NOUNS IN SEARCH OF A CONTEXT: A STUDY OF NOUNS WITH BOTH OPEN- AND CLOSED-SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

NOUNS IN SEARCH OF A CONTEXTA STUDY OF NOUNS WITH BOTH OPEN- AND CLOSED-SYSTEM

CHARACTERISTICS

Roz Ivani£

Nomina werden in der Regel zu den sprachlichen Elementen gerechnet, die offene Listen bilden(open-system words), d.h. ihre Anzahl ist durch Prägung neuer Nomina oder Ausfall vonveralteten Nomina veränderbar. Pronomina dagegen bilden geschlossene Listen (closed-systemitems), bei denen die Zahl der Elemente in der Regel nicht veränderbar ist.Während Nomina meistens eine relativ konstante, durch eine Definition festlegbare Bedeutunghaben, haben Pronomina lediglich eine allgemeine Funktion, die inhaltlich durch densprachlichen oder außersprachlichen Kontext spezifiziert wird. Dieser Artikel beschreibt dieEigenschaften einer Klasse von Nomina wie purpose, idea, problem, etc., die zwischen denNomina, die offene Listen bilden, und den Pronomina stehen. Nomina wie purpose könneneinerseits wie andere Nomina durch determinierende Elemente (Artikel, Zahlwörter, etc.)modifiziert werden, andererseits haben sie wie die Pronomina eine relativ allgemeine Lexi-konbedeutung, die erst durch den jeweiligen Kontext präzisiert wird.

On compte normalement les noms parmi les 616ments linguistiques qui forment des seriesouvertes (open-system-words), ce qui veut dire que leur nombre peut etre chango par la croationde nouveaux noms ou par Tolimination d'ilements vieillis. Les pronoms au contraire consti-tuent des siries fermoes (closed-system items) dont les etements gardent en gonoral un nombreconstant.Les noms ont le plus souvent un sens qui se laisse prociser par une dofinition, tandisque lespronoms ne possedent qu'une fonction ginerale dont le contenu est specifio par le contextelinguistique ou extra-linguistique. Cet article decrit les qualites d'une classe de noms du genrepurpose, idea, problem, etc., qui est intermodiaire entre les noms, formant des series ouvertes,et les pronoms. Des noms tels que purpose se laissent modifier d'un cöte, comme les autresnoms, a l'aide d'elements determinants (articles, numeraux, etc.), mais possedent, de l'autre,tout comme les pronoms un sens lexical relativement general qui n'est precise qu'avec le con-texte en question.

My purpose is to identify some of the characteristics of words like 'purpose'. I call these words'carrier nouns'. One important characteristic of such nouns is that, unlike other abstractnouns, they are common in the plural. They belong to the category of 'Container nouns' whichcan take a noun clause or norninalisation äs complement. This complement can be foundeither in the same sentence, or elsewhere in the discourse. Beyond sentence boundaries carriernouns operate like pronouns, but they refer to verbal elements: ideas, facts and events ratherthan objects. They can be more informative signposts than pronouns, and can also carry com-mentary on the portion of discourse they refer to. Their Interpretation requires sophisticatedprocessing strategies.I will illustrate the characteristics and functions of carrier nouns with examples from theL.O.B, corpus of written English1.

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94 IRAL, VOL. XXIX/2, MAY 1991

Introduction

A hundred and twenty years ago the Mock Turtle drew our attention tothe difference between words like 'porpoise' and words like 'purpose'.

"No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.""Wouldn't it, really?" said Alice, in a tone of great surprise."Of course not", said the Mock Turtle. "Why, if a fish came to me,and told me he was going a journey, I should say, "With what por-poise?""Don't you mean 'purpose'?" said Alice."I mean what I say", the Mock Turtle replied, in an offended tone.(From Alice's Ädventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1960: 137)

"With what porpoise?" is unacceptable to Alice in three respects. Firstlythe use of the indefinite interrogative determiner "what" is syntacticallypossible but irregulär with a countable concrete noun: the more regulärchoice would be the definite: "With which porpoise?" By contrast,"what" is normally expected with the abstract noun "purpose", unlessseveral purposes are already available to choose from.

Secondly, there is a fundamental semantic difference between 'por-poise' and 'purpose'. My prototypical porpoises swim in the sea, com-municate by sound waves and give birth to their youiig fully formed. Inother words, I can conjure up a relatively clear and urichanging pictureof them in response to the word in Isolation. By contrast, a prototypical'purpose' is more like a syntactic specification with slots to be filledaccording to each new context in which 'purpose' plays a part. Theseempty slots can accommodate an infinite number of unrelated contexts.

Thirdly, "With what porpoise?" would be pragmatically irregulär inplaces other than Wonderland. If someone is going on a journey, it is notpragmatically relevant to ask which (or what) porpoise will accompanyher. It is, however, appropriate to inquire of almost any action in any cir-cumstances what its purpose is.

These differences between the noun 'porpoise' and the noun 'pur-pose' are summarised in table l below.

