A Seminar in Systemic Functional Grammar

on
Nominal Group

Prepared by
Hussam Abduljabbar & Mahmoud Fakhruldeen

Supervised by
Asst. Prof Sanaa Sabeeh Othman Al-Tahafee

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 Word and group
Word and Group
In grammar there is a "rank scale" where the "word" is the basic unit, followed by
"group" and then "sentence." This implies a hierarchy in sentence structure where
smaller units like words come together to form groups, and groups in turn combine
to form sentences.

e.g : The big dog will bite the little man in the arm/deeply.

This sentence is broken down into four elements:

(1) The big dog (Subject)

(2) Will bite (Predicate)

(3) The little man (Complement)

(4) In the arm/deeply (Adjunct)

Although there are four elements in the sentence, we only need three categories for
groups based on their function:

1-Nominal group (operates at both Subject and Complement)

2-Verbal group (operates at Predicate)

2- Adverbial group (operates at Adjunct)

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 Nominal group

Nominal Group Structure and Classification

Nominal Group Structure

• The structure of a nominal group includes an obligatory element, the head or
headword, which is realized by one word.

Ex : Cows eat grass John shot Jim

• The headword can be preceded by a modifier (m), which is a word that can be
realized by a number of words.

m h m h

Ex: the man the big boy

• The qualifier (q) is an element of structure that may follow the headword.

h q

ex : Boys with red hair (are nice)

Houses in the country (were fashionable then )

• The primary elements of the structure of the nominal group are (m), h, (q).

M h q
(m), h, (q) the man himself

m h q

All the other ten very worn school books in the library

Classification of Nominal Groups

• A simple nominal group can be classified as a substantive, which includes words
that can appear at h.

Ex : Horses run races I live in Glasgow

• The words operating at h in the minimal nominal groups are termed substantives.

• If the head words in more complex group are considered it becomes obvious that
different members of the class substantive occur in different patterns .
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There are four main subclasses .
1- The words operating at h in the italicised groups are nouns, which are
characterized by their morphology and the cannot be modified by submodifiers very
, rather , quite .

h h

Ex : these boys are superb example

h h

All the books that I read on holiday belonged to my brother .

2- The words operating at h in the italicised groups are pronouns, which are not
usually modified but can be qualified. The qualifiers of pronouns are themselves
complete clauses or groups of somewhat restricted types , as in :

h q h q

Ex : Anyone [who is an artist] Nobody [in the room]

• Some pronouns occur uniquely with other qualifiers, such as 'indefinite pronouns'
and 'plural personal pronouns'.

a- the so- called 'indefinite pronouns ' occur with the item 'else'
h q
everyone
no one
someone else
somebody
no body

b- the 'plural personal pronoun 'occur with the item 'both '

h q
they both
we
• Pronouns take virtually no modifiers and restricted qualifiers, unlike nouns, which
cannot be modified by the definite or indefinite article.
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3- Proper nouns operate at h in italicised groups, which cannot be modified or
qualified.

h h
Ex : London is the capital Come to Canada .
Adjectives in such groups do not identify the headword as a particular member of its
class: thus ,dark night means 'of the class night that member which is characterized
by darkness ' or sunny day means ' a day which is sunny ; but sunny Sussex does not
mean of the class Sussex that member which is sunny ; a Sussex which is sunny .

4- Adjectives can be qualified by items enough ,indeed ,or by complete clauses, or

groups of restricted types.
h q h q
Ex : He is older [than Harry ] He is keener [than I am ]
• Adjectives cannot be modified by articles or demonstratives, but they can be
modified by submodifiers very , rather , quite ,etc

Understanding the Structure of Nominal Groups

• The structure of nominal groups with a noun at h is the most varied and complex.
Ex :
all houses
all the houses
all the same houses
But not
*the all houses /same all the houses
*all houses the / ten the houses
* stone the five all houses same .

