Running head: THE STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASE IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE

The Structure of Noun Phrase in English and Vietnamese

Student: Nguyen Kim Phung

Noun Phrase 2

Contrastive Analysis

Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu

December 17, 2009

Abstract

Words do not simply get together at random to form a

meaningful unit. That is to say they should be combined

systematically and grammatically into phrases, and then into

sentences. According to Wikipedia, “in grammar, a phrase is a

group of words functioning as a single unit in the syntax of a

sentence” (“Phrase,” n.d.). For example, the group of words

“the girls in their summer dresses” is a phrase. In English and

Vietnamese, there are three kinds of phrases whose names are

defined on the basis of the classes of the word that is the

chief word or head of the phrase namely noun phrase, verb

phrase, and adjective phrase. Among those phrases, noun phrase

proves to be an interesting case that needs closer attention.

The goal of this study is to understand the structure of noun

phrase in English and Vietnamese. Attention is also given to

the comparison and contrast between the structure of English

noun phrase and Vietnamese noun phrase. Finally, some

Noun Phrase 3

implications for language teaching and language learning will

be under discussion.

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

Noun Phrase 4

phrases introduced by a(n)”, 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 Pre-modification and the Post-

modification are optional. As their names have suggested, the

function of the pre-modification and post-modification is to

elaborate or limit the head noun’s meaning. Noun phrase gets

its name from the head word. First, let’s have a look at the

head word.

Head

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. In some cases, a pronoun may also act as the central

part of a noun phrase. There are four kinds of pronouns

functioning as heads: personal pronoun, (a) indefinite pronoun

Noun Phrase 5

(b), possessive pronoun (c), and 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.

Usually, when a pronoun takes the role of head in a noun

phrase, it is not preceded by pre-modification; however, it

can be followed by post-modification, e.g. he who hesitates.

Pre-modification:

The pre-modification of noun phrase can be demonstrated

as the following:

Pre-determiner + identifier + numeral/quantifier + adjective +

noun modifier

A noun phrase can be introduced by a pre-determiner. The

most common pre-determiners are all, both, half, and fractions. For

example, in the noun phrase all the students, all functions as a

pre-determiner.

What comes after a pre-determiner is the class of

identifiers. Identifiers include articles (a, an, the),

demonstratives (this, that, these, those) and possessives (my,

Noun Phrase 6

your, his, her, its, our, their), only one of which can occur

in a noun phrase. It means that they are “mutually exclusive

in English”. One thing special about noun phrase is that the

article “the” can go with any head be it singular or plural

(a). In contrast, demonstratives must “agree in number with

the common noun phrase” (Baker, 1995, p. 153) (b). For

example:

(a) the book, the books

(b) this book, that book but these books, those books

The identifier can be followed by a numeral/quantifier.

Unlike the identifier, the numeral/quantifier can have more

than one component. In general, this constituent of noun

phrase may have the three favorite sequences:

(a) ordinal numeral + indefinite quantifier, e.g. the first

few guests

(b) ordinal numeral + cardinal numeral, e.g. the first two

guests

(c) indefinite quantifier + cardinal numeral, e.g. several

thousand guests

The groups of words coming after a numeral/quantifier are

called adjectives. More than one adjective can co-occur in a

Noun Phrase 7

noun phrase. In this case, adjectives are arranged in a rather

fixed order. Jackson has suggested an ordering for adjectives

with an example: a charming small round old brown French oaken writing

desk. In this example, the adjectives appear in an order basing

on a principle: 1. epithet (charming) 2. size (small) 3. shape

(round) 4. age (old) 5. color (brown) 6. origin (French) 7.

substance (oaken) 8. present participle (writing). However, it

is necessary to bear in mind that there is no fixed formula

for a sequence of adjective.

Placed between adjectives and a head noun is a noun

modifier. A noun modifier is a noun that is placed immediately

before a head noun to modify the head noun. For example, in a

country garden, the village policeman, and the news agency, country,

village and news are noun modifiers. Jackson also points out

that “it is unusual for more than one noun modifier to occur

in a noun phrase” and that “noun modifier + head noun

constructions are often the first stage in the formation of

compound nouns”.

Post-modification

After the head noun, there appears post-modification.

Post-modifications can be a word such as an adjective, an

Noun Phrase 8

adverb or a phrase such as prepositional phrase or a clause

such as relative clause, non-finite clause.

