Search results for 'tag:Clauses tag:Abstract nouns' matching tags 'Clauses' and 'Abstract nouns'

Re: The Enron scandal was a financial scandal involving Enron

26TMNTJG2PG — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:24:15 GMT

This is a very interesting discussion. Allow me to present views:-
Question: I would have written, ''fraud which perpetrated throughout.. What do you say? No. [reason being fraud (an abstract noun) having become the doer of the action of perpetrating. Even if you personified it, there must still be an object after the verb perpetrated as 'perpetrate' is a transitive verb which takes an object.] But you could say 'which was perpetrated throughout . . . ' turning the original adjective phrase iuto an adjective clause. Though the change is grammatically correct, it is not advisable as the original version is symmetrical with the earlier part of the sentence - a series of revelations. How does an asymmetrical sentence look like? Refer to a blog post titled "Asymmetrical sentence".
Actually, I'm not sure if 'perpetrated' is meant to qualify 'fraud' or 'procedures'. If the latter, then say 'which were . . . ' This cannot be since an adjective/adjective phrase/adjective clause qualifies a noun or pronoun (antecedent) nearest to it. It is also not idiomatic to say procedures perpetrated. Can procedures be perpetrated?
Question: I couldn't understand the above bold part. Please help. Enron's collapse was due to its income and gains were from inter-company transactions (where such deals including revenue and profits could be easily manupulated or inflated). Please note that the reason/explanation/clarification conveyed by the words within brackets are not in the original text.
Best regards.

Re: gerund or verbal noun

CalifJim — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:25:23 GMT

All of your examples are gerunds if we stick to modern terminology.

Forget about the terminology verbal noun. It's total garbage!

It has many different definitions, depending on the author and when the grammar book was written.
_____________

The modern definition is given at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_noun

A verbal noun is a noun formed directly as an inflexion of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions. This term is applied especially to gerunds, and sometimes also to [bare] infinitives and supines [i.e., full infinitives].

That is, there are three types of verbal noun: gerunds, bare infinitives, and full infinitives.

So anything that is a gerund is also a verbal noun, because a gerund is one of the types of verbal nouns.
____________

The modern definition is echoed at

http://www.ielanguages.com/english.html

Gerunds: [Like participles,] Gerunds are also formed by adding -ing to the verb, but they function as a verbal noun [as opposed to the participle, which is a verbal adjective] and are normally preceded by articles or demonstratives. The singing was excellent.
___________

A completely different definition is found here:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-VERBALNOUN.html

VERBAL NOUN. A category of noncountable abstract noun derived from a verb, in English by adding the suffix -ing. Like the verb from which it derives, it refers to an action or state: writing in The writing has taken too long; hearing in His hearing is defective. Verbal nouns are frequently combined with the preposition of and a noun phrase that corresponds to the subject or object in a clause: The grumbling of his neighbours met with no response (compare His neighbours grumbled); His acting of Hamlet won our admiration (compare He acted Hamlet). Verbal nouns contrast with deverbal nouns, that is, other kinds of nouns derived from verbs, such as attempt, destruction, and including nouns ending in -ing that do not have verbal force: building in The building was empty. They also contrast with the gerund, which also ends in -ing, but is syntactically a verb.

Note the last (underlined) sentence. By this definition only usages like The neighbors were acting like fools are considered gerunds -- not all the other examples that preceded -- examples that we would all agree are gerunds in current terminology.
_____________

The next definition is more than 100 years old, and I've seen it quoted on this site. Note that it is classified (see the URL) under "Classic Literature". It is useful only as a historic document -- not as a guide to modern English and modern syntactic analysis.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wmbaskervill/bl-wmbaskervill-grammar-parts-nouns.htm

An English Grammar

1896

by W. M. Baskervill & J. W. Sewell

273. It [the gerund] differs from the participle in being always used as a noun: it never belongs to or limits a noun.

It differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which the verbal noun has not) and of expressing action (the verbal noun merely names an action, Sec. II).

[Sec. II. is actually Sec. 11, where nouns are discussed. The discussion of verbal nouns is within a category called Abstract Nouns, so in Section 11 verbal nouns are called by their more specific name: Verbal Abstract Nouns.]

II. The VERBAL ABSTRACT NOUNS Originate in verbs, as their name implies. They may beâ

(1) Of the same form as the simple verb. The verb, by altering its function, is used as a noun; as in the expressions, "a long run" "a bold move," "a brisk walk "
[These are called deverbal nouns in modern terminology -- or 'zero-related nominals' or just 'nouns'.]

