23 · Phrases
Numbers in noun phrases
A number can occupy several places in a noun phrase. In four ships it determines the phrase. In the first train it modifies the noun. In those three it heads the phrase because no following noun is expressed. The diagram uses Num for the number itself and a separate label for its job.
Four is the determiner of the noun phrase four ships.
The is the determiner; first is a Num premodifier of the noun head train.
The determines the phrase; first and two sit inside the nominal.
Those determines; with no noun expressed, three heads the phrase.
In the first phrase, the already determines the noun phrase, while first and two sit with the noun inside its nominal. In the second, those is the determiner and three supplies the unspoken counted thing as the head. A missing noun alone does not prove a fused analysis; the jobs of the other words still matter.
Map the number’s place in the noun phrase
- Find the noun phrase and its noun head, if one is expressed.
- Check whether another determiner already has scope over the phrase.
- Read the number’s parent: at NP level it determines; before the noun inside the nominal it premodifies; without an expressed noun it may head the phrase.
The absence of another determiner proves nothing by itself. This course groups cardinals and ordinals under Num, while other grammar descriptions divide them differently; the diagrams teach the course’s function analysis.
The number’s place determines its job.
One train, the first train, and those three place a number in different relationships within the noun phrase. The examples use one-word numbers. Longer expressions such as twenty-one require their own internal analysis.
Ten sentences from this lesson, one decision at a time.