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Old page wikitext, before the edit (old_wikitext) | 'A '''noun phrase''' or '''nominal (phrase)''' is a [[phrase]] that has a [[noun]] (or [[indefinite pronoun]]) as its [[head (linguistics)|head]] or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<ref>For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</ref> Noun phrases are very common [[linguistic typology|cross-linguistically]], and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type.
Noun phrases often function as verb [[Subject (grammar)|subject]]s and [[Object (grammar)|object]]s, as [[predicative expression]]s, and as the complements of [[preposition and postposition|prepositions]]. Noun phrases can be embedded inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase ''some of his constituents'' contains the shorter noun phrase ''his constituents''.
In some more modern theories of grammar, noun phrases with [[determiner]]s are analyzed as having the determiner as the head of the phrase, see for instance Chomsky (1995) and Hudson (1990).
==Identification==
Some examples of noun phrases are underlined in the sentences below. The head noun appears in bold.
::<u>The election-year '''politics'''</u> are annoying for <u>many '''people'''</u>.
::<u>Almost every '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>at least one noun '''phrase'''</u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"''Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples''" is a noun phrase of which ''apples'' is the [[Head (linguistics)|head]]. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "''They'' look delicious".]]
::<u>Current economic '''weakness'''</u> may be <u>a '''result''' of high energy prices</u>.
Noun phrases can be identified by the possibility of pronoun substitution, as is illustrated in the examples below.
::a. <u>This '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>two noun '''phrases'''</u>.
::b. '''It''' contains '''them'''.
::a. <u>The subject noun '''phrase''' that is present in this sentence</u> is long.
::b. '''It''' is long.
::a. <u>Noun '''phrases'''</u> can be embedded in <u>other noun '''phrases'''</u>.
::b. '''They''' can be embedded in '''them'''.
A string of words that can be replaced by a single pronoun without rendering the sentence grammatically unacceptable is a noun phrase. As to whether the string must contain at least two words, see the following section.
==Status of single words as phrases==
Traditionally, a [[phrase]] is understood to contain two or more [[word]]s. The traditional progression in the size of syntactic units is ''word < phrase < [[clause]]'', and in this approach a single word (such as a noun or pronoun) would not be referred to as a phrase. However, many modern schools of syntax – especially those that have been influenced by [[X-bar theory]] – make no such restriction.<ref>For direct examples of approaches that obscure the distinction between nouns and pronouns on the one hand and noun phrases on the other, see for instance Matthews (1981:160f.) and (Lockwood (2002:3).</ref> Here many single words are judged to be phrases based on a desire for theory-internal consistency. A phrase is deemed to be a word or a combination of words that appears in a set syntactic position, for instance in subject position or object position.
On this understanding of phrases, the nouns and pronouns in bold in the following sentences are noun phrases (as well as nouns or pronouns):
::'''He''' saw '''someone'''.
::'''Milk''' is good.
::'''They''' spoke about '''corruption'''.
The words in bold are called phrases since they appear in the syntactic positions where multiple-word phrases (i.e. traditional phrases) can appear. This practice takes the constellation to be primitive rather than the words themselves. The word ''he'', for instance, functions as a pronoun, but within the sentence it also functions as a noun phrase. The [[phrase structure grammar]]s of the Chomskyan tradition ([[government and binding theory]] and the [[minimalist program]]) are primary examples of theories that apply this understanding of phrases. Other grammars such as [[dependency grammar]]s are likely to reject this approach to phrases, since they take the words themselves to be primitive. For them, phrases must contain two or more words.
==Components==
A typical noun phrase consists of a noun (the [[head (linguistics)|head]] of the phrase) together with zero or more dependents of various types. (These dependents, since they modify a noun, are called ''adnominal''.) The chief types of these dependents are:
*[[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]]s, such as ''the'', ''this'', ''my'', ''some'', ''Jane's''
*[[attributive adjective]]s, such as ''large'', ''beautiful'', ''sweeter''
*[[adjective phrase]]s and [[participial phrase]]s, such as ''extremely large'', ''hard as nails'', ''made of wood'', ''sitting on the step''
* [[noun adjunct]]s, such as ''college'' in the noun phrase ''a college student''
* nouns in certain [[oblique case]]s, in languages which have them, such as [[German grammar|German]] ''des Mannes'' ("of the man"; [[genitive]] form)
*[[prepositional phrase]]s, such as ''in the drawing room'', ''of his aunt''
*adnominal [[adverb]]s and [[adverbial]]s, such as ''(over) there'' in the noun phrase ''the man (over) there''
*[[relative clause]]s, such as ''which we noticed''
*other [[clause]]s serving as complements to the noun, such as ''that God exists'' in the noun phrase ''the belief that God exists''
*[[infinitive phrase]]s, such as ''to sing well'' and ''to beat'' in the noun phrases ''a desire to sing well'' and ''the man to beat''
The allowability, form and position of these elements depend on the syntax of the language in question. In English, determiners, adjectives (and some adjective phrases) and noun modifiers precede the head noun, whereas the heavier units – phrases and clauses – generally follow it. This is part of a strong tendency in English to place heavier constituents to the right, making English more of a [[head-initial]] language. Head-final languages (e.g. [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]) are more likely to place all modifiers before the head noun. Other languages, such as [[French language|French]], often place even single-word adjectives after the noun.
Noun phrases can take different forms than that described above, for example when the head is a pronoun rather than a noun, or when elements are linked with a [[coordinating conjunction]] such as ''and'', ''or'', ''but''. For more information about the structure of noun phrases in English, see {{slink|English grammar|Noun phrases}}.
==Syntactic function==
Noun phrases typically bear [[argument (linguistics)|argument]] functions.<ref>Concerning how noun phrases function, see for instance Stockwell (1977:55ff.).</ref> That is, the [[grammatical relation|syntactic function]]s that they fulfill are those of the arguments of the main clause [[predicate (grammar)|predicate]], particularly those of [[subject (grammar)|subject]], [[object (grammar)|object]] and [[predicative expression]]. They also function as arguments in such constructs as [[participial phrase]]s and [[prepositional phrase]]s. For example:
::For us <u>the news</u> is a concern. <small>– ''the news'' is the subject argument</small>
::Have you heard <u>the news</u>? <small>– ''the news'' is the object argument</small>
::That is <u>the news</u>. <small>– ''the news'' is the predicative expression following the copula ''is''</small>
::They are talking about <u>the news</u>. <small>– ''the news'' is the argument in the prepositional phrase ''about the news''</small>
::The man reading <u>the news</u> is very tall. <small>– ''the news'' is the object argument in the participial phrase ''reading the news''</small>
Sometimes a noun phrase can also function as an [[Adjunct (grammar)|adjunct]] of the main clause predicate, thus taking on an [[adverb]]ial function, e.g.