(2) Derived from verbs by changing the ending or adding a suffix: motion from move, speech from speak, theft from thieve, action from act, service from serve.
[These,too, are called deverbal nouns nowadays -- or just 'nouns'.]

(3) Derived from verbs by adding -ing to the simple verb. It must be remembered that these words are free from any verbal function They cannot govern a word, and they cannot express action, but are merely names of actions. They are only the husks of verbs, and are to be rigidly distinguished from gerunds (Secs. 272, 273). [These are nouns that end in -ing. They have acquired fixed meanings as nouns, referring to something more concrete than the action of the underlying verb.]

To avoid difficulty, study carefully these examples:

The best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks; the moon caused fearful forebodings; in the beginning of his life; he spread his blessings over the land; the great Puritan awakening; our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; a wedding or a festival; the rude drawings of the book; masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning; the teachings of the High Spirit; those opinions and feelings; there is time for such reasonings; the well-being of her subjects; her longing for their favor; feelings which their original meaning will by no means justify; the main bearings of this matter.
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It is debatable whether anything whatsoever is to be gained in the study of modern English by resurrecting these older definitions.

CJ

Re: SOS please.....

Pioussoul — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 13:55:43 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

wussup everybody... i've got a Grammar exam at 14.00.. I really have no clue..

In Adverbial Clauses, we have a part called alternate structure, it's kinda changin' the subordinate clause into a new structure.

This new structure is either : coordinate clause, prepositional phrase, participal phrase, or an absolute construction.

Prepositional phrases differ, we have prepositional phrase with gerund, prepositional phrase with abstract noun.

This is one of the exemples provided:

Adverbial Clause of Time:

Alternate structure:

After we finished breakfast, we went for a walk.

1/Coordinate clause: We finished breakfast;(=and) then we went for a walk.

2/Prepositional phrase with gerund: After finishing breakfast(After we had finished breakfast), we went for a walk.

3/Participal phrase: Having finished breakfast(=After we had finished breakfast), we went for a walk.

4/Absolute construction: Breakfast finished(=After breakfast had been finished by us), we went for a walk.

My Qs are:

In the participal phrase: Having finshed breakfast, why isn't it simply breakfast finished? We have we added Having?

If after was not at the same time a subordinate conj and a preposition, how could we find the appropriate preposition?

a/How is this absolute construction made?

b/What can we use to refer to time, place,concession, result, cause, and purpose?

c/"Then" used in the coordinate clause is not among the coordinate conjenctions we learnt (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), how come?

Thank you very much,, and wish me all hard luck...

NB. English is my third language, I'm studyin' it at the uni, 2nd year, I can sort myself out when speaking but writing and Grammar ...

Like what Marius has mentioned, you posted too many questions at a time, and this is hard for us to help you.

Post one question per thread so that we could help you.

Alternate structures of clauses.

Veevanna — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 11:12:21 GMT

Hello everybody.

In Grammar, adverbial clauses have alternate structures, this means changing the structure of the clause into a new one, it can be either: coordinate clause, prepositional phrase with gerund or with abstract noun, participal phrase or an absolute constraction.

We have the following exemple:

After we finished breakfast, we went for a walk.

Coordinate Clause: We finished breakfast; then we went for a walk.

Prepositional phrase with Gerund: After finishing breakfast, we went for a walk.

Participal Phrase: Having finished breakfast, we went for a walk.

Absolute Construction: Breakfast finished, we went for a walk.

My Qs are:

a/"Then" is not among the coordinate conj. we studied (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Why is it used in the Coordinate clause?

b/ What are the appropriate prepositions we can use to refer to time, place, concession, purpose, reason and result?

Thank you!

SOS please.....

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:05:43 GMT

wussup everybody... i've got a Grammar exam at 14.00.. I really have no clue..

In Adverbial Clauses, we have a part called alternate structure, it's kinda changin' the subordinate clause into a new structure.

This new structure is either : coordinate clause, prepositional phrase, participal phrase, or an absolute construction.

Prepositional phrases differ, we have prepositional phrase with gerund, prepositional phrase with abstract noun.

This is one of the exemples provided:

Adverbial Clause of Time:

Alternate structure:

After we finished breakfast, we went for a walk.

1/Coordinate clause: We finished breakfast then we went for a walk.

2/Prepositional phrase with gerund: After finishing breakfast, we went for a walk.

3/Participal phrase: Having finished breakfast, we went for a walk.

4/Absolute construction: Breakfast finished, we went for a walk.

My Qs are:

In the participal phrase: Having finshed breakfast, why isn't it simply breakfast finished? We have we added Having?

