Syntax,LANE 334, Beginning Syntax/Linda Thomas, Dr. Shadia Banjar,2010.

1. The Noun Phrase RawiaAljehani

2. In the example sentences we have used so far the noun phrases have mainly been simple, consisting of either DET+N or just N. [The dog]chased the girl. [Girls] hate boys. The most meaningful part of a noun phrase is the noun. It is obligatory constituent and is the HEAD of the noun phrase. RawiaAljehani

3. A noun phrase could consist of a PRONOUN Types of pronouns: 1-Personal 2- Indefinite 3-Demonstrative 4-INTERROGATIVE 5-POSSESSIVE 6-REFLEXIVE RawiaAljehani

4. 1-Personal :Personal pronouns refer to specific entities She loves football. it refer to a specific she, and one who we presume the hearer or the reader can identify. Unlike the nouns in noun phrase, some of the personal pronouns have different forms according to their sentence position. the nouns in the following examples are the same in either position: Girls hate boys. Boys hate girls. Compare the above to the following personal pronouns: I hit her She hit me The form of the pronoun changed according to whether it is in subject position or not. RawiaAljehani

5. These are examples of personal pronouns. The personal pronouns are : 1st person singular I/ me 1st personal plural we/ us 2nd person singular you 2nd personal plural you 3rd person singular she / her he / him it 3rd personal plural they / them RawiaAljehani

6. You may remember that one of the tests for categorizing a noun phrase is the ability to replace it with a pronoun. A dog chased that girl Can become : It chased her And Girls hate boys Can become: They hate them RawiaAljehani

7. INDEFINITE: referring to unspecific entities: some , something , anything , anyone, someone. Some like it hot Anything foes Demonstrative : this ,that , these , those This is really pretty That is very ugly RawiaAljehani

8. INTERROGATIVE: who, which, what , whose Who is coming to dinner? POSSESSIVE: mine , yours , hers , ours , yours (plural), theirs The red book is min REFLEXIVE: myself, yourself , herself , himself , itself , ourselves, yourselves, themselves. Ken loves himself RawiaAljehani

9. As is customary we have been marking the presence of a pronoun in tree diagrams. The shorthand version is PRO. for example: RawiaAljehani

11. Constituents which modify the head noun can appear before it or after it.1-Pre-modifiers: those which appear before the head noun. 2-Post-modifiers: those which appear after the head noun. RawiaAljehani

12. Pre-modification Post-modification 1-Prepositional phrase(PP). 2-Relative clause 1- Determiners (DET). 2- Adjective phrases(AP). 3- Genitives. 4- Nouns(N). RawiaAljehani

13. Determiners Determiners are : 1- Indefinite articles: a/an 2- Definite article: The 3- Demonstratives: this, that, these, those. 4-Quantifiers: some, any, each, every, no, etc. 5- possessives: my, your, her, his, its, our, your(plural), their. 6- WH-determiners: whose, what, which. RawiaAljehani

14. Some of the determiners appear to be the same or similar to some of the pronouns listed before (e.g. the demonstratives). Sort out the differences between them in the following examples: 1-some like it hot 2-Some people like it hot. 3-Which is the train to Ipswich? 4-Which train goes to Ipswich? You should have noticed that PRONOUNS appear on their own to form the noun phrase; DETERMINERS appear with a head noun. RawiaAljehani

15. Genitives The possessive determiner can also be realized as a phrase . For example: This boy’s clothes are incredibly dirty. Kate'sbaby is crying . Where there is an NP (this boy, Kate)+’s . These possessive phrases (POSS) or genitives take the sentence position normally occupied by the determiner as in: The Kate's Baby is crying. we will analyze it as a determiner as follows RawiaAljehani

16. S NP VP DET N Vgp {inteans} POSS AUX V TENSE PROG NP N Kate ‘s baby ( pres ) is crying s p RawiaAljehani

17. Adjective Phrases (AP): Adjective Phrases (AP) are also used to pre-modify nouns . We looked briefly at the constitution of adjective phrase earlier .Using the example The dog chased a girl , The dog could also be the fat dog .The adjective fat slots in between the determiner the, and the noun dog,so that the noun phrase is expanded . That is : The dog chased a girl. The fat dog chased a girl. RawiaAljehani

18. An adjective phrase , like any other phrase ,can consist of one or more than one element (e.g. fat, very fat ).Within the NP, the AP has the function of pre-modifying the head. However, when analyzing function we will continue to label only the higher level sentence function of the entire NP , in this case either the dog or the fat dog In the sentences The dog chased a girl. The fat dog chased a girl. at these noun phrases are the subject and the entire noun phrase with or without a pre- modifying adjective phrase is analyzed as such. RawiaAljehani

19. To see how this works, substitute a pronoun for the noun phrase .Using the pronoun it for the subject . The dog Chased a girl The fat dog It P dO S Now in the question arises of how this new –look noun phrase is analyzed in terms of its constituent parts and how it appears on a tree diagram .One possibility is RawiaAljehani

20. S VP NP N Vgp [trans] DET AP NP V AUX A N DET TENSE The fat dog (past) chased a girl a girl dO (31b) The fat dog S (past) chased P RawiaAljehani

21. One of the reasons we had for forming individual constituents into phrases was that they seemed to belong closely together (as with DET and N, for example) . One way we have of testing this is to substitute a pronoun ,as we have just done ,to see what is replaced. In the above example , this showed us that the tree constituents determiner , adjective phrase and noun ,all belong together to form one phrase the noun phrase . RawiaAljehani

22. It is also the case that fat and dog seem to belong together more closely than the and fat or the and dog . Perhaps then the two constituents AP and N from a separate phrasal constituents at a lower level within the NP. We can test this suggestion by using a WH-determiner to question the statement at as follows: Which fat dog chased a girl . That one (=that fat dog.( In the answer, the determiner that replace the determiner which, but the term one replace not just dog, but fat dog. So that three elements which+ fat + dog have been replaced by tow, that + one. RawiaAljehani

23. The need for the determiner remain constant but because the tow elements fat and dog can be replaced by one element (i.g. one), this means that they function together at this level as a single unit or constituent. If tow element function as one constituent, they should have their own exclusive node within the tree. In the above diagram, the elements fat and dog do not have such a node. They are both dominated by the NP node but this is not exclusive since it also includes DET. RawiaAljehani

24. We must therefore create a system which shown not only that the three elements the+ fat+ dog from one constituent (that is, dominated by the NP node), but that the elements also fat + dog form a complete constituent within that larger one. What we can do then is to break the subject noun phrase down as follows: RawiaAljehani

25. Adjective phrases (AP) s NP VP DET ?? VgpNP (trans) AP N AUX V DET N A TENSE The fat dog (past) chased a girl RawiaAljehani

26. This shows us that the entire noun phrase thefat dog is one constituent (replaceable by it) and another constituent, fat+ dog ( replaceable by one). The problem then arises as to what this constituent fat+ dog should be called. It is not a full NP since it does not contain a determiner, neither a noun (N). The constituent has to be given another label. One solution is to use a label from a theory of syntax called X-bar theory and called this constituent N-bar (written N’). the label N’ which will signify that this is an intermediate constituent, smaller than an NP but larger than an N. RawiaAljehani

27. Adjective phrases (AP) RawiaAljehani s NP VP DET N’ VgpNP (trans) AP N AUX V DET N A TENSE The fat dog (past) chased a girl

28. Noun phrases can contain more than one adjective as the earlier example the fat brown dog indicates. That is: (35) The fat brown dog chased a girl. In the same that the dog in example (29a), and the fat dog in example (29b) from one noun phrase, so too dose the fat brown dog, even through it has more constituent parts. Try again the substituention test by replacing the subject noun phrase in (35) with the pronoun it. We now have to work out how to show this noun phrase on the tree diagram and will start by looking at the question: (36) Do you like this fat brown dog or that thin one? Do you understand one in this question to mean dog or brown dog? If you understand it to mean the letter then one is replacing brown+ dog, in which case these tow elements form one unit. again, this unit is smaller than an NP, but larger than an N, so is labelled N’. RawiaAljehani

29. Adjective phrases (AP) This is represented on the tree diagram s NP VP DET N’ VgpN AP N’ V DET N A AP N A The fat brown dog chased a girl RawiaAljehani

30. Rules to remember: adjective phrases (AP) AP (AdvP) +A Function: 1. sC 2. oC e.g. 1.the dog is (quite disgustingly) fat 2. john made is Kate angry OR Function: pre-modifier within NP e.g. The fat brown dog chased a girl RawiaAljehani

31. Nouns Nouns also serve to pre-modify. For example : I bought a new computer game. The noun pre-modify is closely connected to the head noun that the two can almost be considered one word. This close link is illustrated by the fact that when nouns do pre-modify other nouns they always come next to the head noun nothing else can come between them. RawiaAljehani

32. The analysis should reflect the fact that the noun pre-modifier and the head noun are so closely linked. We can do this by including them both under the name N node: S VP NP Vgp [trans] NP POR DET N V AP N A N N I bought a new computer game RawiaAljehani

33. Post-modification As stated before, constituents which modify the head noun can also appear after the noun. Such constituents are Post-modifiers. Here we will look at two ways to post-modify a noun: 1-PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE: e.g. The dog chased the cat with three legs 2-RELATIVE CLAUSE: e.g. The cat which is lying on the mat hates dog RawiaAljehani

34. Prepositional Phrase (PP) We have looked at prepositional phrase (PP) with regard to other functions; as adverbials and as indirect objects. Now we come to a further function; that of post-modifying the head noun in a noun phrase. The dog chased the cat with three legs S PdO RawiaAljehani

35. The dog chased the cat with three legs S P dO Just as an adjective before the noun, the prepositional phrase after the noun is acting to modify the noun by defining or describing it. The prepositional phrase belongs closely to the cat and forms part of the noun phrase. Its function within the noun phrase is to post-modify the head noun; at a higher level, the function of the entire noun phrase (including the prepositional phrase) is direct object of the sentence. We can check that the prepositional phrase forms part of the noun phrase by again substituting pronoun it for the direct object of the sentence . RawiaAljehani

36. The dog chased it. As you can see, it has replaced the entire expression the cat with three leg, not just the cat. Compare this to a sentence where a prepositional phrase is functioning as an adverbial: The dog chased the cat up the tree S P dO A If we use the pronoun it to replace the direct object in this sentence we get: The dog chased it up the tree. Hereithas only replaced the expression the cat. In this example, the cat and up the treeare separate constituent. Rawia Aljehani

37. If we use the pronoun it to replace the direct object in this sentence we get: (45) The dog chased it up the tree. Hereithas only replaced the expression the cat. In this example, the catand up the tree are separate constituent. Another way to check this is to move the direct-object NPs in each example to the subject position (as in the passive): Rawia Aljehani

38. Another way to check this is to move the direct object NPs in each example to the subject position (as in the passive): The cat with three legs was chased (by the dog). It is the determiner and noun(the cat) +the prepositional phrasewhich moves to subject Position thereby function as one unit. The cat was chased up the tree (by the dog). It is only the noun phrase the cat which moves, Leaving The separate PP constituent behind. Rawia Aljehani

39. NP DET PP N NP P AP N A the cat with three legs Rawia Aljehani

40. This though runs into the same type of problem that we had with adjective Phrases in that if we ask the question : Do you prefer this cat with three legs or that one The need for a determiner remains constant but the term one is understood as replacing cat with three legs, not just cat . That phrase cat with three legs must then function at this level as a constituent separate from DET and the tree diagram should show this ,as below : Rawia Aljehani

41. S NP VP Vgptrans] NP DET N DET N V N PP P NP AP N A The dog chased the cat wit three legs Rawia Aljehani

42. The dog chased the cat with three legs . S P dO The intermediate constituent cat with three legs is again labelled N’ to indicate that it is smaller than NP but lager than N. Rawia Aljehani

43. S NP VP DET N Vgp [trans] NP PP DET N NP AUX V P TENSE DET N The dog (past) chased the cat up the tree s P dOA Rawia Aljehani

44. E.g. 1- sally looked up /Sally looked up the chimney . 2- Sue gave a jumper to Oxfam . 3- George is in the garden . 4- Carol put the care in the garage . 5- The children at the pictures . 6-The dog chased the cat with three legs . PP P (+ NP ) Function : 1.A 2. iO 3. sC 4. oC 5. pO 6.post-modifier withen NP. RawiaAljehani