Introducing English Linguistics

The internal structure of noun phrases.
While it is possible for a noun
phrase to contain only a single head noun or pronoun, other form classes
can optionally occur before or after the head noun. The diagram below
schematizes some common form classes occurring in noun phrases and
their positions relative to the head noun:
Determinative Adjective
Head Prepositional 
Phrases/
Phrases
Phrases
Noun
Relative Clauses
the
expensive
house
on the hill
every
beautiful
city
that we visited
The first position in the noun phrase contains a class of words called
determinatives
(Huddleston and Pullum 2002: 368—99), which are part of
determinative phrases. These words include the articles (a, an, and the),
demonstratives (e.g. this, that, these, those), indefinite pronouns (e.g. all,
every, most, many), and cardinal numbers (e.g. one, two, three).
The second position (if the noun phrase contains a determinative phrase)
is occupied by adjective phrases, which immediately precede the head
noun. Like nouns, adjectives can sometimes be identified by the suffixes
that they contain. Degree adjectives (i.e. adjectives that can be measured on
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INTRODUCING ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

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a scale) that are one or two syllables in length will have comparative and
superlative forms ending in, respectively, -er and -est: small, smaller, smallest;
nice, nicer, nicest. Adjectives that are lengthier will take more or most instead:
beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful; conservative, more conservative, most con-
servative. Adjectives also sometimes have suffixes found only on adjectives,
such as -ic (e.g. electric, fantastic, diabetic), -able (e.g. reasonable, comfortable, tol-
erable), -ive (e.g. festive, conducive, restive), or -al (e.g. diabolical, rational, seasonal).
In the examples in the diagram above, adjective phrases consist of a sin-
gle adjective. However, it is also possible for adjective phrases to contain
more than one adjective as head, as is the case with quick and just preced-
ing victory in the example below:
It was in the U-S government’s interest to present Desert Storm as a quick
and just victory 
(MICASE LEL220JU071)
The head adjective can also be preceded by an intensifying adverb, such as
very or somewhat:
The people in the wheelchairs in the group are already