the structure of noun phrases in english

7/28/2019 The Structure of Noun Phrases in English

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THE STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASES IN ENGLISH: HEADS, DETERMINERS AND MODIFIERS

Abstract:

S (Sentence) = NP (Subject Group) + VP (Predicate Group)

Constituents of a NP = Determiners + Premodifiers + Head Noun + PostModifiers

Determiners: specific/general; specified/non-specified; predeterminers/central determiners/postdeterminers

Modifiers: Premodifiers: quantifiers(indefinite pronouns) / qualifiers (adjectives)

Postmodifiers

Heads: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives

THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

The smallest sentence unit consists of: NP + VP

The NP has the syntactic function of subject, and has the pattern: DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIERS + HEAD

NOUN + POSTMODIFIERS

The VP has the syntactic function of predicate, and has the pattern: VERB (auxiliary / operator) +

PREDICATION (OBJECT: DO, IO, PIO, PO) / COMPLEMENT (SC / OC) / ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS

(Adverbial Clauses)

e.g. His good friend gave him a nice present on his birthday.

NP = his good friend

VP =gave him a nice present on his birthday

Verb =gave

Objects = him (IO); a nice present(DO)

Adverbial Modifier = on his birthday

THE SUBJECT GROUP (THE NOUN PHRASE).

The Subject Group consists of the noun or noun equivalents (e.g. pronouns, numerals) plus attributes. The SubjectGroup is also called the Noun Phrase (NP) and has the syntactic function of Subject.

The subject, or NP (in English grammar):

-typically precedes the main verb in a sentence and is most closely related to it.-determines Concord

-refers to something about which a statement or assertion is made in the rest of the sentence.

That part of the sentence containing the verb or Verb Group (VP) and which may include Objects, Complements, or

Adverbials) is known as the Predicate (syntactic function). The predicate is that part of the sentence which predicates

something of the subject. For example:

Subject Predicate

The woman smiled.

Fish is good for you.

DEFINITION

The term phrase is used to mean group(s) of words e.g. the studentor single words, e.g.Henry, they.

The Noun Phrase (NP) is a word or group of words with a noun or a noun substitute (pronoun or numeral) as its head

and functioning like a noun in a sentence.

CHARACTERISTICS

Its function is equivalent to that of a noun, e.g.Living alone in the sentence Living alone has its advantages.

The NP can consist of a single noun or pronoun, or of a noun or pronoun with modifiers, e.g. Henry, the assignment,

happiness, he, it, somebody, the white iron gate of the house, the assignment which Henry had to write, he who runs, etc.

Besides nouns as heads (Mary, staff, friend, present, word), occasionally we use pronouns and adjectives as heads of NPs

e.g. One of the worst(pronoun as head); the blue of his eyes (adjective as head).

In some Traditional Grammars, a Participial or Infinitive phrase which could be replaced by a noun or pronoun,

for example, the participial phrase mowing the lawn in:

George just hates mowing the lawn.


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could be replaced by it:

George just hates it.

SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS of NOUN PHRASES

Noun phrases may function:

as subject of a sentence:

e.g. Mary looked at the boy attentively.

The red dress on the bed is hers.

as object:

e.g. Have you seen these Romanian paintings?

as subject complement:

e.g. He is one of the worst candidates.

as object complement:

e.g. They elected him President of the company.

as object of a preposition:

e.g. She left without another word.

as adverbial modifier:

e.g. I wrote to him last month.

as premodifier:

e.g. This is the Queen of Englands Palace.

as postmodifier:

e.g. It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great American romancer.

as free modifier:

e.g. A professional man, he retired when his wife died. He felt helpless, a spectator who had enough troubles of his own.

CONSTITUENTS (of a NP): DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIERS + HEAD NOUN + POSTMODIFIERS

A Deteminer (Det) is a word which is used with a noun, and which limits the meaning of the noun in some way. For

example, in English the following words can be used as determiners:

ARTICLES, e.g. apencil, the gardenDEMONSTRATIVES, e.g. this box, that car

POSSESSIVES, e.g. her house, my bicycle

QUANTIFIERS, e.g.some milk, many people

NUMERALS, e.g. the first day, three chairs.

The Head is the central part of a phrase. Other elements in the phrase are in some grammatical or semantic relationshipto the head. For example, in the English NP: the fat lady in the floral dress the noun lady is the head of the phrase.

A Modifier is a word or group of words which gives further information about (modifies) another word or group of

words (the Head).

