LINGUISTICS 2

M1 LESSON 3
INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH
3. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASES

• Contents:
– Determiners
– Pre-determiners
– Pre-modifiers in NOM
– More on the structure
– Post-modifiers
– Modification of pronoun
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– Structure of NPs consisting of just a PRONOUN or just a NAME

– They are the only NON-BRANCHING NPs allowed for in this book.
– All other NPs have branching representations
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– In the basic case, the two immediate constituents of NP are: DET (determiner)
and NOM (nominal)

– DET always has NOM as its sister.

– DET determines NOM.
– NOM: INTERMEDIATE level between PHRASAL (NP) level and the LEXICAL (N)
level.
– All MODIFIERS of the head noun fall under NOM.
– MODIFIERS are optional => NOM can consist just of N.
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• Determiners:
– a fixed set of ‘grammatical’ words that give information relating to
definiteness and indefiniteness and information about quantity and
proportion.
• ARTICLES (ART): definite article (the) and indefinite article (a/an)
• DEMONSTRATIVES (DEM): this, that, these, those
• Certain QUANTIFIERS (Q): some, any, no, each, every, either, neither, a few,
a little
• POSSESSIVES (POSS): my, your, its, her, his, our, their, John’s
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• Determiners:
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• Determiners:
– The EMPTY DETERMINER gives the NP an INDEFINITE and/or more
GENERAL interpretation.
– Plural count nouns and mass nouns take the empty determiner.
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• Determiners:
– a possessive determiner (POSS) can either be simple (my, your,
etc.) or consist of a full NP plus ’s. This is called the POSSESSIVE,
or GENITIVE, ’s.
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• Determiners:
the book’s cover
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• Determiners:
Hieronimo’s brother’s behaviour
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• Determiners:
Some determiners correspond to forms that can function as
pronouns.

DETERMINER: my your her his our their no

PRONOUN: mine yours hers his ours theirs none
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• Pre-determiners: all, both, half

– Pre-determiners co-occur with and precede determiners
– Pre-determiners determine an NP.
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• Pre-determiners:
all men both men
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• Pre-determiners:
All mine are at the cleaner
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• Ways the NP node can be expanded:

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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– The most obvious pre-modifiers of the noun within NOM are
Adjective phrases (APs)
– The function of A is always head-of-AP
– The AP has the modifying function
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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– Quantifying adjectives (QA):
• Much, many, few, little
• NUMERALS: one, two, three… & first, second, third…
• QAs are head of AP. APs with a QA as head always precede other APs in
NOM.
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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– Participle phrases (PartP):
PROGRESSIVE PERFECT or PASSIVE
[27a] the leering manager [28a] a faded dream
[27b] the sleeping guard [28b] the departed nymphs
[28c] sliced cake
[28d] a forgotten valley

• Since these forms are verbal rather than adjectival, they are not gradable.
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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– Participle phrases (PartP):
the rapidly congealing gravy
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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– Participle phrases (PartP):
• Certain true adjectives look very much like verb
participles: charming, pleasing, (un)interested,
worrying, (un)surprising, unexpected.
• How to distinguish them from participles? => They are
GRADABLE. EX: rather pleasing, very interested

They were very disturbed by the play.

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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– Participle phrases (PartP):
They were very disturbed by the play.
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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
– Nouns (N):
• In a sequence of modifiers that includes a noun
modifier, noun modifiers always appear last. They
can’t be separated from the head noun.
• Such NOUN-NOUN combinations are COMPOUND
NOUNS.
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• Pre-modifiers in NOM:
all those dusty gorilla suits
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• More on the structure of NOM:

– NOM is a recursive category. => NOM can have
NOM as an immediate constituent.
– Apart from noun modifiers, every modifier must
be immediately dominated by a NOM.
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• More on the structure of NOM:

some large greasy uneaten fritters
those two very charming atomic scientists
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• More on the structure of NOM:

some large greasy uneaten fritters
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• More on the structure of NOM:

those two very charming atomic scientists
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• Post-modifiers: An expedition to the pub in the village

– Prepositional Phrases
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases
An expedition to the pub for more cherry brandy
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases
an agreement between workers on overtime
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases:
• When NOM includes both a pre-modifying AP and a
post-modifying PP, there are two possibilities

• With some NPs, it doesn’t matter which analysis we

give. For others, it does matter.
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases:
• [47] that nuclear scientist from Germany.
• [48] the famous writer of detective stories.
• [49] an anxious applicant for the job.
• [50] structural engineers in disgrace.
• [51] the personal assistant in the hat.
• [52] their secret visits to the kitchen.
• [53] Larry’s neat summary of the argument.
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases:
that nuclear scientist from Germany the famous writer of detective stories
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases:
• The analysis that associates the more permanent
and/or intrinsic property more closely with the head
noun will generally seem more natural.
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• Post-modifiers:
– Prepositional Phrases:
that tall student of maths in the hat
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• Post-modifiers:
– More on Adjective Phrases:
• A few adjectives (including present, absent,
responsible, visible) can pre-modify or post-modify
the head noun in NOM.
• When, in an NP, a modifying AP includes a
complement, it always post-modifies the head noun
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• Modification of pronouns:
– Indefinite pronouns such as something/one,
anything/one, nothing/no-one/none can only be
post-modified
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• Modification of pronouns:
– The elliptical head analysis:
• When determiners or pre-determiners appear to have
changed into pronouns:
– some of the animals
– those in the cabin
– all/both/half of the bottles
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• Modification of pronouns:
– The elliptical head analysis:
the two in the dungeons