The head noun is the central element of a noun phrase that is modified by other elements like determiners and pre/post-modifiers. To identify the head noun, look for the noun that is not preceded by a preposition and is not too far into the phrase. A relative clause can function as a post-modifier to help identify the head noun. In the example sentence, "questions" is the direct object and "girlfriend" is the indirect object as indicated by the prepositions "to" and "for".

1. THE HEAD NOUN
Noun Phrase
NP

3. What is a head noun?
Noun Phrase
Head
Head
(determiners) (pre-modifiers) noun
noun
(post-modifiers)
The word that is modified by other
elements in a noun phrase, Verspoor
& Sauter (p. 120, 2000).

4. NP
Elements:
Head
Head
(determiners) (pre-modifiers) (post-modifiers)
noun
noun
Possible constituents

5. NP
Elements:
Head
Head
(determiners) (pre-modifiers) noun
noun
(post-modifiers)
Central element of a
noun phrase

6. NP
Elements:
Head
Head
(determiners)
(determiners) (pre-modifiers) noun
noun
(post-modifiers)
Introduce the noun
phrase.
(Greenbaum, p. 47 ,
2002)

7. NP
Elements:
Head
Head
(pre-modifiers)
(determiners) (pre-modifiers) noun
noun
(post-modifiers)
•Adjective phrases
•Other nouns
•Genitive noun
Phrases
(Greenbaum, p. 47
, 2002)

8. Example: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP
N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

9. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP
N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

10. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP
N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father
My beautiful girlfriend's father

11. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

12. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

13. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

14. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

15. Where: NP
Det N
POSS
NP
Det N’
AdjP N
Adj
My beautiful girlfriend's father

16. How do we find the head noun
inside a NP?
• According to (Greenbaum p. 88, 2002) we had
to:
Remember, that the head of a noun phrase may
be preceded by a determiner or pre-modifier, but
NOT by a preposition.
Remember also that the head of a noun phrase
cannot be terribly far into the phrase, unless
there happen to be a bunch of pre-
modifiers, which is very seldom the case.

17. NP
Elements:
Head
Head (post-modifiers)
(determiners) (pre-modifiers)
noun (post-modifiers)
noun
•Relative clauses
•Prepositional Phrases
(Greenbaum, 2002):

18. What is a relative clause?
• A noun phrase can contain a sentence which is
called a relative clause (Fabb, p. 59 2002).
• One very common type of (head noun) post-
modifier is the relative clause which is
embedded in the NP. (Greenbaum, p. 47
2002).

19. Embedded?
• According to Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman
(p. 572, 1999) the embedding process
consists of a clause within an NP that at the
same time modifies the head noun.
Example:
The fans who were attending the rock concert
had to wait in line for three hours.

20. The fans who were attending the rock concert had to
wait in line for three hours.
The embedded clause [who were attending the rock
concert] is closely associated with the head N of the NP
“fans”, it tells us which "fans” had to wait in a long
line.
This relative clause identifies for us which noun[s] of
all nouns in the same set we are speaking about (in
Other words: anybody who could be called "a fan").

21. What is the function of a relative
clause?
• It introduces a kind of subsidiary sentence into
the main one Thomas (p. 95, 2002).
• It may be added to a noun phrase to help
identify the head noun Verspoor & Sauter (p.
127, 2000) .

22. Example:
NP
N’
N’
Det
AdjP
S2
N
Adj
my crazy friend who is living in New York City

23. Where:
NP
N’
Det
AdjP N’
S2
N
Adj
my crazy friend who is living in New York City

24. Where:
NP
N’
N’
Det
AdjP
S2
N
Adj
my crazy friend who is living in New York City

25. Where:
NP
N’
N’
Det
AdjP
S2
N
Adj
my crazy friend who is living in New York City

26. Where:
NP
N’
N’
Det
AdjP
S2
N
Adj
my crazy friend who is living in New York City

27. Where:
NP
N’
N’
Det
AdjP
S2
N
Adj
my crazy friend who is living in New York City

28. (pre-modifiers)
(pre-modifiers)
Head
Head
(post-modifiers)
noun
noun (post-modifiers)
so many questions to my girlfriend who met them last night at my mother´s house.

29. NP
N’
PP
NP
AdjP P
N’
N Det
N S3
Adv Adj
so many questions to my girlfriend who met them last night at my mother´s house.

30. Verb
Is word that expresses time while
showing an action, condition , or the fact
that something exists. Some verbs tell
what the subject does.

31. Types of verbs
According to Thomas (1993,pg. 37-53)
• Transitive verb
– Normally has to have a direct object to be
complete.
• Intransitive
– Is a class of verb which does not take an
object, requires nothing else to complete the
verb phrase.
• Di-transitive
– Requires two objects one of these is the familiar
direct object, the other an indirect object.

32. Types of verbs
• Intensive
– Include the verb like: be (most commonly)
seen, appear, become, look. Follows the
verb in a sentence relates back to what
precedes the verb. The bit that comes
after the verb functions as the SUBJECT
COMPLEMENT.

33. Types of verbs
• Complex transitive
– The complement relates to the object not
the subject, the complement is therefore
an object complement. Two elements are
obligatory to complete the verb phrase.

