10/21/2009
Lengua Inglesa II
2009-2010
Topic 3: Grammatical Units
Subtopic 1: Units and Boundaries
Subtopic 2: The Noun Phrase
Mick O’Donnell
VI-bis 302
[email protected]
3.1 Grammatical Units
1. Units and rank scale
• Unit:
“any stretch of language which constitutes a
semantic whole and which has a recognised
pattern that is repeated regularly in speech
and writing” (Downing & Locke, 1992:9)
• Rank-scale:
• units arranged from biggest to smallest
• a clause is made up of phrases
• a phrase is made up of words
• a word is made up of morphemes
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3.1 Grammatical Units
3. Boundaries between units
UNIT
BOUNDARY
MARKER
EXAMPLES
Clause
//
// the effects of the
accident are very
serious //
Phrase
/
/ the effects of the
accident / are / very
serious/
Word
a space
the effects of the
accident are very
serious
3.1 Grammatical Units
3. Boundaries between units
• Boundaries between units are not always easy
to identify:
Mary saw the man with a pair of binoculars
a) Mary / saw / the man with a pair of binoculars.
b) Mary / saw / the man / with a pair of binoculars.
• Tests to identify boundaries:
• Fronting: Can you say “with a pair of binoculars, Mary
saw the man”? Does it have the same meaning?
• Wh-questions: Who did Mary see?
• Clefting: it was X that Mary saw.
• Passivisation:
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3.1 Grammatical Units
3. Boundaries between units
• Identify the boundaries in the following units
(a) Wait!
(b) People who live in the North tend to be taller.
3.1 Grammatical Units
4. Types of Words
Types of words
• Closed class words: a limited number of words in
the class (pronouns, articles, conjunctions,
intensifiers, etc.)
• Sometimes called: grammatical words, function words
• Open Class words: an unlimited number of words in
the class, and new ones can be created: nouns, verbs,
adjectives, descriptive adverbs.
• Sometimes called: lexical words, content words
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3.1 Grammatical Units
5. Types of Phrases
Types of Phrases
• Phrases are classified, depending on the head, into:
NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP.
• Phrases perform various syntactic functions: Subject
(S), Predicator, Direct Object (Od), Indirect Object
(Oi), Prepositional Object (Oprep), Complement of the
Subject (Cs), Complement of the Object (Co), Adjunct
(A), Disjunct (D), Conjunct (Conj).
By chance a policeman
witnessed
the accident
Form
Function
(syntactic)
3.2 The Noun Phrase
1. What is a Noun Phrase?
• A noun phrase (or NP) is a grammatical unit
which has a noun or pronoun as its head.
• NPs usually refer to a person, thing, place or
time.
• Can refer to an event (the bombing of Bagdad)
• Can include:
• Proper nouns: Sir John Oswald, M.D.
• Common nouns: my doctor
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3.2 The Noun Phrase
1. The Structure of the Noun Phrase
Structure of the Common Noun Phrase:
Determiner^Quantifier^Epithet^Classifier^Thing^Qualifier
the
seven
large
electric
car
from China
Det
Quantif
Epith
Classif
Thing
Qualif
men
John’s
car
Thing
Deictic
Thing
3.2 The Noun Phrase
2. The Head of the Noun Phrase (Thing)
The head of an NP:
• Almost always a noun (book, tree, etc.)
• May be an abstract noun (my love, true colours)
• May be a process, sometimes realised by a gerund noun
(the running of the bulls)
• Sometimes an adjective can act as the head:
“the quick survive” “he sunk a red”
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3.2 The Noun Phrase
2. The Head of the Noun Phrase (Thing)
Nouns and Agreement:
• NUMBER AGREEMENT:
• The Head has to agree in number with determiner
(a cat, some cats).
• But note: ‘the’ is neutral: the cat / the cats
• The head of an NP acting as Subject has to agree in
number with the Finite verb:
The boy swims/The boys swim
• No agreement with the adjective premodifiers:
A beautiful girl / two beautiful girls
• NO GENDER AGREEMENT: unlike Spanish, English does
not inflect for gender.
• INFLECTION FOR CASE: only with pronouns (he/him/his)
3.2 The Noun Phrase
3. The Determiner slot
• The Determiner specifies WHICH ONE?
• ‘the’:
•
•
•
•
one which you can identify from
context (the heading)
‘this’: one which you can identify from
context, close by (e.g., this slide)
‘that’: one which you can identify from
context , not so close (e.g., that desk)
‘my’: the one that belongs to me.
‘a’: one that has not yet been introduced
(‘along came a dog’)
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3.2 The Noun Phrase
3. The Determiner slot
•
•
Specific:
•
•
Definite article: the
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
•
Possessive: my, your, his....
•
Wh-determiners: which, what, whose...
General:
•
Indefinite article: a, zero article
•
•
Negative: no
Universal: every, each
•
Existential: some, any
•
•
Dual: neither, either
Quantitative: enough
3.2 The Noun Phrase
3. The Determiner slot
The English Genitive
• Possessive genitive:
John’s car (→John has a car)
• Subjective genitive:
The boy’s application
(→ The boy applied)
• Objective genitive:
The family’s support
(→ X supports the family)
• Genitive of origin:
The girl’s story
(→ The story the girl told)
• Descriptive genitive: Women’s college
(→ A college for women)
• Genitive of measure/partitive genitive:
10 days’ absence (→ The absence lasted 10 days)
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3.2 The Noun Phrase
4. The Quantifier slot
•
Cardinal:
•
Specific:
•
Nonspecific: many boats
•
seven boats
Ordinal: I liked the first one
3.2 The Noun Phrase
5. Epithets and Classifiers
•
Epithets provide qualities of the Head:
•
•
•
Classifiers provide the class of thing.
•
•
•
•
•
Colour (red), Size (big), Texture (smooth), Quality (good),
material (steel) etc.
Answer the question: what is it like?
An electric car, a used car salesman, legal consul
Answer the question: what kind of thing is it?
Epithets are generally realised by adjectival
phrases
Classifiers often realised by NPs (car salesman)
Same words can serve both functions:
A sick person vs. Sick leave
•
Epithets nearly always come before Classifiers:
a large car seller NOT a car large seller
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3.2 The Noun Phrase
5. Epithets and Classifiers
• Epithets can be objective or subjective:
Objective
a medieval castle
a sheer cliff
a provincial city
pure wool
Subjective
a medieval state of sanitation
sheer nonsense
a provincial attitude
pure chance
• If the Classifier is an NP, generally is singular
and has no determiner of its own:
the (used car) seller
the (cat) burglar
the (used cars) seller
the (the cat) burglar
3.2 The Noun Phrase
6. Qualifiers
Qualifiers are post-modifiers:
Prepositional Phrase:
the man from Australia
Finite clauses:
• Clauses introduced by temporal conjunctions:
The days before he died
• Relative clause:
the man who I saw
• wh clause: the question whether there is life on Mars
• that-clause:
the claim that there is life on Mars
Non-finite clauses:
• Infinitive clause:
• Pres. participle clause
• Past participle clause
• Temporal NP
the desire to be free
the man driving the car
the man driven by hunger
the show this morning
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