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3.2. Phrasal Constituents 3.2.1. Noun Phrases
3.2. Phrasal Constituents 3.2.1. Noun Phrases
Phrasal Constituents
3.2.1. Noun Phrases.
Noun Phrases (NPs) are traditionally thought of as consisting minimally of a head
noun, together with any number of NP modifiers (Abney 1987). Typical NP modifiers in
English are: determiners (DET/Det/D); quantifiers (Q) and quantifier phrases (QP);
adjectives (Adj) and adjective phrases (AP); nouns (N) and noun phrases (NP);
adpositions (prepositions P) and adpositional/ prepositional phrases (PP) and clauses
(CP).
3.2.1.1. Determiners
Determiners form a closed class of functional words which have the general
property of not themselves permitting modification. The class of determiners includes:
articles (a, an, the); personal determiners (my, his, her); demonstratives (this, that etc.);
interrogative determiners (which/what); exclamatory determiners (What an idiot!); quality
determiners ( Such an idiot !).
NP
NP
DET
house
DET
my
toy
much
noise
five
balls
DET
almost
two
hours
Adjectives and adjective phrases (AP) are NP modifiers par excellence. Here we
include: general adjectives; ordinal numerals such as first and second; related adjectives
such as next and last; adjectives such as same and other; the whole class of quantifiers.
(i) Adjectives in English are generally positioned between determiners and the head noun,
for example, that first tentative try, a large red apple.
NP
DET
a
Adj
Adj
large
red
N
apple
AP
DET
Adj
PP
Adj
very
proud man
proud
of his success
The type of modification has an influence on the order of the noun head and the
adjective-phrase modifier within the noun phrase. Only pre-modified adjective phrases
pattern with single adjectives occurring before the head noun: a very proud man.
Post-modified adjective phrases must occur after the head: a woman proud of her
children, a woman proud that she has got the job.
NP
DET
N Adj
Conj
S
NP
woman
VP
proud that
N
she
Aux
s en have get
NP
the job
NP
rubber
DET
factory
two-party
committee
PP
P
DET
The
cat
on
DET
NP
the
roof
the
room underneath
(ii) Prepositional phrases in English with thes genitive postposition are premodifiers with
a variety of functions including: the possessor function, e.g. the girls eyes which induces
the so-called definiteness effect: the unique eyes belonging to the girl; the subject
function, e.g. the governments decree that roads should be tested; the object function,
e.g. the boys punishment; the descriptive function, e.g. a womans dress of latest fashion.
DET
NP
PP
DET
NP
PP
NP
N
The
girls
eyes
womans
PP