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.
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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 + –
lessclueless adj; thank verb +
–fulthankful 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.