HEADS AND MODIFIERS REVISITED

D
I
S
U
S
U
N
OLEH :
1. Alya Nabila Putri Nasution 21080004
2. Wilda Ningsih 21080003
3. Dimas Eri Sujiwo

Dosen Pembimbing
Aprida Irmayana, M.Pd

FAKULTAS PENDIDIKAN ILMU PENGETAHUAN SOSIAL

DAN BAHASA
INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN TAPANULI SELATAN (IPTS)
2024

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 PREFACE

Praise be expressed to the presence of Allah SWT. Thank you for all His
grace so that this paper can be prepared until it is finished. We do not forget to
express our gratitude for the assistance from those who have contributed by
providing both thoughts and materials.
The author really hopes that this paper can increase the knowledge and
experience of readers. In fact, we hope even further that readers can put this paper
into practice in their daily lives.
We as authors feel that there are still many shortcomings in preparing
this paper due to our limited knowledge and experience. For this reason, we really
hope for constructive criticism and suggestions from readers for the perfection of
this paper.

Padangsidimpuan, 01 February 2024

Compiler

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
PREFACE.....................................................................................................i
TABLE OF CONTENT...............................................................................ii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background........................................................................................1
B. Formulation Of The Problem.............................................................1
CHAPTER II DISCUSSION
A. For and against verb phrases..............................................................2
B. Verb, core, nucleus and periphery......................................................5
C. What is the head of a noun phrase?....................................................6
CHAPTER III CLOSING
A. Conclusion..........................................................................................10
B. Advice................................................................................................10
REFERENCES

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 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Modifiers (explanators) are words, phrases or clauses in English that
function as adjectives (adjectives) or adverbs (adverbs) that explain other words or
groups of words. In English, the word or group of words being explained is
known as Head.
According to the meaning written in brackets, the modifier functions to
clarify or make clearer the meaning of the subject, predicate, direct object or
indirect object. Here's the explanation:
a. Function as an adjective (can be a simple adjective, adjective phrase,
clause, participle or infinitive): describes a noun.
b. Functions as an adverb (can be a simple adverb, adverb phrase, clause,
prepositional phrase or infinitive): explains a verb, adjective or other
adverb.
Modifiers that appear before the Head (the group of words being explained)
are called Premodifiers, while modifiers that appear after the Head are called
Postmodifiers.

B. Formulation Of The Problem

1. For and against verb phrases
2. Verb, core, nucleus and periphery
3. What is the head of a noun phrase?

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 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
Heads and modifiers revisited
A. For and against verb phrases

In this short chapter, we pick up additional topics to do with dependency

relations and constituent structure. The outcome of our earlier dis- cussion was
that every phrase has a central word which controls the other words, phrases and
even clauses that occur in it. The central word is the head and the other words and
phrases are its modifiers, which typically occur next to their head. Such phrases
‘move around’ together, can be replaced by a single word and can be ellipted.
These points are illustrated in (1).

1. The Ethel that we knew and loved has left – just packed her bags and
walked out.

As a proper noun, Ethel typically does not allow the definite article
the. Proper nouns do allow definite articles, however, provided they are
also modified by a relative clause. Presumably the speaker who utters (1)
is thinking of Ethel not as a single individual but as a bundle of individuals
or personae who appear and disappear depending on the situation. The
phrase the Ethel that we knew and loved picks out one of these individuals
(as opposed, say, to the Ethel that ate administrative staff for breakfast). In
the lexicon, we must include information about the subcategorisation of
proper nouns, that they do allow a definite article but only along with a
relative clause. Ethel is the head of the noun phrase the Ethel that we knew
and loved; inside the noun phrase, it controls the occurrence of the word
the and the relative clause that we knew and loved.

That whole sequence of words can be replaced by the single word

she. The phenomenon of ellipsis is shown in the second clause just packed
her bags and left. This clause has no subject; if there were one, it would be
she or the Ethel that we knew and loved. Either the long sequence of words

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is replaced by a pronoun or it is ellipted, as in the second clause above.

In Chapter 1, we looked at examples of noun phrases, prepositional

phrases – in the garden, adjective phrases – very difficult, and adverb
phrases – amazingly quickly. In Chapter 5 on the lexicon, we adopted the
idea that the verb is the head of the clause and controls all the other
constituents in the clause, including the subject noun, which we treated
as a complement of the verb. Many descriptions of English use a type of
phrase known as the verb phrase. In (1), the subject noun phrase is The
Ethel that we knew and loved and the verb phrase would be has left. Other
descriptions of English do not recognise verb phrases (and in many
languages other than English the concept of verb phrase is not obviously
applicable).

The difficulty is that the criteria for recognising phrases do not apply
straightforwardly to English clauses. The strongest criteria are trans-
position and substitution. For all other types of phrase, these criteria apply
without difficulty inside clauses and in common constructions – see
Chapter 2. But they do not apply to sequences of finite verb plus object(s)
of some kind. It used to be thought that the occurrence of do so counted as
a criterion. An example is in (2).

a. Norman Lemming jumped off the cliff and Thilliam Lemming did so
too.

