Unfolding the Meaning of English Noun Phrase Structure With Reference to Marya Holcombe`s The Best Letter Book Ever.

UNFOLDING THE MEANING OF ENGLISH
NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE WITH REFERENCE TO
MARYA HOLCOMBE'S THE BEST LETTER BOOK EVER

DWI ADITYA DARMAWAN
1201305023

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ARTS
UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
DENPASAR
2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank to God the Almighty, Ida Sang Hyang
Widhi Wasa for His blessing and grace, this undergraduate thesis could be
completed. I owe important thanks to the following: Prof. Dr. Ni Luh Sutjiati
Beratha, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of Arts, Udayana University; Dr. Dra. Ida
Ayu Made Puspani, M.Hum, the head of English Department; and all lectures and
staff in English Department. My greatest thanks are expressed to my first

supervisor Dr. I Nyoman Sedeng, M. Hum. for his encouragements, insights, and
advices, as well as Dr. Dra. Ni Wayan Sukarini, M.Hum. as the second supervisor
for his comments and suggestions.
Moreover, my best gratitude is dedicated to my beloved parents Ir. I
Wayan Purna and Gusti Ayu Suryani Wijayaningsih and I thank them for the
laugh, caring, emotional, and financial supports to make me stand stronger. My
appreciation also goes to Cahya, Wahyu, my best MAHASISWA MOKSA
(Ayuglen, Meldy, Ogek, Widhya, Arif, Indra, Dody, Aldi, Nita, Juni, Bintang),
Desy Behel, Ray, Elis, and Vita; thanks for being extraordinarily good friends.
Also, I thank all my acquaintances in Udayana Univresity for the experience. I
also thank my friends and people I couldn't mention the name one by one. This
paper contains study about NP structures; hopefully this can be useful.
Denpasar, August 2016

Dwi Aditya Darmawan

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ABSTRACT
The undergraduate thesis entitled Unfolding Meaning of English Noun

Phrase Structure With Reference to Marya Holcombe's The Best Letter Book Ever
attempted to analyze types of NP structure, syntactic structure, and semantic
structure. This study aimed to reveal deverbal nouns into its clause structure based
on its H as the core found in the book.
The types of NP were analyzed by applying theory of Noun Phrase
Structure proposed by Quirk et al. (1985) supported by Verb to Noun Derivational
Suffix theory by Carstairs-McCarthy (2002) to categorize the NP and the theory
of Phrase Structure Rule proposed by Wekker and Haegeman (1985) to present
the tree diagram. Larson's Form and Meaning theory (1998) was applied to
uncover the clause structure together with Semantic Sepresentation theory
proposed by Van Valin & LaPolla (1997) which were applied to identify and
explain the clause structure to convey the meaning.
The analysis identified the three NP modifications were found in the data.
There were Post-m, Multi-m, and Pre-m in which the tree diagram structure was
drawn based on each representative category, identifying the head of the NP. The
representative NP structures were unfolded and two types of states of affairs
processes and actions, four participant roles of semantic roles agent, theme,
recipient, and patient, also three lexical entries in form of activity, achievement,
and accomplishment were found and the meanings of the identified data were
obtained.

Key words: meaning, noun phrase

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL SHEET
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. i
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ iii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
1.1Background ....................................................................................... 1
1.2 Problems .......................................................................................... 3
1.3 Objectives ....................................................................................... 3
1.3.1 General Objectives ........................................................ 3
1.3.2 Specific Objectives ........................................................ 3
1.4 Scope of Discussion......................................................................... 3
1.5 Research Method ............................................................................ 3
1.5.1 Data Source.................................................................... 4
1.5.2 Method and Technique of Collecting Data.................... 4

1.5.3 Method and Technique of Analyzing Data.................... 4
1.5.4 Method and Technique of Presenting
the Analyzed Data ........................................................ 5
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW, CONCEPT, AND THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................... 6
2.1 Literature Review ............................................................................ 6
2.2 Concept ......................................................................................... 10
2.2.1 Noun Phrase ................................................................. 10
2.2.2 Verb to Noun Derivational Suffix .............................. 11
2.2.3 Nominalization ........................................................... 12

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2.2.4 Lexical and Syntactical Forms ................................... 12
2.2.5 Semantics ..................................................................... 14
2.2.6 Shifting ....................................................................... 15
2.3 Theoretical Framework ................................................................. 15
2.3.1 Types of Noun Phrase Structures ................................ 15
2.3.1.1 Postmodification ...................................................... 15
2.3.1.2 Premodification ....................................................... 16

2.3.1.3 Multimodification .................................................... 16
2.3.2 Unfolding the Meaning of Noun Phrase Structures .... 16
2.3.2.1 Form and Meaning .................................................. 16
2.3.2.2 Semantic Representation ......................................... 17
CHAPTER III UNFOLDING THE MEANING OF ENGLISH NOUN PHRASE
STRUCTURE WITH REFERENCE TO MARYA HOLCOMBE'S THE BEST
LETTER BOOK EVER .................................................................................. 21
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 21
3.2 Types of Noun Phrase Structures ................................................... 21
3.2.1 Derivational Suffix –al ............................................... 23
3.2.2 Derivational Suffix –ance ........................................... 24
3.2.3 Derivational Suffix –ence............................................ 26
3.2.4 Derivational Suffix –ation .......................................... 27
3.2.5 Derivational Suffix –tion ............................................ 30
3.2.6 Derivational Suffix –ion ............................................. 32
3.2.7 Derivational Suffix –ment .......................................... 34
3.2.8 Derivational Suffix –ing ............................................. 36

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3.3 Unfolding the Meaning of Noun Phrase Structures ....................... 38
3.3.1 Derivational Suffix –al ............................................... 38
3.3.2 Derivational Suffix –ance .......................................... 40
3.3.3 Derivational Suffix –ence .......................................... 42
3.3.4 Derivational Suffix –ation .......................................... 44
3.3.5 Derivational Suffix –tion ........................................... 47
3.3.6 Derivational Suffix –ion ............................................. 48
3.3.7 Derivational Suffix –ment .......................................... 50
3.3.8 Derivational Suffix –ing ............................................. 52
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 55
BILBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................... 57

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ABBREVRIATION
Adj

: Adjective

AdjP

: Adjective Phrase

Adv

: Adverb

AdvP

: Adverb Phrase

Det

: Determiner

GF

: Grammatical Function

H

: Head

Mod

: Modifier

Multi-m

:Multimodification

N

: Noun

NP

: Noun Phrase

Post-m

: Postmodification

Pre-m

: Premodification

PP

: Prepositional Phrase

Spec

: Specifier

V

: Verb

VP

: Verb Phrase

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