Noun phrases (How to identify the head of a noun phrase, please)

Question

Hi dear teachers,

I need your help with noun phrase, please. I'd like to ask you a few things regarding them.

The first thing is: Can only a noun (a single word without any dependents) be called a noun phrase? On a site, I read that a noun phrase consists minimally of a head, for example, in a one-word phrase like 'children', the head is the 'children'.

The second thing is: When we talk about noun phrases, we have to learn about dependents (noun dependents to be precise). I am leaning about noun phrases and I came across the terms 'dependents', 'pre - modifiers', and 'post - modifiers', which are essential parts in noun phrases. Is the term 'dependents' different from 'pre - modifiers' and 'post - modifiers' in meaning?

Also, how do we identify the head noun in a noun phrase? I mean, there are many words that a noun phrase consists of, but how to know which word is the head of the phrase.

Thank you.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

LaboriousCan only a noun (a single word without any dependents) be called a noun phrase?

Yes.

LaboriousThe second thing is: When we talk about noun phrases, we have to learn about dependents (noun dependents to be precise). I am leaning about noun phrases and I came across the terms 'dependents', 'pre - modifiers', and 'post - modifiers', which are essential parts in noun phrases. Is the term 'dependents' different from 'pre - modifiers' and 'post - modifiers' in meaning?

Other words than the head are described as dependent elements in the noun phrase. Modifiers are dependent elements in the noun phrase.

LaboriousAlso, how do we identify the head noun in a noun phrase? I mean, there are many words that a noun phrase consists of, but how to know which word is the head of the phrase

The noun phrase is a word or a group of words which does the job of a noun in the sentence. The head of the noun phrase may be: a noun: the car; a pronoun: it, myself, everybody in the school; an adjective: the rich;

RandomGuy · Answer

LaboriousCan only a noun (a single word without any dependents) be called a noun phrase?

Yes, and not without good reason:

[2] Things change. .............Kim left......... .......People complained.
[3] All things change. ........ Kim left early. .......Some people complained about it.

Expressions such as all things and some people are called noun phrases - phrases with a noun as their head. The head of a phrase is, roughly, the most important element in the phrase, the one that defines what sort of phrase it is. The other elements are dependents.
Similarly, left early and complained about it are verb phrases, phrases with a verb as head. Again, early and about it are dependents of the verb.
Traditional grammars and dictionaries define a phrase as containing more than one word. But it's actually more convenient to drop this requirement, and generalise the category 'noun phrase' so that it covers things, Kim and people in [2], as well as all things and some people in [3]. There are lots of places besides the subject position where all these expressions can occur: compare We need clients and We need some clients or This is good for clients and This is good for some clients, and so on. It would be tedious to have to talk about 'nouns or noun phrases' in all such cases. So we prefer to say that a noun phrase (henceforth NP) normally consists of a noun with or without various dependents. (In other words, the head is accompanied by _{^{ZERO OR MORE}} dependents.)
It's much the same with other categories of phrase, e.g., verb phrases. Complained in [2], just like complained about it in [3], can be regarded as a verb phrase (VP). And the same general point will hold for the rest of the categories we introduce below: although they _^CAN contain more, they sometimes contain just a head and nothing else.

(A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar)

You should really get this book!

LaboriousIs the term 'dependents' different from 'pre - modifiers' and 'post - modifiers' in meaning?

A modifier is one of the three subtypes of dependent, the other two being complements and determiners.

LaboriousAlso, how do we identify the head noun in a noun phrase?

This would be easier to answer if you gave me some examples to work with. Are there any particular phrases you’re unsure about?

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousThe head of the noun phrase may be: a noun: the car; a pronoun: it, myself, everybody in the school; an adjective: the rich;

Are you sure about that last part? I had heard of a pronoun being included in the category NP, but never an adjective. We are severely cautioned not to call a noun an adjective ('brick' is not an adjective in 'brick wall' just because it modifies the noun 'wall'), so it seems strange within the same theoretical system to allow an adjective (rich, richer, richest) to be called a noun.

CJ

RandomGuy · Answer

Anon said the head may be an adjective. That’s not the same as saying it’s a noun.

The adjective in the rich is what H&P call a ’fused modifier-head’, i.e., it functions simultaneously as attributive modifier and head of the NP. There are also fused determiner-heads: Many would agree with you.

Note that a (pro)noun analysis is not viable, since these words can take adverbs as modifier (very many; popular among the very rich).

CalifJim · Answer

Aspara GusAnon said the head may be an adjective. That’s not the same as saying it’s a noun.

True, but the implication is that, in spite of the central tenet of the theory that the head of an XP is an X, this is saying that an adjective can be the head of an NP.

Aspara GusNote that a (pro)noun analysis is not viable

That doesn't bother me as much. I can see that pretty well.

Aspara GusThe adjective in the rich is what H&P call a ’fused modifier-head’

But it's still an NP, I suppose. It seems to me that everything they can't explain is 'fused'.

I'm surprised that 'brick' in 'brick wall' didn't end up as a fused something-or-other!

CJ

RandomGuy · Answer

CalifJimTrue, but the implication is that, in spite of the central tenet of the theory that the head of an XP is an X, this is saying that an adjective can be the head of an NP.

Yes, but that’s not a contradiction: notice the qualification “normally” in the snippet above. Fusion is just an exceptional case.

CalifJimThat doesn't bother me as much. I can see that pretty well.

Really? So I take it you’re not only OK with adverbs modifying nouns, but also nouns having comparative and superlative forms, as in:

the better / more skilled of the two
the youngest of their children
He was at his most obstructive.

You might counter with “Are you OK with adjectives taking determiners?”, and I’d be forced to argue that it’s the head that the adjective is fused with that takes the determiner! Aha! ..........There’s got to be some plausibility in that, right?

CalifJim · Answer

Aspara GusCalifJimThat doesn't bother me as much. I can see that pretty well.Really? So I take it you’re not only OK with adverbs modifying nouns, but also nouns having comparative and superlative forms, as in:the better / more skilled of the twothe youngest of their childrenHe was at his most obstructive.

Possible miscommunication. What didn't bother me is putting pronouns and nouns in the same category, i.e., allowing "he" to be an NP. It appears I misjudged the import of your statement completely.

CJ

RandomGuy · Answer

CalifJimWhat didn't bother me is putting pronouns and nouns in the same category, i.e., allowing "he" to be an NP.

a (pro)noun analysis = a (pro)noun analysis of and rich and many. (Because trad grammar treats these words as respectively noun and pronoun in head function.)

I’m not bothered by that either, by the way.

Laborious · Answer

Thank you all for your helpful responses! I'm really very grateful to you for that.

Aspara GusA modifier is one of the three subtypes of dependent, the other two being complements and determiners.

Okay AG. Firstly thanks to you for your guidance. So, pre - modifiers, post - modifiers, determiners, and complements are all different things? I mean, isn't, in a noun phrase, a determiner a pre - modifier as well, and a complement a post - modifier?

For example, in the noun phrase 'the small children in class five', the pre - modifier is the small, the post - modifer is in class five, and the head noun is children, right? Can we just call what comes before the head noun a pre - modifier, for example in noun phrase 'the small children in class five', can we just call the word group that appears before the head noun 'children' 'pre - modifier', and the word group (in class five) that appears after the head noun 'children' 'post - modifier'?

Thanks.

RandomGuy · Answer

LaboriousI mean, isn't, in a noun phrase, a determiner a pre - modifier as well, and a complement a post - modifier?

No. Complements and determiners are not subsumed under the modifier function. In NP structure, pre-head dependents are normally either determiners or modifiers, and post-head dependents are either complements or modifiers.
The difference between the latter functions is that complements are much more restricted in their occurrence than modifiers in that they have to be admitted by an appropriate head. Content clauses, for example, are (usually) complements because they are only admitted by a relatively small number of nouns (such as fact, idea, opinion), whereas modifiers like restrictive relative clauses can function as dependent to any common noun.

As for determiners vs. modifiers, I can’t explain it any better than BillJ and CJ have here:

Sometimes determinatives* function as modifier in NP and AdjP structure:

*In my grammar ‘determinative’ is the name of a part of speech, while ‘determiner’ is the name of a function.

Noun phrases (How to identify the head of a noun phrase, please)

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