Noun Phrases

The Noun Phrase (NP)

The distribution of the noun phrase

An NP can occur

• As the subject, i.e. at the beginning of a sentence before a verb as in: [_NPThe student] is working hard.
• As the direct object, i.e. after a transitive verb as in: Chris met [_NPthe student] yesterday.
• Following a preposition, as in: Pat talked about [_NPthe student] again .
• In front of the possessive 's, i.e. in: [_NPthe student] 's car broke.

An NP can be substituted by a personal pronoun (I, she, him, it, ...)

The internal structure of a noun phrase

• An NP must contain a noun
• An NP can contain:
  • exactly one determiner at the beginning of the NP
  • an arbitrary number of adjectives before the N
  • an arbitrary number of preposition phrases (PP) after the N
  • one or more sentences at the end of the NP.