Noun phrase

A noun phrase (abbreviated NP) or nominal group is a phrase ( a completed syntactic unit ), whose core or "head" is a noun (noun) or a deputy of a noun ( pronoun ) is. In the sentence "The old tree was struck by lightning. " Is " the old tree " such a noun phrase with the noun "tree" as its head. The term noun phrase is common in linguistics at least since Noam Chomsky (1957 ) and thus since the dawn of generative grammar. In later versions of the theory was considered that the article could be a syntactic head; in this variant would be the example of " old tree " analyzes as Determinansphrase and noun phrase would be only the part without the article: "old tree".

Within the noun phrase (or Determinansphrase ) prevails in the German grammatical agreement ( congruence ) between articles, adjectives and nouns in the features of case, number and gender.

Composition of a noun phrase

A noun phrase consists of a core ( technical term: Head, English head) of a noun, eg Tree. This core can be expanded to:

  • Adjective attributes: ancient tree
  • Other noun phrases, V.A. Genitive attributes: the tree of knowledge
  • Prepositional phrases: the tree on the field
  • Sets: for example, Relative clauses: the tree that has fallen down yesterday.
  • And finally, depending on the analysis, possibly also the determinative, or about one item: the tree

In each of these cases one obtains a grammatically correct noun phrase ( ... like me for example ) by combining with a predicate can be part of a sentence.

Sometimes the noun, which is actually the head of a noun phrase, also missing ( ellipse), such as in: " the on the field ."

Functions of the noun phrases in the sentence

Nominal / Determinans phrases are typically so also in German, the carrier of case characteristics. Accordingly, the phrases come in different syntactic functions before:

  • As a subject of the sentence in " [ The tree ] is great. "
  • As the object of the sentence in "I see [ the tree ] "
  • As an attribute to another noun phrase in " the leaves [ of the tree ] " s
  • As adverbial, as in " We waited [ all night ]. " ( with the accusative as adverbial ).

A special form also represents the Vokativphrase that is used to call and address of a person and is not integrated into the sentence. Vokativphrasen always appear without determinative.

[Dear brother ] help me! NOT: * Dear brother helps me. literature

  • Noam Chomsky: Syntactic Structures. Mouton, The Hague 1957.
Determiner phrase
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