An analysis of noun phrases in english and vietnamese (phân tích cụm danh từ trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt)

THE AIM OF THE GRADUATION PAPER
The aim of this is to discuss the English and Vietnamese noun phrases
and their impact upon learning English in Vietnamese situation. It is hoped
that this contrastive analysis will provide as much information as possible on
English and Vietnamese noun phrases. With the practical aims, it attempts to
state this similarities and differences in noun phrases of the two languages in
term of their internal and external structures. The study draws attention to
the analysis of the heads of noun phrases in the two languages, the pre and
post modifications, their positions and functions of English and Vietnamese
noun phrases. At the same time, some kinds of error made by Vietnamese
learners differences in word order and functions of noun phrases between the
two languages will be discuss.


LISTS OF TABLES
Table 1: page 21
Table 2: page 24
Table 3: page 24
Table 4: page 25
Table 5: page 29
Table 6: page 34


ABSTRACT

Language is a complicated category. Only human beings can use language
to express their idea, concepts and feelings. The use of this tool is for the
communication between the addresser and the addressee. There are more than
two hundred languages and each language has its own feature all over the world.
Language itself is a complex system and it is dependent to us culturally, socially
and personally. Learning a language involves many things such as pronunciation,

vocabulary, grammar... The aim of this study is to discuss the noun phrase in
English and Vietnamese. I hope this paper will provide as much information as
possible for teachers and learners about noun phrase. It also attempts to state the
similarities and differences and the structures in noun phrase of the two
languages. Finally, there are some teaching implications made for who are going
to learn English teachers.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First, I would like thanks to
The Faculty of Foreign Languages, Phenikaa University.
Mr. Tran Van Trong who dedicatedly instructed and helped me to study.
Then, I would like to express my great thanks to all teachers who spent a
lot of their precious time training, directly instructing me in implementing
this research.
Finally, I great would like thanks to my family and friends supported to
me in order to be completed this study in successful.

Hanoi, 2020

PHAM THI THUY NGA


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................. iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................... iii
Part A: Introduction ................................................................................ 1
1. Introduction. ........................................................................................ 1
2. Title: An analysis of noun phrases in English and Vietnamese ............ 1

3. Aims of study ...................................................................................... 1
4. Limitation of study .............................................................................. 1
5. Reasons of study ................................................................................. 2
6. Methods of study ................................................................................. 2
7. Scope of study ..................................................................................... 3
Part B: Development ................................................................................ 6
Chapter 1: What is a noun phrase? .......................................................... 6
1.1. Definition about noun phrase......................................................... 7
1.2. Noun comparison, noun clause, noun phrase ................................. 7
1.3. Classification noun phrase ........................................................... 13
Chapter 2: The general structure of a noun phrase. ................................ 15
2.1. The structure of noun phrase in English. ..................................... 17
2.1.1. Pre-modification .................................................................... 18
2.1.2. Post-modification .................................................................. 21
2.2. The structure of noun phrase in Vietnamese. ............................... 23
2.2.1. Pre-modification .................................................................... 25
2.2.2. Post-modification .................................................................. 31
Chapter 3: Comparison between noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese............................................................................................ 34
3.1. Similarities. ................................................................................. 34
3.1.1. Three main parts in the structure of two languages. ............... 34


3.1.2. Both English and Vietnamese noun phrases, quantifiers,
numerals, fractions before the head noun. ....................................... 35
3.2. Differences. ................................................................................. 36
3.2.1. The difference in the head noun phrase in Vietnamese. ......... 36
3.2.2. The adjectives before the head noun in English but after the
head noun in Vietnamese. ............................................................... 36
3.3. Some errors by the Vietnamese learners in using English noun

phrase and solution. ............................................................................ 37
Part C: Conclusion. ................................................................................ 41
Appendix...................................................................................................
Practice .....................................................................................................
1. Exercise.............................................................................................
2.Answer keys. .......................................................................................
References ..............................................................................................................


