An open-sesame approach to English noun phrases: defining the NP (with an introduction to the special issue)

Abstract

The category of the noun phrase in English has received much attention in the literature. This article discusses the main defining features of the category from different theoretical angles. Issues such as its structural status, the determination and characterisation of its (morphosyntactic, semantic, cognitive) head, the structural slots which are available in the phrase, and the different possibilities as far as word order is concerned will be approached from structural, syntactic, functional and cognitive perspectives. In the second half of the article, after a review of recent literature on the English noun phrase, we offer a summary of the research included in this issue.

Thomas Brunner, Simplicity and typological effects in the emergence of New Englishes: The noun phrase in Singaporean and Kenyan English (Topics in English Linguistics, TiEL 97). Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017. Pp. xix+341. ISBN 9783110516593 (hardback).

“…Undoubtedly understood as a call to action, the research situation has since improved in favour of the English noun phrase, which is reflected in a number of monographs devoted to understanding structure, variation and diachronic change of the English NP from a range of different perspectives (see, e.g., Meyer 2000; Keizer 2007; Berlage 2014). This assessment is confirmed by Martínez-Insua & Pérez-Guerra (2011) in their introduction to a special issue on noun phrase structure in English, where it is reported that ‘[s]tudies on noun phrases abound in the linguistics literature, and come from a variety of different perspectives and theoretical backgrounds’ (Martínez-Insua & Pérez-Guerra 2011: 201). In particular, the relevance of the English NP in the context of linguistic complexity has been increasingly acknowledged in research from variationist (Brunner 2014; Schilk & Schaub 2016), register (Biber & Gray 2011) and second-language perspectives (Biber, Gray & Ponpoon 2011; Parkinson & Musgrave 2014; Kreyer & Schaub 2018).…”

Analysis of Languages Variation in Structural Patterns through Government and Binding Theory

“…In this way, the researcher suggested that "A person with L1 Urdu language must avoid the translation techniques for mastering in the English language as L2 because it may lead to a wrong syntactic and grammatical sentence structure". (Insua & Guerra, 2011) Syntax Complexities Kiani (2011) conducted a study on the examination of predicate complexity and syntax of the Urdu Language. Primarily, the major concern focuses on the main and light verb functionality in a clause that is studied under the "Minimalist" key concept of (Chomsky, A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory, 1993) from personal observations and a collection of books.…”

“…As far as the rules of Government and Binding theory are concerned, they are already set out as a paradigm for sentences that a researcher going to analyze with the reference of a noun phrase and the determiner. (Insua & Guerra, 2011)…”