The English Language english language

Phrases

in a scientific text and a similar sized section of dialog in a novel and
compare the number of nominalizations in the two.

Complex NPs: Coordination
Perhaps on the principle that too much of a good thing is impossible, lan-
guages allow us to repeat NPs indefinitely. Coordinated NPs are joined by a
coordinating conjunction, such as and or or, as in (46):

(46) My sister and/or her best friend will deliver the letter.

Such structures are relatively simple to deal with—except for one problem.
Consider the ambiguous sentence (47):

(47) Old men and women will be served first.

Who will be served first? Old men and all women? Old men and old wom-
en? The answer seems to depend on whether the premodifying adjective
old applies to men only or to the conjunction of men and women. To differ-
entiate these possibilities, we must allow not only full NPs to coordinate but
also heads of NPs. We represent the ambiguity diagrammatically in (48).

(48)a. NP

AP NP

N Conj N
A

Old men and women

(48)b. NP

NP Conj NP

AP N N

A

Old men and women