It would be tedious to labour the point Lewis Carroll made soelegantly. I intend it to serve merely äs an introduction to a significantcategory of nouns like 'purpose'. In this paper I will identify the syntacticand semantic characteristics of these nouns, which I will call 'carrier



NOUNS IN SEARCH OF A CONTEXT 95

Table 1: A comparison between the nouns 'porpoise' and 'purpose'

Porpoise Purpose

interrogative definite: indefinite:determiner: 'which' 'what'

semantic relatively relativelycharacter: independent context-dependent

of context

pragmatic irrelevant in relevant inrelevance: most contexts many contexts

nouns', and discuss how they function in discourse. I will use examplesmainly from the Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen (L.O.B.) corpus of writtenEnglish1.

The sample I studied from this corpus included writing from severaldifferent text types: newspaper reporting, editorial and reviews; populärlore (e.g. Readers' Digest); biography; government documents, reports,etc.; Information about skills, trades and hobbies; learned and scientificwriting; science fiction, mystery and detective fiction. In brackets aftereach example I have shown the genre from which it comes.

Towards a definition of carrier nouns

By 'carrier' I mean that these nouns frequently carry a specific meaningwithin their context in addition to their dictionary meaning. This is notjust an instance of the context-dependence of all language, but adiscourse function specific to these words. For example, the first defini-tion of the word 'purpose' in the Longman Dictionary of ContemporaryEnglish (L. D. O. C. E.) is:

an intention or plan; reason for an action;This is its 'constant' meaning. In the following extracts, the word

'purpose' certainly means what the dictionary says, but it carries an addi-tional, context-dependent meaning:

1. Cut out the bottom and sides accurately from the plan measurementsbut leave sufficient margin for planing after fixing the boat. Use yourtwo lengths of 8.0 ft. by 4.0 ft for this purpose, the sides from one,and the bottom from the other.

(Skills, trades and hobbies: L. O.B. E 04 140)




2. The slender form, absence of decoration, and unstable base suggestthat the type was not primarily intended for use at the table, but ratherfor drawing water out of a well. That pottery jugs were used for thispurpose is shown by the accumulation of over fifty jugs, many intact,in the filling of a medieval well.

(Learned and scientific: L. O. B. J 67 59)

In example l 'purpose' means 'to cut out the bottom and sides', andin example 2 'purpose' means 'to draw water out of a well'. These addi-tional meanings could not possibly be itemised in a dictionary: they aretransitory meanings which the noun acquires in use, and they vary fromcontext to context. I will use the terms 'constant meaning' and 'variablemeaning' when referring to the two types of meaning these words carryin discourse.

Here are some more examples of what I am calling 'carrier nouns'.idea criticism purposefact difficulty intentionexample difference aim .element advantage functionfactor benefit questionaspect comment issuecause view decisionreason opinion prolplemeffect Interpretation solutionexplanation principle featureresult justification thing

These words attracted my attention because they seem to be good can-didates for any list of core vocabulary in 'the language of secondaryeducation' (Barnes 1986). The notion of 'core vocabulary' is discussed indetail by Carter (1987) and he makes the point that 'Core words do notnormally allow us to identify from which field of discourse they havebeen taken' (p. 41). This is exactly the characteristic which makes carriernouns so interesting: since they take on the bulk of their meaning fromcontext, they are not subject-specific. This makes them particularlyuseful for learners entering the academic discourse Community.

I have tried various terms for this set of nouns. I considered usingterms which had been used by other linguists, but found them allunsatisfactory for one reason or another. I tried 'unspecific nouns', aterm used by Winter (1982: p. 185-6), but I rejected this because allnouns other than proper names are, in some sense, unspecific. I con-




sidered using Halliday and Hasan's term 'general nouns' (1976: p. 274),but these seem to be a different, overlapping set of nouns, at the 'fuzzyedge' of the 'carrier' category which I will discuss below. The term'superordinate' is in general use, but includes many concrete nouns suchäs 'furniture'. The term 'empty nouns' captures some of thecharacteristics, but is a bit negative: it loses the point that the emptinessurges the listener or reader to search for the filling. I could have usedVendler's (1967, 1968) term 'container nouns' (see below), but I wantedboth to extend the ränge of words included in the category and to focuson their function beyond clause level. The term 'anaphoric nouns' hasbeen used by Francis (1986) for an important sub-set of the larger classof nouns I want to refer to. In later work on nouns of this sort Francisused the terms 'advance and retrospective labels' (Francis 1988 and 1989).While the term 'labels' covers, I think, the same set of nouns äs I amwriting about, it does not encompass the clause level and exophoric usesI want to include. Akimoto (1989, 1990) writes about 'deverbal nouns';the majority of the nouns I am writing about are indeed deverbal butothers are not ('purpose', for example, is not strictly speaking deverbal).Also I want a term which suggests the discourse function of the nouns,rather than their formal characteristics. I considered using the term 'con-text-dependent' which has the advantage of being reasonably self-explanatory. However, it suggests that other nouns are not 'context-dependent' — a Suggestion I would not want to make. It also fails to cap-ture the dynamic role these nouns often play in discourse structure (whichI will outline later).

My first choice was 'carrier nouns' (Ivanic 1983). It seemed rather afanciful term, but I have returned to it for an important reason. 'Carrier'is a term Halliday uses in Functional Grammar (1985 pp. 113 -128). ForHalliday, a 'carrier' is the grammatical subject of an attributive clause -that is, one of two clause types which express relational processes2. Bycalling these nouns 'carrier nouns', I want to place them within a Func-tional Grammar framework - both recognising their role in the structureof relational process clauses (see the section on Vendler's 'ContainerSentences' below), and showing (in the rest of the paper) how this rela-tional function extends beyond clause boundaries.

