noun phrase construction difficulties for students with l1 spanish

Noun Phrase Construction Difficulties forStudents with L1 Spanish

Peter AllenAugust 2011

Peter Allen ED7003 Noun phrase construction difficultiesfor students with L1 Spanish

University of LeicesterMA TESOL and Applied Linguistics

Module Two: Grammar and Phonology

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. What is a noun phrase? 3

3. The structure of noun phrases 4

A The head 4

B Pre-modification……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 (i) Determiners (ii) Modifiers

C Post-modification………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…5 (i) Postmodifiers (ii) Complements

4. Pre- or post-modification?..………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

5. Noun phrases in Spanish ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7

6. Examples of learner error………………………………………………….………………………………………………………7

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7. Coursebook exercises on noun phrase structure..……………………………………………………………………..8

8. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..9

9. Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10

1 Introduction

The construction of noun phrases in English can be a complex problem for the language learner. Spanish speakers do not usually have difficulty in understanding the concept as their own language contains noun phrases. However, the construction is often different and this can cause problems with accuracy. In this assignment I intend first to look at the different ways that noun phrases are structured. This necessitates a structural approach as I will discuss below. I will then look at the noun phrase in Spanish and how this may influence some examples of learner error. Finally, I intend to examine an approach to raising awareness of noun phrase structure.

2 What is a noun phrase?

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Before proceeding any further it is necessary to consider the definition of a noun. This is one of the major parts of speechand `indispensable in the description of the grammar of any language’ (Hurford, 1994: 148). The traditional classroom definition is that a noun describes a person, place or thing. Joseph Stalin, Moscow and samovar would be examples of nouns that clearly meet this definition. However, not all nouns are so compatible. Many describe intangible states such as emotions which do not fit the description as neatly. Attempting to analyse grammar using semantic categories can therefore cause difficulties. For an accurate grammatical description it is more useful to adopt a structural approach.

For it follows that concepts like `NP’, `subject’, `past tense’ `verb’ etc., can

be understood only by looking at the role they play … They are theoretical

constructs which cannot be explicated or defined except by reference to

their inter-relationships … the units and categories … are determined by

the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations that obtain within the sentences

of that language (Huddleston, 1984: 50-51).

So a clear grammatical analysis requires a structural approach. This also applies to the concept of a phrase. The usual understanding of what constitutes a phrase is that it consists of more than one word `clustered around a particular head word, which in some sense carries the central idea in themeaning of the whole phrase’ (Hurford, 1994: 171). However, instructural analyses a clause or sentence is divided into slots, which may then be further subdivided. A noun phrase slot may be filled by a single word or a number of words. The term noun phrase may refer to a single noun or a noun in combination with other words.

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3 The structure of noun phrases

A The headThe head word is the most important word in the phrase with which other elements of the clause (such as any verbs) will agree where this is required. For example, in the clause Èvery intelligent student knows …’ the head word in the noun phrase Èvery intelligent student’ is student as the verb agreeswith it in number. This can be seen by contrasting it with theclause Àll intelligent students know …’. The change to a plural noun form leads to a change in the verb to a plural form, as well as a change in determiner from every to all. A further test to establish the head word is whether it is essential to the clause. Student is clearly essential to this clause is a way that the other words are not - *Èvery intelligent knows’ and *Àll intelligent know’ are ungrammatical. The head noun may be modified by other words coming before and/or after it – pre-modification and post-modification.

B Pre-modificationA noun may be modified by preceding words classified as determiners or as one of a range of different modifiers.

(i) Determiners: Quirk et al. (1985: 253-264) identify three categories of determiner – predeterminers, central determinersand postdeterminers. This sets the sequence if more than one of these types of determiner appear together in a noun phrase.Predeterminers consist of words such as all/both/half; double/twice, etc; fractions and exclamatory uses of words such as such/what; for example, `That was such a tough exam!’.

