Search results for 'tag:Nouns tag:Genitives' matching tags 'Nouns' and 'Genitives'

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:58:36 GMT

curriculum vitae is also used in non-American settings for "resume". Meaning "course of life" the nouns are nominitive and genitive. If you put curriculum in plural, the modifying noun must also go into plural. Since it's already in the genitive, it should be put into genitive plural. Don't let the English form confuse you. Therefore the correct version would be curricula vitarum.

Re: not-s0-easy question on adjectives?

Mister Micawber — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:40:52 GMT

.
1. deep-clean cleaner
... is deep-clean

This particular coinage doesn't sound very good in either position.

Usually, you can use the same adjective or adjectives either in a pre-noun position or predicatively, but why not for this? -- A number of adjectives rest easily in only one of the two positions: elder, alive, live, afraid, etc.

2. Can I put some adjectives before a genitive? - Yes, as long as they don't cause confusion.

He is wearing a new white doctor's uniform. -- But of what racial origin is the doctor?
.

not-s0-easy question on adjectives?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:18:09 GMT

Hi,
1. I think you have a lot of freedom when it comes to what is to be placed before a noun as adejctives. I think as long as no (ACUTE?) confusion arises from the use, the use seems to be OK.

deep-clean cleaner

If I want to use this kind of adjectives predicatively, it doesn't seem to make much sense:

... is deep-clean

Usually, you can use the same adjective or adjectives either in a pre-noun position or predicatively, but why not for this?

2. Can I put some adjectives before a genitive?

He is wearing a doctor's uniform.
He is wearing a new white doctor's uniform. -- ?

Re: Lack of emphasis on NPs in ESL

Forbes — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:59:28 GMT

Much linguistic analysis is neither intended for nor useful as a language teaching aid. It all depends on what language you know and what language you are learning.

Leaving aside pronouns, in English you do not need to change the ending of a noun according to whether it is the subject or object of a sentence. The same applies to French. So, when you teach French to English speakers, or English to French speakers, there is no need to go into long explanations about "subject and objects". When you teach Russian on the other hand you are not going to get very far without the pupils having a conscious understanding (they will of course already have an unconscious understanding) of "subjects and objects".

With possession however it is different. In English we have the possessive "s". So a French speaker needs to think a bit about the idea of possession when he learns English. However, this is not necessary if he is learning Spanish; he just needs to know the Spanish for "of". When the pupil advances he will find forms such as "house furnishings" and when he does he can consider whether "house" is an s-less genitive or a noun used attributively, but even then, I am not sure it is particularly helpful. What is important is that the pupil gets to know that in English nouns can be used in ways that they cannot be or are rarely used in French; they can be "piled up" as in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which in French has to be "The Treaty of the Atlantic of the North". Whether an analysis shows that in such a case North, Atlantic and Treaty may not in fact be nouns does not really help.

Re: Grammar point, please help clarify this

Huevos — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:50:05 GMT

Raen
1. As far as I know, all 3 articles are "always" followed by a noun and/or adjective+noun. Why are they labeled as "adjectives" when coming before a noun or adjective+noun? Why not just call them adjectives to begin with? and why can't they stand as their original identity which is "articles".

Here's what Wikipedia says: An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. The three main articles in the English language are the, an and a. It is sometimes wondered which part of speech articles belong to. Despite much speculation, articles are adjectives, as they do describe nouns; Linguists place them in a different category, that of determiners.

Raen
2. "my, your, our, their" are always adjective. A layman would say why not the other possessive pronouns: "her, his, her, its...". What's so special abut the first 4?

Wikipedia says no on this: Depending on the theory the grammar subscribes to, English "possessive adjectives" are determiners or pronouns: possessive determiners,[1] possessive pronouns,[2] dependent genitive pronouns,[3] weak possessive pronouns,[4] and so forth. They are not adjectives, because they can be substituted for and cannot co-occur with another determiner such as an article or a demonstrative.

So the answer to your question: "So would you say this particular grammar point is widely accepted by native-speakers and/or linguistic community?", is no.

Re: gerund or verbal noun with an article?

Cool Breeze — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:35:17 GMT

Crokey
how do you feel about possessives before a gerund? "John's singing bothered me". You are constantly told that the possessive should be used before a gerund(unless you are saying something weird and you wish to emphasise the subject of the gerund).

I have given my opinion in an earlier post. Page 1 of this thread offers you a link to it (subject of gerund). As the gerund fluctuates between being a noun and a verb and resembles both to some extent, it stands to reason that a genitive is often possible before it and so is an adjectival attribute - at least in your example.

I don't really care what the ing-form is called in each case. I'm not obsessed with terminology. If anyone thinks the gerund is a complete noun, he should explain why the gerund can have a passive form:

He enjoys being seen in my company.

I would like to see the passive forms of other nouns, like a girl or courage, for example.

Re: gerund or verbal noun with an article?

Cool Breeze — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:52:40 GMT

Crokey

"the singing of the bird awoke me" or "the singing of the bird's awoke me" ? as "a friend of my uncle's", where you use the post-genitive form.

You're welcome! I'll start watching the US Open (tennis) on TV in a moment but before that:

You can say: He is a friend of John, or: He is a friend of John's.

You cannot say: He is the friend of John's, except perhaps in some extremely rare cases where normal grammatical rules don't apply.

Similarly, the singing of the bird's is ungrammatical; you have to say the singing of the bird.

Re: gerund or verbal noun with an article?

Crokey — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:54:22 GMT

hi cb,
im so happy i joined this forum now, because i think your comment about verbal nouns can be modified by an adjectival attribute. You said it your previous reply, but i must have missed it(it was nearly 4am in korea when i read it!), and i think the tiresome banging of the nail's head is well and truly finished! On further research, the naming of other nouns derived from verbs, such as survival from survive or action from act, is a fairly contentious area, and i am going to take a leaf from your book, and stay the bloody-hell away from it!!! Just one other question CB,

"the singing of the bird awoke me" or "the singing of the bird's awoke me" ? as "a friend of my uncle's", where you use the post-genitive form. I would say "the bird's singing", there is probably a clear case, but after my ordeal with gerunds and verbal nouns i'm afraid to go searching now. Before the gerunds and verbal nouns i had a encounter with absolute phrases and some very confusing definitions of what differs it from participles, thankfully that is behind me now also. In that example of "the bird's singing awoke me"(just to make sure the nail doesn't spontaneously pop back up) is "singing"a gerund, because it is possible to say "the bird's loud singing awoke me", with singing modified by an adjective.

cheers again cb, really grateful.

Re: Article usage: proper noun and uncountable noun correspondence?

Cool Breeze — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:57:58 GMT

1. It may be unwise to say that something can be done to all proper nouns in English because there seem to be so many exceptions to every rule. However, using a and the with proper nouns in certain contexts is normal. The of-genitive - or of structure - or whatever you prefer to call it often requires the:

the England of my dreams

An adjectival attribute is a common reason for a:

We saw a sad George Bush on television last night.

He wants to live in a different England.

2. The names of cemeteries are not listed in grammar books as requiring the. Moreover, it is normal that if a name is made up of a proper noun plus a common noun, no article is used:

Gatwick Airport, Oslo University, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey

Re: Grammar rules - check for correctness - a kind teacher please :)

Angle1 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:30:38 GMT

Here are some examples

The main point is to explain the correct answer
The sentences are little-bit childisch ;they are some modified sentences. I am afraid that my explanations seems to be a little childisch, too. So please help me how to turn it into the right explanation.

Mary was real angry because Jack didnÂ´t show up

Real >> really - we use an adverb to determine the adjective

Fewer of the passangers is sick today

Fewer >> One - the verb is refers to singular, so we need to use singular pronoun

I asked my brother whom was on the phone

Whom >> who â Whom i sused in object case and with pronouns â we need a subject for the verb in the second clause

Jorge doesnÂ´t have no bullets in his rifle

No >> any - we should avoid double negation in written English. We could use either has + no or negation + any

I am just a little confused whether or not to go on exam.

Whether to be or not to be â I know how it should be, but I cannot explain it :/

Having be a dancer myself, I have excellent posture

Having be >> beeing â but how to explain it ???

I never did like these kind of exercises

These >> that â but could it be also this if I were pointing at it?

Kind is singular, so we need a singular demostrative pronoun

You telling the truth is ..

You >> your â telling is a gerund, gerunds are used like nouns. We need a possessive pronoun

The bakery depends on meal beeing delivered without delay

Meal >> mealÂ´s â beeing is a gerund, and meal refers to this gerund. We need to use a genitive form with âÂ´sâ