Noun Phrase

What is a noun phrase?

A noun phrase is a group of words that acts as a noun. Noun phrases typically consist of two or more words, including a noun, and other words that modify the noun, such as an article (e.g. a, an, the), a quantifier (a number), or a possessive (e.g. his, hers, theirs). Some linguists consider single nouns to be noun phrases too. They call them 'single-word noun phrases'.

Fig. 1 - 'spotted puppy' is a noun phrase.

In this example, the head noun (or main noun) is 'puppy', and its modifiers are the article 'the' and the adjective 'spotted'.

How do I identify a noun phrase?

The two main parts of a noun phrase are the main noun and its modifiers. The modifiers can be placed before or after the noun. Once you have identified the noun, it is easy to identify the modifiers. Just look at what is next to the noun!

In this sentence, the head noun is 'book'. The premodifier (modifier that comes before the noun) is the article 'the'. 'With a blue spine' is the postmodifier (modifier that comes after the head noun).

How do we know that the head noun is the 'book' and not the 'spine'? Because the spine gives extra detail about the book rather than the other way around.

The head noun here is 'tree'. 'The tall' are premodifiers, whereas 'with oranges' is the postmodifier. How do we know that 'tree' is the main noun? Because the noun 'oranges' does not introduce an idea but rather defines what kind of tree it is.

When trying to identify noun phrases, a useful technique is to replace the noun phrase with a pronoun, like this:

If the sentence still makes sense after replacing the phrase with a pronoun (like in the above example), you can be confident that it is a noun phrase. This might not work in all cases, but it is useful as a general rule.

Types of noun phrases

Let's take a look at some different types of noun phrases.

Expanded noun phrases

An expanded noun phrase is a noun phrase that includes additional words, such as adjectives, prepositional phrases, or relative clauses, to provide more information and detail about the noun it modifies.

Expanded noun phrases can vary significantly in length. They can be as short as two words (the minimum accepted by most grammarians to form a phrase), or they could be much longer and contain many pre and post modifiers.

Expanded noun phrases provide additional information in a sentence. They are made up of the main noun and one or more adjectives, pronouns, or prepositions which are meant to add further description.

Fig. 2 - Use noun phrases to discuss the alpaca.

'The alpaca'. Yes, you could say that. This is a simple noun phrase. It contains the main noun 'alpaca' and the premodifier 'the'. But how would we make it into an expanded noun phrase? Here are examples of expanded noun phrases:

• 'The brown alpaca'. Now, this is an expanded noun phrase because we have added the adjective 'brown', which adds further detail. Could we make it longer? Of course!

• 'The brown, smiling, curious alpaca'. This expanded noun phrase contains several adjectives that add more and more layers of detail to the noun.

Some further examples of expanded noun phrases include

These are expanded noun phrases that contain prepositions (on and across) that introduce postmodifiers (the balcony and the table).

Singular noun phrases

A singular noun phrase is a phrase that only contains one word, which must be a noun or a pronoun. Some linguists suggest these aren't phrases at all, whereas others argue that nouns/pronouns on their own can work as noun phrases.

Noun phrase modifiers

Noun phrases come with words that are placed either before or after the main noun. These are called modifiers. If the modifier comes before the main noun, it is called a premodifier, and if it comes after, it is called a postmodifier.

Premodifiers in noun phrases

Premodifiers come before a noun and are usually made up of determiners, adjectives, and nouns.

Determiners

Determiners will usually come first in a noun phrase (e.g. 'the pink skirt'). Determiners include:

• Articles, e.g. a / an, the

• Demonstrative, e.g. this, that, these, those

• Possessive determiners, e.g. my, your, his, her,

• Quantifiers, e.g. some, any, all, enough, no, every

• Numerals, e.g. one, two, three

Determiners might seem insignificant, but they are paramount to expressing the kind of reference the noun phrase makes.

The determiner, in this case, is the demonstrative 'this', which makes it clear exactly which book is a history book.

Adjectives

Premodifiers also include adjectives. Adjectives are parts of speech which are meant to define and add detail to a noun.

This noun phrase contains the main noun 'storm' and two premodifiers. The indefinite determiner 'a' and the adjective 'tremendous' act as the premodifiers.

This expanded noun phrase contains the main noun 'business' and three premodifiers. The possessive determiner 'my' and the adjectives 'interesting' and 'profitable' act as its premodifiers.

As you can see, premodifiers often work together when forming noun phrases.

Nouns

Nouns can also act as the premodifiers of noun phrases. They tend to explain specific attributes of the noun, such as material, era, type, texture etc.

The noun 'high school' specifies the type of diploma.

The noun 'silk' specifies the type of jacket.

Identifying nouns as premodifiers can be difficult because you run the risk of confusing them with the main noun. Make sure to test whether the noun adds more information to another noun or if it is the noun that the other elements work to define.

Fig. 3 - The noun phrase 'high school diploma' specifies the type of diploma the students receive.

Postmodifiers in noun phrases

Postmodifiers are placed after the head noun. They include complements and more general postmodifiers.

Complements

Complements include prepositional phrases or clauses and are placed immediately after the noun. As their name suggests, they complement the noun. They are necessary to complete the meaning.

In all these cases, removing the complement would dissolve the meaning, and the noun phrase would not make sense anymore.

General postmodifiers

General postmodifiers consist of adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, and clauses. General postmodifiers give additional or more specific information about the noun (e.g. place, time, possession, features, type etc.).

The main difference between general postmodifiers and complements is that general postmodifiers are not necessary for the noun phrase to make sense.

Uses of noun phrases

Noun phrases can have several uses in a clause/sentence. Specifically, they can be used as the subject or object.

Noun phrases as the subject

The subject of a sentence identifies who does the action of the verb:

In both of these sentences, the noun phrase is the subject of the sentence and is completing the action.

Noun phrases as the object

The object in a sentence identifies what/who receives the verb's action.

In this sentence, the subject is now 'he', and the 'yellow tennis ball' has become the object.

Noun phrase examples

By now you should have a good idea of what noun phrases are. Let's look at some example sentences to see if you can identify the noun phrase in each. Remember, there may be more than one noun phrase in a sentence!