1.

Introduction
This work looks into the concept and definition of Noun phrase. This work, therefore, aims to
discuss the structure of noun phrases. noun phrases can be pronouns, numerals or head nouns
with different determiners including pre-determiners.
The group brought these items in details and drew some phrase markers in order to keep crystal
and clear. Meanwhile it is important to say that Structurally speaking, in the first place, basic
noun phrases consist of pronouns, numerals or nouns with articles (indefinite, definite or zero) or
nouns with other closed-system items that occur before the noun head including pre-determiners
(pre-det), determiners (det.) and post-determiners (post-det.).
In order to accomplish this work, the group consulted, mainly, Burton Roberts (2011) and the
internet. Besides the aforementioned sources, the group consulted QUIRK et all (1985).

2. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASE (NP)

According to QUIRK et all (1985:s/p) Noun phrases are the most common playing various
syntactic functions in the sentence and clause structure: subject, object and complement (of
various kinds), apposition and attribute. They are used to refer to things that people want to talk
about: people, objects, concepts, processes and all kind of entities.
2.1. Determiners and Nominal (DET and NOM)
Burton Roberts (2011:141) says that In the basic case the two immediate constituent of a noun
phrase (NP) are DET and NOM (determiner and nominal). Here are two examples to
demonstrate:
a)

NP

b)

NP

DET

NOM

DET

ART

ART

AP

the

The

clowns

NOM
N
clowns

sad
Burton Roberts (2011:142) DET always has NOM as its sister. DET determines NOM. NOM
is a level of NP structure INTERMEDIATE between the PHRASAL (NP) level and the
LEXICAL (N) level. In the example B sad is a modifier of the head noun. All modifiers of the
head noun fall under NOM. Since modifiers are optional, it follows that NOM can consist just
of N, as in the example B.
2.1.1. Determiners
(Idem) Determiners are a fixed set of grammatical words which give information relating to
definiteness and indefiniteness (roughly, whether the thing referred to by the NP is familiar to
both speaker and hearer or not) and information about quantity and proportion.
The head noun of a noun phrase is the central element and decisive factor in performing the
syntactic functions of the whole noun phrase. It can be singular count noun such as book,
plural noun books or mass noun like ink.

Determiners can be indefinite article a and an; definite article the; or zero article as in the
noun phrase books. The use of articles is not the only possibility for determining nouns, but
we can use such words as no, what, this, some, every, each and either before the
head noun like book. These words, also called determiners, forming a set of closed-system, are
mutually exclusive with each other, i.e. there cannot be more than one occurring before the
head. Both a the book and a some book are ungrammatical. Determiners are in a choice
relation, that is they occur one instead of another. In this respect, they are unlike all, many,
nice, which are in a chain relation, occurring one after another as in:
All the many nice pictures are collected.
The articles are central to the class of determiners in that they have no function independent of
the noun they precede. Other determiners like some are also independent pronouns:
A: I want the money.
B: Here is the. (ungrammatical)
B: Here is some. (grammatical)
The basic determiners are the articles (ART): the DEFINITE ARTICLE the and the
INDEFINITE ARTICLE a (n). The articles are basic in the sense that they provide a
touchstone as to what counts as a determiner. Any expression that occupies the same position in
NP structure as an article counts as a determiner.
Well, if a word can appear in sequence with an article put another way, if a word can co
occur with an article in an NP, then that must be analysed as occupying a different position; it
cannot be the determiner.
There is a small set of words which perform the same function as the articles:
2.2. DEMONSTRATIVES (DEM): this, that, these, those.
Swan (1980:494 497) Conventions of Written English PRONOUNS that point to
specific things: this, that, these, and those, as in This is an apple, Those are boys, or Take
these to the clerk. The same words are used as demonstrative ADJECTIVES when they modify
NOUNS or pronouns: this apple, those boys.
e.g. those trampolines

NP
DET
DEM
Those

2.3. Certain QUANTIFIERS (Q):

NOM
N
trampolines

Some, any, no, each, every, either, and neither

All known human languages make use of quantification (Wiese 2004). For example, in English:
Every glass in my recent order was chipped.
Some of the people standing across the river have white armbands.
Most of the people I talked to didn't have a clue who the candidates were.
A lot of people are smart.
The words in italics are quantifiers. There exists no simple way of reformulating any one of these
expressions as a conjunction or disjunction of sentences, each a simple predicate of an individual
such as That wine glass was chipped. These examples also suggest that the construction of
quantified expressions in natural language can be syntactically very complicated.
E.g. some mistake

NP
DET

NOM

Some

2.4.

mistake

POSSESSIVES (POSS): My, your, its, her, his, our, their, johns.

Apart from using some pronouns to express possession of anything, the possessive form of an
English noun, or more generally a noun phrase, made by suffixing a morpheme which is
represented orthographically as 's (the letter s preceded by an apostrophe).
Note the distinction from the plural in nouns whose plural is irregular: man's vs. men, wife's vs.
wives, etc. In the case of plural nouns ending in -s, the possessive is indicated in writing just by
adding an apostrophe, and is not indicated in the pronunciation (In the case of singular nouns
ending

in

-s,

often

just

the

apostrophe

is

added,

discouraged).www.wikipedia.org/the structure of noun phrase.docx

but

this

is

generally

the possessive of cats is cats', both words being pronounced

the possessive of Jesus is most commonly Jesus', both words being pronounced

Singular nouns ending in -s can also form a possessive regularly by adding -'s, as in Charles's.
The Chicago Manual of Style recommends this more modern style, while stating that adding just
an apostrophe (e.g. Jesus') is also correct. The Elements of Style and the Canadian Press
Stylebook prefer the form in -s's with the exception of classical and Biblical proper names (Jesus'
teachings, Augustus' guards) and common phrases that do not take the extra s (e.g. "for goodness'
sake"). www.wikipedia.org/the structure of noun phrase.docx
e.g. My address

Johns father

NP

The teachers book

NP

NP

DET

NOM

DET

NOM

POSS

POSS

My

address

NP

DEM

NOM

POSS

father

NP

N
S

book
DET

John

ART
The

NOM
N

teacher

2.5. Empty determiner

Some analyses allow for the possibility of invisible or "empty" determiners. An empty
determiner is when there is not a word such as some quantifiers (Some, any, each, every, etc.),
meanwhile an English speaker knows it is there, and so it does not need to be said.
The determiner position may not always be filled by an actual word. Lets study the subject NPs
in the following sentences:
a) Essays should be word processed.

b) Smoke gets in your eyes

Although these NPs contain just one word, they should still be analysed as having a (DET +
NOM) structure. The empty determiner gives the NP an INDEFINITE and/or more GENERAL
interpretation.

The subject of the subject the sentence B given above for example, is clearly indefinite, as
compared with the definite NP the smoke. It is also more general than the indefinite NP some
smoke.
There are just two types of head nouns that can take the empty determiner: plural count nouns as
in the sentence A and mass nouns as in the sentence B. As mentioned, the subjects in A and B are
single word NPs and they have that in common with NPs that consist of a pronoun or a name. the
empty DET + NOM analysis clearly distinguishes these NPs from pronoun NPs and name
generality. On the contrary, names dont normally take determiners precisely because names are
inherently definite. Pronouns, too, are inherently definite (e.g. she, we, they, them) or inherently
indefinite (someone, anyone) independently of any determiner.
e.g.

NP
DET

NOM

Essays/smoke
The reason for this empty determiner analysis is this. First both of these NPs could take a
determiner (the/smoke, the/your essays). We need to allow for this by making a DET slot
available as in the example given. Furthermore, the empty determiner affects the interpretation of
the NP.
2.6. Pre determiners

In addition to the determiners mentioned before, there are a large number of other
closed-system items that occur before the head of noun phrases. These items, referred
to as closed-system pre-modified, form three classes (pre-determiners, ordinals and
quantifiers) which have been set up on the basis of the positions that they can have in
relation to determiners and to each other. So they cannot be determiners themselves.
Instead theyre categorized as pre determiners (PRE DET).

 All

All

The, my, etc.

The,
All

my,

These,

singular count noun

etc.
those +

plural noun

Zero article

The,
All

my,

This,

etc.
that +

mass noun

Zero article

All my life
All the books
All this paper

Both

The,
Both

These,
Zero article

Both these books

Half

my,

etc.
those +

plural noun

Half

Half

Half

The,

my,

etc.

my,

etc.

my,

etc.

A, this, that

The,
These, those

The,
This, that

singular count noun

plural noun

mass noun

Half an hour
These pre-determiners can occur only before articles or demonstratives, but none of
them can occur with such quantitative determiners as every, either, each, some,
any, no and enough. However, all, both and half have of-construction
which are optional with nouns and obligatory with personal pronouns:
All (of) the students = All of them
All (of) my time = All of it
With a quantifier following, the of-construction is preferred
All of the ten students
All of the many girls
All, both and half can be basic noun phrases:
All/Both/ Half were allowed to go out.
The illustrations are as follows:

e.g. All/both the men

NP
PRE DET
All/both

NP
DET

NOM

ART

The

men

Lets study some analyses phrases proposed by the author bellow:

a) All men

b) both men

Although they dont precede determiners in these NPs, all and both are still analysed as pre
determiners here. The determiner position itself is empty. The idea that theres an empty
determiner in A, with all, is perhaps more plausible than in B with both. All men (=all DET men)
is both more indefinite and more general than all the man. By contrast, both the men and both
men differ neither in defineteness nor generality. Nevertheless, I shall continue to analyse both as
a pre determiner since, has been said previously that it can co occur with, and precede the
article.
e.g. all/both men

NP
PRE DET
all/both

NP
DET

NOM
N
Men

3.

Conclusion

In conclusion noun phrases comprise pre-determiners, determiners, post-determiners and the

head nouns, the order of which is fixed.

On the one hand the head noun is the central element and core component of the complex noun
phrase. It may be count or mass noun which dictates concord and (for the most part) other kinds
of congruence with the rest of the sentence outside the noun phrase.
On the other hand, most simply, noun phrases consist of just one overt element, pronouns of
different types or numerals; as far as I am concerned that was stated just as a simple point of
view to show that a noun phrase can be seen in different perspective but the group just went
through the basic NPs containing pre-determiners, determiners, quantifiers, demonstrative,
possession and the head nouns.

4.

References