Noun Phrases

Meaning :

Noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or any group of words containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb.

A noun phrase most commonly functions as a subject, object, or complement :

Examples:
• My coach is happy.
• I like the cars over there.
• The man who lives there is my uncle.



Noun and noun phrases perform ten grammatical functions in the English language. The ten functions are :

1. Subject.
2. Subject complement.
3. Direct object.
4. Object complement.
5. Indirect object.
6. Prepositional complement.
7. Noun phrase modifier.
8. Determinative.
9. Appositive.
10. Adverbial.



From a functional point of view, the noun phrase has four major function components, occurring in a fixed order :

• The determinative, that constituent which determines the reference in its linguistic or situational context.
• Premodification, which comprises all the modifying or describing constituents before the head, other than the determiners.
• The head, around which the other constituents cluster.
• Post modification, those which comprise all the modifying constituents placed after the head. 

Structures of noun phrase :

The structure of this noun phrase contains three sections:
1. Noun phrase: pre-modifiers + noun
a. White house; here white is a pre-modifier and house is a noun.

2. Noun phrase: noun + post-modifiers. (the most common post-modifier is prepositional phrases)
a. The boy in the store; here in the store is the post-modifier.

3. Noun phrase: pre-modifier + noun + post-modifier
a. The children in the garden; here the is the pre-modifier, children is the noun, in the garden is the post-modifier.