SGSWE: Unit 9 Complex noun phrases – Study guide

1. Define NP and characterize what a complex NP is.

2. List and exemplify all the types of pre-modifiers.
3. List and exemplify all the types of post-modifiers.
4. Exemplify the three different combinations of complex post-modification.
5. Exemplify different types of head nouns.
6. What is a noun sequence? Explain their meaning relationships and provide examples.
7. What is nominalization? Exemplify.
8. What is the order of pre-modifiers when there are more than 3?
9. What is the order of adjectives as pre-modifiers?
10. Comment on the following examples:
Savings account

Sales administration

Women candidates

11. Define, compare and contrast defining vs non defining relative clauses.
12. List and exemplify other restrictive and non-restrictive functions.
13. Complete the following charts about relitivazers.
Relativizer Used for…? Subject Object Defining Non-
defining

Relativizer Instead of which expression? Use Examples

Where
When
Why
Wherever
whenever
whoever
whatever
 14. Exemplify different types of reduced relative clauses.
15. Rewrite the following sentences
A- Passengers who have first class tickets can board now.

B- I’ve never seen the pieces of furniture which are in the attic.

16. Correct the mistakes

The house where I grew up in is the really comfy.
They don’t own the house in that they live.
The office in where I work is very sunny.

17. Define and exemplify the 5 types of Noun complement clauses.

18. Write down a paragraph comparing and contrasting relative clauses and noun complement clauses.
19. Identify and analyse the clauses in the following text:

Mahatma Gandhi’s School Days

Born Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), and later popularly referred to as the
‘Mahatma’ or ‘great soul’, Gandhi became a national hero in the Indian struggle to
secure the independence of India from the British Empire. His philosophies of truth
and non-violent resistance have inspired many political movements since, and had
their roots in traditional Hindu religious beliefs. Despite his greatness as a political
leader, Gandhi remained a modest man. ‘I have nothing new to teach the world,’ he
once said. ‘Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.’ Following is a description
of an incident from his schooldays in an English-language school in colonial India.
Describing an incident from his school days in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi
illustrates one of the moral aspects of didactic teaching—the importance of getting
‘right’ answers.

There was an incident which occurred at the examination during my first year at the high school and which is
worth recording. Mr Giles, the Educational Inspector, had come on a visit of inspection. He had set us five
words to write in a spelling exercise. One of the words was ‘kettle’. I had mis-spelt it. The teacher tried to
prompt me with the point of his boot, but I would not be prompted. It was beyond me to see that he wanted
me to copy the spelling from my neighbour’s slate, for I had thought that the teacher was there to supervise
against copying. The result was that all boys, except myself, were found to have spelt every word correctly.
Only I had been stupid. The teacher tried later to bring this stupidity home to me, but without effect. I never
could learn the art of ‘copying’.

Yet the incident did not in the least diminish my respect for my teacher. I was by nature blind to the faults of
elders. Later I came to know many other failings of this teacher, but my regard for him remained the same.
For I learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not scan their actions.

Gandhi, Mahatma. 1949. Gandhi, An Autobiography. London: Phoenix Press. pp. 5–6.