UNDERSTANDING

COMPLEX NOUN
PHRASES.
UNIT 7
 Nominalisations and Complex Noun Phrases
 The process of nominalisation turns verbs (such as actions, conditions or experiences) into
nouns (such as things, events, substances or qualities).
 Writers of academic texts in English often use nouns, where less formal texts might favor verbs.
Expressing ideas as concepts rather than actions can help create a more formal, academic and
formal tone:

 In 2009, 67,4% of people in the United States owned their own homes. (newspaper article).
 In 2009, the home ownership rate in the United States was 67.4%
 A complex noun phrase is a group of words (a head noun and two or more modifiers)
that functions as the subject or object of a sentence. There are two types of modifiers:
pre-modifiers and post-modifiers or qualifiers
 Pre-modifiers include determiners and adjectives. Post-modifiers include prepositional
groups, relative clauses, non-finite clauses, adjectival groups, nominal groups and
adverbial groups.
 As with the basic noun phrase, the head noun is the central element of the complex
noun phrase
 The pre-modifier can have several functions. It can add a general description to the
head noun (beautiful, red, old, tired, etc). It can intensify or lessen the noun (a
substantial los and a slight change). The pre-modifier can also restrict the head noun
(the only occasion, the exact opposite)
 The post-modifier comprises all the words that come after the head noun (the
interesting lecture I attended yesterday).
 Ex. 2.1.p. 101
 A non-managerial perspective
a perspective from people who are not managers
 Mainstream managerial marketing thinking
ideas about marketing that are held by the majority of managers and considered to be
normal or accepted
 Contemporary social issues
Issues that people discuss or argue that are to do with society today
 Introductory marketing module
a module on a course in marketing that introduces basic terms and ideas
 p. 107, ex. 8.3
 Data for the urban sample were collected from December 2001 to March 2002
in the three major cities of Beijing, Nanjing and Chengdu. The three cities were
selected to represent high, médium and low levels of advertising development
according to the provincial advertising expenditures ([15] Fan, 20017). A
convenience sample of six schools was selected, with two from each city. The
size of the school ranged from 800 to 1.700 students. Local researchers
(University faculty members) were appointed to collect the data. The survey
procedure was the same as that for the rural survey. It is not common to seek
parental consent for surveys among school children in China. The school
principals examined the questionnaire to decide on whether the school will
participate in the study. At the beginning of the data collection, researchers
announced that the survey was voluntary and students could leave the
questionnaire blank if they did not want to participate. Researchers also assured
them that their reponses were anonymous.
 p. 107, ex. 8.3
 Altogether, 1765 questionnaires were distributed in the urban sample and 1,758 questionnaires
were returned. Of the respondents, 51% were boys and 49% were girls. Respondents were 6 to
14 years old. The mean age of the respondents was 9,6 years. The response rate was 99.6%.