Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

INTEGRATING INFORMATION IN THE NOUN PHRASE

141

The noun phrase is an important structure in academic English. Academic style,

especially in writing, packs a great deal of information quite densely into noun

phrases. 

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Noun phrases in academic writing tend to be more complex than in everyday,

non-academic speech (

Û

141e

) or informal writing, especially in terms of

modification and the embedding of elements, all of which serve to integrate

different types of information in the noun-phrase structure.

Premodifying: classifying and evaluating

141a

Adjectives of classification (i.e. those which refer to the type or category of

something, e.g. chemical, Asian, metallic, conical, prehistoric) and noun phrase

premodifiers (

Û

170a

) are frequent, especially in scientific and technical writing.

Unlike in informal conversational language, several premodifiers often occur,

combining both adjectives and noun phrase modifiers.

In the examples, noun phrases are in green, premodifiers are in bold type:

[fluid mechanics text]

The effect of 

bottom scattering

on 

swell propagation

is illustrated with

numerical model computations

for the

North Carolina continental shelf 

using

high-resolution bathymetry 

and an 

efficient semi-implicit scheme

to evaluate

the 

bottom scattering source term

and integrate the 

energy balance equation

.

[about C.P. Scott, Editor of the Manchester Guardian newspaper]

At the same time, Scott rejected 

the 

prevailing contemporary notion

that the

press should merely ‘represent’ the readers’ interests.

Thornes & Shao (1991b) tested the sensitivity of 

individual meteorological

parameters

in 

a 

road weather information system

by using a range of input

values.

Evaluative adjectives (those which give subjective judgements, such as interesting,

ground-breaking

, misguided, excellent, etc.) are more frequent in humanities

subjects, where opinion and personal stance are often foregrounded. Such adjectives

are normally gradable and may be premodified by adverbs of degree:

(noun phrases in green, premodifiers in bold type)

The literature of Latina writers, like other ethnic literatures, examines in

very

commanding and provocative ways

the construction of identity in the American

context.

In 

the 

familiar territory of women’s work

, oral histories of societies at war have

opened up 

a 

far more fragmented past experience than the narrative of social

progress might suggest

.