Major components of the noun-head phrase 2 page

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 427.

In the following example, subjects are given in bold, direct objects are marked by [], and indirect objects are marked by {}: Louisiana officials argue that the U.S. Supreme Court decision last spring, upholding Missouri's abortion restrictions,gave {the states} [enough flexibility] to make [abortion] illegal, except when necessary to save [the mother's life]. (news) Prepositional object:I don't know whether my brain can cope with all this.(conv) Both methods rely on the accurate determination of the temperature and pressure of the gas. (acad) Complement of preposition:He worked in a shop- probably at that time.(conv) The economic growth figures have already been marginally trimmed in the last monthand may be revised further in a review that will he carried out just before [the publication of [the World Economic Outlook]].(news) Subject predicative:Well, his son Charlie was a great mate of our Rob's.(conv) He retired after three minor heart attacks at the age of 36, giving up his number seven world ranking, and became captain of the US Davis Cup team.(news) Object predicative:No, I know but they'll probably christen her Victoria.(conv) The world championship is the ultimate; any top player to lose at the Crucible can consider it a failure.(news) Adverbial:Kate walked all dayand slept the nightin a eucalyptus grove with the wind roaring in the branches high overhead. (fict) Mr Thesiger, who will be eighty next summer,arrived in London last week. (news) Premodifier of noun:He was also chairman of Labour's home policycommittee. (news) The economic growthfigures have already been marginally trimmed in the last month. (news) Apposition:He and the dub's solicitor and director, Maurice Watkins,sat either side of Edwards while on the flanks were placed two more lawyers, one representing Knighton's take-over firm, MK Trafford Holdings,and the other, United's merchant bank, Ansbacher.(news) Premodifier in adjective or adverb phrase:He spent the next few days among the sequoias on Mount Tamalpais, running a dozen miles every morning among trees two hundred and fifty feettall and twenty-two centuriesold. (fict) The story broke all right, but two weeksearlier than planned. (news) In addition, noun phrases can be used as peripheral elements in the clause: detached predicative, parenthetical, preface, tag, and vocative. Finally, they may occur independently of any clause structure.

Discontinuous noun phrases. Complex noun phrases may be split up under certain circumstances, as in the following examples: A rumour spread through the camp that a relieving force from Dinapur had been cut to pieces on the way to Krishnapur. (fict) The time was coming for me to leave Frisco or I would go crazy. (fict) In this chapter a description will be given of the food assistance programs that address the needs of the family. (acad)This arrangement is in agreement with general principles for the ordering of elements within the clause.

2.2. Verb phrases.Verb phrases contain a lexical verb or primary verb as head or mainverb, either alone or accompanied by one or more auxiliaries. The auxiliaries specify the way in which the action, state, or process denoted by the main verb is to be interpreted. In addition, the first auxiliary has the special role of operator. The main verb is in bold in the following examples: was walking, had been making,can see,should have said. These verb phrases are all finite (literally 'limited'), i.e. specified for tense or modality. In addition, finite verb phrases may be marked for aspect and voice. Note that the term 'verb phrase' or 'VP' is sometimes used in other grammars to refer to the main verb plus accompanying elements, including objects and predicatives. This use corresponds to predicate in our treatment. Non-finite verb phrases do not contain any specification of tense and modality, and therefore have fewer possibilities of variation: having gone, to be caught, to have gone, being caught. Compare the following non-finite verb phrase with the fuller expression that would be required by a finite verb phrase: In view of your comments, I think we can safely tell the hotel what [to do] with their bed. (news) cf. ... tell the hotel what they [should do] with their bed.

Both finite and non-finite verb phrases may be marked for the perfective aspect (has gone, to have gone, etc.). Both also have passive forms (was being thanked, to be killed, etc.). The passive auxiliary does not specify the verb in the same sense as markers of tense, aspect, and modality. The passive is rather connected with the way the participants in a situation are presented .