Usually, when people need an adjective to modify the head

noun, they place it in the pre-modification position. However,

in some cases, an adjective can go after the head noun,

especially in some few set phrases like blood royal, heir apparent.

In addition, in comparison with adjectives, adverbs are

more frequently found in the position of post-modification and

they can be regarded as reductions of a prepositional phrase.

For example, the time before can be understood as the time before this

one.

A relative clause is a clause composed of a relative

pronoun as a head which refers back to the head noun of the

noun phrase. The relative pronoun “who” and “whom” refer to

people. The relative pronoun “which” is used for plants and

animals. If the relative pronoun is an index of an object, it

can be omitted. For example: in the noun phrase the girl whom I met

yesterday, “whom” is optional.

A Non-finite clause can also function as post-

modification. There are three kinds of non-finite clauses

according to the verb that introduces them: Infinitive Clause

Noun Phrase 9

(a), Present Participle Clause (b) and Past Participle Clause

(c). For example:

(a) a movie to see

(b) the man talking to the teacher

(c) the movie chosen by the teacher

An infinitive clause is introduced by a to-infinitive.

Likewise, a present participle and a past participle clause

are introduced by a present participle and a past participle

respectively. Non-finite clauses can be reconstructed into

full relative clauses. For example:

(a) movie to see a movie that we should see

(b) the man talking to the teacher the man who is talking to the teacher

(c) the movie chosen by the teacher the movie that is chosen by the

teacher

A prepositional phrase is form by a preposition + a noun

phrase, e.g. in the corner. Prepositional phrases are said to be

the most frequent kind of post-modifiers in noun phrases. For

example: the man in the corner. A prepositional phrase can also be

rebuilt into a relative clause, e.g. the man who is in the corner.

In conclusion, we can have a brief summary of English

noun phrase:

Noun Phrase 10

Table 1: The structure of Noun Phrase in English

Pre-modificationHead

Noun

Post-

modification

Pre-

determin

er

Identif

ier

Numeral

/

Indefin

ite

quantif

ier

Adjecti

ve

Noun

modifi

er

Adjective/

adverb

Relative

clause

Non-finite

clause

Prepositional

phrase

Noun Phrase 11

The structure of noun phrase in Vietnamese

Vietnamese have an old saying “Qua bao phong ba bão táp

không bằng ngữ pháp Việt Nam”, which means Vietnamese grammar

is very complicated. The fact is Vietnamese linguists cannot

reach a consensus on some grammatical issues. With no

exception, noun phrase has been at the center of debate for

long. Now I’d like to present the viewpoint of some

established figures in this field.

In the book Vietnamese grammar (Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt),

Nguyễn Tài Cẩn points out that Vietnamese noun phrases have

two parts: the head and the modification composed of the pre-

modification and post-modification. What special about his

finding is the head noun. He claims that if the noun is

preceded by a classifier, both the noun and the classifier

form the head. So the head is the combination of T1 and T2.

For example:

Pre- Head Post-

Noun Phrase 12

modification modificationT1

(classifier)

T2 (noun)

một đoàn sinh viên khoa Văn

một cuốn sách này

According to Diệp Quang Ban, a noun phrase consists of

three constituents: pre-modification, the head, post-

modification. In the pre-modification, all the modifiers add

more information in terms of quantity. In contrast, all the

elements of post-modification give more information about

quality. The head of a noun phrase can be a word or a group of

words in which a classifier is followed by a noun, a verb, or

an adjective. For instance:

Pre-modification Head Post-modification

Tất cả những cái con mèo đen ấy

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2

Basing on the analysis of those linguists together with

Mai Ngoc Chu, Vu Duc Nghieu, and Hoang Trong Phien, this paper

will discuss in detail the structure of Vietnamese noun

phrases. A noun phrase is treated as a grammatical unit

composed of three parts: pre-modification, head, post-

modification. In this part, I will take “tất cả những cái con

mèo đen ấy” as an example to analyse the structure of

Noun Phrase 13

Vietnamese noun phrase. The structure of Vietnamese noun

phrase can be summarized in the following table:

Table 2: The Structure of Noun Phrase in Vietnamese

Pre-modification Head Post-modification

Totali

ty

(thành

tố phụ

chỉ

tổng

lượng)

Numeral/

Quantifi

er

(thành

tố phụ

chỉ số

lượng)

Focus

marker

“cái”

(“cái”

chỉ

xuất)

Classif

ier

(T1)

(loại

từ)

Noun

(T2)