::<u>Most days</u> I read the newspaper.
::She has been studying <u>all night</u>.
==With and without determiners==
In some languages, including English, noun phrases are required to be "completed" with a [[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]] in many contexts, and thus a distinction is made in syntactic analysis between phrases that have received their required determiner (such as ''the big house''), and those in which the determiner is lacking (such as ''big house'').
The situation is complicated by the fact that in some contexts a noun phrase may nonetheless be used without a determiner (as in ''I like big houses''); in this case the phrase may be described as having a "null determiner". (Situations in which this is possible depend on the rules of the language in question; for English, see [[English articles]].)
In the original [[X-bar theory]], the two respective types of entity are called noun phrase (NP) and N-bar (<span style="text-decoration:overline">N</span>, N′). Thus in the sentence ''Here is the big house'', both ''house'' and ''big house'' are N-bars, while ''the big house'' is a noun phrase. In the sentence ''I like big houses'', both ''houses'' and ''big houses'' are N-bars, but ''big houses'' also functions as a noun phrase (in this case without an explicit determiner).
In some modern theories of syntax, however, what are called "noun phrases" above are no longer considered to be headed by a noun, but by the determiner (which may be null), and they are thus called ''[[determiner phrase]]s'' (DP) instead of noun phrases. (In some accounts that take this approach, the constituent lacking the determiner – that called N-bar above – may be referred to as a noun phrase.)
This analysis of noun phrases is widely referred to as the ''DP hypothesis''. It has been the preferred analysis of noun phrases in the [[minimalist program]] from its start (since the early 1990s), though the arguments in its favor tend to be theory-internal. By taking the determiner, a function word, to be head over the noun, a structure is established that is analogous to the structure of the [[finite clause]], with a [[complementizer]]. Apart from the minimalist program, however, the DP hypothesis is rejected by most other modern theories of syntax and grammar, in part because these theories lack the relevant functional categories.<ref>For discussion and criticism of the DP analysis of noun phrases, see Matthews (2007:12ff.).</ref> Dependency grammars, for instance, almost all assume the traditional NP analysis of noun phrases.
For illustrations of different analyses of noun phrases depending on whether the DP hypothesis is rejected or accepted, see the next section.
==Tree representations==
The representation of noun phrases using [[parse tree]]s depends on the basic approach to syntactic structure adopted. The layered trees of many [[phrase structure grammar]]s grant noun phrases an intricate structure that acknowledges a hierarchy of functional projections. [[Dependency grammar]]s, in contrast, since the basic architecture of dependency places a major limitation on the amount of structure that the theory can assume, produce simple, relatively flat structures for noun phrases.
The representation also depends on whether the noun or the determiner is taken to be the head of the phrase (see the discussion of the DP hypothesis in the previous section).
Below are some possible trees for the two noun phrases ''the big house'' and ''big houses'' (as in the sentences ''Here is the big house'' and ''I like big houses'').
1. [[Phrase-structure grammar|Phrase-structure]] trees, first using the original X-bar theory, then using the modern DP approach:
<pre>
NP NP | DP DP
/ \ | | / \ |
det N' N' | det NP NP
| / \ / \ | | / \ / \
the adj N' adj N' | the adj NP adj NP
| | | | | | | | |
big N big N | big N big N
| | | | |
house houses | house houses
</pre>
2. [[Dependency grammar|Dependency]] trees, first using the traditional NP approach, then using the DP approach:
<pre>
house houses | the (null)
/ / / | \ \
/ / big | house houses
the big | / /
| big big
</pre>
The following trees represent a more complex phrase. For simplicity, only dependency-based trees are given.<ref>For a dependency grammar analysis of noun phrases similar to the one represented by the trees here, see for instance Starosta (1988:219ff.). For an example of a relatively "flat" analysis of NP structure like the one produced here, but in a phrase structure grammar, see Culicover and Jackendoff (2005:140).</ref>
The first tree is based on the traditional assumption that nouns, rather than determiners, are the heads of phrases.
::[[File:Noun phrase tree 1.png|Noun phrase tree 1]]
The head noun ''picture'' has the four dependents ''the'', ''old'', ''of Fred'', and ''that I found in the drawer''. The tree shows how the lighter dependents appear as pre-dependents (preceding their head) and the heavier ones as post-dependents (following their head).
The second tree assumes the DP hypothesis, namely that determiners rather than nouns serve as phrase heads.
::[[File:Noun phrase tree 2'.png|Noun phrase tree 2']]
The determiner ''the'' is now depicted as the head of the entire phrase, thus making the phrase a determiner phrase. Note that there is still a noun phrase present (''old picture of Fred that I found in the drawer'') but this phrase is below the determiner.
==See also==
*[[Chunking (computational linguistics)]]
*[[Nominal group (functional grammar)]]
==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
*{{cite book|author=Chomsky, N.|authorlink=Noam Chomsky|year=1995|title=The Minimalist Program|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=The MIT Press}}
*{{cite book|author=Crystal, D.|authorlink=David Crystal|year=1997|title=A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics|publisher=Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers|url=http://data.ulis.vnu.edu.vn/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1966/1/54_1405152974.pdf|isbn=978-1-405-15296-9}}
*{{cite book|author=[[Peter Culicover|Culicover, P.]] and [[Ray Jackendoff|R. Jackendoff]]|year=2005|title=[[Simpler syntax]]|location=Oxford, UK|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
*{{cite book|author=Hudson, R.|authorlink=Richard Hudson (linguist)|year=1990|title=English Word Grammar|location=Oxford|publisher=Basil Blackwell}}
*Lockwood, D. 2002. Syntactic analysis and description: A constructional approach. London: Continuum.
