CLASSES OF WORDS
Form Classes Structure Classes
• Noun • Conjunction
• Adjective • Determiner
• Verb • Auxiliary
• Adverb • Qualifier
• Preposition
• Pronoun
words in these classes carry lexical meanings: words in these classes provide grammatical structure:
“Quick sandwich notoriously romantic displace brew “The bronky waff of gorpitude chabbed and porbed
independently rectitude commit write.” ixiously; however, non-gorpies without zork never chab.”
As the above nonsensical sentences show, you need both form and structure words to make meaning!
Noun Phrases
FORM:
• Det + Adj + Qualifying N + Head N/Pron + Prepositional P + Participial P + Relative IP
• Not all slots above must be used; a Noun Phrase can be one word—the head noun or pronoun.
◦ An example using all slots: “An almost-adequate holistic scoring rubric from the foul-smelling pit of central
urban New Jersey, cluttering the inboxes of novice English teachers, that an over-confident group of education
management professionals had constructed without soliciting the advice of linguists and composition
theorists”
▪ (the farther away a relative IP gets from the head noun, and the longer the other adjectivals are, the more
opportunity for structural ambiguity is created. Commas can therefore be used to disambiguate.)
• Single-word adjectivals generally go before the head noun, multi-word adjectivals generally go after. To use a
multi-word adjectival before the head noun, one must usually hyphenate it.
• Non-restrictive participial phrases, set off by commas, can be moved to different locations in the sentence. “Non-
restrictive” means not essential to the meaning of the rest of the NP.
• Paratactic and Asyntactic elements that disrupt the syntax pattern of NPs (in bold above) should be set off by
commas. These include not only relocated non-restrictive adjectivials, but also appositives and absolutes.
FUNCTION:
• NPs act as nominals in sentences:
◦ subject ◦ object complement
◦ direct object ◦ object of preposition
◦ indirect object ◦ appositive
◦ subject complement
• Note: Verbal phrases can also act as nominals.
INFLECTIONAL PHRASES
• Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase. IPs are defined by their form (NP + VP); this is an essential definition.
• The inflected verb must agree in number, person, and tense with the head noun/pronoun.
• IPs are called “clauses” in traditional grammar.
• IPs can function as nominals, adjectivals or adverbials. Traditional grammar calls IPs serving these functions
“subordinate clauses.”