| Syntax |
| Mini Research |
| Mochamad Dandy Pbi-B NIM : 120924077 |
Mini Research;
“Mini Research about the Title of Book which Winning Putlizer Award”
. Putlizer Award is Any of a series of annual prizes awarded by Columbia University for outstanding public service and achievement in American journalism, letters,writer and music. In this mini research I choose to analyze the title of book which winning The Putlizer Award, because I think as student who take English Major, we have to read these novel and to improve our English ability.
1. What kind of phrases that the titles of the book have?
2. What is the most used phrase on titles of the book?
A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb.
A noun phrase is composed of 3 main parts: Pre-modification; Central and Post-modification. The Central part, is also called "the head", it can be one or more than one head in the noun phrase, the most common kind of head of a Noun Phrase is a Noun. The second one is pronoun, mostly a personal pronoun. Other kinds are : Indefinite Pronoun, Possessive Pronoun and Demonstrative Pronoun. When the head is a Pronoun, it is rarely (or never) preceded by any kind of modification.
1. Pre-modification
Modifiers before the noun are called pre-modifiers. There are three kind of pre-modifier; determiners (DET), adjective phrases (AP), and nouns (N).
a. Determiners (DET)
There are several kinds of determiner:
Indefinite and definite articles: a/an, the
- Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
- Quantifiers: some, any, each, every, no, etc.
- Possessives: my, your, her, his, its, our, your (plural), their
- WH-Determiners: whose, what, which
- Genitives / possessive (POSS): ‘s
b. Adjective Phrases (AP)
Adjectives (A) define attributes or characteristics. They commonly occur with nouns. Example: the huge monster. Adjective can be formed as a word level (Adjective) and phrase level (Adjective Phrase). An adjective phrase can consist of one or more than one word.
Adjective phrase can contain of adverb phrase (optional) + Adjective. Example: the amazingly (AdvP) huge(A) monster.
It also possible to modify a noun with more than one adjective, but when it happens, there appears to be some principle of ordering:
Opinion/epithet ( most important characteristics) – size – age - shape - color – origin/nationality – material –purpose
c. Nouns (N)
Nouns also serve to pre-modifiers other nouns. For example:
I bought a new computer game
2. Post-modification
Post-modification is when the modifier of verb positioned after the noun. There are two ways of post-modification: (1) Using Prepositional phrase, (2) Using relative clause.
a. Prepositional Phrase (PP)
The rule of Prepositional phrase is PP = P + (NP). Prepositional phrase functions as adverbials, indirect object, and as a post-modifier of noun in a noun phrase.
e.g. The girl calls the boy with glasses
From the example above we can see prepositional phrase “with glasses” which modify the noun “the boy” and give more description about the head noun. Then, it is clear that prepositional phrase here functions as post-modifier of noun.
b. Relative Clause
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies the noun phrase. It positioned after noun, then it called post-modifier.
e.g. The girl who bring a book calls the boy
“Who bring a book” in the example above is a relative clause which modify noun “the girl”. If we analyze the clause, it can have its own S in the diagram.
When we combine the relative clause with its complete sentence there would be two S in the diagram. The firs called the MAIN CLAUSE (S1) “the girl calls the boy”. And the second called SUBORDINATE CLAUSE (S2)”who bring a book”. Then, the relative clause here become a subordinate clause and become a post-modifier of the noun “the girl”.
The subordinate can be drawn by a triangle on the tree diagram when it’s not in term of its individual components.
S1
NP VP
DET N’ V NP
N S2 DET N
The girl who bring a book calls the boy
Verb phrase is a phrase which its head is verb. The constituents of verb phrase are depending on the classes of verb in that phrase. There are six classes of verb; transitive, intransitive, ditransitive, intensive, complex-transitive, prepositional.
1. Transitive: Transitive verb is a verb that needs an object or direct object (dO).
e.g. The speaker presented a new idea
S V O
2. Intransitive: Intransitive verb is a verb that doesn’t required an object and neither constituent.
e.g. He sits in the front row
S V A
3. Ditransitive: Ditransitive verb is a verb that requires two object, direct object (dO) and indirect object (iO) such told and gave.
e.g. Horton gave Gen a cake
S V iO dO
4. Intensive: Intensive Verb (sometimes also called relational verb, linking verb, or copular verb) is verb that doesn’t need object but subject complement (sC). The verbs are: be (most commonly), seem, appear, become, look and soon.
e.g. Sally is a doctor
S V sC
5. Complex-transitive: Complex-transitive Verb is verb that appears with complement that relates to the DIRECT OBJECT (not the subject). Here the complement called object complement (OC). To complete the verb phrase in this type, there are two obligatory elements, two noun phrases.
e.g. Jake thought Alice an actress
S P dO oC
6. Prepositional: Prepositional Verb is a verb that needs a prepositional in order to be complete, and it will be incomplete without it. Verb in this type are such glance, lean, and refer. The function of prepositional phrase in this case is Prepositional Object (pO).
e.g: Lucy leant on the door
S P pO
Verb groups (Vgp) is a lexical verb (single verb) that added by additional elements (auxiliaries). There are several elements that can modify lexical verb become verb group: tense, modality, aspect and voice.
