Lexis and Grammar in Spoken and Written Discourse

Denise Milizia – Università degli Studi di Bari

Lexis and Grammar in Spoken and Written Discourse

Collana «Lingue di Oggi»
15,5 x 22 cm – pagg. 290 – 2016 – € 39,00
ISBN 978-88-7916-798-7

Starting with the assumption that collocation is ubiquitous, cannot be predicted by rule, and obeys no logic, yet success in language is dependent upon it, the first part of this book shows the extent to which collocation is central to language learning. Lexis & Grammar in spoken and written discourse is entirely based on authentic and attested language drawn from political discussions in the UK and in the USA. It is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 each include ten multiple-choice tests: the 300 sentences of the first chapter are all taken from the spoken political corpus as uttered by British and American politicians, and the 300 sentences of the second chapter come from the written corpus of political discourse. Their purpose is to show that the freedom to combine words in text is much more restricted than is often realized, and that although we are in principle free to say whatever we want, in practice we are constrained and influenced in many ways. Chapter 3 includes ten speeches delivered by British politicians, from Margaret Thatcher’s Europe speech at Bruges in 1988 up to Theresa May’s first speech as Prime Minister. The leitmotif of the ten articles in Chapter 4 is again the relationship between Britain and the European Union, progressing from the roots of Euroscepticism to the birth of a two-speed Europe, from the in/out referendum the British people were offered in 1975 to the 2016 referendum. Chapter 5 contains three Italian articles from Internazionale with their parallel English texts and Chapter 6 lists all the grammar points, as well as the phrases and phrasal verbs covered in the book. Chapter 7 includes the keys to the exercises of the first two chapters.

CONTENTS: Acknowledgements – Preface by Michael Hoey – INTRODUCTION – CHAPTER 1. FILL IN THE GAPS ACTIVITIES – FROM THE SPOKEN CORPUS – CHAPTER 2. FILL IN THE GAPS ACTIVITIES – FROM THE WRITTEN CORPUS – CHAPTER 3. READINGS FROM THE SPOKEN CORPUS: 3.1. Margaret Thatcher, Speech to the College of Europe - 3.2. Tony Blair, The new challenge for Europe - 3.3. Nick Clegg, A vision for the UK in Europe. Speech by the Deputy Prime Minister - 3.4. David Cameron , EU speech at Bloomberg - 3.5. David Cameron, Speech on immigration - 3.6. Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron in Joint Press Conference - 3.7. Nigel Farage, First post-Brexit speech to European Parliament - 3.8. Boris Johnson, MP speaks out after Britain decides to leave EU - 3.9. David Cameron, EU referendum outcome statement - 3.10. Theresa May, Statement from the new Prime Minister – CHAPTER 4. READINGS FROM THE WRITTEN CORPUS: 4.1. Euroscepticism and its roots - 4.2. All aboard for a new two-speed Europe - 4.3. Little England or Great Britain? - 4.4. The UK and Europe - 4.5. Back to the future? Britain’s 1975 referendum on Europe - 4.6. Migration to Europe - 4.7. America and Brexit - 4.8. The Prime Minister resigns - 4.9. Triggering Article 50 could be illegal - 4.10. The origin of a “one-nation” politics – CHAPTER 5. READINGS FROM “INTERNAZIONALE”: 5.1. British politics is broken – Si è rotto il Regno Unito - 5.2. The dark shadow – Il dilemma del Regno Unito - 5.3. A tragic split – Una separazione tragica – CHAPTER 6. APPENDIX: 6.1. List of grammar patterns used in the book - 6.2. List of phrases used in the book - 6.3. List of phrasal verbs used in the book – CHAPTER 7. KEYS TO THE EXERCISES.

Denise Milizia is a Researcher in English Language and Translation at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy. Her research activity and major publications lie in applied linguistics, political phraseology across American, English and Italian cultures, legal phraseology in the documents of the European Union, metaphors in European discourse, and ESP teaching methodology

Dello stesso autore: Phraseology in political discourse. A corpus linguistics approach in the classroom (2012); L'Unione Europea tra pandemia, nuove crisi e prospettive future (2023) e Lingue Culture Mediazioni / Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM Journal) - Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023). The Covid-19 crisis and its challenges on social issues / Covid-19: crisi e sfide nella società (2023).

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