In this task you will have to print the following essay and highlight all the noun phrases you can find. We will work with it in the first assistantship.
Being under Pressure
It is known that sometimes people under pressure perform actions which do not want to. The main character of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is pressured to shoot the elephant even though he did not want to. In this essay, I will try to prove this thesis with three different assertions presented in the story.
The first assertion is: “As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” The character is from the beginning desiring not to perform the action of killing the elephant. The second fact is that the character explains that when he was facing the elephant a huge crowd of “natives” were behind him so “And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward.” It is clear that this man felt the pressure and immediately understood that he would have to do something he did not want to. The last piece of evidence is that since he was a “sahib”, a European man, he had to act like one, being very resolute and do definite things. “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him.” So, the character finds out that in the end all sahibs need to do what others want them to do.
In order to conclude, I can say that with the evidence provided I was able to prove the fact that the main character had to shoot the elephant because of the pressure natives imposed on him. Throughout human history, many situations have occurred because of the pressure people feel, for example wars. Many of the actions we performed are modelled by what the society expects of us. Sometimes, people should try to act correctly, doing good to others, instead of acting according to what others expect of them.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Noun Phrases
In grammar, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP) is a phrase whose head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a modifier set.
Noun phrases normally consist of a head noun, which is optionally modified ("premodified" if the modifier is placed before the noun; "postmodified" if the modifier is placed after the noun). Possible modifiers include:
determiners: articles (the, a), demonstratives (this, that), numerals (two, five, etc.), possessives (my, their, etc.), and quantifiers (some, many, etc.). In English, determiners are usually placed before the noun;
adjectives (the red ball); or
complements, in the form of a prepositional phrase (such as: the student of physics), or a That-clause (the claim that the earth is round);
modifiers; pre-modifiers if placed before the noun and usually either as nouns (the university student) or adjectives (the beautiful lady), or post-modifiers if placed after the noun. A postmodifier may be either a prepositional phrase (the man with long hair) or a relative clause (the house where I live). The difference between modifiers and complements is that complements complete the meaning of the noun; complements are necessary, whereas modifiers are optional because they just give additional information about the noun.
Noun phrases can make use of an apposition structure. This means that the elements in the noun phrase are not in a head-modifier relationship, but in a relation of equality. An example of this is I, Caesar, declare ..., where "Caesar" and "I" do not modify each other.
The head of a noun phrase can be implied, as in "The Bold and the Beautiful" or Robin Hood's "rob from the rich and give to the poor"; an implied noun phrase is most commonly used as a generic plural referring to human beings. Another example of noun phrase with implied head is I choose the cheaper of the two.
That noun phrases can be headed by elements other than nouns—for instance, pronouns (They came) or determiners (I'll take these)—has given rise to the postulation of a determiner phrase instead of a noun phrase.
Further Explanation: visit this page.
Noun phrases normally consist of a head noun, which is optionally modified ("premodified" if the modifier is placed before the noun; "postmodified" if the modifier is placed after the noun). Possible modifiers include:
determiners: articles (the, a), demonstratives (this, that), numerals (two, five, etc.), possessives (my, their, etc.), and quantifiers (some, many, etc.). In English, determiners are usually placed before the noun;
adjectives (the red ball); or
complements, in the form of a prepositional phrase (such as: the student of physics), or a That-clause (the claim that the earth is round);
modifiers; pre-modifiers if placed before the noun and usually either as nouns (the university student) or adjectives (the beautiful lady), or post-modifiers if placed after the noun. A postmodifier may be either a prepositional phrase (the man with long hair) or a relative clause (the house where I live). The difference between modifiers and complements is that complements complete the meaning of the noun; complements are necessary, whereas modifiers are optional because they just give additional information about the noun.
Noun phrases can make use of an apposition structure. This means that the elements in the noun phrase are not in a head-modifier relationship, but in a relation of equality. An example of this is I, Caesar, declare ..., where "Caesar" and "I" do not modify each other.
The head of a noun phrase can be implied, as in "The Bold and the Beautiful" or Robin Hood's "rob from the rich and give to the poor"; an implied noun phrase is most commonly used as a generic plural referring to human beings. Another example of noun phrase with implied head is I choose the cheaper of the two.
That noun phrases can be headed by elements other than nouns—for instance, pronouns (They came) or determiners (I'll take these)—has given rise to the postulation of a determiner phrase instead of a noun phrase.
Further Explanation: visit this page.
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