English Binominal Noun Phrase - A Cognitive-Functional Approach

The binomial noun phrase, or of-binomial, is an important phenomenon in the English language. De¿ned as a noun phrase that contains two related nouns, linked by the preposition of, examples include a hell of a day and a beast of a storm. This pioneering book provides the ¿rst extensive study of the evaluative binominal noun phrases (EBNP) in English, exploring the syntactic rules that govern them, and the (functional) semantic and pragmatic links between the two nouns. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, corpus data, and two different theoretical approaches (Construction Grammar and Functional Discourse Grammar), it argues that the EBNP now functions as a stage in a grammaticalization path that begins with a prototypical N+PP construction, continues with the head-classi¿er, and ends with two new of-binominal constructions: the evaluative modi¿er and binominal intensi¿er. Comprehensive in its scope, it is essential reading for researchers in syntax, semantics, and English corpus linguistics.

List of contents

Figures; Tables; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Of-binominal Classification; 3. From Prototypical N+PP to Pseudo-partitive; 4. The Evaluative Of-binominals; 5. Three Case Studies: Cake, Beast, and Hell; 6. Diachronic Evidence; 7. Premodification Evidence; 8. The EBNP Family: A Construction Grammar Analysis; 9. The EBNP Family: A Functional Discourse Grammar Analysis; 10. Discussion and Conclusions; 11. References.

About the author

Elnora ten Wolde is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Graz. She has published on of-binominals, pre- and postmodi¿cation.

Product details

• Authors: Elnora ten Wolde, Elnora (Universitat Graz Ten Wolde
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 28.02.2026
• EAN: 9781108926164
• ISBN: 978-1-108-92616-4
• No. of pages: 329
• Series: Studies in English Language
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; English, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Grammar & Punctuation, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Syntax, Grammar, syntax & morphology, Historical & comparative linguistics, Grammar, syntax and morphology, Computational Linguistics, Historical and comparative linguistics, Computational and corpus linguistics