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    Grammar

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    CGEL5.1_5.25

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    Grammar

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    15 views20 pages

    Cgel5.1 5.25

    Uploaded by

    tijay
    Grammar

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 20
    st 52 Noun classes: count, noncount. endpropernoune 245, Types of noun phrase ‘The noun phrase typically functions as subject, object and complement of clauses and as complement of prepositional phrases. Consider the diferent subjects in the following sentences: The atl ) a The blonde grt ta The blonde girl x Be joans G1 ‘The blonde girl wearing Bue eons ia ‘The blonde girl who is wearing ble jeans | {5} She } (6 Sentences [1~5}are alike in having the same noun (gi) as nounphrase head (228, 172). The noun phrase in 1] has the simplest structure, consisting of only the definite article and the ead; in (2] it also has a premoditying adjective (onde); in{3~5 the noun phrase has, nation, postmodification: in[3]a prepositional phrase (blue ems); in [4] a nonfinite clause (wearing ‘blue eons); and in [5] a relative clase (whois wearing Blue Jeans). In (6) the ‘noun phrase consists of only one word (se), which sone ofa closed class of ‘grammatical words called personal pronouns. Such pronouns can ‘deputize” for noun phrases and hence annot normaly occur ith determiners such as the definite article, premodifcation, o (normally) postmodifcation: “the londe che Yohei Bue jens Since noun phrases of the types illustrated in [2-5] include words and structures that willbe dealt within later chapters (adjectives, prepositional ‘hase, clauses), it willbe convenient to reserve the treatment of ‘complex’ ‘oun phrases incorporating such items until Chapter 17, which deals with the noun phrase as & whole, The present chapter will Be restricted to the constitueney ofthe “busie’ noun phrase, the classes of nouns together with atticles or other closed-las determinative elements that ean occur before the noun head, including predetermine like all, central determiners ike these, and postdeterminers ike lst and fw all these las fow days ‘The closed class of pronouns as in[6]is dealt within Chapter 6 Noun classes: count, noncount, and proper nouns. I is necessary, both for grammatical and semantic reasons to Sce nouns as fallinginto different subclasses. That this isso can be demonstrated by taking the four nouns Sid, boo, funiture, and Brick and considering the extent to ‘which tis possible for ech to appear as head ofthe noun phrase functioning as object in the sentence / saw ...: without any determiner (a); with the lightly stessed determiners he (83/0), a/a/(C), some fom) (2); and in the plural (@). The result of thistest canbe seen in Table 52: 246 Nouns ond determiners ‘Table 5.2 Test abl fo nous ses © @ o ere (Sd “hook fuinre ick () tiheSid “ebook —“Thefeure The brik (@ taSid aboot afniure bik @) Some Sid *aome book sme entre Some rik (@_*5is books Smtr bik ‘The diference between column | (wth only one possibilty) and column 2+ 3 (with all possibilities) indicates the degre of variation between the ‘oun classes Nouns that behave like Sif column | (Confieus, Pari, tera ‘Leone, etc) are PROPER NOUNS, which wil be further discussed in 5.60. ‘The nouns in the other columns are COMMON NOUNS, but there are Important diferences between them. Those which, like boot in column 2 (Gotte, char forest, idea, et), must be seen as denoting individual countable ‘entities and not as an undifferentiated mass, ae called COUNT nowns. Nouns which, ike furniture, conform tothe pattern of ealumn 3 (a do bread, grass, warmth, musi, tc), rast by contrast be seen as denoting an unilferentiated mass oreantinwum. These are called NONCOUNT nouns, Finally we have nouns in column 243 which can be either count or rnoncount nouns ep: rik, cake, pape, tone) in that we can View noun ike brick either as the noncount material (I. oF as constituting the countable objecti2} The houses built of brick 0 He used bricks to build the house, bh ‘The type headed 2+3 may be classified grammatically in two ways: (®) either a lexical clas of noun which combines the characteristics of count ‘nouns and noncount nouns, or (8) as two separate items, one count and the fother noncoust. The former mode of analysis is convenient for nuns ike brick and cake with lite difference in meaning betweea count and noncount uses. Therefore such nouns willbe sid to have ‘dual clase membership (Cf 54). ‘Although in sentences such a ie musi, ike Sid, the wo nouns look superficially alike in terms of