A STUDY ON NOUN PREMODIFICATION IN LOWRY’S NUMBER THE STARS
A STUDY ON NOUN PREMODIFICATION
IN LOWRY’S NUMBER THE STARS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
AGUSTINA KUSUMAWATY
Student number: 024214082
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
DON’T quit when the goings get tough, and we will have nothing to regret for the rest of our lives
Dedicated to
my beloved parents , my big sister and brother,
their faith in me taught me to have faith in myself
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis has been made with the support of many people around the researcher. So many people have been involved by giving their advice, criticism, information, and help. Thus, in this acknowledgment page I would like to say my thanks to those who have given me help and support.
My thanks are due to my advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A., for the advice, the knowledge and also the guidance he has given me during the making of the thesis. I’m also grateful to my Co-advisor Dra. B. Ria Lestari M.S. who has spent her time reading and giving her idea on this thesis.
My deep gratitude is dedicated to my beloved parents for the endless love and support. Their faith in me taught me to have faith in myself. I’d further like to thank my sister Teteh, my brother Aa’, my brother-in-law Oh Deqi, and my sister- in-law Mbak Wulan for the advice and guidance. Their wise view has given me the courage I need.
Many thanks to my best friend Nana, Bapak, Ibu, Mbak Indri for the warm welcome and hospitality whenever I stay in their comfortable residence for days. I also thank to Itoy, Mbak Iis, Riris, and Risti for their time and support that helped me ease those boredom feelings.
I would say my thanks to Cinta, Diah, Nunung, CT, Alfina, and the rest of The Matchmaker members with whom I have shared the smile, the laughter, and the annoyance during the college days. My thank to Daniel, Lira and Dina for sharing their deepest secrets and those hilarious moments during the KKN time.
I would like to thank my high school friends: Rahayu, Wiwid, and Asti with whom I have always spent the leisure times whenever I come home . I also thank to Mbak Ina, Klodia and my other friends in the boarding house for their patience to understand the annoyance I have caused. Not to forget, my thank to Rhomex for giving me all the feeling in my heart, and his willingness to accompany me everywhere I go.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all the people and institution who have given me all the helps and the properties I need to complete this study.
Agustina Kusumawaty
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITTLE PAGE ........................................................................................... i APROVAL PAGE ..................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ................................................................................ iii MOTO PAGE ............................................................................................ iv DEDICATION PAGE ................................................................................ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................ x ABSTRAK .................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .............................................................
1 A. Background of the Study ............................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation ..................................................................
2 C. Objective of the Study ................................................................
3 D. Definition of Terms ....................................................................
3 CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ............................................
6 A. Review of Related Studies .........................................................
6 B. Review of Related Theories .......................................................
11 C. Theoretical Framework ..............................................................
22 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY .........................................................
23 A. The Object of the Study .............................................................
23 B. Sampling ....................................................................................
24 C. Data Collection ...........................................................................
25 D. Data Analysis .............................................................................
26 CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS ...................................................................... 28 A. The Forms of Noun Premodification ........................................ 28 1.
A Single Premodification ……………………………. 31 a.
Determiner + Noun ........................................... 31 b.
Adjective + Noun ……………………………... 36 c. Noun + Noun …………………………………. 39 d.
Participle + Noun .............................................. 40 2. Multiple Premodifications ........................................... 43 a.
Determiner + Determiner + Noun ..................... 45 b.
Determiner + Adjective + Noun ....................... 46 c. Determiner + Noun + Noun .............................. 48 d.
Determiner + Participle + Noun ........................ 49 e. Determiner + Determiner + Adjective + Noun .. 51 f. Determiner + Adjective + Adjective + Noun .... 51 g.
Determiner + Adjective + Noun + Noun .......... 53
j.
Determiner + Participle + Noun + Noun ........... 56 k.
Determiner + Participle + Adjective + Noun .... 56 B. The Proportion of Noun Premodification ................................ 57 C. The Reasons of Occurrence of Noun Premodification ............ 58
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ................................................................. 61
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 64APPENDICES ........................................................................................... 66
ABSTRACT
AGUSTINA KUSUMAWATY (2008): A Study on Noun Premodification in
Lowry’s Number the Stars. Yogyakarta: English Letters Department, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University This study discusses noun premodification found in Lois Lowry’s Number
the Stars . This study is chosen because many long sentences are still a little
difficult to understand due to the modifications of the basic elements of the sentences. English noun modifications are much used in the sentence and they dominate the structure of the sentences. One of the easiest ways to study noun premodification is by analyzing some English reading books, such as novels. One of the authors who is famous for the simple language structure is Lois Lowry. In
Number the Stars, Lowry uses simple language that enables the readers to learn
noun premodification.There are three problems found: the forms, the proportion, and the reasons of occurrence of noun premodification in Lowry’s Number the Stars. From those three problems, the objectives of this study are to find out the forms, the proportion, and the reasons why certain forms of noun premodification in Lowry’s
Number the Stars have the highest and lowest frequency in their occurrences.
The theories used in the analysis are taken from Jackson and Quirk’s theories on the elements and types of noun premodification. From these theories, the researcher concludes that there are five elements and two types of noun premodification. The five elements of noun premodification are determiners, adjectives, nouns, participles, and adverbs. Meanwhile, single and multiple premodifications are the two types of noun premodification.
The data are derived from Lowry’s Number the Stars. The researcher finds 1041 noun premodifications in the novel. From these data, there are 15 forms of noun premodification found in the novel: 1) Determiner + Noun, 2) Adjective + Noun, 3) Noun + Noun, 4) Participle + Noun, 5) Determiner + Determiner + Noun, 6) Determiner + Adjective + Noun, 7) Determiner + Noun + Noun, 8) Determiner + Participle + Noun, 9) Determiner + Determiner + Adjective + Noun, 10) Determiner + Adjective + Adjective + Noun, 11) Determiner + Adjective + Noun + Noun, 12) Determiner + Adjective + Participle + Noun, 13) Determiner + Noun + Noun + Noun, 14) Determiner + Participle + Noun + noun, and 15) Determiner + Participle + Adjective + Noun. These forms have different frequencies of occurrence. The most frequent form of noun premodification used in Number the Stars is the form of Determiner + Noun, with 580 numbers of occurrences. This form occurs frequently in the novel because it is the simplest and most common form in noun premodification that enables the readers to understand the meaning without any difficulties. Meanwhile, the forms of Determiner + Noun + Noun + Noun, Determiner + Participle + Noun + Noun, and Determiner + Participle + Adjective + Noun only occur one time. These forms have the lowest frequency in their occurrences because they are complex which
ABSTRAK
AGUSTINA KUSUMAWATY (2008): A Study on Noun Premodification in
Lowry’s Number the Stars. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma.Studi ini membahas tentang modifikasi di awal kata benda yang terdapat di dalam Number the Stars karya Lois Lowry. Peneliti memilih studi ini karena banyak kalimat panjang masih sedikit sulit untuk dipahami yang disebabkan oleh modifikasi unsur-unsur dasar dari kalimat. Modifikasi kata benda dalam bahasa Inggris banyak digunakan dalam kalimat dan mendominasi susunan kalimat. Salah satu cara termudah untuk mempelajari modifikasi di awal kata benda adalah dengan menganalisis buku-buku bacaan berbahasa Inggris seperti novel. Salah satu pengarang yang terkenal karena kesederhanaan susunan bahasa yang digunakan adalah Lois Lowry. Dalam novel Number the Stars, Lois Lowry menggunakan bahasa yang sederhana sehingga dapat mempermudah para pembaca untuk mempelajari modifikasi di awal kata benda.
Peneliti telah menetapkan tiga permasalahan, yaitu: bentuk-bentuk modifikasi di awal kata benda, perbandingan dari bentuk-bentuk modifikasi di awal kata benda tesebut, dan alasan-alasan kemunculan modifikasi di awal kata benda yang ditemukan di dalam Number the Stars. Dari ketiga permasalahan tersebut, manfaat dari studi ini adalah untuk menemukan bentuk-bentuk, perbandingan, dan alasan mengapa bentuk-bentuk modifikasi di awal kata benda tertentu yang terdapat di dalam novel memiliki frekwensi tertinggi dan terendah.
