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Journal of Language and Literature Review 1

Vol. 1 No 1, 2011

Study of Noun Phrase in Urdu

Aasim Ali, Mohammad Kamran, Shahid Siddiq

Sarmad Hussain

Abstract

This paper presents discussion of internal structure of Noun Phrase (NP) in Urdu. It also proposes a

computational grammar using LFG (Lexical Functional Grammar) formalism.

Introduction

As in other languages, Noun Phrase ( , NP) in Urdu also ranges from a single word to

(theoretically) an infinitely long construction comprising other phrases as its constituents. NP may

contain a number of word classes and phrases including pronouns, adjectives, nouns and quantifiers. It is

important to find out the exact rules which govern how NP may be formed in Urdu and when these

constructions are licensed. This is not only important to understand the grammar of Urdu but also

essential for developing the computational models of the language. Case Phrase (KP

) in Urdu is formed

by simply an NP or NP followed by Case Marker, cm). KP (and thus NP) forms fundamental argument

for other constituent structures, including a Sentence (S) and Verb Phrase (VP). The variety in which NP

may be constructed in addition to its frequent usage in forming or parsing Urdu grammar makes it an

essential topic of further investigation.

Various aspects of construction of NP in Urdu have been addressed by many grammar books of Urdu.

The current work looks at these analyses in conjunction with the requirements for Urdu grammar from the

corpus of Urdu text to assess and extend the work. Analysis of different authors is discussed and

eventually a formal set of rules for analyzing NP of Urdu is developed. Part of the published material on

Urdu grammar is available only in Urdu hence the translation of the terminology used in such text is also

presented in this paper. However, when exact English translation is not found in the literature, then most

conceivable translation (as apparent from its definition and illustration given in that text) is provided

instead of mere transliteration, so that the reader may realize the underlying concept and meaning. Lexical

Functional Grammar (LFG) framework is used to realize these rules. Other formalisms can also be used,

and the choice of LFG is arbitrary.

Next section visits the literature; the subsequent section shows the analysis and topic-wise segments of

the computational grammar presented in this paper. Then, there is a comparative analysis of the literature

and current work.

Literature Review

This section starts with identifying the scope of work, then after reviewing elementary constituents of NP,

the phrasal constituents are looked at, in this section of the paper.

Since CP is more generally known as abbreviation for other term Complementizer Phrase, hence KP is used here

as abbreviation for Case Phrase, to avoid confusion. [14] has also used KP to abbreviate Case Phrase.

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Journal of Language and Literature Review 2

Vol. 1 No 1, 2011

Scope of this paper

This paper studies NP construction for the purpose of computation grammar for Urdu. The NP can

contain clauses, other phrases, and elementary items as its constituent. Some constituents (phrases and

clauses) of NP also have the ability of taking NP as their constituent (relative clause, postpositional

phrase, and case phrase etc.); while others always appear at a subordinating position of NP (e.g. noun,

pronoun, numeral, non-verbal adjective). This paper focuses on such subordinating items only, because

each of other constructions requires its separate study and analysis. Therefore, genitive pronoun and

verbal adjectives are also not included in this paper. Handling of the coordinate conjunction of NP and

adjectives is also included in the current grammar.

Elementary Items

This section reviews the literature available on elementary constituents of the NP.

The Noun ()

Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.oed.com)          

(1998) defines

          to refer to a person, place, thing, quality, or



-classes, which include common

vs. proper nouns, and mass vs. countable nouns (e.g. see [Jurafsky]). Further sub-classes may also be

defined based on syntactic, grammatical or semantic roles of different nouns. Urdu grammarians have

also sub-classified the nouns, which are discussed below.

Haq M. (1987) divides the nouns in two main classes, proper () and common (). Proper

nouns are further divided into four sub-classes, title (), attributive name (), alias () and nom-

de-plume (



), and common nouns are sub-classified as state (  ), collective (), locative ()

and instrumental () nouns. Haq further divides the locative noun into nouns which represent a





) and time (



).

Javed Ismat (1981) divides the nouns flatly into five types, common (), proper (), collective (),

abstract () and mass (or non-countable,  , also referred to as material, ) nouns. Platts T.

(1909) does not explicitly discuss the types, but divides nouns into five classes based on morphological

behavior. He lists abstract nouns, nouns of agency or attributes or possession or appellations, nouns of

place, diminutive nouns and compounds.

Siddiqui Dr. (1971) presents the most comprehensive classification of nouns. He divides the classification

on the basis of structure (), nature (



) and other. The classification on the basis of structure

() is as follows:

a. Primitive (neither derived nor derivable) Noun (), which is sub-classified as proper ()

and common () nouns. The proper nouns are further sub-categorized as title (  ), Appellation or

Attributive Name (),  (), nom-de-plume ( 



 ) and kinship (







). The common nouns are

sub-categorized as state () and collective () nouns.

b. Verbal Noun (), which is the infinitive and gerund form of verb, and generally used as noun.

The derivational noun below is derived from verbal noun.

c. Derivational Noun (), which is sub-classified into subject (), object (), present

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Study of Noun Phrase in Urdu Aasim Ali, Mohammad Kamran, Shahid Siddiq Sarmad Hussain Abstract This paper presents discussion of internal structure of Noun Phrase (NP) in Urdu. It also proposes a computational grammar using LFG (Lexical Functional Grammar) formalism. Introduction As in other languages, Noun Phrase (اسمی ترکیب, NP) in Urdu also ranges from a single word to (theoretically) an infinitely long construction comprising other phrases as its constituents. NP may contain a number of word classes and phrases including pronouns, adjectives, nouns and quantifiers. It is important to find out the exact rules which govern how NP may be formed in Urdu and when these constructions are licensed. This is not only important to understand the grammar of Urdu but also essential for developing the computational models of the language. Case Phrase (KP1) in Urdu is formed by simply an NP or NP followed by Case Marker, cm). KP (and thus NP) forms fundamental argument for other constituent structures, including a Sentence (S) and Verb Phrase (VP). The variety in which NP may be constructed in addition to its frequent usage in forming or parsing Urdu grammar makes it an essential topic of further investigation. Various aspects of construction of NP in Urdu have been addressed by many grammar books of Urdu. The current work looks at these analyses in conjunction with the requirements for Urdu grammar from the corpus of Urdu text to assess and extend the work. Analysi ...
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