Download Noun Phrase

A Linguistic Toolkit
Grammar
Chapter 10: Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 11: Modality: maybe
Chapter 12: Words and grammar
Chapter 13: Grammar in use
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
Verb phrases: what’s going on
Chapter 10
• Noun phrases can act as the subject , as the
object or the complement of a clause.
• Noun phrases are also seen on their own, for
example in lists, menus and
advertisements.
• Noun phrases name entities. They may be
people, places and objects, but can also be
events (a concert), or qualities (honesty) or
systems (blood circulation) or concepts (free
will) or just about any ‘thing’ that you can think
of.
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
Clause
Subject
Verb
Object
Adverbial
All my
friends
are
watching
the World
Cup Final
tonight.
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
Clause
Subject
Tonight’s
special
Verb
Complement
is
Sichuan-style
sea bass
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
• For her gift, we will buy a 19th century style painting to
go with her Victorian decoration.
The noun phrase in the sentence can be as short as one
word (noun or pronoun - we) or can be longer.
In the example above, the object noun phrase could have
been a painting). “But however long the noun phrase
is, there is normally one key word that identifies what
the basic entity is (painting in this example). This is
called the head of the noun phrase.”
“The head of the noun phrase is usually a noun, but it
can also be a pronoun.”
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
Usually when the noun phrase contains a
pronoun, the pronoun occurs alone. But it
sometimes has ‘quantifiers (all of us, some of
you, many of them). Occasionally a pronoun
may be modified in other ways. (little old me,
same old you, teachers may call on you in the
back, in the blue shirt and singers may sing of
anyone who had a heart)” but the tendency is
for pronouns to occur alone (p.68).
“When the noun phrases have a noun as the
head, other elements can be included. The
first of these elements is a determiner.”
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
Determiners include articles [a, an, the] but can also
include other forms such as [a, the, this, that, every, any,
one, for singular form, [these, those/ many, some,
several, a few, enough, both, two, three…. any, no] for
plural form when the nouns are countable which
means can be either singular or plural.
Uncountable nouns – (words that cannot be counted
such as butter) can be preceded by [the, this, that, all /
much, some, a little, enough, any, no]
Sometimes, too, the possessive form can be used as a
determiner, such as (his book, their problem. Less is a
form that can be used as a determiner, and mostly used
for uncountable nouns, but is more acceptable with
countable nouns too, esp. in informal contexts. (p. 69)
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
• “Not all noun phrases begin with determiners,
although a singular countable nouns always requires
a determiner, plural and uncountable nouns do not.”
• “The only compulsory element in a noun phrase is
the noun (or pronoun) itself.”
• “Apart from determiners, a noun may also be
accompanied by modifiers which give more
information about it. These may appear before the
head (pre-modifiers), or after the head (postmodifiers).” (p.70)
Noun phrases: Pre-modifiers
Chapter 10
• Most common pre-modifiers are adjectives (bright,
clever, old, young…).
• Sometimes the pre-modifiers also have a noun
element (a, clever, middle-class business student )
(luxurious sea-side resort).
The adjective pre-modifier element(s) occurs before
the noun pre-modifier element(s).
Noun pre-modifiers usually classify the head of the
noun phrase and are essential, while the adjective
pre-modifiers give less fundamental information
and therefore can be omitted and occur at the
front of the noun phrase.
See pp.70-1
Noun phrases: Post-modifiers
Chapter 10 Adapted Table 10.2 - p. 72
Common Post-modifiers:
Prepositional Phrases: which begin with a
preposition; e.g. a detached house with three bedrooms
/ the first turn on the left.
Relative Clauses: which begin with words like who,
which, what, where, that reposition; e.g. the only person
who arrived on time/ the only place where they hold the
farmers’ market.
Infinitives (to + verb): e.g. a difficult problem to solve
/ the best way to get to Birmingham.
Present Participles (verb + ing): e.g. bacteria
belonging to the streptococcus family
Past Participles (verb + ed/en): e.g. all the languages
spoken in India/ a city devastated by hurricane Katrina.
Noun phrases: Post-modifiers
Some issues of Complexity, Ambiguity & Agreement
Postmodifiers can create ‘complex’ structures within the noun phrase.
Occasionally the same type of postmodifier, for example, prepositional
phrases, or relative clauses may ‘occur one inside the other…like
Russian dolls’(p.72)
e.g.
--the bench in the park near the bakery, under the dancing
studio, on 12th Street in New York City
-- the student who won the prize which was offered by the
institute that supports graffiti art which is usually not very welcome in
our city
Sometimes these complex structures may be ‘ambiguous’ in their
reference.
e.g.
