Collins Cobuild English Grammar (214 page)

Some
-ed
adjectives (see
2.77
to
2.93
) carry the meaning of something that has already been completed.

…
finalized
plans. (= plans that have been agreed)
…a previously
exhibited
work of art. (= a work of art that has been shown previously)
…a
closed
case. (= a case belonging to the group of cases that have been solved)
…a recently
completed
project. (= a project that has recently been finished)

adverb +
-ed
participle + adjective + noun + noun (+ noun)

…a
recently developed cost effective food preservation process
.
…a
newly discovered major oil field
.

-ing
adjectives

-ing
adjectives (see
2.63
) are used for describing an effect or a process, or a state that continues over a period of time.

Further changes may well bring
diminishing
returns.
…measures to control the
rising
cost of living.

Using more than four premodifiers makes the noun phrase difficult to understand, especially when this consists only of nouns. For example:

…the
school team game playing area
.

In this case, it would be better to use a prepositional phrase (see
prepositional phrases
below).

…playing areas
for school team games
.

The noun phrase (2): Postmodifying noun phrases

When you need to be more precise about the noun phrase, or to give the reader more information, you can use a relative clause, a participle or infinitive clause, or a prepositional phrase.

To identify a subject clearly, you use a
defining relative clause
introduced by a relative pronoun (see
1.146
to
1.150
). The most common relative pronoun in academic English is
which
:

A magnet is
a device which
strongly attracts certain metals.

reducing the relative clause

The relative clause is often reduced in academic writing. You can reduce the relative clause in the following ways.

leaving out the relative pronoun (when the defining relative clause refers to the object of the sentence).

The hard drive was erased because of the confidential information (which) it contained.

using a participle clause

Participle clauses
reduce the relative clause to either an -ing
participle
or an -ed
participle
.

…one of the hundreds of Internet entrepreneurs (who are)
launching
startups in Palo Alto.
They recommend four to twelve doses (which are)
given
a few days apart.

Other common verbs that are used to reduce the relative clause are
use
,
base
,
cause
,
make
and
concern
.

using an infinitive clause

Infinitive clauses
are less frequent than participle clauses. An infinitive clause often suggests that it is important to do something.

A problem
to watch for
is loosening of the joints at the top of the legs.
(…instead of A problem
which you should
watch for is…)

There are some basic psychological principles
to bear in mind
.
(…instead of There are some basic psychological principles
which you should
bear in mind.)

replacing the relative clause with a prepositional phrase.

When a relative clause contains
have
, you can reduce it to a prepositional phrase using
with
:

Parliament is a national governing body
with
the highest level of legislative power.
(…instead of …a national governing body
which has
the highest level…)

When a relative clause contains
is
+ preposition, you can reduce it to a simple prepositional phrase:

A second central concept (which is)
at
the core of much developmental research is…

adding an identifying noun phrase

You can give further information about a person or thing by using a noun phrase that describes or identifies them or it (see
2.302
).

The Marianas Trench, 11,034 m at its deepest point
, is deeper than the height of Mount Everest.
A quicker alternative, a simple search program
, makes it easier to search the corpus.

This is common when you are introducing or defining acronyms, abbreviations or technical terms.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (
SACN
) has issued a draft report.

non-defining relative clauses

A
non-defining relative clause
is not needed to identify the person, thing or group you are talking about; instead, it gives the reader more information about the subject, or it evaluates or comments on the subject (see
8.85
).

Dark matter,
which may be invisible
for many reasons, has become increasingly important.

The verb phrase

In general, academic English is less concerned with events, and more concerned with what has been learnt from the event. Therefore, the focus of the sentence moves away from the verb phrase to the noun phrase. Verbs are often nominalized (= made into nouns) – see
Nominalization
.

The range of tenses used in academic English is more restricted than in everyday English: simple forms of verbs are used more frequently; progressive forms, the past perfect, and the future perfect are used less often.

The tense you use shows your attitude and other people’s attitude to the subject. For example, it shows whether a piece of research or an idea is still generally accepted or not.

the present simple

The
present simple
is commonly used in the following ways.