The grammar nps.grm recognizes structures of noun phrases at the highest level, using phrase types defined in other modules (specifically: npcomponent.grm, conjunc.grm and grader.grm).  It also provides the single instance of the keyword phrase type UNKNOWN that is required by the ASDParser for recognizing unknown words.  The new phrase type UNKNOWNWORD, which is recognized in nps.grm as ending a one-word phrase of type UNKNOWN, can then be used as many times as it is needed in other modules of the grammar.  (In this example UNKNOWNWORD is used only once, in the module noun-p.grm.)

This module starts with the types NOUNPHRASE0, defined in npcomponent.grm, and PRONOUN-P, defined in pronoun-p.grm.  It then adds attitudinal (ATTITUDE-P) and post-descriptive (POSTDESCRIP-P) modifiers to those, accepts appositive forms with or without commas, and accepts conjunctive sequences of noun phrases, including ones with apprositives.  It allows certain pre-modifiers and all postdescriptors to be applied to conjunctive sequences of noun phrases (examples: "both your food in the refrigerator and mine from the grocery store", "all the fox, the cat, the dog, the rabbit and the mouse together").

Ultimately, it recognizes any of the types on noun phrase covered so far in any of the grammar modules as being of type NPS (for "Noun Phrase Simple", where simple indicates here merely that the noun phrase contains no verbal modifiers, such as relative clauses or participial phrases.  And finally, for the time being, until noun phrases with verbal modifiers are added to the grammar, it recognizes any NPS as being an NP (Noun Phrase).