COCA Token Definition of Terms

13 noun phrase. The noun phrase indicates the thing or person that is the goal of the action of the verb. The third type, ditransitive means a verb which takes three arguments. In a sentence, They give Joshua books, the verb give is ditransitive because it has three arguments, which are they, Joshua, and books. Bloor and Bloor 2004 say that a verb has many forms. For example, the verb take has forms: takes, took, am taking, are taking, is taking, was taking, were taking, has taken, has been taken, have been taken, had been taken, will take, may take , and so on. The word take is called citation form because the word take refers to all or any of the forms collectively in the list given Bloor Bloor, 2004. In dictionaries, we look for the word take, not was taking or has taken. It is because the word take is the citation form.

b. Noun

Aarts 1997 says that nouns are words that represent people, animals, things, or places. Nouns identify Peter, bird, car, student, New York, etc. The description given by nouns is called a notional definition, because it presents a characterization, in term of concept of meaning Aarts, 1997. 1 Subdivision of Noun Based on Bloor and Bloor 2004, there are three subdivisions of noun: pronoun, proper noun, and common noun. There are three subclasses of pronouns: personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, and the so-called wh-pronouns. Table 2.1 below classifies the personal pronouns left and possessive pronouns right. 14 Table 2.1 Personal Pronouns and Possessive Pronouns Singular First Person I, me, mine my Second Person you, yours, your Third Person he, him, his his she, her, hers her it, its its Plural First person we, us, ours our Second person you, yours your Third person they, them, theirs their Bloor Bloor, 2004, p.21 Table 2.1 above lists the personal pronouns and possessive pronouns. Besides, there are so-called wh-pronouns. They include who, whom, whose, which, what , and that for example, the shoes that you are wearing. Bloor Bloor 2004 add that proper nouns define as the names of persons for example, Martin, Karen , places Venice, Bali Island, transportations Titanic, the Star Express , institutions and organizations Honda, Unilever, book and film titles Life of Pi, and similar categories. The proper nouns are written in capital letters. The third one is common nouns. Based on Bloor Bloor 2004, “nouns others than pronouns which do not fall into this class are labelled common nouns ” p.19. The examples of common noun are rice, donkey, rain, imagination. 2 Noun Phrase According to Azar and Hagen 2009, a noun phrase can be used as a subject or an object. Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, Finegan 1999 state that “a noun phrase consists of a noun as a head, either alone or accompanied by 15 determiners which specify the reference of the noun and modifiers which describe or classify the entity denoted by the head noun ” p.122. The examples of noun phrase are a house, his bristly short hair, the little girl next door. Moreover, the head of a noun phrase can be followed by complements, which is that -clauses or infinitive clauses Biber, et al., 1999. The meaning of the noun is completed by complements. Take for instance in this sentence, [The popular assumption that language simply serves to communicate ”thoughs” or “ideas”] is too simplistic .

c. Adjective

Based on Bloor and Bloor 2004, the first function of adjective is to modify nouns, for example, a pretty boy. The other function of adjective is to be a head of a group that is the complement of a copular verb be, seem, become, for example: the shop is big. Aarts 1997 states there are some adjectives adj that can change improve nouns, for examples in: the red shoes, a patient girl. The adjectives give more description about the nouns. Adjectives can be formed by adding suffixes –ful, -less, and –ive and prefix –un in some words nouns, verbs Aarts, 1997. For instances: clue noun + – lessclueless adj; thank verb + –fulthankful adj. Aarts 1997 says that there are gradable adjectives which form adjectives by giving words very, extremely, less, etc., for examples: very expensive, extremely hot, less important. The adding of words very, extremely, less shows the degree to which the adjective put to the word it joins Aarts, 1997.