Meaning

• Heads and modifiers

Our discussion of syntax begins with two central ideas. The first is that certain relationships hold between words whereby one word, the head, controls the other words, the modifiers. A given head may have more than one modifier, and may have no modifier. The second idea is that words are grouped into phrases and that groupings typically bring together heads and their modifiers. In the large dog, the word dog is the head, and the and large are its modifiers. In barked loudly, the word barked is the head and loudly the modifier. (Criteria for recognising heads and modifiers will be given below.)

A phrase, then, is a group of interrelated words. As we will see in Chapter 2, groups of interrelated words can be moved around inside clauses as a single unit; here, we concentrate on the fact that in such groups we recognise various links among the words, between heads and their modifiers. This relationship of modification is fundamental in syntax. It will play an important role in the account of different types of clause (Chapter 6) and is crucial to discussions of word order in differ- ent languages.

How are we to understand the statement ‘one word, the head, controls the other words, the modifiers’? Consider the sentences in (1)–(2), which also introduce the use of the asterisk – ‘*’ – to mark unacceptable examples.

• a. Ethel was sitting at her desk.

b. *The Ethel was sitting at her desk.

• a. *Accountant was sitting at her desk.
  • The accountant was sitting at her desk.
  • Accountants audit our finances every year.

Example (1a) is a grammatical sentence of English, but (1b) is not gram- matical (at least as an example of standard English). Ethel is a type of noun that typically excludes words such as the and a. (Nouns are

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• AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

described in Chapter 4 on word classes. Here, we will use nouns that accord with their traditional definition as words that denote people, places and things.) Accountant is a different type of noun; if it is singular, as in (2a), it requires a word such as the or a. In (2c), accountants consists of accountant plus the plural suffix -s and denotes more than one account- ant. It does not require the. Plural nouns, of course, exclude a or an but allow words such as some or more, as shown in (3).

• a. *I would like an accountants to sort out my tax return.
  • Some accountants were quietly counting in the back office.
  • Would more accountants make any difference to my tax bill?

Another type of noun, which includes words such as salt, sand and water, can occur without any word such as the, a or some, as in (4a, b), and can occur in the plural but only with a large change in meaning. Example (4c) can only mean that different types of salt were spread.

• a. The gritter spread salt.
  • The gritter spread the salt.
  • The gritter spread salts.

Note too that a plural noun such as gritters allows either less or fewer, as in (5d) and (5c), whereas salt requires less and excludes fewer, as in (5a) and (5b).

• a. This gritter spread less salt than that one.
  • *This gritter spread fewer salt than that one.
  • There are fewer gritters on the motorway this winter.
  • There are less gritters on the motorway this winter.

The central property of the above examples is that Ethel, accountant, salt and gritter permit or exclude the plural suffix and permit or exclude words such as the, a, some, less and fewer – note that Ethel excludes the, a, some, less and fewer ; salt in (4a) excludes a and fewer ; gritters excludes a ; accountant allows both the and a, and so on.

We have looked at phrases with nouns as the controlling word, but other types of word exercise similar control. Many adjectives such as sad or big allow words such as very to modify them – very sad, very big – but exclude words such as more – sadder is fine but more sad is at the very least unusual. Other adjectives, such as wooden, exclude very and more – *very wooden, *more wooden. That is, wooden excludes very and more in its literal meaning, but note that very is acceptable when wooden has a metaphori- cal meaning, as in The policeman had a very wooden expression.

Even a preposition can be the controlling word in a group. Prep- ositions link nouns to nouns (books about antiques), adjectives to nouns (rich

HEADS AND MODIFIERS                              3

in minerals) and verbs to nouns (aimed at the target). Most prepositions must be followed by a group of words containing a noun, or by a noun on its own, as in (They sat) round the table, (Claude painted) with this paint- brush, (I’ve bought a present) for the children. A small number of prepositions allow another preposition between them and the noun: In behind the wood- pile (was a hedgehog), (An owl swooped on the rabbit) from up in the beech tree. In allows behind and from allows up. That is, the preposition controls what- ever word or phrase follows it. Another aspect of this control can be seen from the fact that in standard English prepositions can be followed by pronouns, but they exclude I, he, she, we and they and require me, him, her, us and them: *I’ve bought a present for she, I’ve bought a present for her.

• Heads, modifiers and meaning

The distinction between heads and modifiers has been put in terms of one word, the head, that controls the other words in a phrase, the modifiers. If we think of language as a way of conveying information – which is what every speaker does with language some of the time – we can consider the head as conveying a central piece of information and the modifiers as conveying extra information. Thus in the phrase expen- sive books the head word books indicates the very large set of things that count as books, while expensive indicates that the speaker is drawing attention not to the whole set but to the subset of books that are expen- sive. In the longer phrase the expensive books, the word the signals that the speaker is referring to a set of books which have already been mentioned or are otherwise obvious in a particular context.

The same narrowing-down of meaning applies to phrases containing verbs. Note first that different verbs have different powers of control. Some verbs, as in (6a), exclude a direct object (to use the traditional terminology and anticipating Chapter 8), other verbs require a direct object, as in (6b), and a third set of verbs allows a direct object but does not require one, as in (6c).

• a. *The White Rabbit vanished his watch / The White Rabbit vanished.
  • Dogs chase cats / *Dogs chase.
  • Flora cooks / Flora cooks gourmet meals.

Consider the examples drove and drove a Volvo. Drove indicates driving in general; drove a Volvo narrows down the activity to driving a particular make of car. Consider further the phrase on the plate. The first word, on, signals a relationship between some entity, say a piece of toast or a knife, and the surface of something; the plate tells us what that something is, that

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is, it narrows down the meaning ‘being on’ to ‘being on a particular plate’. Finally in this brief set of examples, we return to the point made earlier in passing that heads may have several modifiers. This is most easily illustrated with verbs; the phrase bought a present for Jeanie in Jenners last Tuesday  contains four modifiers of bought  – a present, for Jeanie, in Jenners and last Tuesday. A present signals what was bought and narrows down the activity from just buying to buying a present as opposed, say, to buying the weekly groceries. For Jeanie narrows the meaning down further – not just ‘buy a present’ but ‘buy a present for Jeanie’, and similarly for the phrases in Jenners and last Tuesday