CHAPTER 4

NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND THE

BASIC NOUN PHRASE
State whether the underlined verb is a lexical verb/ a modal auxiliary/
a primary auxiliary
1 The landlord could have been murdered.
2 I will answer the phone.
3 We have been here for 20 years.
4. They are out of stock at the moment.
5. He had a security dog guard his home.
6. I didn’t do my homework.
• State whether the verb in each sentence below is a(n) intensive/ intransitive/ mo no-
transitive/ ditransitive or complex transitive verb.

1 The Great Pyramid contains over two million blocks of stone.

2 We admitted that a mistake had been made.
3 We consider you to be one of our most loyal supporters.
4 The authorities meant you to complete this form, and return it to the Town
Hall.
5. We regret making this criticism.
6 Help will arrive at any moment.
7 You are going to pay me half the money today?
8. Something has gone wrong.
9. We have caused you so much trouble.
10. You must cut down on cigarettes.
 BASIC NOUN PHRASE

- Elements of the basic noun phrase:

+ Head Noun: Any nouns, common or abstract, singular
or plural, countable or uncountable...
+ Closed-system pre-modifiers:
Pre-determiner Determiner Post-determiner
* All, half, both * article: a(n), the, zero * numeral
* Double, * Possessive: my, your… Cardinal: 1, 2, ...
twice… * demonstrative: this, that, Ordinal: first,
these, those second, next, last…
* Fraction: ½,
* quantifier much * quantifiers: many,
2/3…
* some, any, enough, every, (a) few, (a) little,
each, either, neither several
* whose, which, what
 NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND THE BASIC
NOUN PHRASE

I. NOUNS
II. ARTICLES
III. PRONOUNS
IV. NOUN PHRASES
 *Definition:
I. NOUNS Noun = name of anything
(people, places or things).
1. Noun classes
2. Numbers of nouns
3. Genders of nouns
4. Cases of nouns
5. Syntactic functions of
Ns/NPs
1. TYPES OF 1.1. According to the
NOUNS reference criterion: 2
1.2. According to the
number criterion: 2
1.3. According to the word
formation criterion: 3
 1. TYPES OF NOUNS

1.1. According to the reference criterion

NOUNS

CONCRETE ABSTRACT

COMMON PROPER

INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIVE
 1. TYPES OF NOUNS

1.2. According to the number criterion

NOUNS

COUNTABLE UNCOUNTABLE
 1. TYPES OF NOUNS

1.3. According to the word formation criterion

NOUNS

SIMPLE DERIVED COMPOUND

 2. NUMBERS OF NOUNS

2.1. Formation of the plural

2.2. Concords
2.3. Plural of the compound Ns
2.4. Plural of the addressing forms
2.5. Nouns with no plural forms
2.6. Nouns with no singular forms
 2.1. Formation of the plurals
- Almost all Ns → “s”; e.g. books; pens...
2. - Ns ending in “ch, sh, x, s, z, o” → “es”; e.g.
NUMBERS watches, boxes, glasses, buzzes, potatoes,
OF NOUNS bushes...
- Ns ending in “f, fe” → “ves”; e.g. wives, leaves...
- Ns ending in “y” preceded by a consonant →
“ies”; e.g. lorries...
- Irregular plurals:
+ By changing vowels: man → men, goose →
geese...
+ Singular = Plural: sheep, deer...
+ By adding “en”: ox → oxen, child → children...
+ Foreign plurals: phenomenon → phenomena...
 2.2. Concords
- Singular Ns take singular Vs; plural Ns take
plural Vs.
2. e.g. A book is nice. The books are nice.
NUMBERS - A collective N take a singular or a plural V.
OF NOUNS
e.g. The team is playing well./ The team are
playing well.
- Ns like "people, police, cattle" are always used
with plural Vs.
e.g. The Vietnamese people are very hard working.
- Two or more subjects connected by "and" take a
plural V.
e.g. The girl and her cat are in the garden.
- Singular subject joined by "or, nor, neither"
take a singular V.
E.g. A cigar or a cigarette is not good for your
health.
 2.2. Concords
- Distributive Ns take singular Vs.
E.g. Everyone is ready.
2. - "None" may take a singular verb or a plural
NUMBERS verb.
OF NOUNS E.g. None of them is/are ready.
- The V agrees with the pronoun "it" in
identifying or emphatic sentences.
E.g. It is they who are wrong.
- The relative pronoun takes the same number
and person as its antecedent.
E.g. This is one of the best books that have ever
published.
- If the formal subject "there" is used, the V
agrees with the real subject.
E.g. There is a book on the table.
There are 2 books on the table.
2.3. Plural of the compound Ns
- Normally final element of a compound is made
plural. 2.
e.g. Armchairs, housewives... NUMBERS
OF NOUNS
- Sometimes both elements are made plural.
e.g. man-servant  men-servants
- In syntactical compounds especially where the
first component is a N qualified by a
prepositional phrase, an adv. or an adj., only the
N takes the plural form.
E.g. fathers-in-law, passers-by...
But in popular speech, there is tendency to make
the last element plural; e.g. father-in-laws...
 2.5. Nouns with no plural
2. forms
NUMBERS
OF NOUNS - Abstract nouns and many
nouns denoting materials are
never used in the plural.
e.g. Happiness, joy, paper...
 2.6. Nouns with no singular forms
- Some nouns are never used in singular forms:

2. + names of articles of dress; e.g. trousers,

NUMBERS pants...
OF NOUNS + tools and instruments consisting of two parts;
e.g. scissors, spectacles...
+ names of some games; e.g. billiards, cards...
+ names of some subjects; e.g. Physics, maths...
- Some nouns have a plural form but they are
followed by a singular verb. E.g. news, works,
physics, phonetics...
But this usage is not fixed. Singular or plural
can often be used, e.g. Maths is/are taught at
that school.
 3. GENDERS OF NOUNS
- Masculine gender: used for all words representing male people or higher
animals; e.g. boy, king, uncle, host, dog, tiger...
- Feminine gender: used for all words representing female people or higher
animals; e.g. girl, queen, aunt, hostess, bitch,
tigeress...
- Neuter gender: used for inanimate objects;
e.g. book, pen, table...
- Personal dual gender: used for words representing both male and female
people or some animals;
e.g. teacher, worker...
- Common gender: intermediate between personal and non-personal.
E.g. baby - it/ she/ he/ which/ who
- Collective nouns: the singular stresses the non-personal collectivity of the
group and the plural the personal indivuality within the group
e.g. Family- it/ they
 GENDER IN HIGHER ORGANISMS
• Names of countries have different gender depending on their use.
(i) As geographical units they are treated as inanimate:
e.g. ‘Looking at the map we see France here. It is one of the largest
countries of Europe.’
(ii) As political/economic units the names of countries are often feminine:
e.g. ‘France has been able to increase her exports by 10 per cent over the
last six months.’ ‘England is proud of her poets.’
(iii) In sports, the teams representing countries can be referred to as
personal collective nouns, e.g. : ‘France have improved their chance of
winning the cup.’
 GENDER IN LOWER ANIMALS AND
INANIMATE OBJECTS
• Lower animals do not differ from inanimate nouns in terms
of our present linguistic criteria; ie both snake and box have
which and it as pronouns.
• Sex differences can, however, be indicated by. a range of
gender markers for any animate noun when they‘are felt to
be relevant:
E.g. she-goat, he-goat, male frog, hen-pheasant.
 4. CASES OF NOUNS
Common vs. genitive case:
English nouns have a two-case system: the unmarked COMMON
CASE {boy, mother) and the marked GENI­TIVE CASE {boy’s,
mother’s).
Since the functions of the common case can be seen only in the
syntactic relations of the noun phrase (subject, object, etc), it is the
functions of the genitive that need separate scrutiny.
E.g. The thieves are arrested.
The thief’ s companion was a young man.
The thieves’ companions were men
 TWO GENITIVES
the -S GENITIVE vs. the OF-GENITIVE
• What is the ship's name?
• What is the name of the ship?

• The legs of a table NOT. a table’s leg

• John’s hat NOT the hat of John
• The part of the problem NOT the problem’s part
 Forms of ‘–s Gentitive’
- For singular nouns and plural nouns NOT
4. CASES ending in "s" → use 's; e.g. boy's book,
OF children’s book...
NOUNS - With some names ending in "s" and
plural nouns ending in "s" → use only
the apostrophe (') e.g. St. Agnes' Eve,
teachers’ book...
- When the possessor is represented by a
number of words, the possessive ending
is used with the last one only, e.g. my
father-in-law's house.
GENITIVE MEANINGS
GENTIVE MEANINGS
 CHOICE OF GENITIVES
• the ‘S genitive is favoured by the classes that are highest
on the gender scale ie animate nouns, in particular persons
and animals with personal gender characteristics.
• the youngest children’s toys or the toys of the youngest
children,
• *the door’s knob or *the hat of John,
CHOICE OF –S GENTITIVE
 CHOICE OF THE OF-GENITIVE
* The of-genitive is chiefly used with nouns that belong to
the bottom part of the gender scale, that is, especially with
inanimate nouns:
e.g. the title of the book, the interior of the room. (an -s genitive
would be fully acceptable here)
• but in many instances this is not so:
e.g. the hub of the wheel, the windows of the houses.
In measure, partitive, and appositive expressions, the –of genitive is
the usual form except for temporal measure {a month’s rest) and in
idioms such as his money's worth, at arm's length.
 • The genitive with ellipsis
- when referring to a business, building;
e.g. the butcher's, the baker's...

