Word order in a noun phrase and english anaphors essay 895 words 4 pages. There are a variety of ways in which this is inadequate as a precise definition and there. The external syntax of nps, ie their distribution in larger phrases and sentences will be mentioned only in. Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class. Noun phrases in english can contain seven grammatical forms that describe the main noun. Next, we illustrate our theory of reprojection by implementing the approach to argument realization in verb phrases in.
Mar 11, 2016 identify the noun phrases in the following sentences. Nounphrase structure as the preceding discussion shows, some nouns can appear alone in a noun phrase, without a determiner or any other word. This chapter focuses on the syntactic structure of the noun phrase in chinese. Information about the noun can come before the noun or after the noun. Phrase structure university of maryland, baltimore. Npinternal agreement and the structure of the noun phrase1 frank van eynde university of leuven received 16 august 2004.
Phrase structure definition is the arrangement of the constituents of a sentence. A noun phrase is a noun or pronoun head and all of its modifiers or the coordination of more than one npto be discussed in chapter 6. The syntactic categories are illustrated in a tree diagram, called phrase structure tree,by supplying the name of the syntactic category of each word grouping. Phrase structure definition of phrase structure by. The noun together with all pre and postmodifiers constitutes a single unit, a noun phrase that indicates the complete reference. There is a complication in this language because it is not obvious what phrase occupies the dp spec position.
These nouns include many proper nouns, mass nouns, plural count nouns, and pronouns. Possessors and nominal modifiers possessor is expressed with a noun phrase and or a personal pronoun. The first noun in the noun of noun unit is treated as any other noun as regards modifiers, so barring special cases such as idioms wherever you would say the noun1, you can also say the noun1 of noun2, etc as a corollary, it is also correct to use noun1 of noun2 without a the, especially if the wouldnt normally appear before noun1 alone. They are used to break down a natural language sentence into its constituent parts, also known as syntactic categories, including both lexical categories parts of speech and phrasal categories. In discussing the structure of noun phrases crosslinguistically, i will assume a rather rough characterization of noun phrases, as syntactic constituents which. Stifnerova the purpose of this essay is firstly to show the word order of a noun phrase np and how the head noun of the np can be post and premodified, and secondly to focus on meaning of some examples of english anaphors and the distinctions between them and their czech translations. A noun phrase includes a nouna person, place, or thingand the modifiers which distinguish it. A theory of sociology that views elements of society as part of a cohesive, selfsupporting structure. The structure of the nyakyusa noun phrase nordic journal of. A noun phrase, or nominal phrase, is a phrase that has a noun or indefinite pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun.
Some of the different versions of phrase structure grammar including headdriven phrase structure grammar are considered in examples and observations below. Jack wilkins, the golf player, earns a high salary. It treats auxiliaries and forms of the verb be in one way and all other lexical verbs another way. The following are example sentences from english, in which a serves as an indefinite article.
Noun phrase definition of noun phrase by the free dictionary. In this paper i develop a theory of noun phrase structure in which both categories project noun phrases, arguing that this better fits the indeter minacy of the criteria. Nellipsis and the structure of noun phrases in chinese. A phrase is a small group of words that form a meaningful unit within a clause. The internal structure of noun phrases 81 the scope of this paper does not permit a detailed discussion of the numeral phrase or of the adjectival phrase.
In english, we know that a genitive phrase is in dp spec. A noun phrase is a group of words that does the work of a noun. For all customers of the movie theater doesnt use the before the first noun, nor the phrase i am a customer of the theater. Phrase structure definition of phrase structure by the free.
Phrase structure rules noun phrase np john the boy a little boy a boy in a bubble phrase structure rule for nps. If the head is a noun, it may combine with determiners, premodifiers and postmodifiers. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned here that num can contain a measure term. T he n oun p hr as e recognize a noun phrase when you see one. If the head is removed from the phrase, then so is the meaning. Similarly the structure of questions is sensitive to the same categories.
To shorten phrases like this, it is very common in scientific english for the second part of resources to be moved in front of the. Margaret cargill and patrick oconnor this kind of noun phrase can cause problems for eal english as an additional language writers, in our experience. The noun phrase information that comes before the noun in a noun phrase is usually expressed through. Np det adj n pp n det n det adj n det n pp where indicates optionality. Phrase structure rules are a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given languages syntax and are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar, proposed by noam chomsky in 1957. The adjective phrase adjp and adverb phrase advp 2 3. Building trees phrase structure a phrase is a syntactic unit headed by a lexical category such as noun, adjective. The bestplayer topic was not present at the meeting. The potential complexity of the ng structure, combined with its functional flexibility and frequency of occurrence, makes this class of unit the most important class of structure at phrase level. The noun phrase a noun phrase is a group of words with a noun as its main part. These lecture notes present the basic principles of phrase structure that apply in english. A grammar that uses phrase structure rules is a type of phrase structure grammar. The order of constituents in the maximal noun phrase structure is as follows.