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Part A: Introduction

1. Introduction.
Noun phrases as well as other phrases play an important role in mastering
any language. Without noun phrase, there have no agents, no patients, and no
recipients. Additionally, no matter how wide our vocabulary may be, a single
word is often insufficient in expressing our thought. A contractive analysis
between English and Vietnamese is necessary and interesting for teaching and
learning. Almost every language has noun phrase, however, despite having the
same basic structure, they have some difference. This study aims to explore
internal and external structure of English and Vietnamese noun phrases then
make a comparison between two kinds of noun phrases as well as suggest some
teaching implications. I do hope so.

2. Title: An analysis of noun phrases in English and Vietnamese
3. Aims of study
The aims of this study is to discuss the noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese and their influence in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese
situation. I hope that this paper will provide as much information as possible on
English and Vietnamese noun phrases. It also attempts to state the similarities

and differences in noun phrases of the two languages. I pay attention to the
analysis of the heads, pre and post modifications, their positions and functions of
English and Vietnamese noun phrases.

4. Limitation of study
Because of my limited knowledge, it is impossible for my study to
cover all the matter of noun phrase in English. In my thesis, I will concentrate on
noun phrase and its form. I want to show the difference and similarities of noun
phrase in English and Vietnamese so that I can give some useful advices for
teaching and learning English. There are some mistakes when people translate
noun phrase from Vietnamese to English and vice versa. The structure of noun
phrase will be clearly shown off. Moreover, English grammar, a noun phrase also
has three components: Pre-modification + the head + post-modification but in
Vietnamese grammar, a noun phrase = a classifier + a noun, a verb or an


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adjective. Not only is basic contrast between Vietnamese and English noun
phrase provided but some suggestions for teaching and learning noun phrase are
also presented in this study.

5. Reasons of study
English plays an important role in everyone’s life since it is now the most
popular language in the world. There are many documents such as books,
magazines, travel materials; event such as conferences, sport events or concert
and technology whose main English. As a result, there has been an urge for
everyone to study English in order to get access to wider sources of information,
keep up with the world’s trends and widen the career path as well. However, the
differences between English and Vietnamese have created a lot of difficulties for
learner of English. Getting to know clearly about those differences in terms of

phonology, vocabulary and grammar can help learners to study more effective
and accurately. In English, phrase formation is one of the most complicated
factors that cause much confusion for learners since noun phrase is a crucial part
of speech that carry the core meaning of sentences. Noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese are different regarding of types, names and word arrangement. After
four-years learning English at the University, I have learnt many thing from
English. I hope through this study, both I and the readers will learn something
helpful which can apply to English learning.

6. Methods of study
I have used the combination of different books for consulting. I spend
more time with my teacher and my friends to learn about noun phrase in English
and Vietnamese. Moreover, I usually view with my supervisor’s for teaching
material. In this study, I want to provide the learners about noun phrase in
English and Vietnamese. I base on some material, magazine or some research to
find out the differences and similarities of noun phrase between two languages.
There are many examples about noun phrase will be shown in this
research. So I hope the learners will be known how to build a noun phrase in a
sentence. During the process of compiling and writing, despite great efforts,


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shortcomings are unavoidable. Therefore I welcome all suggestions and
contributions in any forming making this study more useful.

7. Scope of study
To carry out the thesis. I used the combination of the different
books for the references.
As described in Aarts and Aarts (1988), a noun phrase can be seen a
headed phrases in which the head is only obligatory constituent. The head of a