The syntactic role of verb phrases. The only syntactic role of finite verb phrases is to serve as a central clause element. Non-finite verb phrases have the same role in non-finite clauses (marked by brackets in the following examples): I hate [travelling by myself]. (fict) Already they have stopped [voting on racial lines]. (news)

With non-finite verb forms, it is important to distinguish between their role as verb phrase in the non-finite clause and the role which the non-finite clause as a whole has in the larger structure. It may be difficult to uphold a clear distinction where the non-finite clause consists only of the non-finite form: Stop talking. (fict) Here, strictly, talking may be analysed as the central element in a minimal clause that is the object of stop. Many verb forms may have roles characteristic of nouns and adjectives. Such uses are limited to participle forms (ending in -ed or -ing), originally so called because they participate in more than one word class. In these cases, verb forms tend to acquire the characteristics of nouns and adjectives. Compare: building and house (nouns), exciting and dramatic (adjectives), tired and weary (adjectives).

Discontinuous verb phrases. Unlike the other phrase types, verb phrases are often discontinuous. This frequently occurs in clauses with subject-operator inversion and not-negation. In addition, adverbials are frequently placed between the elements of the verb phrase: You know the English will always have gardens wherever they find themselves. (fict) The current year has definitely started well. (news) As regards the placement of adverbials with complex verb phrases. Quite a different type of split-verb phrase is found where verbs are fronted for the purposes of contrast or cohesion.

Auxiliary-only verb phrases. Under certain circumstances, the verb phrase consists only of an auxiliary: She realized that she would never leave. She couldn't. (fict) Oh they're going round the bay are they? (conv) It looks terrible it does,I would have it one way or the other. (conv) See the sections on ellipsis, question tags, imperative tags, and declarative tags.

2.3. Adjective phrases. Adjective phrases contain an adjective as head,optionally accompanied by modifiersin the form of single words, phrases, and clauses. The adjective head is in bold in the following examples: so lucky, goodenough, desperately poor, guiltyof a serious crime, slow to respond, subjectto approval by, so obnoxiousthat she had to be more blatantthan anything they had done in the past.

The accompanying elements in an adjective phrase characteristically indicate the degree of the quality denoted by the adjective (e.g. 'How lucky/poor?') or describe the respect in which the quality is to be interpreted (e.g. 'Guilty/slow in what respect?'). In the latter case, the accompanying elements serve to complete the meaning of the adjective and are generally called complements.Complements generally take the form of prepositional phrases or clauses.

The syntactic roles of adjective phrases. Adjective phrases may have the following syntactic roles. The most typical roles are: Premodifier of noun: That tough brave little oldfellow Wells had had prophetic visions after all. (fict) He writes catchytunes with lavishpop hooks and hugeslices of melody. (news) Subject predicative: He's totally crazy.(conv) Everything became bitingly clearto me. (fict) Postmodifier of noun: Diana was ready to tell the other three people present.(news) Object predicative: He considered it more dangerous than any horse he had ever ridden. (news ) The individual can then select the most suitable for any task, which we hope will make her more adaptable and able to deal with unfamiliar situations.(ACAD) Adjective phrases can also be used as detached predicatives, as clause links, and independently of any clause structure. Adjectives may further take on nominal roles.

Discontinuous adjective phrases. Adjective phrases modifying nouns can be split into a combined pre- and postmodifier:You couldn't have a better name than that. (fict)When he plays his best, he's a really tough player to heat. (news)This arrangement is in agreement with general principles for the ordering of elements within the clause.

2.4. Adverb phrases. Adverb phrases contain an adverb as head, optionally accompanied by modifiers in the form of single words, phrases, and clauses. The head is in bold in the following examples:hardly ever,quite melodiously,so quickly you don't even enjoy it.Adverb phrases are similar in structure to adjective phrases. Modifiers of adverbs are chiefly expressions of degree. Adverb phrases should be distinguished from adverbials, which are clause elements that can be realized in a variety of ways (e.g. by adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, clauses).

The syntactic roles of adverb phrases. Adverb phrases may have the following syntactic roles: Modifier in adjective or adverb phrase (one of the most typical): I thought it was utterly disgraceful. (conv) For all that he was an attractive little creature with a sweetly expressive face. (fict) Whoever took it acted totally inhumanely. (news)Adverbials on the clause level:She smiled sweetly. (fict) They sang hoomingly well. (fict) The borderline between modifiers and adverbials is not always clear: 1a This is a really surprising development. 1b Really this is a surprising development. 1c This development is really surprising. While really in la is unambiguously a modifier of the following adjective and in 1b an adverbial, 1c is structurally ambiguous. However, the ambiguity is more structural than semantic, because the overriding meaning in all the examples is an expression of the speaker's attitude to the message. Pre- and postmodifier in noun phrase:The investigation found no evidence that the then Democratic candidate had been involved in illegal activities. (news) The long journey home was a nightmare. (fict) Complement of preposition:She had only just got back fro abroad, (fict) There had been no complaints until recently. (news) Premodifier in prepositional phrase:I stopped just outside the circle of light. (fict) Every night he drove to work in his '35 Ford, punched the clock exactly on time, and sat down at the rolltop desk. (fict)

