A noun phrase – or NP or nominal (phrase) – is a phrase that usually has a noun or pronoun as its head, and has the same grammatical functions as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type. Noun phrases often function as verb subjects and objects, as predicative expressions, and as complements of prepositions. One NP can be embedded inside another NP; for instance, some of his constituents has as a constituent the shorter NP his constituents. In some theories of grammar, noun phrases with determiners 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.
This election-year's politics are annoying for many people. Almost every sentence contains at least one noun phrase. Current economic weakness may be a result of high energy prices. Noun phrases can be identified by the possibility of pronoun substitution, as is illustrated in the examples below.
a. This sentence contains two noun phrases. b. It contains them. a. The subject noun phrase that is present in this sentence is long. b. It is long. a. Noun phrases can be embedded in other noun phrases. 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 words. 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. 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 grammars 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 grammars 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 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:
determiners, such as the, this, my, some, Jane's attributive adjectives, such as large, beautiful, sweeter adjective phrases and participial phrases, such as extremely large, hard as nails, made of wood, sitting on the step noun adjuncts, such as college in the noun phrase a college student nouns in certain oblique cases, in languages which have them, such as German des Mannes ("of the man"; genitive form) prepositional phrases, such as in the drawing room, of his aunt adnominal adverbs and adverbials, such as (over) there in the noun phrase the man (over) there relative clauses, such as which we noticed other clauses serving as complements to the noun, such as that God exists in the noun phrase the belief that God exists infinitive phrases, 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 and Turkish) are more likely to place all modifiers before the head noun. Other languages, such as 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 English grammar § Phrases.
Syntactic function Noun phrases typically bear argument functions. That is, the syntactic functions that they fulfill are those of the arguments of the main clause predicate, particularly those of subject, object and predicative expression. They also function as arguments in such constructs as participial phrases and prepositional phrases. For example:
For us the news is a concern. – the news is the subject argument Have you heard the news? – the news is the object argument That is the news. – the news is the predicative expression following the copula is They are talking about the news. – the news is the argument in the prepositional phrase about the news The man reading the news is very tall. – the news is the object argument in the participial phrase reading the news Sometimes a noun phrase can also function as an adjunct of the main clause predicate, thus taking on an adverbial function, e.g.
Most days I read the newspaper. She has been studying all night.
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