University of Sana'a

Faculty of Education
English department
M.A. Studies

Done By:
Abdul-kareem Abdullah Almuntasser
Nashwan Ali Nashwan
Yahya Alshawesh

Supervision:
Dr. Ahmed Al-Quyadi. (Ph.D.)
‫ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬
2009-2010

Abstract
A comparative study about noun phrases in Arabic and English
languages will be accomplished in order to investigate the similarities
and differences between the noun phrases in these two languages.
Moreover, this study will focus on some logical rules which can help
students to get rid of such confusion in studying Arabic and English
languages. Students of Arabic background always fall in such mistakes
when they write English sentences using Arabic structures which are
completely wrong. So, this comparative study will point out and clarify
the similarities and differences between Arabic and English noun
phrases to be able to put some propitiate solutions that can help
students to avoid such effective confusion. As a result, they will
overcome this obstacle and write meaningful and correct sentences
recognizing the differences between Arabic and English noun phrases.

Introduction

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 Arabic and English languages are similar in some points and
different in some others. One of these sides is noun phrases in both
Arabic and English languages which will be discussed through this
study. A comparative study between Arabic and English noun phrases
will be occurred to determine the similarities and difference between
these two languages in this side. Lately, it is noticed that students of
English language sometimes write English sentences using Arabic
grammatical structures and that is completely wrong. And the main
reason for that is the Arabic background of the students because of that
they get confused. Students don’t have enough knowledge to be able to
distinguish between these two types of noun phrases. That to say, this
study will provide students with the similarities and differences
between these two languages to overcome this obstacle. We will
mention here a brief discussion about the notion of noun phrase in
grammar.

Adjectives and adjective phrases most frequently function to

describe nouns; five grammatical forms can perform the grammatical
function of noun phrase modifier in the English language. Both native
speakers and ESL students must learn and understand the five forms
that can function as the noun phrase modifier in order to correctly
describe nouns in both spoken and written English. The five
grammatical forms that can function as noun phrase modifiers are:

1. Noun phrases
2. Adjective phrases
3. Prepositional phrases
4. Verb phrases
5. Relative clauses

Noun phrase modifiers are defined as words, phrases, and clauses that
describe a noun or noun phrase.

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Noun Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers

The first grammatical form that can perform the grammatical function
of noun phrase modifier is the noun phrase. Noun phrases are defined
as phrases that consist of a noun including pronouns and any modifiers
such as adjectives, determiners, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, and
clauses. For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as
noun phrase modifiers:

• Please keep the bathroom door shut.

• Which hotel room are you staying in?
• The new table legs are made out of oak.
• We just bought a new dining room table.

Adjective Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers

The second grammatical form that can perform the grammatical

function of noun phrase modifier is the adjective phrase. Adjective
phrases are defined as phrases that consist of an adjective and any
modifiers such as adverbs and prepositions. For example, the following
italicized adjective phrases function as noun phrase modifiers:

• That little girl prefers the purple blanket.

• Your mom makes the most tasteless, mild chili.
• My favorite fall treat is a steaming cup of hot apple cider.
• The very scary dog barked at me.

Adjective phrases are the most frequent and considered the most
prototypical grammatical form that function as noun phrase modifiers.
Prepositional Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers

The third grammatical form that can perform the grammatical function
of noun phrase modifier is the prepositional phrase. Prepositional
phrases are defined as phrases formed by a preposition followed by a
prepositional complement. For example, the following italicized
prepositional phrases function as noun phrase modifiers:

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 • The man in the yellow hat owns a pet monkey.
• That woman with the glasses is my mother.
• My dog is the puppy behind the fence.
• I enjoy writing articles about English grammar.

Verb Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers

The fourth grammatical form that can perform the grammatical

function of noun phrase modifier is the verb phrase. Verb phrases are
defined as phrases formed by one or more verbs plus any objects,
modifiers, and complements such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, and
prepositions. For example, the following italicized verb phrases
function as noun phrase modifiers:

• The girl handing students the syllabus is the graduate teaching

assistant.
• The woman now singing loudly had served me my coffee.
• The cake eaten by the dog was for my grandfather.
• He stores the paintings to display in the front closet.

Relative Clauses as Noun Phrase Modifiers

The fifth grammatical form that can perform the grammatical function
of noun phrase modifier is the relative clause. Relative clauses are
defined as subordinate clauses that consist of a clause usually
beginning with a relative pronoun. The relative pronouns in English
are that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why. For
example, the following italicized relative clauses function as noun
phrase modifiers:

• The book that I found in the stacks had been marked as missing.
• Do you know the little boy who left his coat in the park?
• My grandfather is the man to whom my grandmother pledged her
love.
• The reason why he forgot his pants is rather amusing.

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Relative clauses are also referred to as adjective clauses.

The five grammatical forms that can function as noun phrase modifiers
in the English language are noun phrases, adjective phrases,
prepositional phrases, verb phrases, and relative clauses. Both English-
speaking and ESL students must learn and understand the five
grammatical forms in order to correctly describe nouns in spoken and
written English.

Objectives of the Study:

The present study attempts at investigating the similarities and
differences between Arabic and English noun phrases. And it will
describe the structure of noun phrases in these two different languages
and its use in its different sides through a discussion for the research
questions.

Questions of the study:

1. What is the working definition of noun phrase?

2. What is the typology of Noun phrase structures?

3. What are the principles which govern the syntax of nominal

expressions in both Arabic and English in order to clarify the
interrelationship of the form and the syntactic derivation of the noun
phrases of the two languages?

4. What are the possible theories and models that may describe the
structure of noun phrases?

5. What are the similarities and differences between noun phrases in

Arabic and English?

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Significance of the study
It is believed that the results of this comparison would prove that there
are some similarities and differences between Arabic and English noun
phrases. Therefore, it will be beneficial for students who study English
to avoid the confusion they face in writing English noun phrases using
Arabic structure. Also, this study will clarify the working definition of
noun phrase in both Arabic and English and looks for the typology of
noun phrase structures. The researchers will investigate the principles
which govern the syntax nominal expressions in both Arabic and
English in order to clarify the interrelationship of the form and the
syntactic derivation of the noun phrases of the two languages and they
will clarify the possible theories and models that can describe the
structure of it. Through out this comparative discussion, students of
English language will be able to recognize the mistakes and
differentiate between the noun phrases in these two languages. As a
result, they will use them correctly without any confusion.

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Procedures
To answer the study questions, the study has been collected and
analyzed according to the major questions which have been mentioned
previously. The research is considered as qualitative descriptive in its
nature. It focuses on analyzing and discussing available literature about
noun phrases and its use in Arabic and English languages.

1. Reviewing relevant literature. The previous study about the same

topic is revised and checked its validity and reliability.

2. Gathering data. The data has been collected in order to serve the
objectives of the study.

3. Clarifying the objectives and significance of the study.

4. Analyzing the data. It is analyzed according to the major questions

which have been mentioned previously.

