2. Nouns in groups. Noun modifiers

Unlike Ukrainian, it is common in English to use nouns in a similar way to adjective, to modify other nouns. Noun modifiers are especially common in attributive position (before other nouns).

The center has provided sea bottom characteristics. As a prize, you can choose any of the items from the company’s catalogue. An entire world of information can be stored – and retrieved – in a matter of moments from a single disk hardly the size of a saucer. Reservations should be made through your travel agent. On April 15^th, 1912 the great ship Titanic sank in the ice waters off Newfoundland. They bought new garden scissors.

There are three main ways in which we can put nouns together so that one modifies another. A particular idea is normally expressed in only one of theses ways:

A	B	C
noun + noun	noun + ‘s + noun	noun + preposition + noun

1. In noun + noun structure, the first noun modifies or describes the second, a little like an adjective: a race car (a kind of race); a car race (a kind of car); milk chocolate (a kind of chocolate); chocolate milk (a kind of milk), space agency, rescue system, magazine headlines, seaside resort.

Such expressions can often be changed into structures where the second noun becomes a subject and the first an object: an oil well (= a well that produces oil); a sheepdog (a dog that looks after sheep); a school bus (a bus that goes to school).

Note that the first noun is usually Singular in form, even that it has a plural meaning: a shoe shop (= a shop that sells shoes), a toothbrush (= a brush for teeth); trouser pockets (= pockets in trousers); a horse race (a race for horses); a ticket office (an office that sells tickets).

Exceptions

Some nouns have the plural –s even when modify other nouns. These include nouns which:

1. Have no singular form (like clothes);

2. Are not used in singular with the same meaning (like customs);

3. Are more often used in the plural (like savings).

A clothes shop; a glasses case, a customs officer, arms control, a savings account, the accounts/ sales department, the outpatients department (of a hospital), a sports car, a goods train, a drinks cabinet.

We use plurals men and women to modify plural nouns when they have a ‘subject’ meaning (men-drivers = men who dive; women-pilots = women who fly planes); man and woman are used to express an ‘object’ meaning: man-eaters (lions or tigers who eat people), woman-haters (= people who hate women).

More than two nouns can be put together. A group of two nouns can modify a third noun, these can modify a forth, and so on: oil production costs, European language television channels, road accident research centre. This kind of structure is very common in newspaper headlines.

Meaning

The noun + noun structure is mostly used:

1. To make ‘classifying’ expressions, which name a particular kind of a thing: a watch dog timer (a particular kind of timer); discussion techniques, coffee beans, a fruit drink, a garden chair, ski boots, mountain bike, a school approach, mineral water source.

2. To talk about things that belong to common well-known classes (so that the two nouns describe a single idea): the milkman, the postman, the insurance man, but a man from the health department (not a regular kind of visitor). More examples:

He was reading a history book/ watching a horror film. He was reading a book about the moon.

She was sitting at a corner table. Who’s the girl in the corner?

What does that road sign say? She was showing signs of tiredness.

3. For particular kinds of container: a matchbox, a paint tin, a gasoline can, a coffee cup.

4. To say what things are made of: a wool(en) sweater, a stone bridge, an iron body, a diamond ring. Note that a few pairs of nouns and adjectives are used with modifiers with different meanings. Generally the noun simply name the material something is made of (a gold watch, silk stockings, a lead pipe, a stone roof), while the adjectives have more metaphorical meaning (golden memories, silken skin, a leaden sky, a stony silence).

5. When the animal is killed to produce something: calf skin, a lamb chop, a mink coat.

6. In measurement, with a number before the first noun: a two-week course, a five-litre can, a three-mile walk, ten two-hour lessons, a four-person tent, a five-dollar banknote, a twenty-minute delay, a three-hour journey.

