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COMPLEX NOUN PHRASES
PRE-MODIFICATION/POST-MODIFICATION OF NOUNS
(SGSWE Ch. 9: 264-279)
Noun phrases are composed of four major components:
determiner + pre-modifiers + head noun + post-modifier
EX. 1: “The latest problem for the government”
Noun phrases are structurally complex
EX. 1: [an] [advanced] [country]
EX. 2: [industrially advanced] [countries]
EX. 3: D [a] PREM [wooden] HEAD [box] POSTM [that has no imperfections]
EX. 4: [a] [market] [system] [that has no imperfections]
EX. 5: PREMOD [Mobile cellular radio] [services] [which have a small bunch of frequencies around 900 MHZ]
A. PREMODIFIERS include ADJECTIVES, PARTICIPIALS and other NOUNS:
- Adjective as Premodifier
- a special project
- an internal memo
- an ambitious agenda
- participial premodifiers:
- written reasons
- spoken language
- ing-participial modifier
- Noun as premodifier
- the bus strike
- the police report
- the coffee tree
- women candidates
N.B.: Noun + noun sequences present information densely. They rely on IMPLICIT meaning, since the reader must infer the intended logical relationship between the modifying noun and head noun. In some cases plural nouns are also used as premodifiers.
- Compound adjectives (see also SGSWE: 91-92):
- They played cards in a smoke-filled small dark room. (They played cards in a small dark room. The room was filled with smoke).
- They were affected by the politically-motivated attack on corruption (They were affected by the attack on corruption. The attack was politically motivated).
- a 19-year-old worker (a worker who is 19 years old)
B. POSTMODIFIERS include PHRASES (prepositional and appositional noun phrases) and CLAUSES (clauses can be both finite and non-finite):
- Heiko, [a 19-year-old factory worker] (appositive noun phrase)
- A large number [of natural habitats] (prepositional phrase)
- Mortality [which occurred among animals] (finite relative clause)
An example of a sentence that contains complex noun phrases “In the 1990s, the appreciation of school attainment increased with the growing demand for skilled labour and the widening unemployment ratios of groups with different levels of school attainment”.
ANALYSIS ( Adj. = adjective as premodifier; N-pre = noun premodification; ing-part = ing. Participial modifier~; post-mod = post-modifier; part = participial pre-modifier)
ADVERBIAL: In the 1990s ,
SUBJECT: [the appreciation post-mod [ of N-pre [school attainment]]
VERB: increased
OBJECT PREDICATIVE (prepositional phrase): with [ ing-part [the growing demand] for part [skilled labour] and N-pre [[the widening unemployment ratios] post-mod [ of groups with adj. [different levels] of N-pre [school attainment]].
