‘, UNIVERSITY GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH RANDOLPH QUIRK University of London SIDNEY GREENBAUM University of London [Based on A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, ‘Geoffrey Leech, Jan Svartvik LONGMAN GROUP UK Linn ‘Longman House, Burnt Mil, Ea nem Essex, CM20 2JE, Englang ana Associated Companies’ HougHOu he wo G. Leech and J. Svartvik 1973 } gr: aux, & areenba™ All ights reserved; no part of this publicat: maybe reproduced, storedin a reeval eel or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, tarsnanical, photocopying, recording, of otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers, _ First published 1973NOUNS, AND UNPHRasE = aw The basic noun phrase Tie noun prs: fonatons as ake, bjt complet of ‘in prepositic . i if ae oes nen a ional phrases. Consider the dif- (@) The girl (b) The preity girl (0) The pretty girl in the corner is Mary Smith (d) The pretty girl who became angry (© Sh: Since noun phrases of the types illustrated in (b-d) include elements that will be dealt with in later chapters (adjectives, prepositional phrases, etc), it will be convenient to postpone the treatment of the noun phrase in- orporating such items. We shall deal here with the elements found in those noun phrases that consist of pronouns and numerals, and of nouns With articles or other closed-system items that can occur before the noun head, such as predeterminers like all, ve ronwuns anata bale neu phrase 4.3 Nouns, @ John the bottle iture cake “ae Te ote rare furniture some cake Taw /ferpe oho teome DOWN? Sr oitores *Johns ith its four impossible usages) and aierence column 1 (With variation between clases, Tae th non indica the SEB Mississippt, Candi... ois that behave Like Johan coINN The nouns in columns 2, are ROPER NOUNS futher OS tut there are important differences 3 and 4 ae a conan behave like Botdle in column 2 (chair, wai this as, Nouv) nbich must be seen as individual countable a vndieentted mass, ae ald Those conforming like firniture to the pattern seer 3 (grass, warmth, humour, ...) must by eontrast be seen as an. undiferentiated mass or continuum, and we call them NON-COUNT NOUNS. Finally in column 4 we have nouns which combine the charac teristics of count and non-count nouns (cake, paper, stone, . . .)j thatis, wean view stone as the non-count material (asin column 3) constituting ‘the entity a sone (asin column 2) which can be picked up from a pile of stones and individually thrown, } 43 Itwillbe noticed thatthe the traditional distinetipronouns, and the paste noun phrase 423 Nouns, i article ‘ith the noun complement after ey Peat ca ee declare, elect, when the ever the 2 ° conals nd tena unigne ofce OF AHkS oun pronase tbe i) They elected him, ne) President of the a eee elected ii Inited States Unique reference ‘Proper nouns” e om if laces (Mil- names of specific people (Shakespeare), I Ee coats ayaa (September), days Meee 2), holidays (Christmas), magazines (Vogue), and so forth. er ave ‘amique’ reference, and (as we have seen in 4.2) do not share such charac- teristics of common nouns as article contrast. But when the names have restrictive modification to give a partitive meaning to the name (cf 4.19), proper nouns take the (cataphoric) definite article. UNIQUE MEANING PARTITIVE MEANING during Easter during the Easter of that year in England in the England of Queen Elizabeth in Denmark in the Denmark of today Chicago the Chicago I like (='the aspect of Chicago") Shakespeare the young Shakespeare Proper names can be converted into common nouns (App 1.29): (‘an author like S.") Peares (‘authors like S.” or ics of the works of S.") So also, frequently, are a number fare therefore close to proper nouns, we 80 hay gs can ent afer ri 7 graphical names (4.27); mist tie Socontinets {G)Countries, counties, tates, ete cies, towns te @iakes @ Mountains ame-rcommon noun (4.28), Personal names 25 (Min. Personal names with Or without apposite titles: re Dr Watson Lady Churchill se) President Pompidou Cardinal Spellma \charac- Mr and Mrs Johnson Tudge D: = bea have ‘udge Darling (mainly AmE) of4.19), Note the following exceptions: the Emperor (Napoleon) the Lord (God) (but: Emperor Haile Selassie) (the) Czar (Alexander) the Duke (of Wellington) ee The article may also precede some other titles, including Zordand Eadyin bap formal use, Family relations with unique reference behave like proper sous: Father (Daddy, Dad, familiar) is here Mother (Mummy, Mum, familiar) is out Uncle will come on Saturday s) ca be pare: The father was the tallest inthe family number 003s, i Calendar items, Names of festivals: Christmas (Da; Independence Day Easter ae Whit(sun) (mainly BrE) Good Friday Passover Names ofthe months and the days ofthe weeks January, February, ... Monday, Tuesday ++ )and te aslo noun snmere——mn nouns, pronouns: ” ot 10988: Mote niems cn Ay us “aan ee in ag ony r Ge am itinents: “e) Names of om z ieee io ostala (Eas Aes ne arte tbs rare Bk he AICS ay (a Names of counts, counties, stats, eonmaly no arte wit promodifying adjective): ; (odern) Brazil (éadustrial) Staffordshire (west) Scotland (aorthern) Arkansas wrote Argentina but the Argentine the Ruhr, the Saar, the Sahara, the Ukratne, the Crimea, (the) Lebanon, the Midwest; the Ever- sglades (and other plural names, see 4,30). (© Cities and towns (normally no article with premodifying word): (downtown) Boston (ancient)Rome (suburban) London Note The Hague; the Bronx; the City, the West End, the East End (of London). (@) Lakes: Lake Windermere Sitver. Lake Streets, bridges, ete. Thereisa itead HEATH, except that names B Street. 28 Proper nouns With defini ance is 7 Madison Avenue Westminster brig | pari Lane Westminster Abbey X*matdy Airport | Portland Place Greenwich Village Oxford Street Note the Albert Hell, the Mansion House: th | al (eet names in London); the Merry Pays he Stand, the | arp: (Whe) London Road asa proper name bay te Femara ly to denote ‘the road leading to London’, the London road Note erty. 429 Proper nouns with definite article The difference between an ordinary common noun and a c tumed name is that the unique reference of the name oa baer eatin alized, as is made overt in writing by the use of initial capitals, The follow- ingstructural classification illustrates the use of such proper nouns which retain the phrasal definite articte: WITHOUT MODIFICATION ‘The Guardian The Times WITH PREMODIFICATION i the Suez Canal The Washington Post the Ford Foundation the British Broadcasting Corpora- tion (the BBC) WITH PosTMODIFICATION the House of Commons the cee College of Arts the Institute of Psychiat and Technology i} the Bay of aoe a the District of Columbia ELLIPTED ELEMENTS . The original structure of a proper novn is someting’ unclear when one element has been dropped and the elliptic form has become in- stitutionalized as the full namie: (ermaid (Theatre) eae) the Teaver) hates ; the Atlantic (Ocean)