Noun Phrase as Prepositional Complement in a Clause

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2. Noun Phrase as Prepositional Complement in a Clause

According to Huddleston and Pullum, a word is called a preposition when it has noun phrase as a complement. The form of a preposition is quite simple for it has no inflection like verbs do. Since noun phrase contains a noun as the head, it has the same characteristic in the English grammar. Often prepositional phrase is constructed from preposition as the head then followed by noun phrases. Those noun phrases following a preposition is called prepositional complement. There are total 187 noun phrases with 27 occurrence found in the data of the utterances. The examples of the noun phrases as prepositional complement with different structure types are as follow in the order of occurrence in the utterances. 53 They’re runes, burned into our skin. page 30 The noun phrase our skin in clause 53 is a prepositional complement of the preposition into. The noun phrase itself has the structure of determiner followed by the head of the phrase. The word our is the determiner of the singular noun head phrase skin. There are 97 noun phrases sharing this similar structure of noun phrase which function as prepositional complement. 54 We lived in a manor house. page 111 Clause 54 shows that the noun phrase a manor house is the prepositional complement of the preposition in. According to the data, there are 33 noun phrase functioning as prepositional complement with this type of structure. The structure of this structure type of noun phrase is determiner followed by pre-modifier in order to modify the head of the phrase. The indefinite article a is the determiner of the phrase. The noun manor modifies the singular noun head house as a pre-modifier. 53 55 Try to think of it as endurance training. page 46 In clause 55, it can be seen that the noun phrase endurance training is the prepositional complement of the preposition as. The noun phrase structure is only consists of pre-modifier and the head of the phrase. The noun word endurance is the pre-modifier of the singular noun head training. There are 25 noun phrases found as a prepositional complement with this type of structure in the data. 56 That Ravener demon got you in the back of the neck. page 36 The phrase in italic as in clause 56 is a prepositional complement. It follows directly the preposition in. The noun phrase the back of the neck has the structure of determiner the followed by the head back then the post-modifier of the neck. 23 noun phrases are found in the utterances with the same structure and the function of prepositional complement. 57 You instructed me yourself in the precise art of killing. page 279 The noun phrase the precise art of killing in clause 57 is a prepositional complement. It has the structure of determiner followed by the pre-modifier, the head of the phrase, and the post-modifier. The definite article the is the determiner followed by the pre-modifier precise and post-modifier of killing to modify the noun phrase head art. There are only 5 noun phrase which share the same structure functioning as prepositional complement found from the data collection. 58 I’d got hold of something interesting. page 74 The noun phrase something interesting in clause 58 is a prepositional complement of the preposition of. The data collection show that there are only 3 noun phrase with this type of noun phrase structure as the prepositional PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 54 complement. The noun head something is modified by the nonfinite clause interesting. 59 I must have sent five hundred of them back to whatever hellish dimension they crawled out of. page 160 Clause 59 shows the noun phrase whatever hellish dimension they crawled out of is the only prepositional complement with the structure pre-modifier followed by the head and the post-modifier found in the utterances. The preposition to indicates that the noun phrase in clause 60 is the prepositional complement. The adjectives whatever and hellish is the pre-modifier to modify the singular noun phrase head dimension followed by the finite clause they crawled out of as the post- modifier. In summary, clauses 53 to 59 show that all of the noun phrases are the complement of the preposition such as in, into, to, as, of and at. In addition, all of the prepositions in the above examples have meanings in terms of space and time. The prepositions in as in clause 54, and 56 show the meaning of spatial location. The preposition in doesn’t always indicate spatial location but also to indicate something or someone belongs to or as a part of something as in clause 57. In clause 53 and 59, the preposition into and to indicates the direction of the action of the verb. In clause 55, the preposition as is used to indicate how a person or thing is thought to appear. The preposition of in clause 58 indicates something relating to. 55

3. Noun Phrase as Predicative Complement in a Clause