7. For the names of things that happen or appear regularly: the evening news, a Sunday paper.

2. In the noun +’s + noun structure, too, the first noun modifies or describes the second: my mother’s car (a particular car), a child’s bicycle (a kind of bicycle). These expressions often correspond to structures in which the first noun is a subject and the second is a verb (mostly HAVE) or object (the opposite to the noun + noun structure). My sister’s scarf (= my sister has a scarf), the prisoner’s complaint (= the prisoner claimed a complaint); the committee’s report (= the committee made a report), a child’s bike (a child rides this kind of bike), goat’s milk (= goats give this kind of milk), the train’s arrival (= the train arrived).

Meaning

The ‘s structure is also used:

1. With a classifying meaning in certain expressions. These expressions usually refer to something that is used by a person or animal; the first noun refers to a person or animal. Generally, either both are singular or both are plural: a child’s toy, a baby’s pram/ bottle, children’s clothes, a man’s sweater, a pair of women’s jeans. But a women’s magazine, baby clothes, a bird cage.

2. For something that produced by or from a living animal: cow’s milk, birds’ nests, lamb’s wool, sheep’s wool, a bird’s egg, except camel hair, horsehair.

3. To talk about several different sorts of ideas: possession, relationship, physical features and characteristics, non physical qualities and measurement: It depends on the government’s attitude (= the government has attitude). Parents are invited to discuss their child’s behavior (= parents have a child), Mary’s brother is a lawyer. Peter’s eyes are like yours. I didn’t believe in girl’s story. The board underlined the plan’s importance (= the importance that the plan has).

4. When the first noun refers to a person or animal, organization, country or other living creatures, especially when the relationship between the two nouns could be expressed with HAVE: my groom’s surname, Deborah’s back, America’s gold reserves. Note that sometimes both structure ‘s and structure with of are possible: the earth’s gravity / the gravity of the earth; the Queen’s arrival / the arrival of the Queen; plan’s importance / the importance of the plan; Algeria’s history / the history of Algeria.

5. To talk about parts of people’s and animals’ bodies: a man’s arm, an elephant’s trunk, a butterfly’s wing. But to talk about parts of non-living things, we usually use noun + noun structure or the of structure: a table leg, the car keys, the roof of the house.

6. To say how long things last: a day’s journey, twenty minutes’ delay.

7. To talk about particular moments and events: yesterday’s news, last Sunday’s match.

8. Note the use of ‘s structure before worth: a pound’s worth of walnuts, three dollars’ worth of popcorn.

3. Sometimes the noun + noun structure or the noun + ‘s structure is not possible, and it is necessary to use a structure with of or another preposition: a feeling of disillusionment, letters from home, on top of the paper, a gentleman from Bristol, in terms of grammar, an article on modern art.

Meaning

The structure noun + preposition + noun is used

1. With the words like top, bottom, front, back, side, inside, outside, beginning, middle, end, part, edge: the top of the page, the back of the classroom, the bottom of the bottle, the end of the story, name of the street. Exceptions: the water’s edge, the seaside, the riverside, a mountain top. "I took the position that politics stopped at the water's edge. We had but one President and Commander-in-Chief".

2. With words that refer to units, selections and collections, like piece, slice, lump (of sugar/butter), bunch (of flowers), blade (of grass), pack (of cards), herd, flock, group, bar (of chocolate) and so on: hunk of cheese, chunk of rock, block of ice, rasher of bacon, clod of earth, dollop of jam, pinch of salt, blob of paint, drop of sauce, squirt of liquid, dash of sauce, wisp of smoke, trickle of rain. We wish you armful of love, a bundle of joy, a world of dreams with your baby-girl. The profession offers a bundle of benefits, not least of which is extensive training.

3. to talk about a container together with its contents: a box of matches, a tin of paint, a cup of coffee.

4. In older English, the of structure was more common to say what things are made of: a dress of silk, a bridge of stone. It is still used in some metaphorical expressions: He rules his family with a rod of iron. The flowers were like a carpet of gold.