--the girl with the pink bag at the front of the classroom
These long noun phrases may also have subject-verb concord which
refers to subject verb agreement in singular or plural form.
e.g.
- The players who are responsible for winning the game and
who met with the famous reporter study at our university.
The verb concords (is either in singular or plural form) based on the
head of the noun phrase.
Noun phrases: who or what?
Chapter 10
Clause
Verb
Phrase
Noun phrase
Determiner
Adj (s)
My
stainless
steel
Phrase
Post-modifier
Pre-modifier
N
+
Noun
One example
Head
N
bathroom
Noun or Pronoun
cabinet
infinitive
NP
(Det +N)
to organize
my stuff
Noun phrases: (Noun as Head)
Noun Phrase
Pre-modifiers /One pattern
NP
Adj
stainless
NP
NP
steel
NP
bathroom
NP/ Head
cabinet
Noun phrases: (Noun as Head)
Chapter 10
Premodifiers
Adjective
Noun
Noun
stylish
cotton
uniform
Head
(noun)
trousers
Noun phrases: (Noun as Head)
Chapter 10
Noun Phrase (see slide 10)
Determiner + Premodifier+ Head (N) + Post-modifier
Test yourself by giving examples on all different types of
pre-modifiers + post-modifiers to form coherent &
interesting Noun Phrases. 
Noun phrases: (Pronoun as Head)
Chapter 10
Noun Phrase
Pronoun (Usually Alone)
He
Quantifier + Head (Pronoun)
All of
us
Adjective + Head (Pronoun)
silly
me
Head (Pronoun) + Prepositional Phrase
you
at the back
Noun phrases:
Head (Pronoun)
Informal
( Determiner +Pronoun Head )
(Pronoun Head + Prepositional Phrase)
(Adjective + Pronoun Head)
Noun Phrase
Quantifier
Most of
Head(pronoun)
us
Noun Phrase
Pronoun
(Head)
Prepositional
You
at the back
Adj
Pronoun (Head)
Smart/old
me
Phrase
Modality: maybe
Chapter 11
Modality: maybe
Chapter 11
• Modality refers to language resources that
enable us to represent information that is nonfactual by indicating how far we regard it as likely
or desirable.
• Some sentences in English are bare assertionsthat is ‘stat(ing) that something is the case [factual]
without any suggestion that the information might be
open to question . . . I can assume that my readers
will have no reason to doubt what I say”
e.g. You need yeast and flour to make bread/ We
locked the back door.
(pp.74-5) + (p.79 compare bare assertions w modality)
Modality: maybe
Chapter 11
• In some sentences, the speaker
(a) makes ‘logical deductions’ ‘relating to the speaker’s
assessment of whether something is likely or possible’ –
a conclusion can be reached – Epistemic Modality
Shakespeare’s plays may have been written by Francis Bacon.
There might be life on Mars. / House prices could fall next year
Or(b) ‘suggests that it would be desirable’ or ‘necessary ‘
for a certain action to be taken’ –Denotic Modality
Everyone should save energy.
(a) She must be good at Spanish.
(b) She must come and see us before she goes.
{See examples 74-9 esp. Table 11.1 p. 76}
Words & grammar
Chapter 12
Words & grammar
Chapter 12
• The window is too open. (p. 81)
• She let me to use her stapler.
• They presented the runner up a cash prize.
• I encourage students doing these at home.
The above sentences (and there are many other
very useful examples in your chapter pp. 80 86) are examples of errors in usage.
Words & grammar
Chapter 12
One main reason for the errors in the sentences above is
that the grammatical forms used do not fit the verbs,
nouns or adjectives’ meanings and conventions of
usage. The same form too open can correctly be used
in – too open to fraud, too open about their private
lives, but not with t window is too open. Instead we
say window is open too far.
This has led linguists to recognize ‘the difficulty of
keeping lexis and grammar separate and to look
instead at the way they work together, in what is
know as lexicogrammar.’ (p.84)
Words & grammar
Chapter 12
One way of raising awareness of the role of
lexicogrammar . . . (and to make it) possible to
store and analyze huge amounts of natural
language, … is the development of technology
for language processing.
Electronic Corpus has made it possible to
identify patterns of usage in databases
consisting of millions of naturally occuring text.
The first of these sources of electronic corpus were
The Cobuild Dictionary (1976) and the Cobuild
Grammar (1990) (pp.84 -6) .