23. Analysis of Complex Noun Phrases

Noun phrases are an important component of sentences. The significance of these phrases is that they help express academic concepts comprehensively as well as concisely. The writers need to construct these phrases with different levels of complexity. For this purpose, the pre-modifiers and post-modifiers of the head nouns play a crucial role. Further, the writers employ these modifiers repeatedly for the construction of longer sentences when they require to express complex concepts. Therefore, it is important for the learning writers that they are able to understand and analyze the complex noun phrases.

1. Components of a Noun Phrase

A noun phrase may comprise a single noun (that stays as a head of the phrase) or a number of specifiers, pre-modifiers, head noun, and post-modifiers. Many modifiers can occur within a single NP before or after a head noun. For example:

All¹ the² poor³ people⁴ of this village⁵ are waiting for the flood emergency support.

The italicized words in example (a), make a noun phrase. The word all stays as a limiter, the as a determiner, poor as a pre-modifying adjective.  Further, people stay as the head of the phrase, and the prepositional phrase of this village is a post-modifier.

In a noun phrase, the head noun modifiers may be in different numbers, i.e., their number may range from one modifier to eight or nine modifiers. For example:

1. a big¹ white² horse [2 modifiers]
2. the three¹ metaled² roads the government had to build³ [3 modifiers]
3. an old¹ Indian² man with his old wife³ who was staggering along⁴[4 modifiers]
4. that fat¹ black² old³ woman at the university⁴with the mobile phone⁵ [5 modifiers]

2. The Order of Modifiers in a Noun Phrase

The modifiers in a noun phrase, whether they are pre-modifiers or post-modifiers, stay in a particular order. This order has been indicated below.

Determiner¹ + adjectives² + modifying nouns³ + head noun⁴ + clauses⁵ + prepositional phrase/adverb⁶

Examples:

1. Some¹ great² language³ researchers⁴ to inspire⁵ about the smart research methods⁶
2. His¹ big² electric³ car⁴ that he uses⁵ for long drives⁶

There are almost eleven types of noun modifications in a noun phrase. These types include adjective, prepositional phase, -ing participles, relative clause, derived noun, apposition, gerund, possessive case, -ed participles, adverb, and infinitive. From these, the modifications which are most frequently used are adjectives and the ones that are used at moderate level are prepositional phrases. The modifications which are used at low level are –ing participle, relative clause, derived noun, apposition and gerund. The modifications which are at rock- bottom in their use are possessive case, ed-participle, adverb, and infinitive.

3. Types of Post-Modifiers

These types of post-modifiers are shown in the table below.

Finite Clauses	Non-finite Clauses	Phrases and Adjectives
leaves that can expand the fact that leaves can survive hot weather	a leave grown on a soft stem leaves rustling with each other the capacity to flutter in air	Prepositional phrases (describe the head noun or location, etc.) e.g., the leaves on the top branches Adjectives e.g., something despicable

4. Multiplicity of Post-Modifiers in a Noun Phrase

A number of post-modifiers occur multiply after the head noun. In such occurrence, the various modifiers stay in certain patterns (See 18. Noun Phrase Complexity).

5.1 Combinations of Kinds of Post-Modifiers

Adjective (phrase), Adverb (phrase), and reflexive pronoun

1. A criminal in black dress in the court himself demanded death punishment.
2. Two persons busy in rash conversation on the road themselves jumped before a passenger bus.

5.2 Dominant kinds of Post-Modifiers in the Longest NPs

Prepositional phrases and Appositive

1. The people of the village, a poverty stricken section of society, deserve special attention.
2. The wheat crop in the desert area, a life sustaining resource, must be protected from plant diseases.

6. Repeated Occurrence of Post-Modifiers

When a noun phrase has two post-modifiers, some modifiers, e.g., prepositional phrases and relative clauses may occur repeatedly. Thus the patterns of prepositional phrase + prepositional phrase, relative clause + relative clause, appositive +appositive appear. Even three prepositional phrases can repeatedly occur in a noun phrase.

6.1 Two Times Repeated Occurrence of the same Post-Modifier

The post-modifiers, i.e. prepositional phrases, relative clauses, appositives and reflexive pronouns can occur two times after the head noun.

