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Topic 2 (session B) - Being creative with words and phrases > Playing with phrases > Task C

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Session Overview
Uncovering your intuitions about phrases
Playing with phrases
Phrases in the structure of sentences
Being creative with noun phrases: Edwin Morgan
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Playing with Phrases

Task C - Noun Phrase Texts

A good place to find interesting NPs is in the 'Lonely Heart' column of your newspaper or magazine The one below is quite fun:

Lonely
Hearts'
Classified Ads

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BEAUTIFUL, BOUNTIFUL, buxom blonde,
bashful
yet bawdy, desires masterful,
masculine, magnetic male
for friendship,
frolic and future. Forward photo and facts.
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The Subject and Object NPs in the first sentence of this ad (on either side of the Predicator 'desires') are indicated clearly for us by the italicisation. The headword of the Subject NP is 'blonde', a noun derived from an adjective. The three premodifiers are all adjectives which alliterate with the headword, and the conjoined postmodifiers 'bashful' and 'bawdy' continue this 'b'-alliteration. The length of the NP and the alliterative pattern, combined with the unusual semantic relations in 'bashful yet bawdy' give the ad a playful tone, and this is continued in the Object NP.

The Object NP has 'male' as the headword and this time all the premodifiers 'm'-alliterate with each other and the headword. The adjectives all have strong 'dominating' connotations, but given that the male is in the Object position and the female in the Subject position in the sentence, the grammar seems to work playfully against these connotations.

The last phrase of the first sentence is a PP with a list of three nouns, all 'f'-alliterating, and the last sentence, which consists of a Predicator and an Object also has 'f'-alliteration on the conjoined nouns within the Object NP.

NP length, alliteration and odd semantic relations thus give this ad a playful, fun tone. Is the person being serious in looking for a partner? Is she showing us what a clever and fun-loving creature she is? Us lonely hearts can only find out by answering the ad . . .

Make up a lonely hearts advertisement for yourself. Discuss it with your neighbour, and if you think you have a good one, post your examples on the Language and Style chat-café, along with your commentary.

Chuckle Stop!

 


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