The Structure of NP

1
The Structure of NP

• English Grammar - BA
• Lecture 4
• Torben Thrane

2
NP positions and functions
S
Subject
Adjunct
Predicate
NP
VP
PP
Complement
NP
VP
Aux
P
Complements IO DO
N
NP
NP
V
prison
The judge
has
given
some of the gang
five years
in
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NP positions and functions

• Subject position I met him in Rome last year
• Object position I met him in Rome last year
• P-complement positionI met him in Rome last year
• Adjunct positions
• I met him in Rome last year
• Last year I met him in Rome

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Subtypes of NP NP with Head N

• girls
• a girl
• the little girl
• all the five other pretty little girls
• the awfully sweet little girl with the golden
  hair that shone in the sunlight
• (...bvadr)
• the pretty girls you said you met at Bills party

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Subtypes of NP Pronouns

• Personal I, me, you, he, him/she,her/it, we, us,
  you, they, them
• Possessive mine, yours, hers, its, ours, theirs
• Reflexive -self, -selves
• Relative who, which, that what
• Demonstrative (also determiners) this, that,
  these, those such
• Interrogative who (also determiners) which,
  what, whose
• Indefinite -thing, -body, -one Quantifying
  (also determiners) some, any, all, both,
  (n)either, each, ...

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Subtypes of NP Proper Names

• Personal names Jane, Tom, Jones, etc., etc.
• Geographical names London, the Thames, the
  Netherlands, etc. etc.
• In general, anything you want to individualize,
  you can give a name

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Basic NP structures
S
VP
NP
N
movies
appeal to him
8
Basic NP structures
S
VP
NP
A
N
movies
violent
appeal to him
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Basic NP structures
S
VP
NP
A
N
PP
P
NP
Jean Claude van Damme
violent
appeal to him
movies
with
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Basic NP structures
S
NP (or DP)
VP
NP
D
N
A
PP
P
NP
Jean Claude van Damme
those
violent
movies
with
appeal to him
11
Basic NP structures
S
NP (or DP)
VP
NP
Dets
N
A
PP
D
D
P
NP
Jean Claude van Damme
all
those
movies
violent
appeal to him
with
12
Functions within NP
NP (or DP)
Specification
Classification
NP
Dets
Head
Modification
Modification
A
N
PP
D
D
P
NP
Jean Claude van Damme
all
those
movies
violent
with
13
Functions within NP (DP)

• Specification (in DP)
• Classification (in DP)
• Head (in NP)
• Modification (in NP)

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Specification (Determination)

• Determiners the, a(n), my, your, our, their,
  every, no
• Indefinite/quantifying determiners (also
  pronouns) all, some, any, each, both, many, few,
  much, (n)either
• Demonstrative determiners (also pronouns) this,
  that, these, those, such
• Interrogative determiners (also pronouns) which,
  what, whose
• Numerals one, two, three, .
• Ordinals first, second, third, .
• Adjectives last, next, little
• Genitive NP the mans hat

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Multiple specification
DP
Classification
Specification
Dets
NP
D
D
D
D
N
children
the
two
both
other
both
two
the
two
both
other
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Genitive specification
DP
Specification
Classification
GenP
NP
Head
DP
Genitive
A
N
Classification
Specification
NP
Dets
Head
D
D
D
D
N
children
s
bikes
the
two
both
other
red
17
Premodification
NP
Modification
Head
AP
N
handsome
officer
naval
very handsome
very naval
handsome naval
naval handsome
18
Premodification
NP
Modification
Head
AP
N
sweet
air
stale
very sweet
very stale
sweet stale
stale sweet
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Premodification
NP
Modification
Head
AP
N
dirty
books
Classifying
Descriptive
English
Classifying
Descriptive
very dirty
very English
Descriptive
dirty English
Classifying
Descriptive
English dirty
Classifying
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Premodification
NP
Modification
AP
NP
Modification
Head
A
N
Classifying
Descriptive
English
books
very dirty
very English
dirty
very English
dirty
English
very dirty
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Premodification
NP
Modification
Head
AP
N
AP
AP
C
air
very sweet
stale
and
very stale
sweet
very sweet
very stale
very stale
very sweet
Descriptive
Descriptive
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Postmodification
grammar students - classifying, cf. very grammar
students longhaired students - descriptive, cf.
very longhaired students
students of grammar students with long hair
students of grammar with long hair students with
long hair of grammar

• students of grammar who have long hair
• students who have long hair of grammar

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Postmodification
NP
Modification
Head
N
PP
P
NP
students
of
grammar
with
long hair
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Postmodification
NP
Descriptive
Classification
Modification
PP
NP
Classifying
Modification
Head
P
NP
N
PP
P
NP
with
long hair
students
of
grammar
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Postmodification
Postmodification
Relative clause
NP
Classification
Modification
NP
S
Modification
Head
NP
VP
N
PP
P
NP
V
NP
who
students
of
grammar
long hair
have