The document discusses the complexity of noun phrases and their structure. It notes that noun phrases can include entire sentences restructured as a single complex subject. It then outlines the four main components of a noun phrase: the head, determiners, premodification (adjectives, participles before the head), and postmodification (clauses, phrases after the head). Various examples are provided to illustrate each component.
2. The complexity of the noun phrase
Noun phrases can be indefinitely complex, because
sentences themselves can be reshaped so as to come
within noun-phrase structure.
For example, the following simple and complex
sentences (1a) – (1e) can be re-expressed as one simple
sentence (2) with a very complex noun phrase as
subject.
3. The complexity of the noun phrase
(1) (a) That girl is Angela Hunt.
(b) That girl is tall.
(c) That girl was standing in the corner.
(d) You waved to that girl when you entered.
(e) That girl became angry because you waved to her.
(2) That tall girl standing in the corner who
became angry because you waved to her when
you entered is Angela Hunt.
4. The complexity of the noun phrase
The sentence (2) has introduced many changes:
the suppression all or part of the verbs in (1b) and
(1c) (different in tense and aspect);
the complement tall in (1b) is put before the noun
girl;
the replacement of that girl in (1e) by who.
5. The structure of the noun phrase
(3) Gustav Husak stepped down as party chief.
(4) The old man stepped down as party chief.
(5) He stepped down as party chief.
(6) Gustav Husak, 74, who restored
Czechoslovakia to Communist orthodoxy after
the brief enlightenment of the 1968 Prague
Spring, stepped down as party chief.
Noun phrases – can be realized as names, nouns
or pronouns.
6. The structure of the noun phrase
In describing noun phrases, we distinguish 4
components:
(I) The head – around which the other
components cluster and which dictates concord
(i.e. subject-verb agreement) and other kinds of
congruence with the rest of the sentence outside
the noun phrase:
(7) That tall girl standing in the corner… is …
(8) Those tall girls standing in the corner… are …
(9) He addressed that tall girl standing in the
corner.
7. The structure of the noun phrase
(II) The determiner – its role is to determine the kind of
reference of the noun phrase. We distinguish 3 classes of
determiners, set up on the basis of their position in the
noun phrase in relation to each other:
Central determiners: the, a, zero; demonstratives (this,
that, these, those); possessives (my, our, your, his, her, its,
their); wh-determiners which, whose, whichever, whatever,
whosever, whether as relatives, indefinite relatives or
interrogatives; the negative determiner no; universal
determiners every, each; the nonassertive dual determiner
either; the negative dual determiner neither; determiners
that cooccur only with uncountable nouns and plural
countable nouns (some, any, enough).
8. The structure of the noun phrase
Predeterminers – form a class in generally being
mutually exclusive, preceding the central determiners
with which they can cooccur, and in having to do with
quantification. There are two subsets: (a) all, both,
half; (b) the multipliers (twice, double, three times,
once, etc.)
9. The structure of the noun phrase
Postdeterminers – take their place immediately
after determiners . They fall into two classes: (a)
ordinals (first, fourth, last, other, etc.); (b) quantifiers
(seven, ninety, many, few, plenty of, a lot of, little, etc.)
10. The structure of the noun phrase
(III) The premodification – comprises all the items
placed before the head and after the determiner. Most
common premodifiers are adjectives, participles and
nouns.
11. The structure of the noun phrase
There are four premodifier slots:
1. Central position – central adjectives. They can occur both
predicatively and attributively, they can be intensified by
very, and they are gradable.
2. Precentral position – peripheral, nongradable adjectives
that are most typically intensifiers such as entire, certain,
complete.
3. Postcentral position – participles and colour adjectives,
retired, sleeping, red, pink.
4. Prehead position – the position nearest to the head,
contains the least adjectival and the most nominal items
(denominal adjectives Scottish, statistical, political).
Example:
(10) certain rich American producers
12. The structure of the noun phrase
(IV) The postmodification – comprises all the items
placed after the head: prepositional phrases, nonfinite
clauses, relative clauses, postposed adjectives, adverb
phrases, apposition.