5. Discussing and describing the available literature about noun

phrases and its use in Arabic and English languages.

6. Drawing appropriate conclusions and recommendations for this

study.

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Discussion
Through out this part there will be a discussion for the research
questions as it will be clear through the following papers.

Q1. What is the working definition of noun phrase?

Noun phrase, as mentioned in the traditional grammar, is the group
of words that does the work of a noun. Consider the following
sentences:
1. The boy wants something.
2. The boy wants to go home.
The word something is a Noun and it is the Object of the verb wants,
in sentence (1).
Similarly, the group of words, to go home, is the Object of the verb
wants, in sentence (2).
Hence, this group of words does the work of a noun. The group of
words, to go home, is therefore a Noun Phrase.
In Noun Phrase the words are arranged into groups around a noun.
They are called noun groups. A noun group can be the subject, or
complement of a clause, or the object of a preposition. These noun
groups are usually made of the determiner, the modifier, the noun and
the qualifier.

Determiners:
Determiners are of two kinds: general determiners which are used with
common nouns to say something about a person or a thing that can be
put in a set with others that are similar in some way, as in (1), and
specific determiners which are used with a common noun to show
which member of a set we are talking about, as in (2).

1. a. I met a man who was a clerk there.

b. There are some apples hanging over there.

2. a. I put something in your bag.

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 b. She came to visit me this morning.

In English, determiners, either specific or general, come at the beginning of

a noun group or phrase. It is not possible to use more than one specific
determiner before a noun.

Order of Adjectives in Noun Phrases:

When more than one adjective is used in a noun phrase the usual order
for the adjectives is: qualitative adjectives color adjectives
classifying adjectives like:

1. … a big white wooden house.

2. … a beautiful black suite.
3. … a nice green apple tree.

This order is nearly always followed in English except when the focus is on
a particular characteristic of the person or thing described then this order
can be varied especially when one of the adjectives refers to color or size,
as in

4. … a wooden white house.

So, the difference between (1) and (4) is that 4 focuses on the color of the
house.

When a noun phrase contains an adjective and a noun modifier, the

adjective comes before the noun modifier, as in

a. … the world’s biggest car race.

b. … the handsome football player.

Some adjectives have different meanings when they come before a noun
and when they come after it. These adjectives are concerned, involved,
present, responsible, and proper. Consider for example, the difference when
present comes in front of the noun in “the present situation” and when it
comes after it, as in ‘the people present’ , where the former one refers to
time ‘recent’, whereas the later refers to the condition ‘attendance’. Other

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adjectives like affected, available, required, and suggested can be used in
front of a noun or after it without any change in meaning. For example, ‘the
required changes’ has the same meaning as ‘ the changes required’, i.e. in
both required has the same meaning.
Since in English adjectives are not inflected for number and gender as in
Arabic, we can say that in English zero marking is realized between the
noun and the adjective modifying that noun. In English, adjectives share
few characteristics with nouns and verbs, this statement presupposes that if
as sharing characteristics with Ns or Vs, then it would be reflected in
morphological marking. On the other hand, in Arabic adjectival nominal
compounds noun is accompanied by an adjective, which comes bound to
the noun describing it or one of its characteristics, and being marked the
same as the noun which precedes it like;

1. ?al kitab- u 1. adid- u

The book- NOM the new- NOM
‘The new book’.

In Arabic most adjectives agree with the noun they describe in number and
gender, as

a. rad ul –un waseem- un

man- INDF. SG. MASC handsome- INDF. SG. MASC
‘a handsome man’

b. imra at- un ameelat- un

‘ a beautiful woman’ beautiful- INDF. SG. FEM

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Q2. What is the Typology of Noun Phrase structures?

In this section, we discuss some of the similarities and differences between

noun phrases in Arabic and English. For this purpose, we would, for the
sake of a systematic explication, distinguish between three types of noun
phrases.
1. Simple noun phrases which contain the head (noun/ pronoun) plus simple
modifiers (articles, adjectives, demonstratives, or numerals).

2. Complex noun phrases in which we can find more complex sorts of

modifiers (genitive or possessive).

3. Noun clauses.

1. Simple Noun Phrase

In many languages the most common type of noun phrases contain just a
single word, which is either a noun or a pronoun. In most languages
pronouns in noun phrases are not associated with modifiers. In English,
this is possible, as in we Yemeni or something strange, but is
infrequently used. This is possible also in Arabic, as in naHn-u Al
Yemeniy-in-a ‘we- the Yemeni- PL.’ (We Yemeni). Pronouns are the
words that take the place of noun phrase, and in many languages no
distinction is made between nouns and pronouns. Hence, it may be
difficult to distinguish pronouns from nouns except on a semantic basis.

Articles
In many languages, it is very common for noun phrases to consist of
only a noun. Whether or not this is possible in a language depends
considerably on whether the language has articles.
English permits noun phrases with just a noun when the noun is a
proper noun ( I like John ), a mass noun ( I like coffee) or the plural of
count noun ( I like roses), but with the singular of count nouns ( I like
rose) English requires some sort of determiner ( I like this rose) or ( I
have bought a rose).
While English have both definite and indefinite articles and both occur
before the noun, many languages have a definite article or an indefinite

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article but not both. In Arabic for example there is a definite article ?al
‘the’ but no overt indefinite article. In Arabic the definite NPs are
marked with the definite article ?al, whereas, the indefinite NPs are
unmarked, or as mentioned in traditional Arabic Grammar the
indefiniteness is indicated by marking the indefinite noun with
al-tanween on the last letter of the indefinite noun, as shown in (20 b),
pronounced as- an /in/ on, according to the position of the noun or the
case it holds in the sentence such as ( nominative, accusative, or
genitive).

a. ra?ait-u ?al mar?a-ta

saw- ISG the woman- SG
‘I saw a woman’

b. ra?ait-u ?imra?a-tan
saw- lSG woman- SG- INDF
‘I saw a woman’

Definite articles have a narrow range of usage in some languages than

others.
The three common functions associated with definite articles in English
are:
1. An anaphoric use (the NP refers to something previously mentioned in
discourse).

2. A nonanaphoric use, when both the speaker and the listener know the
referent, although, not mentioned in the preceding discourse, such as the
Sun or the Moon.

3. An intermediate use, where the referent although not mentioned in the

preceding discourse it is inferable from something in the preceding
discourse such as (the key and the door in when I reached home I picked
out the key to open the door).
To summarize, English have both definite articles and indefinite
articles, whereas, Arabic has only one of them.

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Demonstratives
Demonstratives are of two types: demonstrative pronouns, which occur by
themselves as noun phrases, and demonstrative modifiers of nouns
(demonstrative adjectives), such as
a. This is a good place. b. This place is good.