If after was not at the same time a subordinate conj and a preposition, how could we find the appropriate preposition?

a/How is this absolute construction made?

b/What can we use to refer to time, place,concession, result, cause, and purpose?

c/"Then" used in the coordinate clause is not among the coordinate conjenctions we learnt (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), how come?

Thank you very much,, and wish me all hard luck...

NB. English is my third language, I'm studyin' it at the uni, 2nd year, I can sort myself out when speaking but writing and Grammar ...

Re: the cases of abstract nouns taking "thes"

Mister Micawber — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:25:33 GMT

There is a difference between a clause (the term you used previously) and a phrase ('of the Princess of Bigman's land').

anything we should be aware of when we decide to take that road of turning uncountable nouns into sort of countable nouns?

Only be aware that you are creating one of several sorts of the uncountable, I suppose.

Re: the cases of abstract nouns taking "thes"

Mister Micawber — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 13:43:57 GMT

Well, your example (A beauty of the Princess of Bigman's land is exquisite) makes no sense to me. Is that your creation, or did you find it somewhere? It contains no restrictive clause.

In any case, I see no problem with constructing a sentence with an indefinitely-articled uncountable noun-- the trouble is, that action automatically turns it into its countable form: A beauty of the new Nissan is its small turning radius. (With a restrictive clause: A beauty of the new Nissan that I test-drove yesterday is its small turning radius.)

Does that help?

Re: the cases of abstract nouns taking "thes"

Believer — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:33:52 GMT

Mr. M.

Lately I think I am seeing more of what looks be uncountable nouns followed by what looks to be retrictive clauses and precede by the indefinite article "a." Is that right?

How about this? IS THIS RIGHT?

A beauty of the Princess of Bigman's land is exquisite.

Can an uncountable which is followed by a restrictive clause be modified with the indefinte article "a" and not the usual definite article "the"?

Re: What is ??appositive clause??

paco2004 — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 04:36:24 GMT

An appositive that-clause usually follows an abstract noun, which is mostly a derivative from a verb or an adjective.

belief (believe), comment (comment), confidence (confident), discovery (discover), doubt (doubt), evidence (evident), fact, fear (fear), hope (hope), indication (indicate), idea, information (inform), knowledge (know), news, opinion, order (order), problem, promise (promise), proof (prove), proposal (propose), report (report), rumor (rumor), story (tell), suggestion (suggest), thought (think), truth (true), wish (wish).

           (EX) We must face the fact that the Earth is steadily warming.
           (EX) We agree to the opinion that we must reduce CO2 release.
           (EX) Columbus had a firm belief that the world is round.
           (EX) Cleopatra received the news that Caesar had been killed.

Please note the undelined parts can stand as a complete sentence by themselves.

paco

Re: Is anything wrong with this sentence?

CalifJim — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 16:36:28 GMT

deleted by an obligatory deletion transform.
Will this work on the clutter in my living room?

Don't we all wish!!! LOL

Part of the problem, as Paco has aptly observed, is the problem of finding the missing (deleted) subject of a dependent clause, the infinitive clause "to be ... cleverer ..." in this case.

In less complex situations, finding such a subject is child's play:

"Harry wants to marry Louise."
comes from
"*Harry wants Harry to marry Louise."
The subject of the infinitive in the deep structure is coreferential with the subject of the main clause. Therefore it is obligatory to delete it in the surface structure.

But the 'computer's-capacity' sentence is a "doozie" because a couple of other factors compound the problem.

If we express the whole sentence as a noun phrase: "Harry's desire to marry Louise"
the subject of the infinitive becomes a bit more elusive. Now the verb "want" is expressed as the noun "desire", and everything else has to shift accordingly: The subject noun "Harry" now becomes a possessive "Harry's", and the result is a possible misinterpretation that the desire may end up marrying Louise, not Harry! By "demoting" a verb "want"="desire" to a noun "desire", we have to "demote" the noun "Harry" to an 'adjective' "Harry's". To recover the real subject of "to marry Louise", we have to reverse the process, and then we see that "Harry" is the subject of that infinitive.

To compound the difficulty further, there are only a limited number of abstract nouns that can occur in the appositive structures I discussed in a previous post. A concrete noun simply won't do: "*Harry's kitchen to marry Louise" (on the relevant reading). The noun in question, whether "capacity", "desire", or whatever, must be deverbal in some way. ("capacity" is the deverbal form of the modal "can" -- obliquely, not directly, of course.)

So, all in all, there are several different grammatical phenomena working together here to undermine our ability to remain sane! (Whoops! There's another! 'our ability to remain sane': What is the subject of "to remain sane"??? Deleted "we"! -- And again the deverbal is modal in nature!)

Have a nice day, everyone. Hope this helped.

CJ