1. Tense: Tense included under the category of auxiliary. Tense divided into present and past.
2. Modality: Modal auxiliaries are the used to express whether a state of affairs is likely, possible, necessary, etc. Expression is the MODAL (MOD) . Modal auxeliaries are : will, can, would, may, might, shall,should, must, ought to, etc.
3. Aspect: Aspect indicated by relationship of action or states to periods of time or duration. There are two kinds of aspect, Perfect Aspect and Progressive Aspect.
a) Perfect Aspect
Perfect Aspect (PERF) is indicated by the auxiliary verb have. This kind of auxiliary does carry tense, when in present tense, it is have or has, and in past tense, it becomes had. The form of verb after perfect auxiliary always follows its form, the verb in this form called Past Participle.
e.g. Susan has eaten bread
In another case, Modal auxiliary can also combine with the perfect, here tense cannot feature.
b) Progressive Aspect
Progressive Aspect (PROG) is indicated by the auxiliary verb be. Like perfect aspect, progressive also follows the tense, in present tense is, and in past tense was and so on. The form of verb after progressive auxiliary called Present Participle. We just need to ad –ing after verb.
e.g. Bob is eating noodle
Like perfect aspect, the progressive can also combine with modal, but also with perfect auxiliary. It is the same with perfect, each type of auxiliary can only appear once in the verb group, and the tense can’t appear when modal appear
4. Voice: there are two voices in English; Active and Passive. Active Voice is the original voice; Passive Voice is a modified structure of the active by changing the position of subject and object.
e.g.
· Bob was eating the noodle (Active)
· The noodle was eaten by bob (Passive)
Passive voice (PASS) indicated by the auxiliary verb be like progressive, but here the verb be is followed by the past participle or V3 (-en form) not –ing form.
Coordination is the way to join clauses which has equal importance and weight together. To link the clauses in this way we have to use the coordinator (coord), there are three coordinators: and, but, or. In coordination we can link as many clauses as possible without making any subordination, in condition those clauses are equal importance and carry equal weight too.
| NO | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| 1. | The old man and the sea | Ernest Hemingway |
| 2. | Rabit is rich | John Updike |
| 3. | Empire falls | Richard Russo |
| 4. | The tale of an american dreamer | Steven Millhauser |
| 5. | The keeper of the house | Shirley Ann Grau |
| 6. | Rabit at rest | John Updike |
| 7. | Journey in the dark | Martin Flavin |
| 8. | The bone people | Keri Hulme |
| 9. | The white tiger | Aravind Adiga |
| 10. | The road | Cormac Mccarthy |
i. FINDINGS/DATA ANALYSIS
1. The Old man and The Sea
S
S
NP
NP coord NP
det N’ DET N
AP N
A
The Old Man and the sea
2. Rabit is rich
S V sC
S
NP VP
N Vgp NP
[intens]
AUX V
Tense N
Rabit (pres) is rich
3. Empire falls
S V
S
NP VP
N Vgp
[Intrans]
AUX V
Tense
Jakarta (pres) falls
4. The tale of an american dreamer
S A
S
NP
Det N’
A N PP
P NP
DET N’
N N
The tale of an american dreamer
5. The Keeper of the house
S A
S
NP
Det N’
N PP
P NP
det N
The keeper of the house
6. Rabbit at rest
S A
S
NP
N PP
P NP
N
Rabbit at rest
7. Journey in the dark
S A
S
NP
N PP
P NP
Det N
Journey in the dark
8. The bone people
S
S
NP
Det N’
N N
The bone people
9. The white tiger
S
S
NP
DET N’
AP N
A
the white tiger
10 .The road
S
S
NP
Det N
The road
ii. CONCLUSION
After analyzing the data, I found that 8 from 10 titles of the book were using Noun Phrase form, and the rest 2 from 10 was using complete sentence form with Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase. Then, the most used phrase in the title of book is Noun Phrase. In addition, those Noun Phrases was using Prepositional Phrases as their post-modifier and Determiner as pre-modifier.
- Thomas, Linda. 1993. Beginning Syntax. USA: Blackwell.
- Nemo, Captain. 24 July 2008. Syntax: Chapter III: Noun Phrase. http://vivavn.blogspot.com
- www.sapto-rini.blogspot.com/2001/05/daftar-peraih-putlizer-dan-man-book.com
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