13. Premodification
(a) ADJECTIVE:
(11) I visited his delightful cottage.
(b) PARTICIPLE:
(12) I visited his crumbling cottage. (-ing participle)
(13) I visited his completed cottage. (-ed participle)
(c) NOUN:
(14) I visited his country cottage.
(d) ADVERB:
(15) I visited his far-away cottage.
(e) CLAUSE:
(16) Sotheby’s is selling off Elton’s effects in a four-day,
2000-lot, you’ve-seen-the-catalogue, now-wear-the-T-
shirt sale that kicks off the autumn saleroom season.
14. The grammatical status of the
genitive
As determiner – for the most part, genitives function
exactly like central definite determiners and thus preclude
the co-occurrence of other determiners:
(17) (a) a new briefcase
(b) the new briefcase (*a the new briefcase)
(c) this new briefcase (*the this new briefcase)
(d) Joan’s new briefcase(*the Joan’s new briefcase)
This equally applies when the genitive is a phrase
incorporating its own determiner:
(18) my cousin’s new briefcase ≠ my new briefcase
(19) my handsome cousin’s new briefcase
15. The grammatical status of the
genitive
The items preceding the genitive relate to that genitive:
(20) that old gentleman’s son = ‘the son of that old
gentleman’; ≠ ‘that son of the old gentleman’
Exception – in cases where the preceding item is
predeterminer, since the predeterminer may relate either
to the genitive noun or to the noun that follows it:
(21) We attributed both the girls’ success to their hard
work. (‘the success of both the girls’)
(22) Both the girl’s parents were present. (‘both the
parents of the girl’)
16. The grammatical status of the
genitive
As modifier – when the genitive is used
descriptively, it functions as a premodifier.
Determiners in such noun phrases usually relate not
to the genitive but to the noun following it:
(23) They attend a women’s university in Kyoto. (‘*a
women’)
So also, other modifying items in the noun phrase
relate to the noun following the genitive:
(24) She lives in a quaint old shepherd's cottage. (it
is probably the cottage that is quaint and old, not the
shepherd)
17. Postmodification
(a) RELATIVE CLAUSE:
(25) Teachers who go on strike will pay dearly for
deserting their classrooms. (RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE)
(26) The editor of the Hindu, Mr N. Ram, who
had flown specially from Madras, urged the
president to set Mr Jeyaraj free. (NONRESTRICTIVE RELATIVE
CLAUSE)
(b) NONFINITE CLAUSES:
-ing PARTICIPLE CLAUSES:
(27) Doctors switched off the machine keeping baby
Alexander Davies alive. (-ing PARTICIPLE CLAUSE)
18. Postmodification
-ed PARTICIPLE CLAUSES:
(28) Police were led to the spot by a man already
charged with abducting and threatening to
kill an 18-year-old slaughterhouse worker. (-ed
PARTICIPLE CLAUSE)
INFINITIVE CLAUSES:
(29) which will be removed as part of new arms
deal to be signed in Washington
19. Postmodification
(c) PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES:
(30) Since his arrival at Anfield from Watford
for a fee of £ 900, 000, John Barnes has captured
the imagination of supporters...
(d) POSTPOSED ADJECTIVE PHRASES:
(31) the city would surely have been packed with
volunteers, art historians and fund raisers
anxious to save a cultural heritage they felt
they shared
20. Postmodification
(e) ADVERB PHRASES:
(32) The road back was dense with traffic.
(f) APPOSITION:
Two or more structures are in apposition when they
have identity of reference. Apposition can be
expressed by:
Noun phrases:
(33) Mr Simpson, the vicar of Barmston, said last
night:...
21. Postmodification
Nominal that-clauses:
(34) Mikhail Gorbachev’s new wave rolled on
yesterday with the promise that Russia would stop
pushing around her Iron Curtain neighbours.
Nonfinite clauses:
(35) His only interest in life, playing football, has
brought him many friends.
(36) Mr Gorbachev’s decision to call on the Prime
Minister on the eve of the historic Washington
summit is seen in Whitehall as...