2.5. Prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and a complement, most typically in the form of a noun phrase. The typical prepositional phrase may indeed be viewed as a noun phrase extended by a link showing its relationship to surrounding structures. The complement is in bold in the following examples: to town in the morning

to him on the night [of the first day]

to Sue in a street [with no name]

It should be noted that prepositional phrases are often embedded within larger phrases, as in the last two examples. Prepositions also take nominal clauses as complements, but normally only wh-clauses 1 and ing-clauses 2: 1. Component drawings carry instructions [on where they are used and from what they are made]. (acad) 2. By that time the strain of the cruise was telling on them; they talked little among themselves till they surfaced three days [after leaving Darwin]. (fict) The prepositions but 3, except 4, and save 5 may, however, be followed by infinitive clauses: 3. Governments, whatever their own inclinations, will have no choice [but to fashion childcare policies]. (news) 4. I have nothing new to say, [except to say that when I do have something to say I will say it]. (news) 5. What was there to say? What I did say served no purpose [save to spoil histemper]. (fict) Additionally, the complement may be an adverb 6, 7, or another prepositional phrase 8: 6. So you're sitting [in here] at the moment are you Stanley? (conv) 7. Allow yourself time for home thoughts [from abroad]. (news) 8. [From behind the wire fencing], a uniformed guard eyes us with binoculars. (news) Prepositional phrases as complements of prepositions are chiefly found in expressions of direction.

Extended prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases can be preceded by adverbial particles and other modifying elements. The modifier may be a specification of the relationship expressed by the preposition or an expression of degree: back to the fifties, exactly at noon, downin the south, considerably to the right nearly till eleven. It should be noted that modification of this type may lead to the development of complex prepositions.

The syntactic roles of prepositional phrases.Prepositional phrases vary with respect to how closely they are connected with surrounding structures. Adverbial:

Adjunct:The people were singing on the bus. In the afternoon, we went to Boston.

Subjunct: From a personal point of view, I find this a good solution to the problem.Disjunct: In all fairness, she did try to phone the police.Conjunct: On the other hand, he made no attempt to help her. Adverbial on the clause level:He worked in a shop - probably at that time. (conv) He retired [after three minor heart attacks] [at the age of 36]. (news)Postmodifier and complement of noun:The people on the bus were singing. What about that erm, what about that other place that er timber place [on the way [to Kilkern]]? (conv) He was a poet, a teacher of philosophy, and a man with a terrible recent history. (news) Or at least that is the ambition [of the industrial development commission [of a small Pennsylvania steel town]]. (news)Complementation of a verb:We were looking at his awful paintings.Complementation of an adjective:I am sorry for his parents.

It may be difficult to decide whether a prepositional phrase following a noun is a postmodifier of the noun or an adverbial in the clause: Ten tourists were injured yesterday when they jumped off a chair lift to escape a brush fire on Mount Solaro in the Mediterranean island of Capri. (news) In this case, the prepositional phrase on Mount Solaro ... could be analysed as either an adverbial (specifying the location of the accident) or a postmodifier of the head fire. The following two examples illustrate how the same prepositional phrase can have different roles: the with-phrase in the first example is a postmodifier of a noun, in the second an adverbial: The seal had been fired at by a man with a rifle. (fict) AM, 37, is alleged to have shot Robert with a rifle. (news) Complement of adjectives:I am not afraid of anything. (conv) The plant is equally susceptible to drought during this period. (acad) Premodifier of nouns: He was nabbed by a new British Rail patrol waging war on fare-dodgers and ha had to fork out an on-the-spot $10 fine. (news) It probably felt out of the sky after an in-flight explosion. (acad)

2.6. Genitive phrases. Genitive phrases are structured like noun phrases, except for the addition of a genitive suffix: The Queen'spress secretary.The President's dramatic decision. In a month or two's time. The suffix marks a relation between two noun phrases in much the same way as a preposition. Compare, for instance: the car's performance - the performance of the car. Genitive phrases are regularly used in pre-nominal position (as in the examples above), but they can also be found in nominal positions.

