Introduction
Bloomfield (1933) defines syntax as the study of free forms that entirely consist of free forms. This idea was later criticized by scholars who highlighted that syntax should be viewed as a criterion for class membership, best explained in terms of substitution. A class of forms is a collection of forms (both simple and complex, free or bound) in which one can be replaced by another in a particular construction or set of constructions in a language. A word class, or part of speech, is a group of words in a language unit categorized based on form, function, and meaning within the grammatical system.
Lexical categories are not a large homogeneous group but consist of several categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, inflections, modifiers/determiners, comparative adverbs, and complements, which according to Newson et al. (2004: 5-6) are word categories. Language utterances contain structured word categories, which study the context of words within phrases, clauses, and sentences in the language system (syntax). Newson et al. (2004: 6-10) divide word categories into two typologies: thematic and functional. Thematic categories include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions, while functional categories encompass inflections, determiners, comparative adverbs, and complements.
This study begins with the analysis of nouns and noun phrases as the most common elements in sentence construction. These elements can often be arranged in complex or sophisticated forms, containing a wealth of information. This observation is crucial for linguistics researchers, particularly those responsible for maintaining English language norms in accordance with linguistic theory. This research also holds significant relevance in English language teaching, where teachers are responsible for guiding students in understanding sentence behavior in English, both written and spoken, as a native and foreign language. Teachers must also guide students in accurately interpreting other languages into English. This is the current focus of English linguistic studies.
This article presents the thoughts of linguists on nouns along with provided case examples. It is hoped that this research encourages researchers to further explore cases involving nouns, thus opening up more opportunities for syntactic research in English. Therefore, this article is written as an introduction to word analysis, assisting linguistics students or beginner syntax researchers in English. Any shortcomings in this article’s writing are entirely the responsibility of the author and are open to critique.
Nouns and Nouns Group
Nouns are a class of words that refer to tangible substances or intangible materials according to linguistic studies. Downing and Locke (2008: 401) explain that nouns refer to semantic meaning as a category of entities1. Noun phrases are linguistic constituents that can occupy the positions of subject, object, subject complement, or prepositional complement within a sentence structure, with the noun serving as the head of that phrase. For example, the adjective |poor| with the article |the| as an attribute2, indicating that |poor| functions as a noun, serving as the head. Another example is the suffix |-ing| in |swimming pool|, which functions as an attribute for |swimming|, explaining that this word originates from the verb |swim| but functions as a noun that modifies the noun |pool| as the head in the compound noun |swimming pool|.
Non-elliptical noun phrases have a noun as their head, which may optionally be preceded or followed by bound elements or other dependent elements. In the structure of English clauses, noun phrases can function as modifiers or complements but not as predicates. In examples (1) to (9), the noun phrases are bolded according to their function in the sentences: as the subject in (1), direct object in (2), indirect object in (3), subject complement in (4), object complement in (5), an element of the adjectival clause in (6), complement for a preposition in (7), restricting noun in (8), and complement for a noun in (9).
- The farthest city measurable was Jakarta
- The adventurers traveled to the farthest city measurable
- They made the farthest city measurable an alternative
- Jakarta seemed to be the farthest city measurable
- The adventurers judged it the farthest city measurable
- They decided it last Wednesday
- The group leader took a risk for the farthest city measurable
- The farthest-city topic was not present at the meeting
- Rudy William, the city adventurer, leads an adventure
Conlusion
The structure of noun phrases has high potential when arranged flexibly according to their function and frequency within a discourse structure. Based on the study, the structure of noun phrases in English consists of four basic elements: head, determiner, modifier/marker (attributive and classifier), and complement. These four elements can occur simultaneously in a noun phrase, as shown in the table. Understanding this noun phrase depends on the meaning (semantics) of each element and is bound by the syntactic relationships between elements, where the head and other elements have a fundamental logical relationship, namely subordination.
The Structure of English Noun Phrases into Four Basic Elements
| Text | That | short | summer | course | we attended |
| Function | Determiner | Epithet | Classifier | HEAD | Complement |
| Class/Unit | Demonstrative | Adjective | Noun | Noun | Rel. Clause |
Source: https://www.ugr.es/~ftsaez/morfo/nouns.pdf [22.1.2024]
Citations of Works
Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. The University of Chicago Press.
Newson, M., Hordós, M., Pap, D., Szécsényi, K., Tóth, I., & Vincze, O. (2004).
Basic English Syntax with Exercises. Diakses pada 15 Desember 2023, dari
(http://primus.arts.u-szeged.hu/bese/contents.htm)
Downing, A., & Locke, P. (2006). English Grammar: A University Course (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
- Something that has a unique and distinct form, even if it is not necessarily physical, such as |abstraction|, is usually also considered an entity. ↩︎
- Explanation: an adjective that describes a noun in a noun phrase; a specific class of words that has the function of modifying nouns in a noun phrase. ↩︎