📖 READ: Textbook (pp. 128-171)

• We learned that if we see a sentence as a story, then the character is conveyed by the subject and the action/state of being of the character is expressed by the predicate.

• The subject in a sentence takes the form of a nominal structure, often an NP (but not always). As writers and speakers, we have much freedom in controlling what and how much we want readers or listeners to know about the character/topic.

• Regarding the grammatical form of an NP, it can be as short as containing a single noun or pronoun or be infinitely long by adding pre- and post-modifiers.

For example, if we want to tell a story about what is doing on in this gif, we need two basic elements:

1. a noun phrase to tell what/who this Gif is about: A dog (a black dog, a diligent dog, a dog wearing a yellow sweater, etc.)

2. a verb phrase to tell what the subject is doing: is working very hard (is working on his/her laptop)

A noun phrase (NP) is a phrase with a noun as its head. The head noun can be preceded by pre-modifiers and followed by post-modifiers. An NP can be substituted by a single pronoun.