Teori-teori yang digunakan di dalam analisis diambil dari teori-teori Jackson dan Quirk tentang unsur-unsur dan tipe-tipe modifikasi di awal kata benda. Dari teori-teori tersebut, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa terdapat lima unsur dan dua tipe modifikasi di awal kata benda. Kelima unsur modifikasi di awal kata benda adalah kata penentu, kata sifat, kata benda, kata partisip, dan kata keterangan. Sedangkan singgel dan multi modifikasi di awal kata benda adalah kedua tipe modifikasi di awal kata benda.
Data-data di dalam studi ini diambil dari novel Number the Stars karya Lois Lowry. Peneliti menemukan 1041 modifikasi di awal kata benda di dalam novel tersebut. Dari data-data tersebut terdapat 15 bentuk modifikasi di awal kata benda, yaitu: 1) Kata penentu + Kata benda, 2) Kata sifat + Kata benda, 3) Kata benda + Kata benda, 4) Kata partisip + Kata benda, 5) Kata penentu + Kata penentu + Kata benda, 6) Kata penentu + Kata sifat + Kata benda, 7) Kata penentu
- Kata benda + Kata benda, 8) Kata penentu + Kata partisip + Kata benda, 9) Kata penentu + Kata penentu + Kata sifat + Kata benda, 10) Kata penentu + Kata sifat + Kata sifat + Kata benda, 11) Kata penentu + Kata sifat + Kata benda + Kata benda, 12) Kata penentu + Kata sifat + Kata partisip + Kata benda, 13) Kata penentu + Kata benda + Kata benda + Kata benda, 14) Kata penentu + Kata partisip + Kata benda + Kata benda, dan 15) Kata penentu + Kata partisip + Kata sifat + Kata benda. Bentuk-bentuk tersebut memilki frekwensi yang berbeda-beda.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study This thesis is a study of the English noun premodification. The researcher
finds it necessary because many long sentences are still a little difficult to understand due to the modifications of the basic elements of the sentences. The English noun modifications are much used in the sentence, and they dominate the structure of the sentences. One of the easiest ways to study noun modification, especially noun premodification is by analyzing some English reading books, such as novels.
In this thesis, the researcher chooses Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars (1989) with some considerations. Lowry’s Number the Stars is a simple yet poignant novel about a young girl’s contribution to the resistance movement in Denmark during World War II. Lowry is said to be a favorite of both children and young adults. Most of her novels use a simple language, and so is in Number the
Stars .
In Number the Stars, Lowry uses direct speech, for instance; “I’ll race you to the corner, Ellen!” (Lowry, 198: 1). Lowry also uses figurative language, such as simile and personification. Simile can be seen in “Can’t we just walk, like civilized people?” (Lowry, 1989: 1). In like civilized people, it is considered as figurative language of simile for it uses a specific word or phrase like. Meanwhile, the first leaves began to fall from the trees, …………..”(Lowry, 1989: 18). This is considered as personification since the phrase as the days grew slightly shorter uses the verb grew, a verb that distinct human qualities.
Seen from the simple language used in the novel, the readers, especially children and young adults in a wide variety of reading readiness are able to use this text as a learning tool, both for the message and the language employed. Since to learn making a sentence, at least we should know about noun modification to prevent mistakes, for instance a mistake in forming noun modification in the right order. Hence, Lowry’s language simplicity enables the readers to learn noun modification especially noun premodification for it is better and easier to observe English reading books that use simple language.
For these reasons, the researcher believes that observing Lowry’s Number
the Stars is worth doing, since it will help our study on noun premodification in
terms of form and the realization within sentences.B. Problem Formulation
From the background of the study above, the problems to be formulated are as follows:
1. What forms of noun premodification found in Lowry’s Number the Stars?
2. What is the proportion of the forms of noun premodification in Lowry’s
Number the Stars ?