4. CASES - to avoid repetition;

OF e.g. She put her arm through her brother's (arm).

- The "of" construction cannot be used with genitives
NOUNS that are completely adjectival.
e.g. He's a ship's carpenter; not: the carpenter of a ship.
(A ship’s carpenter duties and responsibilities can be
varied depending on the type of vessel they are working on
and the area of the shipping industry they are employed
in.)
- With proper nouns genitive is more common than
"of" construction. "Of" construction is used mainly for
balance.
e.g. Henry's work but the work of Henry and John.
- "of" construction should be used in order to avoid
putting "s" to a long phrase.
e.g. This is the car of the man we met; not: the man we
met's car
 . Double genitive

4. CASES - Double genitive appears when

OF both "s" form and "of" form are
NOUNS used together in the same phrase.
e.g. a friend of Tom’s
An opera of my friend’s
 - Subject (S): Peter is a boxer.
- Object (O):
+ Direct object (Od): He likes sea foods.
+ Indirect object (Oi): Mary gave Tom a present yesterday.
5. + Prepositional object: He looks at the picture attentively.
SYNTACTIC - Complement (C):
FUNCTIONS
OF NOUNS/ + Subject complement (Cs): He is a teacher.
NOUN + Object complement (Co): We elected him our President.
PHRASES + Prepositional complement (Cpre): She is afraid of
spiders.
+ Adjective complement (Cadj): She is busy practising.
- Appositive to a NP: Ms Brown, my boss, is very nice.
- Antecedent of a relative clause: The man who is singing is
vey rich.
- Pre-modifier of a complex NP: a school bag
II. ARTICLES

Specific reference
Generic reference
Unique reference
- Withdefinite specific reference, the definite article is
used for all noun classes:

- With indefinite specific reference, singular count nouns

take the indefinite article a(n), while non-count and plural
count nouns take zero article or unstressed some (any):
I want a pen/(some) pens/(some) ink
I don’t want a pen/(any) pens/(any) ink
 GENERIC REFERENCE

- Nationality words and adjectives as noun-phrase head

with generic reference:
(a) PLURAL PERSONAL
E.g. the French = the French nation
the rich = those who are rich)
(b) SINGULAR NON-PERSONAL ABSTRACT
E.g. the evil = that which is evil
 GENERIC REFERENCE

- When they have generic reference, both concrete and

abstract non-count nouns, and plural count nouns, are
used with the zero article:

- Postmodification by an of-phrase usually requires “the” +

“a head noun”, which thus has limited generic (partitive)
reference:
 SPECIFIC REFERENCE

Indefinite and definite

e.g. An intruder has stolen a vase;
the intruder stole the vase from a locked cupboard;
the cupboard was smashed open.
--> the definite article “the” presupposes an earlier mention
of the item so determined.
E.g. John asked his wife to put on the kettle while he looked
in the paper to see what was on the radio
 No prior mention of a kettle, a paper, a radio is needed,
since these things are part of the cultural situation.
 SPECIFIC REFERENCE

Common nouns with zero article in certain idiomatic

expressions:
 UNIQUE REFERENCE

Proper nouns: names of specific people {Shakespeare),

places {Hanoi), countries {Vietnam), months {September),
days {Thursday), holi­days {New Year's Day), magazines
{Vogue), …
Proper nouns with definite article
- WITHOUT MODIFICATION: The Guardian
- WITH PREMODIFICATION: the Suez Canal; The Washington Post
- WITH POSTMODIFICATION: the House of Commons, the District of Columbia
- ELLIPTED ELEMENTS: the Tate (Gallery), the Atlantic (Ocean), the (River)
Thames
III. PRONOUNS
1. Definition
2. Types
 1. DEFINITION

- A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun.