In Arabic, the demonstrative haða can be used as a demonstrative noun

or pronoun by itself, or to co- occur with the article ?al to modify the
noun, that will be clear through the following examples:

a. haða makan- on jameel

this place. NOM beautiful
‘this is a beautiful place’

b. haða ?al makan-u jameel

this the place.NOM beautiful
‘this place is beautiful’

Numerals
Numerals occur as modifiers of nouns in the noun phrase, and there are two
kinds of numerals: cardinal numerals and ordinal numeral. Cardinal shows
the number of referents indicated by the noun phrase, as in English ten
editions. These contrast with ordinal numerals, which identify the referent
in terms of its order with respect to other referents, as in English the tenth
edition. Ordinal numerals are mostly derived from cardinal numerals, as
illustrated by the English suffix- th (four vs. fourth).
English and Arabic differ with regard to the position of ordinals in the
noun phrase. Ordinals precede the nouns in English, whereas, follow them
in Arabic, as shown in the following example from Arabic.

?al-kitab-u-θ-θãle θ-u
The- book- NOM- the- third-NOM
‘the third book’.

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 Thus, in Arabic, ordinals follow the noun in contrast with the
example from English the tenth edition, in which the ordinal
precedes the noun.
Regarding numerals in Arabic, the numbers from three to ten
take a noun, which is plural, and in the genitive case, and does not
agree with the first noun (the numeral) in gender. If the first noun is
masculine, the second noun is feminine and vise versa. Consider the
examples as.

a. θlaθat-u kutub-in
three- NOM.FEM books- GEN.PLUR.MASC
‘three books’

b. khams kurrasãt- in
five- NOM. MASC exercise books- GEN. PLUR. FEM
‘five exercise books’

c. ?a∫ ararat-u ?aqlalam- in

ten NOM.FEM pens- GEN. PLUR. MASC
‘ten pens’

Numerals, from eleven to ninety nine take a noun, which is singular

and in the accusative case, and hence, it does not agree with the first in
number. The first noun is in the accusative because in the original
sentences in the holy Quraan in surat Al- A raaf, aaya (142) it is the
object of the verb wa wa ad-na ‘ and – promised-PL.’ (we made an
appointment with).

a. θalaθeen-a lailat-an
thirty – ACC.PLUR night- ACC.SG
‘thirty nights’

b. sab‫؟‬een-a ra ual- an
seventy- ACC.PLUR man- ACC.SG
‘seventy men’

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Numerals from hundred and above take the noun, which is singular and in
the genitive case, as illustrated in:

a. ma?at- u nakhlat-in
hundred- NOM palm- GEN.SG
‘one hundred of palm trees’

In most languages, there are some words, which behave like cardinal
numerals (semantically) in quantifying words. This includes words meaning
many, much, few, all, every, and some. In English, for example, the word
all precedes a determiner (all the students), while numerals follow the
determiner (the three students).
In Arabic also, words stand for all ‘kul’, some ba d , precedes preceding
the determiner they need to be followed by a preposition, they take a
prepositional phrase, as shown in:

1) a. kul-u ŧ- ŧ ullãb-i.
all-NOM the- students-ACC
‘all the students’

b. ba‫؟‬đ–u ŧ- ŧ ullãb-i.
Some-NOM the- students-ACC
‘some students’

2) a. qalīl-un min- aŧ - ŧ ullãb-i.

few-INDF from- the- students-GEN
‘few students’

b. kaθīr-un min-an- nãsi-i.

a lot-INDF from- the- people-GEN
‘a lot of people’

To summarize, numerals occur as modifiers of nouns. There are

two kinds of numerals, cardinal numerals, which indicate how many
referents the noun phrase denotes, and ordinal numerals, which
identify the referent in terms of its order with respect to other referents.

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Ordinal numerals are mostly derived from cardinal numerals, as
illustrated by the English suffix –th (four vs. fourth).
Numerals occur as modifiers of nouns and in both English and
Arabic; cardinals precede the nouns in both English and Arabic, while
ordinals precede the nouns in English and follow them in Arabic. Thus,
English and Arabic differ with regard to the position of ordinals in the
noun phrase.

Plural words
Regarding plural words, they already exist in all languages of the
world. In English the plural form of the word is realized by attaching s,
-es, or –ies, to the end of the countable noun, e.g., rose/ roses, bush/
bushes, country/ countries. With mass nouns, some, little, much, more
are used, e. g., some milk, or a glass of milk, two glasses of milk, but
we can not say milks. Similarly, in Arabic the plural is formed by
adding the suffix –ã at the end of the word, e. g., munta ‘product’/
munta ãt ‘products’. In Arabic also we may use quantifiers before the
mass noun, as in English. For example, ba‫؟‬đ -un ‘some-INDF’ (some) ka?
s-un ‘glass-INDF’ (a glass), ka s-ain-i(for accusative and genitive) /ka?s-
an-i(for nominative) ‘glass- two INDF’ (two glasses), besides adding a
preposition min ‘from’ (of), before the head noun, as shown in the
following example. Another way is to make it in a contrast state, instead of
using a preposition before the head noun as shown:

1. ka?s-un min ?al Haleeb-i .

glass- INDF from the milk- GEN
‘a glass of milk’.

2. ka?s-u Haleeb- in
glass- of milk- INDF.
‘a glass of milk’.

3. ka?s-u l- Haleeb-i.
Glass- of the- milk- GEN.
‘a glass of milk’.

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 Adjectives
Descriptive words that denote properties, such as size and color are called
adjectives in English.
In English, adjectives share few characteristics with nouns or verbs, this
statement presupposes that if As share characteristics with Ns or Vs, then it
would be reflected in morphological marking.

Now, generative syntax and morphology allow for overt marking and zero
marking. Since in English adjectives are not inflected for number, and
gender as in Arabic we can say that in English zero marking is realized
between the noun and the adjective modifying that noun.
In general adjectives should agree with the nouns they describe in taking
the same ending mark, i.e, -u, -a, or –I, where the word kitab ‘book’ is the
noun and mufeed ‘useful’ is the adjective that describes it.

a. haða kitab-un mufeed-un

this book- NOM. INDF. SG. Useful- NOM.INDF.SG
‘this is a useful book’

b. qara?t-u kitab-an mufeed-an

read-lSG.PAST book-ACC.SG.MASC.INDF. useful-ACC.SG.MASC.INDF.
‘ I read a useful book’

Adjectives should also agree with the noun they describe in

definiteness and indefiniteness, hence, if the noun is indefinite
adjectives should also be indefinite, as in:

a. ŧaleb-un mu idd-un
student- INDF.SG.MASC. hardworking-INDF.SG.MASC.
‘a hardworking student’

b. ?al ŧaleb-u ?al mu idd-u

the student-NOM.DEF.MASC. the hardworking-NOM.DEF. MASC.
‘the hardworking student’

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 Adjectives should also agree in number with the noun they describe,
as in the following examples.

a. ŧaleb-ãn mu idd-ãn
student-DUAL hardworking- DUAL
‘two hardworking students’

b. ŧalabat-un mu iddun
students- INDF.PLUR. hardworking- INDF. PLUR.
‘hardworking students’