2.7. Numeral phrases. Combinations of numerals generally conform to the structure of noun phrases, but they also have special characteristics which make it natural to treat them separately. For example, they may be spoken and written in quite different ways: 2 + 2 - two plus two; $25 - twenty-five dollar;s 22.08 - twenty-two point zero eight; 1966 - nineteen sixty-six (the year); 10 a.m. - ten o'clock (in the morning)

The conventions vary with the type of numerical expression. Numeral phrases have similar syntactic roles to those of noun phrases and determiners. Complex numbers. Complex cardinal numbers are built up by juxtaposition of simple numerals, except that and is regularly inserted between hundred/thousand/million and numbers below 100. The following are examples of complex numbers from conversation (digit forms are given within < >): 1. A hundred and seventy-two <172> that's quite high isn't it? (conv ) 2. That would be three thousand six hundred <3600>. (conv) 3. Cost two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-five <2975> pounds. Before hundred, thousand, and million, the determiner a is usually used instead of one. There are several special types of numerical expression. The following examples are all taken from conversation (with a numerical translation given in brackets).

Clock time. Hours are often specified, as in all the examples below, without using the 24-hour clock or indicating overtly a.m. or p.m. The context and shared knowledge of the speaker and hearer normally make it obvious what is meant. For parts of whole hours the number of minutes is specified, using past, to, or neither of these. However, the word minutes is often omitted. There are alternative expressions also used for the 15, 30, and 45 minute points (examples 1, 2, 3, 5). 1. It's a quarter past –fifteen minutes past six <6.15>. (conv) 2. So you put it in at what? Quarter to one <12.45>? Ten to one <12.50>? (conv) 3. A: What time are we leaving, Brenda? B: Half past nine <9.30> (conv) 4. Then I pick him up at three thirty. <3.30> (conv) 5. My boys were in bed at half nine <9.30> at fourteen. (BrE conv) 6. This finishes at six fifty <6.50>. So you're gonna have to remember the oven goes out at six fifteen <6.15>. (conv)

Dates. The word day is not normally included with the ordinal number identifying it, and the specification of the date is generally as exact as is required in the context. Hence, no year is mentioned in 1. 1. Any time between June and July the ninth <9 July> then. (conv) 2. On the fourth of July two thousand and nineteen <4 July, 2019> (conv) 3. In nineteen seventy-nine <1979> an unusual -phenomenon happened.(conv)

Currency. Often the words for the currency units (pounds, pence/p; dollars, cents) are omitted as predictable. This is especially so when sums of money involving two sizes of unit are being specified: both are absent in 2, 4, and one in 1. Contrast example 3. 1. You can have one player and it costs forty-four pound ninety-nine. (BrE conv) 2. A: It's three ten isn't it, didn't you say? B: Three fifty . (BrE conv) 3. And they can be yours for just one hundred and forty nine dollars. (AmE conv) 4. I told him I wanted five fifty an hour. (AmE conv) The singular form pound in 1 is colloquial; pounds would normally be considered standard. Compare also the expression in example 3 in E below.

Temperature. Again the words for units and scales of temperature may be absent, when the speaker feels this information is shared already with the hearer – wholly in example 1, partly in 2.1. The wind chill factor is twenty-two <22°> below. (conv) 2. It's ten degrees - ten above zero <10°>. (conv)