noun phrase is defined as ‘the dominant member of that noun phrase’. According
to Gomez (2009), the construction of a noun phrase is always recursive since a
number of dependents can be added to the head element to make two common
structures: simple vs. complex noun phrases (e.g. the dog vs. the lovely hairy
black dog with a red collar standing at the door of the house). As can be seen in
the example above, some dependents may precede the head and others may
follow it. Those component parts offer a wide range of possible combinations in
noun phrases, which give rise to different structure patterns (Gomez, 2009).
As Greenbaum & Quirk (2007), a noun phrase may contain three
fundamental elements, the head noun, pre-modification, and post-modification.
Pre-modification comprises all the items placed before the head, notably
determiners, adjectives, and nouns (Greenbaum & Quirk, 2007). In other words,
a pre-modifier may consists of determiners, adjectives and adjectives with
participle endings (-ing), regular nouns, nouns with the s-genitive and adverbials
(Johnson, 2010). On the contrary, post-modification may consists of all the items
placed after the head, notably prepositional phrases, nonfinite clauses, and
relative clauses (Greenbaum & Quirk, 2007). Greenbaum and Quirk (2007)
emphasized that pre-modification usually contain information with characteristic
features while post-modification often cones in the form of a wh-relative clause
or nonfinite clause. Therefore, the information contained within a post-modifier.
As Johnson (2007) indicated, when it comes to relative, the most common ones
are: which, who, whose, when, where, that and whom whereas nonfinite clauses
can be recognized by the –ed and the –ing participle or by infinitive to clauses


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(Johnson, 2010). It is also possible for a single head noun to contain more than
one pre-modifier or post-modifier.
From a grammatical point of view, Gomez (2009) argued that the
determiner is the most dependent in a noun phrase because this dependent is

mandatory in many instances (e.g. the dog, a dog, but dog is barking). According
to Gomez (2009), a more detailed analysis of this position may reveal predeterminers (e.g. both these books) and pre-determiners (e.g. the many books you
have). Apart from the determiner, pre-modifiers are optional elements in the
noun phrase, given that their presence or absence does not affect grammaticality
of its structure (Gomez, 2009). Their purpose is to identify, classify and define
the head noun. A pre-modifier can be an adjective phrase, adverb phrase or even
a noun phrase. Pre-modifiers tend to describe permanent features of the noun
they modify. Given in different structural patterns, the syntactic function of noun
phrase is also of variety. A noun phrase may function as a complement in clause
structure, for example as subject (the professor is coming), object (we need a
professor), predicative complement (she is my professor), or complements in
prepositional phrase (she is in the garden). The syntactic function of a noun
phrase may potentially influence its function in construction of meaning in the
discourse.
Moreover, I often exchange experience with my teacher and my friends
for advice in teaching and learning about noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese. Especially, I try to make use of my supervisor’s guidance to do
the study as well as I can. Last but not least, my experience gained from the
four-year study at Phenikaa University also contributes an important part to
complete the thesis. After four-year learning English at the University, I have
learnt many thing from English. It helps me know more about the culture, the
people, and the customs of different countries in the world through English
books and I especially pay attention to noun phrases. It is only small part of
English grammar, sometimes it is not taught in detail. In my opinion I think
that if you want to learn and languages well you will have to know how to use
the smallest part of it. From what I have discussed so far, I would like to


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suggest some teaching and learning noun phrases in English and Vietnamese.

I hope that this paper, to a certain extent, will provide more and more helpful
information about it for teachers and learners.


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Part B: Development

Chapter 1: What is a noun phrase?
A noun phrase is a syntactic unit which can serve as subject, direct object
or object of a preposition in a sentence. A noun phrase is constructed around a
noun or pronoun as its head. A noun phrase may be of any size. The simplest
form consists of just one word.
For example:
The yellow house is for sale.
(The yellow house like a subject)
The glistening snow cover the field.
I want a skate board.
(A skate board as a direct object)
Should we buy the yellow house?
Jeff rode on a skate board.
(A skate board like an object of preposition)
Karen lives in the yellow house.
As an indirect object
Lisa gave the little boy a candy.
She kindly offered water to the gardener working in the hot sun.
(Noun phrase as a particle)
Our decision to get married was celebrated by all our friend.
(Noun phrase as a “to-infinitive”)
Some examples about noun phrases.
A: Do you like cars?

