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SIMILARITY AND DISSIMILARITY OF SENTENCE AND NOUN PHRASE

Anna Denysiuk

Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University

Scientific Supervisor: Ph.D., Kryshtaliuk A.

SIMILARITY AND DISSIMILARITY OF SENTENCE AND NOUN PHRASE

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to find distinguishing features of sentence and phrase. Newspaper headlines are accurate examples of peculiarities of noun phrases and sentences. Moreover the choice of a certain syntactic structure influences both meaning and its comprehension.

Key words: noun phrase, sentence, newspaper headline, syntactic structure, meaning.

There are many definitions of noun phrase (NP), almost each linguist tried to give the most appropriate definition. And here is some of the examples. Jespersen defined it as a combination of words put together in order to form a sense unit [6, p. 59]. Thier’s determinations are rather general. Moreover De Haan concisely defines the English noun phrase in the following way: “A noun phrase is a string of words which, syntactically, is a constituent with an internal structure containing a determiner, a modifier and a head” [1, p. 24]. His definition is more concrete and written from a structural point of view. Quirk describes the noun phrase in detail, both from the point of view of morphology and syntax. As he suggests, a noun phrase may have different functions in a sentence, the typical being the subject and object [9]. On the contrary, Cognitive grammarians have a somewhat different view, they suppose phrases don’t always contain a noun (as traditionally understood). English grammars such as Quirk, Biber, Huddleston & Pullum avoid morphosyntactic definitions of the noun phrase, and instead of this tend to list a number of grammatical features of this phrasal category.

Concerning Morokhovska, we take into account two aspects characteristic of sentence: lingual and extra-lingual. “The sentence is characterised and classified accordingly as a predicative unit of language having direct relatedness to the predicative form of thought” [8, p. 232]. The  widest and most meaningful is “The sentence is a very complex linguistic entity. Its complexity is revealed both in its content and expression side” [8, p. 233]. “The sentence is the immediate integral unit of speech built up of words according to a definite syntactic pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose” [3, p. 236]. Such definition was offered by Blokh. So his idea is about words which are built due to grammatical patterns and give us certain information can be named as a sentence.

From this the hierarchy of grammatical units results. At the top of it is a sentence and at the bottom is a morpheme. The phrase is in the middle of this hierarchy, between the clause and the word.

Before examining the structure of phrase, the traditional definition of phrase: a grammatical unit composed of one or more words that function as unified parts of clauses [5, p.72]. So, phrase consists of one or more words which form semantic and structural unity and have syntactic function. If to look at the NP, it mostly does not have subject and predicate, it has noun which is modified by another part of speech to characterize and adds new information about this or that object, place, phenomenon.

Chomsky, who is a creator of generative grammar, considers the cross-categorial parallels between noun phrases and sentences. Reviewing these parallels will help to distinguish similarity and differences between sentence and noun phrase [4].

(1) a. A volcano erupted on Mars

  1. A volcanic eruption on Mars [12].

The semantically central element of the sentence in (1a) is the verb erupted, and its semantic arguments, the agent a volcano and the theme on Mars, are both expressed as syntactic arguments of the sentence. In a parallel way, the semantically central element in the noun phrase in (1b) is the nominal counterpart of erupt, the noun eruption. Like the verb, the noun is associated with an agent argument and a theme argument that are both overtly expressed [10].

If to take (1a) it is easier to understand the time of action. We understand that it happened in the past. But in the case of (1b) the situation will change if we form the passive voice:

(2) a. Missing Wisconsin Girl is Found

  1. Missing Wisconsin girl`s interposition [11].

After such alters the theme became girl and girl`s respectively.

The next parallel between sentence and NP is modification. Semantically, both verb and noun can be modified in the same way. Adjunctive construction is based on the head and the adjunct. Moreover, the relationship between them are hypotactic or even adjunctive. The extention of the nominal element is called modification. In other words, modification is a syntactic process in which noun phrase is modified by attribute.

Langacker writes that all NP include head, its pre- and post- modifiers. They perform as optional elements [7]. Examples from one British newspaper are

(3) Our unique world

(4) The Greek island of compassion [13].

The (3) illustration shows the head noun is “world”, the “unique” is a premodifier. And another feature of structure of NP is a determiner, in our case is “our”. In this sample (4) the procedure is the same, starting from head “island” we can easily define the other elements of NP, even postmodifier is there “of compassion”.

Therefore, Cognitive grammar, which deals with human cognition and interacts with other cognitive abilities, especially with perception, attention and memory considers the grammar from another corner and it helps to understand some moments. Also the structure of grammar patterns is always meaningful. As Cognitive grammar believes the “head” of NP is just metaphorical. But in a typical NP it can be difficult to determine the “head”, for example

(5) Auberon Waugh, the wittiest man of his generation [11].

There are two components with legitimate claim to this status. To distinguish clearly, we take the appropriate examples from newspaper articles:

(6) “The ugly power of R Kelly’s photo with Gayle King”[11]. It is a headline of one of the Guardian`s article. In the article in different sentences this NP has been altered.(7) a.“The photograph has become a flashpoint amid the allegations surrounding Kelly”, b. “On the left, King remains sitting, staring forward, as calm and still in the face of Kelly’s performance as the bottle of water by her chair”[11]. The first very noticeable thing is that the sentence is bigger due to its form and of course more meaningful. In other words from the sentences we can get more information, details, determine the place, the time, the conditions, while the headline generalises the overall idea of this article.

References

  1. Abney S. P. The noun phrase in its sentential aspect : thesis.Massachusetts :Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1987. 363 p.
  2. Biber D., Conrad S., Leech G. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written Harlow : Pearson Education Limited, 2002. 487 p.
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  4. Chomsky N. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax: Massachusetts, the M.I.T Press, 1965. P. 261
  5. Gerald P. Delahunty, James J. Garvey. The English Language from Sound to Sense. The WAC Clearinghouse: Fort Collins, Colorado, 2010.480 p.
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  9. Quirk R., Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik.A ComprehensiveGrammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985. P. 1779
  10. Parallels and differences between noun phrases and sentences. 5 Extending the X’ schema: web-side https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook/ch5.html
  11. Snapes L. The ugly power of R Kelly’s photo with Gayle King. The Guardian. 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/07/the-ugly-power-of-r-kellys-photo-with-gayle-king
  12. Сhang K. A volcanic eruption on Mars. The New York Times. 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/science/mars-cloud-volcano-eruption-arsia-mons.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

Levin D. Our unique world. 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/world/what-in-the-world