In sentence 2, the group of words to go home is the object of the verb want and hence it does the work of a noun. Definition a noun phrase is a group of words that does the work of a noun. It discusses the different forms the nominal phrase can take and their interpretational properties, and investigates. Np vp adjp advp pp phrase structure rules aer genveaerit. Noun phrases english grammar today cambridge dictionary. Pdf on jan 1, 1999, giuliana giusti and others published the functional structure of noun phrases. Phrase structure rules as they are commonly employed operate according to the constituency relation, and a grammar that employs phrase structure rules is therefore a constituency grammar. Nellipsis and the structure of noun phrases in chinese and. An example of a nounnoun phrase is resource availability. All phrase categories on this list are equivalent to the label x2 in the tree structures below. Phrase structure heads phrases are named after their head, which is the most important part of the phrase. Cow is a common noun countable, but milk is a material noun uncountable. The noun phrase in the last section we examined the overall structure of the basic english sen tance. You can find the noun dog in a sentence, for example, but you dont know which canine the writer means until you consider the entire noun phrase.
Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class system and the underlying semantic strands. Npinternal agreement and the structure of the noun phrase. The rest of the phrase, apart from the head, is optional and can be removed without losing the basic meaning. In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a group of words or possibly a single word that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence, a single unit within agrammatical hierarchy. Noun phrases are groups of two or more words within a sentence that function grammatically as nouns. For example, to make a yesno question8, you move the first auxiliary or form of be before the subject as in 23. The wicked man loves getting poor people into trouble. The only exception to this rule is the verb be which is irregular and has more agreement.
Like in the basic noun phrase, the head noun, first of all, is the central element and core component of the complex noun phrase. There is no special possession or alienability marking, so possessor nps are distinguished. Dar es salaam university college of education, tanzania. The series studies in generative grammar was formerly published by foris publications holland. A noun phrase includes a noun a person, place, or thingand the modifiers which distinguish it. We start by presenting in some detail the most complex phrase type in english, the noun phrase. These seven parts of speech describe nouns by functioning as determinatives, noun phrase modifiers, and noun phrase complements. Lees university of illinois it is customary to describe the english nominal as consisting of a sequence of constituents.
The group of words to go home is therefore a noun phrase. Noun phrases are very common crosslinguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type noun phrases often function as verb subjects and objects, as predicative expressions and as the complements of prepositions. Pdf this paper discusses the structure of noun phrase np in safaliba, a gur language spoken in northern ghana. In this paper, we argue that, contrary to appearance, they. Dryer in discussing the structure of noun phrases crosslinguistically, i will assume a rather rough characterization of noun phrases, as syntactic constituents which serve as arguments of verbs. About this grammar the professional of language the informed reader about glosses naming morphemes about grammars apologies 2. Library of congress cataloginginpublication data alexiadou, artemis. Any agreement in terms of singularplural is with the noun at the center. The aim of this paper is to describe the internal syntax of hungarian noun phrases in terms of their immediate constituent structure. This np often goes right before or right after the noun it expresses. Printed on acidfree paper which falls within the guidelines of the ansi to ensure permanence and durability. Indefinite noun phrases in english, and many other languages, a commonnounphrase may be prefixed by an indefinite article, the resulting phrase being what we shall call an indefinite noun phrase.
Chapter 3 noun phrases now that we have established something about the structure of verb phrases, lets move on to noun phrases nps. Noun phrases are very common crosslinguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type. Noun phrases english grammar today a reference to written and spoken english grammar and usage cambridge dictionary. Noun phrase in the generative perspective by artemis alexiadou. Saito and murasugi 1990 examine the noun phrase structure in japanese on the basis of the generalization on nellipsis illustrated in 17a. Consider each of the following as an entire item and say whether it is a noun phrase or some other type of structure. Determiners this horrible rubbish adjectives and adverbs a. That means it can be the subject or object of the verb.
The opposite of an endocentric phrase is an exocentric phrase. Analysis of noun phrase in english and vietnamese education essay. Phrase structure a phrase is a syntactic unit headed by a lexical category such as noun, adjective, adverb, verb, or preposition. Some nouns require the presence of a determiner as a modifier. For example, the head of a noun phrase np is a noun, and the head of a preposition phrase pp is a preposition. Pdf the structure of noun phrase in safaliba researchgate. It has been widely assumed since kitagawa and ross linguist anal 9. Identify the noun phrases in the following sentences. Having done that, we demonstrate that all the other main phrase types, the ap. Apart from the verb, most ofthe structures discussed in that chapter were aoun phrases nps. Activity 5 this activity revises instant identification of noun phrases. Astudy of the noun phrase in spoken and written english. This article articulates the structure of the noun phrase in the bantu language nyakyusa. Sep 19, 2010 in sentence 1, the word something is a noun and is the object of the verb want.
Building trees phrase structure a phrase is a syntactic unit headed by a lexical category such as. Phrase structure definition of phrase structure by the. A common noun is usually a countable noun but a material noun is an uncountable noun. As you saw noun phrases typically function ae sub jects, direct objects, indirect abject, subject complements, and object comple rents. Page one of this article explains the use of determiners. A bare phrase structure approach find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Today phrase structure rules, trees constituents recursion conjunction readings. Phrase structure grammar is a type of generative grammar in which constituent structures are represented by phrase structure rules or rewrite rules. Noun phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, adverb phrase, preposition phrase.
A new look at noun phrase structure stanford university. A bare phrase structure approach find, read and cite. Jul 17, 2008 it has been widely assumed since kitagawa and ross linguist anal 9. I have argued that same performs the role of postdeterminer supplementing the identifiability of the noun phrase.
1305 128 785 1059 506 1236 1304 1039 854 1 1471 859 780 290 325 411 612 462 1577 924 38 1356 122 1545 477 634 410 402 552 132 375 119 344