Noun Review of Related Theories
16 noun phrase as a headed to the extent that it has a central constituent or head, to
which other elements can be optionally added 1985, p.61. It is further followed that a noun phrase is frequently expanded and modified by adding modifiers. The
modifiers used are not only adjectives or the basic noun modifiers instead other elements such as other nouns or noun phrase, prepositional phrase, verb phrase,
and clauses. Regarding the various possibilities to construct a noun phrase, there are
four potential constituents of a noun phrase which presented schematically as follows Greenbaum Nelson [2002]; Kolln Funk [2012]; Jackson [1982]; and
Quirk et al. [1985]:
Quirk et al., 1985, p.1238
Note:
Det :
Determinative H
: Noun Headword
Pre-mod
: Pre-noun
modification Post-mod
:Post-noun modification
Through this systematic nature of modification, it is obvious that the head is the most potential components of a noun phrase. It may consist of a noun, pronoun,
adjective, participle, numeral, genitive, and quantifier Aarts and Aarts, 1982, p.104. Besides, the head is surrounded by other constituents. It also dictates
concord with other parts of the sentence, for example: 1
[The tall girl standing in the corner] is my sister. 2
[The tall girls standing in the corner] are my sister.
NP : Det Pre-mod
H Post-mod
17 3
[The tall girl in the corner who has a blue sweater] is my sister. 4
I saw the tall girl in [the corner which was full of people]. Quirk et al., 1985, p.1238
According to those sentences above, it is obvious that sentence 1, 3, and 4 have girl as the head. In contrast, sentence 2 has girls as the head. Even
though they have different head in the end, they share the same noun headword, GIRL
. Besides, they are followed by modifiers. In sentence 1 and 2, the heads are followed by non-finite clause, standing in the corner. Meanwhile, in sentence
3 and 4, the head are followed by prepositional phrases and finite relative clauses. In the other words, a noun phrase comprises a head and other elements,
such as: