Reader for SEMINAR No. 5. The Nominative Group Structure.

Determination,
modification, classification and qualification.

Literature:
Эту информацию можно прочитать в учебном пособии:
Ильинова Е.Ю. Грамматические категории… 125-137.

NOMINAL GROUP STRUCTURE. SELECTING AND PARTICULARISING ‘THINGS’

1. Expressing our experience of 'things'

Nominal Groups refer semantically to those aspects of our experience which we perceive
as 'things' or 'entities'. The term 'thing' refers here not only to concrete entities such as
persons, objects, places, institutions and other 'collectives', but also to the names of
actions, abstraction, relationships, emotions and many other classes of entities.
In English we can speak about the following full structure of a NG = [det /d + m + H +q]:

NG

determiner modifier (m) HEAD (h) qualifier (q)

(d/det)
defining subjective nominal nominal
deictic objective pronominal circumstantial
distributive classifying elliptical attributive
quantifying substitutive situational
adjectival

The head element is the central element of a NG structure (h), it refers to a substantive
entity experienced as a ‘thing’; it is realized typically by a noun or a pronoun. Sometimes
the entity is not named, and the head element is realized by a word expressing one of its
Attributes (the poor), a determinative feature (those, each), its quantity (many, twenty).

The determining element of a NG may be realised by articles or by a word which relates

the head noun to the situation in which it exists (numerals, pronouns). This is known as
deictic reference, it points to an entity as being near or not near the speaker in space or
time (this book, that person) or to a person or thing to which it belongs or is related (my
dictionary, the Minister’s reasons).
Other particularising words of less specific reference are WH-items as in which book?,
whatever reasons, and distributives (each, all, either, neither). Since deictic reference
includes the concepts of ‘definiteness’ and ‘indefiniteness’, these words are usually
grouped with the articles as a single class of unit. Any element that determines the head
noun is called the determiner (d), and the lexical items which expound the determiner we
shall call ‘determinatives’.
The function of ‘determination’ also includes that of ‘quantification’, which may be exact
(six, a hundred, the first, the next) or inexact (many, a lot, a few, some). Certain
particularising adjectives such as same, whole, customary, original, certain, own, etc., are
sometimes used with a deictic meaning.

The modifying element follows the defining, determining and quantifying items of
information. The modifier (m) is used to particularise or select the noun referent from
others in the surrounding context, we find those which describe the inherent, more
permanent qualities of the entity itself – objective qualities (narrow streets; large
 mansion) and subjective, that represent the personal attitude of the writer (stinking,
open drains), others do not describe the entity qualitatively, but indicate a particular
subclass of the referent (sheer, naked, human life – is distinct from animal, organic,
social, family life). The difference between ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ is sometimes not
clear, but depends on interpretation.

The qualifying element refers to all the lexical items which are placed after the head
noun and which help to define, describe and identify the referent of the headword (q). In
English, they do this typically by adding information of a temporary, extrinsic kind, in
contrast to the modifying pre-head elements, which describe its inherent, relatively
permanent Attributes.
The quantifier is potentially, and in practice nearly always is, much longer than the pre-
head elements, because the kind of information it adds is usually more extensive, and is
realised not by individual words, but by embedded groups and clauses which themselves
may have other groups and clauses embedded within them.

The following paragraph, taken from a popular scientific journal, contains examples
of NGs with two, three, four elements; the structure of each group is shown in the table
below:
"Nowadays a number of / children and young people1 have found that mild / depression2 may be
overcome by doing something / exciting3. This4 may be going to a / pop/ concert/ with music at
pain-producing intensity5, it6 may be challenging authority/ at home or at school7, or it8 may involve
stealing9 or other / law-breaking / activities10. The more depressed they are the more exciting the
challenge11 has to be to mask their / depression12.
[New Scientist, October, 1992]

determiner(d) modifier (m) head (h) qualifier (q)

dH a number of children

dmH a number of young people

mH mild depression
Hq something exciting
H This
dmHq a pop concert with music at pain producing
intensity
H it
Hq authority at home or at school
H it
H stealing
dmH other law-breaking activities
dH the challenge
dH their depression

Nominal Groups vary greatly not only in the types of 'things' they refer to, but also in the
experiential information encoded in their elements, in the number of these elements, the
classes of formal items that realize them and the vast range of lexical items that expound
them. These linguistic resources make the NG a powerful unit of expression for 'talking
about 'things".
2. Determination

Determination is important for particularizing referent things in discourse. The first

element of the NG, the determiner, particularizes by ‘selection’.
Two types of determiners are: deixis and quantification.

Deictic determinatives Quantifying determinatives

Demonstrative: this, that, these, those. Exact: cardinal and ordinal numerals
Possessive: my coat, her money, Tom’s house, etc. Non-exact: much, many, little, few, etc., the
Relational: my university, our bus, the moon’s orbit, etc. next, the last, etc.
Distributive: all, both, each, every, either, neither.
Relative: which, what, whose, whichever, etc., such.
Adjectival: famous, other, usual, original, tallest, etc.

The system of determination. Common nouns in the dictionary refer to classes of things,
but when used in discourse they need to be particularized. This is done by the first
element of the NG, called the determiner. The basic function of this element is to
particularize and so help to identify the noun referent in the context of the speech situation.
Determiners identify a nominal entity by telling us which or what or whose it is, how much,
how many, what part or degree of it we are referring to, how big or frequent it is, how it is
distributed in space or time.

In the following short passage about the problem of waste disposal, the writer refers to the entities:
rubbish, day, year, goods, amount, plants, factories, fuel, snags, risk, damage, degrees centigrade,
and specifies them. What questions from the ones mentioned above can specify them?
Three quarters of the rubbish we generate every day could be recycled, and more could be, if the
production of biodegradable goods were encouraged. At present the same amount is wasted every
day because of the notorious lack of incineration plants. Such plants could be installed in all
factories so that each company could burn its own rubbish and save a great deal of fuel. The only
snag about waste burners is that they emit certain kinds of highly contaminated gases, but it is
calculated that in a few years rubbish will be burned without causing any damage to the
environment. A further argument is that, although nuclear fusion has none of the risk of fission, so
far, no scientist has yet found a system which can function at temperatures lower than millions of
degrees centigrade.
Specific deictic determinatives.
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
This items particularize the noun referent by indicating whether it is near or not near the speaker, in
space or time, or psychologically. They can refer to both human and non-human entities (this girl,
this century).
Genitive determinatives. The inflected genitive determinative must be understood in a
broader sense than that of the traditional term ‘possessive’. The semantic function of the genitive
determinative can be shown by paraphrase, as in the following examples:
Paraphrase Function
Example
Napoleon’s army N. commanded the army subjective
Napoleon’s mistake N. made a mistake subjective
Napoleon’s defeat N. defeated X. / N. was defeated by X. subjective / objective
Europe’s chief cities The chief cities in Europe locative
A month’s holiday The holiday lasted a month extent
The dog’s tail The dog has a tail possession
The sun’s rays The rays come from the sun source

These varied functional relationships also exist between a noun head and the determinatives my,
your, his, her, its, our, their, someone’s, everyone’s.
Adjectival determinatives. Nominal entities are sometimes determined by a small group of
adjectives, which have a selective function, not the attitudinal or qualitative functions that are
realized by the determiners, the following are among the most typical exponents:

similarity same, identical

difference other, different
totality complete, whole, entire, total
familiarity familiar, well-known, famous, notorious
usuality usual, normal, regular, odd, customary
particularity particular, certain, original, chief, main
uniqueness (a) sole, only, (the) precise
(b) superlative adjectives: the best, smallest

Modification of determiners. Quantifying determinatives are sometimes modified by adverbs of

degree expressing notions such as the following:

intensification fully ten weeks, all of six months, many more people, the very first
opportunity, a good half hour, over forty miles, quite half the work;
approximation roughly a hundred people, about a million pounds, some ten thousand
years, virtually the whole village;
comparison more than fifty messages, as many as a hundred votes, less than five
dollars, fewer than ten members;
restriction only four survivors.

Determinatives used as elliptical heads. In some NGs, the head element is not realized
by a noun or pronoun, but by a determinative item. This does not change the class of the items
from determinative to pronoun, but simply its function from determiner element to head element.
In the experiential structure of the NG, it continues to express a determinative feature of the
presupposed noun which has been ellipted

Summary of determinative elements in NG

Partition
Fractional (+/- of) – half, (a) quarter, two-thirds,
four-fifths, etc.
Multiplying (* of) – double, treble, twice, three
times etc.
Non-specific – all of, both of, some of, any of,
none of, each of, several of, either of, enough
of.
Other quantifiers – cardinal + of, the + ordinal
+ of, non-exact + of (see column 4)
Quality
Adjectival – same, different, usual, customary,
regular, typical, certain, famous, well-known,
given, complete, entire, whole, original, other,
chief, possible, probable, following, further,
principal, previous, particular, former, latter, etc.
Superlative – best, biggest, most intelligent
Deixis
Definite – the
Indefinite – a(n), some
Specific – this, that, these, those; my, your, his,
her, its, our, their; John’s, my friend’s; which,
what, whose; whichever; such; some.
Non-specific – some, any, no; each, every;
either, neither; all, both.
Exclamatory – what (a) …! / such (a) …!
Quantity
Cardinal – ten, two hundred, three thousand, a
dozen, a score, hundreds, etc.
Ordinal – first, second, etc; last, next,etc.
*Non-exact – much, little, a little, many, few, a
few, less, more, most, least, fewer, fewest,
several, enough, some.

3. Modification. The system of expressing intrinsic features of ‘things’

Intrinsic features of ‘things’. After the defining, determining and quantifying items of
information which particularize or select the noun referent from others in the surrounding context,
we find those which describe the inherent, more permanent qualities of the entity itself.
 The items that describe subjective and objective qualities of an entity are considered in
this grammar as two types of modifiers (msubj and mobj). The item which indicates a subclass of
the entity will be called the classifier (mcf).
Both the objective modifiers and the classifiers refer to semantic features which are
permanent and intrinsic in the referent ‘thing’ named by the head noun, and which contrast with
most of the extrinsic temporary features expressed by the qualifier.

Noun Group (NG)

determiner modifier head

deic quant subj obj cf
d d m m m

those two lovely tall sailing SHIPS

Types of modifiers. The modifying element is realized typically by adjectival forms, though in
Modern English the attributive position may be filled with a noun. In the previous example, the
adjective lovely indicates what the speaker thinks about the ships subjectively; on the other hand
the adjective tall refers to a quality which is inherent and permanent in the ships, independently of
what anyone may think about them.
Objective reference of the modifier. Adjectival modifiers expressing objective qualities may
simply ‘describe’ an entity (I bought a small bottle) or ‘define’ it (I bought the small bottle).
The two semantic functions of describing and defining are reflected in the grammar by the ‘a/the
contrast’. That is to say, the terms ‘descriptive’ and ‘defining’ do not refer to subclasses of
adjectives but to two potential functions of most objective adjectives. The ‘defining’ function of a
modifier is different from the classifying function, and this may be appreciated in the following short
extracts:

[1] The car carrying the two escaped [1] killers, Rickman and Hoser, nosed carefully into the
unidentified[2] desert town. It was that darkest [3] hour before dawn of a moonless[4], starlit[5] night.
Rickman, the more vicious[6] man, driving, with cold[7], snake-like[8] eyes and bloodless[9] mouth.
(from Paul Gallico, The Silent Hostages)
{[1-3] defining; [4-5] descriptive; [6] defining; [7-9] descriptive}

[2] Since they had murdered their three hostages, they had been attempting to find their way
towards the Mexican[10] border, driving without lights on back[11] roads and wagon[12] trails.
(Idem) {[1-3] classifying}

Subjective reference of the modifier. This type of epithet expresses the speaker’s or
writer’s subjective experience or attitude to the referent of the head noun, in contrast to the
objective qualities of other modifiers. There are two broad kinds of attitude:

appreciative wonderful, heavenly, huge, rapturous.

pejorative appalling, ghastly, idiotic, monstrous.

Attitudinal modifiers are sometimes preceded or followed by others which express similar or related
meanings and so reinforce or intensify the attitude or emotion in question:
There was a mighty great explosion. He’s a nasty slimy toad. She’s a sweet little girl. Thank you for
that lovely, gorgeous meal.

These reinforcing adjectives replace the normal intensifiers and grading words such as very, most,
extremely, which are not often used with attitudinal signs: *a very horrible cough or *an extremely
terrible experience. They are more common in colloquial speech than in written texts, and include
strongly emotive words like bloody and other less socially acceptable expressions.
 4. The classifier

The classifier element restricts the class of entity named by the head noun to a subclass, and so it
is natural that the great majority of classifiers are also realized by nouns in English. These may be
simple (orange blossom), genitive (a girls’ school), de-verbal (fishing rod), compound (farmyard
animals) or short NGs (Social Security contributions). The classifying function of a genitive noun or
NG, as in The Minister gave a typical Minister of Labor’s reply.
Nominal classifiers are not usually pluralized: trouser belt, shoe shop, eye shade, car
production; but plural forms are used when the referent of the classifier has come to be regarded
as a collective noun, as in the arms race, sports field, Olympic Games medal. Present-day English
shows a tendency towards such pluralisation.
When the semantic relation between a classifier and a noun is very cohesive, they are
sometimes fused as a compound denoting a single referent. Some such combinations are written
as separate words (head waiter), some are joined by a hyphen (record-player), and others written
as a single word (software), depending on the degree to which they have become institutionalized
in public usage as denoting single class referent rather than as subclasses of larger class referent.
The knowledge of the field is often required in order to interpret correctly the meaningful
relationship between the classifier and the head noun:
air traffic movement of vehicles which fly in the air; passengers, cargo or mail carried
air speed speed of vehicle in air (not speed of the air)
air strip strip of land cleared for planes to land and take off (not a strip of the atmosphere)
air rifle rifle operated by air pressure
air bed plastic or rubber mattress which can be folded flat or filled with air for sleeping (not
a bed suspended in air)
Classification by adjectives and participles. Classifiers are also realized by adjectives,
especially de-nominal ones, and also by present or past participles expressing processes.
The subclasses may refer to:
places African politics processes coming event, leading articles,
fallen leaves
periods prehistoric remains science atomic energy
styles classical music scales main road
institutions municipal student activities social worker
professions medical student qualities heavy water, soft ware

The –ing classifiers mentioned here are different from de-verbal nouns such as boxing,
cycling, reading, etc., and are to be classed as participial peripheral adjectives.

Classifiers are normal and comprehensive units in many fields of applied science
and technology:
architecture town planning, landscaping techniques, safety regulations, high-rise blocks, air flow,
fire-retardant fibre-glass panel, lift shaft.
chemistry corrosion prevention, fluid dynamics, textile printer, printing inks.
mining mining geology, exploration geophysics, concrete product manufacture,
medicine eye disorders, heart surgery, speech therapy, cell components, virus diseases.
electronics data processing, text instruments, radio transmitter system.

Classification by other classes of units.

Certain institutionalized word, group and clausal expressions (phrasal classifiers) are used in
modern oral or written communication:
Adverbs after effects, a home match, an away match;
PrepGs a round-of-town helicopter tour
NGs an end-of-course party
VGs a stop-and-go policy, a live-and-let-live philosophy;
AdjGs a bored-with-life attitude;
Clauses a couldn’t-care-less attitude
 Phrasal classifiers are not found as often as the simpler forms, but tend to be generated
spontaneously when a speaker or writer feels the need to characterize a noun referent by a slightly
more complex experiential concept than that expressed by single words:
(1) Hermione gave Ron a ‘don’t-joke-about-things-like-that’ look. (2) She was wearing a
‘well-you-did-break-school-rules’ sort of expression. (3) She had to start all over the ‘each-
ever-more-difficult’ task of trying again to win the trust from the cat.
This type of pre-head modification may be regarded as stylistic device (an epithet):
(2) ‘… So he went out nodding politely to various walnut-skinned, early-morning coffee-
suckers’ ‘… She wore church-going clothes of sensible-district nurse-type hat and costume
in a kind of under-done-pie-crust color…’ ‘… an official with a peaked-cap did a caged-tiger
walk-up and down.’
Phrasal modifiers are not used only for literary effect. They are used daily in many
practical registers of English, e.g. “It was decided that section 1 of the examination would
involve no-choice short-answer questions, and section 2 an essay-style question on
language systems. The committee felt that the candidates should also be required to submit
six non-exam-type pieces of work done at home.”

5. The Qualifier. Expressing extrinsic features of ‘things’

By the term ‘extrinsic’ we mean those features of an entity, which are not inherent in the nature of
the entity itself but they relate to something outside: a temporary state, a circumstance, a process
or a contingent situation. This type of information tends to be more varied in form than that
expressed by determiners, epithets, and classifiers. It is hardly ever realized by single words but
typically by groups and clauses which sometimes combine into a long chain. This information
constitutes a separate element of NG structure which is called as the qualifier (q).
Communicative functions of the qualifier
The qualifier element has two basic communicative functions:
(a) to supply information enabling the hearer/reader to identify the entity in question, as in:
That’s the house where the President lives.
(b) To add supplementary information about the referent when it has already been identified,
as in: That’s the White House, where the President lives.
These two functions of the qualifier are called ‘restrictive’ and ‘non-restrictive’, or ‘defining’
and ‘non-defining’. To show the difference, non-restrictive units are usually written between
commas, dashes or brackets: The winner, in a blue dress, looked very attractive. Noun heads and
restrictive qualifiers are not separated by commas: The girl in the blue dress looks very attractive.
The full experiential structure of the English NG is represented in the table below:
Summary of experiential structure of the NG
NG

determiner modifier classifier HEAD qualifier

definers objective nominal nominal nominal
deictic subjective qualitative pronominal circumstantial
quatitative circumstantial substitute attributes
qualitative elliptical
def. article adjective clause common noun NG
indef. article noun adjective proper noun AdjG
zero article participle place adv. personal pron. PerpG
demonstrative adverb time adv. indef.pron. AdvG
possessive Adj participle relative pron. clauses
WH+interrog. VG PerpG interrog. pron.
WH+relative NG abbrev. determinative
distributive PrepG noun adjective
numerative phrase verbal noun
adjectival clause