The English Binominal Noun Phrase

The binomial noun phrase, or of-binomial, is an important phenomenon in the English language. Defined as a noun phrase that contains two related nouns, linked by the preposition of, examples include a hell of a day and a beast of a storm. This pioneering book provides the first extensive study of the evaluative binominal noun phrases (EBNP) in English, exploring the syntactic rules that govern them, and the (functional) semantic and pragmatic links between the two nouns. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, corpus data, and two different theoretical approaches (Construction Grammar and Functional Discourse Grammar), it argues that the EBNP now functions as a stage in a grammaticalization path that begins with a prototypical N+PP construction, continues with the head-classifier, and ends with two new of-binominal constructions: the evaluative modifier and binominal intensifier. Comprehensive in its scope, it is essential reading for researchers in syntax, semantics, and English corpus linguistics.

Author: Elnora Ten Wolde
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 07/13/2023
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9781108830959

About the Author
Ten Wolde, Elnora: - Elnora ten Wolde is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Graz. She has published on of-binominals, pre- and postmodification.

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