A- NOUN PHRASES.

1) Consists of a noun as head, either alone or accompanied by determiners (They

specify the reference of the noun) and modifiers (describe or classify the entity
denoted by the head noun).

Eg a house/ the journey book.

2) Head noun can also be followed by complements which complete the meaning of the
noun and take the form of that-clauses or infinitive clauses

Eg The assumption that language is a set of fixed rules has long been
supported.
He feels happy about her refusal to go.

3) Noun phrases can be headed by common nouns, proper nouns, pronouns,

nominalized adjectives.

Syntactic roles of noun phrases.

A) Subject

B) Direct object: He saw a movie.

C) Indirect object: I made her a cake.

D) Prepositional object: You can’t rely on doctors.

E) Subject predicative: with copular verbs only.

Michael Swam on copular verbs.

 We use a special kind of verb to join an adjective or noun complement to a subject.

These verbs are called copulas or copular verbs. Common copular verbs are: be,
seem, appear, look, sound, smell, taste, become, feel, get.

The weather is horrible.

I do feel a fool.
It’s getting late.
The stew smells good.
That car looks fast.

 After copular verbs we use adjectives, not adverbs:

He spoke intelligently. ADVERB
He looks intelligent. ADJECTIVE

 Copular verbs are also used with other meanings as ordinary non-copular verbs. In
such case, they are used with adverbs.
The problem appeared impossible.
  Some copular verbs are used to talk about change or the absence of change.
It’s becoming colder.
It’s growing colder.
Keep calm.
The leaves are going brown.
The flowers are turning brown.

F) Object predicative.
They will christen her Victoria. (Victoria predicates about her)
He considered this a failure. (a failure predicated about this)

G) Adverbial.
He walked all day.
I will be 40 next month.

H) Pre-modifier of a noun.
The school schedules will be changed for next year.

I) Apposition.

He’s the director of the biggest school in the city, St Brenda.

He and the school director, Mr. Brown, sat together.

Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side
by side, with one element serving to define or modify the other. When this device is used, the two
elements are said to be in apposition. For example, in the phrase "my friend Alice", the name "Alice" is in
apposition to "my friend".