B: Yes, I like them.
A: do you like the cars over there?
B: Yes, they are nice.
A: Do you like the car I bought last week?
B: Yes, I like it.


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1.1. Definition about noun phrase
Le (2002) defined noun phrase (NP) as a groups of words beginning with
a noun and functioning appositive. This noun phrase often goes right before or
right after the noun it expresses.
According to L.H. Nguyen (2004), a noun phrase is a group of words with
a noun or pronoun as the main part (the head). In his book “Analyzing English”,
Jackson added some more deal about the head which is “the minimal requirement
for the occurrence of a noun phrase”. Despite the noun phrase is in simple form
such as “students” or in complex form such as “the story about the girl who used
to live there” it must have a noun or pronoun expressing the main idea.
Example: A victim of war, he hated the sight of soldiers.
(A victim of war = he)
According to Quirk, R (1972): “The noun phrase is the element in the
sentences which typically function as subject, object and compliment”.
Another definition of noun phrase is started by Jacob: Word
phrases which are used to refer to things people want to talk about. Referring is
important, speakers need to refer to people, objects, concepts, processes, and all
kinds of entities, and noun phrase serve this function. (Jacob, 1995).
In terms of phrase’s structure, Jackson (1989) proposed the possible
elements that can combine with each other under a particular order to form a
noun phrase. He also suggested the structure of noun phrase in English as

follows:
Pre-modification + Head + Post-modification
In short, noun phrases are the combinations of words carrying the meaning
which refers to the entities we want to talk about. Depending on the grammar
rules of a language, the three parts of common noun phrase are located under
different orders. However, the role of modifications, which is supporting and
specializing the meaning of the head, does not vary upon language.

1.2. Noun comparison, noun clause, noun phrase
The noun is a part of speech telling (denoting) what someone or
something is called. A noun can be the name of a person (John, Mary), an


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occupation or a job tittle (worker, student, architect), the name of a thing
(computer, telephone, book), the name of place ( London, Ha Long , New York),
the name of quality (courage, anger, kindness), or the name of an action
(laughter, writing, talking). We can also say, the noun is a name given to things,
objects, people and phenomena. In other words, the noun is a part of speech
which includes words denoting living creatures, substances (individuals: a boy, a
girl, a cat; object: a book, a tree) or certain facts or phenomena regarded as
substances (qualities: kindness, strength; process: conversation, writing; abstract
notions: time, revolution). The main syntactical functions of the noun in the
sentence are those of the subject and object:
E.g.: The student is reading a book. (Subject)
The teacher helps the student in their studies. (Object)
Besides, a noun may also be used:
+ As a complement/ or predicative introduced by the verb “be” or other
“be- like” or link verbs.
E.g.: He is a good student. They are architects.

+ As an attribute: The student’s answer was all correct.
+ As a part of an adverbial modifier: They are learning in their classroom.
+ In apposition: James Smith, an ABC commentator, asked for an
interview.
+ When we speak directly to somebody:
E.g.: Jane, turn down the volume, will you?
The noun is associated with the following form-words:
+ The articles or determiners (definite or indefinite): the house, a house.
+ The prepositions: in the house, behind the house, about the house.
In the English language, some words function only as nouns (desk, hat);
others function as noun or verbs (work, book), while others function as noun or
adjectives (cold, white); we cannot identify such words as noun from their letter
appearance.
(A grammar of the English Language, Le .H. Truong, 2015)


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Noun phrases are groups of one or two words within a sentence that
function grammatically as noun. They consist of a noun and another words that
modify the noun. Some grammarians also consider a singer-word to be a noun
phrase, while more traditional grammars hold that a phrase must be made up of
two or more words. Noun phrases are simply noun with modifiers. Just as nouns
can act as subjects, objects, and prepositional objects, so can noun phrases.
Similarly, noun phrases can also work in a sentence as adjectives, participles,
infinitive, and prepositional or absolute phrases.
The modifier can come before or after the noun. If it comes before the
noun it’s likely to be an article, possessive noun, possessive pronoun, adjective or
participle. Modifiers that come after the noun include prepositional phrases,
adjective clauses, participle phrases and infinitives. The best way to clear all that
up is to explore some examples of noun phrase in action:

 The spotted puppy is up for adoption.
(Noun phrase as a subject)
 The bohemian house was brightly decorated for the holidays.
(Noun phrase as a subject)
 At the zoo, I saw a striped zebra.
(Noun phrase as an object to the verb “saw”)
 I want a cute puppy for Christmas.
(Noun phrase as an object to the verb “want”)
 Mary lives in an electric household.
(Noun phrase as a prepositional object; Preposition= “in”)
 Jose drives to an awful job every morning.
(Noun phrase as a prepositional object; Preposition= “to”)
 The car wash was out of order.
(Noun phrase with “car” acting as an adjective for the noun “wash”)
 The Delta Airlines flight to New York is ready to board.
(Noun phrase with “Delta Airlines” acting as an adjective for the noun “flight”)
 She kindly offered water to the gardener working in the hot sun.
(Noun phrase as a participle)


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 Having been a police officer, he knew how to defend himself.
(Noun phrase as a participle)
 The ability to give to others is an important character trait.
(Noun phrase as a “to-infinitive”)
 Our decision to get married was celebrated by all our friends.
(Noun phrase as a “to-infinitive”)
 She crawled through the dark and musty attic.
(Noun phrase as a prepositional phrase; Preposition= “through”)
 He had to sit beside the horribly angry girl.

(Noun phrase as a prepositional phrase; Preposition= “beside”)
 Her red face with embarrassment, she took her seat beside the man she
had tripped.
(Noun phrase as an absolute phrase to the subject “she”)
 They walked into the sunset, their laughter carrying on the breeze.
(Noun phrase as an absolute phrase to the subject “they”)
Noun clauses are groups of words that act as a noun. They often begin
with words such as if, what, why and so on. These clauses have a subject and
predicate, just like a sentence. However, they do not act as sentences on their
own. Instead, they have an effect on a longer, more complex sentence.
Here is an example, imagine you do not know the answer to a question in
your mathematics class. You could ask, “I wonder if my teacher knows the
answer?” In the sentence, the main clause, “I wonder”, is followed by the if-noun
clause, “if my teacher knows the answer.”
Most people are comfortable with the idea of a noun, but they may not feel
so confident when it comes to the noun clause. A noun clause is a group of words
acting together as a noun. There clauses are always dependent clauses. That is,
they do not form a complete sentence. The best way to familiarize yourself with
these types of clauses is to take a look at sample sentences containing noun
clauses at work.
We can spot a noun clause based on its function within the sentence. Let’s
take a look at some of the most prominent roles of noun clauses.


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+ A noun clause can act as the subject of a verb. For example:
 What Alicia said made her friends cry.
 What Megan wrote surprised her family.
 How the boy behaved was not very polite.
When there’s a verb in the sentence, you must find the subject. In the first

sentence, we can ask, “What made her friends cry?” The answer is “what Alicia
said.” Therefore, “what Alicia said” is the subject of the verb “made”. In the
second sentence, we can ask, “What surprised her family?” The answer is “what
Megan wrote”. In the third sentence, we can ask “What was not very polite?”
The answer is “how the boy behaved”.
+ In the same vein, noun clause can also act as the direct object of a verb:
 She didn’t realize that the directions were wrong.
 He didn’t know why the stove wasn’t working.
 They now understand that you should not cheat on a test.
Once again, you can use the method of questioning to demonstrate how
the noun clause is being used.
 In the first sentence, we can ask, “What didn’t she realize?” and the
answer is “that the directions were wrong”. Therefore, “that the directions
were wrong” is the object of the verb.
 In the second sentence, we can ask, “What he didn’t he know?” and the
answer is “why the stove wasn’t working.”
 In the third sentence, we can ask, “What do they understand?” and the
answer is “that you should not cheat on a test.”
+ A noun clause can also serve as a subject complement. A subject complement
will always modify, describe, or complete the subject of a clause.
 Carlie’s problem was that she didn’t practice enough.
 Harry’s crowning achievement at school was when he became class
president.
 Darla’s excuse for being late was that she forgot to set her alarm.
Do you see what questions these noun clauses answer and how they relate to the
subject?