3. What are the reasons of occurrence of noun premodification in Lowry’s
C. Objectives of the Study
This study is aimed to answer the three problems formulated above: to identify the forms of noun premodification, to find out the proportion of noun premodification, and to find the reasons of occurrence of noun premodification in Lowry’s Number the Stars.
The study in this thesis is hoped to give a clearer description of the various English structures of noun premodification in terms of form and the realization within sentences. It is less possible for all the forms of noun premodification found in Number the Stars to be analyzed. For that reason, there are only some of the data that will be analyzed in this study.
It is expected that this study will be beneficial in two aspects, theoretical and practical. From the point of view linguistics theory, our understanding of the syntactic structure in general and noun premodification in particular will improve. And it might increase our motivation to read English readings books, such as novels, for many people assume that English is a difficult language, especially to understand the meaning of noun premodification in a sentence. Thus, the researcher also hopes that this study will be able to change this assumption . From the practical point of view, we will be able to arrange and place the words which form a noun premodification.
D. Definition of Terms
For the sake of clarity as well as to avoid misunderstandings, it is books related to the study and dictionaries. The terms to be defined are noun, modification, premodification, and noun premodification.
When we speak or write, we speak about things we have in our minds, and we say things about them. We have found it convenient to attach labels to some of the infinity of things; these labels we call nouns (Conner, 1968: 2). According to Jackson in Analyzing English, a noun refers to a “thing” in the broadest sense, whether objects such as table, activities as hammering, feelings as in hatred, and idea like eternity, as well as people and places (Jackson, 1982: 61). Meanwhile, Close in a Reference Grammar for students of English states that a noun is a word that we can use at certain points in the structure of sentence. Thus, work is a noun if it fills the gap in He always did his __ perfectly. It is a verb if it fills the gap in His brothers__ in a factory (Close, 1975: 3).
According to Hurford in Grammar, a Student’s Guide, modification is the relationship between the head and its modifier(s) (Hurford, 1994:129). On the other hand, Richards in Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics says that modification is a word or group of words which gives further information (modifies) about another word or group of words (the head) (Richards, 1985: 181).
A noun that functions as the head of a phrase, either it stands by itself or is modified by a modifier, forms a larger meaningful expression called a noun phrase. Noun phrases are traditionally thought of as consisting minimally of a head noun, together with any number of noun phrase modifiers (Asher and
The most common head in a noun phrase is a noun. However, the head of a noun phrase may be a pronoun. In this case, a premodification will never appear, though postmodification may occasionally be found (Jackson, 1982: 66).
The noun phrase in English is composed potentially of three parts. The central part of the noun phrase, the head, is obligatory: it is the minimal requirement for the occurrence of a noun phrase. The other two parts, a premodification and postmodification are optionally occurring (Jackson, 1982: 66). The premodification, which comprises all the items placed before the noun head, as in tall in the phrase the tall girl. The adjective pretty here premodifies the noun head girl. While the postmodification is all the items placed after the noun head, for instance: by the wall in the phrase chair by the wall. The prepositional phrase by the wall postmodifies the noun head chair (Quirk and Greenbum, 1990:364).
From the definitions above, it can be concluded that a noun premodification is a modification of a word or group of words occurring before or preceding the head of a noun phrase which gives further information about a noun or modifies a noun.
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW The second chapter is conducted by discussing three parts. First, the
review of the related studies; second, the review of the related theories and the third will review the theoretical framework.
Review of the related studies contains the review on what others have done connected with the study on noun premodification. Review of the related theories contains some theories taken from some sources which will be useful to answer the problems, while the theoretical framework contains the role of the theories mentioned in the review of related theories to solve the problems.
A. Review of Related Studies
To support the study, especially to conduct the analysis, there are some studies observed. After reading some studies, the researcher found two studies related to this thesis. The first study discusses the theory of a noun modification in general. And the second discusses a noun phrase and its role in reflecting Ernest Hemingway’s styles in writing his short stories. The review of some studies mentioned is as follow.
