Page 84 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

70 CHAPTER 4
ers (the five books,Johns five books} and quantifiers by adjectives (e.g., the ten blue books, Mary's/her ten blue books).
In the case of (general/nonspecific) plural nouns (e.g., Researchers investi- gate processes in language learning) or noncount nouns (e.g., Health/honesty is more important than wealth), indefinite articles cannot be used. On the other hand, definite articles are possible in specifically marked contexts, such as
TheresearchersfromtheFamousUniversity ... or Thehealthofthepatient/Thehon- esty of the accountant.... Articles, plural, count, and noncount nouns of all sorts are discussed in detail in chapter 5.
In general, noun phrases are not very complex. In noun phrases with plural main (head) nouns, all elements are optional except of course the main noun, and in noun phrases with singular head nouns, the article or possessive also represent a required element.
THE ORDER OF ELEMENTS IN THE VERB PHRASE
As mentioned, the type of the main verb determines the sentence pattern and itsoptionaland required slots.Mainverbsbelong toseveralclassesthat vary in their prevalence in academic texts.
Biber's, et al. (1999) large corpus analysis of various types of written texts in- dicates that lexical verbs (e.g., walk, sing, talk) are far less common in academic prose than copula be in all its forms. Other verb types common in academic textsare linkingverbs(e.g.,appear, become,seem),intransitiveverbs,and transi- tive verbs that require direct objects (e.g., read a book, write a paper). The follow- ing discussion of the main verb types is organized based on their prevalence in academic prose as identified in various analyses of academic English language corpora (Biber, 1988; Biber et al., 1999; Hyland, 1996; Quirk et al., 1985).
Be-verbs
Copula be main verbs can be followed by nouns and noun phrases, adjec- tives and adjective phrases, or adverbs of time and place (when and where
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