individuals tweeting style. Talking about linguistic features, nouns are the most
common ones, followed by verbs and pronouns.
Specialised Translation.

1. REFLECTIONS ON TRANSLATION. 1.1. Defining problems. Compared to other disciplines, translation is

considered, according to Bassnett, a “recent, new or young” one. We must consider that a discipline is a
branch of instruction or education/ a department of learning or knowledge, so because translation requires
learning, training and practicing is indeed a discipline. But this term alone cannot perfectly define the
object it describes. There are different trends about “translation” definition: Genre (Hatim and Munday),
Multidiscipline (Ulrych), Interdiscipline (Snell-Hornby). These definitions all partially fit but each focuses on
just one of its many aspects (translation phenomenon is very complex).

1.2. The nature of translation. It is largely taken for granted that everybody- professionals and laypeople-
has at least a vague notion of what it is. Eco and Nergaard (1998), from a semiotic perspective, consider
translation as a natural phenomenon since it occurred long before humankind even started to reflect upon
it. But the difficulty in defining what “translation” really is, depends on the number of other fields it draws
upon. So, it is relatively easy to say what contributes to translation (linguistics, literature, philosophy, etc.),
but very hard to define it per se. Through the years, all the historical views on translation made for example
by John Florio, Cervantes or all the great Latin authors, give only a ‘description’ of what translation is, not a
definition. In fact, it is only from the 20th century that definitions on translation started to be formulated
thanks to the study of linguistic and philosophy of language. According to the work of Charles Peirce and
Ferdinand de Saussure, translation is an intersemiotic operation. Talking about sign and referent, Peirce
defines translation as a “replica of a sign” while Saussure considers it as the link between thought and sign.
Roman Jakobson, in the 1950s, called it “interpretation” or even “reported speech” while according to
Halliday it is represents a creation of meaning. From a philosophical perspective, George Steiner writes that
translation is formally and pragmatically implicit in every act of communication.

1.3. The equivalence trap. Steiner focuses on translation as “creation”. Writing is considered creation and
since translation is a sort of “re-writing”, it is seen as a marginal area of creation, we say marginal because
the translation does not create but reproduces the existing. The translator needs humility to carry out his
artisan work and great pride in his minor creations when successful; ‘art’ and ‘craft’ share the implied
notion of ‘talent’ which shares basic theoretical implications with ‘equivalence’ (an important issue to
understand the nature of translation and try to define it) talent and equivalence are non-quantifiable:
talent is needed to carry out translation while equivalence is the defining feature of translated texts.
Perfection is not possible in translation, according to most. For Roger Bacon “the quality of one language
can never be perfectly reproduced in another”. Talking about equivalence, for some it consists of the
transmission of the content of a text, while for others of the truest kind of imitation. Points of view: Cicero=
interpretation opposed to literal translation, John Trevisa= not the best translation but an understandable
one, Pope= no literal translation can be as excellent as the original, Erasmus= prefers being the closest
possible to the original text than to be free.

1.4. Talent, equivalence, translation. When we talk about the work of a translator we are automatically
talking about talent, since it is linked to the notion of equivalence. In translation, the translator’s talent
influences the obtainable degree of equivalence. Language is about passing on the information, however,
the descriptive study of language does not contribute to provide any answer about the intrinsic nature of
syntax, grammar or language itself. Language is believed to have developed for humans to communicate
with each other for practical everyday needs, so it is logical that they tried to optimize the transmission of
these quantities of data. What makes humans the most advanced form of life on earth is their
specialization and adaptability, of which brain evolution, in terms of quantity and quality of information,
can store and make use of. The information is not internally stored in their genetic code but was stored
externally as cultural notions being taught to their offspring at a family or community level. Richardson
shows that there is no definitive answer that can be provided about the true nature of syntax, grammar,
etc. To understand it, we should know the neurological processes involved in cognition = acquisition,
storage and retrieval of information that work at the brain level and later learning how to copy and
reproduce brain information and functions.

