ANALYSING ENGLISH 1
The Noun phrase II
Week 3
Kieran O’Halloran
Recap: TYPES OF NOUN
o Common Nouns vs Proper Nouns
book, house
John, London
o Count Nouns vs. Non-count / mass nouns
book, cat, door
coffee, wine, sugar, car
money
Recap: The Noun Phrase (NP)
o Noun Phrase
o Noun
o Other Elements?
The Noun Phrase (NP): STRUCTURE
PRE-MODIFICATION
(Determiner) (AP)
 The happy
guy
Det AP
N
 A happy
guy
 One happy
guy
HEAD NOUN
POST-MODIFICATION
(Clause) (PP)
from Mexico.
PP
who wears a sombrero.
Cl
from Mexico who wears a sombrero.
Pre-modification vs. Post-modification
Pre-modification:
[Both my] sisters
[My new red] car
Post-modification:
The film [that you saw]
Larry’s analysis [of the problem]
Something [new]
The Noun Phrase (NP): STRUCTURE
(Determiner) (AP) NOUN (Clause) (PP)
John is a doctor.
I live with my family.
They like old houses.
I have finished my English essay.
I like the red dress that you bought.
I have met the new engineer from Germany.
Defining relative clauses
 Postmodifies head noun in a noun
phrase.
e.g. The guy [who is wearing a hat]
is my dad.
A defining Relative Clause is an
embedded clause...since it is part of a
noun phrase (functioning as a
SUBJECT or OBJECT).
Embedded clauses are often indicated
with ‘[ ]’.
Prepositional phrase (PP)
Preposition (at, by, in, on…)
+ NP
on the toilet, in the bush, without
toilet paper, in a state.
Prepositions
A closed-class word, often preceding an NP,
expressing a relationship between it and the
rest of a clause.
Prepositions can precede other parts of speech:
By waiting ages for the bus, he was late for
work.
Noun Phrase: post-modification
NP
Cl
NP
Det
N
Rel. N
V
the
house
that I
bought
AP
PP
NP
A
happy
P
Det
N
with
the
work
NP
PP
NP
Det
the
N
P
Det
N
decoration
of
the
cake
NP
PP
NP
Det
Det
P
Det
a
few
of
those
N
books