Lecture 5: Phrases (1) PDF - English Grammar

5. The phrase Summary In this chapter we turn attention to the phrase, defining a word or group of words which behaves like a single grammatical item and, thus, fulfilling a syntactic function in a clause. Phrases are word-groups intermediate in size between clauses and words. Individual words are...

5. The phrase Summary In this chapter we turn attention to the phrase, defining a word or group of words which behaves like a single grammatical item and, thus, fulfilling a syntactic function in a clause. Phrases are word-groups intermediate in size between clauses and words. Individual words are not grouped together on intuitive grounds to form sentences. Syntactic relations in the clause are realized by phrase-sized units, which fall into different types, corresponding to five parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions – that govern them. Nouns and pronouns name noun phrases, verbs name verb phrases, adjectives - adjective phrases, adverbs - adverb phrases and prepositions – prepositional phrases. A phrase contains a head (its most important part) and a number of dependent(s)/modifier(s) which can usually be dispensed with without drastic changes in meaning. Thus, the head is obligatory, while dependents can easily be deleted. There are two notable exceptions, however. The main verb is the minimal structure of a verb phrase, which can also select a maximum of four optional auxiliaries. Prepositional phrases have two elements (the preposition and its complement) which cannot be omitted and play a crucial role in the overall distribution of the phrase. Goals The goals of the chapter are to: define phrases and show that they fall into different types, depending on the part of speech that governs them identify the major elements that make up different types of phrases introduce phrase structure rules give examples of noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases and prepositional phrases overview the syntactic functions phrases take at phrase and clause level Chapter contents 5.1. Types of phrase 5.2. Syntactic functions of phrases Further reading and video resources Exercises Key terms phrase, noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase, prepositional phrase, head, modifier(s), main verb, auxiliary, prepositional complement, syntactic relations 5.1. Types of phrase When examining a clause in English, one can sense that it is made up of words or groups of words connected by relations that turn them into units. To understand how such relations work, look at the examples below: The dog| ate| the treat|. SVO pattern The big friendly dog of my neighbor on the third floor| ate| the tasty treat on the table near the window that gave on the park in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral|. SVO pattern The two clauses, though very different in length, are both SVO clauses. They have exactly the same number of constituents, and each constituent realizes the same syntactic function in both clauses: subject, verbal, and object. The difference then should rest at phrase level, because syntactic functions in the clause are realized by phrases. Indeed, every function at the level of this clause is realized a single grammatical unit, called phrase1. For instance, both the dog and the big friendly dog of my neighbor on the third floor are noun phrases that realize the function of subject. The head is the most important element of a phrase, the word that cannot be omitted without destroying the phrase itself. To put it differently, if the clause pattern is the minimal structure of a clause, the head is the minimal structure of a phrase. The head determines the relationships and the behavior of the phrase as a whole. In the two examples above, both subjects are realized by nouns phrases. These phrases are labelled as ‘noun phrases’ because the central element in both is the noun dog and, consequently, each phrase behaves like a noun. The table below contains an example for each of the five types of phrase recognized in English grammar, with the head word in bold. type example word-class of head 1. noun phrase a nice chat noun 2. verb phrase must have been dreaming verb 3. adjective phrase very nice adjective 4. adverb phrase very calmly adverb 5. prepositional phrase of the language preposition It is important to note that the number of phrase types (five) is smaller than the number of word- classes (ten). The word-classes of numerals, conjunctions, determiners, and interjections do not have corresponding phrases, i.e., there are no Pronoun Phrases, Numeral Phrases, Conjunction Phrases, Determiner Phrases or Interjection Phrases. Personal pronouns and numerals can sometimes realize the function of head in noun phrases ([NP I] love his novels! [NP I]'ve read [NP 11 Romanian speakers of English have to be aware of the fact that phrase and frază are false friends, because they look and sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. five].). Similarly, numerals can sometimes realize the function of head in adverb phrases (He came [AdvP fifth] in the car race.) We already know that each phrase, except the prepositional phrase, can consist of the head only. To see how that works, let us look again at the bracketed noun phrases in the examples above: the dog and the big friendly dog of my neighbor on the third floor. The longer phrase can be contracted to the head only – dog – by removing in turns all the determinatives and modifiers, or can be expanded into a longer sequence by adding the modifiers back. If we scale the phrase as below, it becomes obvious that depending on where we start from, top – down or bottom – up, various head dependents can be added/ removed before and after the head. [the dog] [the big friendly dog] [the big friendly dog of my neighbor] [the big friendly dog of my neighbor on the third floor] Each object in the two examples above is also realized by a noun phrase: the treat and the tasty treat on the table near the window that gave on the park in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral, respectively, and the difference in length between them is even more outstanding. By arranging them on the same pyramidal scale, it becomes obvious that a phrase that consists of other elements besides the head can be analyzed in more than one way. This happens because, in English, phrases can be embedded. [NP [det the] treat] [NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat] [NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table]] [NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table] [PpP near the window]] [NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table] [PpP near the window] [that-Cl that gave on the park]] [NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table] [PpP near the window] [that-Cl that gave on the park] [PpP in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral]] As we can see, the treat on the first line is a noun phrase, which on the line below is combined with an adjective – tasty, then with a prepositional phrase, on the table, which in turn is combined with that gave on the park, to which in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral is added, and such additions can potentially go on endlessly. Note that within a phrase, we can even add a finite clause like that gave on the park, as in the window that gave on the park. Such occurrences, obtained by adding further phrases, or even clauses, within the basic structure of a phrase, are examples of embedding. The fact that a phrase may contain another (embedded/nested) phrase or clause is one of the central features of English phrases. 5.2. Syntactic functions of phrases Another feature that describes phrases is the fact that there are two types of syntactic relations that apply to them. As we have seen, phrases can have syntactic functions in the clause - they can realize subjects, verbals, objects, complements or adverbials. At the same time, the phrases that are embedded within other phases can have syntactic functions in the phrase they belong to. The table below presents the major syntactic functions the different phrase types can have at clause and phrase level. phrase syntactic function in clause syntactic function in phrase type NP subject; direct object; indirect complement of preposition in PpP; premodifier in object; subject complement; NP; apposition to other NP object complement, adverbial VP verbal - AdjP subject complement; object premodifier in NP; postmodifier in NP; head in NP complement AdvP adverbial modifier in AdjP, AdvP PpP adverbial postmodifier in NP; complement in AdjP; premodifier in NP Further reading and video resources Macari, Ileana Oana, English Morpho-syntax – A view from Romanian, Casa Editoriala Demiurg Plus, Iași, 2021 Phrases, heads and modifiers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3nZV6_wNSY The structure of noun phrases https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sjZVH821Ak Exercises 5.1. Identify all the NPs, AdjPs, AdvPs and PpPs in the text below. Some phrases may be embedded within larger phrases: Wait for the dust of reading to settle; for the conflict and the questioning to die down; walk, talk, pull the dead petals from a rose, or fall asleep. Then suddenly without our willing it, for it is thus that Nature undertakes these transitions, the book will return, but differently. It will float to the top of the mind as a whole. And the book as a whole is different from the book received currently in separate phrases. Details now fit themselves into their places. We see the shape from start to finish; it is a barn, a pig-sty, or a cathedral. Now then we can compare book with book as we compare building with building. (from How Should One Read a Book?, by Virginia Woolf)