E.g. Mary is from England. She is English.
- Pronouns may show number, person, gender and case.
E.g. She is English.
Number: singular
Person: third
Gender: feminine
Case: subjective
FEATURES OF PRONOUNS
 CASE
• Like nouns, most pronouns in English have only two cases:
COMMON {somebody) and GENITIVE {somebody’s).
• SIX pronouns have an objective case, thus presenting a three-case
system, where common case is replaced by SUBJECTIVE and
OBJECTIVE.
• The genitives of personal pronouns are called ‘possessive
pronouns’.
 PERSON
• Personal, possessive, and reflexive pronouns have distinctions of
person:
• 1st person refers to the speaker (/), or to the speaker and one or more
others {we)\
• 2nd person refers to the person(s) addressed {you);
3rd person refers to one or more other persons or things {hejshelit,
they),
 GENDER
• In 3rd person singufar, the personal, reflexive, and possessive pronouns distinguish in
gender between:
+ masculine {helhimlhimselfjhis),
+ feminine {she/ her/ herself/hers),
+ and non-personal {it/ itself/ its).
Relative and interrogative pronouns and determiners distinguish between personal and non-
personal gender.
 NUMBER
• The 2nd person uses a common form for singular and plural
in the personal (you/ you) and possessive series (yours/
yours) but has a separate plural in the reflexive (yourself/
yourselves)
• We, the 1st person plural pronoun= ‘I plus one or more
others’.
 2. TYPES OF PRONOUNS

2.1. Personal pronouns

2.2. Reflexive pronouns
2.3. Reciprocal pronouns
2.4. Possessive pronouns
2.5. Relative pronouns
2.6. Interrogative pronouns
2.7. Demonstrative pronouns
2.8. Universal pronouns
2.9. Partitive pronouns
2.8. Distributive pronouns
 2. TYPES OF PRONOUNS
2.1. Personal pronouns
• Personal pronouns function as replacements for co-
referential noun phrases in neighbouring (usually
preceding) clauses:
E.g. John waited a while but eventually he went home.
John told Mary that she should wait for him
 2. TYPES OF PRONOUNS
2.1. Personal pronounns

Number Singular Plural

Person Subjective Objective Subjective Objective
First person I me we us
Second person you you you you
Third person
Masculine he him they them
Feminine She her they them
Neuter it it they them
Indefinite one one
 2.1. Personal pronouns
- Person in personal pronouns: 3
+ First person: a person who speaks (I, we)
+ Second person: A person spoken to (you)
+ Third person: People/ things talked about (he, she, it,
they)
- Number in personal pronouns: 2
2. TYPES + Singular: I, you, she, he, it
OF + Plural: we, you, they
PRONOUN - Gender in personal pronouns: 3

S + Masculine: he
+ Feminine: she
+ Neuter gender: it
+ Common gender: I, you, we, they
- Case in personal pronouns: 2
+ Subjective: I, he, she, we, they, who
+ Objective: me, him, her, us, them, whom
2. TYPES OF 2.1. Personal pronouns
PRONOUNS
- Syntactic functions:
+ S; E.g. He is a teacher.
+ O; E.g. I love him.
+ C; E.g. Who’s that? It’s
me, Tom.
 2.1. Personal pronouns
- Notes on the personal pronouns
+ "I" is always written with a capital
2. TYPES OF
PRONOUNS letter.
E.g. I am a student.
+ “She/her” can be used for inanimate
objects, especially ships, motor cars,
aircraft etc. to express affection or
familiarity. Countries and cities,
especially in formal speech can be
made feminine.
E.g. That's Queen's yacht; she's a
beautiful ship. England has done what
she promised to do.
 2.1. Personal pronouns
- It
+ It is often used to identify an unknown person.

