PHRASES

Questions

1. What is a phrase? 2. How many phrases are there in English?

Definition
A phrase is a word or a group of word
- without the subject, or the predicate

with a head, which functions as a

single word/ a part of speech.

TYPES OF PHRASES
1. Noun Phrase;
2. Verb phrase;

3. Adjectival phrase;
4. Adverbial phrase; and

5. Prepositional phrase

Other Features
A phrase has one word functioning as the HEAD:
The GIRL; WORK hard; very GOOD; well ENOUGH; and IN the room.

The head cant be omitted; The head may have pre-modifiers or/ and postmodifiers; A phrase may consist of one word (except for Prepositional Phrase) or more than one word.

NOUN PHRASES
1. What is a noun phrase (NP)?

2. What are the subtypes of NP?

a. What is a Basic NP?

b. What are the constituents of a Basic NP?

3. What are the constituents of a NP? 4. Supply examples to illustrate?

NOUN PHRASES
Books/ They Those books

Those interesting books

All (of) those three interesting books on the table All (of) those three interesting books that you gave me All (of) those three interesting books on the table that you gave me yesterday

 A Noun Phrase (NP) is a Word or Group of words without the subject, or the predicate with a Head Noun and functions as a single noun

Syntactic function
A NP may be a subject, an object, an adverbial or a complement (1; 2; 3; 4 respectively in the example below) depending on its function (or position) in a sentence.

For example:
The girl (1) who was talking to her boyfriend (2) last night (3) is my sister (4).

GENERAL STRUCTURE OF A NP
Pre-modification

Head

All (of) those three interesting books on the table that you gave me yesterday

Post-modification

PRE-MODIFICATION
Pre-modification Head

Closed-system Pre-modifiers

Open-class Pre-modifier

All (of) those three interesting books

BASIC NP

A basic noun phrase is a phrase

that consists of a HEAD noun or

a PRONOUN (head) with or

without other closed-system items

as pre-modifiers.

BASIC NP
Closed-system Pre-modifiers Head

All (of) those three books

Predeterminer Determiner Postdeterminer

Determiner

Articles: a, an, the; Possessive Pronouns: her, his, my, our, their, your etc.; Demonstratives: this, that, these, those; such. Quantifiers: few, many, much, several, some, every;
each, either, neither etc.;

Interrogative Pronouns: which(ever), what(ever),

Whose, etc.

Pre-determiner
All, Both & Half (and their of-construction):
All (of) the meat Both (of) the students Half (of) the money Once/Twice a month; Double the number. All of it Both of them Half of it.

Double, Twice, Three/Four times: Fractions:

One-third, two-fifths, etc: He did it in one-third (of) the time it took me.

Post-determiner

Ordinal numerals and general ordinal numerals (first, second, third & next, (an)other, etc.): The second boy. The additional part Cardinal numerals (one, two, three etc.) Those two books
Ordinals normally precede any other cardinals:

The first three tickets.

COMPLEX NP
Pre-modification

Head

All (of) those three interesting books on the table that you gave me yesterday

Post-modification

BASIC OR COMPLEX?
This girl;
The first girl; The beautiful girls; Beautiful girls; The beautiful girls over there; The beautiful girl I talked to you yesterday

Verb phrase
1. How many types of Verb phrase are there? Name them and give examples. 2. What are the different grammatical categories of the verb? 3. Name the types of complementation of verb? What is the clause type for each type of complementation?

Types of Verb
Lexical V
walk write play learn teach live

Auxiliary V
- Primary: do, have, be - Modal: can, may, shall, should, need

VERB PHRASE
Finite and nonfinite verb phrases
Finite VPs have:
Tense distinction: studies studied;

Subj. Verb Number Concord: I am/ He is;

Mood: Indicative Imperative Subjunctive

Non-finite VPs:
To-infinitive; -ing participle; and ed participle (p. 39)

VERB PHRASE
Different grammatical categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice, mood.
Tense: Present & Past; (Futurity is rendered through Modal Auxiliaries; Simple & Progressive) forms; Aspect: Simple; Progressive & Perfective; Voice: Active & Passive; Mood: Indicative Imperative Subjunctive.

