Analysis On The Usage And Features Of "Noun+Noun" Sequence

Noun + noun sequence is a frequently encountered construction in natural language processing, and it carries dense information. However, different registers hold different features of noun + noun sequence. Therefore, it is very necessary to master the features in different registers well in order to get the information from the texts correctly. In this thesis, noun + noun sequences in JDEST and BROWN corpora are investigated to identify the usage and features of noun + noun sequences in EST register, that is English for Science and Technology, compared with general English register. This research is based on the traditional grammatical theory and corpus study with the assistance of statistical package and computer programs. In the course of investigation, it finds that there are much more noun + noun sequences in JDEST corpus and their distributions and compositions are quite different as well. In addition, the frequencies of noun + noun sequences, noun premodifiers and head nouns are obtained and analyzed;then, noun + noun sequences with modifiers of plural form and noun + noun sequences with multiple nouns are analyzed respectively. In the end, the semantic relationships expressed by noun + noun sequences are analyzed and classified accordingly. After the above analysis, the features of noun + noun sequences in EST register compared with general English register are obtained.