Noun Phrase NP and Verb Phrase VP Objectives

Noun Phrase (NP) and Verb Phrase (VP)

Objectives • To familiarise the students with different types of phrases in a sentence. • To empower the student teachers to analyse the components of a sentence. Keyideas • Any group of words that has one of the grammatical categories like noun, verb, adjective etc. as its head is called a phrase. • The constituents of noun phrase are pre modifiers and post modifiers.

Content Any group of words that has one of the grammatical categories like noun, verb, adjective etc. as its head is called a phrase

A simple sentence usually consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase �E. g. A boy loved a girl A boy Noun Phrase loved a girl Verb Phrase

The Noun Phrase A noun phrase is a group of words with a noun as its main part. My old maths teacher Head word was Austrian

My sporty red car with a sunroof. Did you see what happen to this noun? It’s just been expanded!!!

Let’s see that again. The smart boy in my class. The original single word ‘boy’ has been expanded, and this gives us more information.

The term noun phrase refers to a group of words which act like a noun. Constituents of a NP Appu is very tall. NP Varsha is smart. NP A noun phrase may have only one constituent.

It can also have other constituents. The child NP Det N The little child NP Det Adj. P N

His first three films. NP Det Ord. Num N The exciting Indian film. NP Det Adj. P N

All the seven fantastic dreams of Kurosawa NP Pre-det Det Num Adj. P N PP

What are determiners? A determiner is used to modify a noun. It indicates reference to something specific or something of a particular type. This function is usually performed by articles, demonstratives, possessive determiners, or quantifiers.

Types of determiners Articles The definite and indefinite articles are all determiners. Definite article - the Indefinite article - a or an (a is used before a consonant sound; an is used before a vowel sound. ) Examples: Close the door, please. I've got a friend in Canada.

Demonstratives There are four demonstrative determiners in English and they are: this, that, these and those Note that demonstrative determiners can also be used as demonstrative pronouns. When they are used as determiners they are followed by the nouns they modify. This is my camera. (Demonstrative used as a pronoun, subject of the verb is) This camera is mine. (Demonstrative used as a determiner modifying the noun camera. ) Possessives Possessive adjectives - my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their - modify the noun following it in order to show possession. Possessive determiners are different from possessive pronouns - mine, his, hers, yours, their. Possessive pronouns can stand alone and are not followed by nouns. Possessive determiners, on the other hand, are followed by nouns. Compare: This is my house. (my is a possessive determiner. It is followed by the noun house which it modifies) Is that car yours? (yours is a possessive pronoun. It is not followed by a noun. )

Possessives Possessive adjectives - my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their - modify the noun following it in order to show possession. Possessive determiners are different from possessive pronouns - mine, his, hers, yours, their. Possessive pronouns can stand alone and are not followed by nouns. Possessive determiners, on the other hand, are followed by nouns. Compare: This is my house. (my is a possessive determiner. It is followed by the noun house which it modifies) Is that car yours? (yours is a possessive pronoun. It is not followed by a noun. )

Verb phrase Some grammarians may use verb phrase to mean the entire predicate in a sentence, which means that it will include noun phrases functioning as objects or prepositional phrases or adverbial phrases functioning as adjuncts or complements in a sentence. Verb phrase here means only verbal elements i. e. , auxiliary verbs and main verbs. Verb phrase may consist of a just a single verb (i. e. , main verb) or if a main verb preceded by one or more auxiliary verbs. • Eg: This is my English text. • I am sure you will like English.

Auxiliary (Helping) verbs • Auxiliary verbs are divided into two groups. • Primary auxiliaries: do, have, be • Modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, ought to, used to, need, dare Strategy Analyse the given sentrence and find out different phrases and use it in different context. The hill was covered with lush green ferns, the trees were wound in creepers, and a great wild dahlia suddenly reared its golden head from the leaves and ferns. Collect more information about auxilliaries and its usage.

Evaluation Select a set of sentence from the Vth standard text book analyse and represent noun phrase verb phrase, prepositional phrase. . . using graphic organisers. Reflective questions. Most of the sentences begin with a noun clause but there are exceptions. Can you give example for sentence that do not begin with noun clause.