4. Noun Phrase Structure

The role of noun phrase in written expression is very important as it helps the writers express their ideas, beliefs, and concepts successfully. In the performance of this role, the head noun in a noun phrase and its allies have their respective functions. Therefore, the learning writers should know what is the contribution of head noun and its allies in making a noun phrase fully meaningful. Considering the significance of noun phrase and its structuring in writing, this post has been developed.

1. A Noun Phrase

A noun phrase comprises a head noun plus allied information in the form of determiners, modifiers, and complements. The head noun is the pivot of the phrase around which the allied information revolves. The allied information expresses quantity, possession, location or other qualities of the head noun. On the whole, the role of the allied information is to make the head noun well described, specified as well as elaborated. At maximum, a noun phrase can have three main parts, i.e., pre-modifier(s), head noun, and post-modifier(s).

2. Pre-modifiers

Pre-modifiers are a type of modifiers that are positioned before the head noun in a noun phrase. The function of pre-modifiers is to provide additional information about the quantity or specificity of the head noun. Pre-modifiers include: determiners, possessive nouns, attributive pre-positive adjectives, and modifying nouns.

2.1 Determiners

The function of a determiner (a pre-modifier) is to add information about the identity, quantity, or possession of the head noun. The determiners include: articles (a(n), the), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), possessives (my, our, your, his, her, their), and quantifiers (any, many, some, number, all). These determiners appear before the head noun in a specific order. One or several determiners can occur before a head noun. For example:

1. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
2. All these plants are growing well.
3. My friend helped me in my hardship.
4. Many people believe in the power of knowledge

In example (a), a is an article; in (b) all is a quantifier and these is demonstrative. Similarly, in (c), my is a possessive; and in (d), many is a quantifier. These determiners along with their respective head nouns form noun phrases.

2.2 Possessive nouns

Possessive nouns can also perform the function of modifiers in a noun phrase. This they do by providing information about the possession or relationship of the head noun. For example:

1. The students’ notebooks were returned during the mid-day break.
2. The women’s club provides its members with numerous facilities.

In example (a), students’ is a possessive noun; and in (c) women’s is a possessive noun. It is important to note that an apostrophe ‘s’ is added to singular nouns as Saleem’s. Contrarily, just an apostrophe to plural nouns that end in ‘s’ as students’. However, the plural nouns that do not end in ‘s’ take apostrophe ‘s’ after them as women’s in (c).

2.3 Attributive adjectives

In a noun phrase, an adjective can stay before the head noun. The role of such adjective is to modify or describe the noun through providing details. The adjective does this by indicating the characteristics or qualities (e.g., colour, number, level, etc.) of the head noun. For example:

1. The teacher intended to scaffold the learning writers.
2. The green apples are good for health.

In example (a), learning is an adjective that modifies the noun writers; and in (b), green describes the noun apples.

2.4 Noun modifiers

A noun can stay before the head noun and modify the head noun’s meaning. Though nouns and adjectives both modify head nouns, there is a difference in the modification these both provide. Adjectives directly modify head nouns by providing descriptive details, i.e., qualities, states, characteristics of nouns. On the other hand, modifying nouns specify the type or category of the head noun and thus these narrow the meaning of the noun. For example:

1. He purchased a bed sheet, whereas his wife asked for a blanket.
2. The climate change is a serious issue.
3. The school bus arrived late.

In example (a), bed is a pre-modifying noun and sheet is a head noun; in (b), climate is pre-modifying noun and change is a head noun. Similarly, in (c), school is pre-modifying noun and bus is a head noun.  

3. Post-modifiers

The post-modifiers are certain words and phrases that follow a head noun with the purpose to modify or describe it. This they do by providing additional information about the head noun. The details of post modifiers have been given the following sections.

3.1 Prepositional phrase

A prepositional phrase is composed of a preposition and its modifying noun. It follows a head noun playing the role of a modifier. In other words, it functions like an adjective as it also furnishes more details about the head noun. This it does answering which one, what kind, whose, or where type of questions about the head noun. For example:

1. the man behind the tree
2. the books of the students
3. the car with electric mode

3.2 Adverbs

The head noun in a noun phrase can be modified by an adverb which is immediately positioned after it. Such adverbs provide additional information about the noun through specifying time, place or direction. Adverbs though commonly modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, they can also do the function of post-modification in a noun phrase. For example:

1. Watch the dancing bird there.
2. The road ahead is bumpy.
3. The interaction afterwards helped clear up the point.

3.3 That clause

That clause (subordinate clause) modifies head noun in a noun phrase by providing additional information about a noun or noun phrase. It usually follows the nouns like idea, fact, or belief and explains these nouns further. For example:

1. The opinion that teachers are incompetent is not acceptable.
2. The belief that humans are suffering-less is not credible.
3. The fact that they came in contact with the opposite group is not yet established.

3.4 Infinitive clause

An infinitive clause as a noun can stay after head noun in a noun phrase with the role of a post-modifier. For example:

1. My desire to travel has never been fully satisfied.
2. A reason to vacate this house is my unaffordability.
3. A chance to win this game is yet there.

There is a difference between infinitive clauses and prepositional phrases. In infinitive clause, to is followed by the base form of verb and in prepositional phrases to is followed by a noun or pronoun.

3.5 Participial clause

A participial clause is a non-finite clause that starts with – ing, — ed, or an irregular verb form. The role of this clause is mostly to post-modify a head noun in a sentence by adding descriptive details. For example:

1. The students educated at the university play a key role in knowledge generation.
2. We should financially support the people living in huts.
3. She saved the pics taken during the tour.

In reality, the participial clauses help writers add details, clarify meanings, and keep their expressions concise. This is possible because by using these clauses the writers can incorporate descriptive information directly into the noun phrases. 

3.6 Relative clause

Relative clauses are frequently used to post-modify the head noun in a noun phrase. These clauses either start with a relative pronoun (who, whom, which, that, what) or a relative adverb (why, where, when) (See 6. Head Noun and Modifiers in a Noun Phrase: Components of an Enriched Complete Idea). For example:

1. The house that I constructed last year has been rented out.
2. The year when I left my country is memorable.
3. The doctor who gave me treatment in the hospital has left his job.

4. Word Order 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

In sum, the information related to the noun phrase structure has been put under four major sections. These are noun phrase, pre-modifiers, post modifiers and word order in a noun phrase. Further, pre-modifiers and post-modifiers have been detailed. The categories of pre-modifiers include determiners, possessive nouns, attributive prepositive adjectives, and noun modifiers. Similarly, the categories of post-modifier are: prepositional phrase, adverbs, that clauses, infinitive, participle, relative clause. In the end, word order in a phrase has been highlighted so that the novice writers can organize the information in a noun phrase competently.