Lecture 2.1 - Nouns and Noun Phrases

7/30/2019 Lecture 2.1 - Nouns and Noun Phrases

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Nouns and Noun Phrases

Lecture 2.1


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What are nouns?A noun is a lexical category (pos) whose

members:

Have two inflecEonal markings: one for numberand one forpossession

UElize certain characterisEc deriva'onalaffixes (er, ment, ion)

Name a person, place, thing or idea


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What is numberand how is it

indicated?Singular Plural Illustra.on

No special marking (1) Suffix s or es CatCats BoxBoxes

(2) Change vowel sound of

root

FootFeet ManMen

(3) No change [zeroing] DeerDeer FishFish

(4) Affixing with n ChildChildren OxOxen

(5) Foreign [LaEn, Greek] AlumnusAlumni

FormulaFormulae


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Discussion

The plural offish is historicallyfish, yet theregularized pluralfishes has come into usage

in recent Emes. Some people assign differentmeanings to the two plural forms. What might

be the two meanings?


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What indicates possession?

Irregular Nouns

Mens Mans Childs Childrens Charless

Regular Nouns

boys cats judges Smiths boys

The addiEon of the suffix S, separated from the noun root in wriEng with an apostrophe.

Unlike the plural, the possessive form of nouns is completely regular.


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Common Subcategories of Nouns


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Common Subclasses of Nouns


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Count nouns Sample Mass/Noncount

nouns

Sample

Have plural beans Have no plural rices

May not stand alone

in singular

Bean is good for you May stand alone in

singular

Rice is good for you

Can occur with a/an A bean Cannot occur with a/

an

A rice

QuanEEes: more

fewer

(too) many beans

(too) few beans

More beans

Fewer beans

QuanEEes: moreless (too) much rice

(too) lile rice

More rice

Less rice



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Noun Phrases


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What makes up a noun phrase?


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Noun Phrase Formula

Predeterminer Determiner

Post

determiner NounNoun

Phrase


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DeterminersAr.cles Definite: The

Indefinite: a, an

Plural: some

Demonstra.ves [cross

referencing rule: number in

pronoun must agree with

that of the noun

Close to the speaker: this,

these

At some distance from the

speaker: that, those

Possessive pronouns Singular: my, your, his, her, its Plural: our, your, their

Possessive noun phrase [any noun singular or pluralinflected for possession]

Quan..es Many, several, few, any, some,

no, two [with count nouns]

Enough, li@le, much, any,

some, no [with mass count

nouns]


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Predeterminers

Words:

all, half, both

These may be followed by the preposi'on of

Whatandsuch are also considered

predeterminers, but their use is restricted tothe indefinite ar'cle determiner.


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Postdeterminer

Cardinal numbers (one, two, three)

Ordinal numbers (first, second, third)

Indefinite quanEEes (several, many, few).


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Noun Phrase Formula

Predeterminer Determiner

Post

determiner NounNoun

Phrase


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Review

Noun Phrases Example

Determiner + Noun The ground is wet.

Determiner + Predeterminer + Noun She is such a liar.

Determiner + Postdeterminer + Noun Her many friends came to the party.

Predeterminer + Determiner +

Postdeterminer+ Noun

All Johns many relaEves live in that house.


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Roles of Noun Phrases

Nouns


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Most Common Roles

Subject

Direct

Object

IndirectObject

Object of thePreposiEon

Complement

Our goal for this secEon isto learn to idenEfy.


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Oen, when we refer to the subject noun phrase of a

sentence, we oen mean the doer of the acEon.(1) Mary le early.

The dog jumped over the fence.

My children caught the balloons.

SomeEmes the doer of the acEon might not be the subject:

(2) The house was built by the contractor.

The exam was graded by the professor.

SomeEmes there is no doer expressed at all:(3) This old house is a mess.

My many aempts at learning to play chess all failed.

The doctors bill was astounding.

Subject: Tricky at Emes


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Tip!

A more reliable way for us to idenEfy the subject

noun phrase of a sentence is by its locaEon.

It is almost always the first noun phrase in the

sentence and the one that immediately

precedes the verb.


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Note:

All formal standard nglish sentences must

have a subject, grammaEcally speaking, i.e.

except in commands, there must be a noun

phrase preceding the verb.


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dummy, placeholder, or

expleEve?A word like itin it is raining

A word like there in there are six books on the floor

An exple.ve fills the place of the subject althoughit may not be the subject

Itis the subject ofis raining

Six books is the subject ofare.


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Quick xercise

The playful child frightened the pony.

My cat is in the cupboard.

Mrs. Smith just le.The telephone in the living room is portable.

A small bird flew into the chimney.

His computer is obsolete.Both her parents aended her wedding.


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Direct Object

Oen thought of as the receiver of the acEon (does notalways work).

(1) The girl hit the ball.The clown entertained his children.

The receive of the acEon might not be the direct object

It usually comes immediately aer the verb.(3) The pitcher threw the ball.

The ball was thrown by the pitcher. (passive)


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Indirect Object

Almost always refer to the people who are, in

some way, indirectly affected by the acEon.

(1)Jimmy gave an apple to the teacher.(s) (d.o.) (i.o.)

** Indirect objects are oen preceded by the

word to, or the word for


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Indirect Object Inversion

Test for idenEfying the indirect object.

It is possible to rearrange sentences by droppingthe word to orforand moving the direct object to

the posiEon immediately aer the verb.

Jimmy gave an apple to the teacher.

Jimmy gave the teacher an apple.

Meaning has not changed nor the rela'onshipsamong the noun phrases.


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Quick ApplicaEon

Keith gave Mary a present for her birthday.

The professor taught those students inlinguisEcs.

Jack read this book to Mildred.


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Object of a PreposiEon

PreposiEons, indicaEng locaEon, direcEon,

accompaniment, and purpose, are words that

indicate the relaEonship of the following noun

phrase to the rest of the sentence.

PreposiEons link with a following noun phrase

to form a consEtuent called a preposi.onalphrase


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Object of a PreposiEon

All the phrases in the example phrases arepreposiEonal phrases, and the underlined nounphrases are objects of preposiEons.

in the barn (locaEon)towards the fire (direcEon)

with an escort (accompaniment)

for a good reason (purpose)

*inversion???

Al studied algebra for a reason.


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Complements

A complement is a noun phrase that describes anothernoun phrase to the rest of the sentence.

Jane saw the president.

(d.o.)

Jane was the president.

(subject complement)

They considered the child a geniusShe declared her brother a liar

(direct object complement)


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Verbal Noun

Verbal nouns may not be recognized as nouns

at first because their meanings tend to be

acEons rather than things. These words are

built from verbs, but they exhibit many of the

properEes of nouns.


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Two kinds of verbals:

Gerunds: ing laughing, coughing, playing

What makes them nouns?

They can be heads of noun phrases with many ofthe usual modifiers that occur with nouns.

His laughing annoyed her.All that coughing is disturbing the musicians

The childs crying made me nervous.


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Two kinds of verbals:

Infini.ves

These are verbs with the word to in front ofthem: to talk, to love, to run

When they are heads of noun phrases they are

called infini.val phrases

To give up now would be foolish (subject)


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Next Eme..

We will discuss what these players in the

sentence are doing or what is being said about

them.

VRBS AND VRBS PHRASS

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Lecture 2.1 - Nouns and Noun Phrases