LIN204H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Count Noun, Function Word, Adjective Phrase
Document Summary
A noun phrase (np) can consist of just a noun this is the case for plural nouns, mass nouns, and proper nouns. (remember, we can tell these are noun phrases because they can be replaced with pronouns: I like them, i hate it, i know him. ) But a typical noun phrase has one or more function words before the head noun. Proper nouns are the only ones that usually can"t take such a function word; singular common count nouns typically require one. These function words that create nps fall in several different categories. Linguists often refer to all of these function words as determiners, but we"ll reserve the term determiner for a particular subset of them. We"ll use the clumsy phrase np-initial categories for the overall class. Recall the meaning of a noun itself is often a whole class of things in the world: the meaning of the word dog encompasses all the dogs in the world.
