1. For the sake of brevity, from now on, the term speaker will be used throughout to refer to the person producing language, either orally or in writing. In linguistics, text refers to both spoken and written discourse.

  2. Complement is a "false friend"; it does not stand for complemento but for predicativo (del soggetto o dell'oggetto). The nearest English word for complemento is adverbial. See Glossary.

  3. Phrase is another "false friend": it does not mean frase but sintagma. Noun phrase: sintagma nominale. The English term for frase is sentence; clause means proposizione. See Glossary.

  4. Except for extrapositions, that will be discussed below. Notice, as an aid to memory, that M-P-T (manner, place, time) are in alphabetical order.

  5. An adjectival usually consists of one or more adjectives, but the term includes any phrase having a similar function.

  6. An asterisk before a word or a sentence marks a hypothetical or incorrect form.

  7. Context refers to all the (non-verbal) elements of the situation that are relevant in order to interpret the text correctly; co-text refers to the other elements in the text — all the other words and sentences that can be found with the one(s) we are analysing.

  8. Linguistic analyses diverge on how to interpret given/topic/theme on one side and new/comment/rheme on the other; here a hint at the two essential constituents will suffice. See § 2.1 below for further comments.

  9. Another important dummy operator is do as an auxiliary verb (not to be confused with to do used as a main verb).

  10. National Geographic, January 1993, p. 82

  11. O. JESPERSEN, Analytic Syntax, cit. p. 73.

  12. O. JESPERSEN, Analytic Syntax, cit. p. 73.

  13. R. QUIRK, S. GREENBAUM, G.LEECH, J. SVARTVIK, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, London/New York, Longman, 1985, p. 1383.

  14. E.F. PRINCE, "A comparison of WH-clefts and it-clefts in discourse", Language 54, 1978, pp. 883-906, here p. 903.

  15. S.GREENBAUM, R.QUIRK, A Student's Grammar of the English Language, London, Longman, 1990, p. 413.

  16. L.B.JONES - L.K.JONES, "Discourse functions of five English sentence types", WORD 36.1, 1985, pp. 1-21.

  17. M.H.K. HALLIDAY, "Notes on transitivity and theme in English" Part 2, Journal of Linguistics, 3, 1967, pp. 199-244, here p. 211.

  18. M. McCARTHY, Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers, Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p.52.

  19. RICHARDS J., PLATT J., WEBER H., Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, Harlow, Longman, 1985, s.v.

  20. S. GREENBAUM, R. QUIRK, A Student's Grammar of the English language, Harlow, Longman, 1990.

  21. At least, not from the point of view of grammar. Pragmatically, instead, no sequence or sentence can be too long — otherwise it may become too hard to follow and understand.

  22. W.S. FOWLER, N. COE, Practise your English, Walton-on-Thames, Nelson, 1983, p. 93.

  23. At least, if we refer to nationality as such, not to stereotypes. In the latter case, a tall, blond, blue-eyed person is "more Swedish" — that is, more typically Swedish — than a short, dark one.

  24. G. LEECH, J. SVARTVIK, A Communicative Grammar of English.

  25. M. GOTTI, I linguaggi specialistici, Scandicci, La Nuova Italia, 1991.

  26. S. GREENBAUM, R. QUIRK, op. cit., p. 387.

  27. S. GREENBAUM, R. QUIRK, op. cit., p. 387.

  28. M. GOTTI, op. cit., ibidem (see n. 25 above)

  29. A slightly different case is represented by simple denomination: Oxford Street and Oxford Circus are in central London, and reference to location is very weak or non-existent. An analogy in Milan is offered by Via Torino that does not lead in the direction of Turin (unlike Corso Magenta, Corso Vercelli and Via Novara that go from the centre to the west). In any case, Oxford Street and Via Torino are examples of premodification and postmodification respectively.

  30. Car key is an interesting example. A car key is different from most other types of keys in that it does not just lock or unlock doors, but it also starts an engine. It may be difficult to decide, then, whether it is an example of premodification or compounding — or better, this depends on what criteria we adopt. As we noted earlier, the boundary between the two is thin and sometimes uncertain.

  31. Vø stands for the "simple form" of the verb (the "infinitive without to"); V-ing stands for the "-ing form"); to-V stands for the "to infinitive" form; V-en stands for the past participle form.

  32. R. de BEAUGRANDE, W. DRESSLER, Introduction to Text Linguistics, London, Longman, 1981 [1972].

  33. E. RIGOTTI, Principi di teoria linguistica, Brescia, La Scuola, 1979.

  34. The Lord's Prayer also presents a case of subject postponement in both languages, but with a difference in the sequence auxiliary-past participle: hallowed be Thy name Û sia santificato il Tuo nome. A full inversion is found in the Hail Mary: Blessed art Thou Û Tu sei benedetta.

  35. A question mark before a word or sentence means that its acceptability as a correct form is dubious.

  36. This was repeatedly emphasised during the Congress organised by Centro di Linguistica dell'Università Cattolica on La grammatica e il suo insegnamento (March 26-28, 1992); the papers presented during the day devoted to English are collected in G. PORCELLI (ed.), La grammatica inglese e il suo insegnamento, Quaderni del C.L.U.C. 6, Brescia, La Scuola, 1994.