READING STRATEGIES
Nominal Groups
Word Formation
Presentation: Waléria Ferreira
Nominal Groups
Nouns
Nouns are often used as part of large nominal groups.
Ex.: police; inspector
The principal noun in a noun group is called the head noun.
Nominal groups
Nominal groups are groups of words that provide more information about
people, places or concepts.
A nominal group is a group of words which expresses an entity.
The nominal group is a structure which includes nouns, adjectives,
numerals and determiners.
Ex.: The nice old English police inspector
The essential parts of a noun group
A noun group consists of at least the following elements:
a determiner and a noun.
A determiner is one of the following:
an article (the, a, an);
a quantifier (some, any no, few, a few, many, etc.);
a possessive (my, your, whose, the man's, etc.);
a demonstrative (this, that, these, those);
a numeral (one, two, three etc.);
a question word (which, whose, how many, etc.).
The essential parts of a noun group
Except in some very rare cases, a noun can only be preceded by ONE
determiner:
Determiner
The
Some
Noun
man
women
A few
Your
The man’s
That
dogs
horse
horse
car
Whose
How many
money
bottles
Other parts of a noun group
A noun group can also contain one or more modifiers.
A modifier is an adjective or any other word that functions as an adjcetive.
Adjectives are placed before the head noun:
Ex.: the Great Gatsby
Adjective phrases usually come before the head noun:
Ex.:
a black-and-white long dress
a rather tight-fitting dress
By contrast, in Portuguese, we place modifiers after the noun
• casa branca
white house
• homem alto
tall man
A typical nominal group is structured in
the following way:
DETERMINER
MODIFIER
complicated
beer
interesting
HEAD WORD
(NOUN)
solution
glass
books
A
That
Some
Two
POSTMODIFIER
to the problem
domestic
products
available
Nominal Groups
A more complex description (HALLIDAY, 1985, pp. 159-175) is:
Premodifier
Deictic Numerative
These
These
The
An
three
two
many
several
Epithet
old
large
important
Head
Postmodifier
Classifier
Thing
qualifier
volume
oil
test
methods
controls
companies
phase
possible
in operation
explanations for the effect
Nominal Groups
• To appreciate the rich possibilities of pre-modifiers, you have only to see
how much you can expand a premodifier in a nominal group:
• the book
the history book
the American history book
the illustrated American history book
the recent illustrated American history book
the recent controversial illustrated American history book
the recent controversial illustrated leather bound American history book
Word Formation
Affixes
The knowledge of the process of word formation can help readers to
deduce meanings. In general, prefixes have the function to alter the word
meanings while suffixes determine grammatical classes.
A lot of affixes have either Greek or Latin origin, being this way transparent
words.
Ex:
pleasant – unpleasant; meaning - meaningful - meaningless.
Word Formation
• CONVERSION: It is the adoption of the word in another grammatical
category without any transformation.
• Ex: drive (verbo) - drive (substantivo)
• COMPOUNDING: It refers to the joint of two words to form a third one.
• Ex: tea + pot = teapot;
arm + chair = armchair
WORD-FORMATION
AFFIXATION
There are two kinds of affixes in English :
Prefixes
Disrespect (Latin)
Biology (Greek)
suffixes
likable, flexible (Latin)
optimism, capitalism (Greek)
Word Formation
Prefixes and suffixes are added to root words.
Look at the root word: escape
escapes, escaped, escaping, escapee, escapable,
inescapable, inescapably
The word escape is over seven hundred years old. These days, we
wear coats and jackets but in those long ago days, people wore
capes. The word escape means to leave in such a rush, that one’s
cape got left behind.
Word Formation
• Letter blocks added to the start of a word are called
PREFIXES. Prefixes are easy; just hook them onto the
front. I see that this rule applies even when the root
word begins with the last letter of the prefix:
• Un
unneeded
re
reenter dis
dissatisfy
il
illegal
• Letter blocks added at the end of a word are called SUFFIXES:
• S
eyes
ed
washed
ing
asking y
snowy ly
slowly
Word Formation
• Letter blocks added at the end of a word are called SUFFIXES:
• S
eyes
ed
washed
ing
asking
y
snowy
ly
slowly
Word Formation
• help
helper
helpless
• helps
helpful
helplessness
• helped
helpfully
Helping
• Unhelpful
Most of the time, we just hook on the suffix.
However, there are words that need a
change before a suffix can be added.
Word Formation
• PREFIXES and SUFFIXES create new words, usually by
modifying or changing the meaning of a ROOT
WORD.
• If we take a root word like EMPLOY (verb) or HAPPY
(adjective), we can see how their meaning changes.
• *UN + employ + ED = UNEMPLOYED (the verb becomes
an adjective with a negative meaning)
• * happy + NESS = HAPPINESS (the adjective becomes
a noun)
Link the verbs with their correct suffix to form NOUNS and write them down.
