Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases Noun Phrases

Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

Noun Phrases NPs usually function as � Subject The students have a presentation. � Object The students chose a group leader. � PC She is the group leader. � Complement We were talking to a student. *preceded by a prep

Properties of Prototypical Nouns A. Inflection: Nouns typically inflect for number (singular/plural) and case (plain/genitive) student >students plain student’s>students’ genitive B. Function: Nouns are typically heads of phrases. C. Dependents: Certain dependents occur in NPs Determiners The students are preparing for their presentation. Pre-head adjectives Careless students are fooling around. (modifier) Relative clauses Students who have presentations are nervous. (modifier) PP complement The loss of blood terrified me.

Nominals:

Subclasses of nouns � Proper nouns � Common nouns he, she, mine, myself Fatima, Riyadh, Olaya table, book, chair

Number and Countability Number is the system contrasting singular and plural. 1. Nouns with fixed number A. Singular only nouns Nouns which have a singular form but no plural Footwear, nonsense, linguistics, italics, phonetics, news The final /s/ is not a plural marker. The news is good. Linguistics is a great class. B. Plural only nouns Nouns which have plural form but no singular Alms, clothes, scissors, cattle, police The police are helpful. The police have arrive.

2. Count and non-count nouns Furniture, chair One chair, two chairs *one furniture? 3. Subject verb agreement Their dog eats a lot. Their dogs eat a lot.

Determiners and Determinatives Det can be part of the NP The determiner position can be filled by: Determinative The city is crowded. Determinative Phrase (DP) Almost all students passed. Genitive NP Her child is sick.

Definiteness marks the NP as definite or indefinite. Which determiners are definite and indefinite? Definite: the, this, these, that, those, all, both, whichever, whatever. N. B. : that is a demonstrative not a relative pronoun Indefinite: a, each, ever, some, any, either, no another, a few, a little

Determinatives as Modifiers N. B. - Determinative = category, Determiner = Function Some determinatives function as modifiers Determiner The younger son had died Modifier I feel all the better for my holiday.

Determinative Phrases (DP) In DPs, the head is a determiner. Dependents: other determiners which serve as modifiers preceding the head. Not many people turned up.

Complements The complement of the noun that corresponds to the object of the verb has the form of PP. Verb + Object Noun + PP I criticized her decision. My criticism of her decision made her upset. Sandy married Pat. Sandy’s marriage to Pat. The properties of the PP complements. a) They correspond to object or subject NPs in clause structure. b) The choice of preposition is specified by the head noun. c) The PP is obligatory because the noun makes little sense without it.

The Fused head construction � The head is fused, or combined, with a dependent, and forms a single word. 1. Simple Kim has lots of friends, but Pat doesn’t seem to have any. 2. Partitive Some of his remarks were quite flattering. (explicit) I have two photos of her, but both are out of focus. (implicit) 3. Special Many would disagree with you on that point.

Simple Kim has lots of friends, but Pat doesn’t seem to have any. 1. The fused head can be expanded and retrieved from the context. For example, any can be expanded by adding any friends.

2. Partitive Some of his remarks were quite flattering. (explicit) I have two photos of her, but both are out of focus. (implicit) � In an explicit partitive, the fused head is followed by a partitive PP complement. It is considered partitive because it means “some remarks from the set of his remarks. ” � In the implicit partitive the of complement is understood rather than being overtly expressed. Both refers to both of them.

3. Special Many would disagree with you on that point Many is understood as “many people” but this represents a special interpretation because people is not retrievable from the context.

Fused determiner-head Simple Partitive Special They sent six copies though I had ordered eight. They sent twenty copies but several were damaged. This is infuriating. Almost all determiners can occur in this construction except the, a, every, and what.

The, a, every 1. The is replaced by appropriate form of that. The impact of war is more serious than the impact of drought. The impact of war is more serious than that of drought. 2. A is replaced by one. I need a pen but I haven’t got a pen. I need a pen but I haven’t got one. 3. Every is replaced by everyone. He inspected a dozen of cars but every dozen of cars was defective. He inspected a dozen of cars but every one (of them) was defective.

Fused Modifier Heads An adjective serves as modifier and as head at the same time. Simple: Should I wear the red shirt or the blue? Partitive: The youngest of their children was still at school. Special: The French don’t take these things too Seriously. Modifiers cannot fuse with the head as readily as determiners can: Kim had hoped for a favorable review, but Pat wrote [a critical]. *

Pronouns Personal herself. Reciprocal I like them. Your sister drives They dislike each other We were helping one another. Interrogative Who saw them leave? What do you want? Relative The guy who helped us The book which you recommended

Personal pronoun 1 st person I we 2 nd person you 3 rd person he, she, it they Gender The masculine: used for males humans or animals (he) The feminine : used for female, political entities, personified inanimate (she) France has recalled her ambassador. The neutral: used for inanimates or for male and female animals (it)

Inflection The personal pronouns have a great a mount of inflectional variation than other nouns. In the first place there is a distinction between reflexive and nonreflexive forms, and secondly they have up to four case -forms.

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Case in coordination Kim and I went over there. They invited Sally and me. Genitive case (dependent and independent) I’ve lost my key This is mine. Reciprocal pronouns Each other and one another. They are similar to the reflexives in their complement use: Lee and Pat cursed themselves

Genitive Case Genitive NPs as subject-determiner [The teacher’s car] was stolen. They phoned [my mother]. Genitive vs possessive The term ‘possessive’ is often used instead of ‘genitive’ especially for pronouns, but it is important to see that the semantic relation between the genitive NP and the following head is not limited to that of possession. Consider these cases: Her father, her infancy, her anger vs. her car.

Other uses of the genitive Subject She didn’t approve of [his being given a second chance]. Fused Head They accepted Kim’s proposal but not Pat’s. Oblique The argument was sparked by a casual remark of Kim’s. Predicative Everything in this room is Mary’s. Attributive They have just moved to an old people’s home.