大学英语专业语法课件CoordinationSubordination.ppt

  An endocentric construction is a grammatical construction that fulfills the same linguistic function as one of its constituents. An endocentric construction consists of an obligatory head and one or more optional, dependent words, whose presence serves to narrow the meaning of the head. For example, armchair, CD-writer, lion house, poor John…(subordination) Men and women, boys and girls…(coordination) An exocentric construction refers to phrases and compound words which are not the same part of speech as their constituents. For example, in the sentence “I am in the doghouse”, the phrase “in the doghouse” is an exocentric phrase, since it functions as an adjective (similar to the “tired” in “I am tired”), not as a preposition or noun, which is what its constituents “in” and “house” are. The word “shortcoming” is also exocentric, since it is a noun, but its two constituents are an adjective and a verb. There is no focal element in an exocentric construction and the whole refers to something else rather than what either the constituent denotes. One more example “birdbrain”. Observe the pair of noun phrases containing modifiers coordinated by and. Is there any semantic difference between them? the meeting on Monday and on Tuesday the meetings on Monday and on Tuesday The first phrase has only one interpretation i.e. combinatory reading while the second is ambiguous. There are four possible segregatory interpretations: the meeting on Monday and the meeting on Tuesday the meetings on Monday and the meeting on Tuesday the meeting on Monday and the meetings on Tuesday the meetings on Monday and the meetings on Tuesday Similarly, “the bills for gas and (for) electricity” is also four-way ambiguous. Observe the pair of noun phrases containing genitives coordinated by and, is there any semantic difference between them. John and Mary’s children (informal) John’s and Mary’s children (formal) The first phrase has only one interpretation (A) while the second is ambiguous