Phrase complexity is a good application of phrase structure analysis, and it is one of the sub-composition of syntactic complexity, which focuses on phrasal complexity elaboration. The complexity of nominal phrases is an important aspect of analysis, which is closely related to the stylistic features. This paper is a case study of and argumentative expository text: Ships in the Desert, using the method of material analysis to investigate the complexity of nominal phrases in this text. The study finds that nominal phrases can function as Subject or Object, and there are some differences between the number of nominal phrases in subject position and the number of nominal phrases in object position, which reflects the usage characteristics of English grammar. What’s more, prepositional phrases can function as noun post-modifiers and their multiple embedding.
Cite this paper
Zhang, X. (2022). Nominal Phrasal Complexity in English Argumentative Expository Text. Open Access Library Journal, 9, e9500. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1109500.
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