Noun Phrase - Tree Representations of Noun Phrases

Tree Representations of Noun Phrases

The representation of noun phrases using parse trees depends on the basic approach to syntactic structure adopted. The layered trees of many phrase structure grammars grant noun phrases an intricate structure that acknowledges a hierarchy of functional projections. Dependency grammars, in contrast, since the basic architecture of dependency places a major limitation on the amount of structure that the theory can assume, produce simple, relatively flat structures for noun phrases.

The representation also depends on whether the noun or the determiner is taken to be the head of the phrase (see the discussion of the DP hypothesis in the previous section).

Below are some possible trees for the two noun phrases the big house and big houses (as in the sentences Here is the big house and I like big houses).

1. Phrase-structure trees, first using the original X-bar theory, then using the modern DP approach:

NP NP | DP DP / \ | | / \ | det N' N' | det NP NP | / \ / \ | | / \ / \ the adj N' adj N' | the adj NP adj NP | | | | | | | | | big N big N | big N big N | | | | | house houses | house houses

2. Dependency trees, first using the traditional NP approach, then using the DP approach:

house houses | the (null) / / / | \ \ / / big | house houses the big | / / | big big

The following trees represent a more complex phrase. For simplicity, only dependency-based trees are given.

The first tree is based on the traditional assumption that nouns, rather than determiners, are the heads of phrases.

The head noun picture has the four dependents the, old, of Fred, and that I found in the drawer. The tree shows how the lighter dependents appear as pre-dependents (preceding their head) and the heavier ones as post-dependents (following their head).

The second tree assumes the DP hypothesis, namely that determiners rather than nouns serve as phrase heads.

The determiner the is now depicted as the head of the entire phrase, thus making the phrase a determiner phrase. Note that there is still a noun phrase present (old picture of Fred that I found in the drawer) but this phrase is below the determiner.