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 What was Carlie’s problem? She didn’t practice enough.

 What was Harry’s crowning achievement? It was when he became class
president.
 What was Darla’s excuse for being late? It was that she forgot to set her
alarm.
Without these clauses, the sentence would not be complete thoughts.
+ Noun clauses also act as object of a preposition. In the examples below, you
will see the prepositions “of” and “for” in action.
 Harry is not the best provider of what Margie needs.
 Josephine is not responsible for what Alex decided to do.
 Allie is the owner of that blue car parked outside.
Again, the best way to understand this concept is asking the appropriate
question.
 In the first sentence, we can ask, “Harry is not the best provider of what?”
The answer is “what Margie needs”.
 In the second sentence, we can ask, “Josephine is not responsible for
what?” The answer is “what Alex decided to do”.
 In the third sentence, we can ask, “Allie is the owner of what?” The
answer is “that blue car parked outside”
Each of these sentences could be complete before the addition of the
prepositions. However, the prepositions are introduced to provide further detail
and the noun clauses act as the objects of these prepositions.
+ Last but not least, a noun clause can also function as an adjective
complement, modifying a verb, adjective, or adverb.
 Jerry knows why Elaine went to the store.
 They’re perfectly happy where they live now.
 Geoffrey runs so quickly that he can outrun his dog.
The adjective complement is providing more information about the verb,
adjective or adverb that precedes it

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 In the first sentence, we can ask, “What does Jerry know?” In this case,
“know” is the verb being modified. The thing that he knows is “why
Elaine went to the store”.
 In the second sentence, we can ask, “What are they happy about?” In this
case, “happy” is the adjective being modified. The thing that they are
happy about is “where they live now”.
 In the third sentence, we can ask, “How quickly does Geoffrey run?”
Here, “quickly” is the adverb being modified. He runs so quickly “that he
can outrun his dog”.
Similar to the examples containing prepositions, each of these sentences
could be complete after conjunction (e.g. why, where and that). The adjective
complements provide further detail and, in each of these instances, these
adjective complements are noun clauses.

1.3. Classification noun phrase
A noun phrase is also referred as nominal phrase and it contains noun or
indefinite pronoun and functions as a phrase. However, a noun phrase includes a
person or place or thing and modifiers that identify this. This kind of phrase is
very common.
A noun + modifier = Noun phrase.
However, a noun phrase can be a subject or object or complement.
Example: That dog, that dog on the sofa, the aunt’s dog, the neighbor’s
dog, a dog etc.
However, modifiers can be placed before or after the noun. If it comes
before the noun, then it can be articles, possessive nouns, adjectives, possessive
pronouns, participles.
 Article: Raghu’s father has bought a dog.
 Possessive noun: The neighbor’s dog is well-trained.
 Possessive pronoun: She has kept her dog alone in the flat.

 Adjective: The spotted dog runs fast.
Modifiers that come after the noun includes prepositional phrases or adjective
clauses or participle phrases or infinitives.