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Their relationship is functionally paradigmatic – only one is used in a clause, they cannot usually appear together (with rare exceptions). The most common central determiners are the articles a/an/the; and pronouns such as this/that/some. They are also usually mutually exclusive. Postdeterminers include ordinal and cardinal numbers such as two/second; and quantifiers such as few/many/ large number of. There may be one, two or three of these determiners in a clause following the sequence set out above. For example, the noun phrase àll the many things’ in the clause Àll the many things I have done for her’ demonstrates this sequence.

(ii) Modifiers: The determiners may be followed by a range of different modifiers – they always come after the determiner(s)if present. The most common modifiers according to Quirk et al. (1985: 1321-1337) are adjectives, participles, nouns, the genitive ‘s, adverb and other phrases and sentences. Adjective pre-modifiers are referred to as attributive, an example is `my handsome husband’. They can themselves be pre-modified by adverbs, such as in `my very handsome husband’. Participles ending in –ing or-ed may also precede the head word in a noun phrase, such as in àn interesting book’ or `the interested parties’. Use of the present participle is related to how characteristic the feature is, which I will discuss further below. Pre-modification by nouns is very common with the most common often classified as compound nouns. However, the question of whether the modifying noun will precede or follow the head noun is related to semantics. Why is ` a book about indoor plants’ more acceptable than àn indoor plants book’? Again I will return to this question below. Quirk et al. (1985:1335-1336) describe the genitive pre-modifier as having two functions. In the phrase `my old friend’s home’ the genitive is descriptive – the adjective old pre-modifies the noun friend; whereas in the phrase `the old people’s home’ it isdeterminative with the adjective pre-modifying the noun phrasepeople’s home. Examples of adverb phrases which

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may premodify a noun include round-the clock and up-to-date (Quirk et al., 1985: 1336). An example of pre-modification by sentence is `he has been to I don’t know how many places’.

C Post-modification There appear to be some differences between grammarians with regard to the analysis of post-modification. The Cambridge Grammar of English states that there are two types – postmodifiers and complements. `Postmodifiers specify which person or thing or type of person or thing is being referred to’ whereas `complements complete the meaning of the noun phrase’ (Carter & McCarthy, 2006: 323).

(i) Postmodifiers: Carter & McCarthy claim that the main grammatical form here is the relative clause (they say that `all the other postmodifiers can be paraphrased by a relative clause’ (2006: 323)). This may be a full relative clause, for example `the woman who I have always loved’; or a participle clause, for example `the woman laughing at his joke’ or `the woman who passed the exam’. It could also be a `to plus infinitive’ clause, `I had a long journey to reach my destination’; or a prepositional phrase, `the man in the corner’; or an adjective phrase including a complement, `politicians desperate to pull the wool over the voters’ eyes’. Clauses may be finite, in which case they begin with a relative pronoun (or zero relative pronoun when it is omitted due to ellipsis); or non-finite, when they will mainly begin with a participle (-ed or –ing) or a `to plus infinitive’.

(ii) Complements: The relationship here is analogous to that of verb and complement. So in the sentence `He is the chairman’, chairman is the complement of the verb to be as it refers to thesubject of the sentence; and in a similar way in the noun phrase `the chairman of the company’, of the company is the complement to the noun phrase `the chairman’. Huddleston states that `Complements are generally realized by PPs [prepositional phrases] or subordinate clauses’ (1984: 261). Subordinate clauses may be finite, as in `The news that the team had won calls for a celebration’ (Quirk et al., 1985: 1244); ornon-finite, in which case a participle (-ed or –ing) or

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infinitive is used, as in `the person writing reports is my colleague’ (Quirk et al., 1985: 1263).

