Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
antecedent (noun)
English answer:
modified noun
Added to glossary by
Gayle Wallimann
Feb 13, 2004 20:37
20 yrs ago
15 viewers *
English term
antecedent
English
Art/Literary
Linguistics
I need the correct word to use in a linguistic text to describe the noun to which an adjective refers (German Bezugswort - usually translated as antecedent). Thus, in "the red house", red is the adjective and house is the noun to which it refers, called the XXX.
The Oxford dictionary defines an antecedent as "a word, phrase, clause, or sentence to which another word refers", which seems to fit the bill for XXX above. But the word antecedent itself implies a reference to something which has gone before - and grammatically it is usually used for the antecedent of a relative pronoun (e.g. the house which ....), where the noun does go before and is therefore literally an antecedent. So is it correct to use the word antecedent in a phrase like "the red house" where the word I want a name for (house) comes AFTER the thing which refers to it.
Initially I used referent to do this job, but on reflection I think I'm incorrect to do so - strictly speaking, in "the red house" the referent of red is, I think, not house but the actual state of redness - the referent being, in Oxford Dict. terms "the idea or thing that a word symbolizes".
Can someone help me out on this one?
The Oxford dictionary defines an antecedent as "a word, phrase, clause, or sentence to which another word refers", which seems to fit the bill for XXX above. But the word antecedent itself implies a reference to something which has gone before - and grammatically it is usually used for the antecedent of a relative pronoun (e.g. the house which ....), where the noun does go before and is therefore literally an antecedent. So is it correct to use the word antecedent in a phrase like "the red house" where the word I want a name for (house) comes AFTER the thing which refers to it.
Initially I used referent to do this job, but on reflection I think I'm incorrect to do so - strictly speaking, in "the red house" the referent of red is, I think, not house but the actual state of redness - the referent being, in Oxford Dict. terms "the idea or thing that a word symbolizes".
Can someone help me out on this one?
Responses
5 +4 | modified noun | Gayle Wallimann |
4 | headword | Kim Metzger |
2 | qualified noun | Chris Rowson (X) |
Responses
+4
5 mins
Selected
modified noun
We learned it that way in English class way back in the fifties in the US. It's still used in grammar books, I now teach English and still see it.
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Note added at 3 hrs 21 mins (2004-02-13 23:59:18 GMT)
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I could not add to this a few hours ago, there was no access to questions. Now I can. I wanted to take your example, \"the red house\" to sa that \"house\" in this sentence is the modified noun.
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Note added at 3 hrs 21 mins (2004-02-13 23:59:18 GMT)
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I could not add to this a few hours ago, there was no access to questions. Now I can. I wanted to take your example, \"the red house\" to sa that \"house\" in this sentence is the modified noun.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you - I shall go with the general consensus."
1 hr
headword
"A noun phrase consists of a noun and all the words and word groups that belong with the noun and cluster around it. The noun itself is called the 'headword' or 'head' and the other words and word groups are modifiers of the noun.
The yellow tulips
The yellow tulips in the garden
The yellow tulips in the garden which were gaily blooming
In these examples 'tulips' is the head. Of the rest of the words, the modifiers, we observe that the single-word modifiers, like 'the' and 'yellow' precede the head and that the word-group modifiers, like 'in the the garden' and 'which were blooming' follow the head."
An Introductory English Grammar, Norman C. Stageberg
The yellow tulips
The yellow tulips in the garden
The yellow tulips in the garden which were gaily blooming
In these examples 'tulips' is the head. Of the rest of the words, the modifiers, we observe that the single-word modifiers, like 'the' and 'yellow' precede the head and that the word-group modifiers, like 'in the the garden' and 'which were blooming' follow the head."
An Introductory English Grammar, Norman C. Stageberg
23 hrs
qualified noun
When I learned Latin and Greek grammar we referred to an adjective as qualifying a noun. Thus in "the red house", "house" is the noun qualified by the adjective "red" (regardless of word order).
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