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 Prepositional phrase: The dog behind the door is waiting for the food.
 Adjective clause: The dog that chases cats can run fast.
 Participle phrase: The dog walked daily in the morning is suffering from
disease.
 Infinitive: Mai bought the dog to train.
More examples of Noun Phrases:
A noun phrase can be a noun or a pronoun.
E.g. + People like to have property.
+ I am tired.
Determiner + Noun = Noun Phrase
E.g. those dresses are very expensive.
Noun phrase with adjective.
E.g. my close friend went to Delhi.
Noun phrase starts with a quantifier.
E.g. these two suitcases are packed with the clothes.
Quantifier + Determiner + Noun = Noun Phrase
E.g. all these children are staying in the hotel.
Quantifier + Determiner + Adjective = Noun Phrase
E.g. both of my younger brothers are adopted.
The function of a Noun Phrase
Noun phrase can be used as a noun phrase head.
E.g. the big blue ball was lost yesterday.
Noun phrase functions as a subject in a sentence.
E.g. the small baby was crying.

Noun phrase can be used as a subject complement.
E.g. the lady whom you are looking for is an actress.
Noun phrase can be a direct object. An object can be a word, phrase or clause
and usually it comes after a transitive verb.
E.g. the children ate all the chocolate.
A noun phrase can be an indirect object.
E.g. my brother bought me gifts.


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Noun phrase can be used as an object complement.
E.g. we consider our dog our family member.
Sometime, noun phrase acts as a noun phrase modifier.
E.g. the child actor performed well in the movie.
Noun phrase can be used as a prepositional object.
E.g. my father bought gifts for me.
Noun phrase can be used as determinative.
E.g. my sister’s flat is a small 2 BHK.
(B=bedroom, H=hall, K=kitchen)
Noun phrase function as an adjust adverbial.
E.g. yesterday, I lost my umbrella.
Noun phrase can be used as an appositive.
E.g. my uncle, a flutist, is composing background music for movies.
Noun phrases (grouping together a collection of words to act as one noun)
are one of the keystones. They allow you pack a lot of information into a few
words, a function which is extremely helpful when writing to a word count or
when trying to make a piece of writing concise. Additionally, once you recognize
that strings of words (noun phrases) represent ideas which cannot be broken
down, you may start to read text in a different way, reading for “chunk” of
information rather than reading individual words.

Chapter 2: The general structure of a noun phrase.
The Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary defines phrase as a group of
words that have a particular meaning when used together. In both English and
Vietnamese, each phrase is named after the name of the head, for example, a
phrase with a noun as the head is called a “noun phrase”, a verb as the head is
called a “verb phrase”, an adjective as the head is called an “adjective
phrase”…Doan, Nguyen &Pham (2001) defines a noun phrase as “a free
combination of a noun nucleus and one or more than one subordinate elements
which are two types: front elements (stand before the nucleus noun) and end
elements (stand after the nucleus noun).


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There is another definition by Mai, Vu & Hoang (2007) which says that a
phrase generally consists of three parts: the head, pre-modification and postmodification. For example, the phrase “đã mua sách” is a verb phrase in which
the verb “mua” is the head “đã” is pre-modifier and “sách” is post-modifier.
Noun phrase is no exception. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary defines
noun phrase as a word or group of words in a sentence that behaves in the same
way as a noun that is as a subject, an object, a complement or as the object of a
preposition. In the sentence “I spoke to the driver of the car”, “the driver of the
car” is a noun phrase.
Like Mai, Vu & Hoang (2007), Nguyen (2004) also defines noun phrase as
“a group of words with a noun or pronoun as the main part”. The noun is obligatory
while the pre-modifiers and post-modifiers are optional. Therefore, the general
structure of a noun phrase both in English and Vietnamese can be like this:
Noun Phrase: Pre-modifier (1) Noun (2) Post-modifier (3)
The above diagram illustrates the full structure of a noun phrase. However,
a noun phrase can consist of only two parts.
E.g.