• Secondary structures at m are established based on the sequence of items.

d o e n (h)
Ex : all the other ten very worn American school (books)
• Secondary elements of structure at m include
(d) deictic (word-class determiner),
(n) numerative (word-class numeral),
( e) epithet (word-class adjective),
( c ) classifier (word-class word-class).
There are further sequence restrictions within d element
We may have all the other
Both the same

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 the all other
but not the same both
other the all
same the both
we have three distinct places at d:
d1 (predeictic) all , both , half
d2 (deictic) the , this , his , its , john's mother's my ;a, any another , no , neither ,
every , several
d3 (post –deictic) other , same
• The occurrence of items at d is not entirely independent of other items at m.
• The occurrence of items at d is related to the occurrence of items at o.
• Two types of numerals operate at o: cardinal and ordinal.
• Cardinal numerals can be selected independently of determiners,
such as one horse five horses the five horses the same five horses
while ordinal numerals require a determiner for 'identifying'.
Ex:
His first opportunity his first attempts
John's third bicycle her third trials
Adjectives and Nouns in Surface Grammar
Element e:
• Adjectives operate at this element, with a large number of items.
• Recursion becomes marked, with two or more exponents of e present in one group.
• The position at e is more complicated than at d, with place orderings not fully
worked out.
• Sequences are not invariable, but can be altered if accompanied by an intonation
break.
adjectives which identify the headword by comparison or degree seem to occur in
the first position ; this means adjectives which are regularly compared either by
preposing more ;most or taking the er : est inflexions and adjectives which are
submodified by items such as rather, quite, very terribly , unbearably, etc . We may
call this position e1 .
e1 e1
ex : the ten nicest men a very lovely landscape
There are two points to note when superlatives occur at e1 .
1- the presence of superlative in this position requires a determiner at d , a relation
similar to that obtaining between ordinal numerals and determiners .
Ex : the best chair his most polished performance
2- a superlatives almost always points forward to a q in the nominal group .
e1 h q e1 h q
The best chair [in the room] the most graceful animals [in the world]
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Place Orderings:
• The'size-shape' group, 'quality' group, and 'age' group are the three groups within
e1.
Size shape quality age
Big fat fine young
Tall thin graceful old
Large slim scraggy new
• Smaller groupings suggest this sequence, with adjectives like 'scraggy' suggesting
this sequence.
the tall scraggy man rather than the scraggy tall man
a tall young man rather than a young tall man

Element e2:
• Colour adjectives are less readily submodified and have a range of submodifiers.
• These adjectives are followed by 'colour' adjectives, which are less readily
submodified.
Ex : salmon pink royal blue bottle green

Element e3:
• Derived adjectives such as 'wooden','silven', 'American', and'strategic' are
formally derived from other word-classes and are usually compound in structure.
e1 e2 e3 e1 e2 e3
Ex : the large blue American carpet the huge old wooden trunk

Element n:
• A noun in this position is 'acting as an adjective', acting as an exponent of e.
• Items operating at e denote accidental properties of the headword, while items at n
denote inherent properties of the headword. thus
a stony path is not the same as a stone path
a stony path is a path which has stones on or in it
a stone path is a path made of the path and the stoneness is an inherent property of
the path
• There is potential ambiguity in identifying structures due to both n and h being
expounded by the same word-class and being compound.
• Nominal groups with several exponents of n are a feature of English and are now
well-developed.
• Intonation is important in spoken language for identifying such structures, while
hyphenation is used in written language.

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• The essential characteristic of h in a nominal group is that it contains the final
stressed syllable .(stressed syllable italicised ):
The white house
The black bird structure : deh
The old book
• Compound headwords can be identified by their first base element containing a
stressed syllable, final in the group, but their second element will not as in .

The white house structure : dh ( h compound )

The black bird
• Nominal groups with a structure nh will normally have a stressed syllable on the n
element and on the h element, indicating h as the final stressed syllable.
The coin boxes
The gold mine structure : dnh
• Difficulty of interpretation may arise when there is more than one exponent of n or
when one or the other exponent is compound.
• The main types of nominal groups are
1- The structure of these groups is nh (n compound), such groups will contain a
stressed syllable on the first base element of n and have an intonation break (//)
between n and h .
Time –table // commitments
Bank – rate // rise
2- The structure of these groups is nh (h compound) such groups will contain a
stressed syllable on n and a stressed syllable on the first base element of h and have
an intonation break (//) between n and h .
School // sum-boxes
Roadside // telephone – boxes
3- the structure of these group is nnh this structure is less common and they may
have several exponents of n .
Subscriber trunk dialing
Subscriber trunk dialing system
Subscriber trunk dialing all-number system fault
Subscriber trunk dialing all-number system fault engineer
• A different type of item occurs at q than at m, typically realized by a complete
group or clause. A clause usually operates higher on the rankscale, in the structure
of the sentence.
ex : the man I visited in town has gone away .
The subject is 'the man I visited in town' it has already been said that the element
subject is realized by a nominal group
• A clause operating in the structure of a lower unit is said to be rankshifted.
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• It is important to distinguish between clauses operating in sentence structure (the
norm ;not rankshifted ) and clauses which are operating at q in the nominal group
(rankshifted). The nominal groups operating at S have rankshifted clauses at q :