Attributi

ve

modifier

(thành tố

phụ nêu

đặc trưng

miêu tả)

Demonstrat

ive

(thành tố

phụ chỉ

định)

Tất cả những cái con mèo đen ấy

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2

Head

The head of a noun phrase can be a single noun (e.g.:

mèo) or a classifier + a noun (e.g.: con mèo). Classifiers are

words such as cái, con, người. There are sharp distinctions

between these classifiers. “Cái” usually combines with

inanimate objects, e.g.: cái chén. In contrast, “con” is likely

to be accompanied by animate objects, e.g.: con rùa. “Người” is

Noun Phrase 14

used for human being, e.g.: người lính. It is worth noticing that

although người refers to human being, we say “con” người.

When there is a classifier + an attributive modifier

(danh từ chỉ loại + tổ hợp từ tự do miêu tả), the head is the

classifier, eg: hai người đang ngồi đọc sách đằng kia, những

việc nói hôm nọ.

If two or more coordinate nouns go together in a noun

phrase, they together constitute the head, eg: toàn thể cán

bộ, giáo viên, công chức

In some special noun phrases such as ba sôi, hai lạnh,

hai đen (ba phần nước sôi, hai phần nước lạnh, hai cốc cà phê

đen), the heads are the representatives (sôi, lạnh, đen) of

the absent nouns (phần, cốc)

Pre-modification

The focus marker “cái” (“cái” chỉ xuất) is used to

emphasize the noun mentioned in the head. Sometime it is used

to express hatred toward someone. In addition, the focus

marker ‘cái” is usually accompanied by a demonstrative that

appears after the head noun. For example: cái con người bạc ác

ấy. It is advisable that we distinguish the focus marker “cái”

(“cái” chỉ xuất) from the classifier “cái” (“cái” loại từ).

Noun Phrase 15

The focus marker “cái” can go with any T2, whereas the

classifier “cái” can only go with T2 which are inanimate

objects.

A Numeral or an indefinite quantifier is distributed in

position (-2). Numerals are một (one), hai (two), ba (three),

etc. Indefinite quantifiers are vài, dăm ba, mọi, những, tất

cả, các, mấy, etc. Here are some points about numerals/

quantifiers that should be taken into consideration:

Firstly, the focus marker “cái” does not co-occur with

mỗi, từng, mọi, or các. For example, it is ungrammatical to say mỗi

cái con mèo, các cái con mèo.

Secondly, a numeral does not go immediately before

collective nouns, except when the collective nouns refer to

the members of a family. For example, we can say hai vợ chồng, bốn

anh chị em, but we do not say năm trâu bò, mười quần áo. We should

say năm đàn trâu bò, mười bộ quần áo instead.

Thirdly, it is necessary to insert a classifier between

an indefinite quantifier (except for những, các) and a

collective noun, eg dăm cái quần áo, mấy con gà vịt.

The position (-3) can be occupied by the following words:

hết thảy, tất thảy, tất cả, etc. They express totality. The

Noun Phrase 16

word totality is ambiguous in the sense that it can refer to

the collection of many things (plural) (a) or the collection

of many parts of a single object (singular) (b). For example:

(a) Anh ta làm tất cả mọi việc.

(b) Anh ta ăn cả một con gà.

Post-modification

Unlike pre-modification in which all the positions are

relatively stable, post- modification is more complicated.

Before investigating post-modification, we should bear in mind

that there is no rigid formula for the post-modification.

The attributive modifiers can be a noun phrase (a), a

verb phrase (b), an adjective phrase (c), a prepositional

phrase (d), or a pronoun (e). Its function is to describe the

head noun. For example:

(a) phòng tạp chí , vườn cau

(b) cái nhà xây năm ngoái

(c) chiếc áo đẹp, khu vườn xanh tốt. It is noticeable

that an adjective phrase may be preceded by the

intensifier “rất”, e.g. chiếc áo rất đẹp, khu vườn rất

xanh tốt.

(d) cái võng ở sau vườn

Noun Phrase 17

(e) phòng (của) chúng tôi.

A relative clause can also serve as an attributive

modifier. In this case, the relative pronoun is “mà”. The word

“mà” is optional as illustrated in cuốn sách (mà) tôi rất thích, sách

báo (mà) thư viện đặt mua.

When more than one attributive modifier co-occurs, the

common sequences are:

(a) adjective phrase + prepositional phrase, e.g.: một cái

võng đắt tiền ở sau vườn

(b) adjective phrase + relative clause, e.g.: cuốn sách

mới mà tôi rất thích.

