If the head of the noun phrase is one of the following pronouns, the adjective phrase occurs after the pronoun. There are several grammatical functions of a noun phrase. Definition a noun phrase is a group of words that does the work of a noun. A noun phrase, or nominal phrase, is a phrase that has a noun or indefinite pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. The head of a phrase is the phrases central element. Gerunds can work alone, or they can be banded together with other words to formulate a gerund phrase. A noun phrase has a noun or pronoun as its headword and can be premodified by an articledeterminer and an adjective.
Our noun phrases worksheets are free to download and easy to access in pdf. To avoid another lecture from michelle on the benefits of vegetarianism was aarons hope for their date at a nice restaurant. What do adjectives and adjective phrases do in english. A subject is a word, phrase or clause which performs the action or acts upon the verb. Grammatical functions of english nouns and noun phrases. The following article defines the ten grammatical functions that nouns and noun phrases perform in the english language. The adjective phrase adjp and adverb phrase advp 2 3. Do your students know a direct object or object complement from a predicate nominative.
The predicate of a clause or sentence is always a verb phrase corinne is trying to decide whether she wants to go to medical school. The opposite of an endocentric phrase is an exocentric phrase. A noun phrase np is a noun or any group of words that can substitute for a noun. A noun phrase modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes a noun or noun phrase.
Here, the noun phrase is the subject of the verb relaxes. Functions of a noun how nouns function in a sentence. What is the syntactic function of the noun phrases above in their respective clauses see text. A noun or a pronoun can be descriptive of another noun or a pronoun. Cow is a common noun countable, but milk is a material noun uncountable. Referent argument external thematic role of nounsadjectives. A noun phrase sometimes called a noun groupnormally has a noun or pronoun as its most important word or headword to identify what kind of entity is being referred to. Like a regular gerund, a gerund phrase always functions as a noun, and can act as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, or predicate nominative in a sentence. For example, the following italicized noun phrases function. Infinitive phrases can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. In the noun phrase acts as the nominative subject of the clause, in as the accusative direct object, in as the dative indirect object, and in, finally, as the complement of a preposition.
Noun phrases can serve as subjects or objects within a clause. Noun phrases populate diverse sentence structures that students must know for further development of grammar and writing skills. A noun phrase does not usually make sense on its own and it is not a sentence. Some noun which are used for expressing length and measurements should always be used in singular form and do not use of after such nouns. The function of noun phrases like any noun, a noun phrase can function as a subject, an object, or a complement within a sentence. It discusses the different forms the nominal phrase can take and their interpretational properties, and investigates.
The nounphrase the expresident of india has been used in apposition with mr. A verb phrase vp is a verb or any group of words that can substitute for a verb. The study is based on samplers of the christine corpus and the susanne corpus in tigersearch software. If the head is removed from the phrase, then so is the meaning. Phrases may function as verbs, nouns, adverbs or adjectives verb phrases. Astudy of the noun phrase in spoken and written english. Clauses and clause elements most of the links in this handout go to the glossary of grammatical terms where you will find more explanationsexamples than can be given in the handout. The function of phrases hypergrammar2 termium plus. To avoid another lecture from michelle on the benefits of vegetarianism functions as a noun because it is the subject of the sentence. This certainly helps one to recognize a noun phrase by means of its role in the. This article is about noun function 10 noun absolutes enjoy your reading. Simply download the grammar ebook understanding the parts of speech.
My dog floyd, who eats too much pizza, has developed pepperoni breath. Download free pdf english books from common useful english phrases at easypacelearning. These lecture notes present the basic principles of phrase structure that apply in english. In sentence 2, the group of words to go home is the object of the verb want and hence it does the work of a noun.
English books for download pdf common useful english phrases. A single word may be a phrase when it is the head of that phrase. What is the syntactic function of the noun phrases above. Noun phrases are very common crosslinguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type noun phrases often function as verb subjects and objects, as predicative expressions and as the complements of prepositions. Adjectives and adjective phrases secondly function as noun phrase modifiers. A relation where one thing is dependent on another for its existence, value, or significance. An introduction jongbok kim and peter sells january 11, 2008 center for the study of language and information. This chapter focuses on the syntactic structure of the noun phrase in chinese.
A phrase is a group of words that act as a part of speech but cannot stand alone as. A noun phrase functions as the subject of a clausesentence. A noun phrase is a phrase that is made up of only a noun, a noun with a determiner, or a noun with a post modifier. A verb phrase consists of a verb, its direct andor indirect objects, and any adverbs, adverb phrases or adverb clauses that modify it. This is to ensure that you do not end up mistakenly stating the grammatical function reserved for an adverbial phrase, for example, as the function of a noun phrase. A particularly important type of verb phrase is the main verb phrase mvp, which is the main verb of the. Definitions, functions, as well as descriptions on noun phrases have much been presented by linguists throughout the world, but few, if any, have touched on. Presentday english noun phrase types including the quantifiers all, whole, both and half. Noun clauses any clause that functions as a noun becomes a noun clause. A4 the interpretation of a noun phrase at lf is done in its highest specifier position. Noun phrase a word or group of words that functions in a sentence as subject, object, or prepositional object. T he pr eposi ti onal p hr as e recognize a prepositional phrase when you see one. Syntactic variation in english quantified noun phrases with all, whole. Quarters is a noun whose meaning is place of residence.
Object of preposition is the last word in a prepositional phrase. The following italicized adjectives are examples of noun phrase modifiers. John is the noun phrase functioning as the subject of the verb. What do nouns and noun phrases do in english grammar. Functions of a noun provides the eight different noun functions so that you can understand how nouns function in a sentence. We start by presenting in some detail the most complex phrase type in english, the noun phrase. There are two inferences that we can draw from this fact. That means that the noun can be in apposition with another noun.
Building trees phrase structure a phrase is a syntactic unit headed by a lexical category such as noun, adjective. At the minimum, a prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause, the object of the preposition. The rest of the phrase, apart from the head, is optional and can be removed without losing the basic meaning. A subject is a word, phrase, or clause that performs the action of or acts upon the verb.
The group of words to go home is therefore a noun phrase. Chapter 6 phrases, clauses, and sentences chapter checkin recognizing phrases identifying independent and subordinate clauses understanding sentences clauses and phrases are the building blocks of sentences. Having done that, we demonstrate that all the other main phrase types, the ap. The sentence could simply have said jamie kicked the ball. I have argued that same performs the role of postdeterminer supplementing the identifiability of the noun phrase referent, which is expressed by the or the. This article identifies the ten functions and describes noun phrases as. A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb. Noun phrases consist of a noun or pronoun and any modifiers, complements, and determiners. The second main function of an adjective phrase is to be a. In addition, nouns can be identified by the presence of signal words such as the word order can also provide clues about nouns. A noun phrase is a group of words that functions in a sentences as a subject.
About this grammar the professional of language the informed reader about glosses naming morphemes about grammars apologies 2. Astudy of the noun phrase in spoken and written english 1 introduction. In sentence 1, the word something is a noun and is the object of the verb want. Again, b is more general, but it does require us to specify when words can function as phrases. Traditional grammarians define a noun as a person, place, thing, or idea.
In each example below, the noun phrase is in bold and the head noun is highlighted. I would like to acknowledge timothy shopen, stuart robinson and matthew dryer for providing helpful comments on several versions of this paper. In this sentence, the phrase the tall tree functions as the subject of the verb tell and is, therefore, a noun phrase. The word apposition means placed side by side or placed parallel to. Pdf on jan 1, 1999, giuliana giusti and others published the functional structure of noun phrases. Here are the commonest grammatical functions of a noun phrase. The simplest noun phrase consists of an article and a head. The group of words in bold in each of the examples below is the noun phrase functioning as the subject of the sentence. As he suggests, a noun phrase may have different functions in a sentence, the typical being the subject and object. A common noun is usually a countable noun but a material noun is an uncountable noun. The semantic function of noun phrases was analyzed based on the excerpts generated by the concordance tool. Some noun gives different meaning when s or es is used with them.
1610 153 902 656 324 784 66 542 20 1010 818 168 1302 1365 1676 1399 320 1267 4 1568 1217 698 186 1446 925 497 1265 961 865 282 10 1155 1171 783 664 488 369