2. TYPES OF E.g. Someone was moving around the room. It might

PRONOUNS be a burglar.
+ It is used as a formal subject with verbs concerning
weather conditions, e.g. It is raining;
with time and measurement expressions, e.g. It's half
past seven. It's a long way to London;
and with other impersonal statements, e.g. It says here
that he is a very famous actor.
+ It is used as a formal subject or object in the
construction where the real subject or object usually
follows as an infinitive or a subordinate clause.
E.g. It is easy to talk with Sam.
+ It can stand for a whole sentence.
E.g. You've saved my life. I'll never forget it.
 2.1. Personal pronouns
- One
+ One is a numeral and it can be used as a pronoun.
2. TYPES OF E.g. One of my friends came to see me today.
PRONOUNS + One is used to stand for people or I or any person
in my position. It can be a subject or an object.
E.g. One can only do one's best.
+ One may have a general indefinite meaning of "a
person".
E.g. You are the first one who has ever explained
this clearly.
+ One is used with something of its meaning as a
numeral when contrasted with other or another.
E.g. There are two choices to you. You must take
either this one or the other.
 2.4. Reflexive pronouns
- Form: myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves,
themselves
- -Reflexive pronouns replace a co-referential noun phrase, normally
2. TYPES OF
within the same finite verb clause:
PRONOUNS
John has hurt himself
- Syntactic functions:
+ Object of a verb; e.g. I hate myself for loving you.
+ Complement of a verb; e.g. That's better. You're yourself again.
- Uses:
+ to emphasize a noun or a pronoun.
E.g. I saw him do it myself.
+ with the meaning "alone" or "without help";
e.g. I did this work by myself.
 2.2. Possessive pronouns
- Forms: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs
- Uses:

2. TYPES OF + Possessive pronouns are used in such phrases as:

My best wishes to you and yours (= your family)
PRONOUNS from me and mine (= my family);
+ in the conventional ending to letters such as: Yours
sincerely/truly etc.
+ in the double possessive pattern: "of + possessive
pronoun": It was no fault of yours.
- Syntactic functions:
+ S; e.g. Your bike is new and mine is old.
+ O; e.g. I’ll hold my ticket and you’ll hold yours.
+ C; e.g. Whose book is it? It’s mine.
 2. TYPES OF
PRONOUNS
2.3. Demonstrative pronouns
- Forms: this, that, these, those

- Syntactic functions:
+ Subject; e.g. This is a book.
+ Object:; e.g. I like this but I don’t like that.
 2. TYPES OF PRONOUNS

2.5. Interrogative pronouns

- Form: Who, whom, whose, which, what

- Uses:
+ to make questions.
e.g. Who is on duty today?
+ in some idiomatic expressions with what;
e.g. What about something to eat? (= would you like…)
• which and what have a constant relationship to each other with respect to
definiteness; what has indefinite reference and which has definite reference
 2.6. Universal pronouns and determiners
- Forms: all, each, every and every- compounds
(everything, everybody, everyone)
- every  reference to a number of three (usually)
2. TYPES OF
PRONOUNS more, and has collective reference
- . Each  reference to two or more, and has
individual reference. Thus:
 2.7. Relative pronouns
- Forms: Who, whom, whose, which, what, that

2. TYPES OF
PRONOUNS

- Uses:
+ To introduce the relative clauses.
E.g. The man who you are talking to is my boss.
 2.8. Partitive pronouns
3 sets of partitive pronouns:
2. TYPES OF He saw something/some material.
PRONOUNS
Did he see anything/any material?
He saw nothing/ no material
 2.9. Reciprocal pronouns
- Form: each other; one another
2. TYPES OF - With 2 antecedents, each other is
PRONOUNS
commoner
- where more than two are involved, one
another is often preferred:
- e.g. Jane loves John; John loves
Jane; Jane and John love each other.
The four children are fond of one
another
 1. Definition
NP = HN + other elements
IV. NOUN
e.g. a book, the sun...
PHRASES
2. Types
2.1. Basic noun phrase
2.2. Complex noun phrase
1 The girl is Mary Smith.
2 The pretty girl is Mary Smith.
3 The pretty girl standing in the corner is Mary Smith.
4. The pretty girl standing in the corner who became angry
because you waved to her when you entered is Mary Smith
 2. TYPES OF NOUN PHRASES
2.1. BASIC NOUN PHRASE

- Definition:
Basic NP = closed-system pre-modifiers + HN
- Elements of the basic noun phrase:
Basic Noun Phrase

Closed-system pre-modifiers Head Noun

Post-
Pre-determiners Determiners
determiners
 2. TYPES OF NOUN PHRASES
2.1. BASIC NOUN PHRASE

- Elements of the basic noun phrase:

+ Head Noun: Any nouns, common or abstract, singular
or plural, countable or uncountable...
+ Closed-system pre-modifiers:
Pre-determiner Determiner Post-determiner
* All, half, both * article: a(n), the, zero * numeral
* Double, * Possessive: my, your… Cardinal: 1, 2, ...
twice… * demonstrative: this, that, Ordinal: first,
these, those second, next, last…
* Fraction: ½,
* quantifier much * quantifiers: many,
2/3…
* some, any, enough, every, (a) few, (a) little,
each, either, neither several
* whose, which, what
 COMPLEX NOUN PHRASES
• The pretty girl standing in the corner is Mary Smith.
• 3 components:
(a) The head, around which the other components cluster and which dictates
concord and other kinds of congruence with the rest of the sentence outside the
noun phrase.
(b) The premodification; which comprises all the items placed before the head —
notably adjectives and nouns.

