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Title "Structure of Noun Phrase in the Head-Last Languages of Pakistan: A Syntactic Analysis"

Author(s) Masab Umair

Abstract Although noun phrase holds immense significance in a language, the structure of noun phrase in the head-last languages of Pakistan has remained unexplored. This study is an attempt to analyze the structure of noun phrase in the three head last languages of Pakistan, namely: Urdu, Punjabi and Pashto with the help of X-bar theory while taking the structure of noun phrase in English as reference. The theoretical framework selected for the study is Principles and Parameters (P&P) theory by Chomsky (1981). The study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. Forty-Five noun phrases are collected from the grammar books of the three selected languages through purposive sampling. In order to make the selected phrases of the study comprehensible to the speakers of other languages, syntactic gloss has been incorporated. Side by side analysis of noun phrases (NPs) of the three selected languages is performed and a comparison is drawn with the structure of English NP. The findings of the study reveal that in the noun phrases of the three selected head-last languages, the position of adjuncts is fixed; all the adjuncts appear before the head noun. Moreover, the distinct category of articles is missing in the noun phrase of all the three selected head-last languages. In the NPs of the three selected languages, adjectives as adjuncts intervene between the head and the complement, which does not comply with the generic structure of phrase proposed by X-bar theory. Finally, in the prepositional phrase as a complement/modifier of the head noun, a peculiar irregularity is observed in the case of pre- and post-positions in the prepositional phrase of Pashto language while the other two languages (Urdu and Punjabi) have only post-positions. Besides delving into an unexplored area of research, the study hopes to foster cross-linguistic understanding by comparing the structure of NP in English with the same in the three head-last languages spoken in Pakistan. By highlighting both the similarities and differences in the structure of NP across these four languages, this study promotes a deeper appreciation for linguistic diversity in general and syntactic variations in particular. Keywords: noun phrase, head-last languages, x-bar theory, principles & parameters, universal grammar

Type Thesis/Dissertation

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2024-07-11

Subject Linguistics

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