1. P. Garanim Purba’s Noun Modifications of the English Language In his thesis, Purba discusses noun modification in general, starting from of the modifiers, the way to break down and build up constructions of nouns with modifiers according to IC analysis, the stress patterns of constructions of modification, and the structural meanings of the modification in structures of modification with noun as the head.
There are three terms related to noun modification that Purba states in his thesis, they are the definitions of a modifier, a noun, and a noun modifier. A modifier is the component part in a structure of modification which is not the head. A noun is a word belonging to a class of lexical words marked by their appearance following certain determiners; by their two inflections; by certain derivational suffixes; by their appearance in certain positions; and sometimes by super fixes of stress. While a noun modifier is the component part which is not the head in a structure of modification whose head is a noun.
According to Purba, there are nine types of modifiers in noun modifications, namely: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, relative clauses, appositives, adjectival phrase compounds, and determiners. Nouns as modifiers can be in the singular forms as in grammar class; in the plural forms as in sports page; the possessive forms as in child’s toy; and also when the modifier follows the head as in man his age. Verbs as modifiers are divided into four forms: to- infinitive as in desire to go; present participle or -ing form as in baby; past participle or -ed form as in written invitation; and in base form
sleeping
as in watch tower. Adjectives as modifiers are those forms which can fit both environments left blank in a frame “The_____man seems very_____.” as in the
statement , people below; prepositional phrases as in kingdom of Denmark.
Relative clause as modifiers are divided into two; defining clause as in man who
came late ; and non-defining clause as in Peter, who came first. In appositive
clause, “that” can never be omitted as in fact that Bob is rich. The examples of adjectival phrase compounds are; go-ahead signal, up-to-date dictionary.
Determiners as modifiers are divided into three types: articles, possessives, and demonstratives.
The order of noun modification is determined by the position of where the modifier is placed. Purba states that there are two ways to place modifiers in noun modifications; it is either before or after the head. For examples, if one of the modifiers is a noun derived from a verb which is also called “gerund”, it usually appears immediately before the head, such as bathing in linen bathing costume. On the other hand, when one of the modifiers is a noun in the possessive, it always occurs in the farthest position from the head, such as Bob’s in Bob’s
.
student number
Purba also discuses the meanings of modification in structures of modification with noun as head. For examples, if the modifiers are nouns the meanings are identification as in gold mine and identification of “material” contained in the head or of which the head is made up as in silk shirt. If the modifier is in -ing form, the head represents “the doer of action” as in shouting
children . If the modifiers are adjectives, the meanings can be quality as in nervous
boy , quality of substance as in hard worker, and degree of quality as in absolute
2. Yudit’s The Noun Phrases Revealing Hemingway’s Style: A Stylistic Approach and The Structure of the Noun Phrases in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White
Elephants” and “Indian Camps”
In her first article, Yudit discusses the noun phrases in revealing Hemingway’s style. She describes how the elements of the noun phrases and their functions have a crucial role in revealing Hemingway’s style: simplicity, directness, and emotional understatement. The simplicity of the noun phrases is proven by the domination of the minimal noun phrase in Hemingway’s texts, such as cigars and the kitchen. These noun phrases are common noun phrases and daily used. In addition, they also have a simple structure and a simple meaning.
