As speakers, the first grammar we learn is most often the grammar of things. The vocabulary of young English speaking children typically will include nominal expressions such as ball, mamma, dadda, cat, dog, juice, water, and so on. There is considerable variation of course but these word forms are used to communicate; that is, to ask for things or to tell someone something. They provide a basis upon which to build up the grammar of the language. The grammar of things is precisely what this chapter will describe.

As was shown in the previous chapter, many of the main word classes form the basis of the main structural units of the clause. The most important of these is the unit of the group, which is considered as an extension of the word. Chapter 2 also introduced some terminology and notation that will be helpful for the exploration into analysing English grammar presented in this book.

This chapter is the first detailed look at one particular part of the grammar. It begins with an introduction to referring expressions and then moves on in section 3.2 to describe the nominal group, which is the main linguistic resource for these expressions. The nominal group is a complex unit which expresses a range of meanings. Once this description is complete, some guidelines are presented in section 3.3 which offer help in recognizing nominal group boundaries. As a summary, 3.4 provides a worked example of nominal group analysis.