NOUN PHRASE

A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a 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. 

Noun Pre-Modifiers

What if a single noun isn't specific enough for our purposes?      How then do we modify a noun to construct a more specific reference?    

English places modifiers before a noun.    Here we indicate the noun that is at the center of a noun phrase by an asterisk (*) and modifiers by arrows pointed toward the noun they modify.

white   house

       *

large     man

       *

Modification is a somewhat technical term in linguistics. It does not mean to change something, as when we "modify" a car or dress. To modify means to limit, restrict, characterize, or otherwise focus meaning. We use this meaning throughout the discussion here.

Modifiers before the noun are called pre-modifiers.    All of the pre-modifiers that are present and the noun together form a noun phrase .

NOUN      PHRASE

pre-modifiers noun

     *

By contrast, languages such as Spanish and French place modifiers after the noun

casa blanca       white house

*    

homme grand       big man

*      

The most common pre-modifiers are adjectives, such as red , long , hot . Other types of words often play this same role.    Not only articles

the       water

        *

but also verbs

running      water

       *

and possessive pronouns

her      thoughts

           *

pre-modifiers limit the reference in a wide variety of ways.   

                          Order:                            second, last

                          Location:                        kitchen, westerly

                          Source or Origin:            Canadian

                          Color:                            red, dark

                          Smell:                             acrid, scented

                          Material:                         metal, oak

                          Size:                               large, 5-inch

                          Weight:                          heavy

                          Luster:                            shiny, dull

A number of pre-modifiers must appear first if they appear at all.

                          Specification:                              a, the, every

                          Designation:                                this, that, those, these

                          Ownership/Possessive:               my, your, its, their, Mary’s

              Number:                                     one, many

These words typically signal the beginning of a noun phrase.   

Some noun phrases are short:

                                      the table

                                      ®       *            

Some are long:

the second shiny red Swedish touring sedan

     *

a large smelly red Irish setter

     *

my carved green Venetian glass salad bowl

     *

the three old Democratic legislators

        *

Notice that each construction would function as a single unit within a sentence.    (We offer a test for this below,)

The noun phrase is the most common unit in English sentences.    That prevalence can be seen in the following excerpt from an example from the section on the choice of language:

The stock market’s summer swoon turned into a dramatic rout
Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged. The stock market’s summer swoon turned into   a dramatic rout    *                                *
Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged.
     *                    *

To appreciate the rich possibilities of pre-modifiers, you have only to see how much you can expand a premodifier in a noun phrase:

the book
the history book
the American history book
the illustrated American history book
the recent illustrated American history book
the recent controversial illustrated American history book
the recent controversial illustrated leather bound American history book

Noun Post-Modifiers

We were all taught about pre -modifiers: adjectives appearing before a noun in school.    Teachers rarely speak as much about adding words after the initial reference.    Just as we find pre -modifiers, we also find    post -modifiers—modifiers coming after a noun.

The most common post-modifiers are prepositional phrases:

the book on the table

   *      

civil conflict in Africa

       *     

the Senate of the United States

      *       

Post-modifiers can be short

a dream deferred

     *

or long, as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s reference to

a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves

    *    

and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together

at a table of brotherhood.

What does King have?    A dream?    No. He has a specific dream. Once we are sensitive to the existence of noun phrases, we recognize a relatively simple structure to the sentence.   Here we recognize a noun phrase with a very long post-modifier—thirty-two words to be exact.

We do not get lost in the flow of words, but recognize structure. At the point that we recognize structure within the sentence, we recognize meaning. (Notice also that post-modifiers often include clauses which themselves include complete sentences, as in the last example above.)

Post-modifiers commonly answer the traditional news reporting questions of who , what , where , when , how , or why .    Noun post-modifiers commonly take the following forms:

prepositional phrase                the dog in the store

              *   

_ing phrase                              the girl running to the store

              *   

_ed past tense                          the man wanted by the police

              *   

wh - clauses                              the house where I was born

                *      

that/which clauses                  the thought that I had yesterday

               *     

If you see a preposition, wh - word ( which, who, when where ), -ing verb form, or that or which after a noun, you can suspect a post-modifier and the completion of a noun phrase.  

The noun together with all pre- and post-modifiers constitutes a single unit, a noun phrase that indicates the complete reference. Any agreement in terms of singular/plural is with the noun at the center.

The boys on top of the house    are .............

     *   

Here the noun at the center of the noun phrase is plural, so a plural form of the verb is called for (not a singular form to agree with the singular hous