Adjectives should also agree in gender, with the noun they describe,
as in such examples :

a. ŧaleb-un mu idd-un
student- INDF. SG.MASC. hard working- INDF.SG.MASC.
‘a hardworking student’

b. ŧalebat-un mu iddat-un
student- INDF.SG.FEM. hardworking- INDF.SG.FEM.
‘a hardworking student’

Although, agreement is number and gender is obligatory between

adjectives and nouns they describe, in some cases, as it is mentioned
above, the adjective is masdar or the source noun and in this case it
may not agree with the noun; the adjective comes as a singular
masculine, and do not agree in number and gender with the noun it
describes.
Another case in which adjectives do not agree with the noun they
describe in number and gender is when the described noun is of
irrational being, in this case the adjective is singular feminine or plural
feminine, for example, Hasanat-an ‘good’ which describes the noun
aswat-an ‘voices’ does not agree with the noun in number and gender,
where the noun is plural masculine while the adjective is singular

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feminine. Similarly, the noun kutub-an ‘books’ is plural masculine,
while the adjective mufeedat-an ‘useful’ is singular.

a. sami‫؟‬t-u ?aswat-an Hasanat-an

hear-NOM. lSG.PAST voices- ACC.PLUR.MASC. good-ACC.SG.FEM.
‘I heard good voices’

b. ?i∫tarait-u kutub-an mufeedat-an

buy-NOM.ISG.PAST books-ACC.PLUR.MASC. useful-ACC.SG.FEM.
‘I bought useful books’

Languages differ in the extent to which adjectives form a distinct

word class. For example, while in English APs form a different word
class the function as modifiers for NPs, in traditional Arabic Grammars
all grammarians distinguished only three word classes: nouns, verbs,
and others. By others we mean letters, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.
According to this classification, adjectives are a subclass of nouns.
Grammarians have been led to make this conclusion about adjectives
as a subclass of nouns on the basis of similar inflections on both nouns
and adjectives. For example, if we take any Arabic sentence with one
or more NPs and rewrite them with adjectives modifying the head
nouns, we will notice that the inflectional markers of case, gender,
number, and definiteness will also appear on the adjectives. Changing
the gender or number of the head noun will result in changing the
marking on the adjectives also. Thus, as I think, Arab grammarians
looked at the morphological markers of agreement between a noun
head and its modifying adjectives and concluded that they belong to
the same word class.

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Nouns used as Modifiers
Genitive constructions are the most common way in which nouns or
rather noun phrases occur as modifiers of nouns.

Some languages allow nouns to modify nouns without possessive

meaning. English is one example, where phrases like football player,
school teacher are allowed.
In Arabic this is possible but with a possessive meaning, as in:

Mudeer-u I madras at-i.

Principal- NOM the school-GEN
‘the principal of the school’

Constructions in which noun is modified by another noun are called

compounds. Within the compounds there are two types of
constructions; lexical compounds and syntactic compounds. In lexical
compounds the meaning of the compound is not predictable from the
meaning of the component parts, thus, lexical compound behaves like a
single word, for example, English address book or swimming pool is a
lexical compound. Syntactic compound on the other hand, is a type of
phrase in which one noun is modifying a second noun in a productive
syntactic construction, such as cat food, music industry. Lexical
compounds are fixed expressions made up of more than one word but
function as a single word, and are called compound nouns, while
syntactic compounds are not fixed expressions and they are called
noun modifiers.
Thus, we can conclude that nouns can modify other nouns and this
can be found in both English and Arabic with the difference between
the two that in English one noun can modify another noun without
possessive meaning, which is not possible in Arabic. In Arabic when a
noun is modified by another noun it holds a possessive meaning.

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Locative Adverbs
Locative demonstratives are words of which the basic function is
adverbial, such as here and there in English, and huna ‘here’ and
hunak ‘there’ in Arabic are used to modify nouns as well. For example,
in English the place here, and for Arabic, as in:

1. ?al makan-u huna

the place-NOM here
‘the place here’
Thus in both Arabic and English the locative adverbs follow the noun.

Interrogative Modifiers
Among various semantic types of modifiers of nouns interrogative
expressions are also used. Languages vary in the extent to which they
have single words for expressing these interrogative meanings. English
may use a word or multi-word expressions whose book? And what sort
of book?, and this is the case for Arabic also which may use one- word
wh-expressions, such as ai? ‘which?’ or a multi- word wh-expression,
such as, ?aiyam- min, ‘which one of ?’ such as

1. ?aiyu-l- asmāa-i?
which – of – the names?
‘ which name?’

2. aiyam- min- al- asmaa-i?

which- from- the- names- GEN?
‘which one of the names?’
To summarize, Languages like English and Arabic have both: one
word wh- expressions and multi- word wh- expressions.

22
Various Noun Modifiers
Noun modifiers including quantifying words, once meaning ‘all’,
‘every’, ‘some’, ‘many’, as well as words meaning ‘another’,
‘different’, ‘some’, ‘only’, and ‘even’, represent a number of meanings
but often with rather idiosyncratic grammatical properties. For
example, the word all in English precedes determiners (all the
students), a property shared only by both ( both the students). In Arabic
also kul ‘all’ precedes the determiner –l ‘the’, whereas akhar ‘another’
and mukhtalif ‘different’ follow the noun, which means that in Arabic
quantifiers precede the noun, whereas, other modifiers or adjectives
follow it.

1. kull-u l-nas-i
all- of the- people- ACC
‘All the people’

2. a. sakl-un ãkhar-un
shape-INDF another- INDF
‘another shape’

b. šakl-un mukhtalif-un
shap-INDF different- INDF
‘different shape’
Thus, we can conclude that Arabic and English share the property that
in both of them some noun modifiers like quantifying words precede
the noun, though in Arabic other modifiers like adjectives follow the
noun, as in(2).

23
2. Complex Noun phrases
Genitive or possessive constructions
Genitive constructions with Nominal possessors

The terms genitive and possessive are both used for constructions,
where a noun is modified by another phrase, which denotes a
possessor, as in English Master’s degree or the degree of Master,
and in Arabic, with the difference between the two that in English
the possession is indicated by using the ‘s or the preposition of. In
Arabic possession is semantically understood when a noun comes to
define another noun, where the first noun the possessed comes
marked with –u and precedes the possessor.

1. šahadat- u- l- ma istair
degree- of- the- Master
‘Master’s degree’.

