Phrases which, as a unit, act as a noun; and whose heads are nouns or pronouns. English noun phrases can include (among many other possibilities) articles or determiners such as "the" and "a" and one or more adjectives or other nouns used attributively followed by the head noun itself.
45
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5answers
11k views
“My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner”
I just stumbled upon a Reddit post titled:
My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner. How does it look?
Sure enough, the top comment immediately points out that it should be "my wife's and ...
8
votes
1answer
252 views
When can a noun be used attributively?
Nouns can modify nouns: cat food, coffee cup, gold ring, laser surgery, flood insurance. It seems to me there are even cases where a noun sounds better than the corresponding adjective: sociology ...
8
votes
2answers
414 views
*all of us's friend
There's this funny gap I tried to write a paper once upon a time when I studied linguistics, and I'd like to know if anyone has insight into it. The construction in question is the possessive ...
6
votes
1answer
374 views
Why are “colleagues” becoming “work colleagues”?
I've noticed over the last few years that people who were formerly my colleagues have become my work colleagues. Does anyone know why this should be so?
(Perhaps I should also mention that the ...
5
votes
5answers
267 views
“In person” equivalent for inanimate objects
This is much easier to explain by example. So you might hear someone say this photo of her is ok, but she looks much better in person.
I am looking for the equivalent of "in person" that applies to ...
4
votes
2answers
455 views
If a noun phrase is made of two noun-like words that conjugate differently, then which conjugation do you use? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Neither Michael nor Albert is correct” or “Neither Michael nor Albert are correct”?
Is “either you or [third-person]” followed by a ...
4
votes
3answers
290 views
Englishman and British man
Why is it Englishman, Frenchman, etc. (one word) but British man (two words)?
4
votes
3answers
204 views
apostrophe that goes with a noun which precedes a phrase
Suppose you wanted to place a possessive apostrophe in this sentence:
Billy, who goes to my school, favorite game is tag.
I know it's not standard, but I can hear kids (or older) saying an s sound ...
3
votes
3answers
210 views
Parsing of a compound noun with many words
How should I understand this phrase: "threat analysis model", which means:
An analysis model of threat, or put in parentheses: (threat(analysis model)
A model of threat analysis: (threat analysis ...
2
votes
2answers
143 views
Is it right to use 'Statesman' to modify an organization and corporation?
I found a case of using statesman in modifying AOL Inc. in the following sentence of New York Times (February 8). Statesman to me means a leading politician_ and I understand the word here was used ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Is “the many” grammatical? [closed]
The homework is as following
As it stands, our rule allows just one determiner in an NP.
NP → (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) (CP) (PP+)
How can we revise this rule to account for the following data:
...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
Fashionable photographers
I saw somewhere this quote from Wodehouse's Meet Mr. Mulliner (1927):
"Statistics show that the two classes of the community which least often marry are milkmen and fashionable photographers – ...
2
votes
2answers
211 views
Is “hanging bats” a participial phrase, gerund phrase, or simple noun phrase?
In the sentence "Hanging bats populate most of the caves in North America," what is the role of "hanging bats"? I believe it is a simple noun phrase containing the participle "hanging" (which ...
2
votes
1answer
404 views
When adding prefixes to noun phrases, should you hyphenate? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?
Using “non-” to prefix a two-word phrase
When adding a prefix to a noun, I've been taught to usually ...
1
vote
2answers
147 views
Noun phrase after “show”
The following sentences all involve the verb "show" followed by a noun phrase. Number 6 sounds a bit weird, and the last one is just wrong — but why is that?
The video shows the ...
1
vote
2answers
118 views
What do we call this noun phrase?
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call
him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I
have been trying to persuade people to call him by his ...
1
vote
2answers
413 views
Meaning of 'sky high'?
China is a rich country, yet food prices are sky high.
The word 'sky' seems an adjective.
0
votes
2answers
388 views
“The powers above”
I found the following comment left in a website:
There was an offer to merge, but the API was completely different and I gave up with the negative feedback. The attached zips were as far as I got, ...
0
votes
2answers
64 views
“Whomever runs it's” or “whomever runs its”?
I know that "its" is the possessive form of "it", but does this rule apply to the possessive form of phrases ending in "it"? Should I say, "the program runs on whomever runs its computer" or "the ...
0
votes
2answers
238 views
How to associate a participle with an exact word in a sentence like 'List of items'?
I have a problem with a sentence "A list of items grouped by category".
There are two possible ways to understand this sentence:
(A list of items) that is grouped by category
A list of (items that ...
0
votes
2answers
320 views
Genitive as adjectives: handling plurals
Sorry for the title, it is not very evident and intuitive but I really do not how to tell it better...
Well, you know, several times, or better, many times, we use this form:
If I want to say:
...
0
votes
1answer
66 views
mixed functional and non-functional requirement
Some background. Functional requirement of a web service is concerned with the correctness of the web service's function — say, the service will always return a number that is less than two.
The ...
-1
votes
1answer
42 views
the Receipts page vs the page Receipts
Suppose there is a web application with several webpages, amongst them one with the title "Receipts". In the user's manual of this web application or a similar place, are both "the Receipts page" and ...
-3
votes
1answer
87 views
Which sentence is better grammatically? [closed]
I want to search for food by name.
I want to search for a specific food name.
I want to search for a specific food.