Hemingway uses simple but appropriate words to simplify the story without ignoring the deep meaning of his story. The directness is seen by the occurrence of adjuncts and attributes dominating the noun phrases in the text, such as the lake
shore . In this noun phrase, the head shore is restricted by the occurrence of the
attribute lake. Thus, Hemingway will not misdirect his readers understanding of the object. He only refers to ‘the shore that belongs to the lake’. And the emotional understatement is proven by the occurrence of noun phrases arousing readers’ emotions. An emotional understatement is the feeling of the characters which is not clearly stated by the author, such as an Indian lady very sick. This noun phrase signifies certain emotions. The word lady itself has a good connotation for a woman. The occurrence of Indian as the attribute shows that the
lady belongs to an Indian tribe not to an Anglican one. And last, the adjective very
In her second article, Yudit discusses the elements of noun phrases and their functions to find out the structure of the noun phrases in Hemingway’s two short stories. These elements, which include a head, complement, attribute, adjunct, and specifier, have certain functions in their occurrences within noun phrases. They are a complement which is semantically needed by a head to accomplish the meaning of the head as in need of that, an attribute which comes before the head as in white elephants, an adjunct which comes after the head as in
anyone else , and a specifier which is used to denote a grammatical function as in
his beer . Yudit finds out that the structure of the noun phrases in the two stories
are in simple and complex forms. However, the simple noun phrases dominate the two stories, as in the bar. Meanwhile, complex noun phrases occur with all types of phrase: a prepositional phrase as in the side of the station, an adjective phrase as in a great man, a noun phrase as in bamboo beads, a verb phrase as in the felt
pads , an adverb phrase as in three days before, and with a clause as in a cake of
. Yudit also provides tree diagrams to
soap he had brought from the camp
describe the structure of the noun phrases found in the two short stories. The tree diagram below shows the structure of the noun phrase quick choppy strokes.
NP N’
AP N’ quick AP N’ choppy N’ strokes
From the review of those studies, it can be seen that the first study written by Purba discusses the theory of noun modification in general. He explains the general knowledge of noun modification along with its structural meanings. Meanwhile, the second study written by Yudit analyzes noun phrases in Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and Indian Camps to reveal his style and to find the structure of the noun phrases. Thus, the researcher’s A Study on
Noun Premodification in Lowry’s Number the Stars will be different from them.
This study focuses only on noun premodification, to find out the forms, the percentage, and the reasons why certain forms of noun premodification in Lowry’s Number the Stars have the highest and lowest frequency in their occurrences.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. The elements of a noun premodification All elements that modify the head of a noun phrase are called modifiers.
Modifiers may be single words or may themselves be phrases. However, a noun phrase may consist of a noun itself without any other elements, as in cars. This kind of noun phrase is not analyzed in this thesis for there are no other elements preceding the head. Thus, the noun phrases to be analyzed in this thesis are those that have modifiers occurring before the head, as in the book and expensive cars. The elements such as the determiner the preceding the head book and the adjective expensive preceding the head cars are called premodifiers.
There are four constituent parts in describing noun phrases, namely: the head, the determinatives, the premodification, and the postmodification. The occurrence of the head is obligatory; it is the minimal requirement for the occurrence of a noun phrase (Jackson, 1982: 66). The determinatives include predeterminers, central determiners, and postdeterminers. The premodification comprises all items placed before the head other than determinatives notably adjectives or adjective phrases, and nouns. And last, the postmodification comprises all the items placed after the head notably prepositional phrases, non- finite clauses, and relative clauses (Quirk, Greenbum, Leech, and Svartvik, 1985: 1238).
Another linguist, Howard Jackson (1982: 66), says that there are three parts in English noun phrase. The central part of the noun phrase, the head, is obligatory: it is the minimal requirement or the occurrence of a noun phrase. The other two parts are optionally occurring. Since this thesis is a study of noun premodification, the writer will only discuss the noun premodification as one of the parts in a noun phrase and its occurrence in Lowry’s Number the Star.
Basically, there are three major modifiers in the premodification of a noun phrase: a determiner, an adjective, and a noun. However, some linguists categorize the premodifier into larger categories. In English Syntactic Structures, Flor and Jan Aarts states that in the structure of the noun phrase, the function premodifier may be realized by means of an adjective phrase as in all English
poetry , a noun phrase as in sign language, a classifying genitive as in a dog’s life,
Another linguist, Howard Jackson states that the premodification in a noun phrase consists of a number of words classes or sub-classes in a specific order: identifier- numeral/quantifier-adjective-noun modifier, as for example in the noun phrase
these five charming country cottages (Jackson, 1982: 67). On the other hand,
Quirk and Greenbum, et al categorize the premodifying items into six categories, namely: adjective as in her delightful family, participle as in the missing report, noun as in city traffic, -s genitive as in his fisherman’s cottage, adverb and other phrases as in round-the-clock service, and sentence as in I don’t know how many people. (Quirk, Greenbum, et al, 1985: 1322).