Did so indeed substitutes for jumped off the cliff, but two words
are involved, and it seems clear that the verb did substitutes for jumped
and that so substitutes for the complements of jumped. Example (2) is
the sort of example that turns up in discussions of American linguists,
but it is not the normal construction in British English, where (3) is the
common construction. In (3), the sequence is so did, which is not even
a straight- forward substitution of did for jumped and so for off the cliff
because the verb and its complement would have to be transposed to
yield so did.

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b. Norman Lemming jumped off the cliff and so did Thilliam Lemming.

The one structure from spontaneous spoken English that might fit

is shown in (4).

c. Came right in he did without so much as a knock.

Unfortunately, the structure of (4) is not clear. Came right in he

did could be seen as a rearrangement of He did come right in; except
that in the latter come has no tense, whereas in (4) came is past tense.
Moreover, new electronic bodies of spoken English are yielding
examples such as They complained about it all the time they did which
has two clauses, They complained about it all the time and the
tagged-on clause they did. So (4) can be analysed as having a two-
clause structure in which the first clause, as happens regularly in
spontaneous speech, is lacking a subject. That is, (4) is not a basic
construction but results from ellipsis.
Other arguments for verb phrases turn on examples of the sort in (5) and
(6).
d. Harriet couldn’t marry Mr Knightley but Emma could.

e. Thhat Harriet did was marry Mr Martin.

The argument is that in (5) the phrase marry Mr Knightley has

been ellipted – Emma could marry Mr Knightley is reduced to could.
In (6), was has the ThH clause What Harriet did as its subject and
marry Mr Knightley as its complement. That is, the sequence marry
Mr Knightley turns up in different slots, and in (6) can even be
genuinely transposed to the front to give (7).

f. Marry Mr Martin was what Harriet did.

These examples show that a verb plus complements (and

adjuncts) does form a phrase in certain constructions, but the argument
does not apply to has left in (1), with a verb marked for tense. Only

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 verbs without tense and aspect turn up freely in different constructions.
One piece of data that looks more promising for verb phrases is
conjunction, as in (8).

g. Emma insulted Miss Bates and annoyed Mr Knightley.

Example (8) can be analysed as having a subject noun phrase,

Emma, and two phrases – verb phrases – connected by and: insulted
Miss Bates and annoyed Mr Knightley. There are, however, alternative
analyses that treat the supposed verb phrases as clauses whose subject
noun phrase has been ellipted, and other analyses try to handle
conjunction in terms of heads and their dependent modifiers rather than
in terms of phrases. Although many analyses employ verb phrases, the
evidence is much weaker than for other types of phrase and not strong
enough for us to abandon the view that the verb is the head of the
clause.
B. Verb, core, nucleus and periphery

Descriptions that focus on dependency relations do not devote much time to

the arguments for and against verb phrases. They incorporate the view that other
divisions of the clause, based on dependencies, are more important. Clauses are
analysed as having a nucleus and a periphery. The nucleus contains the verb and
its complements (subject, direct object, indirect object and oblique objects/adverbs
of direction); the periphery consists of oblique objects which are adverbs of time
or adverbs of location, and some other types of adverb. (Adverbs are a very large
and heterogeneous class, and in at least one construction – the middle construction
– adverbs of manner seem to be obligatory with some verbs; for example, Her
new book reads well is quite acceptable but*Her new book reads is not
acceptable.)

The split between nucleus and periphery is sometimes replaced by a three-way

split between core, nucleus and periphery. The core of a clause is the verb, the
nucleus is the verb plus complements as described above, and the periphery is also
as described above. The idea that the verb in a clause is the core fits with other

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properties of verbs. The saw in Chapter 1 on dependencies that the verb in a
clause can be regarded as controlling the other constituents. This view provides an
elegant way of handling the relationships that are the concern of the lexicon or
diction- ary, as explained in Chapter 5.

A final and strong piece of evidence for the core position of verbs in clauses
comes from languages in which a clause can consist of a single verb. Examples
are given in (9)–(11).

1. Latin

a. Pugnatur

was-fought‘There was fighting’

b. Tonuit

thundered ‘There was thunder’

c. Turkish

konus, ul maz [one word]

spoken Passive Negative ‘It is not spoken’, i.e. ‘No speaking’

2. Luganda (Africa – Bantu language) a li gi goba [one word]
she Future it chase ‘She will chase it’ (a chicken)
The Latin clause in (9a) consists of the verb pugnatur. This verb is
passive; while it might be thought that a subject noun phrase has been
ellipted, it is difficult to know what that noun phrase might be. The same
applies to the Turkish passive verb in (10). The Luganda verb in (11) is
active. No independent noun phrases are needed because in context the
person doing the chasing and the bird being chased are obvious to the
hearer.
C. What is the head of a noun phrase?
Questions can be asked about the traditional view of nouns as the head of
noun phrases. It remains true that the noun controls the other constituents in noun

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phrases but particular problems affect noun phrases. Consider first the pairs of
examples in (12)–(14).

1 a. Harriet swooned.
b. Harriet admired Mr Knightley.
2 a. Thilloughby ran up (to where he had seen
Marianne and Margaret).
b. Thilloughby ran up the hill (to where he had
seen Marianne and Margaret).
3 a. The book is boring.
b. The book is astonishingly boring. the boring
c. book
the astonishingly boring book

Examples (12a, b) show that a verb or a verb and its modifiers occur
in the same slot in a clause. Examples (13a, b) show that a preposition or a
preposition and its complement occur in the same slot. Examples (14a–d)
show that an adjective or an adjective and its modifiers occur in the same
slot, whether as complement of is or modifying a noun. In other words, the
entire phrase occurs in the same slots in clauses as the head word.
(Looking at where particular types of word or types of phrase are to be
found in phrases, clauses and sentences is not unlike botanists, say,
searching for specimens of a particular plant and plotting on maps where
the plant grows.

The botanists are said to be studying the geographical distribution of

the plant, its distribution over the country; similarly, linguists talk of
studying the distribution of words and phrases over phrases, clauses and
sentences, not to mention larger texts, studied in discourse analysis.
Having said all that, we can now provide the technical way of putting it:

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the head of a phrase and the phrase itself have the same distribution.)

The above does not apply to all nouns. It applies to proper nouns,
which normally do not allow modifiers – but see (15b, c) below.

a. Ethel wishes to ask you some awkward questions.

b. The Ethel we all know and love wishes to ask you some awkward
questions.
c. Ethel with the in-your-face turn of phrase wishes to ask you some
awkward questions.
Examples (15a–c) tell us something about the noun phrases that occur
followed by a phrase such as wishes to ask you some awkward questions.
To introduce the technical way of putting it, linguists talk of words and
phrases occurring in frames or environments. In the frame or environ-
ment wishes to ask you some awkward questions we find either the head
noun Ethel on its own, as in (15a), or the example discussed above in
which Ethel is modified by a definite article and a relative clause – (15b),
or Ethel, not modified by a definite article but only by a prepositional
phrase, as in (15c).
Plural nouns such as golfers likewise have the same distribution as
any phrases of which they are head, as shown by (16).

a. Golfers can be good company.

b. Enthusiastic golfers with large handicaps can be good company.
c. These enthusiastic golfers that I met at the nineteenth hole can be good
company.
In the environment can be good company we find golfers on its own,
as in (16a); we find enthusiastic golfers with large handicaps, as in (16b) –
that is, the head noun modified by an adjective and a prepositional phrase;
and we find these enthusiastic golfers that I met at the nineteenth hole, as
in (16c) – that is, the head noun golfers modified by the demonstrative
these and a relative clause. Analogous examples can be produced for
singular mass nouns such as sand or flour.

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 The phrases that do not conform to the above patterns are those
containing singular count nouns such as golfer, which cannot occur on its
own but requires an article or demonstrative as shown by (17). (Golfer in
(17a) and (17d) is not a nickname. If it were, it would be a proper noun
and (17a) would be acceptable.)

a. *Golfer has a pretty powerful swing.

b. The/this/a golfer has a pretty powerful swing.
c. The/a golfer who is in training has a pretty powerful swing.
d. *Golfer who is in training has a pretty powerful swing.
Many analysts have responded to the above pattern of distribution
by suggesting that what we have been calling noun phrases in (17a–d) do
not have nouns as their heads. Instead, they propose that the determiner
is the head and that the phrases should be called determiner phrases.
Phrases containing proper nouns or plural nouns or singular mass nouns
are to be analysed as determiner phrases containing a determiner that
happens to be zero. This approach makes it attractive to recognise two
types of head: syntactic heads that control the distribution of phrases and
determines their type – determiner, adjective, prepositional phrase and
so on, and semantic heads that control the sort of complements and
adjectives that can occur. In an introductory textbook, we do not need to
choose between one or the other approach; the fact remains that
dependency relations are central to syntactic structure.

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 CHAPTER III
CLOSING
A. CONCLUSION
Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that function as adjectives or adverbs
that explain other words or groups of words.
Qualifiers are words that limit or enhance the meaning of other words.
Qualifications influence the certainty and specificity of a statement. Using certain
types of qualifiers too often (for example, very or really) can make a piece of
writing sound lazy. How Qualifiers Change a Sentence

B. SUGGESTIONS
Hopefully this paper can provide benefits to everyone, both those who read it
and the listeners. Of course, in this paper there are many mistakes, whether we
intentionally or not, therefore the author asks for criticism and suggestions for
progress and also improving this paper so that this paper can be better than before.

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 REFERENCES

https://www.ef.co.id/englishfirst/englishstudy/modifier-dalam-bahasa-inggris.aspx

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/qualifiers/

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