e.g. The pretty girl/ The country cottage

(c) The postmodification, comprising all the items placed after the head —notably
prepositional phrases, non-finite clauses, and relative clauses:
• The girl in the corner
The girl standing in the corner
• The girl who stood in the corner
 COMPLEX NOUN PHRASE
- DEFINITION:
COMPLEX NP = PRE-MODIFIERS + NOUN HEAD + POST-
MODIFIERS.
- Elements of a complex noun phrase:

COMPLEX NOUN PHRASE

Pre-
Head Noun Post-modifiers
modifiers
Closed System Open Class - Finite clause
- Non-finite clause
- Adj/ Adv/ Nouns
- Pre-determiners - Adj/ Adv
- ‘-s Genitive
- Determiners - Participles (-ing, -ed) - Prepositional phrases
- Post- - Prepositional phrases
determiners
 2.2. Elements of a Complex noun phrase
+Head Noun: Any nouns, common or abstract, singular
or plural, countable or uncountable..
2. TYPES + Pre-modifiers:
OF NOUN * Closed-system pre-modifiers:
PHRASES Pre-determiners (3)
Determiners (6)
Post-determiners (2)
* Open class pre-modifiers:
Adjectives; e.g. A nice girl
Adverbs; his far-away cottage...
Nouns; e.g. A school girl, a boy friend...
Participles (P1 & P2); e.g. A tired man, an interesting
book...
Clauses/Sentences: his I don’t care attitude...
 - Elements of a complex noun phrase:
+ Post-modifiers:
* Adjectives; e.g. 20 km long, 30 years old...
2. TYPES * Adverbs; e.g. the captain aboard; a trip
OF NOUN abroad...
PHRASES * Prepositional phrases; e.g. the girl in the
corner of the room, a beautiful woman with
short hair...
* Clauses;
Finite clause; e.g. the girl who is singing...
Non-finite clause; e.g. The girl standing by the
window, the vase broken by a cat, the book to
read for fun...
 RESTRICTIVE AND NON-RESTRICTIVE MODIFICATION

• Modification can be restrictive or non-restrictive.

- the head can be viewed as a member of a class which can be
linguistically identified only through the modification that has been
supplied {restric­tive).
- the head can be viewed as unique or as a member of a class that has
been independently identified (for example, in a preced­ing
sentence); any modification given to such a head is additional
information which is not essential for identifying the head, and we
call it non-restrictive.
e.g. the girl standing in the corner is Mary Smith.
(restrictive post modification)
Come and meet my beautiful wife.(non-restrictive pre-
modification)
Restrictive vs non restrictive
 POSTMODIFICATION
• Explicitness.
1 The man who is standing in the corner
2 The man standing in the corner
3 The man in the corner
 Explicitness in postmodification is greater in the finite relative
clause than the non-finite clause, though this in turn is more explicit
than the prepositional phrase
 POSTMODIFICATION
• Restrictive /non-restrictive/ sentential relative clauses.
1 The man who/ that is playing the piano is John Smith.
2 Here is John Smith, whom/ who I mentioned the other day.
3 He admires Mrs. Brown, which surprises me.
 POSTMODIFICATION

• Relative clauses vs. appositive clauses - The belief that no one is infallible
- The boy that we met yesterday likes to play is well-founded
soccer. - I agree with the old saying that
- The table (that) the boy crawled under was absence makes the heart grow
made of wood fonder
- He met Mary, who / that invited him to a - This fact, that “that” is obligatory,
party. should be easy to remember
- Introduced by “that”
- Introduced by “that
- distinguishing between - distinguishing between restrictive and
restrictive and non- restrictive non- restrictive
- “that” is not an element in the clause structure
- “that” is an element in the clause
(subject, object, etc)
structure (subject, object, etc) - “that” is obligatory whether it be in restrictive or
- “that” can be omitted when it is the non-restrictive appositive clauses
object of the relative clause - the head must be a factive abstract noun such as
- The head of the noun phrase is fact, proposition, reply, remark, answer, assumption,
varied. report, belief, excuse, knowledge, etc.
- the definite article “the” is normally used before the
head noun
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