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Subject:Re: Trademark Question From:Michael Lewis <lewism -at- BRANDLE -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Fri, 3 Apr 1998 22:38:21 +1000
Eric, please forgive me if this is of marginal relevance -- I take the
view that, if we are to meaningfully discuss our tools (in this case,
language), then we need to know the relevant terminology.
> "PowerPoint's" and "toolbar's" are used as adjectives. Only if it
> is "PowerPoint File Menu" is it a noun phrase.
Nope. As a rule of thumb, a noun phrase is anything you can use in place
of "It" in a statement like "It is useful / boring / nerdy". An
adjective is part of a noun phrase, and is one kind of pre-modifier.
Genitive nouns (like "PowerPoint's" or "Bill's") are another kind of
pre-modifier. We can also use plain nouns as pre-modifiers when the head
word of the phrase is another noun (as in "The electricity supply" or "A
horse race"). In all cases, the whole thing is still a noun phrase,
simply because the head word _is_ a noun.
It's useful to distinguish between "word class" (adjective, noun, etc)
and "word function" (what it's doing in the sentence, such as
pre-modifier).
--
Michael Lewis
Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
PO Box 1249, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012
Suite 8, The Watertower, 1 Marian St, Redfern 2016 http://www.brandle.com.au/~lewism
Tel +61-2-9310-2224 ... Fax +61-2-9310-5056
