Ling 131: Language & Style
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Topic 2 (session B) - Being creative with words and phrases > Uncovering your intuitions about phrases > Task C |
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| Session Overview |
| Uncovering your intuitions about phrases |
| Playing with phrases |
| Phrases in the structure of sentences |
| Being creative with noun phrases: Edwin Morgan |
| Topic 2 tool summary |
| Useful Links |
| Readings |
| Grammar Website |
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Uncovering your intuitions about phrasesAccessible version of Task CIf phrases can consist of more than one word, there can also be grammatical structure inside phrases. We can see this is actually the case by noticing that we have strong intuitions about the natural order for words inside phrases. Working with your partner(s) first unscramble the following sets of words into acceptable English phrases. Also try to identify the head word and what sort of phrase each is [noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), adjective phrase (AdjP), adverb phrase (AdvP), prepositional phrase (PP)]. When you have worked out your answers for each one, click the text to reveal our comments: tubby lecturer little the Lancaster first Pen table the the on quill mahogany
Our comments:Our answer: very small indeed [Adjective phrase (AdjP)] Adjective Phrases have an adjective headword rarely consist of more than a few words. Our answer: incredibly quickly [Adverb phrase (AdvP)] Adverb Phrases have an adverb headword and rarely consist of more than a couple of words.
Our answer: might have been taught [Verb phrase (VP)] Note that in verb phrases the head word is a main verb. The premodifying verbs are usually called auxiliary verbs. Unlike other verbs, verbs like 'might', 'may', 'can', 'could' do not take an '-s' ending in the third person and always come at the very beginning of complex verb phrases, if they occur at all. These verbs are usually called modal auxiliary verbs. Modal verbs express attitudes that the speaker has (e.g.concerning the possibility, probability, or reasonableness ) about what s being expressed in the rest of the sentence.
tubby lecturer little the Lancaster first Our answer: The first little tubby Lancaster lecturer [Noun phrase (NP)] Note that Noun Phrases are the most complex phrase type and can have lots of premodifiers. Moreover, the order of these premodifiers is relatively fixed. So: noun modifiers ('Lancaster' above) come nearest the headword, adjective modifiers ('little' and 'tubby' above) come next nearest (and themselves are ordered - height before girth, for example). numeral modifiers come before (to the left of) the adjective modifiers determiners (the definite article 'the' or the indefinite article 'a(n)'or possessive pronouns like'him', 'her') come before (to the left of) the numeral modifier Word order in this NP: Determiner+numeral+adjective(height )+adjective(girth)+noun-modifier+headword
Our answer: behind (the largest blackboard ) [Prepositional phrase (PP)] Prepositional phrases (PPs) always consist of a preposition plus a Noun Phrase which the preposition 'introduces'. So in this case the Prepositional Phrase has a Noun Phrase embedded (or nested) inside it. The NP acting as the complement of the preposition will itself have a headword and (perhaps ) some modifiers
Pen table the the on quill mahogany Our answer: the quill pen (on (the mahogany table)) [Noun phrase (NP)] Here, the headword ('pen') of the major NP is premodified by the definite article and a noun modifier ('quill'). It is also postmodified by a PP 'on the mahogany table', embedded inside the overall NP. That postmodifying PP 'on the mahogany table' itself has an NP nested inside it, with 'table' as its head word and two premodifiers, the definite article and a noun modifier 'mahogany'.
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Playing with phrases
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