Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

NOUN PHRASES

157

Noun phrases: form

157a

Nouns act as the main words, or heads, of noun phrases. A noun phrase usually

consists of a head along with modifiers or a complement. Modifiers occur before

the head (premodifiers) and after the head (postmodifiers).

Premodifiers include determiners (words such as a, an, the, this, all, any, some),

adjectives (blue, cautious, economic, old) and other nouns (government, school).

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539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Introduction to word classes and phrase classes | 299

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Postmodifiers include prepositional phrases (the cafeteria in the building, an

insurance policy 

with profits), relative clauses (the student who needed to speak to

you, the report that was published in 1997) and adverb phrases (the room upstairs,

the lecture

yesterday).

Complements occur after the head and function to complete the meaning of the

noun (the body of a young woman, the suggestion that we should refuse to pay).

Postmodifiers give extra information and are not necessary for the meaning to be

completed. Complements complete the meaning of the noun.

In the following examples, the whole of the noun phrase is green and the head

is in bold:

The

problem

cannot be solved.

All the 

offices in the building

are closed. 

He is an 

old 

man who lives near us

. 

Divorce

was inevitable. 

The head of a noun phrase can also be a pronoun instead of a noun:

She was very unhappy in her new job.

Someone was looking for you earlier.