The term possessive is also used sometimes with two other types of
constructions, where possession is predicated at the clause level, as
in English He has three wives and That pen is yours. Therefore, the
term genitive constructions (rather than possessive) are used for a
noun phrase construction of this sort. The range of meanings
associated with genitive construction in both English and Arabic
include kinship relations ( Ali’s mother), translated into Arabic,
part- whole relations (Ali’s eye, the top of the hill), translated into
Arabic, possession or ownership (Ali’s bag), translated into Arabic,
and various abstract relations (the rate of population, Ali’s birthday,
the cloud’s movement, the Tower of London).
2. ?um-u Ali
mother- of Ali
‘Ali’s mother’

3. ‫؟‬ayn-u Ali
eye- of Ali

24
 ‘Ali’s eyes’

4. šantat-u Ali
bag- of Ali
‘Ali’s bag’

Pronominal Possessors
With some form of dependent marking on nominal possessors,
Such as the genitive case affix or the English clitic ‘s, a distinct
morphological class of possessive pronouns exist, often not clearly
identifiable as a genitive morpheme, as in English my, yours. These
words are known as possessive pronouns, the term here will be
applied to the pronominal possessive words that serve as modifiers
of nouns. This situation is found in Arabic, where possessive
nominal constructions occur with a suffix –u on the possessed noun
in the construct state, whereas pronominal possessors involve a
distinct set of pronouns. The pronominal possessor refers to the
possessor’s number and gender.

1. a. bait-u r-ra ul-i.

House-(of) GEN the- man- GEN.
‘the man’s house’

b. bait-u- hu
house- of – 3SG.POSS. MSCL.
‘his house’

2. a. bait- ha
house- of – 3SG. POSS. FEM.
‘her house’

b. bait-u hum
house- of- 3SPL. POSS.

25
 ‘their house’
Adpositional Phrases
Noun phrases with indirect cases, which modify other nouns, are
known as Ad positional phrases. Languages differ as to whether
they allow Ad positional phrases. In English this is possible, as in
that chair on the corner, in which the prepositional phrase on the
corner modifies the chair. The same is applicable to Arabic, where
the noun can be modified by a prepositional phrase or an adjective.

ðãleka l-kursi-yo fi-l-rukn-i.

that the- chair- NOM in- the- corner-ACC
‘that chair on the corner’

The prepositional phrase fi-l-rukn-I ‘in- the- corner-ACC’ (on the

corner) modifies l-kursi ‘the chair’ (the chair).

Conjoined Noun Phrases

Most languages allow the conjoining or co-coordinating of two
phrases, as in English the students and the teacher, and as in the
following example in Arabic.
?l- t ullãb-u wa- l- mudarrisīn-a
The- students-NOM and- the- teachers-ACC
‘the students and the teachers’.

3. Noun Clauses
The term ‘noun clause’ is often applied to those subordinate clauses,
which appear in positions in which normally noun phrases appear. i.e.,
the subject position or the object position. As illustrated by the noun
clauses in subject position in the following examples(1.a.) from
Arabic, and the noun clauses in object position in the English example
in (1.b.) and the Arabic example in(2. b).

1. a. [what he wrote] was strange.

26
 b. They did not like [what he wrote].

2. a. [ma katabah-u ] kana γareeb-an

[ the-thing write-3SG. MASS] was strange
‘what he wrote was strange’

b. lam jo‫ ؟‬ibuh-um [ma katabah-u]

Neg. Like- they.3PL. [what write-3SG.MASS.Past]
They did not like [what he wrote].

Q3. What are the principles, which govern the syntax of nominal
expressions in both Arabic and English in order to clarify the
interrelationship of the form and the syntactic derivation of the
noun phrases of the two languages?

Noun phrases in Arabic and in English taking in consideration the

principles, which govern the syntax of nominal expressions in both
Arabic and English in order to clarify the interrelationship of the form
or architecture and the syntactic derivation of the noun phrases in two
languages that belong to different language families, Semitic and
Germanic, i.e., Arabic and English, respectively.

The Arabic noun phrase comes in two states: the Free State (FS) and
the construct state (CS). While in the FS modifiers can intervene
between the noun and its complement, this is not possible in the CS.
Also the initial noun in the CS ends with [t] which is absent in the FS
form. In the N-movement, the CS NP as a whole is moved to [Spec,
DP], precluding the realization of the definite article (which is absent
to the left of the construct noun).

In Arabic noun phrase, the adjectival modifiers usually follow the

noun, and may not precede it. When modifiers (adjectives, numerals,
demonstratives, etc.) appear to the right of the noun, it is the noun
phrase itself, which has risen to the left of the modifier.

27
 That no lexical material should intervene the determiner and the
noun in Arabic is not true because in many Arabic dialects, though,
substandard for some speakers, cardinal numerals occur between the
definite determiner and the noun.
There is a partial N-movement in which Arabic nouns have three
options:

1. They may remain lower than ordinal numerals.

2. They may raise over the ordinal numerals.

3. They may raise even over the cardinal numerals.

In Arabic, NP movement pied- pipes all what it acquires along the

derivation, like a snowball, which gathers weight and size in rolling
towards its target. Moreover, the order of APs in Arabic is
systematically reversed with respect to English, and this reversal is
quite firm in all varieties of Arabic.
Thus, if A Ps are in left- hand specifies positions, as in English, the
only way to derive the inverse order of post- nominal APs, as in
Arabic, is by a system in which N is not extracted from NP and moved
as a head, i.e., raising NP to a specifier position preceding the XP
housing the lowest AP, merging the next AP in the next specifier up
and snow balling upwards the entire phrase below the merged
adjective.

Arabic NPs manifest a dual nature of licensing, where DP internal

constituents are licensed either by government or through agreement.
Government is seen by a genitive case suffix on the head of governed
element (-i), while agreement takes the form of grammatical concord
in which the quantifiers are like attributive adjectives, manifesting the
gender, number and definiteness properties of the noun they modify.
In Arabic adjectives are considers as nouns and not as a different
functional category.

28
 CS NPs differ in one major respect from simple NPs in that Simple
NPs rise above the adjectives. With numerals the movement of simple
NPs is subject to some variations but no evidence has been provided to
the effect that NP raises to [Spec, D]. In contrary with the facts
mentioned about the simple NP, CS NP precedes not only adjectives,
but numerals and demonstratives as well, providing the evidence that
CS NPs raise to [Spec, D].
Regarding the structure of noun phrases in English we can conclude
the following:
Based on the locality condition on movement, which is based on the
X- Theory of GB. NP- movement should move an NP to the nearest
landing site, a subject position [Spec, IP].

There are three types of NPs:

1. When the NP is a referential expression, as Ali.

2. When the NP is a reflexive element, as Himself.

3. When the NP is an object pronoun, as him.

Reflexives have to be bound to a matching antecedent. A reflexive

element, which refers to another NP, should match with the referential
NP to which it refers in grammatical features of person, number, and
gender. Thus, reflexives are not free and can not occur by themselves.
Furthermore, the antecedent should precede the reflexive it binds, i.e.,
it must c-command the reflexive.
The antecedent and the reflexive must be contained in the first clause
dominating the reflexive.

In contrary to reflexives the pronoun must be bound, though not

inside the immediately containing clause, such as reflexives, i.e., it
must be locally free.