1.5. Translation science, theories, studies. Translation has given rise to flourishing studies that converged
into an academic brunch during the 1970s. Nergaard started to talk about a “science” of translation, then
“translation theories” and finally opting for focusing on “translation studies”. Nergaard’s science
concerned finding scientific mechanism in the linguistic transfer of machine translation. Translation
theorists from the 1970s-1980s focused on the textual and cultural aspects and variables, mostly about
literary text. The 1980s saw the rising of a new approach to translation which intended to bring together all
the research on the subject of differing backgrounds and perspectives. “Translation Studies” (TS) was born
by the 1980s and it intended to bring together, ideally, all the research on the subject, irrespective of
differing backgrounds and perspectives. Initiating figures were André Lefevere and Susan Bassnett, both
comparative literature scholars. The most important innovation brought by TS is their opening to reflection
on specialized texts which for the first time in history have acquired their own acknowledged, if limited,
academic place and bibliography within this discipline. The debate moves on the question of which theories
is the best one excluding those that no translation theory is possible. The right/best one could be anyone
that take consideration of the multidisciplinary aspect of translating.

1.6. Defining translation: an operation proposal. Translation is defined as a product, a process and a
practice; these qualities, simultaneously identify the translating phenomenon, and are non-exclusive,
complementary, interdependent and modulated by time. Translation is first a product because it results in
the production of a tangible token. In order to occur, translation must use a medium of human
communication, necessarily perceivable by one or more of human senses. The translated message
represents a human product, potentially comprehensible by any human possessing the required language
or code. In addition, the product of translation is intentionally defined a “token”, since it stands for an
original, representing it in the target language. Secondly translation is a process. In contemporary times,
the most successful models depicting the translating process are based on those developed to explain
linguistic communication. Two classical models are Nida’s model of translation (1969) and Jakobson’s
model of linguistic communication (1960).

- Nida’s: source language receptor language

analysis transfer restructuring

- Jakobson’s emotive, referential, poetic, phatic, metalingual, conative

Thirdly, translation is seen as a practice in that there is more to a text than the text itself: there is the text,
its co-text and its context. We eventually consider the sociolinguistic notion of context based on a set of
linguistic and extra-linguistic factors= translator’s language variety, knowledge, education, training, his/her
age, gender, ethnicity, etc. Time joins to these three different but not separate realizations of translation.
Lastly, translation is seen as a practice in its historical dimension. Historical time proves the success of
single translations as well as of authors (Shakespearean translations) and evolutionary time proves the
success in the way information is translated into different forms.
2. SPECIALIZED TEXT, SPECIALIZED TRANSLATION. 2.1. From translation to specialized translation. Purpose is
the key word in specialized translation. Translation, until the mid-twentieth, was all about literature but,
actually, among the oldest written translations into any other language there is a prevalence, not of
literary, but of “service documents” = specialized texts. The supremacy that literary translating enjoyed
until the 20th century lies in its practitioners’ possessing the tools, the purpose, and the time not only to
carry out their activity, but also to write about it. Schleiermacher was one of the intellectuals that most
influenced modern thought on translation. He underlines the key to specialized texts: the relevance of
their lexicon and its objectivity, quantifiability and mono-referentiality. Specialized translation appears to
be strictly linked to the nature of the texts it deals with which might belong to different specific domains,
sharing an operational purpose and are characterized by specific lexical use in the first place.
Understanding in detail what makes a text specialized is therefore the key to understand what specialized
translation is and how it works.

2.2. Specialized purposes, specialized languages. The actual academic research over specialized languages
only started in the 1970s, following the major developments that occurred in all fields of knowledge,
especially in science. The Languages for Specific or Special Purposes (LSPs) were initially identified as a
natural language, used in a specific technical field for a functional purpose, commonly within a given
professional setting. The natural language and the professional setting are the basic variables in LSPs,
according to the specific field and national language considered. When speaking of LSP, it is ESP (English for
Specific Purposes) that most scholars look for reference or for a comparison with their own languages. LSPs
purpose has remained unchanged. It is defined, delimited, and set out by a community of practice
exercising within a specific professional domain that can be technical, scientific, etc. This community can be
called a discourse community according to Swales. In this view, each member of a community of practice
belongs simultaneously to various discourse communities, each of which contributes to determining
everyone’s general and specific knowledge.

