Noun Phrase Problems

Question

Dear all,

I have got some questions concerning Noun Phrase Modification.

1. What are the NPs in this passage and what is head, determiner and modifier?

14 per cent only had a single night a year together.

[In my opinion, a first NP is "14 per cent", which is head at the same time. Or is there a determiner in it? Next NPs might be "a single night" and "a year". I am not sure if they belong together.]

2. What are the NPs in this passage and what is head, determiner and modifier?

Almost half of people who took part in the research claimed having children made them less close.

3. And the last one:

Having children is the biggest problem area.

[Having childres is a NP and a gerund in my opinion. But is it possible to divide it into head and maybe premodifier? Meaning that children=head and Having=premod?

Thanks a lot for your answers and have a nice day!

BillJ · Accepted Answer

sunisshining have got some questions concerning Noun Phrase Modification.1. What are the NPs in this passage and what is head, determiner and modifier?

sunisshining14 per cent only had a single night a year together.

1. “14 per cent” (head = “per cent”; det = ‘14’)
2. “a single night” (head = “night”; det = “a”; mod = “single”)
3. “a year” (head = “year”; det = “a”)

sunisshiningAlmost half of people who took part in the research claimed having children made them less close.

1. “The people who took part in the research” (head = people; det = the; mod = relative clause “who took part in the research")
1a. “Almost half of the people”. The analysis of this is problematic: one solution is to treat it as non-fused partitive construction, thus: head = “half”, modifier = “almost"; det = “the”; NP = “people”.
1b. “the research” (head = “research”; det = “the”)
2. “children” (head = children)
3. “them” (head = “them”)

sunisshiningHaving children is the biggest problem area.

1. “children” (head = “children” (“having children” is a clause with “having” as verb and “children” is its NP object)
2. “the biggest problem area” (head = "area" (NP); det = “the”; mods = “biggest” and “problem”)

BillJ

Sunisshining · Answer

Thanks very much, Bill. Sounds great.

But yesterday new questions arose

:

I was wondering if fractions always must have a form like one third, one quarter or half of...
May it be possible to declare "Two out of five" or "One in 100" as determiners, too?

The examples are:
Two out of five parents responding to the poll
[Two out of five=det, parents=head, responding to the poll: (non-finite) participle clause]

Only one in 100 parents now spends quality time together
[only=intensifier, one in 100=det, parents=head]
My problem here is "spends". Accounting to that, rather "one" might be head. Tricky.

sunisshining

Starstruck · Answer

Hi.
"Together" means plural. So I think that "spend" is a better word to use.

BillJ · Answer

sunisshiningI was wondering if fractions always must have a form like one third, one quarter or half of... May it be possible to declare "Two out of five" or "One in 100" as determiners, too?The examples are:Two out of five parents responding to the poll[Two out of five=det, parents=head, responding to the poll: (non-finite) participle clause]Only one in 100 parents now spends quality time together[only=intensifier, one in 100=det, parents=head]My problem here is "spends". Accounting to that, rather "one" might be head. Tricky.

Expressions like "one in one hundred" and "two out of five" are fine; they're called "proportions" rather than fractions. They're quite common in statistical reports and the like.

They are determinative phrases (DPs) with preposition phrases (PPs) in post-head modifier function. The analysis is quite straightforward:

[Two out of five parents] responding to the polls.

Here, the bracketed part is an NP with "parents" as head. The part in bold is a DP with "two" as head with the PP "out of five" modifying it. The underlined part is a participial clause as post-head modifier of "parents".

[Only one in 100 parents] now spend quality time together.

Same analysis again of the NP, but with the addition of the focusing adverb "only" as modifier to the DP. The correct verb form is "spend" (not spends).

BillJ

Anonymous · Answer

A noun phrase is word bunch with a noun or pronoun as its head. The simplest noun phrase consists of a single noun, as in the sentence "Bells were ringing." The head of a noun phrase can be accompanied by modifiers, determiners (such as the, a, her), and/or complements, as in "The cheerful bells of the church were ringing." A noun phrase (often abbreviated as NP) most commonly functions as a subject, object, or complement.

See Examples and Observations below. Also see:

Practice in Building Sentences With Noun Phrases and Noun Clauses
Adjective Phrase
Clausal Coordination and Phrasal Coordination
Nominal and Substantive
Noun Clause
Premodifiers and Postmodifiers
That-Clause

http://wordmaker.info/ending-with/noun.html

Noun Phrase Problems

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