A noun phrase (NP) can be just a pronoun (e.g. she) or a proper name (e.g. Shirley). Or it can have a common noun (e.g. mountain, boy) as head. It is not ordinarily permissible in English to omit the noun head; if no specific head is stated the form one may be used (e.g. the big one rather than just *the big).

A multitude of elements may precede the head of an NP:

(a) an adverb which modifies a complete NP, e.g. even, simply, really; or what, as in what a scandal, what the devil; or such as in such a nice boy, such delicious oysters;

(b) a predeterminer, e.g. all (of), some (of), both (of), one (of), any (of), one-quarter (of);

(c) a determiner, which can be an article (the, a), a demonstrative (e.g. this, those) or a possessive word or NP (my, John’s, the old man’s);

(d) a superlative (tallest, most beautiful), a comparative (taller, more beautiful); or an ordering word (next, last) and/or a cardinal number (three) or a quantifier (many, few) or a qualifier (some, any);

(e) an ordinal number, e.g. fourth;

(f) one or more adjectival modifiers; an adjective here may be modified by an adverb (such as simply, really or very);

(g) a modifier describing composition (wooden, vegetable, electrical);

(h) a modifier describing origin or style (British, outside in outside toilet),

(i) a modifier describing purpose/beneficiary (rabbit in rabbit food, medical in medical building).

Note that the two choices under (d) can occur in either order, and may carry a meaning difference, e.g. the two cleverest girls (the cleverest and the second cleverest) versus the cleverest two girls (can refer to the cleverest pair, when they were already grouped into pairs). All of possibilities (a)–(i) are unlikely all to be taken up in a single NP, although it is theoretically possible to say something like: only (a) some of (b) the (c) best (d) fifteen (d) very new (f), shiny (f), plastic (g) German (h) cat (i) baskets (HEAD).

Following the head there can be any or all of:

(j) of followed by an NP which refers to something in syntactic relation to the head; the relation may vary, as illustrated by the arrival of the chief—corresponding to The chief arrived—the destruction of the city—corresponding to Someone/thing destroyed the city—and the leaves of the tree—corresponding to the possessive construction the tree’s leaves;

(k) one of a limited selection of time and spatial adverbs, e.g. tomorrow, now, last week; here, there, upstairs; outside

(l) any preposition plus an NP, e.g. for Mary; can refer to time or space, e.g. after lunch, in the sky;

(m) a relative clause;

(n) an adverb modifying the whole NP—even, only or alone.

An NP including all of (j)–(n) is (he wouldn’t buy) the (c) engine (HEAD) of Fred’s old car (j) outside (k) in the back garden (l) which John tried to mend (m) even (n). Note that (j) is generally incompatible with the choice of a possessor under (c): we may say this old car’s engine or John’s engine or the engine of John’s old car but not *John’s engine of the old car. But of may introduce a non-possessor NP, under (j), which can co-occur with a choice under (c), e.g. the President’s promise of peace.

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