(c) the smaller unit + the larger unit, e.g.: vấn đề cấp

bách / số một/ về sản xuất hàng tiêu dùng.

Demonstratives are considered to be the rightmost post-

modifiers. They are ấy, nọ, kia, này, ấy, etc. Usually,

demonstratives can follow any of the attributive modifiers,

e.g.: hoàn cảnh (của) chị ấy, những cái con mèo đen ấy.

Noun Phrase 18

After considering carefully the structure of noun phrase

in English and Vietnamese, I will juxtapose the structure of

English noun phrases and Vietnamese noun phrases in order to

compare and contrast them.

Table 1: The Structure of Noun Phrase in English

Pre-modificationHead

Noun

Post-

modification

Pre-

determin

er

Identif

ier

Numeral

/

Indefin

ite

quantif

ier

Adjecti

ve

Noun

modifi

er

Adjective/

adverb

Relative

clause

Non-finite

clause

Prepositional

phrase

Noun Phrase 19

Table 2: The Structure of Noun Phrase in Vietnamese

Pre-modification Head Post-modification

Totali

ty

(thành

tố phụ

chỉ

tổng

lượng)

Numeral/

Quantifi

er

(thành

tố phụ

chỉ số

lượng)

Focus

marker

“cái”

(“cái”

chỉ

xuất)

Classif

ier

(T1)

(loại

từ)

Noun

(T2)

Attribut

ive

modifier

(thành

tố phụ

nêu đặc

trưng

miêu tả)

Demonstrati

ve

(thành tố

phụ chỉ

định)

Tất cả những cái con mèo đen ấy

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2

Although English belongs to the Indo-European language

family, and the Vietnamese language belongs to the Austro-

Asiatic family (Lan, n.d.), the two languages’ noun phrases

have many things in common. First, both are endocentric

structures (cấu trúc hướng tâm), which means they both have a

head noun. Second, in both languages, the head noun can have

pre-modification to the left and post-modification to the

right. Let’s consider the following examples:

Noun Phrase 20

a. a house on the hill (English)

b. một ngôi nhà ở trên đồi (Vietnamese)

In the two examples, the heads are house and ngôi nhà.

House is preceded by a pre-modifier (an article “a”) and

followed by a post-modifier (a prepositional phrase “on the

hill”). In the same pattern, ngôi nhà is placed between a pre-

modification (numeral “một) and a post-modification (a

prepositional phrase “ở trên đồi”).

The difference in language family also accounts for the

differences between English and Vietnamese noun phrases.

The first distinct feature that makes Vietnamese noun

phrases different from the English noun phrases is the head

noun itself. As we all agree, Vietnamese nouns cannot indicate

number. That is to say while English needs the morpheme “-s”

or “-es” to indicate the plural form of a noun, a Vietnamese

noun does not change the form whether it is singular or

plural. This is well-demonstrated in this example: một con mèo

(one cat), hai con mèo (two cats). However, it does not mean

that we cannot differentiate a singular noun from a plural

noun in Vietnamese. The numeral and the classifier are

responsible for this function. For example:

Noun Phrase 21

(a) một con mèo = one cat

(b) những con mèo = many cats

(c) con mèo = one cat

(d) đàn mèo = many cats (more than one cats)

In (a) the numeral “một” (one) precedes a singular noun

while in (b), the plural marker “những” (many) signals the

appearance of a plural noun. In (c) and (d), the classifier

“con” and “đàn” also give us a hint about plurality.

The second distinct property of Vietnamese noun phrases

is the participation of the focus marker “cái”. From the two

tables above, we can see that there is no element called focus

marker “cái” in the English language. However, the focus

marker “cái” of Vietnamese language is commonly attached to

demonstratives ấy, nọ, kia, này, ấy which have the equivalent in

English (this, that, these, those)

This brings me to the next point. The difference between

English and Vietnamese noun phrases also lies in the order of

the constituents of noun phrases, i.e. demonstratives and

adjectives. In an English noun phrase, the demonstrative and

adjective(s) usually occur to the left of the head noun (a).

Meanwhile, in a Vietnamese noun phrase, adjective(s) and the

Noun Phrase 22

demonstrative occur to the right of the head noun (b) as in

the following examples:

(a) this black cat

(b) con mèo đen này

All the analysis and comparison is futile unless it

serves a meaningful purpose. The intensive study of the

structure of English and Vietnamese noun phrase provides us

with food for thought in terms of implications for language

teaching and language learning.

