The aim of the present paper is to show the problems in the acquisition of noun phrases with modifiers and to give syntactic structural explanations of the phenomena in English and Hungarian with some references to other languages. A complete analysis and a theoretical deduction are not possible in the scope of the present paper because of the complexity of the topic.

The noun phrase contains one noun or pronoun as head and may contain one or further elements, most frequently a grammatical element, i.e., a determiner, but adjectives, another noun or a clause can also occur as modifiers.

The present paper analyses mainly such modifying elements which are in coordinated or subordinated relation with the modified head, but nominal structures forming semantic units cannot be excluded either.

1. It is very important to distinguish structures containing modifying nouns or adjectives from other nominal structures.

1.1 In the distinction stress plays an important role in both English and Hungarian.
In a nominalised structure forming one syntactic unit when the first element is an adjective, an uninflected noun or, in English, a noun in the genitive, only the first element gets the stress; Whereas in the case of a subordinated structure both elements get the stress and the modifying, subordinating part has a secondary one:
a ‘blackbird – egy feketerigó (a species of birds)
a ,black ‘bird – egy ,fekete ‘madár (‘a bird,whose colour is black’)
a ‘bird’s nest – egy ‘madárfészek
a ,bird’s ‘nest – egy madár fészke

1.2 In English the word order plays a very important role because of the lack of case endings, therefore, between two uninflected nouns the first is the “permanent” modifier of the second one:
a stonewall – egy kőfal
a flower garden – egy virágoskert
but:
a garden flower – egy kertivirág
In the above cases we speak about compound words in English, even if they are not written as one word, while in Hungarian compound words the first element is a noun or an adjective derived from the noun with the derivational suffixes: -i, or –s/-es/-os/-ös respectively:
a stone wall – kőfal
a garden flower – egy kertivirág
a ring finger – gyűrűs ujj
a vegetable/flower/fruit garden – zöldséges-/virágos-/gyümölcsöskert

1.3 Lees (1960:180) gives the typical features of the two groups as follows:
a/ Adjectives functioning as modifiers can be separated from the modified noun by another language element, which can be another adjective, while it is not possible in the case of compounds:
a famous actor – a famous English actor
híres színész – híres angol színész
but:
dramatic actor – *dramatic English actor
drámaiszínész – *drámai angol színész

The correct word forms are:
an English dramatic actor
egy angol drámaiszínész
In the modified noun phrase the new element modifies the head noun, while in the compound structure it refers to the whole structure.
It is important to remark that, for instance, in Polish “the adjective functioning as an attributive is usually in pronominal position, while in compounds the adjective is in postnominal position” (W. Marton, 1970:62).
ładna kurtyna (nice curtain, szép függöny)
but:
groch zielony (green peas, zöldborsó)
b/ Adjectives in attributive function can be preceded by an intensifier, while compounds do not allow it:
a nice curtain – a very nice curtain
egy szép függöny – egy nagyon szép függöny
but:
green peas – *very green peas
zöldborsó – *nagyon zöldborsó
c/ Adjectives in attributive function can be duplicated, while this phenomenon is impossible in the case of compounds:
Once upon a time there was a thick, thick forest. – Egyszer volt egy sűrű, sűrű erdő.
but:
*electric, electric current
*elektromos, elektromos áram

2. The above section of the paper analysed noun phrases containing only one attribute. But more than one attributes may occur in a phrase, and their order can cause problems in the language acquisition. In theory the number of attributes is unlimited; in practice more than four attributive elements make the structure clumsy. In the case of attributive adjectives the pronominal position is the more frequent in English, Hungarian and also in Polish.

2.1 The coordinated adjectives of the same type modify the head noun equally and their order is interchangeable:
a nice, tall, slim girl / a slim, nice, tall girl/ a tall, slim, nice girl;
egy kedves, magas, karcsú lány/ egy karcsú, kedves, magas lány/
egy magas, karcsú, kedves lány;
miła, rosła, zgrabna dzewczyna/ rosła, miła, zgrabna dzewczyna/
zgrabna,rosła, miła dziewczyna

2.2 Subordinated adjectives have different semantics. (Generally, we distinguish adjectives referring to age, colour, size, shape, material, nationality, etc.) Their order is fixed since the leftmost adjective modifies the whole group of elements following it on the right:
an old, brown, round wooden table
egy régi, barna kerek faasztal
The adjective expressing the most characteristic, perhaps permanent feature stands nearest to the modified noun both in English and Hungarian. Either something is made of wood or not.
If something is round, then it cannot be square. The colour is given, till it is repainted. Its age is changing through time. The table once was new.
In German the word order is similar:
der alte, braune, runde Holztisch
But in French more attributes have postposition, including some adjectives. So the following structure can be found:
la brune table ronde, en bois
The situation is similar in the following series of examples: somebody’s nationality is given. His height is relative. His age is changing.
a young, tall, English boy
egy fiatal, magas angol fiú
ein junger, hoher, englischer Knabe
un jeune, haut garçon d’Angleterre

3. Similarly to adjectives, participles are also frequent in attributive function. When the present or past participle alone functions as an attribute it has prenominal position in both English and Hungarian:
a sleeping child – egy alvó gyermek
a frightened child – egy megrémült gyermek
But there is a word order change in English if the participles functioning as attribute have their own complements:
a child sleeping next door – a szomszéd szobában alvó gyermek
a child frightened by the noise – egy zajtól megrémült gyermek
As it can be seen the attribute remains in prenominal position in Hungarian, while it occurs in postnominal position in English.

4. Non-finite verbs having nominal features such as the infinitive, and the gerund occurring in English can also function as an attribute.