34. Verb group
• Verbs can consist of one or more than
one element to form the VERB GROUP
(Vgp).The part of the Vgp which
carries the meaning is called LEXICAL
VERB.
• All complete verb groups have to
include a lexical verb which appears
last in the group and form the HEAD of
the verb group.(Thomas, 1993,pg. 61)

35. Verb group
• These additional elements are called
AUXILIARIES (AUX). Auxiliary verbs
modify the lexica verb by indicating
MODALITY, or ASPECT , or VOICE and
TENSE. (Thomas, 1993,pg. 61)

36. TENSE
Thomas (1993, pg. 62-77) says that:
• There are two tenses in English:
PRESENT and PAST. (future does not
exist as a tense in English but is
indicated in other ways, for example by
the use of auxiliaries.)

37. Modal auxiliary
Expresses whether a state of affairs is
likely, possible, necessary and so on.
Example will, would, can, could, may, might, shall,
should, must, ought to and marginally.
• Will and would signify volition or prediction.
• Can, could, may, and might indicates possibility or
probability.
• Shall, should, must, and ought signify obligation.
A modal auxiliary does not carry tense.

38. Primary Auxiliaries
• Have, be ,do. Signify aspect and voice.
• Aspect: has to do with time and
relationship of actions or states to
periods of time or duration. PERFECT
and PROGRESIVE.

39. Do
• Do turns up to lend support to the lexical
verb only in certain constructions and
where there is no other auxiliary verb
already present.
• Do as an auxiliary is the first constituent
of the verb group and therefore carries
tense.
• Do when it appears as an auxiliary is
followed by a bare infinitive.

40. Perfect Aspect
• Is indicated by the presence of the
auxiliary verb have.
• It carries tense and is always the first
element which is marked. for tense;
that is the element immediately
following TENSE (Thomas, 1993, pg.
66)

41. Progressive Aspect
• Indicated by the presence of auxiliary
verb be (Thomas, 1993, pg. 69).
• The form of the verb which follows the
progressive auxiliary is called the
PRESENT PARTICIPLE. It is easy to
spot as it is the –ing form of the verb.

42. Passive Voice
• Voice refers to whether a sentence is
in the ACTIVE or PASSIVE.
• The passive is signified within the verb
group by the presence of the verb be.
• When it is acting as a passive
auxiliary, the verb be is followed by the
past participle or –en form.

43. Order of auxiliaries
1. Tense or modal + infinitive
2. Perfect: have + -en
3. Progressive: be + -ing
4. Passive: be + -en

44. Examples:
VgP
(transitive)
V
AUX
MOD PERF PROG PASS
The dog may have been being given a bone.

45. It is THE DIRECT OBJECT = D.O.
My beautiful girlfriend’s father and my crazy
friend who is living in New York city may
have been asking so many questions
to my girlfriend who met them last night at
my mother’s house.
It is THE INDIRECT OBJECT= I.O.

46. THE DIRECT OBJECT = D.O.
• so many questions = D.O.
• The Direct Object (D.O): Refers to a person or
thing directly affected by the action
described in the sentence (Greenbaun &
Nelson, 2002, pag.26).

47. • Whenever you have a transitive verb, it
means a main verb which requires a direct
object to complete the sentence
(Greenbaun & Nelson, 2002, pag.26), you
should answer the questions “what” or
“whom” after the verb (Vespoor &
Sauter, 2000, pag. 69).

48. • For example, in this case: …
may have been asking WHAT?
so many questions = D.O.
• The D.O. can often be replaced with the
word “it” (Vespoor & Sauter, 2000, pag. 69).

49. It is THE DIRECT OBJECT = D.O.
My beautiful girlfriend’s father and my crazy
friend who is living in New York city may
have been asking so many questions
to my girlfriend who met them last night at
my mother’s house.
It is THE INDIRECT OBJECT= I.O.

50. THE INDIRECT OBJECT = I.O.
• to my girlfriend who met them last
night at my mother’s house. = I.O.
• The Indirect Object (I.O.): Refers to a person
indirectly involved in the action affected by
the action described in the sentence.
(Greenbaun & Nelson, 2002, pag.30).

51. • The I.O. is usually equivalent to phrase
introduced by “to” or “for” (Greenbaun
& Nelson, 2002, pag.30).
• The I.O. answers the questions:
to/ for what? and to/for whom?

52. • For example; in this case:
• …may have been asking so many
questions to whom?
To my girlfriend I.O.
• The I.O. comes after the direct object
(Greenbaun & Nelson, 2002, pag.30).

53. • It means there is no I.O. without a D.O.
• If you have a D.O. then you can have an
I.O.
• You will never find an I.O. alone in
a sentence.

54. References
Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar
book. London: International Thompson Publishing.
Fabb, N. (2002). Sentence Structure. Longdon/New York:
Routledge.
Greenbaum, S. (2002). An introduction to English grammar.
London: Longman.
Thomas, L. (1993). Beginning Syntax. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers.
Verspoor, M., & Sauter, K. (2000). English sentence analysis.
An Introductory Course. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Bejamins Publishing Company.

55. Team
• Islas Sandoval Nallely
• Chávez Granillo Saratiel
• Tapia Fernández Diana