29
 R-expressions, such as Ali, the manager, this office, on the other
hand, are inherently referential. Being inherently referential they
independently establish a referent, thus, need not be bound.
A-movement (i.e.,of NP) binds its trace. Based on the assumption that
movement is local the NP should move first to the intervening subject
position of a subordinate clause, which can not be skipped, before
moving to the subject position of the matrix clause.
According to VP-internal subject hypothesis the subject originates in
the [Spec,VP] and moves to [Spec, IP] . leaving a trace in the [Spec,
VP]. This hypothesis has an unexpected affect on the binding relations.
Assuming that not only the overt NPs in subject position can function
as binders, traces also can function as binders.
In English the wh- questions are derived as a result of wh- movement.
The wh-expression, which originates as an internal argument of the
object of the verb.i.e., its base position is VP- internal, moves to the
sentence initial position to give an interrogative force to the sentence.

Those sentences derive as a result of movement leads to postulate

more than one representation for the sentence:
1. The deep structure (DS), which encodes the base position of all the
components of the sentence.
2. The derived or the surface structure (SS), or Spell- Out, which
encodes the way in which the sentence surface in grammar. Every
moved element leaves a trace, which is co indexed with its antecedent.

The Wh- phrase cannot transit through the [Spec, VP], which hosts
the trace of the subject that moves to [Spec, IP] to receive Case
(according to VP- internal subject hypothesis). Wh-movement can not
transit through the higher [Spec, VP] either, because it hosts the trace
of the subject argument, which originates in [Spec, VP] and moves to
receive Case. Thus, [Spec, VP] is an A-position.
At DS there are no traces because the DS is the level of representation
that precedes movement and traces result of movement. Furthermore, it
has been argued that at DS all thematic positions must be filled by

30
arguments to which the verb assigns their thematic roles, which has
been proved to be not true.
According to VP-internal subject hypothesis, the subject NP
originates VP- internally. Thus, the canonical subject position is not
filled at DS. Another case where an A-position remains unfilled at DS
is the specifier of the VP headed by a passive verb, because passive
verbs lack an external argument. This is true also for raising
constructions where the verb seem does not assign at thematic role to
the specifier of the VP, which it heads . From the discussion above,
and based on the hypothesis that all thematic positions must be filled at
DS, Haegeman and Jacqueline concluded that thematic positions may
also be filled by non- overt arguments.

The non-overt subject of non-finite clauses differs from traces in spite

of the fact that both of them are non- overt and phonetically unrealized.
Based on the VP- internal subject hypothesis the subject of the clause
originates in [Spec, VP] of the VP and then moves to [Spec, IP] to
receive the nominative Case. Assuming that the same derivation
applies to the subordinate clause, the non-overt subject originates in
the [Spec, VP] of the VP headed by the verb in the non- finite clause
and moves to the specifier position of the non- finite AGRP through
[Spec, TP] leaving co indexed traces. Because ec has the same referent
as the subject of the matrix clause we say that ec is controlled by the
subject of the matrix clause. Control is indicated by co indexation.
Thus, the subject position must be filled either by an argument or by an
expletive or even by an empty category ec.

According to the split- INFL approach, the I splits into two heads,
AGR and T. agreement features such as person and number, realized
both on verb and on the noun, come under AGR. In addition to the
subject requirement, i.e., every sentence should have a subject; it has
been proposed that AGR requires a specifier of a nominal type. Thus,
the [Spec, AGRP] may be filled by a referential NP or an expletive NP.
According to split- INFL approach then [Spec, AGRP] is always
projected. Now if every sentence has a subject position, then so do

31
sentences without an overt subject, and since there is no overt filler of
that position, it has been assumed that this position must have non-
overt filler.
Thus, according to the Empty Category Principle (ECP), non- overt
elements must be identified, because in spite of having no phonetic
content, these constituents are syntactically active as they interact with
other constituents in the sentence.
The non- overt external argument of the English non- finite clauses is
represented as PRO, which is controlled by the matrix, subject I. In
case there is no controller, PRO is assigned an arbitrary interpretation.
PRO is assigned an arbitrary interpretation. PRO can not be replaced
with an overt NP. PRO and the overt NP are in complementary
distribution.
In contrast with PRO, traces of which the antecedent is a wh- phrases
can be replaced by an overt material (an NP in the object position), and
in echo questions the wh- phrase itself occupies its base- position.
In English, modifiers have to left adjoin to NP or precede it, hence,
adjectives precede the noun.
In English, the head N remains in position; in Arabic the head N
moves leftward and undergoes head-movement. Thus, English and
Arabic do not differ in terms of adjectival syntax but rather in terms of
the position of the head N.

By analogy with the VP- internal subject hypothesis we assume that

the thematic roles assigned within the NP are assigned in the same way
as those in the VP. The head AGR, whose projection is AGR, contains
agreement features that attract the noun in Arabic, though not in
English. In English, according to the absence of morphological
agreement of the noun with the article and the adjective, the AGR node
in the DP is weak, thus, the AGR head does not attract the head N. In
English articles and adjectives are invariant, whereas in Arabic,
although articles remain invariant, adjectives inflect for number and
gender.

32
 Based on that it has been suggested that Arabic adjectival AGR is
strong enough to attract the head N, while nominal AGR is not strong
in English.
The agreement phrase postulated in the clause is different from the
agreement phrase postulated in the DP in that the agreement phrase
postulated in the clause must be obligatorily filled in order to satisfy
the subject requirement.
In English the genitive possessor and the possessive pronoun
precedes the adjective, which comes in [Spec, AGRP]. This means that
the possessor phrase, which receives its θ- role in [Spec, NP] must
have moved to a landing site preceding[Spec, AGRP]. Therefore, a
second AGRP is postulated in the nominal projection labeled as AGRP
l. The specifier AGRP l is occupied by the possessor phrase, thus, we
refer to AGRP l as the “possessor AGRP”. Since the possessor phrase,
which occupies AGRP l, precedes the adjectival projection, which
occupies the specifier of AGRP2, AGRP1 dominates AGRP2.

Based on the discussion about the relation between the possessor and
the determiner it has been concluded that in the presence of a
possessor phrase, D must be non- overt in English.

It has also been argued that DPs differ with CPs in the following:
1. Verbs take a wide range of complements, while nouns have lesser
impact on their complements than verbs.

2. While V can Case-mark the specifier of its IP complement, i.e., it

can assign accusative Case to the specifier of its complement. Namely
the subject of the infinitival clause or of the small clause is not possible
for a noun. Thus the impact of a verb on its complement is stronger
than that of the noun.

3. The noun can not incorporate the head of its complement, thus
particle construction is unavailable in the DP.

33
4. Passivization with preposition stranding, which depends on
incorporation for the verb, is not available in the DP.

5. Some psychological verbs like, love, fear, hate, or stative verbs like
know allow passivization in the clause while the related nouns do not
allow passivization- like patterns in the DP.