article usage, we wil say that mate has ZERO ARTICLE but that Sid has NO ARTICLE, The label “zero” e appropriate in the case of common nouns which have article contrast, ¢: mute as opposed to the music (ef 5.520) in 1 ike mae and dancing, 1 think she muse sto loud in here. If, however, we disregard special grammatical environments lke the Sid 1 ‘mean tal (5.64), proper nounskave no article contrast (Sid"the Sid) and will therefore be said to have ‘nostic [Noe count noun, a8 he a ee in thi ok, pe by soe grmmasin ld ‘ute ote neseo.t pune crepods ast oes eae os 33 54 yseount,noneount.and proper nouns 247 Concrete and abstractnouns Cutting across the grammatical and semantic coun/noncount distinction, there is @ semantic division into nouns like pig which are CONCRETE (ie accesible tothe senses, observable, measurable etc)and nouns ike difieuty which are anstract(ypically nonobservableand noameasumable). But while abstract nouns may be count (like renark/remarks) or noncount (ike warmth “varmhs), there isa considerable degre of overlap between abstract and noncount (¢/5.58). Figure 5.3 shows the noun clases introduced so fr. once: im pt. somcrete:_ Mute, ell abstract memo, ope: ohn, Perit Fig 5.3 Themostimportent noun cases Nouns with dual class membership ‘The division of nouns according to countabilty into count nouns and oncount nouns is basic in English. Yet the language makes i possible to look upon some objects fom the point of view of both count and noneount, asin the case of cate ‘A: Would you like acake? B: No,1 don ike cake. Such nouns may be sid to have dual class membership. In other cases, ‘per, there is no readily perceptible parallelism but a notable differenée in ‘meaning between th two nouns: Twantan evening pope: (newspaper 0 ‘Wrap the parcel up in brown paper. wrapping paper’) a} [Note also the variation of quantifiers (eg: mch]many) in some of the following examples of count and noncount nouns: ‘She wasa beau inher youth [count] b ‘She had great Beauty inher youth [poxcount) Pa) She'shad many difcuties. [oust] e) ‘She's not had much difficulty. {soxcount) Ba} He's had several odd experiences. {couxr) @) He hasnt had much experience. [soxcount) 4a} ‘There were bright lights and harsh sounds. [cous] i Light aves faster than sound [soxcou] (5) ‘She willgivea talk on Chinese art. [couxt] (6 ‘That’ foolish alk [soncoun] {6a ‘The lambs were eating quietly. foousr] n ‘Thereis lambon the menu today. [soxcounr] (78) In many other casts, the typeof distinction to be seen inthe count noun fam | 248 Nouns andrterminers {the animal asin{7)and the noncount noun land (che meat fom the animal, 4s n (7a) is achieved by separate lexical items, asin ‘They raise great many cles pis, and sheep. ts) ‘Weeeat a great deal of sal, pork, and mutton [8a] Other count/ooncount pairs realized by different lexical items are the following aagarment ~ clothing job. task ~ work (f5.9) ‘laugh ~ laughter suitcase ~ luggage a’permit ~ permission poem ~ pecry ‘aweapon ~ arms(ef5.71) machine ~ machinery Note also the contrast between the noncount noun money and the count ‘nouns naming different unitsof money ‘We haven'tmuch money left. We've only gota few coinsftwo dolar billssome pound notes, Now The disncton between cn et an poco st oily cpa eesy Interetnl wa ot, This iscar when weconpee he nest aepeeseay ‘ited wo Engi 59) Rate aon fre oumuoeen une oe, ‘onthe pamaatel hart Eapah te, Reclassification ‘85 Nouns may alsobe sifted from one cass to another by means of conversion (¢f App 153). Thus a noncount noun lke cheese can be ‘elessif’ es count noun involving semantic shift so a8 to denote quality partition “kine ‘ypelform oe: ‘A: What cheses have you got today? B: Well, wehave Cheddar, Gorgonzola, and Danish Blue. Similarly, a noin lke eofée, whichis normally noncount as ia (1), can be ‘classed asa count noun to mean an ‘appropriate unit of” an {Lal end (Ub) ora "kind/sor/brand of asin [Le] and te), Doyou want rear coffee? fo Can havea coffee, please. cup of coe’) (3) Two coffees, please (two cups of caffe] fy) This is ante cafe fie ike Brazitan coffees best {ig} Note Thesis spc ct fiona ke te toning Hse ere orn rekon betwen abe nd compen a Are you a wacker? ‘Tie omplenea ees tad compres fom oth pence tewaena, eines is otro te on pd conse eomntee Se obeed ne Jere iain a Sm ‘Ayu 108 theomantoo pmis13 opie Oe) ‘Tecoma mayo bemore caper te ocr he's mem of Charcot Eagan or mone ded cans womay asi ht nour as eos se racdpeee Noo th, Sin eyes Ont 56 87 Partitive constructions Partition i respect of quality Both count and noncount nouns can enter partitive constructions, fe

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