Jackson’s identifier and numeral/quantifier as premodifying items which include definite the and indefinite a/an articles; demonstratives this, that, these, and those; ordinal and cardinal numerals first, second, one, two, etc; and quantifiers some, many, several, much, etc, function as determiners.
Aarts and Aarts, and Quirk’s -s genitive as one of the premodifying item is also included in a determiner, for it can be considered to be substituting for a possessive identifier (my, your, etc). While a sentence premodifier in a noun phrase is similar to an adverb phrase. The further explanation will be elaborated below.
a. A determiner Determiners are a class of words that are used with nouns and have the function of defining the reference of the noun in some way (Jackson, 1982: 64). other, they occur one instead of another. That is, the sets of items are ’closed’ in the sense that they are only exceptionally extended by the creation of additional members (Quirk, Greenbum, et al, 1985: 71).
There are three classes of determiners: predeterminers such as half, all,
double ; central determiner such as articles; and postdeterminers such as cardinal
and ordinal numerals. These classes have been set up on the basis of their position in the noun phrase in relation to each other. Thus, we only find the order of predeterminers + central determiners + postdeterminers, as in all the five boys (Quirk, Greenbum, et al, 1985: 253). The further explanation of the three classes of determiners are as follows.
1. Predeterminers Predeterminers include the quantifiers such as some, many, several, much,
no , few, little, every, each, most, any, whole, etc. Quantifiers have the general
function of indicating the quantity of elements referred to by the noun phrases (Asher and Simpson, 1982: 2850). There are some predeterminers that can occur before certain central determiners: all, both, half as in all (the girls), both those
cars , and half an hour; the multipliers double, twice, three times, etc as in double
the sum , twice my salary; the fractions one-third, one-fifth, etc as in one-third the
time ; and such, what as in Such a surprise!, What a fine day! (Quirk, Greenbum,
et al, 1985: 257-258).2. Central determiners Central determiners include the definite the and indefinite a/an articles; the
its , my, his, your, our, their, Mary’s, Tom’s, etc. Here are some of the examples:
its cover, your house, Mary’s father, and Tom’s car. The last two examples be
considered to be substituting for a possessive identifier (my, your, etc). Thus, Mary’s father and Tom’s car can be substituted into her father and his car.
However, an -s genitive as a determiner is not analyzed in this thesis because its internal structure is just like other noun phrases but with different case, as in little Kirsti’s jacket and the dog’s tail. These phrases consist of two phrases. The first phrase is brought together from little Kirsti’s and Kirsti’s jacket, where the adjective little premodifies the -s genitive Kirsti’s, not the noun head jacket.
Meanwhile, the second phrase is brought together from the dog’s and dog’s tail, where the definite article the premodifies the -s genitive dog’s, not the noun head
tail . It is strengthened by Jackson’s explanation that a noun phrase in the genitive
case appearing in the premodification of another noun phrase, as in this delightful
old gentleman’s scruffy bowler hat , is analyzed as: noun phrase genitive this
, adjective scruffy, noun modifier bowler, and head
delightful old gentleman’s
noun hat. The noun phrase genitive may be considered to be substituting for a possessive identifier (my, your, etc) in the noun phrase in which it occurs as a premodifier. This means the phrase above can be changed into his scruffy bowler
hat . Clearly, the noun phase genitive may in turn to be subject to analysis like any
other noun phrase, such as this (identifier), delightful (adjective), old (adjective), gentleman (head noun), and ‘s (genitive marker) (Jackson, 1982: 68).
3. Postdeterminers Postdeterminers include cardinal one, two, three, etc and ordinal first,
second , next, last, (an)other, etc numerals. They follow predeterminers or central
determiners, but they precede any adjectives and other premodifying items (Quirk, Greenbum, et al, 1985: 261). This can be seen in the first day, her three beautiful daughters .
b. An adjective An adjective is a word typically used to modify a noun, and describes some characteristics of the thing referred to by the noun, such as its shape, color, age, value, size, origin or the impression it gives. Most adjectives can go before or precede the noun head. Adjectives which can go in this position are called attributive adjectives (Hurford, 1994:8-9).