6. Raising by which the subject of a lower non- finite clause is moved

to the matrix clause is not available in the DP.

Q5. What are the possible theories and models that may
describe the structure of the noun phrases?

The language universals identified and found valid so far are listed in
the book The linguistics Encyclopedia. Many of the universals listed
here are not relevant to the structure of the noun phrases. Those
relevant to the study of the noun phrase are as follow:

1. When the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, then the

demonstrative and the numeral, with overwhelmingly more than
chance frequency, do likewise.

2. When the general rule is that the descriptive follows, there may be a
minority of adjectives, which usually precede, but when the general
rule is that descriptive adjectives precede, there are no exceptions.

3. When any or all of the items (demonstrative, numeral, and

descriptive adjective) precede the noun, they are always found in that
order. If they follow, the order is either the same or its exact opposite.

4. If in apposition the proper noun usually precedes the common noun,

then the language is one in which the governing noun precedes its
dependent genitive. With much better than chance frequency, if the

34
common noun usually precedes the proper noun, the dependent
genitive precedes its governing noun.

5. If the relative expression precedes the noun either as the only

construction or as an alternative construction, either the language is
postpositional, or the adjective precedes the noun or both.

6. If either the subject or the object noun agrees with the verb in
gender, then the adjective always agrees with the noun in gender.

7. Where morphemes of both number and case are present and both
follow or precede the noun base, the expression of number almost
always comes between the noun base and the expression of case.

8. When the adjective follows the noun, the adjective expresses all the
inflectional categories of the noun. In such cases the noun may lack
overt expression of one or all of these categories.

9. If a language has gender distinctions in the noun, it has gender

categories in the pronoun.

10. If a language has gender distinctions in the first person, it always

has gender distinctions in the second or third person, or in both.

11. If there are general distinctions in the plural of the pronoun, there
are some gender distinctions in the singular also.

The main purpose of this research was to describe the noun phrases
in English and Arabic and to find out whether the description leads to
any conclusions regarding language universals. It was though
worthwhile, nevertheless, to make certain concluding observations
regarding the tools used for description, i.e., principles and constructs
like x- bar syntax, Government and Binding, Theta Theory, and
Minimalism, particularly to ascertain whether Minimalism makes it
easier to analyze the structure of the noun phrase from two different

35
languages belonging of two different families than X-bar syntax. Based
on Kayne (1994), cited in Haegeman and Jacqueline (1999: 464), it
was found that all projections in English and other languages can be
represented in terms of a single binary branching system in the
following schema, which summarize the X-bar format of the
projection.

1. XP

Specifier X

X complement

XP is a constituent headed by X.
XP is a projection of X.

Applying this schema to NPs, and as NPs are projections of a head

determiner constituent, which implies that bare nominals are DPs
headed by a null determiner (ø), based on the X’-Theory of GB, we
can analyze the structure of Ali as follows in (2):

36
2. DP

specifier D

D NP

Specifier N

N Complement

Ali
Another example is when the noun comes preceded by a modifier in
English, as in the handsome boy in (3a) of which the example in (3b) is
the schematic structure. In English the head noun comes preceded by
the adjective.

3. a. The handsome boy.

37
b. DP

Spec D

D NP2

AP NPl

The handsome boy

In Arabic, which is a Semitic language, modifiers have to right

adjoin or follow the NP, as (4a) of which the example in (4b) is the
schematic structure.

4. a. ?l walad-u ?l waseem-u
the boy-NOM the handsome-NOM
‘the handsome boy’

38
b. DP

spec D

D NP2

NP1 AP

N spec A

A
N

The boy the handsome

As in English nominal phrases in the presence of a possessor phrase.

D must be non-overt, thus, either the possessor or the determiner is the
specifier position and they again come before the head, whereas
complements follow the head noun, as shown in:

5. a. NP

NP[-poss] NP

Ali’s N PP

Trust in God

39
 Also, in prepositional phrases, words like right or just may precede
the head in the specifier position and the preposition precedes its NP
complement, as shown in

b. pp

Adv P

Just P NP

In
Time

A third example is when a nominal phrase contains both a possessive

phrase and an adjective, as in (6). For these types of structures, the X-
Theory needs to postulate two agreement levels AGR1 and AGR2
within the nominal phrase structure in order to host these two noun
modifiers, where [ Spec, AGRP1]hosts the possessive phrase Israel’s
and [Spec, AGRP2] hosts the adjective first.

40
6. DP

D AGRP1

Spec AGR1

AGR1 AGRP2

Spec AGR2

AGR2 NP
N
Spec
N P

a. Israel’s first t invasion of Lebanon

b. its first t invasion of Lebanon

The Arabic structure for these types of nominal phrases that contain
both the possessor phrase and the adjective differs from the English
structure in two respects. First in the positions of the possessive phrase
and the adjective with respect to the noun, as the head noun will
precede them in Arabic and, second, in Arabic the D is filled whereas
in English in the presence of a possessor phrase, D must be non-overt,
as the example in (7) illustrates.

41
7. DP

D NP

Spec N

N AGRP1

Spec AGR

AGR1 AGRP2

Spec AGR2

Spec

Pp

a. ?al ghara ?al Israeli-ya ?al ula ‫؟‬ala Lebanon

the invasion- FEM the- Israeli-Fem the first on Lebanon
‘Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon’

In comparison, if we analyze the noun mentioned above based on the

minimalist system all that we need is to select two lexical items (LI)or
syntactic objects (SO) from the numeration N. This depends on the
competence of the language user to know which items to select.

Thus, in order to get the structure in the handsome boy the

computational system that exists in the language faculty in mind
selects the right lexical item from a numeration N that consists of

42
three- lexical items or syntactic objects the, handsome, and boy. Each
lexical item (LI) is indexed with (i), where (i) is the number of items
the LI will be selected in a computation process by the operation called
Select. A is said to be a set of (LI, i) pairs known as numeration (N).
When a lexical item (LI) is selected, the i. specified in N will be
reduced by one and the LI is added to the set of syntactic objects (SO),
namely, ∑. In MP trees are built from the bottom-up by taking lexical
items from the list and combing them with each other. In MP the
computational system (CS) works on lexical items provided by the
lexicon deriving optional representations of PF and LF. CS functions
as mapping a numeration (N) into PF and LF. The intermediate level
(X) has been excluded.

Thus, the computational system will choose the last two items at the
bottom of the structure. After making one syntactic object from
combing the two items in the bottom of the list, this syntactic item will
project to combine with the third lexical item or the syntactic object in
order to form another syntactic object, which will project again, and so
on. In other words, in combining two syntactic objects Merge follows a
cyclic condition in which every step is always going up: a syntactic
object (SO) project with an empty position to be filled with another
syntactic object to form a new one.

a. N= {boy¹, handsome¹, the¹} The

∑= ø The boy

b. Select boy Handsome boy

N= {boyº, handsome¹, the¹}

∑= {boy}

c. Select handsome

N= {boyº, handsomeº, the¹}

43
∑= {handsome, boy}

d. Select the

N= {boyº, handsomeº, theº}

∑= {the, handsome, boy}

similarly, for the noun phrase structure in Arabic al walad-u al

waseem-u the computational system uses the operation Select to Merge
two syntactic objects at a time till we get the structure in the noun
phrase mentioned above. For example:

a. N= {walad¹, al2, waseem¹}

∑= ø

b. N= {walad¹, ?al¹, waseem¹}

Select ?al

∑= {?al}

c. N= {walad-u¹, ?al¹, waseem-uº-----}

Select waseem

∑= {?al, waseem-u}

d. N= { walad-u-º, ?al, waseem-uº} Select walad

∑= {walad-u ?al waseem-u}

e. N= {walad-uº, ?alº, waseem-uº} Select ?al

∑= {?al, walad, ?al, waseem}

44
Q4. What are the similarities and differences between Noun
Phrases in Arabic and English languages?

There are some similarities and differences between Arabic and

English noun phrases. Through out this discussion we try to identify
these two important points of similarities and differences.

a) Similarities:

1. Both in English and in Arabic, the head word of a noun phrase can
be a noun, a pronoun (including an indefinite pronoun), or a
demonstrative.

2. Both in English and Arabic, the demonstrative has two functions:

I) The function of a demonstrative pronoun, which can be the head
word of a noun phrase.
II) The function of a determiner occupying a pre-head position in the
structure of a noun phrase.

3. Both in English and in Arabic, suffixes can be used for the

formation of the plural variant of a word.

4. Both in English and in Arabic, the locative adverbs, such as here and
there in English, and huna ‘here’ and hunak ‘there’ in Arabic can
follow the headword of a noun phrase.

5. Both in English and in Arabic, noun phrases consisting of a single

word or of the headword and its modifiers can be used as a question.

6. Both Arabic and English allow coordination and apposition in the

nucleus of a noun phrase.

7. Both in English and in Arabic, the headword can take both pre-
modifiers and post-modifiers.

45
8. Both in English and in Arabic, there are items, which can be used
before the headword in the structure of the noun phrase.

9. Both in English and in Arabic, there are items, which can be used
after the headword in the structure of the noun phrase.

10. Both in English and in Arabic, there is a definite article.

11. Both in English and in Arabic, the post-modifying item, i.e., the
item occurring after the headword can be:
a) An adjective.
b) An adverb.
c) A prepositional phrase.
d) A clause.

12. Both in English and in Arabic, the number of the headword of the
noun phrase determines the form of the verb.

13. In neither Arabic nor English can the names of a person be

preceded by the definite article.

14. Both in English and in Arabic, the post modifying part of the noun
phrase can be, for all practical purposes, infinitely recursive. For
example, in English The color of the bird on the branch of that tree in
the middle of that garden in the heart of that city is red, such structures
can occur in Arabic as well, e.g.;

lawn-u t –taer-i. ala ghus n-i. Tilk ash-shajarat-i fi

color-NOM the- bird- idafa on branch-GEN that the- tree- GEN in

was t –i. tilk al- Hadeeqa-I fi qalb-I tilk al- madeenati-i.

middle-GEN that the- garden- GEN in heart-GEN that the- City-GEN

aHmar-u. red-NOM.

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‘The color of the bird on the branch of that tree in the middle of that
garden in the heart of that city is red’.

15. Both in English and in Arabic, there are gradable and non-gradable
adjectives to be used in the noun phrase. An example from English:
rich, richer, richest, and from Arabic: ghani ‘rich’, aghna ‘richer’, and
al- aghna ‘the richest’.

16. Both in English and in Arabic, the headword of a noun phrase can
be preceded by ordinals.

b) Differences:

1. While English has both definite and indefinite articles and both
occur before the noun, in Arabic there is only the definite article al
‘the’ but no overt indefinite article.

2. While mass nouns, e.g., milk in (I like milk) and the plural of count
nouns, e.g., roses in (I like roses) need not be preceded by the definite
articles, in their Arabic translation, they must be preceded by the
definite article.

3. In English, sentences are rendered as ungrammatical if an article co-

occurs with demonstratives or possessive words in the same noun
phrase; in Arabic this is possible.

4. English and Arabic differ with regard to the position of ordinals in

the noun phrase. Ordinals can only precede the headword of a noun
phrase but in Arabic they can also follow the headword in the structure
of a noun phrase.

5. In English adjectives are not inflected for number and gender but in
Arabic they are.

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6. In English there can be a pre-modifying noun in the structure of a
noun phrase without that pre-modifying noun necessarily having a
possessive meaning. In Arabic, a possessive meaning is inevitable in
such cases.

7. In Arabic, the number and the gender of the possessor has an impact
on the form of the headword (kitab-u-hu ‘his book’, kitab-u-ha ‘her
book’, kitab-u-hum ‘their book’) but in English the number and the
gender has no impact on the form of the headword at all, e.g., his book,
her book, their book.

8. Adjectives in Arabic come post-nominally, whereas the pronominal

position of adjectives is impossible. In English, adjectives occur
mostly in the pre-nominal position but in certain cases they can also be
used after the headword, e.g.;

The president elect

The advocate General

So, as expected, there are a number of similarities as well as

differences within the structure of a noun phrase in English and the
structure of the noun phrase in Arabic.

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 Conclusion
During the process of describing the noun phrases in English and
Arabic it was realized that although the two languages Arabic and
English belong to two different language families, the application of
Minimalism to the description of the noun phrases in these two
languages made the task of this researcher easier and intellectually
more satisfying. In the experience of this researcher, descriptions in
terms of minimalism have an overwhelmingly higher descriptive and
explanatory adequacy. Taxonomic grammars of eclectic varieties may
seem easier to some people because of the fact it is taxonomic eclectic
grammar that has been taught in schools and colleges for decades.
Taxonomic descriptions of syntax seem easier because of their long
familiarity but they fail to attain a high level of adequacy. It is hereby
recommended, therefore, that research workers in the area of syntax,
particularly the Arab researchers, should make an ever- increasing use
of the latest model of Transformational Generative Grammar for a
satisfying description of their data.

Comparing Minimalism with X-theory in relation to the description

of noun phrases in Arabic and English, it became evident that
Minimalism is operationally simpler and easier than the X-theory. It is,
therefore, recommended that researchers working within Chomsky’
theoretical framework should familiarize themselves with Minimalism
and use that more and more in preference to X-bar syntax.
References:
1-Abney, S. R. 1987. "The noun phrase in its sentential aspect," Ph.D.
Thesis Cambridge:MIT.
2-Chomskey, N. 1957. Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.
3-Chomskey. N. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT
press.
4-Darwish, Zakiya. 2007. Noun phrase in Arabic and English. Ph.D. Sana'a
University, Arts.
5-
http://languagestudy.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_grammatical_noun_phras
e_modifier_in_english

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