Questions: Noun Phrases

Question 1

In the sentence 'The exhausted runner near the finish line collapsed,' which of the following is the complete noun phrase that serves as the subject?

• A. The exhausted runner
• B. runner near the finish line
• C. The exhausted runner near the finish line
• D. the finish line

Answer: (C)

The full noun phrase includes the determiner 'The,' the adjective 'exhausted,' the head noun 'runner,' and the prepositional phrase 'near the finish line,' which modifies the noun. You can confirm it is one unit by replacing the whole string with a pronoun: 'She collapsed.'

Question 2

Nearly every noun that appears in a sentence is the head of its own independent noun phrase.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

This is a key misconception. Nouns inside prepositional phrases (e.g., 'finish line' in 'near the finish line') or relative clauses are parts of a larger noun phrase, not independent NPs. Only the head noun of the outermost phrase anchors an independent noun phrase in the sentence.

Question 3

Describe the pronoun replacement test and explain what it tells you about noun phrases.

Model answer: Replace the candidate phrase with a pronoun (he, she, it, they). If the substitution produces a grammatical sentence with the same structural meaning, the candidate is a complete noun phrase. It works because pronouns substitute for entire noun phrases, not for nouns alone or for partial phrases.

This test is useful because it relies on a grammatical fact: pronouns are noun-phrase-level substitutes. If you replace 'the exhausted runner near the finish line' with 'she' and the sentence remains grammatical, that confirms the entire string functions as a single noun phrase unit.