Functional Grammar
| Functional Grammar |
Lesson 8 |
RANKSHIFT AND EMBEDDING Qualifiers are typically prepositional groups, although they may also be adverbial, nominal or verbal groups, and relative clauses. This phenomenon whereby a group actually functions as a word is known as RANKSHIFT or EMBEDDING. This means that a unit of a certain complexity behaves in terms of its function in the total structure of the sentence as if it were a unit of a "lower" rank. In the above example, a prepositional group "of French history", which consists of three words, is functioning as if it were a single word, which then forms part of a nominal group as "q". Rankshift
embedding is very common in
English, and there are for example many other instances where groups of words may function
as a single item. You can think of common phrases such as "out-of-the way",
"ready-to-wear", "made-to-measure" etc which can appear at
"m" in the nominal group, and which must be interpreted as a single item. |
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| e.g. | a | ready-to-wear | suit; | an | out-of-the way | place |
| m | ----- m ----- | h | m | ------ m ----- | h | |
Looking again at the example "a French history textbook" it may then be argued that "French history" should be interpreted as a rankshifted single item at "m", since the word "French" actually modifies "history", which is itself a noun and therefore forms the nominal group:- |
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| French | history |
| m | h |
When "history" then becomes a modifier for "textbook", the nominal group "French history" becomes a rankshifted unit which is embedded in the main nominal group, and the preferred structural analysis thus becomes:- |
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| a | French history | textbook |
| m | ------ m ----- | h |
This is better because it helps to explain some of the restrictions concerning word order, since it would not be possible to say: a history French textbook û Thus we see that "French" must precede "history" because it initially modifies the latter word. You will remember that
prepositional groups also contain a nominal group which functions as the completive to the
preposition. We can thus analyse the prepositional group as consisting of PREPOSITION
("p") + COMPLETIVE ("c") as follows:-
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| a | book | of French History |
| m | h | --------q--------- |
We can represent this in a way which shows the segmentation as proceeding in stages from the smallest number of segmental units to the further structural segmentation of rankshifted units, so as to show at each level their various structural forms. The following diagram shows the rankshifting as a sort of "stepped" effect:- |
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We have also mentioned that whole clauses may be rankshifted in a similar way, and function as qualifiers. This will be described more fully later, when we discuss clauses. However, we should note that in addition to the sort of prepositional and adverbial groups discussed above which act as qualifiers, there are also nominal group and verbal group structures which function as qualifiers.
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These forms clearly have some relationship to dependent clauses, as we shall see in later sections which deal with verbal groups and clauses. There is also a special relationship between qualifiers which indicate possession and possessive pre-modifiers.
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| Summary | ||||||
In conclusion of this section we may summarise what has been said so far on the nature of nominal groups by analysing the latter examples in terms of their structural components. Example (a) consists of a sentence which consists of a single clause. The group structure of the clause is nominal group, verbal group, nominal group, prepositional group. |
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The prepositional group "of the
injured woman" contains a rankshifted nominal group "the injured woman"
which forms the prepositional completive ("c"):-
The nominal group at "c" can in turn be analysed structurally as follows:-
The entire prepositional group is itself a rankshifted unit functioning as "q" in the nominal group "the husband of the injured woman":-
The clause itself can be analysed as subject, predicate, and object:-
The whole structural relationship can then be shown as follows:-
Example (b) can also be represented,
this time with the rankshifted group embedded
at "m":-  EXERCISES. Identify the nominal groups in the following examples and analyse their structural elements "m", "h" and "q". Note any rankshifted elements and distinguish their own internal structure and the rankshifted form taken. Where it is possible, rewrite the nominal group structure to place the elements occurring at "m" at "q", and vice versa. What sort of changes do you have to make in order to do this? Consider also whether the order of the elements at "m" can be changed.
>> He has a lovely old country house. (1) Their neighbours next door are always very noisy. (2) He wants an appointment in the afternoon. (3) That little corner shop has closed down. (4) They're on the shelf at the bottom. (5) The police are looking for the mother of the girl. (6) It's a new Russian film about the war. (7) I'm looking forward to the final episode next week. (8) We're going to see a popular musical in the West End. (9) We stopped at a hamburger restaurant along the motorway. (10) It's a very popular riverside pub. (11) It's the first turning on the left. (12) He lives in the house opposite. (13) The house has a big back garden. (14) He has a good job in the City. (15) There are still a few seats available at the front. (16) We have twice weekly meetings. (17) The people missing were last seen two weeks before. (18) He was in love with the girl of his best friend. (19) He knows a lot of old folk songs from Cornwall. (20) We'll have a holiday in the summer in a little town by the seaside. |
Post modifiers 
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Pre-modifiers - deictcs
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