Noun Phrase Formation in Business Letter Writing in English

Abstract

The communicative functions and linguistic forms of nouns and noun phrases in letter writing in English reveal the linguistic and non-linguistic implications in the Sri Lankan English Language Teaching and English Language Learning context.This is a case study of the texts produced by the students from Tamil and Sinhala language communities of Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka. This research describes the structural and functional types the respondents used, their quantity, quality and their distinct features from the universal types and functions. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. The findings distinguish the universal patterns from the local patterns typical of a non-native ESL learning context. It finds out the constitution of the components of the noun phrases, pre- and post-modifiers, the embedded structure of the NPs within other phrases and clauses and vice versa, and, functionally, the themes of the discourse, the subject, object and the predicative complements. The learner competence in the use and types of nouns, nominalization, the distinction between nouns and the rest of the linguistic units, within their types and within their functions, comparative use of abstract ideas over the concrete actions in the NPs are identified and analyzed for logical and pragmatic relations