2.3. Lexical features of specialized texts. Domain-specific lexicons, clarity and non-ambiguity also show a
high degree of productivity, necessary for the respective discourse communities. Originally, to form new
words in scientific English was followed the model of Latin, and included to the lexicon loanwords or direct
borrowings, loan or semantic translations, in addition to new English terms, mostly created through
affixation, conversion, and compounding; other types of words found in ESP are abbreviations, acronyms,
initialisms, eponyms, noun strings as in collocations. Specialised terms show a high degree of mono-
referentiality and produce an effect of artificiality in terms which sound non-natural, used to alert both
experts and non-experts that they are facing a code. From the perspective of translation, the highly
specialized lexicon is what distinguishes LSPs from natural languages. That is also what makes a specialized
text perfectly readable instead of not comprehensible which means that a reader is able to follow the
syntactic structure of sentences but cannot understand the meaning of every single word. A specialised
text would appear more difficult to comprehend to non-specialist readers. So, making it understandable for
everyone is the translators’ tasks. Strategies that can be applied to do this include examining the etymology
of the word, checking whether it has a generic meaning that can help infer its specialised meaning, and
compare the different meanings the word has in order to establish which semantic field it is used in. The
specialized translator has to face not only with linguistic problems but cognitive, sociological and ethical
too. Researching lexicon for the purpose of specialized translation is therefore a translator’s most
immediate and time-consuming task, often hard proving to carry out because s/he lacks the required
domain-specific knowledge, and terminological resources are not available or reliable. Sacrificing creativity
and originality to standards is acceptable and even required in specialized translation for its intrinsic
purpose of providing clear and synthetic communication. At the lexical level, this means that a term must
be translated as clearly as possible but at the same time, within the tight limits allowed by any specialised
field; it must be translated as synthetically as possible, but amply enough to be clear and comprehensible.

2.4. Non-lexical features of specialized texts. Lexis, as the feature in specialised languages and the vehicle
for communicating expertise with clarity and mono-referentiality, has always been considered as their
major and sometimes, only feature. Obviously, this is not true, because research has shown that also
syntactic and textual features, even if in lesser proportions, go through variations in ESP. experts have listed
the non-lexical features shown by specialised tests. These include at the syntactic level: nominalisation,
modality, and depersonalisation; at the textual level: synthesisation and cohesion. These two levels are not
always clearly distinct, or for example comprehensive effects like depersonalisation and cohesion are
achieved using elements taken from both. All these features need to be considered when talking about
specialised texts for both writing/reading and translating purposes.
Nominalisation is the tendency to an increase in noun forms compared to verbal forms, as well as the
grammatical process of transforming words from other classes or verb phrases into nouns. It occurs
especially in specialised written texts.
Modality relates to the mood of the verbs, expressing possibility or necessity. In specialized language they
are especially linked to the uncertainty of developments in science (possibility) or necessity in law. Mood is
differently obtained in different languages; translators need to apply the corresponding linguistic strategy
to reproduce it.
Depersonalization aims to make communication impersonal for example to relieve authors from
responsibility for the content of a text, or emphasise the objective stance taken in presenting the topic. It
can be obtained by using the passive voice without an agent, or cleft sentences that topicalise the object of
an action and reduce the role of its subject.
Synthetisation consist of any functional recourse for communicating the relevant information in the
shortest and clearest way possible, this is achieved through iconic elements = pics, graphs.
Cohesion is responsible for the functional organization of relations of meaning within a text (coherence) as
realized by grammatical means. To achieve it, references can be used to create signposts within the text;
substitution to avoid repetition by employing “weaker” token words for “stronger” ones; ellipses to polish
communication; conjunctions to turn sentences into text.
Hedging is a set of linguistic strategies of any nature employed to place a distance between authors and
their statements, reducing the former’s responsibility for the latter. Entire phrases can be used, adverbs,
modals, agent-less passive verbs.
Nominalisation is for example one of the features that causes more troubles to translators. A good example
are word-clusters, sequences of noun phrases and adverbs which can form collocations. For this reason,
certain very large clusters are considered in the language as acronyms or initialisms. When specialists have
to translate these words, standard rules impose them to use English original, so it is extremely important
that they know what these acronyms stand for.
Whereas linguists should be glad to have various resources available, in translation an abundance of them
can prove disorienting, above all in specialized settings where time and purpose are all-pervading. A wrong
translation caused by a superficial syntactic choice would not only affect a single sentence, but the entire
text organisation and meaning, and as a consequence, the comprehension of the text. Especially in
specialised text a mistake would have in general terrific consequences also on the affected community of
practice (one example are the medical community).

