Abstract
The term ‘noun’ is used to describe the class of lexical items whose prototypical members refer to entities ( chair, film, leg ), substances ( butter, concrete, blood ), and named individuals or locations ( John, Paris, France ). Traditionally, the term ‘noun phrase’ has then been used to describe any phrase consisting of a noun as its central constituent (or ‘head’) and capable of functioning as an argument (e.g., subject or object) in a sentence. Examples, in which the head nouns are in bold type, are: my big red chair , the butter on the table ; John , who is a lion-tamer . The structure of noun phrases, which in many respects appears to be as complex as the structure of sentences, has become a controversial issue. While some linguists maintain that noun phrases are headed by nouns, others insist that the head of a noun phrase should be the ‘determiner’ (e.g., the definite article the in the butter on the table ). According to these theorists, noun phrases should really be called ‘determiner phrases.’
Published Version
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