4 Pre- or post-modification?

A number of factors are involved here. Quirk et al. state that`prehead position in the noun phrase is strongly associated with relatively permanent characteristics’ (1985: 1323). Elsewhere they state that `… items placed in pre-modification position are typically given the status of permanent or, at any rate, characteristic features’ (1985: 1242). Present participles may be used for this purpose, as for example in àloving husband’. With regard to adjectives, those which can onlypostmodify (and are therefore predicative) tend to have a moretemporary reference than those that can be either attributive or predicative. Both à kind lady’ and à lady who is kind’ suggest a feature that is characteristic of someone, but the adjective prepared in the clause `the candidate is prepared for the ordeal’ refers to one occasion and cannot be used attributively.

Another major factor is that pre-modification may be ambiguouswhereas post-modification allows more precision. For example, to describe someone as à Ford man’, using Ford as a pre-modifier could have a range of different meanings. The man referred to might work for the car manufacturer; alternativelyhe might only buy Ford cars, or then again he could be a devotee of the films of the director John Ford. No doubt many other meanings are possible, but it is highly likely that if this were used in conversation the context would make the meaning clear. Where the context did not do so it is more likely that post-modification would be used to avoid ambiguity, as in `He loves John Ford’s westerns’. Huddleston argues that the relationship between pre- and post-

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modification is not just that of a simple transformation. There is the possible difference between temporary and permanent characteristics already referred to. In addition, where the post-modification is by relative clause it can encode tense, which is not possible in pre-modification. `In general, then, the differences between the two constructions are too great for us to regard one as systematically derived from the other’ (1985: 268).

A further issue is the complexity of what is being expressed, although this may be related to the question of precision and ambiguity. If we want to talk about a car belonging to John itwould be highly unusual to post-modify - `John’s car’ is such a natural-seeming choice that `the car of John’ might be regarded as non-native speaker like. However, the reverse is generally true (particularly in writing) if we wish to impart much more complex information in a noun phrase. `A further claim by the politician who fiddled his expenses’ is far more likely than `the politician who fiddled his expenses’ further claim’. (Complex noun phrases are used far less frequently in speech than in writing, but when they are, pre-modification islikely to be more acceptable).

Huddleston points to one more consideration, the `humanness and animacy’ of the terms used (1985: 269). Reference to humans tends to pre-modification, for example `the writer’s first book’ is more likely than `the first book of the writer’; whereas reference to things tends to post-modification, as in `the first part of the operation’ rather than `the operation’s first part’. However, we must be carefulnot to be prescriptive here, for as Huddleston points out `Forthe most part at least, we are dealing here with preferences and tendencies, not with syntactic rules’ (1985: 269).

All of these factors need to be considered in constructing a grammar of the noun phrase. But for teachers, there is also the question of how to get this information across to our students. Only a few of the most advanced are likely to be interested in studying the complexity analysed by grammarians such as Quirk et al. or Huddleston. How can we use this

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information to enable our students to construct accurate noun phrases? Perhaps we need to make such generalisations as Carter and McCarthy do (2006: 326-327) when they state that pre-modification is preferred `when referring to familiar, everyday entities’ such as à world map’, and post-modification for a less common combination such as à map of the Nile Delta’. I will return to this question below.

5 Noun phrases in Spanish

There are some similarities in the way that nouns and noun phrases are used in Spanish and in English, but there are alsoimportant differences which may lead to learner error when constructing noun phrases. Thus although word order is freer in Spanish than in English it is not totally free and Ìn everyday language the VO/VC [verb-object/ verb-complement] order is fixed; objects cannot precede their verbs’ (Green, 1987: 253). This suggests that L1 Spanish students are not necessarily likely to make such mistakes with noun phrases as placing the (noun phrase) object of a verb before it. However,there are important differences in the construction of noun phrases which may cause more difficulties. `Noun phrase relationships are expressed exclusively by prepositions; genitives follow their head noun;…most adjectives and all attributive phrases and relative clauses follow their head noun’ (Green, 1987: 254). Furthermore, the identity of the head noun may not be obvious.Another important difference is that all modifiers within the noun phrase are marked for number and gender. Swan and Smith (2001: 104, 106) give examples of the kind of mistakes that Spanish speakers make, such as *yellows flowers instead of yellow flowers and *the garage’s door instead of the garage door.

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6 Examples of learner error

The examples included here are from essays written by a numberof South American students (mainly from Colombia, but also from Bolivia and Ecuador) studying academic writing preparatory to taking business degrees. The most common error is using adjectives as post-modifiers, for example *legislation permissive instead of permissive legislation, *oligopolies authentic insteadof authentic oligopolies, *other aspect important instead of another important aspect, and *companies competitive and dynamic instead of competitive and dynamic companies. Another type of error may be due to the use of postmodifying prepositions in noun phrases in the L1 – for example, *largest and richest companies of food instead oflargest and richest food companies, *productions of the agricultural sector instead of agricultural production, and *`with a single centre decision makers’ instead of `with a single decision-making centre’. There are examples of marking the pre-modifier for number in *multinationals companies instead of multinational companies, and *nationals firms instead of national firms. There is also a problem with the genitive in *`for their own sake and society sake’ instead of `for their own sake and society’s sake’. All of these errors could be due to the influence of L1 on the students’ interlanguage.

7 Coursebook exercises on noun phrase structure

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This is a relatively neglected area of grammar in many coursebooks, which is unfortunate as noun phrases are very important in writing, particularly academic writing. While inaccuracy may not obscure understanding it may well have a negative effect on the reader. For students who wish to develop a career in business this is no small matter. One coursebook which has attempted to address this problem is the Advanced Gold Coursebook (Acklam and Burgess, 2001). The relevant exercises have been attached as an appendix.

It is notable that the exercises are not designed around a structural approach, as set out above in describing the noun phrase. It seems far more likely that students will want to get involved and to learn if the tasks are semantic rather than structural. This entails the use of generalisations as described above in the case of Carter and McCarthy. So the exercises begin by students matching ten descriptions, such as`when we say what things are made of’ to three types of noun phrase structure – namely noun plus noun pre-modification; thegenitive used as a premodifier; and post-modification with a preposition. In my experience students get quite involved in working out the correct structure to go with the descriptions and after a period of concentration on the task usually achieve a reasonable degree of accuracy, although with some uncertainties. This is then developed by the remaining exercises (with the exception of exercise 2, which deals with the rather different issue of changing meaning through stressing different words - its inclusion here is rather questionable as it is not directly relevant to the other exercises).

So exercise 3 tests their ability to recognize and correct inaccurately structured noun phrases with a mixture of correctand incorrect formulations. This is useful for all students, including Spanish speakers as considered above, as it tests the ability to use the genitive (*hair of Susan / Susan’s hair), the lack of marking for number (*shoes shop / shoe shop), and post-modification with prepositions (documentary about Indian tigers). In exercise 4 students then practice

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production by writing sentences incorporating information in noun phrases in the correct form.

Although we cannot expect students to become more accurate through one exposure to these exercises, I believe they are valuable in raising awareness of the different structures in away that enables students to develop their accuracy through reading (and noticing the structure of different noun phrases)in addition to continuing work in class. Noun phrase structurein English is complex, and while we need a structural approachto analyse and understand it, we need to return to semantics –and use generalisations – when we seek to make our students aware of the issues in order to help them become more accurate.

(Word count: 2,925)

Bibliography

Acklam, R. and Burgess, S. (2001) Advanced Gold Coursebook, Harlow:Longman

Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (2006) Cambridge Grammar of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Comrie, B. (ed.) (1987) The World’s Major Languages, New York: Oxford University Press

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Green, J.N. (1987) Spanish, chapter 10, pp. 236-259, in Comrie, B.

Huddleston, R.H., (1984) Introduction to the Grammar of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hurford, J.R. (1994) Grammar: a Student’s Guide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar Of The English Language, Harlow: Longman

Swan, M. and Smith, B. (2001) Learner English, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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noun phrase construction difficulties for students with l1 spanish

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