Francis (1986, 1988, 1989) and Akimoto (1989, 1990) have drawnattention to and deepened our understanding of these words. Francis(1986) makes a semantic distinction within this category of nouns be-tween those which are metadiscursive and those which are not. Sheexplains that




'facts' and 'issues' exist in the world outside discourse, while 'claims'and 'analyses' are labels for the language that has developed in andthrough the discourse itself, created by the writer ...' (p. 17)

She calls nouns like 'claims' and 'analyses' metadiscursive and this is thegroup she also calls 'anaphoric nouns*. She goes on to identify other'superordinate nouns' such äs 'cause', 'development', 'move', 'process','result* äs discursive but not wetediscursive, and hence not included inher category of 'anaphoric nouns'. She also sub-clässifies metadiscursivenouns, drawing attention to the fact that they äre nominalisations oflinguistic and cognitive processes. Francis (1988, 1989) furtherdistinguishes three types of discourse function for these nouns: advancelabelling, retrospective labelling and equivalence. In addition shediscusses aspects of the modification of these nouns. In all three papersshe draws her examples from newspapers and journalism and (1989) ESLStudent writing.

Akimoto has studied both the grammatical properties of deverbalnouns (1988) and some of their discourse properties (1990), consideringthe relationships among subject/object Position, definiteness/indefinite-ness, and genre. He has identified three types Of reiteration associatedwith deverbal nouns (1990). Carrier nouns include, and share manycharacteristics with, deverbal nouns, but 'carrier' is a broader category.

In this paper I will concentrate on the delineation of carrier nouns äsa broad category, integrating sentence level and discourse level treatmentsof them. The first characteristic of these nouns I will discuss is the factthat they are countable abstract nouns.

Carrier nouns are countable abstract nouns

Most of these nouns are recognisably abstract rather than cöncrete, butthey differ from many other abstract nouns in that they are frequentlycountable. Table 2 sets out the syntactic and semantic dimensions onwhich nouns are usually classified, giving examples to Show how thedimensions interact.

It is recognised in all grammar books that there is a useful workingdistinction between countable cöncrete nouns such äs 'porpoise(s)' anduncountable cöncrete nouns such äs 'rice'. However, many accounts ofabstract nouns (e.g. Close 1975) suggest that abstract nouns are usuallyuncountable. This is because their examples are Iimite4 to predicativeabstract nouns, like 'contempt'. Abstract nouns like 'purpose', however,




Table 2: Types of noun

Countable Uncountable

Concrete porpoise(s) rice

Abstract purpose(s) contemptdifficulty(ies) difficultyfeature(s)

are predominantly countable in use, and there are many of them, äs therepresentative list above indicates. It is this class of countable abstractnouns which I identify äs frequently having a carrier function indiscourse.

Many of these nouns have both a countable and an uncountable use.'Difficulty', for example, quite commonly occurs äs an uncountablepredicative noun, especially in a negative environment, with theinvariable meaning 'the abstract quality of being diffieult'. In the follow-ing example, 'difficulty' has this meaning (although it seems to me thatit does have a carrier function too, äs I will explain in the section 'carriernouns äs a fuzzy category' below).

3. If the chancellor really wanted to get more people into the saving andinvesting habit he could, without difficulty, go further and give reliefon the first slice of an individual's income from his Investments.

(Newspaper editorial: L. O.B. B 07 136)

But 'difficulty', Singular und plural, means 'object(s) or event(s) whichcause difficulty'. It is then functioning äs a carrier noun, demanding thathearers/readers recover from the discourse or infer from their back-ground knowledge which precise object(s), activity(ies) or event(s) arebeing classified äs 'diffieult'. Here are two examples where the word 'dif-ficulty' is a countable noun.

4. Squaring numbers involving two places of decimals is a tedious matter.This difficulty can be circumvented by using ...

(Learned and scientific: L. O.B. J 19 197)

In example 4, the local meaning of 'difficulty' is the diffieult activitydescribed in the preceding sentence.

5. The question therefore is whether resources will be channelled fromadditions to replacement. But it is not easy for the private developer



·' r


to undertake the demolition and replacement of old houses. He has toacquire groups of old dwellings, because of the high cost of individualdemolition and because old houses are often so densely packed thatperhaps three or four have to be demolished for every new one built.The developer may therefore have to negotiate with a large number ofowners: ownership of old property is becoming even more fragmentedäs landlords seil houses on which rent control has been lifted. Thereis also the problem of rehousing the old tenants. Finally, when thedeveloper does build, the houses will be much more expensive thanhouses built on virgin land because of the cost of demolition. He maydoubt whether clients wealthy enough to buy relatively expensivehouses will in fact be tempted back from the suburbs to predominantlyworking-class neighbourhoods. If, notwithstanding these difficulties,when old houses are demolished, the new houses ...