*{{cite book|author=Matthews, P.|authorlink=Peter Hugoe Matthews|year=1981|title=Syntax|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
*{{cite book|author=Matthews, P.|year=2007|title=Syntactic relations: A critical survey|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521608299}}
*[[Andrew Radford (linguist)|Radford, A.]] 2004. English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
*{{cite book|author=Starosta, S.|year=1988|title=The case for lexicase|location=London|publisher=Pinter Publishers|isbn=0-86187-639-3}}
*Stockwell, P. 1977. Foundations of syntactic theory Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
[[Category:Syntactic categories]]
[[Category: Grammatical construction types]]
[[Category:Phrases|*]]' |
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext) | 'A '''noun phrase''' or '''poopy poop poop poop poop poop poop pooop pooop poo poo pee pe hererererrererehehehehe heeeeeeeeeeeeee (phrase)''' is a [[phrase]] that has a [[noun]] (or [[indefinite pronoun]]) as its [[head (linguistics)|head]] or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<ref>For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</ref> Noun phrases are very common [[linguistic typology|cross-linguistically]], and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type.
Noun phrases often function as verb [[Subject (grammar)|subject]]s and [[Object (grammar)|object]]s, as [[predicative expression]]s, and as the complements of [[preposition and postposition|prepositions]]. Noun phrases can be embedded inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase ''some of his constituents'' contains the shorter noun phrase ''his constituents''.
In some more modern theories of grammar, noun phrases with [[determiner]]s are analyzed as having the determiner as the head of the phrase, see for instance Chomsky (1995) and Hudson (1990).
==Identification==
Some examples of noun phrases are underlined in the sentences below. The head noun appears in bold.
::<u>The election-year '''politics'''</u> are annoying for <u>many '''people'''</u>.
::<u>Almost every '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>at least one noun '''phrase'''</u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"''Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples''" is a noun phrase of which ''apples'' is the [[Head (linguistics)|head]]. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "''They'' look delici
::b. '''It''' is long.
::a. <u>Noun '''phrases'''</u> can be embedded in <u>other noun '''phrases'''</u>.
::b. '''They''' can be embedded in '''them'''.
A string of words that can be replaced by a single pronoun without rendering the sentence grammatically unacceptable is a noun phrase. As to whether the string must contain at least two words, see the following section.
==Status of single words as phrases==
Traditionally, a [[phrase]] is understood to contain two or more [[word]]s. The traditional progression in the size of syntactic units is ''word < phrase < [[clause]]'', and in this approach a single word (such as a noun or pronoun) would not be referred to as a phrase. However, many modern schools of syntax – especially those that have been influenced by [[X-bar theory]] – make no such restriction.<ref>For direct examples of approaches that obscure the distinction between nouns and pronouns on the one hand and noun phrases on the other, see for instance Matthews (1981:160f.) and (Lockwood (2002:3).</ref> Here many single words are judged to be phrases based on a desire for theory-internal consistency. A phrase is deemed to be a word or a combination of words that appears in a set syntactic position, for instance in subject position or object position.
On this understanding of phrases, the nouns and pronouns in bold in the following sentences are noun phrases (as well as nouns or pronouns):
::'''He''' saw '''someone'''.
::'''Milk''' is good.
::'''They''' spoke about '''corruption'''.
The words in bold are called phrases since they appear in the syntactic positions where multiple-word phrases (i.e. traditional phrases) can appear. This practice takes the constellation to be primitive rather than the words themselves. The word ''he'', for instance, functions as a pronoun, but within the sentence it also functions as a noun phrase. The [[phrase structure grammar]]s of the Chomskyan tradition ([[government and binding theory]] and the [[minimalist program]]) are primary examples of theories that apply this understanding of phrases. Other grammars such as [[dependency grammar]]s are likely to reject this approach to phrases, since they take the words themselves to be primitive. For them, phrases must contain two or more words.
==Components==
A typical noun phrase consists of a noun (the [[head (linguistics)|head]] of the phrase) together with zero or more dependents of various types. (These dependents, since they modify a noun, are called ''adnominal''.) The chief types of these dependents are:
*[[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]]s, such as ''the'', ''this'', ''my'', ''some'', ''Jane's''
*[[attributive adjective]]s, such as ''large'', ''beautiful'', ''sweeter''
*[[adjective phrase]]s and [[participial phrase]]s, such as ''extremely large'', ''hard as nails'', ''made of wood'', ''sitting on the step''
* [[noun adjunct]]s, such as ''college'' in the noun phrase ''a college student''
* nouns in certain [[oblique case]]s, in languages which have them, such as [[German grammar|German]] ''des Mannes'' ("of the man"; [[genitive]] form)
*[[prepositional phrase]]s, such as ''in the drawing room'', ''of his aunt''
*adnominal [[adverb]]s and [[adverbial]]s, such as ''(over) there'' in the noun phrase ''the man (over) there''
*[[relative clause]]s, such as ''which we noticed''
*other [[clause]]s serving as complements to the noun, such as ''that God exists'' in the noun phrase ''the belief that God exists''
*[[infinitive phrase]]s, such as ''to sing well'' and ''to beat'' in the noun phrases ''a desire to sing well'' and ''the man to beat''
The allowability, form and position of these elements depend on the syntax of the language in question. In English, determiners, adjectives (and some adjective phrases) and noun modifiers precede the head noun, whereas the heavier units – phrases and clauses – generally follow it. This is part of a strong tendency in English to place heavier constituents to the right, making English more of a [[head-initial]] language. Head-final languages (e.g. [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]) are more likely to place all modifiers before the head noun. Other languages, such as [[French language|French]], often place even single-word adjectives after the noun.
Noun phrases can take different forms than that described above, for example when the head is a pronoun rather than a noun, or when elements are linked with a [[coordinating conjunction]] such as ''and'', ''or'', ''but''. For more information about the structure of noun phrases in English, see {{slink|English grammar|Noun phrases}}.
