In the study of the Spanish language, we are involved in a great variety of types of analysis. Within the same sentence, different types of words or grammatical structures can be found. These must be identified and analysed individually. Therefore, today we are going to talk about the nominal syntagm.
Before explaining what the nominal syntagm itself is, we need to talk a little about what syntagms are in linguistic studies. A syntagm is a linguistic unit that is responsible for performing a syntactic function in any type of sentence.
That is why, in most cases, syntagms are mainly composed of a nucleus that may be complemented by other types of words. In addition, it is a structure that is considered to be larger than a word, but smaller than a sentence.
Within the Spanish language, we have different types of syntagms, among which we find the verbal syntagm, adjective syntagm, adverbial syntagm, nominal syntagm, etc.
Of all of them, today we will focus on the nominal syntagm. Of all the existing types of syntagms, it is the one that is most commonly used in our language.
Therefore, we must understand the nominal syntagm as a structure whose nucleus is a noun, noun word, noun or pronoun. In some cases, sentences can have more than one noun phrase or similar structures which can be confusing. It is therefore important to learn to recognise their structure.
To learn to recognise nominal syntagms within a sentence, we must always be aware of their structure. As we have already mentioned, a nominal syntagm will always have a nucleus which is a type of noun.
Thus, an example of a nominal syntagm can be "the notebook", whose nucleus is the noun notebook and is preceded by a complement which, in this case, is an article.
Now, moving on to a complete sentence analysis, we can look at the following sentence: "The woman has a fever". If we are asked what the noun phrase of this sentence is, we can affirm that it is "The woman", since it is the linguistic unit whose nucleus is made up of a noun.
However, in some cases, sentences can have more than one noun, but this does not mean that they have more than one noun phrase. It is therefore important to be aware of this type of linguistic structure.
An example sentence could be "Your brother's car". In this case, the noun phrase is "El carro", as it is a structure composed of an article and a noun.
Whereas, "Your brother's" is a prepositional syntagm. This can be easily identified as it is composed of a preposition. Moreover, in a more complete sentence analysis, it can be taken as the complement of the noun.
Another example of a sentence where it can be confusing to find the noun phrase is "Biden, the President of the United States lives in the White House". In this case, "Biden" would be the noun phrase. Whereas "The president of the United States" is just an apposition of the nucleus.
We are well aware that the study of the various syntagms in our language can be somewhat complex. However, with constant practice you will be able to improve in this area and pass any assessment on this subject. To help you with this, here is a list of examples of nominal syntagms.
As the noun phrase is one of the topics of the Spanish classes, it is essential that you learn to recognise it within the sentence structures you study. If you feel that this type of topic is a little difficult for you, you can choose to get extra help from a private tutor on our WeSmartly platform.
Asking for and getting extra help never hurts. With the help of a private tutor, you will be able to reinforce all the knowledge you have acquired in class. You will also be able to practice as much as possible in order to pass this fundamental subject.
For this and many other reasons our tutors are ready to help you. We have a wide variety of tutors specialised in different areas. Among them, for sure, you will find excellent professionals specialised in Spanish Language.
