[e-mail]_2012-06-24_15-33-11 английский язык / 30 attribute

30.The Attribute

The A. is a secondary part of the sentence which constitutes part of a noun phrase, modifies its head and denotes a quality of a person or a thing. It may be represented by a single word, a phrase, or a subordinate clause; it may precede or follow the word it modifies.

Parts of speech: an adjective, a pronoun (my, these), a numeral, a noun, a participle – a sleeping baby, a gerund – sleeping tablets, an infinitive – a book for you to read, an adverb – the room above, prepositional phrases – jokes of your brother’s. Attributive clauses used as postmodifiers transform the whole sentence into a complex one: I’ll never forget the day when we first met.

Apposition

A. is a special kind of attributive relation between noun phrases (appositives) which denote the same person or thing: a person or thing referred to by one appositive is characterized or explained by the other appositive which gives the person or thing another name: J.Smith, the Dean, wil…; the word “grammar”.

Kinds of A:

1. A non-detached, close or restrictive A. Here the appositive noun phrases constitute a single semantic unit and are not separated by punctuation: My friend Gregory. Most often a.word-groups comprise the name of a person functioning as a head-word and a noun denoting a title, rank, profession, kinship or a geographical name: Pr.Jones, Captain Brown, Aunt Polly, President Putin, the River Thames. In set combinations like William the Conqueror, Richard the Lion Heart the modifying appositive follows the word.