The English Language english language

Phrases

Exercise
Draw brackets around each NP and underline its headword. Using Tables
4, 5, and 6, indicate the type of each premodifier and/or postmodifier
that you find.
a. Don’t go out in the midday sun.
b. The cat near the window is Salome.
c. Alvin set the goldfish bowl near the window.
d. I saw the cat near the window. (ambiguous: analyze two different
ways)
e. The squirrel that Bonzo, my pet chimp, chased became quite
flustered.
f. Some friends of Boris gave him a box filled with his favorite candy
as a going-away present.
g. The witnesses at the scene noticed a stranger who drove away in
a red station wagon full of flowers.

Complements in NPs
Complements in NPs typically follow the head N, though some may occur
before it, giving us the formula:

(42) (Complement) + H + (Complement)

The complements before the head may be either nouns or, more rarely, ad-
jectives:

(43) a. a fiction writer cf. someone who writes fiction.

b. an economics professor cf. someone who professes economics.

c. a technical writer cf. someone who writes technical manuals/

materials.

d. a financial adviser cf. someone who advises on financial matters.

e. an ecological expert. (Huddleston and Pullum 2002: 439)

When the complement follows the head N it must be either a PP or a clause:

(44) a. the trip to Disneyland (PP)

b. the claim that the war is justified (that-clause)

c. the question whether we’ve won (embedded/indirect

question)

d. the question ‘Are we there yet?’ (quoted question)