Nouns phrase, determinatives and modifiers

Noun Phrase (NP) = a word or a group of words functioning in a sentence exactly like a noun, with a noun or pronoun as a HEAD. A good way to recognise a NP is to ask: Have you heard about...? NP can be a noun or a pronoun alone but it is frequently accompanied by modifiers.

Basic noun phrase is made of a determiner and a head.

Head = the word which is an obligatory member of a phrase and which, standing alone, would have the same grammatical function as the whole phrase. The head noun makes it clear what sort of entity is being referred to (person, animal, thing).

Determiner = a word or phrase which has the function of determination. The determiner specifies the head we are talking about and gives extra information.

Predeterminers = precede central determiners with which they occur, dealing with quantification.

all, both, half, twice, double (half the size, all those guys)

Central determiners

1. Definite (the) and indefinite articles (a,an), often obligatory.

2. Possessive determiners (my, your, his, her…)

3. Demonstrative determiners (this book, these walls)

4. Quantifiers (every book, many books)

Postdeterminers

1. Ordinal numerals (the first book, second).

2. Semi- determiners (the same car, other, former, last, and next)

Predeterminer + central determiner + postdeterminer + HEAD

                                                all                       those                            other                guys

                                                                           

Complex noun phrase is made of a head around which other components cluster.

Premodifiers consists of elements placed before the head.

      Adjectives (that pretty girl)

      Nouns (that collage girl)

      Adverbials (his far away cottage)

      Part sentence (his good-for-nothing son)

Postmodifiers comprise of all items placed after the head.

      Prepositional phrases (The chair by the wall.)

      Non-finite clauses (All the boys playing in the garden)

      Relative clauses (A car which she bought recently).

      Adverbs (the way back)

      Of-genitive (a woman of courage)

The syntactic roles of noun phrases

1. Subject (The girl is beautiful.)

2. Direct object (He saw a fluffy dog.)

3. Indirect object (He gave her a flower.)

4. Prepositional object (The director relies on famous actors. My brain cannot cope with all this.)

6. Subject complement (He became a pop star.)