The Structure of Noun Phrase in English and Vietnamese
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Contrastive Analysis
- Điều hướng trang này:
- The structure of noun phrase in English
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Running head: THE STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE The Structure of Noun Phrase in English and Vietnamese Student: Nguyen Kim Phung Contrastive Analysis Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu December 17, 2009 Abstract Words do not simply get together at random to form a meaningful unit. That is to say they should be combined systematically and grammatically into phrases, and then into sentences. According to Wikipedia, “in grammar, a phrase is a group of words functioning as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence” (“Phrase,” n.d.). For example, the group of words “the girls in their summer dresses” is a phrase. In English and Vietnamese, there are three kinds of phrases whose names are defined on the basis of the classes of the word that is the chief word or head of the phrase namely noun phrase, verb phrase, and adjective phrase. Among those phrases, noun phrase proves to be an interesting case that needs closer attention. The goal of this study is to understand the structure of noun phrase in English and Vietnamese. Attention is also given to the comparison and contrast between the structure of English noun phrase and Vietnamese noun phrase. Finally, some implications for language teaching and language learning will be under discussion. The structure of noun phrase in English: George Yule (2006) defines a noun phrase as “a phrase in which the main word is a noun and which is used as a subject or an object” (p.269). When analyzing the structure of a noun phrase, Baker examines individual modifiers as well as complements that can follow the main word, i.e., a noun (1995). For example, he concerns about “elementary noun phrases introduced by quantity words”, “elementary noun phrases introduced by a(n)”, etc. It means he just examines modifiers separately rather than arranges them into an order. Jackson (1989), however, suggests all the possible elements that can combine into a single noun phrase. In this paper, I take Jackson’s viewpoint as a foundation. According to him, an English noun phrase has the following formula: Pre-modification + Head + Post-modification As we can see, a noun phrase consists of three parts: pre-modification, head, post-modification. In a noun phrase, the head is obligatory but the Pre-modification and the Post-modification are optional. As their names have suggested, the function of the pre-modification and post-modification is to elaborate or limit the head noun’s meaning. Noun phrase gets its name from the head word. First, let’s have a look at the head word. Head The word noun phrase is self-explanatory. It is obvious that the most common kind of head word in a noun phrase is a noun. In some cases, a pronoun may also act as the central part of a noun phrase. There are four kinds of pronouns functioning as heads: personal pronoun, (a) indefinite pronoun (b), possessive pronoun (c), and demonstrative pronoun (d). For example: he in he is a doctor someone in someone in the house his in his is large. this in this happens every two years. Usually, when a pronoun takes the role of head in a noun phrase, it is not preceded by pre-modification; however, it can be followed by post-modification, e.g. he who hesitates. tải về 142 Kb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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