A. a beautiful girl
(1)

(2)

B. the old tree in the garden
(1)

(2)

(3)

C. a friend of mine
(1)

(2) (3)

D. the man who I love
(1) (2)

(3)

E. He is the first person to come but the last person to leave.
(1)

(2)

(3)

F. một cô gái đẹp

(1)

(2)

(3)

G. một cây cổ thụ trong vườn
(1) (2) (3)

(3)

(1)

(2)

(3)


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H. ba chú cún xinh xắn
(1) (2)

(3)

I. cái váy mẹ mua cho em rất đẹp
(1) (2)

(3)

K. giày thể thao

(2)

(3)

L. một người bạn của tôi
(1)

(2)

(3)

2.1. The structure of noun phrase in English.
George Yule (2006) defines a noun phrase as “a phrase in which the main
word is a noun and which is used as a subject or an object” (p.269). When
analyzing the structure of a noun phrase, Baker examines individual modifiers as
well as complements that can follow the main word, i.e. a noun (1995). For
example, he concerns about “elementary noun phrases introduced by quantity
words”, “elementary noun phrases introduced by a/an”, etc. It means he just
examines modifiers separately rather than arranges them into an order. Jackson
(1989), however, suggests all the possible elements that can combine into a
single noun phrase. In this paper, I take Jackson’s viewpoint as a foundation.
According to him, an English noun phrase has the following formula:
Pre-modification + Head + Post-modification
As we can see, a noun phrase consists of three parts: pre-modification,
head, post-modification. In a noun phrase, the head is obligatory but the premodification and the post-modification are optional. As their names have
suggested, the function of the pre-modification and the post-modification is to
elaborate or limit the head noun’s meaning. Noun phrase gets its name from the
head word. In this paragraph below, I will talk about some information of the
head in noun phrase.
The word noun phrase is self-explanatory. It is obvious that the most

common kind of head word in a noun phrase is a noun. I will show some
examples about nouns or pronouns in the head in noun phrases. In some cases, a


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pronoun may also acts as the central part of a noun phrase. There are four kinds
of pronouns functioning as heads:
+ Personal pronoun (a)
+ Indefinite pronoun (b)
+ Possessive pronoun (c)
+ Demonstrative pronoun (d)
For example:
a. ‘he’ in he is a doctor
b. ‘someone’ in someone in the house
c. ‘his’ in his is large
d. ‘this’ in this happens every two years
Or table 1
Dependent word(s)

head

Dependent word(s)

love
him
The

moon

a gold

ring

the red

one

Good

food

my own personal

website

That

house

there

the longest

river

in the world

A

feeling

of isolation

the tall, blonde

woman

we met at Joanna’s house

2.1.1. Pre-modification
The determiners: Nouns rarely stand alone, they are usually accompanied by
modifiers. If we omit all of the noun phrase’s modifiers, the sentence can still
be interpreted:
All the beautiful dresses have already been sold.
 Dresses have already been sold.


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However, if we strip of the head, it will be out of the question to understand
the meaning of the sentence:
All the beautiful dresses have already been sold.
 *All the beautiful have already been sold.
The most popular noun modifiers in English are the determiners. Lynn
(1999) stated that “while an adjective is never required for grammaticality in
a noun phrase, determiners often are”. Child put book on shelf is
understandable in English, but no native speakers would say this sentence in
normal conversation. Article, possessive (genitive) and demonstrative forms
are considered determiners. These words always precede the noun and any
adjectives that modify the noun. Moreover, the noun can be modified by only
one item from this class.

E.g. this book, our house (we don’t say this book or our a house)
According to Lynn (1999), determiners article generally include:
 Articles: a, an, the
E.g. - She is dating a handsome doctor.
- Daisy was bought a new piano last week. The piano is very big and
expensive.
- The woman who is talking to my father is my teacher.
Some is usually regarded as the plural indefinite article:
E.g. - Some people walk in the park every morning.
Generally speaking, singular nouns hardly appear without a determiner
accompanied. For example, “cat is in the house” and “girl is beautiful” are
ungrammatical.
 Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Demonstratives are another type of determiner, whose function is to point
items out- this man, that woman, these guys, those books. (Lynn, 1999)
 Quantifying determiners: each, every, no, any, either, neither,
another…
E.g. - They gave each team a tent.
- Every student who joins the party must have a ticket.