Firstly, Vietnamese nouns do not have the same mechanism

with English nouns when it comes to the plural form, so

Vietnamese tend to “forget” the morphemes “-s” or “-es” after

a plural noun. For example, they may say two book instead of

this black cat

demonstrati

ve

adjective head

con mèo đen này

head adjective demonstrative

Noun Phrase 23

two books because in their mother tongue they can safely say

một quyển sách (singular) and hai quyển sách, những quyển

sách, các quyển sách (plural). The instance indicates that

Vietnamese nouns remain unchanged despite the change in the

plurality and that Vietnamese people use the plural markers

“những”, “các” to convey plurality. That’s why they may

produce ungrammatical English phrases. Moreover, Vietnamese

people are very unfamiliar with the concept of countable and

uncountable nouns. Consequently, they may overgeneralize the

rule and not be aware that we cannot add “-s” or “-es” to an

uncountable noun. For example they may use an advice/ advices

and an information/ informations without knowing that advice

and information are uncountable nouns; therefore, we cannot

add “-s” or “-es” to advice and information. This raises a

problem to Vietnamese because in our language, we say một/ nhiều

lời khuyên, một/ nhiều thông tin. These examples show clearly how the

mother tongue can interfere in the process of learning

English. Therefore, teachers should draw students’ attention

to the issue of singular/ plural nouns and countable/

uncountable nouns.

Noun Phrase 24

Secondly, Vietnamese people find it difficult to

recognize the head noun in long and complicated noun phrases

such as a beautiful young girl who is standing by the window. It’s a fatal

weakness if students cannot point out the head noun. Because

an English noun phrase can function as a subject of a

sentence, it is vital that English learners can identify the

head noun and match it with the main verb. It is obvious that

subjects and verbs are the fundamental elements of a sentence.

Therefore, unless students can make subjects accord with main

verbs, they cannot produce correct sentences. In order for

students to deal with this problem, teachers should guide them

through the process of describing the organization of English

noun phrases. If students can successfully identify the head

noun, they will not make subject-verb agreement mistakes.

Thirdly, adjectives are very important in modifying head

nouns. In terms of English structure, they usually come before

head nouns. That is something I have presented above. The

problem here is sometimes we need more than one adjective to

describe the head noun. In such an occasion, English learners

are often confused because they do not know how to put a

string of adjectives into a right order. While native speakers

Noun Phrase 25

can use many adjectives to describe things without difficulty,

English learners find this a real challenge. For example,

English people can say a long series of adjective with ease: a

charming small round old brown French oaken writing desk. Fortunately,

Jackson has suggested a rule: 1. epithet (charming) 2. size

(small) 3. shape (round) 4. age (old) 5. color (brown) 6.

origin (French) 7. substance (oaken) 8. present participle

(writing) (Jackson, 1982, p.13). I have to admit that we do

not have many sequences of adjectives like this in real life.

However, these are very common in writing and knowing how to

arrange adjectives in a natural order is an advantage. As a

result, teachers should remind students of how to use

adjectives to make their description as detail and correct as

possible, especially in writing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the minimum requirement of a noun phrase both

in English and Vietnamese is a head noun. If we want to add

more color to a noun phrase, we can make use of pre-

modification and post-modification. A contrastive analysis

Noun Phrase 26

view of the structure of noun phrases in English and

Vietnamese gives us an insight into the similarities and

differences between the two equivalent linguistic units in the

two languages. It also helps us to draw out some implications

for language teaching and language learning. I hope that this

paper in some way can be useful for ESL and EFL teachers and

students. What I want to suggest more is that new researches

focus on the function of noun phrases because a thorough

understanding of the function of noun phrases can give

learners more confidence in their language competence.

Noun Phrase 27

References

Baker, L., C. (1995). English syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Diệp Quang Ban. (2005). Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt-tập 2. Nhà xuất bản giáo

dục.

Jackson, H. (1982). Analysing English: An Introduction to Descriptive

Linguistics,

Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Trọng Nghiệu & Hoàng Trọng Phiến. (2007). Cơ sở

ngôn ngữ học và tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản giáo dục.

Nguyễn Tài Cẩn. (2004). Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản

đại học quốc gia Hà Nội.

Phrase. (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2009, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase

Yule, G. (2006). Oxford Practice Grammar Advanced With Answers.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

.

Noun Phrase 28