A noun phrase (NP) is a phrase whose head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a set of modifiers.
This means that one noun or pronoun can be grammatically functioned as NP.
For the NP modifer, there are 2 kinds considering by its position:
1. pre-modifier (modifier which is placed before the noun)
2. post-modifier (modifier which is placed after the noun)
The NP pattern is simple in normal sentence and imperative mood, but it’s much harder in question form with inversion.
For English:
1) pre-modifier (modifier which is placed before the noun)
1.1) Adjective
1. Opinion or judgment — beautiful, ugly, easy, fast, interesting
2. Size — small, tall, short, big
3. Age — young, old, new, historic, ancient
4. Shape — round, square, rectangular
5. Color — red, black, green, purple
6. Nationality — French, Asian, American, Canadian, Japanese
7. Material — wooden, metallic, plastic, glass, paper
8. Purpose or Qualifier — foldout (sofa), fishing (boat), racing (car)
For an adjective, it is allowed to have several adjectives modifying one head noun, but their relative order is fixed to a certain degree following the given orders respectively, e.g., beautiful long curved old red Italian steel racing car.
1.2) Determiner which includes
– articles (the, a)
– demonstratives (this, that)
– numerals (two, 5)
– possessives (my, their)
– quantifiers (some, many)
For a determiner, one unit can be used once for a certain NP. However, the rule is dismissed in case of royal usage, e.g., his majesty the king.
1.3) Noun
– some noun can be placed before another noun as a modifier such as university student, tiger hunting, etc. This include noun with possessive marker ’s such as Nurse’s uniform.
2) post-modifier (modifier which is placed after the noun)
2.1) Prepositional phrase (PP)
– PP here includes an NP after the head preposition (in the box) in = preposition | the box = NP
2.2) Relative Clause (RC)
– Not all RCs are able to modify NP but adjective clause.
Check this out!
(1) I don’t care who he is.
(2) I don’t care her who doesn’t love me.
Only example (2) is an adjective clause since the clause with relative marker is functioned as an adjective to modify pronoun “her”.
In example (1), the clause is function as an object of the sentence so it is called a noun clause and it is not concerned as a post modifier to NP.
Here is all possible NP modifiers in English.
!Note that adjective and determiner can occur together, but a determiner always positions on the leftmost. Moreover, both of them can only modify a noun, not a personal pronoun.
!!Another note that adjective clause modifies the immediate noun, e.g., “the book on the table which is burnt” = “which is burnt” modifies table, not book.
This means that one noun or pronoun can be grammatically functioned as NP.
For the NP modifer, there are 2 kinds considering by its position:
1. pre-modifier (modifier which is placed before the noun)
2. post-modifier (modifier which is placed after the noun)
The NP pattern is simple in normal sentence and imperative mood, but it’s much harder in question form with inversion.
For English:
1) pre-modifier (modifier which is placed before the noun)
1.1) Adjective
1. Opinion or judgment — beautiful, ugly, easy, fast, interesting
2. Size — small, tall, short, big
3. Age — young, old, new, historic, ancient
4. Shape — round, square, rectangular
5. Color — red, black, green, purple
6. Nationality — French, Asian, American, Canadian, Japanese
7. Material — wooden, metallic, plastic, glass, paper
8. Purpose or Qualifier — foldout (sofa), fishing (boat), racing (car)
For an adjective, it is allowed to have several adjectives modifying one head noun, but their relative order is fixed to a certain degree following the given orders respectively, e.g., beautiful long curved old red Italian steel racing car.
1.2) Determiner which includes
– articles (the, a)
– demonstratives (this, that)
– numerals (two, 5)
– possessives (my, their)
– quantifiers (some, many)
For a determiner, one unit can be used once for a certain NP. However, the rule is dismissed in case of royal usage, e.g., his majesty the king.
1.3) Noun
– some noun can be placed before another noun as a modifier such as university student, tiger hunting, etc. This include noun with possessive marker ’s such as Nurse’s uniform.
2) post-modifier (modifier which is placed after the noun)
2.1) Prepositional phrase (PP)
– PP here includes an NP after the head preposition (in the box) in = preposition | the box = NP
2.2) Relative Clause (RC)
– Not all RCs are able to modify NP but adjective clause.
Check this out!
(1) I don’t care who he is.
(2) I don’t care her who doesn’t love me.
Only example (2) is an adjective clause since the clause with relative marker is functioned as an adjective to modify pronoun “her”.
In example (1), the clause is function as an object of the sentence so it is called a noun clause and it is not concerned as a post modifier to NP.
Here is all possible NP modifiers in English.
!Note that adjective and determiner can occur together, but a determiner always positions on the leftmost. Moreover, both of them can only modify a noun, not a personal pronoun.
!!Another note that adjective clause modifies the immediate noun, e.g., “the book on the table which is burnt” = “which is burnt” modifies table, not book.
