NOMINAL GROUPS

In Lesson 4 (Clause Structure) we saw how the clause is composed of groups, and we identified various types of group. The analysis which sees the immediate constituents of the clause as consisting of groups is one of the most important distinctions in functional grammar, in contrast with the simple sentence (clause) being analysed directly into words. Words, however, do not simply function as independent units but themselves form complexes which in turn operate as distinct and identifiable functional units.

In this lesson we shall discuss the nature of nominal groups. These are groups which are centred round a headword which is either some kind of noun or pronoun. The structure of nominal groups can perhaps best be appreciated by reference to a "nuclear" metaphor, in which the headword may be seen as constituting a semantic nucleus to which other words may be attached as additional "particles" of meaning. These are MODIFIERS, and we can identify distinct classes of these elements and describe their structural relations.

Typical Functions

Before saying more about this structure we should consider briefly what are the typical functions of the nominal group. The headword may be either a noun or pronoun, and this is the basic referent of the message. We shall refer to this entity as the THING, although this may or may not denote some material entity. The "thing" may equally well refer to some non-physical entity such as "mind" or "space". The essential point is that it is the "thing" which is denoted in the headword which forms the semantic nucleus, and the other words which then form part of the nominal group function in providing additional elements of meaning, such as by identifying, classifying, quantifying, describing, and by relating the thing to the speaker in terms of proximity or attitude. These are some of the ways in which these additional words modify the headword's own intrinsic meaning. We may describe this function of the nominal group as the expression of EXPERIENTIAL meaning.

We have seen also that nominal groups function as units within the clause as subjects, objects, complements and as adjuncts. This function is the expression of REPRESENTATIONAL meaning, which is what the message is actually about, the identification of particular referents as participants or circumstantial elements in the process.
e.g.

Nominal groups function as adjuncts either as adverbial elements, as in (c), or as the COMPLETIVE element in a prepositional group, as in (d). Some nominal groups may appear in either form (possibly with some modification to the meaning).
e.g.
     (i) It will come next week.
     (ii) It will come in the next week.

Let us now consider the specific features of nominal group structure. The following example contains three such groups.

e.g. She poured the stale cream down the sink.

The nominal groups are:-

The headwords in each of these groups are:

While (i) consists only of the headword, both (ii) and (iii) also include the definite article, and (ii) has an adjective "stale". In English the normal position for an attributive adjective such as the latter is to the left of the headword i.e. it is a premodifier. When the adjective is predicative it follows the copula verb "be".

e.g. The cream is stale.

If for the moment we refer to all the premodifying words as "m" and the headwords as "h", the structure for the nominal groups above is as follows:-

Let us consider now the sort of words which can occur at "m". In (ii) we have two premodifiers which clearly fall into different categories. For instance, we could not reverse the sequence.

û  stale the cream û

There is thus a chaining limitation whereby an "m" which is a definite article may be followed by another item at "m" such as "stale", but an adjective "m" may not be followed by a definite article "m". Does this mean that words like "stale" must be followed by "h"?

Consider another type of word which could also appear at "m" in the case of the headword "cream".

e.g. sterilised

If we now augment example (ii) with this word we could then get:-

the sterilised stale cream  û

This seems a bit odd, but if we changed the sequence at "m" it would be more natural:-

sterilised cream ü

Thus it seems that words like "stale" and "sterilised" are in a similar chaining relationship to that which we observed for "the" and "stale" i.e. one may follow the other but they are not reversible.

We can supply yet another type of word which can appear at "m", such as "Devonshire". What happens when we add this to the above structure?

 the Devonshire stale sterilised cream û

Again this doesn't seem natural. How about:-

the stale Devonshire sterilised cream

This is better, but still a third possibility remains:-

the stale sterilised Devonshire cream ü

Most people would probably prefer the latter word order, although the relationship between "sterilised" and "Devonshire" seems to be less clearly prescriptive than that between either of these words and "stale".

Examples such as this show that there are distinctions to be made between words which may appear at "m", such as "stale", "the", "Devonshire" and "sterilised", and that the classes represented by these examples exist in a structural relationship to each other. In the following pages we shall consider the nature of this structural relationship in more detail.

EXERCISES.

(1) Identify the principle characteristics of the words which we saw could appear at "m" in the above examples. What is the grammatical derivation of the words "sterilised" and "Devonshire"? Do they have other functions which are distinct from their use as premodifiers? Does this suggest any indication as to their structural relationship to the headword in a nominal group?

(2) The word "the" is called "definite article". We saw that it exists in a chaining relationship with other words at "m". There are also other words with which "the" exists in a paradigmatic relationship i.e. the selection of "the" excludes their use in the same nominal group. Can you think of some of these paradigms? Do they manifest the same sort of chaining relationship with adjectives as "the"?

** SUGGESTED READING.

Sinclair, J McH., "A Course in Spoken English: Grammar", Chapter 3, section 17 pages 132 - 142.

Young, David J. "Introducing English Grammar", Chapter 2, pages 18 - 31.

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik, "A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language", sections 5.1 - 5.9 pages 245 - 253 e.g. the stale.