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Personal pronouns and proper names are inherently grounded. The structure of other nominals tends to reflect semantic function, with the head noun as core, grounding as the outermost layer, and modifiers in between. Noun modification is varied both semantically and in its structural implementation. When nominal and relational expressions combine grammatically, there is often a discrepancy between the nominal expression's profile and the entity which participates most directly in the relationship—its active zone with respect to that relationship. Noun classes have varying degrees of semantic motivation. Distributional classes, defined by participation in particular patterns, may be semantically arbitrary. While gender-type classes have semantic prototypes, the class as a whole is defined by a consistent set of grammatical behaviors. In a usage based approach, such classes are characterized by families of constructional schemas. Noun classifiers likewise have prototypical values semantically extended to a range of other cases. They represent a distinct kind of nominal structure in which the classifier functions as a schematic head noun. Classifiers are related to quantifier constructions allowing the unitization of a mass. Nouns bear various kinds of grammatical markings. Most intrinsic to nouns are elements deriving them from other classes. There is no sharp distinction between such derivation and noun inflection. Markings of gender and number are intermediate. More extrinsic are markings indicating a nominal's role in higher-level grammatical constructions. These are meaningful in a symbolic account of grammar. Such an account accommodates both agreement—the multiple realization of semantic specifications—and cases where multiple specifications are realized by a single, unanalyzable form. Analyzability is a matter of degree.

The Principle of Head Proximity is an interpretation of the word order facts in which languages are classified as V-1 (V-initial), SVO, or SOV. There is a general tendency across languages to avoid having adjectives (A) and possessor NPs (G) between the head of the noun phrase (N) and the head of the clause (V). In the V-1 and SOV languages, a possessor NP (G) is only permitted in between heads V and N if an adjective can appear there as well. This chapter discusses languages in which adjectives do not normally appear next to the noun, which runs counter to the first hypothesis formulated on the basis of the Principle of Head Proximity: noun-adjective adjacency. The second hypothesis concerns the position of modifiers relative to the noun.

The standard doctrine that basic grammatical classes (parts of speech) are not semantically definable rests on erroneous assumptions about the nature of linguistic meaning. With a proper view of meaning, basic categories—notably noun and verb—have plausible conceptual characterizations at both the prototype level (for typical examples) and the schema level (valid for all instances). The prototypes are based on conceptual archetypes: objects for nouns, and actions for verbs. The schemas are independent of any particular conceptual content, residing instead in basic cognitive abilities immanent in the archetypes: for nouns, grouping and reification; in the case of verbs, the ability to apprend relationships and to track their evolution through time. An expression's grammatical category specifically depends on the nature of its profile (not its overall content). Thus a noun profiles a thing (defined abstractly as any product of grouping and reification), while a verb profiles a process (a relationship tracked through time). Expressions that profile non-processual relationships include adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, infinitives, and participles. Relational expressions can be categorized in different ways, depending on factors like the number and type of focused participants, whether the profiled relation is simplex or complex, and whether it is apprehended holistically or sequentially. These characterizations prove efficacious in describing how relational expressions function as noun modifiers and in clausal organization.

This book presents a cross-linguistic account of the constituents of the noun phrase (NP), looks at a typologically formal model of the underlying NP structure that is designed to accommodate NPs from any type of natural language, and discusses word order patterns in NPs as they are attested in the languages of the world. Some general properties of NPs are examined and the three notions that are used to characterise most of the noun modifiers — quality, quantity, and location — are introduced. Central notions as nouns, NPs, and referents are also considered, along with the cross-linguistic variation with respect to the internal semantic structure of the NP.