ORDERING OF MODIFIERS IN THE MULTI-NOUN PHRASE OF SL AND TL

Abstract

In this paper there is an overview of ordering in English multi-noun phrases (MNP) or poly-adjectival nominal phrases (PNP) and the model of semantic ordering is revealed:[Det] + MODIFIERS (+ size [Adj] + shape [Adj] + age[Adj] – colour [Adj + nationality [Adj] + HEADWORD [Noun]. The transformation patterns of rendering English MNPs into Ukrainian ones are recognized and we developed a relevant analysis of MNPs. This project concerns the ordering among modifiers in poly-adjectival nominal phrases (PNP) coined by Bache (1978) to refer to any noun phrase which contains more than one modifier(see also Georgi, 2010). We considered the concept of ordering the constituents in the multi-NP (MNP) in the process of translating from English into Ukrainian. Sproat and Shih (1988) provide one of the most comprehensive cross-linguistic analyses of adjective ordering restrictions, and suggest that the semantic-based ordering theories proposed for English are largely universal across languages. This rearrangement of ordering is triggered by the Ukrainian synthetic grammar structure which permits free word order in the phrase and a sentence, and a change of the communicative focus by the translator. A modifier is defined as words or phrases which premodify the head word of the phrase and can postmodify it as well. From 150 pages of the novel “Angels ad Demons” by Dan Brown and its Ukrainian translation by Aнжелa Кам’янець only 35 multi-noun phrases have been retrieved as an object of our study which we have classified into 4 groups according to the type of transformation (equivalent, permutation, addition, and omission). There is one of the main arguments for the rearrangment motivation of noun headwords and modifiers is the opposition of the author’s and translator’s intentional meaning. In addition we put forward a hypothesis – the both transformations are motivated by the semanticsof modifiers. The Semantic Model of ordering adjectives in the English multi- noun phrase must be verified in various discourse registers to define common and distinctivefeatures of this phenomenon.