4.1 The gerund as an attribute occurs in prenominal position and after a preposition as a postmodifier, but in both cases it forms a permanent nominal structure with the head noun, in opposition to the present participle, whereas in Hungarian, where the gerund as a verb form does not exist, it occurs as a compound noun:
a sleeping child (pr.part.) is ‘a child who is sleeping’ – az alvó gyermek
but:
a sleeping bag (gerund) is not *‘bag which is sleeping’ but ‘a bag used for
sleeping’ – hálózsák
similarly:
a reading man is ‘a man who is reading’ – olvasó férfi
but:
a reading lamp is ‘a lamp used for reading’ – olvasólámpa
In postnominal position:
an apple for cooking – főzőalma, rétesalma
pieces of advice on slimming – fogyókúrás tanácsok

4.2. The infinitive – in both active and passive voices – can occur only in postnominal position in English, while in Hungarian a present participal form expressing ‘future action’ occurs in prenominal position:
the years to come – az eljövendő évek
the poor to help – a segítendő szegények
the questions to be answered – a megválaszolandó kérdések
the garbage/litter to be taken – az elviendő szemét
The above-given structural and word-order differences can be sources of serious errors for Hungarians in the acquisition of English.

5.The part of the paper below will deal with relative clauses.
Though in both languages under analysis the subordinated attributive clauses containing a finite verb, called relative clauses, can be found, their proper use causes difficulties for Hungarians learning English.
Relative clauses are always in postnominal positions in both English and Hungarian (also this is true for Polish, Russian, German and French).

In Hungarian the relation of the clauses is double marked: in the main clause an anticipatory grammatical element – a demonstrative – occurs, while the relative clause starts with a relative pronoun. In English an anticipatory /cataphoric element in the main clause cannot be found. The relative pronoun has a double function: on the one hand it connects the subordinated clause to an element in the main clause, on the other hand it fulfils a syntactic function (e.g., subject, object) in the subordinate clause.
The majority of relative clauses are anaphoric; their cataphoric usage is rarer. Several aspects must be considered when deciding which relative pronoun should occur in the clause.
The most important ones are as follows:
a/ The subordinate clause is restrictive, therefore, obligatory or non-restrictive, therefore, optional;
b/ The pronoun refers to a noun with animate or inanimate reference or to a whole clause;
c/ What syntactic function the pronoun fulfils in the sub-clause.

5.1 Since without the restrictive relative clause the sentence is not interpretable or gets another meaning, the two clauses form one intonation unit and, in English, the pronouns who, which and that and, in Hungarian, the pronouns aki and amely occur. The pronoun that refers to both animate and inanimate references and if it does not function as subject in the sub-clause it can be omitted and it is realised as a zero (O) pronoun.
The book which/that/O I am looking for is not available.
A könyv, amelyet keresek, nem kapható.
The boy who/whom/that/O I met yesterday was very clever.
A fiú akivel tegnap találkoztam nagyon értelmes.

5.2 The non-restrictive relative clause gives extra information, without which the sentence is still meaningful. It has an independent intonation unit, before and after which a pause is kept in speech. In English who and which, in Hungarian aki and amely, may occur. The pronoun that must not be used in this type and, therefore, logically the zero (O) cannot occur either.
“Pride and Prejudice”, which was written by Jane Austin, is a well-known novel.
“Büszkeség és balítélet”, amelyet Jane Austin írt, jól ismert regény.
Abraham Lincoln, who was President of the US, was murdered in a theatre.
Abraham Lincolnt, aki az Egyesült Államok elnöke volt, egy színházban ölték meg.

5.3 It must be mentioned that the relative pronoun whose in contrast to the interrogative pronoun whose can have both animate and inanimate references:
the girl whose dress
the house whose roof or the house the roof of which
(The latter one is used more rarely in spoken language.)

5.4 The use of the relative pronoun what causes a lot of problems for Hungarians. They use it with an indefinite anaphoric reference instead of cataphoric reference with the meaning ‘that which’:
What upsets me most is his manners.
Ami legjobban bosszant az a modora.

6. The above-given rules and my teaching experiences have been supported by a survey, though it cannot be considered representative. In the survey the participants were asked to complete clauses with the appropriate relative pronouns. They also had to translate Hungarian noun phrases with non-finite attributes on the one hand and, on the other hand, with several attributes of different types into the target language.

6.1 In the case of relative clauses the incorrect usage of the relative pronouns what and that respectively were frequent; the under-use of the latter (i.e., that) was characteristic.

6.2 In the case of different adjectives, most problems occurred with those referring to material entities, since instead of their use postnominal subclauses were favoured.

6.3 Most errors occurred in the translation of noun phrases with attributive clauses containing non-finite verbs with their own complements. In nearly all cases the participants used structures with incorrect word order or they avoided the problem and instead of the expected postnominal non-finite structures they used finite relative clauses.
The majority of the problems occurring is valid in English-Hungarian relations since in German and French the word order is different from that of Hungarian and, therefore, in the case of these languages other problems occur in the acquisition of English structures.

The aim of this paper has been to illustrate the importance of contrastive analyses, because the conclusions drawn from knowing the differences between different languages can help in language acquisition and in the making of proper translations.

Bibliography

Lees, R.B. 1960. The Grammar of English Nominalisation. Bloomington: Indiana University.
Marton, W.1970. English and Polish Nominal Compounds. Studia Anglica Posnanesia
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Fedorowicz-Bacz, B.1974. Adjectives in Nominal Phrases. PSICL 2:255-75.
Keszler, B. 2000. Magyar Grammatika. Budapest: Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum,S., Leech,G., Svartvik, J. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary English.
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