Heads in phrases

Question

Hi there teachers!

I have some confusion about the structure of Noun phrases.

Firstly, could you please tell me if the following things are grammatical "functions" or something else.

1). Determinative

2). Modifier

3). Complement

Secondly, please explain to me how to identify the Head, which, I suppose, is also a grammatical function, of a phrase. For example, when a Noun Phrase is composed of more than one word, how to identify which word is the Head element in the phrase? I know that in a Noun phrase, the Head is a noun, but are there any other ways of identifying this element?

BillJ · Accepted Answer

LaboriousFirstly, could you please tell me if the following things are grammatical "functions" or something else. 1). Determinative2). Modifier3). Complement

'Modifier' and 'complement' are functions, but 'determinative' is a category (part of speech); the functional equivalent is 'determiner'.

LaboriousSecondly, please explain to me how to identify the Head, which, I suppose, is also a grammatical function, of a phrase. For example, when a Noun Phrase is composed of more than one word, how to identify which word is the Head element in the phrase? I know that in a Noun phrase, the Head is a noun, but are there any other ways of identifying this element?

The head is the most important element in a phrase; it's the obligatory item, around which any other constituents (called 'dependents') that may be present cluster. In the case of noun phrases, the main dependents are determiners, modifiers or complements, for example:

[Buns] taste nice.

[The buns] taste nice.

[All the buns] taste nice.

[All the currant buns] taste nice.

[All the currant buns in the window] taste nice.

[All the currant buns of yours in the window] taste nice.

In each of those examples, the noun "buns" is head of the bracketed noun phrase. The other items are the determiner "the", the pre-determiner "all", the modifiers "currant" and "in the window", and the complement "of yours" – these are the dependents of the head.

The determiner is the constituent that marks an NP as definite or indefinite. Modifiers are optional items that denote some property relating to the head, such as colour, size, shape etc. In the above example the modifier "currant" tells us about a major ingredient of the buns, and the PP "in the window" tell us about the location of the buns. The complement is the PP "of yours", which expresses a genitive (possessive) semantic relationship between the head and "you" (the owner of the buns).

Another way of identifying the head of an NP is by the verb. A singular verb would normally lead you to a singular head, and a plural verb to a plural head, for example:

[1] The boys in the garden were playing happily.

[2] In a hundred students, only one takes drugs.

In [1] there are two nouns in the subject NP, the plural "boys" and the singular "garden". Since the verb is the plural "were", we can be certain that the head is the plural noun "boys", not the singular noun "garden".

In [2] there are again two nouns in the subject NP, the plural noun "students" and the singular "one". Since the verb this time is the singular "takes", we can assume that the head is the singular noun "one", not the plural noun "students".

Heads in phrases

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