(Learned and scientific: L. O. B. J 47 78)

In this example, 'difficulties' in the last sentence certainly has anindependent semantic value, lexically cohesive with the words 'it is noteasy' in the second line. However, it carries an additional context-depen-dent meaning which Stretches from 'He has to acquire...' to '... work-ing-class neighbourhoods'. Abstract countable nouns in the plural areoften used like this to refer to several sentences or clauses at once.

In the sample from the L.O.B, corpus with which.1 was working, therewere 37 instances of 'difficultyCies)'. Of these only 10 were uncöuntable;the majority — 27 — were countable.

There are other abstract nouns, however, which are always countable.In some cases this seems to be because they are metaphorical extensionsof concrete nouns. Examples in this group are 'component', 'element','facet', 'aspect', 'area' and 'feature'. For example, compare

6. The nose was the predominant feature of his face.(Mystery and detective fiction: L.O.B. L 16 43)

and

7. Perhaps the awkward feature is that the plane can only be used to alimited extent because the projecting toe prevents its being taken rightthrough. (Skills, trades and hobbies: L.O.B. E 02 09)

In example 6 the noun 'feature' has its physical meaning: 'any of thenoticeable parts of the face' (L.D.O.C.E. meaning 2). Example 7,however, illustrates its now more common metaphorical use, meaning 'a




(typical or noticeable) part or quality' (L.D.O.C.E. meaning 1) - in thiscase 'part of the task of making a tapered leg with a toe'.

This establishes one criterion for identifying carrier nouns: they areabstract and countable. This criterion is not reliable on its own however,because there are many abstract, countable nouns representing 'more orless intangible phenomena' such äs 'centuries' and 'temperatures' whichdo not belong to this category. They do not count äs carrier nouns by the'container sentence' criterion which I will outline in the next section.

Carrier nouns can occur in Vendler's 'container sentences'

Syntactically, all the nouns typified by the list on page 96 can functionäs 'container nouns' (Vendler, 1967, 1968). Vendler identified containernouns in order to contribute linguistic evidence to the philosophicaldebate about the difference between facts and events. He therefore didn'tdevote much attention to the füll ränge of nouns which can function inthis way and gave the false impression that they are few in number. Ibelieve this category of nouns is in fact much larger than Vendler implied,äs my representative list of 40 above indicates.

Figure l represents the syntactic pattern which Vendler identified.

Figure 1: Vendler's container sentences

N. is nominalisationnominalisation is N.

wherenominalisation = 'that' clause N. = 'container noun'

'to' clause'wh'-question clause

or a deverbal noun

This figure represents the fact that, unlike other nouns, 'container nouns'can take a verbal complement in the form of a nominalisation or clauseacting äs a noun. That is, a container noun (N.), such äs 'purpose', canbe the subject of a relational process verb (such äs 'is'), and take a nounclause äs complement. For example:

8. The purpose of the following section is to provide an elementaryaccount of the magnetic properties of ferrites.

(Learned and scientific: L.O.B. J 70 210)




It is possible, though much less common, to reverse the order of consti-tuents in this type of seritence, so that the clause is subject and the con-tainer noun (N.) is complement. For example:

9. To vindicate Lord Raglan, the commander-in-chief, is his purpose —äs it was Kinglake's. (Newspaper review: L.O.B. C 08 17)

Vendler pointed out that different Container nouns combine with dif-ferent types of clause so for example 'purpose', 'aim', 'function' and'solution' take a 'to'-clause; 'explanation', 'criticism', 'difference' and'principle' take a 'that'-clause äs complement; 'question' and 'issue' takea 'wh'-question clause.

Here are further examples of Container sentences, illustrating'wh'-question clauses (example 10) and 'that'-clauses (example 11) äscomplements.

10. The real question is what we should put to the Soviet Governmentäs a basis for talks. (Newspaper editorial: L.O.B. B 02 3l)

11. The most up-to-date explanation is that the river was once cön-nected with the Egyptian cult of the god Anubis...

(Skills, trades and hobbies: L.O.B. E 09 121)

By contrast, nouns which are not Container noüiis cannot occur in thesesentence structures. For example:

12.* This Century was + 'that'-clause.

13.* Her contempt seemed to be + 'wh'-clause.

It has been pointed out that almost any noun can occur with a 'to'-clausecomplement, for example:

14. The word-processor is to make her work easier.

But I would not want to classify 'word-processor' äs a Container noun.I think this can be explained by recognising that in sentences like thesethere is an understood Container noun: example 14 is an ellipsed form of

14a. The purpose of the word-processor it to make her work easier..»/>

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I believe that it is possible to apply a sort of Container sentence lest*to distinguish this particular type of noun from others. If the noun inquestion can fill the 'N.' slot in Figure l, it is potentially a Containernoun.

In Container sentences the specific meaning of N. in context is pro-vided by the complement clause. But the same nouns which can appearin Container sentences are often found in other syntactic environments.When their variable meaning is not supplied by a complement within theclause, these nouns often extend their relational function beyond theclause, carrying meaning from their context. In this respect they are likepronouns, äs I will explain in the next section.