1. A car on the road of the mountain area collided with a stone. [prepositional phrases]
2. The people who travelled through the hilly area that was lush green enjoyed their journey. [relative clauses]
3. Many people visit our manager, Akbar Ali, a gracious person. [appositives]
4. She baked it herself for herself. [Reflexive Pronouns]

6.2 Three Times Repeated Occurrence of the same Post-modifier

The post-modifiers, i.e. adjective (phrase), and adverb (phrase) can occur three times after the head noun.

1. Akbar is fond of sweets purchased from the blue mart in the North Town. [Adjective Phrases]
2. We saw a big cat in the forest in the morning before the sun rise. [Adverb phrases]

Some other types of post-modifiers, e.g., to-clause, adjective phrase, and adverb phrase can occur 4 times repeatedly. These post-modifiers may even occur more than 4 times.

6.3 The Longest NP

An NP with 9 post-modifiers The living patterns [of villagers [at all levels [of social status development]], [from those [beginning their effort [for growth] [to those [that appear to have secured good position [in the village community]]]]]].

7. Strategies to Analyze Complex Noun Phrases

The new writers should learn how to identify the head nouns and their modifiers in complex noun phrases so that they can become capable to unpack the meaning of these phrases. For this purpose, following strategies can be very helpful.

7.1 Identification of the Head Nouns

Head nouns in a noun phrase can be identified with the help of probing questions or grammatical clues (See 5. Noun Phrases: Complex Head Nouns).

1. asking the probe question Who or what are we talking about?
2. pointing out grammatical clues that indicate what the head noun is

7.2 Composing and Decomposing Noun Phrases

The understanding of the processes of compositing and decomposing noun phrases can provide the learning writers with a good knowledge for analyzing and understanding the structure of noun phrases. In this connection, the following points are important.

1. A noun phrase is a set of words. We need to notice how particular words in a noun phrase provide answer to certain questions. These questions may be: which…?, how many…?, what are they like…?, what type …?, where…?

b. The learning writers need to explore the potential of noun phrases to provide detailed meaning by starting with a noun and adding as many modifiers as possible. For example, a tall green beautiful tree that grew in the desert.

c.  Using a simple graphic organizer for illustrating the parts of a noun   phrase

Determiners Pointers	Pre-modifiers Describers, Adjectives	Head Nouns Who, What	Post-modifiers Qualifiers
1. two 2. some	beautiful unresolvable	flags issues	hoisted on the tower of the society

7.3 Replacement or Condensation of the Verb Phrases by Academic Noun Phrases

a. The verb phrases can either be replaced or condensed by using academic noun phrases. For example:

Informal Verb Phrases	Academic Noun Phrases
add the two numbers	the sum of the two numbers
When we subtract, we get…	Subtraction results in …

b. Contrasting words can also be used for the purpose of verb replacement. For example:

Common Verb	Verb Replaced by a Noun
People from Afghanistan invaded India around A. D. 1300.	People from Afghanistan launched invasions on India around A.D. 1300.

c. A verb and object in a sentence can be turned into a complex noun phrase. For example:

Verb + Object	Complex Noun Phrase
cleared the debt tolerated the rough attitude	clearance of debt tolerance of the rough attitude

d. Common verbs can be changed into gerund phrases for the provision of an increased level of abstraction. This sort of abstraction is very important in persuasive essays. For example:

Common Verbs	Gerund Phrases
I think the employees should observe office rules because …	Observing office rules is good because….

8. Process of Analyzing Noun Phrases

The learning writers can follow a number of steps for analyzing noun phrases. These steps are as follows:

1. identifying noun phrases in sentences
2. indicating the classes of the parts of the noun phrase, i.e., determiners, pre-modifiers, head noun, post-modifiers
3. indicating each post-modifier as a phrase or a clause; if it is a clause, indicating it as finite or non-finite clause.
4. putting each noun phrase into a category of simple or complex noun phrase.

The understanding of the composition of complex noun phrases is very important for their productive use in academic texts. For the fulfilment of this need, this post first presents the syntactic functions of noun phrases. Second, the components of noun phrases and the order of modifiers in noun phrases have been detailed. Third, the multiplicity and repeated occurrence of modifiers in noun phrases have been made explicit. Finally, the strategies to analyze complex noun-phrases have been enlisted. In essence, the information that this post provides is very important regarding the use of complex noun phrases in academic prose.  

Sources Consulted

1. Dušková (2009)
2. Huddleston and Pullum (2007)
3. Mutiara (2019)
4. O’Malley (2013
5. Swierzbin (2014)