Lê Thị Thuỳ Dương

Mã SV: 19C-71-42.7-02733

Mã Đề : 3

After the head noun, there appears post-modification. Post-modifications

can be a word such as an adjective, an adverb or a phrase such as prepositional
phrase or a clause such as relative clause, non-finite clause.

Usually, when people need an adjective to modify the head noun, they
place it in the pre-modification position. However, in some cases, an adjective
can go after the head noun, especially in some few set phrases like blood royal,
heir apparent.

In addition, in comparison with adjectives, adverbs are more frequently

found in the position of post-modification and they can be regarded as
reductions of a prepositional phrase. For example, the time before can be
understood as the time before this one.

A relative clause is a clause composed of a relative pronoun as a head

which refers back to the head noun of the noun phrase. The relative pronoun
“who” and “whom” refer to people. The relative pronoun “which” is used for
plants and animals. If the relative pronoun is an index of an object, it can be
omitted. For example: in the noun phrase the girl whom I met
yesterday, “whom” is optional.

A Non-finite clause can also function as post-modification. There are

three kinds of non-finite clauses according to the verb that introduces them:
Infinitive Clause (a), Present Participle Clause (b) and Past Participle Clause
(c). For example:

(a) a movie to see

(b) the man talking to the teacher

(c) the movie chosen by the teacher

An infinitive clause is introduced by a to-infinitive. Likewise, a present

participle and a past participle clause are introduced by a present participle and
a past participle respectively. Non-finite clauses can be reconstructed into full
relative clauses. For example:

(a) movie to see  a movie that we should see

(b) the man talking to the teacher  the man who is talking to the teacher

(c) the movie chosen by the teacher  the movie that is chosen by the teacher

A prepositional phrase is form by a preposition + a noun phrase, e.g. in

the corner. Prepositional phrases are said to be the most frequent kind of post-
modifiers in noun phrases. For example: the man in the corner. A prepositional
phrase can also be rebuilt into a relative clause, e.g. the man who is in the
corner.

A suprasegmental aspect of word related to the nature of a syllable. All

stress syllables have one characteristic in common and that is called
prominence. The prominence is noticeably made with the strength and length of
pronunciation

There are some rules for stress placement but with most of the rules there
are exceptions. Stress rules are more noticeable applied to words with suffix:
Some suffixes carry primary stress (employ’ee); some influence stress in the
stem( pho’tography), others do not affect stress placement (-able), and to
several dozen pairs of two-syllable words with identical spelling: N or Adj with
stress on the first syllable, V – on the second: conduct :‘kond^kt(N),
k/ə/n‘d^kt(V) - abstract : ‘æ bstrækt (Adj), æb‘strækt (V)
 There are roughly 40 English words which have both a strong form
(stressed) and weak form (unstressed). They are called grammatical words:
prepositions, auxiliary verbs…,which are normally unstressed, and there are
some rules for them to be pronounced in the strong form, depending on certain
contexts where they are used: at the end of a sentence, in contrast with another,
or for emphasis, etc.

Word formation is the process of building new words from the material
already existing in the language according to certain structural and semantic
patterns and formulae. Below are common ways of forming words in English.

1. Affixation: the formation of new words with the help of affixes. As

affixes consists of prefixes and suffixes, affixation is further divided into
prefixation and suffixation. Prefixation is the formation of words by means of
prefixes. This process mainly modifies the lexical meaning of the root, and
rarely forms new parts of speech: happy (adj) – unhappy (adj) do (v) – redo (v)
Suffixation is the formation of words by means of suffixes. The process changes
the meaning of the root, both lexically and grammatically. Suffixation transfers
words to different parts of speech: beautiful (adj)  beautifully (adv) modern
(adj)  modernize (v)

2. Compounding/word composition

Compounding (word-composition) is the building of a new word by

joining two or more words. As a result, a compound word is a word consisting
of at least two stems (roots) which occur in the language as free forms. e.g.
classroom, time-table, bedroom, schoolgirl, passer-by, aircraft-carrier, kind-
hearted, handwash, sunbeam etc. -The components of a compound may be
either simple or derived words or even other compound words

A compound word may differ from a free word group phonologically,

structurally, semantically or graphically.
 a. Phonological criterion: -There is a marked tendency in English to give
compounds a heavy stress on the first element (determinant) ‘blackboard #
‘black ’board ‘blackbird # ‘black ‘bird ‘bluebottle # ‘blue ‘bottle ‘dancing girl #
‘dancing ‘girl 4

b. Inseparability criteria (criterion of structural integrity) Compounds are

indivisible. Between the elements of a compound word it is impossible to insert
any other words. Raincoat, notice-board, identity-card, text-book, tallboy

c. Semantic criterion A compound word only expresses a single idea

despite the fact that it consist of two or more words. dirty work (dishonourable
proceedings) (vs clean work, dry work: phrase) blackmarket, redtape,
greenhouse, bluebottle, lip-service, chatterbox, blackboard.

d. Graphic criterion (spelling criterion) A compound is often spelt with a

hyphen or with no separation at all: headmaster, loudspeaker or head-master,
loud-speaker, night-club