Phrasal Constituents

Noun Phrases
Noun Phrases (NPs) are traditionally thought of as consisting minimally of a head
noun, together with any number of NP modifiers (Abney 1987). Typical NP modifiers in
English are: determiners (DET/Det/D); quantifiers (Q) and quantifier phrases (QP);
adjectives (Adj) and adjective phrases (AP); nouns (N) and noun phrases (NP);
adpositions (prepositions P) and adpositional/ prepositional phrases (PP) and clauses
(CP).
Determiners
Determiners form a closed class of functional words which have the general
property of not themselves permitting modification. The class of determiners includes:
articles (a, an, the); personal determiners (my, his, her); demonstratives (this, that etc.);
interrogative determiners (which/what); exclamatory determiners (What an idiot!); quality
determiners ( Such an idiot !).
NP
NP
DET

house

DET

my

toy

Quantifiers and Quantifier Phrases

Quantifiers (Q) have the general function of indicating the quantity of elements
referred to by the NP. Unlike determiners, they permit various kinds of modification and
therefore have their own phrasal structure. Typical quantifiers in English are: all, both,
half, every, each, any, either, some, much, enough, several, many, few, little, neither,
together with the cardinal numerals one, two, three etc.
NP
NP
Q

much

noise

five

balls

With the modification of the quantifier, it is possible to form quantifier phrases:

virtually all the houses, not nearly enough houses, almost two hours.
NP
QP

DET

almost

two

Adjectives and Adjective Phrases

hours

Adjectives and adjective phrases (AP) are NP modifiers par excellence. Here we
include: general adjectives; ordinal numerals such as first and second; related adjectives
such as next and last; adjectives such as same and other; the whole class of quantifiers.
(i) Adjectives in English are generally positioned between determiners and the head noun,
for example, that first tentative try, a large red apple.
NP
DET
a

Adj

Adj

large

red

N
apple

While there is a certain natural ordering relationships between the adjectives

themselves, orders which deviate from this ordering are typically possible: that tentative
first try, a red large apple.
(ii) APs in English may be formed by pre-modification of the adjective by adverbs, or
post-modification by PPs and clauses, e.g. very proud; proud of his success; proud that
she has got the job.
NP
NP
DET

AP
DET

Adj

PP

Adj

very

proud man

proud

of his success

The type of modification has an influence on the order of the noun head and the
adjective-phrase modifier within the noun phrase. Only pre-modified adjective phrases
pattern with single adjectives occurring before the head noun: a very proud man.
Post-modified adjective phrases must occur after the head: a woman proud of her
children, a woman proud that she has got the job.
NP
DET

N Adj

Conj

S
NP

woman

VP

proud that
N

she

Aux

-s -en have get

NP

the job

Nouns and Noun Phrases

Nouns themselves may act as noun-phrase pre-modifiers, e.g. a rubber factory.
The item rubber is a noun rather than an adjective because it can itself be modified by an
adjective a corrugated rubber factory. Adjectives themselves do not permit modification
by adjectives, so there is no alternative but to consider rubber as a noun. Noun-phrase
modifiers of this type cannot contain determiners, although they may contain quantifiers:
a party committee, a two-party committee, etc.
NP
NP
NP
DET

NP

rubber

DET

factory

two-party

committee

Adpositions and Adpositional Phrases

Adpositions are prepositions or postpositions, typically taking NP complements.
(i) Postpositional phrases are a common form of NP postmodifiers in English: the cat on
the roof, a house without a roof. Some prepositions can occur alone as postmodifiers: the
room underneath.
NP
NP
DET

PP
P
DET

The

cat

on

DET

NP

the

roof

the

room underneath

(ii) Prepositional phrases in English with thes genitive postposition are premodifiers with
a variety of functions including: the possessor function, e.g. the girls eyes which induces
the so-called definiteness effect: the unique eyes belonging to the girl; the subject
function, e.g. the governments decree that roads should be tested; the object function,
e.g. the boys punishment; the descriptive function, e.g. a womans dress of latest fashion.
DET

NP
PP

DET

NP
PP

NP
N

The

girls

eyes

womans

PP

dress of latest fashion