2.5. Genre theory and specialized texts. According to Derrida and Ronell every text participates in one or
several genres, so there is no genreless text. A genre is a recognizable communicative event characterized
by a set of communicative purposes understood by the members of the professional community. In
practical terms, genres are collections of similar structural and stylistic patterns, applicable to certain
domains, for communication within or across certain communities or, even, beyond communities, between
specialists and non-specialists like medical prescriptions, the cooking recipe, etc. Some texts may belong to
different genres at the same time as the fashion report which can also be called as “article” (tabloid). A
cooking recipe, if successful, shares the same need for absolute clarity as the description of a chemical
formula: so, it is treated with the same thoroughness as any scientific text. In this view, the text has a tri-
dimensional structure linking domain, specialization, and purpose at all levels, realizing specialized
communication. Sometimes, a set framework (genre) is filled with unusual content, creating irony. This can
be also done with a different purpose in mind, when genres from one domain and level are used to convey
a message thought to a different audience. EX: advertising when a message is often masked as a scientific
publication using features of this genre to convey the same authority inter-specialist texts do. Like words,
genres also evolve, and since many of them are connected to contemporary communication, they do so at
its changing pace; so, genres too can and ought to be regarded in and over time, and related to translation
differently depending on this being considered its product, process or practice form.

2.6. Approaches to specialized translation. Peter Newmark’s books were in the 1980s the main sources on
specialized translation, he was also one of the first authors in TS to provide indications that were openly
prescriptive and directly applicable as a manual. Newmark’s functional approach differentiates between
semantic and communicative translation. The first is author-centred and tends towards literality, the
second is reader-centred and less constrained. For most specialized texts, he recommends communicative
translation, while he sees semantic translation closer to literary texts. In the 90s, Baker adopts a micro-to-
macro method that starts by taking into account the lexical level divided into “word level” and “above word
level”. The next level is grammar, the following is text analysis. Taylor (1998) firstly adopts the now
common structure of a two-section volume: 1st part dealing with translation and linguistic theory, 2nd
presenting real sample texts from different domains, translated and commented on, to illustrate how the
translating process takes place in effect. Secondly, it introduces a view of genre theory among the tools
suggested for analysing texts before and while addressing them. Thirdly, a specific and original
methodology is illustrated: translation as a “rolling” or circular process, made up of the various levels of the
text, to the final version. Lastly, her book addresses specifically, in the choice of sample text, an English/
Italian translating audience who shares specific sets of problems at all linguistic levels. Ulrych (1999)
focuses on the multidisciplinary nature that translation depends on the changing role of the translator in its
3 manifestations: the translation student, trainer and the professional one. Moving into the 2000s, Scarpa
presented translation as an organic instrument and no longer divided into sections but presented as a
continuum. She returned to a traditional distinction between “traduzione letterale” and “ parafrasi” which
is articulated into various stages: identification of text types or genres, identification of models in the target
language, identification of purposes which can differ from the source text’s, reading, identification of
translating problems. Osimo (2007) is defined “manual pratico”. Although focusing on essay, the method it
proposes can also find applications in specific domains. Osimo sees translation as a process leading from a
prototext to a metatext through a number of stages: the linguistic and cultural analyses, the mental
elaboration of the message, the identification of the model reader and of the dominant, the first draw, the
review, taking in consideration the language in his linguistic and socio-economic levels, identifying the
genre, style, content and the target market of the reader.

2.7. Specialized translation: an operational approach. Every ‘real’ translation that is carried out has a time
schedule, so everything is structured in relation to the time given. It is suggested that in translating a
specialized text, domain, specialization, purpose, and time are all being considered first level factors
affecting the translating product, process and practice. Translation always regards a piece of
communication and, just as there is no such thing as purposeless communication, there is no purposeless
translation, which in turn prevents the existence of non-specialized communication and translation.

3. INTO THE WEB AGE. The digital turn. All the major changes in vehicles of communication following
printing occurred over the last 150 years, after electricity found applications in technology and industry,
with a concentration in the final decades of the 20th century. Only in the early 1990s technological
developments happened, affecting languages and translation.

3.2. Corpus linguistics in specialized translation. Corpora represents the major consequence that
digitalization has had on translation. A corpus (Latin) has always been considered as a “collection of texts”.
The quantitative aspect is what makes any electronic collection revolutionary compared to standard
printed editions because of the speed at which great quantities of information can be processed. In corpus
linguistics, the analysis of a text essentially consists in its being broken into pre-set units (words) and
“counted”, producing lists of these units. So, taking in consideration a short text, the analysis will show
results that are most relevant at word level. Corpus technology and studies of linguistic analysis are various:
they are applied to language teaching; employed in genre analysis and in ESP research to identify the lexical
and non-lexical features of specialized text. They are also used in specialized translation: corpora can be
divided into mono- or multilingual, parallel or non-parallel (collections of similar texts in various languages),
comparable or non-comparable( collections of similar texts in the source language or in other languages).
Bi- or multilingual corpora and parallel ones represent an important source of information for translators.
One obvious example is that of translators of EU texts: the EU institutions, through their freely accessible
websites, provide a parallel corpus od millions of plurilingual documents to check for reference. Other
interesting reflections coming from the relationship between corpora and translation consider an
important factor the introduction of the online condition: not only corpora can go digital, but they can also
be shared through the Internet and enrich the WWW.
At the beginning of the web age, machine research made linguists believe that the future of translation lay
in automated machine translation. It seems established that the future of translation certainly does not lie
in machines alone; conversely, there is no foreseeable future in translation without them.