==Syntactic function==
Noun phrases typically bear [[argument (linguistics)|argument]] functions.<ref>Concerning how noun phrases function, see for instance Stockwell (1977:55ff.).</ref> That is, the [[grammatical relation|syntactic function]]s that they fulfill are those of the arguments of the main clause [[predicate (grammar)|predicate]], particularly those of [[subject (grammar)|subject]], [[object (grammar)|object]] and [[predicative expression]]. They also function as arguments in such constructs as [[participial phrase]]s and [[prepositional phrase]]s. For example:
::For us <u>the news</u> is a concern. <small>– ''the news'' is the subject argument</small>
::Have you heard <u>the news</u>? <small>– ''the news'' is the object argument</small>
::That is <u>the news</u>. <small>– ''the news'' is the predicative expression following the copula ''is''</small>
::They are talking about <u>the news</u>. <small>– ''the news'' is the argument in the prepositional phrase ''about the news''</small>
::The man reading <u>the news</u> is very tall. <small>– ''the news'' is the object argument in the participial phrase ''reading the news''</small>
Sometimes a noun phrase can also function as an [[Adjunct (grammar)|adjunct]] of the main clause predicate, thus taking on an [[adverb]]ial function, e.g.
::<u>Most days</u> I read the newspaper.
::She has been studying <u>all night</u>.
==With and without determiners==
In some languages, including English, noun phrases are required to be "completed" with a [[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]] in many contexts, and thus a distinction is made in syntactic analysis between phrases that have received their required determiner (such as ''the big house''), and those in which the determiner is lacking (such as ''big house'').
The situation is complicated by the fact that in some contexts a noun phrase may nonetheless be used without a determiner (as in ''I like big houses''); in this case the phrase may be described as having a "null determiner". (Situations in which this is possible depend on the rules of the language in question; for English, see [[English articles]].)
In the original [[X-bar theory]], the two respective types of entity are called noun phrase (NP) and N-bar (<span style="text-decoration:overline">N</span>, N′). Thus in the sentence ''Here is the big house'', both ''house'' and ''big house'' are N-bars, while ''the big house'' is a noun phrase. In the sentence ''I like big houses'', both ''houses'' and ''big houses'' are N-bars, but ''big houses'' also functions as a noun phrase (in this case without an explicit determiner).
In some modern theories of syntax, however, what are called "noun phrases" above are no longer considered to be headed by a noun, but by the determiner (which may be null), and they are thus called ''[[determiner phrase]]s'' (DP) instead of noun phrases. (In some accounts that take this approach, the constituent lacking the determiner – that called N-bar above – may be referred to as a noun phrase.)
This analysis of noun phrases is widely referred to as the ''DP hypothesis''. It has been the preferred analysis of noun phrases in the [[minimalist program]] from its start (since the early 1990s), though the arguments in its favor tend to be theory-internal. By taking the determiner, a function word, to be head over the noun, a structure is established that is analogous to the structure of the [[finite clause]], with a [[complementizer]]. Apart from the minimalist program, however, the DP hypothesis is rejected by most other modern theories of syntax and grammar, in part because these theories lack the relevant functional categories.<ref>For discussion and criticism of the DP analysis of noun phrases, see Matthews (2007:12ff.).</ref> Dependency grammars, for instance, almost all assume the traditional NP analysis of noun phrases.
For illustrations of different analyses of noun phrases depending on whether the DP hypothesis is rejected or accepted, see the next section.
==Tree representations==
The representation of noun phrases using [[parse tree]]s depends on the basic approach to syntactic structure adopted. The layered trees of many [[phrase structure grammar]]s grant noun phrases an intricate structure that acknowledges a hierarchy of functional projections. [[Dependency grammar]]s, in contrast, since the basic architecture of dependency places a major limitation on the amount of structure that the theory can assume, produce simple, relatively flat structures for noun phrases.
The representation also depends on whether the noun or the determiner is taken to be the head of the phrase (see the discussion of the DP hypothesis in the previous section).
Below are some possible trees for the two noun phrases ''the big house'' and ''big houses'' (as in the sentences ''Here is the big house'' and ''I like big houses'').
1. [[Phrase-structure grammar|Phrase-structure]] trees, first using the original X-bar theory, then using the modern DP approach:
<pre>
NP NP | DP DP
/ \ | | / \ |
det N' N' | det NP NP
| / \ / \ | | / \ / \
the adj N' adj N' | the adj NP adj NP
| | | | | | | | |
big N big N | big N big N
| | | | |
house houses | house houses
</pre>
2. [[Dependency grammar|Dependency]] trees, first using the traditional NP approach, then using the DP approach:
<pre>
house houses | the (null)
/ / / | \ \
/ / big | house houses
the big | / /
| big big
</pre>
The following trees represent a more complex phrase. For simplicity, only dependency-based trees are given.<ref>For a dependency grammar analysis of noun phrases similar to the one represented by the trees here, see for instance Starosta (1988:219ff.). For an example of a relatively "flat" analysis of NP structure like the one produced here, but in a phrase structure grammar, see Culicover and Jackendoff (2005:140).</ref>
The first tree is based on the traditional assumption that nouns, rather than determiners, are the heads of phrases.
::[[File:Noun phrase tree 1.png|Noun phrase tree 1]]
The head noun ''picture'' has the four dependents ''the'', ''old'', ''of Fred'', and ''that I found in the drawer''. The tree shows how the lighter dependents appear as pre-dependents (preceding their head) and the heavier ones as post-dependents (following their head).
The second tree assumes the DP hypothesis, namely that determiners rather than nouns serve as phrase heads.
::[[File:Noun phrase tree 2'.png|Noun phrase tree 2']]
The determiner ''the'' is now depicted as the head of the entire phrase, thus making the phrase a determiner phrase. Note that there is still a noun phrase present (''old picture of Fred that I found in the drawer'') but this phrase is below the determiner.
==See also==
*[[Chunking (computational linguistics)]]
*[[Nominal group (functional grammar)]]
==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
*{{cite book|author=Chomsky, N.|authorlink=Noam Chomsky|year=1995|title=The Minimalist Program|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=The MIT Press}}
*{{cite book|author=Crystal, D.|authorlink=David Crystal|year=1997|title=A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics|publisher=Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers|url=http://data.ulis.vnu.edu.vn/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1966/1/54_1405152974.pdf|isbn=978-1-405-15296-9}}
*{{cite book|author=[[Peter Culicover|Culicover, P.]] and [[Ray Jackendoff|R. Jackendoff]]|year=2005|title=[[Simpler syntax]]|location=Oxford, UK|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
*{{cite book|author=Hudson, R.|authorlink=Richard Hudson (linguist)|year=1990|title=English Word Grammar|location=Oxford|publisher=Basil Blackwell}}
*Lockwood, D. 2002. Syntactic analysis and description: A constructional approach. London: Continuum.
*{{cite book|author=Matthews, P.|authorlink=Peter Hugoe Matthews|year=1981|title=Syntax|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
*{{cite book|author=Matthews, P.|year=2007|title=Syntactic relations: A critical survey|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521608299}}
*[[Andrew Radford (linguist)|Radford, A.]] 2004. English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
*{{cite book|author=Starosta, S.|year=1988|title=The case for lexicase|location=London|publisher=Pinter Publishers|isbn=0-86187-639-3}}
*Stockwell, P. 1977. Foundations of syntactic theory Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
[[Category:Syntactic categories]]
[[Category: Grammatical construction types]]
[[Category:Phrases|*]]' |
Unified diff of changes made by edit (edit_diff) | '@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-A '''noun phrase''' or '''nominal (phrase)''' is a [[phrase]] that has a [[noun]] (or [[indefinite pronoun]]) as its [[head (linguistics)|head]] or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<ref>For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</ref> Noun phrases are very common [[linguistic typology|cross-linguistically]], and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type.
+A '''noun phrase''' or '''poopy poop poop poop poop poop poop pooop pooop poo poo pee pe hererererrererehehehehe heeeeeeeeeeeeee (phrase)''' is a [[phrase]] that has a [[noun]] (or [[indefinite pronoun]]) as its [[head (linguistics)|head]] or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<ref>For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</ref> Noun phrases are very common [[linguistic typology|cross-linguistically]], and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type.
Noun phrases often function as verb [[Subject (grammar)|subject]]s and [[Object (grammar)|object]]s, as [[predicative expression]]s, and as the complements of [[preposition and postposition|prepositions]]. Noun phrases can be embedded inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase ''some of his constituents'' contains the shorter noun phrase ''his constituents''.
@@ -8,12 +8,5 @@
Some examples of noun phrases are underlined in the sentences below. The head noun appears in bold.
::<u>The election-year '''politics'''</u> are annoying for <u>many '''people'''</u>.
-::<u>Almost every '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>at least one noun '''phrase'''</u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"''Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples''" is a noun phrase of which ''apples'' is the [[Head (linguistics)|head]]. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "''They'' look delicious".]]
-::<u>Current economic '''weakness'''</u> may be <u>a '''result''' of high energy prices</u>.
-
-Noun phrases can be identified by the possibility of pronoun substitution, as is illustrated in the examples below.
-
-::a. <u>This '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>two noun '''phrases'''</u>.
-::b. '''It''' contains '''them'''.
-::a. <u>The subject noun '''phrase''' that is present in this sentence</u> is long.
+::<u>Almost every '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>at least one noun '''phrase'''</u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"''Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples''" is a noun phrase of which ''apples'' is the [[Head (linguistics)|head]]. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "''They'' look delici
::b. '''It''' is long.
::a. <u>Noun '''phrases'''</u> can be embedded in <u>other noun '''phrases'''</u>.
' |
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0 => 'A '''noun phrase''' or '''poopy poop poop poop poop poop poop pooop pooop poo poo pee pe hererererrererehehehehe heeeeeeeeeeeeee (phrase)''' is a [[phrase]] that has a [[noun]] (or [[indefinite pronoun]]) as its [[head (linguistics)|head]] or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<ref>For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</ref> Noun phrases are very common [[linguistic typology|cross-linguistically]], and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type. ',
1 => '::<u>Almost every '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>at least one noun '''phrase'''</u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"''Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples''" is a noun phrase of which ''apples'' is the [[Head (linguistics)|head]]. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "''They'' look delici'
] |
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0 => 'A '''noun phrase''' or '''nominal (phrase)''' is a [[phrase]] that has a [[noun]] (or [[indefinite pronoun]]) as its [[head (linguistics)|head]] or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<ref>For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</ref> Noun phrases are very common [[linguistic typology|cross-linguistically]], and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type. ',
1 => '::<u>Almost every '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>at least one noun '''phrase'''</u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"''Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples''" is a noun phrase of which ''apples'' is the [[Head (linguistics)|head]]. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "''They'' look delicious".]]',
2 => '::<u>Current economic '''weakness'''</u> may be <u>a '''result''' of high energy prices</u>.',
3 => '',
4 => 'Noun phrases can be identified by the possibility of pronoun substitution, as is illustrated in the examples below.',
5 => '',
6 => '::a. <u>This '''sentence'''</u> contains <u>two noun '''phrases'''</u>. ',
7 => '::b. '''It''' contains '''them'''.',
8 => '::a. <u>The subject noun '''phrase''' that is present in this sentence</u> is long. '
] |
Parsed HTML source of the new revision (new_html) | '<div class="mw-parser-output"><p>A <b>noun phrase</b> or <b>poopy poop poop poop poop poop poop pooop pooop poo poo pee pe hererererrererehehehehe heeeeeeeeeeeeee (phrase)</b> is a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Phrase" title="Phrase">phrase</a> that has a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Noun" title="Noun">noun</a> (or <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Indefinite_pronoun" title="Indefinite pronoun">indefinite pronoun</a>) as its <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Head_(linguistics)" title="Head (linguistics)">head</a> or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> Noun phrases are very common <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Linguistic_typology" title="Linguistic typology">cross-linguistically</a>, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type.
</p><p>Noun phrases often function as verb <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Subject_(grammar)" title="Subject (grammar)">subjects</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Object_(grammar)" title="Object (grammar)">objects</a>, as <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Predicative_expression" title="Predicative expression">predicative expressions</a>, and as the complements of <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition" title="Preposition and postposition">prepositions</a>. Noun phrases can be embedded inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase <i>some of his constituents</i> contains the shorter noun phrase <i>his constituents</i>.
</p><p>In some more modern theories of grammar, noun phrases with <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Determiner" title="Determiner">determiners</a> are analyzed as having the determiner as the head of the phrase, see for instance Chomsky (1995) and Hudson (1990).
</p>
<div id="toc" class="toc"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2>Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#Identification"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Identification</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#Status_of_single_words_as_phrases"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Status of single words as phrases</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#Components"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Components</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="#Syntactic_function"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Syntactic function</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="#With_and_without_determiners"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">With and without determiners</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="#Tree_representations"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">Tree representations</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="#Footnotes"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Footnotes</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Identification">Identification</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Identification">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>Some examples of noun phrases are underlined in the sentences below. The head noun appears in bold.
</p>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><u>The election-year <b>politics</b></u> are annoying for <u>many <b>people</b></u>.</dd>
<dd><u>Almost every <b>sentence</b></u> contains <u>at least one noun <b>phrase</b></u>.[[Image:Arkansas Black apples.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"<i>Those five beautiful shiny Arkansas Black apples</i>" is a noun phrase of which <i>apples</i> is the <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Head_(linguistics)" title="Head (linguistics)">head</a>. To test, a single pronoun can replace the whole noun phrase, as in "<i>They</i> look delici</dd>
<dd>b. <b>It</b> is long.</dd>
<dd>a. <u>Noun <b>phrases</b></u> can be embedded in <u>other noun <b>phrases</b></u>.</dd>
<dd>b. <b>They</b> can be embedded in <b>them</b>.</dd></dl></dd></dl>
<p>A string of words that can be replaced by a single pronoun without rendering the sentence grammatically unacceptable is a noun phrase. As to whether the string must contain at least two words, see the following section.
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Status_of_single_words_as_phrases">Status of single words as phrases</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Status of single words as phrases">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>Traditionally, a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Phrase" title="Phrase">phrase</a> is understood to contain two or more <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Word" title="Word">words</a>. The traditional progression in the size of syntactic units is <i>word < phrase < <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Clause" title="Clause">clause</a></i>, and in this approach a single word (such as a noun or pronoun) would not be referred to as a phrase. However, many modern schools of syntax – especially those that have been influenced by <a href="/enwiki/wiki/X-bar_theory" title="X-bar theory">X-bar theory</a> – make no such restriction.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> Here many single words are judged to be phrases based on a desire for theory-internal consistency. A phrase is deemed to be a word or a combination of words that appears in a set syntactic position, for instance in subject position or object position.
</p><p>On this understanding of phrases, the nouns and pronouns in bold in the following sentences are noun phrases (as well as nouns or pronouns):
</p>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><b>He</b> saw <b>someone</b>.</dd>
<dd><b>Milk</b> is good.</dd>
<dd><b>They</b> spoke about <b>corruption</b>.</dd></dl></dd></dl>
<p>The words in bold are called phrases since they appear in the syntactic positions where multiple-word phrases (i.e. traditional phrases) can appear. This practice takes the constellation to be primitive rather than the words themselves. The word <i>he</i>, for instance, functions as a pronoun, but within the sentence it also functions as a noun phrase. The <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Phrase_structure_grammar" title="Phrase structure grammar">phrase structure grammars</a> of the Chomskyan tradition (<a href="/enwiki/wiki/Government_and_binding_theory" title="Government and binding theory">government and binding theory</a> and the <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Minimalist_program" title="Minimalist program">minimalist program</a>) are primary examples of theories that apply this understanding of phrases. Other grammars such as <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Dependency_grammar" title="Dependency grammar">dependency grammars</a> are likely to reject this approach to phrases, since they take the words themselves to be primitive. For them, phrases must contain two or more words.
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Components">Components</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Components">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>A typical noun phrase consists of a noun (the <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Head_(linguistics)" title="Head (linguistics)">head</a> of the phrase) together with zero or more dependents of various types. (These dependents, since they modify a noun, are called <i>adnominal</i>.) The chief types of these dependents are:
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Determiner_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Determiner (linguistics)">determiners</a>, such as <i>the</i>, <i>this</i>, <i>my</i>, <i>some</i>, <i>Jane's</i></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Attributive_adjective" class="mw-redirect" title="Attributive adjective">attributive adjectives</a>, such as <i>large</i>, <i>beautiful</i>, <i>sweeter</i></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Adjective_phrase" title="Adjective phrase">adjective phrases</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Participial_phrase" class="mw-redirect" title="Participial phrase">participial phrases</a>, such as <i>extremely large</i>, <i>hard as nails</i>, <i>made of wood</i>, <i>sitting on the step</i></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Noun_adjunct" title="Noun adjunct">noun adjuncts</a>, such as <i>college</i> in the noun phrase <i>a college student</i></li>
<li>nouns in certain <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Oblique_case" title="Oblique case">oblique cases</a>, in languages which have them, such as <a href="/enwiki/wiki/German_grammar" title="German grammar">German</a> <i>des Mannes</i> ("of the man"; <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Genitive" class="mw-redirect" title="Genitive">genitive</a> form)</li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Prepositional_phrase" class="mw-redirect" title="Prepositional phrase">prepositional phrases</a>, such as <i>in the drawing room</i>, <i>of his aunt</i></li>
<li>adnominal <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Adverb" title="Adverb">adverbs</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Adverbial" title="Adverbial">adverbials</a>, such as <i>(over) there</i> in the noun phrase <i>the man (over) there</i></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Relative_clause" title="Relative clause">relative clauses</a>, such as <i>which we noticed</i></li>
<li>other <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Clause" title="Clause">clauses</a> serving as complements to the noun, such as <i>that God exists</i> in the noun phrase <i>the belief that God exists</i></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Infinitive_phrase" class="mw-redirect" title="Infinitive phrase">infinitive phrases</a>, such as <i>to sing well</i> and <i>to beat</i> in the noun phrases <i>a desire to sing well</i> and <i>the man to beat</i></li></ul>
<p>The allowability, form and position of these elements depend on the syntax of the language in question. In English, determiners, adjectives (and some adjective phrases) and noun modifiers precede the head noun, whereas the heavier units – phrases and clauses – generally follow it. This is part of a strong tendency in English to place heavier constituents to the right, making English more of a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Head-initial" class="mw-redirect" title="Head-initial">head-initial</a> language. Head-final languages (e.g. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Turkish_language" title="Turkish language">Turkish</a>) are more likely to place all modifiers before the head noun. Other languages, such as <a href="/enwiki/wiki/French_language" title="French language">French</a>, often place even single-word adjectives after the noun.
</p><p>Noun phrases can take different forms than that described above, for example when the head is a pronoun rather than a noun, or when elements are linked with a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Coordinating_conjunction" class="mw-redirect" title="Coordinating conjunction">coordinating conjunction</a> such as <i>and</i>, <i>or</i>, <i>but</i>. For more information about the structure of noun phrases in English, see <a href="/enwiki/wiki/English_grammar#Noun_phrases" title="English grammar">English grammar § Noun phrases</a>.
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Syntactic_function">Syntactic function</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Syntactic function">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>Noun phrases typically bear <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Argument_(linguistics)" title="Argument (linguistics)">argument</a> functions.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> That is, the <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Grammatical_relation" title="Grammatical relation">syntactic functions</a> that they fulfill are those of the arguments of the main clause <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Predicate_(grammar)" title="Predicate (grammar)">predicate</a>, particularly those of <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Subject_(grammar)" title="Subject (grammar)">subject</a>, <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Object_(grammar)" title="Object (grammar)">object</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Predicative_expression" title="Predicative expression">predicative expression</a>. They also function as arguments in such constructs as <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Participial_phrase" class="mw-redirect" title="Participial phrase">participial phrases</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Prepositional_phrase" class="mw-redirect" title="Prepositional phrase">prepositional phrases</a>. For example:
</p>
<dl><dd><dl><dd>For us <u>the news</u> is a concern. <small>– <i>the news</i> is the subject argument</small></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<dl><dd><dl><dd>Have you heard <u>the news</u>? <small>– <i>the news</i> is the object argument</small></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<dl><dd><dl><dd>That is <u>the news</u>. <small>– <i>the news</i> is the predicative expression following the copula <i>is</i></small></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<dl><dd><dl><dd>They are talking about <u>the news</u>. <small>– <i>the news</i> is the argument in the prepositional phrase <i>about the news</i></small></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<dl><dd><dl><dd>The man reading <u>the news</u> is very tall. <small>– <i>the news</i> is the object argument in the participial phrase <i>reading the news</i></small></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<p>Sometimes a noun phrase can also function as an <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Adjunct_(grammar)" title="Adjunct (grammar)">adjunct</a> of the main clause predicate, thus taking on an <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Adverb" title="Adverb">adverbial</a> function, e.g.
</p>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><u>Most days</u> I read the newspaper.</dd></dl></dd></dl>
<dl><dd><dl><dd>She has been studying <u>all night</u>.</dd></dl></dd></dl>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="With_and_without_determiners">With and without determiners</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: With and without determiners">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>In some languages, including English, noun phrases are required to be "completed" with a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Determiner_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Determiner (linguistics)">determiner</a> in many contexts, and thus a distinction is made in syntactic analysis between phrases that have received their required determiner (such as <i>the big house</i>), and those in which the determiner is lacking (such as <i>big house</i>).
</p><p>The situation is complicated by the fact that in some contexts a noun phrase may nonetheless be used without a determiner (as in <i>I like big houses</i>); in this case the phrase may be described as having a "null determiner". (Situations in which this is possible depend on the rules of the language in question; for English, see <a href="/enwiki/wiki/English_articles" title="English articles">English articles</a>.)
</p><p>In the original <a href="/enwiki/wiki/X-bar_theory" title="X-bar theory">X-bar theory</a>, the two respective types of entity are called noun phrase (NP) and N-bar (<span style="text-decoration:overline">N</span>, N′). Thus in the sentence <i>Here is the big house</i>, both <i>house</i> and <i>big house</i> are N-bars, while <i>the big house</i> is a noun phrase. In the sentence <i>I like big houses</i>, both <i>houses</i> and <i>big houses</i> are N-bars, but <i>big houses</i> also functions as a noun phrase (in this case without an explicit determiner).
</p><p>In some modern theories of syntax, however, what are called "noun phrases" above are no longer considered to be headed by a noun, but by the determiner (which may be null), and they are thus called <i><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Determiner_phrase" title="Determiner phrase">determiner phrases</a></i> (DP) instead of noun phrases. (In some accounts that take this approach, the constituent lacking the determiner – that called N-bar above – may be referred to as a noun phrase.)
</p><p>This analysis of noun phrases is widely referred to as the <i>DP hypothesis</i>. It has been the preferred analysis of noun phrases in the <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Minimalist_program" title="Minimalist program">minimalist program</a> from its start (since the early 1990s), though the arguments in its favor tend to be theory-internal. By taking the determiner, a function word, to be head over the noun, a structure is established that is analogous to the structure of the <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Finite_clause" class="mw-redirect" title="Finite clause">finite clause</a>, with a <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Complementizer" title="Complementizer">complementizer</a>. Apart from the minimalist program, however, the DP hypothesis is rejected by most other modern theories of syntax and grammar, in part because these theories lack the relevant functional categories.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup> Dependency grammars, for instance, almost all assume the traditional NP analysis of noun phrases.
</p><p>For illustrations of different analyses of noun phrases depending on whether the DP hypothesis is rejected or accepted, see the next section.
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Tree_representations">Tree representations</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Tree representations">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>The representation of noun phrases using <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Parse_tree" title="Parse tree">parse trees</a> depends on the basic approach to syntactic structure adopted. The layered trees of many <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Phrase_structure_grammar" title="Phrase structure grammar">phrase structure grammars</a> grant noun phrases an intricate structure that acknowledges a hierarchy of functional projections. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Dependency_grammar" title="Dependency grammar">Dependency grammars</a>, in contrast, since the basic architecture of dependency places a major limitation on the amount of structure that the theory can assume, produce simple, relatively flat structures for noun phrases.
</p><p>The representation also depends on whether the noun or the determiner is taken to be the head of the phrase (see the discussion of the DP hypothesis in the previous section).
</p><p>Below are some possible trees for the two noun phrases <i>the big house</i> and <i>big houses</i> (as in the sentences <i>Here is the big house</i> and <i>I like big houses</i>).
</p><p>1. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Phrase-structure_grammar" class="mw-redirect" title="Phrase-structure grammar">Phrase-structure</a> trees, first using the original X-bar theory, then using the modern DP approach:
</p>
<pre> NP NP | DP DP
/ \ | | / \ |
det N' N' | det NP NP
| / \ / \ | | / \ / \
the adj N' adj N' | the adj NP adj NP
| | | | | | | | |
big N big N | big N big N
| | | | |
house houses | house houses
</pre>
<p>2. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Dependency_grammar" title="Dependency grammar">Dependency</a> trees, first using the traditional NP approach, then using the DP approach:
</p>
<pre> house houses | the (null)
/ / / | \ \
/ / big | house houses
the big | / /
| big big
</pre>
<p>The following trees represent a more complex phrase. For simplicity, only dependency-based trees are given.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup>
</p><p>The first tree is based on the traditional assumption that nouns, rather than determiners, are the heads of phrases.
</p>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><a href="/enwiki/wiki/File:Noun_phrase_tree_1.png" class="image" title="Noun phrase tree 1"><img alt="Noun phrase tree 1" src="/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Noun_phrase_tree_1.png" decoding="async" width="544" height="243" data-file-width="544" data-file-height="243" /></a></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<p>The head noun <i>picture</i> has the four dependents <i>the</i>, <i>old</i>, <i>of Fred</i>, and <i>that I found in the drawer</i>. The tree shows how the lighter dependents appear as pre-dependents (preceding their head) and the heavier ones as post-dependents (following their head).
</p><p>The second tree assumes the DP hypothesis, namely that determiners rather than nouns serve as phrase heads.
</p>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><a href="/enwiki/wiki/File:Noun_phrase_tree_2%27.png" class="image" title="Noun phrase tree 2'"><img alt="Noun phrase tree 2'" src="/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Noun_phrase_tree_2%27.png" decoding="async" width="534" height="267" data-file-width="534" data-file-height="267" /></a></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<p>The determiner <i>the</i> is now depicted as the head of the entire phrase, thus making the phrase a determiner phrase. Note that there is still a noun phrase present (<i>old picture of Fred that I found in the drawer</i>) but this phrase is below the determiner.
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<ul><li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Chunking_(computational_linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Chunking (computational linguistics)">Chunking (computational linguistics)</a></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Nominal_group_(functional_grammar)" title="Nominal group (functional grammar)">Nominal group (functional grammar)</a></li></ul>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Footnotes">Footnotes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Footnotes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<div class="reflist columns references-column-width" style="-moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;">
<ol class="references">
<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">For definitions and discussions of the noun (nominal) phrase that point to the presence of a head noun, see for instance Crystal (1997:264), Lockwood (2002:3), and Radford (2004: 14, 348).</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">For direct examples of approaches that obscure the distinction between nouns and pronouns on the one hand and noun phrases on the other, see for instance Matthews (1981:160f.) and (Lockwood (2002:3).</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Concerning how noun phrases function, see for instance Stockwell (1977:55ff.).</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">For discussion and criticism of the DP analysis of noun phrases, see Matthews (2007:12ff.).</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">For a dependency grammar analysis of noun phrases similar to the one represented by the trees here, see for instance Starosta (1988:219ff.). For an example of a relatively "flat" analysis of NP structure like the one produced here, but in a phrase structure grammar, see Culicover and Jackendoff (2005:140).</span>
</li>
</ol></div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Noun_phrase&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<ul><li><cite class="citation book"><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Noam_Chomsky" title="Noam Chomsky">Chomsky, N.</a> (1995). <i>The Minimalist Program</i>. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Minimalist+Program&rft.place=Cambridge%2C+MA&rft.pub=The+MIT+Press&rft.date=1995&rft.au=Chomsky%2C+N.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r886058088">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}</style></li>
<li><cite class="citation book"><a href="/enwiki/wiki/David_Crystal" title="David Crystal">Crystal, D.</a> (1997). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://data.ulis.vnu.edu.vn/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1966/1/54_1405152974.pdf"><i>A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics</i></a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-405-15296-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-405-15296-9"><bdi>978-1-405-15296-9</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=A+dictionary+of+linguistics+and+phonetics&rft.pub=Oxford%2C+UK%3A+Blackwell+Publishers&rft.date=1997&rft.isbn=978-1-405-15296-9&rft.au=Crystal%2C+D.&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fdata.ulis.vnu.edu.vn%2Fjspui%2Fbitstream%2F123456789%2F1966%2F1%2F54_1405152974.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886058088"/></li>
<li><cite class="citation book"><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Peter_Culicover" title="Peter Culicover">Culicover, P.</a> and <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Ray_Jackendoff" title="Ray Jackendoff">R. Jackendoff</a> (2005). <i><a href="/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Simpler_syntax&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Simpler syntax (page does not exist)">Simpler syntax</a></i>. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Simpler+syntax&rft.place=Oxford%2C+UK&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=2005&rft.au=Culicover%2C+P.+and+R.+Jackendoff&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886058088"/></li>
<li><cite class="citation book"><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Richard_Hudson_(linguist)" title="Richard Hudson (linguist)">Hudson, R.</a> (1990). <i>English Word Grammar</i>. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=English+Word+Grammar&rft.place=Oxford&rft.pub=Basil+Blackwell&rft.date=1990&rft.au=Hudson%2C+R.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886058088"/></li>
<li>Lockwood, D. 2002. Syntactic analysis and description: A constructional approach. London: Continuum.</li>
<li><cite class="citation book"><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Peter_Hugoe_Matthews" title="Peter Hugoe Matthews">Matthews, P.</a> (1981). <i>Syntax</i>. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Syntax&rft.place=Cambridge%2C+UK&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1981&rft.au=Matthews%2C+P.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886058088"/></li>
<li><cite class="citation book">Matthews, P. (2007). <i>Syntactic relations: A critical survey</i>. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780521608299" title="Special:BookSources/9780521608299"><bdi>9780521608299</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Syntactic+relations%3A+A+critical+survey&rft.place=Cambridge%2C+UK&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=2007&rft.isbn=9780521608299&rft.au=Matthews%2C+P.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886058088"/></li>
<li><a href="/enwiki/wiki/Andrew_Radford_(linguist)" title="Andrew Radford (linguist)">Radford, A.</a> 2004. English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.</li>
<li><cite class="citation book">Starosta, S. (1988). <i>The case for lexicase</i>. London: Pinter Publishers. <a href="/enwiki/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="/enwiki/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-86187-639-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-86187-639-3"><bdi>0-86187-639-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+case+for+lexicase&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Pinter+Publishers&rft.date=1988&rft.isbn=0-86187-639-3&rft.au=Starosta%2C+S.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ANoun+phrase" class="Z3988"></span><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886058088"/></li>
<li>Stockwell, P. 1977. Foundations of syntactic theory Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.</li></ul>
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