Carrier nouns are like pronouns

Semantically these nouns resemble pronouns in that their meaning is notself-contained. They have both a constant meaning and a variable mean-ing. The constant meaning of the word 'it', for example, is Singular, nothuman, and usually inanimate. This combines with its variable meaning,which can be 'the red sock', 'the goverment's Standing in the opinionpolls' or an infinite number of things depending on the context in whichit is used. In this respect the words I am talking about are much more likepronouns than nouns. They all have a constant meaning which can befound in a dictionary and is predictable in any context, but their variablemeaning is unpredictable and can only be determined by reference totheir context, either linguistic (endophoric reference) or extralinguistic(exophoric reference).

Matthews (1981) discusses sentences containing what I am calling car-rier nouns which do not provide their variable meaning within thesentence. His example is

15. The realisation < > surprised me.det head < complement >

(Matthews 1981, p. 232)

Matthews argued that there is a missing 'that' clause äs complement tothe noun 'realisation' in this sentence. He commented.

'Plainly there is something that the Speaker had realised and, in speak-ing, he assumes that his hearer knows what it was. Therefore we mightargue that the clause was latent.'




Matthews did not pursue the question of where the hearer would searchto supply the contents of this latent clause, because he was only interestedin the analysis of such sentences in Isolation. When such sentences areviewed äs part of continuous discourse, however, the question of themissing 'that' clause becomes crucial.

Endophoric referenceIn this section I will show how the füll Interpretation of a carrier nounis often to be found not within its sentence, but in previous or subsequentStretches of discourse.

In examples l, 2, 4 and 5 above, the 'latent clause' is to be found inthe Stretch of discourse immediately preceding the sentence containingthe carrier noun. In such cases, the noun is functioning anaphorically, äsdefined for example by Halliday and Hasan (1976: p. 14). Readers needto recognise the noun äs a signal to treat a portion of what they have justread äs the launching-pad for the next development in the discourse.These are 'retrospective labels' in Francis's (1989) terms.

These nouns 'encapsulate* preceding meaning and turn it into 'given'Information in subsequent discourse. This function is discussed in greatdetail in Francis (1986), chapters 3 and 5 and 1989, pp. 28-34. She drawsattention to the fact that, when functioning anaphorically, such nounsare almost always associated with a definite reference item, most fre-quently 'This' (p. 25ff.). Examples l, 2, 4 and 5 are clear illustrations ofthis. However, carrier nouns also frequently function cataphorically, äs'advance labels' in Francis's (1989) terms. That is, their variable meaningcan be found in a subsequent clause. They act äs an instruction to searchfor Information of a particular type. Example 16 illustrates the anaphoricand cataphoric functions interacting to signal the Organisation of thediscourse.

16. The functionalist view of society tends to be that society is like amachine which has to work smoothly: individuals are like cogs ina watch — they have to 'fit' in with others. Pieces (individuals)which do not fit in are simply badly made (imperfectly socialised)and have tö be made to fit. Up to a point this is a useful analogy,but it breaks down for several reasons. First, a machine does notchange (except by getting older and less efficient), but societies dochange - many of us think that some changes actually improvesociety. Secondly, human beings are not just cogs in a machine: theymake decisions - they have the power to decide yes or no.

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In this extract from a secondary school sociology text-book, 'analogy'functions anaphorically. It is unlike previous examples in that it is asingular noun, but refers back to more than one clause or sentence. The'missing that-clausey here begins with 'society is like a machine' andcontinues äs far äs 'have to be made to fit'. The word 'analogy' encap-sulates this Stretch of discourse in preparation for the next stage in theargument.

In the same sentence the carrier noun 'reasons' functions cataphori-cally. That is, it acts äs a signal that exact reasons will be specified in thesubsequent discourse. As the reader expects, reasons are provided in thenext two sentences — the rest of the extract. (Incidentally, the reader'sexpectations are not fully met, äs the word 'several' predicts that therewill be at least three reasons, but only two are offered!)

The sentence acts äs a sort of pivot for the whole paragraph, sum-marising and evaluating one stage in the argument, and indicating howit will progress.

Exophoric reference

Examples show that 'the missing 'that' clause' is not always convenientlysupplied by the text. Carrier nouns are in fact often Signals for readers(or hearers) to search their background knowledge for suitable interpreta-tions, äs the following example illustrates.

17. The merger brought its problems. No one would deny that. Butgradually the teething troubles abated. ...

(Populär lore: L.O.B. F16 24)

In example 17, the preceding text described the Situation leading to themerger, and the subsequent text described what happened after the earlystages. Contrary to readers' expectations, the 'problems' and 'teethingtroubles' are not actually specified. In fact readers have to use theirbackground knowledge of the sorts of problems usually associated withmergers in order to arrive at any substantial Interpretation of thesesentences. It is not just a question of knowing the dictionary definitionof 'problems' and 'troubles', äs it was in the case of the uncountable useof the word 'difficulty' in example 4 above. It seems to me that a readerneeds to attribute additional, context-dependent meaning to these wordsin order to achieve a rieh comprehension. For example, I Interpret thewords äs meaning something like: 'the members of the two parties to the



• f


merger did not share the same priorities; there were two secretaries, andone had to be chosen äs senior, etc.'. The writer is assuming that the sortsof problems and teething troubles associated with mergers are part ofreaders' general knowledge. This additional meaning is context-specific:in a different context the same words will evoke a different Interpretationfrom background knowledge. To illustrate, here is another example of thenoun 'problems' with exophoric reference.