According to Flor and Jan Aarts, there are seven types of adjectives, namely: adjectives denoting nationality such as English, Dutch, etc; adjectives denoting substance such as silk, wooden, etc; adjectives denoting color such as
red , green, etc; adjectives denoting age such as old, young, etc; adjectives
denoting shape such as round, rectangular, etc; adjectives denoting size such as
large , huge, etc; adjectives denoting properties other than those mentioned before
such as expensive, gay, fine, etc (Aarts and Aarts, 1982; 108-109).The premodifying adjectives appear between the determiner (including zero article) and the noun head as in an ugly painting, the round table, and dirty
Attributive adjectives can take comparative and superlative forms. Regular comparison may be expressed by adding the endings -er and -est to the adjectives (Leech and Svartvik, 1975: 193) as in the kindest people, a brighter day, a higher place, and the largest city.
A small group of highly frequent adjectives have irregular comparison (Leech and Svartvik, 1975: 218), as in:
1. good better best 2. bad worse worst 3. far further/farther furthest/farthest
c. A noun The head of a noun phrase can be premodified by another noun. Noun modifier + noun head constructions are often the first stage in the formation of compound noun (Jackson, 1982: 68), as in flycatcher (fly + catcher), armchair (arm + chair), and dishcloth (dish + cloth). Thus, a compound noun is considered as one noun.
In many cases, noun premodifiers appear to be reduced-explicitness relation with prepositional postmodifiers, for examples: the partition question (the
question of partition) and a Sussex village (a village in Sussex). However, not all
noun premodifiers have prepositional phrase analogues as in Bernard Miles was
the actor producer (Bernard Miles was both the actor and producer) (Quirk and
Greenbum, 1990: 377-388).Attention must be drawn to two important features in noun premodifications (Quirk and Greenbum, 1990: 388).
1. Plural nouns usually become singular, even those that otherwise have no singular form, as in the legs of trousers (the trouser leg). But while singularization is normal it is by no means universal (arms race), especially with noun premodification that is hardening into a fixed phrase or compound (the promotions committee).
2. According to the relationship between the two nouns, the accent will fall on the premodifier or the head, such as; an iron ‘rod, a ‘war story.
d. A participle A participle can also function as a premodifier in a noun phrase. There are two types of participle, namely: present participle or -ing participle, and past participle or -ed participle. English participle is added to the base verb.
English present participles are all formed by adding the suffix -ing to the base form of the verb. The possibility of modification by a present participle depends on the potentiality of the participle to indicate a permanent or characteristic feature (Quirk, Greenbum, et al, 1985: 1325).
Meanwhile, English past participles are formed in various ways. The most regular way is to add a suffix -ed or -d to the verb; another method is to add the suffix -en to the verb (Hurford, 1994: 158). Past participles usually have a passive meaning, as in lost property means property that has been lost. In some cases, however, the -ed participle is not interpreted as passive, as in the escaped prisoner means the prisoner who has escaped (Quirk, Greenbum, et al, 1985: 413).
e. An adverb There are very few adverbs that can premodify nouns. An adverb phrase which consists of a head only can modify a noun, as in the then chairman, an
away game, an up train, and a through road (Arts and Arts, 1982: 112).
However, adverbs are mostly used to modify adjective or verbs. In addition, most adverbs function as adjectives when they occur before a noun.
Some adverbs occasionally occur within a noun phrase, not modifying the noun phrase itself, but related to modifying the adjective phrase. This can be seen in the extremely dangerous journey. The adverb extremely does not premodify the noun journey, but it premodifies the adjective dangerous instead. Thus, this kind of noun phrases found in the novel will not be analyzed in this thesis.
f. A sentence The head of a noun phrase can be premodified by a sentence, as in I visited