Nouns
It's not easy to describe a noun. In simple terms, nouns are "things" (and verbs are "actions"). Like food. Food (noun) is something you eat (verb). Or happiness. Happiness (noun) is something you want (verb). Or human being. A human being (noun) is something you are (verb).
Form
Noun phrases normally consist of a head noun, which is optionally modified ("premodified" If the modifier is placed before the noun; "postmodified" if the modifier is placed after the noun). Possible modifiers include:
- determiners: articles (the, a), demonstratives (this, that), numerals (two, five, etc.), possessives (my, their, etc.), and quantifiers (some, many, etc.). In English, determiners are usually placed before the noun;
- adjectives (the red ball); or
- complements, in the form of a prepositional phrase (such as: the student of physics), or a That-clause (the claim that the earth is round);
- modifiers; pre-modifiers if placed before the noun and usually either as nouns (the university student) or adjectives (the beautiful lady), or post-modifiers if placed after the noun. A postmodifier may be either a prepositional phrase (the man with long hair) or a relative clause (the house where I live). The difference between modifiers and complements is that complements complete the meaning of the noun; complements are necessary, whereas modifiers are optional because they just give additional information about the noun.
Grammatical function
Noun phrases are prototypically used for acts of reference as in "The blonde girl shouts" or "She kissed the man". Also possible, but found less often, is the use of noun phrases for predication, as in "Suzy is a blonde girl". Note that in English the use of the copula is indicates the use of a noun phrase as predicate, but other languages may not require the use of the copula. Finally, noun phrases are used for identifications like "The murderer was the butler", where no ascription is taking place. The possibility for a noun phrase to play the role of subject and predicate leads to the constructions of syllogisms.
English noun phrase
- The head
is the hub, the center of attraction (as it were) of the noun phrase; it is the noun or pronoun around which the other parts gather together.[1] The head determines concord with the portion of the sentence outside the noun phrase.[1] Thus:
- The change in the Asian economies is unprecedented.
- The changes in
- Premodification
consists of all the words place before the head. These words are usually determiners, adjectives and nouns.[2] Thus:
| Example | Determiner | Adjective | Adjective phrase | Noun | Head |
| That sophisticated city woman | That | sophisticated | | city | woman |
| Many honest down-and-out small-town businessmen | Many | honest | down-and-out | small-town | businessmen |
- Postmodification
comprises words in the noun phrase that follow the head. These words usually consist of prepositional phrases, nonfinite clauses, and relative clauses.[2] Thus:
| Example | Postmodification | Category |
| The talkative man in the center of the room | in the center of the room | |
| All the women walking on the bike path | walking on the bike path | non-finite clause |
| The house that I purchased for my third husband | that I purchased for my third husband | restrictive relative clause |
| The house, which my partner and I bought a month after we met | which my partner and I bought a month after we met | non-restrictive relative clause |
There can also be adjectival post-modification:
· Corruption aplenty ("aplenty" (adjective); corruption (head)). Thus: Corruption aplenty, in every unsurprising form, graced the occasion.
- Apposition
A related concept is apposition, a construction usually involving two noun phrases that refer to the same entity (noun or pronoun).[2] Examples:
| Example | First sentence | Second sentence | Entity |
| That president, Abraham Lincoln, lives in the hearts ... | That president, | , lives in the hearts ... | Abraham Lincoln |
| Her dog, sixteen years old and nearly blind with cataracts, greeted ... | Her dog, | , greeted ... | sixteen years old and nearly blind with cataracts |
| The book was written by Jane Doe, a pioneering seventeenth-century veterinarian. | The book was written by Jane Doe, | a pioneering seventeenth-century veterinarian. | Jane Doe |
Although these examples are non-restrictive, apposition can be restrictive as well:[2]
- The book is written by Jane Doe the local veterinarian.
Apposition can also take the form of a prepositional phrase:[2]
· ... until the twin curses of famine and pestilence are lifted from the brows of mankind. (The "twin curses" are "famine and pestilence").
Adjectival phrase
From Wikipedia
An adjectival phrase or adjective phrase is a phrase with an adjective as its head. Just as a regular one-word adjective, adjective phrases are used to modify nouns or pronouns. That is to say, they give an additional detail about the meaning of a noun. It is important to remember that the predicate can also be right before the noun or as the complement after a linking verb. Adjective phrases can be formed by: 1.) two adjectives or 2.) an intensifier + an adjective.
Examples
The nice, pretty, intelligent girl
This adjective phrase has three heads modifying the noun girl.
I bought a pound of jellybeans.
Of jellybeans is an adjective preposition because it is asking what kind of pound — a pound of jellybeans.
Adverbial phrase
An adverbial (or adverbial phrase) is a linguistic term for a group of two or more words operating adverbially, when viewed in terms of their syntactic function.
Compare the following sentences:
- I'll go to bed soon.
- I'll go to bed in an hour.
- I'll go to bed when I've finished my book.
In the first, soon is an adverb (as distinct from a noun or verb), and it is an adverbial (as distinct from a subject or object). Clearly, in the second sentence, in an hour has the same syntactic function, though it does not contain an adverb; therefore, a preposition and a noun (preceded by its article) can function together as an adverbial. Such a multi-word adverbial may be called an adverbial phrase. In the third sentence, we see a whole clause functioning as an adverbial. It could also be called an adverbial phrase, but is more likely to be described as an adverbial clause.
Prepositional Phrases
Prepositional phrases modify nouns and verbs while indicating various relationships between subjects and verbs. They are used to color and inform sentences in powerful ways.
Ref:
ESL at Rice University - Intensive English & Communication Skills programs in
Download English Tests - Test your English online or download for offline use www.englishteststore.net
conjugation.com - Free english verb conjugation all verbs - all forms - all tenses www.conjugation.COM
What are the Parts of a Prepositional Phrase?
In simplest terms, prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and an object of a preposition. Prepositions are indeclinable words that introduce the object of a prepositional phrase. Indeclinable words are words that have only one possible form. For example, below is a preposition, but belows or belowing are not possible forms of below.
The noun phrase or pronoun that follows the preposition is called the object of the preposition. For example, behind the couch is a prepositional phrase where behind is the preposition and the noun phrase the couch acts as the object of the preposition. Sometimes adjectives are used to further modify the object of the preposition, as in behind the big old smelly green couch.
Formal Functions of Prepositions
Prepositions perform three formal functions in sentences. They can act as an adjective modifying a noun, as an adverb modifying a verb, or as a nominal when used in conjunction with the verb form to be.
Prepositions Functioning as Adjectives
In the following sentences, prepositional phrases perform the function of modifying the nouns boat, pen, and car:
Look at the boat with the blue sail. Please hand me the pen next to the telephone. Park the car beside the fence.
Prepositions Functioning as Adverbs
In these examples, notice how the prepositional phrases perform adverbial functions by modifying the verbs after, stalled, and won:
The coyote runs after the rabbit. The car stalled despite the tune-up. The team won without the starting quarterback.
Prepositions Functioning as Nominals
In English, sometimes words function as nouns but aren't themselves nouns. These words are called nominals. Prepositions sometimes perform this important function in sentences when they are used in conjunction with the verb to be. For example:
The park is next to the hospital. The student is between an A and a B. The fight scene is before the second act.
Semantic Properties of Prepositions
In semantic terms, the preposition functions to illustrate a logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and the other components of the sentence. Consider the following examples:
The dog is asleep on his bed.
In this example, the prepositional phrase on his bed indicates a spatial relationship between the subject dog and the object bed. If the preposition on was replaced with under or beneath the spatial relationship would be altered.
The town hasn't been the same since the war.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase since the war indicates a temporal relationship between the verb phrase hasn't been the same and the object war.
The family survived despite the accident.
he prepositional phrase despite the accident in this sentence indicates a logical relationship between the survival of the family and the accident.
List of Common Prepositions
The following table lists the most commonly used prepositions in English.
- about
- above
- across
- after
- against
- along
- among
- around
- at
- before
- behind
- below
- beneath
- beside
- between
- beyond
- but
- by
- despite
- down
- during
- except
- for
- from
- in
- inside
- into
- like
- near
- off
- of
- on
- onto
- out
- outside
- over
- past
- since
- through
- throughout
- till
- to
- toward
- under
- underneath
- until
- up
- upon
- with
- within
- without
Responsible Use
There are no rules that govern how much nouns and verbs can be modified in English. Often writers employ prepositional phrases excessively, creating an almost comical effect in an attempt at over clarification. The following sentence implements a string of propositional phrases to modify the verb stood.
The old farmhouse stood for years, after the revolution, by the fork in the road, beyond the orange grove, over the wooden bridge, at the farthest edge of the family's land, toward the great basin, down in the valley, under the old mining town, outside the city's limits, and past the end of the county maintained road.
Prepositional phrases, in theory, can modify sentences infinitely. Therefore, it is important for writers to understand their form and function in order to make appropriate stylistic
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