Identifying Noun Phrases
Some examples of noun phrases are underlined in the sentences below. The head noun appears in bold.
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- The election year politics are annoying for many people.
- Almost every sentence contains at least one noun phrase.
- Current economic weakness may be a result of high energy prices.
Noun phrases can be identified by the possibility of pronoun substitution, as is illustrated in the examples below.
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- a. This sentence contains two noun phrases.
- b. It contains them.
- a. The subject noun phrase that is present in this sentence is long.
- b. It is long.
- a. Noun phrases can be embedded in other noun phrases.
- b. They can be embedded in them.
A string of words that can be replaced by a single pronoun without rendering the sentence grammatically unacceptable is a noun phrase. As to whether the string must contain at least two words, see the following section.
Read more about this topic: Noun Phrase
Famous quotes containing the words identifying, noun and/or phrases:
“And the serial continues:
Pain, expiation, delight, more pain,
A frieze that lengthens continually, in the lucky way
Friezes do, and no plot is produced,
Nothing you could hang an identifying question on.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And would you be a poet
Before you’ve been to school?
Ah, well! I hardly thought you
So absolute a fool.
First learn to be spasmodic—
A very simple rule.
For first you write a sentence,
And then you chop it small;
Then mix the bits, and sort them out
Just as they chance to fall:
The order of the phrases makes
No difference at all.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)