Modification may occur in a NP, a VP, an AP, an AdvP, etc.

Modifiers before the head are called premodifiers, for example expensive in this expensive camera.

Modifiers after the head are called postmodifiers, for example with a stumpy tail in The cat with a stumpy (short and

thick) tail.A Constituent is a linguistic unit, (usually in sentence analysis) which is part of a larger construction.


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The Constituents of a NP are:

Determiner + Premodifier + Noun Head + Postmodifier

e.g. The nice lady in grey

the = determiner

nice = premodifier

lady = noun head

in grey = postmodifier

Determiners can be specified or non-specified

e.g. The students are good.Students are good.

Premodifiers can be quantifiers or qualifiers.

e.g. The two beautiful women

two = quantifier

beautiful= qualifier

A Qualifier is, in Traditional Grammar, any linguistic unit (e.g. an adjective, a phrase, or a clause) that is part of a Noun

Phrase and gives added information about the noun.

For example, her, expensive,andfromParis are qualifiers in the NP: her expensive blouse from Paris.

In Hallidays Functional Grammar, a qualifier is any linguistic unit that is part of a group, gives added information

about the Head of the group, and follows the head.

For example,from Paris is a qualifier in the noun group her expensive blouse from Paris.

A Quantifier is a word or phrase which is used with a noun, and which shows quantity. Some quantifiers in English are:

many, few, little, several, much, a lot of, plenty of, a piece of, a loaf of, three kilograms of, etc.

DETERMINERS

A determiner / a determinative is a word used in front of a noun and before any adjectives in the phrase to indicate

whether you are referring to a specific thing or just to something of a particular type. It may function as an adjunct word(a. modifying word or phrase depending on some other word or phrase; b. an element of clause structure with adverbial

function. in a noun phrase)

e.g. all the day

three whole years

enough trouble either arm

There are two types of determiners: specific and general.

Specific determiners are used to help to identify persons or things, when the person you are talking to will know

which person or thing you are referring to. They are:

articles: a / an, the

possessive determiners: my, your, his, her, our, your, their.

demonstrative determiners: this, that, these, those.

e.g. The man began to run towards the boy.

e.g. Id been waiting a long time to park my car.

e.g. Young people dont like these operas.

We cannot put two determiners from any group a, b, c together, e.g. a / my / this/ book.General determiners (most of them quantifiers) say how much or how many we are talking about. They are used

when you are mentioning people or things for the first time, or talking about them generally without saying exactly which

ones you mean. They are:

Some, any, no

Each, every, either, neither

Much, many, more, most

Little, less, least

A few, fewer, fewest

Enough, several

All, both, half


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What, whatever, which, whichever

One, two, three, etc., other

e.g. There were several reasons for this.

You can stop at any time you like.

There was a man in the lift.

We can put together two general determiners if the combination makes sense,

e.g. We meet every few days.

Have you got any more coffee?

Determiners usually precede the noun they determine, but we do not use them in random order. According to that

criterion, we identify 3 (three) groups of determiners: predeterminers, central determiners, postdeterminers.

Predeterminers

e.g. some quantifiers: all, both, half

multipliers: once, twice, double, etc.

intensifiers:such, what.

Central determiners (the most important group)

e.g. articles: a, an, the

demonstratives: this, that, these, those

possessives: my, your, his, her , our, their

some quantifiers;some, any, no, etc.

wh-determiners: what, which, whose

Not all predeterminers can be used with all central determiners for semantic reasons. But where we use two ormore determiners together, the order is as follows:

Predeterminer + Central + Noun

e.g. all thatyear

both these girls

half the distance

just herappearance

only theprizePredeterminer + of + Central Determiner + Noun (Countable Nouns)

e.g. each of these girls

enough of his money

a large number of books

either of the filmsPredeterminer(s) + of + Central Determiner + Noun (Countable Nouns)

e.g. a few more of those cakes

plenty more of our books

two or three more of the teachers

any more of my brothers

Central + Postdeterminer + Noun

e.g. the other side

the third time

her two hands

the same thing

Predeterminer + Central Determiner + Postdeterminer(s) + Noun (less frequently)

e.g. all these six boysonly the first two days

half my books

all the other days

MODIFIERS

A modifier is a word or group of words which comes in front of a noun and adds information about the thing which the

noun refers to. They usually stand between any determiners and the head in a NP, making its meaning more precise:

e.g. the two leading social orders

the two = determiners

leading social= premodifiers


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orders = head

Modification is a structure and it may be described in terms of the arrangements of the units of which it is

composed:

PREMODIFIER + NOUN HEAD + POSTMODIFIER

A premodifier (quantifier or qualifier) is a unit (a word, phrase, or sometimes a clause) that is placed between

the determiner(s) and the noun head (unless it is one of the degree modifiers of a modifier):

e.g. a very interesting book

Premodifiers (determiners and pronouns) are also called quantifiers because they show quantity or amount, e.g. all,

both, each, half, every, neither, nor, no one; they are also called qualifiers because they show quality, e.g. beautiful,gorgeous, ugly, interesting. A postmodifier is a unit (a word, a phrase, or a clause) immediately following the noun head, giving more precise

meaning to the head. Postmodification is also called noun complementation, i.e. these postmodifiers, mostly abstrac

nouns, are complements that complete the meaning of the head.

e.g. a very interesting book to read.

a man of strong will

Premodifiers can be:

adjectives:

e.g. This is the main part of the course.

A harder mattress often helps with back injuries.

nouns:e.g. The tennis teacher is in the gym.

the music industry

adverbs:

e.g. The overhead projector is there.

the now secretary

compounds:e.g. easy-goingpeople

heavily-built machine

sentences:

e.g. a live-and-let-live individualism

devil-may-care characters

Postmodifiers can be:

adjectives:

e.g. William the Silent

It is the only thing notable

It is the only solution possible. (which is possible)

A road fifty feet wide

The house ablaze (on fire) is next door to ours.

Compare: the stars visible (at a time specified)

the visible stars (at appropriate times)

Notes:The following adjectives: elect(soon to take office),proper(as strictly defined), absent, present, concerned, involved

e.g. the president elect

syntax proper

all the people present

The idea came from the party concerned.

You will be informed about the event by the person available.

In a few fixed phrases: court martial, attorney general, body politic, heir apparent, letters patent, Knight errant, the

Theatre Royal, the Post Laureate, from times immemorial, the Postmaster General, proof positive, chairman elect, heir

presumptive, postmaster general, lords spiritual, lords temporal, astronomer royal.

adverbs:


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e.g. down in the cellar beneath

the long march back

he alone

the crowd outside

a reflection of life today in Romania

The house there is ours.

The discussion afterward was very interesting.

prepositional phrase:

e.g. a man with long hairhis criticism of the project

authors of today

The walls of my room are white.

Look at the wings of this butterfly.

They helped the children of the poor. pile of stones (Partitive Genitive)

a man of tact(Qualitative Genitive)

his angel of a wife (Appositive Genitive)

Well be staying with friends of Joes, (The Double Genitive)

noun (apposition)

Apposition is the use of a word or phrase immediately following another word or phrase and referring to the sameperson or thing.

e.g. Paris, the capital of France

This novel was written by Dickens, the great English writer.

A noun (phrase) in apposition is used to qualify or identify another noun. Noun phrases in apposition are of equal

rank, stand next to each other and refer to the same person or thing.

With the stress upon the apposition, we have: Uncle Tom, Professor Albu, Aunt Mary, My friend Joe, Captain

Cook, The river Thames, etc.clauses (relative and appositive)

e.g. Thats the boy who found it. (relative clause)

The belief is that Michael has been sent to India. (appositive clause)

I bought this dictionary, which has helped me a lot. (relative clause)

The news that he has died is not true. (appositive clause)He was no older than his brother, who had been killed at his side. (relative clause)

Its a question of how to attain it. (appositive clause)

Notes:

The head preceding an appositive clause is always an abstract noun, like: appeal, belief, decision, idea, news, thought,

hope, sign, indication, rumour, doubt, certainty, certitude, likelihood, possibility, probability, evidence, fact, proof.

Appositive clauses are nominal clauses marked off by commas, which have a similar relationship to the preceding noun

head. They may be:

- Thatclauses, e.g. She sent a message that Castor would be out .

- Wh clauses, e.g.Lewis knew what bitterness was in his mind.

- To- Infinitive clauses, e.g.I do not mean to be rude.

Both appositive and relative clauses may start with that. But appositive clauses may not start with which, as relative can

So where which can alternate with that, the clause is likely to be relative and not appositive.e.g. The premature news that this battle was lost caused consternation. (appositive clause)The premature news that / which said the battle was lost caused consternation. (relative clause)

Appositive clauses may be defining and non-defining:

e.g. Mary had a strong belief that her husband intended to leave her. (defining)

Marys belief, that her husband intended to leave her, resulted in reality. (non-defining)

the structure of noun phrases in english

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