Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In this example, it was not enough for Lucy to say 'building' as there are many
buildings on the Mile End Campus. Juan needed to know exactly which building
she was talking about. Lucy therefore modified the term 'building' with the words
Francis and Bancroft. Collectively, the three words behave as one. This is, in
essence, a noun phrase; a collection of words which work together.
Instruction
Read the sentences below and identify which sentences have noun phrases and
which do not. Put a tick or a cross in the appropriate button, before checking
your answer with the feedback.
1
Science and Engineering degrees are run by the school of Science and
Engineering.
Not all noun phrases are preceded by an article (see sentence 6). You will have
to apply the rules of articles to any noun phrase that you use. For more
information, take a look at the articles learning object.
Imagine you were standing in a bicycle shop, trying to buy a bike which was not
out on display, but which was in a catalogue (which you had left at home). You
would need to give a considerable amount of information to the sales assistant,
so that when s/he went into the stock room to get the bike for you, they would
know exactly which bike you were referring to. If they did not have all of the
necessary information, they would have to keep coming back to the shopfloor to
ask you questions about the bike.
2
All of the information which has been added between the word 'buy' and the
word 'with', is the noun phrase. Any information after the word 'with' is part of a
prepositional phrase. Linguistically speaking, this prepositional phrase is a
separate entity. However, for the purposes of 'chunking' ideas and conveying a
complete message you should think of it as being part of the noun phrase, as it
gives information about the main noun 'the bike'.
Instruction
Modify the noun phrase 'the lecturer' by adding information in between the words
'the' and 'lecturer'.
Show help Hide help
math
The lecturer
math old
The , lecturer
Instruction
Look at the noun phrase 'I want to buy the expensive, lightweight, red, 17"
frame, Marin, women's, mountain bike'. Answer the questions beneath by
putting a mark in the correct check box.
3
Show help Hide help
Q1) Look at the example of the noun phrase about the mountain bike. Which is
the head (main) noun?
frame
bike
mountain
buy
Q2) What is the position of the words 'expensive, lightweight, red, 17" frame,
Marin, women's, mountain' in the sentence? Do they appear before or after the
main noun?
before
after
Q3) What type of words are expensive, lightweight, red, 17" frame, Marin,
women's, mountain?
adjectives
nouns
nouns and adjectives
Activity 4:
Instruction
Look at the sentences below and decide which word is the main noun in the noun
phrase. Tick the correct option and then check your answers with the feedback.
1. Government web activity was frozen during the general election campaign.
4
Government
web activity
the general election
campaign
Mouse-wielding
civil servants
Whitehall
frantic rush
old pages
defunt policies
Downing Street
site
changes
4. She swallowed the dog which ate the cat which ate the bird which chased the
spider that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
She
the dog
the cat
the bird
the spider
Ll