Items related to Premodifiers in English: Their Structure and Significance...

Premodifiers in English: Their Structure and Significance (Studies in English Language) - Hardcover

Book 16 of 59: Studies in English Language

Jim Feist

 
9781107000865: Premodifiers in English: Their Structure and Significance (Studies in English Language)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1107000866 ISBN 13: 9781107000865
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Synopsis

The order and behaviour of the premodifier (an adjective, or other modifying word that appears before a noun) has long been a puzzle to syntacticians and semanticists. Why can we say 'the actual red ball', but not 'the red actual ball'? And why, conversely, do some other premodifiers have free variation in sentences; for example we can say both 'German and English speakers' and 'English and German speakers'? Why do some premodifiers change the meaning of a phrase in some contexts; for example 'young man', can mean 'boyfriend', rather than 'man who is young'? Drawing on a corpus of over 4,000 examples of English premodifiers from a range of genres such as advertising, fiction and scientific texts, and across several varieties of English, this book synthesises research into premodifiers and provides a new explanation of their behaviour, order and use.

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About the Author

Jim Feist is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication date
2011
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1107000866
ISBN 13 
9781107000865
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
275