The grammar noun-p.grm is intended to recognize single words and multiple-word phrases as NOUN-Ps.  Considering the large, and indeed unlimited number of nouns in the English language, this module is far from complete.  To allow for the incompleteness of the module and the open-endedness of the category NOUN in English, this module also accepts any UNKNOWNWORD (i.e., any word that does not appear explicitly in the combined grammar) as a possible NOUN.  Because that general rule applies only to words which are not explicitly in the grammar, this module must include explicitly (at least) all of the words which can be used as nouns but which also appear in other modules of the grammar.  These include words like "down" (a noun, a preposition found in prepphrase.grm, an adverb and an adjective -- "the down escalator") and "second" (a noun as well as an ordinal found in cardord.grm).

In addition to single-word nouns, this module also includes some two-word phrases like "first lady", "only child", "top banana" and "just deserts" which are used idiomatically as nouns, with meanings that are not always easily derivable from their constituent words.  Of course, many other specific multiple-word nouns as well as single-word nouns can be added to this module.  However, multiple-word noun sequences are very common in English, with nouns earlier in a sequence modifying, as if they were adjectives, nouns later in the sequence.  Examples are "dog" in "a dog walker" (a walker of dogs), "lawn" in "these lawn ornaments" (ornaments for a lawn), and "ice" and "cream" in "my ice cream cone" (a cone for holding cream turned to ice).  So this module recognizes such sequences, as well as single NOUNs, as NOUN2s.  (Note: Although hyphens can be used, as in "ice-cream cone", to combine multiple nouns before the last one, the current version of the grammar does not recognize that use of hyphens.)

Finally, the module recognizes conjunctive sequences of NOUN2s as NOUN-Ps.  Examples are "coffee or tea:", "cat, dog, and rabbit", "boys and girls, men and women, and pets".

The various sequences of nouns which are accepted account for ambiguities in English which can only be resolved semantically or from context, such as the following examples:

"the only child"  (idiomatic: child with no siblings, or general noun sequence: the sole child present in some context)

"lawn ornaments and chairs" (ambiguous as to whether "lawn" modifies "chairs")

"glass cup holder" (ambiguous between (glass cup) holder and glass (cup holder) )

"beer and wine beverage and food establishment" ((beer and wine) (beverage and food) establishment versus ((beer and wine) beverage) and (food establishment)), etc.)

"cat, dog and rabbit food and accessories" (which can be parsed as (cat, dog and rabbit)(food and accessories) versus (cat, dog and (rabbit (food and accessories)) versus (cat, (dog and rabbit) food) and accessories) versus (cat, dog and (rabbit food) and accessories), etc.)