18. Again, the associations can call on the resources of the Com-monwealth Mycological Institute which maintains a collection offungi many of which are of interest in research into certain foodProblems. (Government documents, etc.: L.O.B. H 10 213)

In example 18 the surrounding text is aböut the way 'the associations'work, and does not specify which 'food problems' they are referring to.In this example the accompanying modifier 'food' narrows down theinterpretations of the noun 'problems' considerably, but further clueshave to be taken from background knowledge summoned up by the widercontext. In this context I Interpret the word 'problems' äs something like:'illnesses are sometimes caused by food; some food decomposes quickly',etc., but not 'children are very choosy about what they eat'; 'the pricesof food are soaring, etc.'. Elaboration of this sort is not optional, but anessential part of the comprehension process.

\ .,,.. _

Examples 17 and 18 illustrate how a carrier noun means more than itsconstant, dictionary definition, even when the variable meaning cannotbe recovered from the surrounding text.

A slightly different case of exophoric reference is when the meaningof a carrier noun is not part of general background knowledge, butdepends on the assumption that readers are familiär with a specific setof local or current circumstances. This often includes the assumptionthat readers are familiär with other texts. This is likely to arise inliterature, and is particularly common in newsreporting. The writer of anewspaper article may assume that the readers can supply the additionalmeaning for a carrier noun because they are likely to have read previouseditions of the same paper, and/or be familiär with other media coverageof a topical issue or event. Example 19 illustrates this.

19. Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet has offered to compromise national prideand even modify her own principles, äs she initially articulatedthem· (Daily Mail Comment May 1982)




The surrounding text does not explain what Mrs Thatchers principlesare, and not all readers of this article are likely to be able to supply 'themissing that-clause' in this example from general knowledge. The date isthe clue here. This article was written during the Malvinas/Falklands war,when most readers of the Daily Mail would have been thoroughlyacquainted with every detail via the vast quantity of media coverage. MrsThatcher's 'principles', though not general knowledge in any universalsense, would have been common knowledge at the time, and didn't needto be speit out.

Carrier nouns frequently require readers to draw on knowledge out-side the text, äs illustrated in the examples above. It would therefore beinappropriate to call them 'text-dependent* nouns, and I think Francis'term 'labels' is limited in this way too. Their discourse function is to givean 'instruction to search' for what they are referring to, either within theclause, within the text or beyond the text, just äs pronouns do.

But carrier nouns are still nouns!

The constant semantic component of a carrier noun is always more infor-mative than pronouns, and it is therefore able to label, classify and/orevaluate what it is referring to. This characteristic, or at any rate thenegative aspect of it, is well described by Bolinger:

„Nouns... are a hotbed of pseudonymity. This is to be expected, giventheir function, which is to lay hold of some portion of reality and holdit up to view. Hold it up, that is, AS IF it were a portion of reality. Itmay embody a slew of things." (Bolinger 1980, p. 64)

The word 'analogy* in example 16 illustrates this. It labels the precedingdiscourse, both helping the reader identify more precisely which part ofwhat s/he has read is being referred to, and giving this portion of text theStatus of being an 'analogy'. Neither of these functions could have beenachieved by using the pronoun rewrite: 'This is useful.' A further advan-tage of using nouns instead of pronouns for inter-sentential reference isthat nouns are much more syntactically versatile than pronouns. Theycan take a füll ränge of positions in Information structure, äs Hallidaynoted when he first studied nouns in scientific discourse.

„Nominality means freedom of movement. When processes, qualities,states, relations, or attributes are Objectified', they take on poten-tialities otherwise reserved to persons and objects."

(Halliday, 1967, p. 24)




For example, in the clause 'Up to a point this is a useful analogy', the car-rier noun comes last and carries stress in a way which a pronoun couldnot.

The most obvious advantage nouns have over pronouns is that theycan be accompanied by determiners and modifiers. Halliday also com-ments on this:

„Not only the potentiality of entering into further compound formsand susceptibility to the various choices that are open to the Englishnominal group — all forms of determination and enumeration — butalso the sei of functions which the nominal group may take on in theclause. (Halliday, 1967, p. 12)

When this quality combines with the discourse-referring function of car-rier nouns the resulting nominal group is an extremely powerful package.In example 16 above the noun phrase 'several reasons' illustrates the wayin which a carrier noun combines with a determiner, neatly indicating notonly what sort of discourse relation to be on the look-out for, but alsohow many (in this case, reasons) to expect. The combination of deter-miner + carrier noun allows writers to provide very precise discourse-processing Signals to readers (if they choose to).

A particularly common use of a carrier noun with an enumerator isin exam questions. For example: v .

20. Outline threefactors that have led to the fall in the Birth Rate since1941. (A.E.B. Sociology Examination: 1983)

This is a most economical way of eliciting an extended answer, specifyingthe number and type of discourse elements required, but not giving awayany hint of what their contents should be.

Carrier nouns can be accompanied by modifiers which can restricttheir ränge of reference, äs the modifier 'food' does in the phrase 'certainfood problems* in example 18 above. Modifiers can also play anevaluative role: the modifier 'useful' in example 16 above introduces thewriter's comment on the preceding Stretch of discourse. In example 21below the phrase 'These stern measures' leaves the reader in no doubt ästo the journalist's opinion of the events s/he is reporting.