COMPLEMENTATION OF VERB
Intensive Complementation & Extensive Complementation 1. Intensive complementation

Subject Complement: S + V + Cs
Verbs: Copulas/ linking (Most popular Be.
Other Verbs fall in: Current or Resulting)

Complement: A NP or an Adj.P;

COMPLEMENTATION OF VERB
Complementation of Adj. P as Subject Complement:

By Prep. P: We are interested in playing cards for fun;

By Finite Clause: He is certain that he has called her; By To-infinitive Clause: We are glad to know that.

Predicative Adjunct: S + be + A (copulas: Be only)

He is in the room.

COMPLEMENTATION OF VERB
Extensive Complementation
1. Intransitive verbs and zero complementation: S+V 2. Mono-transitive verbs and their complementation:

S+V+O
We like this book; (NP as Object)

We know that he has come;

We want to learn more; (without Subject of Vinf)

COMPLEMENTATION OF VERB
We like talking to the teacher. (without Subject of Ving) We want her to learn more; (with Subject of Vinf) We saw her going out of the shop; (with Subject of Ving)

3. Di-transitive verbs and their complementation:

S + V + Oindir + Odir

4. Complex transitive verbs and their complementation

S + V + O + C: He always made us happy; S + V + O + A: They put the books on the table.

Adjectival phrase
1. What are the constituents of an adjective phrase? 2. How many types of post-modifiers are there? Name them. 3. Give examples for the syntactic features of a Adj.P? 4. What are the functions of an adj.P in a sentence?

ADJECTIVAL PHRASE
Possible Structure:
Pre-modifiers + Adj - Head + Post-modifiers

Pre-modifiers: Adverbs: very good; Post-modifiers:

Prep. P: She is very good at telling lies; To-infinitive: I am pleased to meet you; That/if/ whether- finite clause: I am glad that you have come; Wh- clause: I am not sure when she called.

ADJECTIVAL PHRASE
Syntactic features:
Attributive: modifying nouns That is a good book. Predicative: complementing copular verbs
We feel very happy.

Adj. P can function as:

Head of a NP: The poor; Verbless Adj. Clause: So nervous, the man opened the letter.

Prepositional phrase
1. Give examples of simple and complex prepositions. 2. Write the structure of a Prep.P. Give an example. 3. What makes up a preposition complement? 4. How many syntactic functions does a Prep.P have in a sentence? Give examples.

Preposition
More than 100 prepositons in English (complex and marginal prepositions) Simple: about, like, via, without (single) Complex: Some pairs and groups of words operate like single prepositions. apart from, because of, except for, thanks to, out of, in addition to

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Possible Structure:
Preposition Head + Prepositional Complement Prepositional Complement :
NP: AT the corner; -Ing: (interested) IN reading books; Wh- clause: We were tired OF what he said.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Syntactic Functions: (p.144)
The Adverbial:
We left him in the room.

The subject:
Up to the mountain in this weather requires a lot of efforts. etc

WHAT PHRASE? Analyze

Its a rather fortunate name, isnt it? There suddenly appeared a tall woman on the steps. She is getting old. The statement by the driver that he didnt see the lorry was rejected by the Court. Beyond the garden, there were open fields. Has she forgotten about her right to compensation?

Answer
- Rather fortunate: adj phrase
pre-modifier
Pre-modifiers H

- A tall woman: N.P

- Is getting: complex V.P - The statement by the driver that he didnt see the lorry: complex N.P
(pre-modification + Head + post-modification)

- Beyond the garden: Pre.P

H H Cprep post-modification

- Her right to compensation: N.P

Pre-modif.