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Structures of Modication
In English, words are combined into larger structures to convey more various meaning. Words can be lexical and functional. The combination of (no) more than two words will produce various structural meaning. The structures can be divided into four principal groups.
Structure of Predication
Money talks Soldiers have been killed Snow kept falling It is formed by the combination of: A subject + a predicate
Structure of complementation
Speak truth Be careful Love your neighbour It is formed by the combination of: A verbal element + a complement
Structure of coordination
Pins and needles Hope and pray Neither war nor peace It is formed by the combination of: Equivalent grammatical units + function word
These are the basic structures as the bases for more complex structures. They can be used as the main outlines and provide a framework of ideas and a basic terminology
Structure of Modification
It consists of two components: Head + Modifier Possible meanings of modifier: - to broaden - to qualify - to select - to change - to describe - to affect the meaning of the head.
The head can be: - noun - verb - adjective - adverb Unlike the head, the modifiers are limited
Noun as Head
The modifiers can be: 1. ADJECTIVE: good book great work remarkable tales The rule is: Adj + Noun Rarely Adjective follows the Noun (Noun + Adjective) in: - technical terms or quotations: court-martial, darkness visible - when adjectives is a part of a larger structure: a figure vague and shadowy, a man taller than I thought
2. Nouns: - in possessive: my fathers house meaning house of my father that womans doctor meaning doctor of that woman - in noun-adjuct: a father image meaning an image like father that woman doctor meaning that doctor who is a woman
Adjuncts
Post-head dependents which are not complements in a VP are adjuncts
Some characteristics of noun modifiers: 1. noun adjunct is almost always singular Ex.: dog days vs dogs life 2. Certain noun-determiners (this/these and that/those) exhibit the phenomenon of concord Ex.: that boys book = book of that boy that boys book = that book for boys those boys book = book of those boys those boys books = books of those boys those boys books= those books for boys 3. Most nonpersonal nouns do not have the (-s) inflection Ex.: communications officer, reparations agreement, 4. A few nouns have certain irregular forms which can help identify the possessive and plurality of the noun Ex.: woman doctor (noun adjunct) vs womans doctor (possessive) women doctors (noun adjunct) vs womens doctors (possessive)
Appositive
Appositive is a noun, noun-headed structure of modification, or a structure of coordination made up of nouns or noun-headed structures modifying a noun head which it follows. ex.: - His brother, a doctor, was there also - Mr. Jones, the art critic, praised the painting - The children, both boys and girls, received presents - the poet, Chaucer, - the product, cellophane, - Professor Jones - Vice-President Smith - The River Duddon
3. Verbs as modifiers verbs can function as modifiers in the following forms: - present participle (pre or post head) - past participle (pre or post head) - to infinitive (always post head)
To infinitives
Examples: - Money to burn - The man to see
What about the following: a. A pleasing table b. A rotting table c. A dining table Can you discriminate each of those?
4. Adverbs as Noun modifiers In English it seldom occurs as noun modifiers. If so, it occurs immediately after the noun modified. They are adverbs of then (today, daily, seldom, etc.) and there (outside, ahead, backward, etc.) groups. Example: - the people here - The temperature outside - Heavens above And the thus/so-class (easily, slowly, aloud, etc) groups only modify present participle verbs, such as his speaking rapidly, our acting together.
5. Prepositional Phrases as Noun modifiers This phrase consists of prepositions and lexical words. Preposition can be simple prepositions: one-morpheme preposition (after, as, at, etc), two-morpheme prepositions (about, above, across), and three-morpheme prepositions ( against, concerning, considering), compound prepositions (adverb+preposition) such as across from, along with, apart from, and phrasal prepositions (simple preposition, a noun, and another simple preposition) such as in regard to, in spite of, by means of, etc.
Example of Prepositional phrase as modifiers: - a way of doing - a mile from here - a book from under the table
S
Subject:NP Tense:AUX Predicate:VP head:V PtHdMod:AdvP The boy has S Subject:NP Tense:AUX Predicate:VP PrHdMod:AdvP The boy has very quickly V run run very quickly
AdjP
PrHdMod:AdvP Head:Adj Comp:PP
so very improbably
keen crazy
quickly
PrHdMod: AdvP Head: Adv
straight
almost right barely
though
into in
the intersection
the crowd the water
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