Skip to main content
English Language Learners

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Required fields*

12
  • 1
    No. Why would you think so?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Sep 16 at 16:31
  • 2
    Yes, I think it can.
    – user405662
    Commented Sep 16 at 16:48
  • 2
    It's a noun and the subject of the sentence and a proper noun. But for me, it is not a phrase (two words or more). However, there are linguists that would say it is.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 16 at 16:53
  • 3
    ishtar answers this well. It is a troublesome fact that much of English metalanguage ('word', 'lexeme', 'phrase', 'clause', 'sentence', 'complement', 'extraposition', 'preposition' for starters) is ill-defined in that conflicting definitions are used (often usurping earlier definitions) by recognised authorities. 'Gerund' is considered best avoided for this reason by some recognised authorities. They repurpose terminology to suit their own analyses. // The other major fact one has to come to terms with is that certain usages may be considered acceptable by some authorities but not by others.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 16 at 18:23
  • 2
    Linguists and grammarians routinely use the abbreviation np (noun phrase) as an alternative to noun. In the context of analyzing syntactic constructions, it's almost always irrelevant whether any particular np / noun happens to be a single word or several words constituting a phrase.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 16 at 18:37