s
N
m h q
The man [who came to dinner] stayed a month

S
N
h q

Nobody who calls himself an artist would paint like that

• Nominal groups operating at s have rankshifted clauses at q.

S
N
M h q
A car [that price ] is beyond me

S
N
h q
Shoes [this size] are usually dearer

• Adverbial groups often operate at q in nominal group structure, rather than their
normal operation at A in clause structure.
S
N
m h q
The snow [on the hill] was deep

C
N
m h q
He chose The books [with leather bindings ]

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Complexity at q
• Complexity at q is mainly due to recursion.
• This is a relation of successive rankshifting: there is one q in the group but this q
itself has a structure which contains further rank-shifts.
• Sequences can become quite complex when adding in the town to the example.

S P C A
N V N Ad
h i h p C=[N]
m h q
I found him in [the house [in the main street]]

There are occasions when there is ambiguity between successive adjuncts in clause
structure and rankshift adverbial groups at q in nominal group structure for
example , if , he decided on the houses in the country means he decided on the house
which was in the country , then the clause has a structure spc and c is realized by a
nominal group which has a rankshifted adverbial group at q :

S P C
N V N
h i m h q
He decided on the house [in the country]

If it means while in the country he made up his mind about the houses then there is
an adjunct in the clause structure :
S P C A
N V N Ad
h i m h P C=N
He decided on the house in m h
the country

Problems in Nominal Group Structure

• A constant problem in nominal group structure is the flexibility of members of the
word-classes which realize the elements of structure .It is this which motivates
questions of 'noun acting as adjective', 'adjective acting as noun', etc. are connected
with problems of derivation and lexis.
The question 'what class of word is red' should be 'what class of word is red in the
groups'.

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Problems with Initial Place in Nominal Group Structure
• Deictics may precede such items, which enter the nominal group structure in
association with another element.
Almost
Nearly all the boys .
Very nearly
Such items only initiate the group when there is a pre-deictic present; we do not find
:
Nearly
Almost the boys
• Such items should be treated as sub-modifiers, similar to other sub-modifiers, such
as those with adjectives.
m h
d e
s-m adj
the very old houses

• A special instance of sub-modification occurs when there is a super-lative

adjective in the group, and the items much, quite, can initiate group structure .
much
quite the best house
very nearly

•A further problem is raised by certain groups containing the item of :

Several of the men five of the men both of the men
A lot of the men all of the men
If we analyse such examples as :
m h q h q
A / lot / [of the men] both / [of the men]
The result are surly counter- intuitive . that is , lexical words such as men will occur
merely as part of a q to headwords such as lot , both .
•such examples are not , of course , to be confused with groups which do have
lexical items at h and of qualifiers :
m h q m h q
The / heart / of men a / basinful / of joy
Further comparison , and particularly a study of systems at d
m h m h
d d
d1 d2 d1 d2
A lot of the men both of the
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It was stated earlier that items which occur at m do not usually occur at q .
Adjectives at e precede their noun at h .
There are a number of instance where the adjective follows a noun . this is
sometimes for conventional reasons sometimes for stylistic reasons and frequently
to give an appositional relationship .
a- With certain construction historically modelled on French :
free simple court martial body politic
b- When there is more than one adjective :
a leer menacing and horrible
thoughts dear and tender
c- When the adjective is sub- modified :
a talent so great a joy too divine
d- Adjectives placed after the h in apposition:
A man , cruel beyond belief
The woman , beautiful and clever

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References
Muir James (1972) A modern approach to English grammar: an Introduction to
systemic grammar. London: B .T. Batsford

Https://www.researchgate.net>publication

Https://www.iasj.net>iasj

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