English Morphology Seminar no.

3 The Phrases; The Noun Phrase

Answer the questions: 1. Which are the most important types of determiners? Give examples of each. 2. List the types of pronouns and give examples. 3. Which are the primary auxiliaries? Modal auxiliaries? 4. What is the difference between the two categories in terms of paradigm? 5. What is the relation / difference between SHALL and SHOULD? 6. What is the role of the Wh-words? 7. Where are they used? 8. Which are the single-word classes? 9. What is necessary in order to identify the class a word belongs to in English? 10. What is the linguistic term for a phrase that is part of the structure of another phrase? 11. How many basic types of phrases are there in English? 12. What is the relation between the HEAD and the other elements in the phrase? 13. What is a NOUN PHRASE? 14. What word classes can function as HEADS in a NP? 15. What syntactic role can a NP take? Give examples. 16. What is the difference between FINITE and NON-FINITE verb phrases? 17. What can be said about a sentence like: What are you two talking about? 18. What are the categories of the class VERBS? How are they actualized? 19. What is an ADJECTIVE PHRASE? What is its role? 20. What is a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE? What does it consists of? 21. What are the roles of the PP? 22. When is a preposition stranded? 23. What are the major valency patterns of the verb in English? 24. What are the clause elements?

Consider the following NP structure:

NG q e cl h d = determiners (articles, demonstratives, possessives, Wh- interrogatives, Wh- relatives, distributives, numerals) e = epithet (adjectives, nouns, participles, AdjG, PrepG., phrases, clauses) cl = classifier ( clauses, adjectives, adverbials, participles, PrepG. etc.) h = HEAD (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbal nouns) q qualifier (NG, Adj.G, PrepG., Adv.G, clauses) Identify the elements in the following NG: that short summer course we attended; those beautiful Persian rugs we saw d

Exercise 1
What is the function of the NP (in italics) in each sentence? a. The best player available was a Spaniard. b. The committee engaged the best player available. c. They offered the best player available a high salary. d. Tom Smith seemed to be the best player available. e. Everybody considered him the best player available. f. He weighs eighty kilos. g. He signed the contract last week. h. They paid a high price for the best player available. i. Jack Wilkins, the best player available, earns a high salary.

Exercise 2
Discuss the singular / plural form of nouns in the following examples (ap. OEG): a 1. Do you want cake? a. 2. Thats a wonderful walnut cake. b. 1. They might be in financial difficulties. b. 2. Is that because you were having difficulty in remembering things? c. 1. One loses interest in everything when one has young children... c. 2. The two men have expressed and its possible I would be able to publish something out of that but you know that all that takes a very long time. d. I dont like sparkling wines all that much. e. We bought Italian cheeses, fresh pasta and olives.... f. One sugar only, please. g. Ill have two coffees and two beers.

Exercise 3
Choose the appropriate form: a. The scissors is/are lost forever, I guess. b. Acoustics is/are a branch of Physics. c. What is/are the most efficient means of dealing with this matter? d. Advice is/are readily given on all technical aspects. e. The public has/have a right to know how the money is/are spent.

Exercise 4
What type of Genitive meaning is realised in the following examples (ap. Downing&Locke): a. the firms success; b. our teams defeat by the rivals; c. Americas film industry; d. todays news; e. a stones throw; f. the BBCs director ; g. the directors orders; h. cows milk. Exercise 5 Insert the suitable article considering the type of noun in each case: a. He gave us all .... advice on what to take with us. b. Im sorry. I cant come. I have ... homework to do. c. Shes doing ... investigation of teenage slang in English for her university project. d. Paula getting divorced? Thats .... interesting news! e. I have to buy ... film for the holiday. I think Ill buy five rolls. f. We saw beautiful ... silk and ... cotton in Thailand.

Exercise 6
Correct the mistakes in the following sentences: a. We had such a terrible weather that we left the camp-site and got an accommodation in town instead. b. In the North of England, most houses are made of stones, but in the South, bricks are more common. c. I love antique furnitures, but I would need an advice from a specialist before I bought any. d. Her researches are definitely making great progresses these days. She has done a lot of original works recently.

Exercise 7
Associate the collective nouns with the suitable nouns: a. a clump of, a range of, a gang of, a swarm of, a row of, a heap of, a herd of b. houses, midges, fir-trees, elephants, bed-linen, mountains, schoolkids.

Exercise 8
Associate the group noun with the animal: flock, herd, shoal, swarm, pack, pride, flight, ostentation.

Exercise 9
Associate the partitive with the mass-noun: a. a stroke of; a fit of, a shower of, an article of, a lump of, a flash of, a blade of, an item of, a rumble of, a stick of, a loaf of, a state of ; b. lightning, disorder, coal, sugar, grass, chalk, news, rain, clothing, thunder, temper, luck.

Seminar 3: supplementary activity

1. Capitalize as appropriate: king arthur; arthurian legend; thailand; thai restaurant; buddhism; a buddhist shrine; alfred the great; international union for the conservation of nature and natural resources; a cardigan; a sweater; venetian blinds; gothic style; mackenzie; the south; the western hemisphere; new england; flying south for the winter; living in the western part of thestate; fifth avenue; route 66; on dunbar street. 2. a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. 3. a. b. c. Choose the correct capitalization: the Nile river / The Nile River Bering strait / Bering Strait Charles Adam, Jr. / Charles Adam, jr. an American citizen / an American Citizen east of the river / East of the River the Iberian peninsula / the Iberian Peninsula Billy The Kid / Billy the Kid an Irish setter / an Irish Setter Eastern seaports / eastern seaports Use capitalization in the following texts: In ancient egypt the people worshiped many gods equally until the sun god Ra became the principal deity. dr. Bruce Jackson, jr., principal of the high school, formerly taught mathematics I classes and an introductory class in computer science offered to freshmen and sophomores. Suzanne oRourke, president of the jogging club, has an exercise route that takes her three times a week through myers park, down Carriage street, and then back west to Dean avenue.