Complexity of the Nominal Phrase in Different Grammar Books

The concept of phrase has been defined in a variety of ways over time. Jespersen defined it as a combination of words put together in order to form a sense unit. Similarly, Kruisinga distinguishes “syntactic groups” as a combination of words which are part of a sentence. On the other hand, Hockett refers to composite forms which are hierarchically organized. As an illustration, the old dog in the old dog lay in the corner is a composite form as well as lay in the corner. Both of them are part of a construction type, that is, a group of constructions which are similar in some specified way, since both constructions involve the modification of one immediate constituent by the other.

Thus, in the old dog, old is a descriptive adjective which functions as the second immediate constituent, whereas the noun dog is the first immediate constituent. Hockett also adds that the composite form yields a constitute, which also belongs to the class of singular nouns. What is thus implied is that the form-class of the composite form is identified with one of its immediate constituents; this is why the old dog is a singular noun phrase just as dog is. These constructions are called endocentric. However, it seems that, at the time when Hockett was writing, the boundary between syntax and morphology was somewhat unstable, Hockett himself including constructions such as the old dog and blackbird within the label “endocentric constructions”.

INTRODUCTION – Definition of noun phrases, different approaches 3
1 Complex noun-phrases 5
1.1 Pre-modification 6
1.2 Post-modification by relative clauses 7
1.3 Post-modification by non-finite clauses 8
1.4 Post-modification by infinitive clauses 9
2 Structural Ambiguity in the Noun Phrase 9
2.1 Pre-nominal Modifiers 10
2.2 Post-nominal Modifiers 14
3 The coordination of noun phrases 17
CONCLUSION 19
REFERENCES 20