Word Order in a Noun Phrase and English Anaphors

898 words 4 pages
Tereza Štifnerová The purpose of this essay is firstly to show the word order of a noun phrase (NP) and how the head noun of the NP can be post- and pre-modified, and secondly to focus on meaning of some examples of English anaphors and the distinctions between them and their Czech translations. The first part is going to aim on the internal structure of NPs. Complex nominal phrase consists of the pre-modifying elements, the head noun and the post-modifying elements. The so-called pre-modifiers can be divided into two groups: determiners and prenominals. We have to say that „determiners are obligatory and unique“ (Veselovská:86), and they have a specific place in the noun phrase – they are at the
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It means that the first one killed the second one and conversely the second one killed the first one. It means that the reciprocals „require the antecedent to be plural (the action or relation takes place between the members of the set, reciprocally).“ (Veselovská:104) These anaphors in (b1) and (c1) are also called syntactic anaphors. „Syntactic anaphors have a hierarchically higher antecedent, which means they must be bound in the same clause, usually in the position of Subject or Agent“ (Veselovská:104) as in (15) and (16). (15) (16) We saw ourselves in the mirror. To educate oneself is a choice of every person. ourselves → Subject oneself → Agent (of educating)

In Czech it is different. The first example (a2) is very simple – the pronouns clearly state who killed whom. Oni killed je, which means one group of people killed the other one. The examples (b2) and (c2) are in Czech similar in form but different in meaning. Nevertheless, in the second case we can optionally add the word navzájem, so it would be more clear who killed whom but basically, the reflexive pronoun se is universal in Czech.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Veselovská, Ludmila. A Course In English Morpho-Syntax. UP Olomouc,