Noun Phrase

• Main word is either a noun or a pronoun

• The structure of a noun phrase is presented as
Pre- Post-
Determiners Noun
modifiers modifiers
• Determiners, pre-modifiers and/or post-modifiers
may not be present in a noun phrase.
• Determiners : words used to introduce the noun
phrase
• Modifiers : dependent on the main word
– pre-modifier comes before the main word
– Post-modifier comes after the main word
 Examples
Noun (head)
1.
president

Determiner Noun
2.
The president

3. Pre-modifier Noun
terrible tragedy

4. Determiner Pre-modifier Noun

An agonising death
5. Noun Post-modifier
studies on teaching politeness

6. Determiner Noun Post-modifier

a fortune on a lottery

7. Pre-modifier Noun Post-modifier

eponymous label in 2015

8. Determiner Pre-modifier Noun Post-modifier

a young labourer from West
Bengal
 Determiners
• There are three classes of determiners
Pre-determiner Central determiners Post-determiners

twice, five times, a, an, the, this, that, One, first, last, few,
half, rather, such, these, those, several, many
all, both
• All the burdens • the questionnaire • the five teachers
• Both those pages • these utterances • the many books
 Modifiers
• A noun phrase may have a pre-modifier or post-
modifier or both. Some noun phrases might have
more than one pre-modifier or post-modifier.
Pre-modifier
• The high-profile biopic roles of Jackie Robinson
• A little sweetened juice.
Post-modifier
• Seven pairs of tickets in the HBO Ultimate Oscars
Experience Contest.
 Relative clauses
• Relative clause is also a common type of post-modifier.
Uses relative pronouns such as who, which, whose or
that.
Example:
• He came out with his debut album You and Me
which was a mix of pop, folk and country music.
1a) He came out with his debut album You and Me.
1b) The album was a mix of pop, folk and country
music.
 Appositive clauses
• The appositive clause is also often found
embedded in a noun phrase. This type of clause is
introduced by the conjunction that:
– The usual claim that this market failure can be
corrected….
– The problem that constitutes impoliteness is….
– The feeling that it would not happen
• The conjunction that in appositive clauses is
different from the relative that.
• The appositive clause can be a sentence
without that
– The FBI was so caught up in the Russia probe that
it failed to heed signs.
• However, a relative clause needs the relative
that to be a sentence
– The Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad launched
Sompo Health Hospitalisation & Surgical
Insurance, a first-of-its-kind plan that offers
medical coverage for surgical implants.
 References
• Agense France-Presse. (2018, February 19). Screaming
Mummy on display in Egypt. theSun , p. 7.
• Agense France-Presse. (2018, February 19). Trump slams
FBI over school shooting. theSun , p. 6.
• Indra, S. (2018, February 19). Loving his calling. theSun , p.
15. Retrieved from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/
• Mugford, G. (2007). How rude! Teaching impoliteness in the
second-language classroom. ELT Journal Vol 62 (4) , 375-
384.
• Nury, V. (2018, February 19). Reward from the universe.
theSun , p. 18.
• Win a Trip to the Oscars. (2018, February 19). theSun , p.
15.