3.3. Multimodality, multimediality, multitranslation? Most webpages today communicate through more
than one medium and one mode, for instance verbal language (text), colours and graphic layout; to which
sound, video, and animations can be added. Today the focus has definitely shifted towards the physical
aspect of the channel, identifying it with the “medium” to convey the message. Multimediality (highly
affixed word) is the combined and simultaneous use of different media. Multimodality, on the other hand,
is a purely semiotic concept, building on Jakobson’s notion of “code” rather than “contact”. Multimodality
acquires cultural and social aspects, making an approach to text studies and human activity that provide
different answers in a wide-ranging set of social contexts. The multimodal move has brought the need for a
redefinition of communicative models developed and applied before the mass digital era. This involves not
only the code and the channel in their physical meanings but also the sender and the receiver.

3.4. Genres and hybridization. Genres like all verbal communication have been affected by the Internet.
According to many, multimodality is in every text, because associating images to written text is itself a form
of multimodality. Newspaper can be an example: if we compare the online version with the offline one,
many are the differences regarding layout, content distribution, graphics… Garzone identifies eight detailed
properties to consider in developing any framework explaining web-mediated genres: immateriality,
extension in participation framework, multimodality, hypertextuality/hypermediality, co-articulation and
interactivity, intertextuality, and granularity. However, it has been argued that is easier to list what features
web genres have than what they are, as web communication indeed appears to be made of many different
layers at a time. Their most relevant feature remains their high degree of interactivity and the large
audience it can reach. Since a text enters in the WWW, it potentially can lose all its characteristic, being
subject of the loss of its author, a number of copies, modifications… for this reason, some authors prefer to
publish online their texts using ADOBE PDF, usually employed to preserve documents in their original
forms. The high interactivity of online communication has made it necessary to identify for these reasons,
multiauthors and multireceivers, who are all the users that modify an original text: their power is their
anonymity. Example of migration process: newspaper and its traditional genres (the editorial) an ordinary
online newspaper article would usually feature hyperlinks or clickable words redirecting the reader to other
connected articles or elements.

3.5. Translation tools 2.0. Translation has always had to bear on context. While, in the past it was only the
translator the one who decided how to relate a text to a context, today he/she can count on a great
number of on/offline theoretical and practical sources. This creates some problems, because even if there
are more sources and options, they could be an obstacle for translators because of the longer, more
complex decisional process they have to take in account. There are different types of specific resources for
translators in this web era. The type of the resource indicates the translation purpose or the aspect of
translation that it is meant to target. Terminology is often the main issue in specialized translation, and it
can be addressed by means of dictionaries, glossaries, and encyclopaedias, but also by machine-assisted
tools, like corpora programmes, translation memories… the same options are used for syntactic and
grammatical needs.

3.6. Localization, multitranslation, no translation? Localization = the closer the translator is to the current
translation industry. For example, localization requires adapting a product to different local realities. LSP
studies would probably claim that localization is translating for globalization purposes. As an industry,
translation will follow the market’s offer-and-demand cycle but there is already a shift towards outsourcing
translations into a given language to speakers of that language residing in countries with the lowest cost of
living. Example: offer and demand a Chinese translator living in London will not be able to charge the same
prices for a project that can be done at a distance, as a colleague based anywhere in China. It is at the
global level that phenomena like globalization can be modified and shaped through the web technologies
that best serve them. Phenomenon of lingua franca English (LFE)= contact language used only among non-
native language speakers. A sort of internalized type of translation where the non-native speaker translates
internally and directly into an operative language, whereas his interlocutor, allowing a certain variation in
decoding, would most of the time be able to receive the gist of the message. Most lines of thought in TS
and in contemporary culture in general have gone in the direction purported by Levy in the 1960s, inspired
by choice: the translator must always come up with a solution to the puzzles inherent in his/her work and
not only in making a translation product, or carrying out a translation process, but also in participating in
the translating practice.
Analysing Newspapers.

Chapter 3. the analysis of some specific words in a newspaper text is usually the first step of any text or
discourse analysis. Words convey different meanings, such as denotative and connotative ones, which allow
us to understand the society and their value of judgement.

The way that people are named in news discourse can have significant impact on the way in which they are
viewed. We all have got a range of identities and characteristics that could be used to describe use
accurately, but not all of them have the same meaning. The way in which people are named can refer not
only to the group/s that they are associated with, also to the relationship between the namer and the
named. Journalists have to provide names for the people who are social actors in the stories they report,
and this task always involves choices. For this reason, sometimes they choose for someone a social
category, excluding him/her from other different categories. For example, a social actor can be taken as a
single individual in order to emphasise his qualities of ‘’ordinary man’’, or can be taken as a part of a social
group, each with different explicit and implicit meanings. But there are some important differences
between the explicit and implicit meanings of the chosen terms.

Another important aspect in the analysis of news texts is the choice of words used to represent more
directly the values and characteristics of social actors. These strategies are called predicational strategies
and are realised by specific forms of reference, by attributes, by predicative nouns/adjectives/pronouns, by
collocations or explicit comparisons, metaphors, and other rhetorical figures. Through this strategy people
are specified and characterised with references to quality, quantity, time… but sometimes, predication is
used to criticise certain social actors.

Transitivity describes the relationships between participants and the roles they play in the processes
described in reporting. Central to the study of transitivity is the fact that in producing texts there is a range
of choices to be made and every produced text could have been produced differently. There are three
components that can be changed: the participants involved in the process, typically realised by noun
phrases in the clause; the process itself, which will be expressed by the verb phrase in a clause; the
circumstances associated with the process, expressed by adverbials and prepositional phrases. The
processes depend on the kind of verb used. In English there are four principal types of verbs, and therefore
four different processes that a sentence can use. Firstly, there are verbal processes, such as speaking,
shouting, or singing. Then, verbs can suggest mental processes, such as thinking, dreaming, and deciding.
There are rational processes of being, like have, seem and be. And fourth, material processes, which can be
further divided into transitive action, involving two or more participants, and intransitive ones with only
one participant. It is important to consider the structure of the process. There is the active construction,
where the verb comes in active form and the subject comes before the object. Also, there is the passive
construction, which is similar the previous one but inverted: so, the verb takes the passive form, and the
object comes before the subject. In this case, most of the times the actor can be deleted leaving the verb in
the passive form without an agent: this construction occurs very frequently in newspapers. Thus, English
language allows us to describe the same event in different ways, each of these carries different connoted
meanings.

Modality is opposed to transitivity because it shows the judgements, comments and attitudes in text and
talk. It shows that there are not only links between the form and the content, but also between content
and function. This strategy is usually realised by the use of modals, their negations, or through adverbs
(certainly). It is very common in ‘’opinionated’’ newspapers, like editorials and columns which generally
provide a judgement of an event or the opinion of the writer about something. Modality can be expressed
in two ways through truth modality and obligation modality. Truth modality varies along different degrees
of certainty and absolutely obligation, whereas obligation modality concern future events, in particular
concerns the degree to which a speaker/writer believes that a certain action or event ought or should
happen/be taken.

A presupposition is an implicit concept embedded within the explicit meaning of a text or an utterance.
Presupposition is created in many ways, for example through words like implicative verbs or change of
state verbs are related to an implicit meaning in their uses. Also, definite and possessive articles, wh-
questions, and noun and adjectives trigger presuppositions.

As we know, it is impossible for journalists to report some events in an entirely true and objective way.
Most of the times, even if implicitly, they employ rhetorical strategies to persuade people to adopt their
same point of view. There are different rhetorical figures used by journalists with different purposes.

Hyperbole, metaphor, metonym, (vedi riassunto thorne)

Neologism is a word created recently, or an existing word or phrase which people use with a completely
new meaning. It is possible to create neologisms in many different ways but talking about newspaper three
are the most common ones. The first one adds prefixes or suffixes to create a new word. Ex: the words
which end with -gate have always something to do with scandals. The second strategy tends to shift words
meaning through changing their grammatical function or creating a new epistemic meaning. Neologisms
can be created through blending two existing words.