21. Strong deeds followed strong words. In Takoradi a limited state ofemergency was declared, giving the government adequate power tomaintain all essential Services and ensure food supplies. Thus it




becomes an offence punishable with imprisonment of anyone whopublishes a report likely to cause alarm or prejudicial to publicsafety. And up to ten years imprisonment can also be imposed onanyone convicted of Sabotage. These stern measures had the desiredeffect today at Kumasi...

(Newspaper reporting: L.O.B. A 02 88)

Carrier nouns äs a fuzzy category

There is no clear dividing line between nouns which are carrier nouns andthose which are not. The clearest cases are countable abstract nounswhich can occur in Container sentences, such äs *expectation(s)','reason(s)', 'fact(s)', 'purposes', *difficulty(ies)': these can be recognisedfrom the dictionary äs belonging to this category. The key characteristicsof a 'prototypical' carrier noun are that it has both a constant and avariable meaning, and that the variable meaning is dependent on the con-text in which it is used. However, some cases are less clear-cut thanothers.

Firstly, there are nouns which do not fit Container sentences but dohave both a constant and a variable meaning. These include general andsuperordinate nouns like 'period(s)', and 'item(s)', for which the variablemeaning is usually supplied by something other than a clause. Teriod'normally refers to a prepositional phrase, such äs 'for five years' in exam-ple 22.

22. Archbishop Makarios puts the Commonwealth on trial.His ex-Eoka Government decides that Cyprus will join it for fiveyears. During this period Britain will be expected to subsidise anddefend the Cypriots.

(Newspaper editorial: L.O.B. B 04 71)

The variable meaning for 'item(s)' is usually (though not always) sup-plied by a noun or a noun phrase, äs in the following example.

23. It is interesting to read about the items electors mentioned äs hav-ing, in their view, specially affected the election. Of the total, 32%thought „rash Labour promises — cost of new pension scheme -bribery of electorate" had a bad effect, 26% thought nationalisa-tion hurt Labour and 10% thought strikes, especially that at BritishOxygen works, were bad. (Populär lore: L.O.B. F10 98)




In example 23 the noun Sterns' carries the meaning of the noun phrases'rash Labour promises', 'nationalisation', and 'strikes'. I would classifywords such äs 'period(s)' and 'item(s)' äs cärrier nouns even though theirreferents are not usually clauses.

Another type of carrier noun which cannot occur in a Containersentence is what Francis (1986 p. 16) calls 'text' nouns. Examples are'chapter', 'passage', 'section', Quotation', 'conversation'. These are con-text-dependent in a rather different way from other nouns I have con-sidered, referring to the physical substance rather than content oflanguage. However, they share the key characteristic of having both con-stant and variable meaning, äs example 24 shows.

24. The preceding paragraph gives some general reflections on detect-ing elements. (Learned and scientific writing: L.O.B. J 78 50)

Here the Interpretation of the word 'paragraph' involves recalling orreviewing the preceding text which is typographically delimited by inden-tation.

Secondly, there is a continuum from 'very context-dependent' to*almost self-contained' in the way these nouns are used in discourse,represented diagrammatically in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Degrees of context-dependence for carrier nouns

Most context-dependent usesCountabledefinite:endophoricreference

V̂|

Countable Countabledefinite: indefiniteexophoricreference

Most self-contained uses

Uncountable

When the variable meaning can be recovered from the accompanyingtext, by endophoric reference, the noun in question is most clearly func-tioning äs a carrier noun, äs in examples l, 2,4, 5,16 and 21 above. Whenthe füll Interpretation of the noun depends on background knowledge,by exophoric reference, the classification is less clear, äs in examples 17,18 and 19 above. However, even when the constant meaning of thesewords seems to dominate, when they are used äs uncountable nouns orin indefinite noun phrases, it seems to me that some variable meaningcreeps into the Interpretation.




In example 3 the noun 'difficulty' is uncountable and means 'theabstract quality of being difficult'. There is no invitation in the syntax forthe reader to supply any further meaning, yet it seems likely that par-ticular context-specific types of difficulty — 'cutting other items on thebudget, persuading the Prime Minister to agree etc.* - do form part ofthe process of Interpretation.

In all examples so far (apart from 3) the carrier nouns have figuredin definite noun phrases (e.g. l 'this purpose'; 20 'its problems') or inclose association with a definite reference item (e.g. 16 'This is a usefulanalogy'). Francis (1986: p. 27) makes this an essential criterion for iden-tifying anaphoric nouns. It seems to me that, even when the nouns I haveidentified occur in indefinite phrases, readers may draw on some context-dependent meaning to Interpret them. Here is an example of a potentiallycarrier noun in an indefinite noun phrase.

25. „Where are we going, Mam?" inquired little Cadwallader when hischild mind grasped the fact that green earth was falling away at a rateof knots.Where indeed? Megan Thomas spoke sharply to the conductor,demanding an explanation. But non-plussed, the conductor was.

(Science fiction: L.O.B. M 04 86)

The Situation is that a bus has just taken off and is flying high into thesky.

No explanation is supplied in the immediate text, and the indefinitearticle indicates that the reader is not expected to supply one frombackground knowledge, However, it seems to me that the phrase 'anexplanation' invites the reader to consider some possible ones. The possi-ble explanations include 'supernatural forces are at work', but probablydon't include 'There has been a change in the British examinationSystem'.

To summarise this section, the 'carrier noun' category is fuzzy inrespect of which nouns it includes, and which uses of those nouns itincludes. I am calling abstract countable nouns which have both a cons-tant and a variable meaning 'carrier' nouns. Most but not all of these aredeverbal nouns. Most, but not all, c.an act äs 'container nouns' at clauselevel. The most interesting instances are carrier nouns which have clauses,sentences and whole Stretches of discourse äs their variable meaning, butthe category also encompasses nouns which have their variable meaningsupplied by phrases or single words. These nouns carry contextual mean-ing in various ways. Instances ränge from places where the nouns patently




signal a search of the text for local meaning, to places where the variablemeaning is outside the text, and/or plays a peripheral role in their Inter-pretation. Carriers nouns are most context-dependent when they areassociated with markers of definite reference, but the context seems toplay a role in their Interpretation even when they are accompanied byindefinite reference, or when they occur äs uncountables.

Summary and conclusion

Nouns are normally thought of äs open-system words: that is, they carrymeaning of their own in communication, and there is an infinite set ofthem which is continually changing äs new words enter the language andold ones fall into disuse. Pronouns are normally thought of äs closed-system words: that is, they are words which structure the meanings incommunication; they are a limited set which rarely changes. A word like'porpoise* seems to be a clear case of an open-system noun. *It' is a clearcase of a closed-system word. Using the terminology I introduced above,open-system nouns have constant meaning which can be found in the dic-tionary; closed-system pronouns have only a very schematic constantmeaning (for example *it' means Singular and inanimate), which acts äsa template for variable meanings which they adopt in context. I wouldlike to propose that the nouns which I have identified here äs 'carriernouns' lie somewhere on a continuum between open- and closed-systemnominals. Table 3 represents this continuum and summarises thecharacteristics of carrier nouns which I have discussed and exemplifiedin this article.

Table 3: Nouns with open- and closed-system characteristics

Types ofNominal

Nouns

Carrier Nouns

Pronouns

Lexical System

opei

\cloi

nL

Wed

ModificationDeterminationEnumeration etc.

•

•X

Cohesive andDeictic Function

X

•

•

The first column of Table 3 identifies carrier nouns äs midway on acontinuum between open-system nouns and pronouns. The second col-umn shows how carrier nouns resemble other nouns: they can take the




füll ränge of determiners, quantifiers and types of modification availablefor nouns. The third column shows how they resemble pronouns in thatsome part of their meaning has to be recovered or inferred from the con-text in which they are used. The central row with two ticks represents theway in which carrier nouns conveniently combine the characteristics ofnouns and pronouns.

Bolinger (1980, p. 27) said of all nouns:

„The quality of the noun is that it captures a concept on the wing andholds it still for inspection."

The special quality of carrier nouns is that they capture more than a con-cept: they capture an event, a process, an action, a portion of on-goingdiscourse. It is this characteristic which makes these nouns particularlyprevalent in academic discourse. It would be interesting to do furtherwork on how learners Interpret and learn to use these words. Althoughmy main interest is in educational linguistics, the ränge of sources for myexamples suggests that carrier nouns play an important role in manyother types of discourse. I hope that linguists in many fields of discourseanalysis will find them worthy of attention.

Roz IvanicDepartment of Linguistics andModern English LanguageUniversity of LancasterGB-Lancaster LA l 4 YTEngland

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper was first presented at an L. A. G. B. (Linguistics Association of Great Britain)meeting in April 1987, and subsequently at the Linguistics Circle, Deparment of Linguisticsand Modern English Language, Lancaster University; The Linguistics Forum, Department ofLanguages and Linguistics, University of Dar es Salaam; and at the English Language Unit,Liverpool University. I am grateful to colleagues present on all these occasions for their ques-tions and comments which helped me develop the final version. I am grateful also to GillFrancis for comments on an earlier draft pf the paper. I would particularly like to thank DavidBarton for bis insights and support at all stages in this study.

NOTES

l. The L. O. B. corpus of British English consists of approximately l ,000,000 words of writtenEnglish collected in 1961. Each text in the corpus is approximately 2,000 word long andthe texts are selected from a wide ränge of written genres. I was able to identify the examples



·' r


I wanted by Consulting the KWIC (KeyWord In Context) concordance, available onmicrofiche, and cross-referencing this with the complete texts. The corpus is also availablein several machinereadable forms. For further details see Johansson 1978 and Taylor 1988.References to the L. O. B. corpus are coded äs follows:Letter = text categoryNumber = text number and line numberE. g.: B 04 71 = Newspaper editorial text 4, line 71.

2. Strictly speaking, the 'carrier' function of these nouns is usually what Halliday would classäs a relational process of Identification' rather than 'attribution' (1985 pp. 113-128).However, he points out that the subcategories 'represent a gradation within the total fieldof these relational processes' (p. 128). I therefore feel justified in stretching the use of histerm.

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NOUNS IN SEARCH OF A CONTEXT: A STUDY OF NOUNS WITH BOTH OPEN- AND CLOSED-SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS