4.2.

Coordination within NPs and PrepPs

The

headline

FREEDOM

OF

INFORMATION

GROUP HAILS

HISTORIC AND

DEVASTATING DEFEAT also illustrates how words can be related by coordination to form a wordcomplex, that is, a structure containing words coordinated together:
<historic and devastating> defeat1
In the example below:
<carts, trucks and <men, women and children>> were crossing it,
the NP Subject of this clause contains the coordinated nouns men, women and children, forming a
word-complex which is itself coordinated with the other two nouns, carts, trucks, to form a larger
word-complex. In the following clause:
The trucks ground <up and away>
the adverbial particles up and away are coordinated.
Phrases which are coordinated within the same structure form a phrase-complex:
q= PrepP
p
NP1

NP2

An old man [with <(steel-rimmed spectacles) and (very dusty clothes)>]

Here, the PrepP qualifier / post-modifier has two NP complements coordinated together.
Pre-modifiers can also form simple lists of attributes, without a conjunction2, like Rudyard
Kiplings:
d

the <great grey-green, greasy> Limpopo River

which is itself part of a more complex NP:

[q=PrepP]
p d

q=NonfCl

the banks [of the <great grey-green, greasy> Limpopo River], all set about with fever
trees.
1

The angle brackets, < >, are used to indicate coordinated structures. The marked coordination (i.e. by means of a
conjunction, conjunctive adverb, etc.) is also called syndetic coordination.
2
The unmarked linking of words (i.e. without any conjunction, etc.) is called juxtaposition or asyndetic coordination.

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Coordination is therefore used as well as subordination in NPs and PrepPs to produce

complex clause Subjects, Complements and Adverbials, made up of word-complexes or phrasecomplexes. In coordination, each word or phrase is of equal status. A subordinated word or phrase
is embedded within another constituent, and is therefore of unequal status.
Here are some examples of clauses containing word-complexes and phrase-complexes in their
structure, marked with angle brackets. However, they are examples of both complex NPs (2) and
PrepPs (3), and of VPs (1) and AdjPs (4):
S

P1
d

P2

aux.

VP

VP

1. The envious human beings would <rejoice and triumph>.

A

<S>

adv.

A
h

P O

adv. VP

NP

2. Only <Boxer and Clover> never lost heart.

S

NP

{O}

VP

q=PrepP
p
NP1

NP2

3. Squealer made {excellent speeches [on <(the joy of service) and (the dignity of labour)>]}.
S
NP
d

P
VP
h

aux.

<Cs>
AdjP
h

adj.

adj.

4. The potatoes had become <soft and discoloured>.

When using coordination we often economise in our use of language by omitting words that
might have been repeated:
1. would rejoice and (would) triumph
2. only Boxer and (only) Clover
3. on the joy of service and (on) the dignity of labour.
The bracketed would, only and on have been deleted and can be understood from the linguistic
context. Whenever there is coordination, there is a possibility of deletion if some items in the second
coordinated structure are identical to some in the first.
4.3. Apposition
A third type of complexity is produced by the relationship between two NPs illustrated in this
example:
He asked <his tall aunt, the Ostrich>, why her tail-feathers grew just so.

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in which the second NP, the Ostrich, identifies or elaborates on the first NP, his tall aunt, and is said
to be in apposition to it a side-by-side relationship.
Here is an example of a sentence in which the first clause contains 2 appositive phrases in its
structure (marked with angle brackets), whose function in the clause they belong to is that of Subject:
<A few selected animals, mostly sheep>, were instructed to remark casually in his hearing that
rations had been increased.
Apposition is a marked feature of tabloid journalism when naming participants in news
reports, as in:
Screen goddess Raquel Welch
Rugby club skipper John Beardsley
Girl soccer thug Jane Jones
4.4. Complex AdjPs and AdvPs
Both AdjPs and AdvPs can be coordinated to form phrase-complexes, but the possibilities of
subordinate relationships are much more restricted.
Lists of adjective modifiers can occur without the use of any conjunctions:
I remember the sea telling lies in a shell held to my ear for a <whole, harmonious, hollow>
minute by a <small, wet> girl. (Dylan Thomas, The Collected Stories: Holiday Memories)
and with conjunctions:
Children all day capered or squealed by the <glazed or bashing> sea. (idem)
{In those [always <radiant, rainless, lazily rowdy and sky-blue>] summers departed}, I
remember August Monday from the rising of the sun over the <stained and royal> town
(op. cit.)
In the last example above, the modifiers of the head noun summers are pre-modified by the adverb
always, and the adjective rowdy is similarly modified by the adverb lazily. We usually use a
conjunction only between the last two of a list of coordinated items.
The following example from Bleak House shows coordinated AdjPs consisting of the same
adjective, unfortunate, with different post-modifiers. The whole phrase-complex functions as an
intensive complement (Cs) in the clause:

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He has been <unfortunate in his affairs, and unfortunate in his pursuits, and unfortunate in his
family>; but he dont care hes a child! (ch. VI)
Adverbs also can be coordinated to form word-complexes:
I remember a man crying Rideem, cowboy! <time and again>.
They never forgot to run the water <loud and long>. (Dylan Thomas, Holiday Memories)
Just as NPs can be post-modified by non-finite clauses, e.g.
The hens had entered into a plot to murder Snowball.
so can adjectives:
Frederick was <anxious to get hold of the timber.>
In this construction, the NonfCl to get hold of the timber functions as a post-modifier of the adjective
anxious, together with which it makes up a unit functioning as a Predicative / Subject Complement
Clause. An alternative analysis of this construction is to include it in the predicators-in-phase
construction, as the phrase was anxious is like a complete Predicator in meaning. Compare with:
P1
P2
Frederick wanted to get hold of the timber.
Frederick was urged to get hold of the timber.
4.5. Complexity in the VP
A Predicator can be constructed as a VP containing any of the following:
-

a modal verb

perfective and / or progressive aspect (with have and be as auxiliaries, respectively)

passive voice (with be as an auxiliary)

one or more semi-auxiliaries (be going to, be about to, be likely to, etc.)

These choices make it possible (though not very likely in practice) to build a complex VP like:
modal

perf. aspect semi-aux.

pass.+progressive V(head of VP)

The house [might have been about to be being demolished.]

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Further complexity in the VP may occur when a sentence contains two (or more) predicatorsin-phase:
A breeze started to blow.
I did not want to leave the caf.
In these sentences the Subject of the first verb is both the Actor and understood Subject of the second.
It is very common for an AdjP to intervene between the two predicators:
Frederick was anxious to get hold of the timber.
The animals were alarmed to hear that.
in which alarmed, though derived from a verb, is an adjective functioning as a Subject Complement
(Cs). An example of a non-derived adjective can easily be made up:
She seemed very reluctant to agree to our proposals.
Here is a series of thirteen coordinated present participles (V-ing), some with complements,
from Bleak House, ch. VIII, which make up a verb-complex:
We are always 1. appearing, and 2. disappearing, and 3. swearing, and 4. interrogating, and
5. filing, and 6. cross filing, and 7. arguing, and 8. sealing, and 9. motioning, and 10.
referring, and 11. reporting, and 12. revolving about the Lord Chancellor and all his satellites,
and equitably 13. waltzing ourselves off to dusty death about costs.

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