Follow the example and be careful with the spelling
A) IMAGINE
B) WEAK
C) TEACH
D) INFECT
E) DECIDE
F) ARGUE
G) ASSIST
H) SECURE
I) REFUSE
J) OCCUR
K) RESIST
1. -ance
2. -ity
3. -ation
4. -sion
5. -ence
6. -er
7. -al
8. -ance
9. -ment
10. - ion
11. -ness
G
ASSISTANCE
Link the verbs with their correct suffix to form NOUNS and write them down.
Follow the example and be careful with the spelling
A) IMAGINE
B) WEAK
C) TEACH
D) INFECT
E) DECIDE
F) ARGUE
G) ASSIST
H) SECURE
I) REFUSE
J) OCCUR
K) RESIST
1. -ance
2. -ity
3. -ation
4. -sion
5. -ence
6. -er
7. -al
8. -ance
9. -ment
10. - ion
11. -ness
G
H
A
E
J
C
I
K
F
D
B
ASSISTANCE
SECURITY
IMAGINATION
DECISION
OCCURRENCE
TEACHER
REFUSAL
RESISTANCE
ARGUMENT
INFECTION
WEAKNESS
COUNT NOUN + …ship = NONCOUNT ABSTRACT NOUN
COUNT NOUN
citizen (cidadão)
dealer (negociante, revendedor)
fellow (companheiro)
friend (amigo)
intern (residente, estagiário)
leader (líder)
member (sócio, membro de um clube)
partner (sócio, companheiro)
relation (relação)
scholar
…ship
ABSTRACT
NOUN
citizenship (cidadania)
dealership (revenda)
fellowship (companheirismo, solidariedade)
friendship (amizade)
internship (estágio, residência)
leadership (liderança)
membership (qualidade de quem é sócio)
partnership (sociedade comercial)
relationship (relacionamento)
scholarship
ADJECTIVE + …ness = NONCOUNT ABSTRACT NOUN
(significando o estado, a qualidade de)
ADJECTIVE
…ness
appropriate (apropriado)
aware (ciente)
happy (feliz)
hard (duro)
kind (gentil)
weak (fraco)
youthful (com aspecto de jovem)
appropriateness (propriedade)
awareness (ciência)
happiness (felicidade)
hardness (dureza)
kindness (gentileza)
weakness (fraqueza)
youthfulness (característica de quem é jovem)
ABSTRACT NOUN
VERB + …tion (…sion) = NOUN
Significa o estado, a ação ou a instituição; equivale ao sufixo ...ção do português.
VERB
accelerate (acelerar)
acquire (adquirir)
act (atuar, agir)
adapt (adaptar)
add (adicionar, somar)
adopt (adotar)
apply (aplicar, inscrever-se)
approximate (aproximar)
attend (participar de)
attract (atrair)
...tion
NOUN
acceleration (aceleração)
acquisition (aquisição, assimilação)
action (ação)
adaptation (adaptação)
addition (adição)
adoption (adoção)
application (aplicação, inscrição)
approximation (aproximação)
attention (atenção)
attraction (atração)
VERB + …ive (…ative) = ADJECTIVE
O mesmo que o sufixo …tivo ou …ível do português; sufixo de alta produtividade). Sua origem é o
sufixo _ivus do latim,
que significa ter a capacidade de.
VERB
…ive
(…ative)
ADJECTIVE
act (atuar)
active (ativo)
effect (efetuar)
effective (efetivo)
expand (expandir)
expansive (expansivo)
expend (despender, gastar) expensive (dispendioso, caro)
explode (explodir)
explosive (explosivo)
inform (informar)
informative (informativo)
instruct (instruir)
instructive (instrutivo)
interrogate
interrogative
prevent
preventive
produce
productive
ADJECTIVE + …ly = ADVERB
O mesmo que o sufixo …mente do português
ADJECTIVE
actual (real)
basic (básico)
careful (cuidadoso)
probable (provável)
quick (ligeiro)
quiet (quieto, silencioso)
rapid (rápido)
real (real)
recent (recente)
strong (forte, vigoroso)
successful (bem-sucedido)
sudden (repentino)
…ly
ADVERB
actually (de fato, na realidade)
basically (basicamente)
carefully (cuidadosamente)
probably (provavelmente)
quickly (ligeiramente)
quietly (quietamente, silenciosamente)
rapidly (rapidamente)
really (realmente)
recently (recentemente)
strongly (fortemente, vigorosamente)
successfully (de forma bem-sucedida)
suddenly (repentinamente)
O SUFIXO -ING
-ING
-ING
-ING
VERBO
SUBSTANTIVO
ADJETIVO
Living in a small town is
better than living in big
cities.
On this anniversary of the
tragedy we remember the
living as well as the dead.
Do you have any living
grandparents?
The company is
developing a new
machine...
If I’m Just shopping for
food, I tend to go to the
local supermarket.
-------I do the shopping every
Sunday.
Brasil is a developing
country.
I always carry my items in
shopping bags.
IT'S TIME TO PRACTICE!
For now...