Decimals, percentages, fractions. Decimals after the point are spoken as a sequence of digits, not a whole number. 1.Point five <.5> of a quart is a pint. (conv) 2.It's nought point five <0.5>. 3. He's got this other stuff in there, some promotional special offer one point seventy-nine<1.79> for a litre. 4.Four point three O<4.30>, okay. (conv) Mathematical expressions. These may include words for arithmetic operations such as and/plus/add for addition, minus/take away/subtract for subtraction, times/multiplied by for multiplication, over/divided by for division and is/makes/equals for equation: Twenty-two point two eight plus twenty point four eight minus forty-seven point six eight <22.28 + 20.48 - 47.68X (conv) Mine's twelve plus tip, so I'm going to put in fourteen. <$12 + $2 tip = $14> (AmE conv). Where it is not possible to specify an exact number, an alternative is to use a round number, such as 10, 30, 500. Other options are provided by quantifying nouns and determiners. In addition, there are various ways of qualifying exact numbers. The derivational suffix -ish in the following examples means 'approximately': 1. A: Phone later on ah, Ron, later, later on. B: About elevenish.(conv) 2. And say he's round about the fortyish – age. (conv) 3. A plump, fiftyishwoman, she was already efficiently turned out in her white uniform. (fict) 4. I suppose they'll come about three and we must send for them sixishas usual? (fict) Combinations with odd. The expression number + odd refers to a relatively small amount over that specified; e.g. 300 odd means 'slightly over 300': A hundred and fifty odd meals a day. (conv) Is it only a thirty oddhour week? (conv) You could have gotten a hundred and some odddollars for it. (conv) I drove the twenty-oddmiles back to town and ate lunch. (fict) We've got 60-oddofficers going out tonight. (news)

Approximating adverbs.Approximating adverbs include about, around, some, and approximately, roughly, and circa: Every time I got to them they had about twenty odd teachers there. (conv) I spent about two hours in the bar. (fict) The radial shields are about 1.5-2 times as long as broad. (acad) Approximately 60% of the community are of Polish and Russian ancestry, and approximately 40% are blacks who were born and raised in this mid-western community. (acad) Coordination tags. The tag (and) something means 'a little more than the number stated', while or something/or so mean 'a little more or a little less'. We've paid four thousand seven hundred and something.(conv) In his opinion, only 2,000 or so,or about 30 percent, of the 6,800 "modern standard characters" needed to write contemporary Chinese are free words. (acad) That must have been in 1964 or sowhatever the last year was for the New York World's Fair. (fict) Some, including Portland, Oregon, charge $1 or soto recycle a tree. (news)

3. Phrases across registers.Prepositional phrases are by far the most common type of postmodification in all registers. The frequency of prepositional phrases as postmodifiers forms a scale: relatively rare in conversation to extremely common in academic prose. Most postmodifiers are generally rare in conversation. At the opposite extreme from conversation, postmodifiers are extremely common in academic prose. Prepositional phrases are the most common of these, often occurring in extremely dense, embedded sequences. In academic prose, prepositional phrase as postmodifiers allow a very dense packaging of referential information in a text, typically characterizing non-human entities in relation to other non-human entities. They are more compact than clausal postmodifiers and commonly occur in sequences. The hierarchical embedding relations found with such sequences are often complex. However, they are less compact, and more explicit about the relationships involved, than equivalent sequences of noun premodifiers. Premodifiers generally are most common in written expository registers; they are relatively rare in conversation. However, all four registers are very similar in their proportional use of premodification by length: 70-80% of premodified noun phrases have only a single premodifier. About 20% of premodified noun phrases have two-word premodification. Only about 2% of premodified noun phrases have three- or four-word premodification. In news, longer premodifier sequences are slightly more common. Overall, noun phrases with premodifiers are three to four times more common in expository written registers than in conversation. Premodifiers are most common in news and academic prose. Common adjectives (i.e. non-participial adjectives) are the most common category of premodifier in all registers. Premodifying adjectives are extremely common in academic prose. Nouns are also very common as premodifiers, especially in news and academic prose. The use of multiple premodifiers is certainly very efficient, packing dense informational content into as few words a possible (when compared with the use of postmodifiers or separate clauses). However, the use of multiple premodifiers places a heavy burden on readers and listeners, since the logical relations among constituents must be inferred. In news reportage, nouns abound and there is often complex premodification. Noun phrases are suited to the main purpose of news reportage: to convey a maximum of information as concisely as possible. The high frequency of plural first-elements in noun+noun constructions fits into this general pattern.

Revision

1. Define phrase as a syntactic unit.

2. What are the criteria for classification of phrases?

3. Explain the difference between endocentric and exocentric phrases.

4. What types of phrases do you know?

5. Give examples of syntactic roles of noun and verb phrases.

6. Explain the difference between premodification and postmodification.

7. Give examples of discontinuous noun and verb phrases.

8. Give examples of adjective, adverb and numeral phrases.