Phrases

1.9. Morphological classification

The phrase is a meaningful unit which consists of one or more words denoting phenomena and their properties. Morphologically, the following types of phrases are distinguished:

noun phrase (NP), characterized by a nominal element:

John, a voice, each child, anything new, a fine strong set of teeth;

verb phrase (VP), characterized by a finite or non-finite verbal element:

grow, smokes heavily, explained in slow English, to smoke like that, explaining in English;

adjectival phrase (AjP), characterized by an adjective element:

tiny, very good;

adverbial phrase (AvP), characterized by an adverbial element:

before, almost softly, weeks later;

prepositional phrase (PP), characterized by prepositional element:

in the ocean, at first, of it.

1.10. Syntactic relations

In order to state general rules about the construction of phrases which comprise more than one word, it is necessary to refer to syntactic relations.

When two or more words are connected syntactically, their relation may be described as coordination, subordination and predication. Accordingly, there exist coordinate, subordinate and predicative phrases.

Joined through coordination, the words are equal in rank, they are not dependent on one another:

man and wife	tired but satisfied
now or never	slowly, stealthily

Coordination may be sуndetic, as in the first three instances given above - when coordinators (coordinating conjunctions) are present – and asyndetic, as in the last instance - when coordinators are absent but could be supplied:

Slowly, stealthily, he crept towards his victim.

Slowly and stealthily, he crept towards his victim.

Sometimes the coordination of two elements is made more emphatic by the addition of a word before the first element: both ... and, either ... or, not only ... but (also). This is called correlative coordination.

He plays both the flute and the horn; His doctor allows him neither to drink nor to smoke; She’s not only an excellent housewife, but (also) a first class mathematician.

Joined through subordination, the words are not equal in rank: one word (adjunct) is subordinated to the other (head). Subordination realizes itself through agreement, government, adjoinment and enclosure.

Agreement (or concord) consists in making the adjunct take a form similar to that of the head, It is practically found only between the demonstrative pronouns this and that and the noun:

this day - these days

that day - those days

Government consists in the use of a certain form of the adjunct required by the head. This holds for some personal pronouns and the interrogative and conjunctive whom dependent on a verb or preposition. Hence verbal government (1) and prepositional government (2) are distinguished. (1) loved them; saw him; (2) by her; to whom

Adjoinment implies such subordination of the adjunct to the head which is achieved by their position and their meanings. The most typical example of adjoinment is the relation between an adverb and its head, whether this is an adjective or a verb, or another adverb:

ran fast; very proud; much more

Adjectives, nouns and other words used as prepositive attributes, except the demonstratives this and that, are also merely adjoined to their heads:

old friends; library tables; some notes

Enclosure consists in the putting of a component of a phrase between two constituents of another component. The most widely known instance of this is the enclosing of a word between an article and the noun to which the article belongs:

a private detective; the spoken word

A component of a phrase can be also enclosed between a pronoun or a preposition and the head. Any word thus enclosed is known to be an attribute to the noun:

some other day; his own radiantly imagined future; in her composed voice

The predicative relation unites the subject and the predicate: The components of a predicative phrase predetermine each other.

he went; they have gone; (the) cattle are grazing

Predication builds up the basis of the sentence:

He went after her along the hall; They have gone out;

The cattle are grazing in the fields.

In most sentences this is the only predication they contain. However, there are sentences which contain one more predication which is called secondary predication:

Then he saw a girl coming towards him over the grass;

He is considered foolish.

In the example sentences predication realizes itself not only through ‘he saw’ and ‘he is considered’ but also through the phrases ‘a girl coming’ and ‘he foolish’ as their components have the same relation as the subject and the predicate of the sentences. ‘A girl was coming toward him over the grass’ and ‘He is foolish’. The phrase ‘a girl coming’ functioning as a complex object of the first example sentence comprises a participle used as an objective predicative. The phrase ‘he foolish’ functioning as a complex subject of the second example sentence comprises an adjective used as a subjective predicative.

Of the three main types of syntactic relations discussed above two are used to form composite sentences: coordination and subordination. Accordingly, compound (1) and complex (2) sentences are distinguished.

1. The headmaster did not like us very much and he seldom gave us any praise.

2. It was clear that the headmaster did not like us, because he seldom gave us any praise.

1.11. Parts of speech

Sentence members realize themselves through units which can be referred to as parts of speech. These can be exemplified as follows:

(a) noun - John, room, idea, snow

adjective - happy, new, large, round

pronoun - he, they, anybody, one, which

adverb - happily, closely, very, then

verb - write, have, do, be

numeral - two, three, second

(b) prepositions - of, at, without, in spite of

conjunctions - and, that, when, on condition that

particles - not, to, only, just

modal words - certainly, indeed, really

words of affirmation and negation - yes, no

interjections - oh, ah, ugh, phew

The parts of speech are listed in two groups, (a) and (b), and this introduces a distinction of very great significance. Set (a) comprises words called notional parts of speech. Notional parts of speech are words denoting things, their qualities, actions and states. Notional words have distinct meanings and perform independent syntactical functions in the sentence - they function as principal or secondary members of the sentence.

Set (b) comprises form words, or structural words. Form words differ from notional words semantically - their meaning is more general than that of notional words. Moreover, they are sometimes altogether devoid of it: the conjunction that, the preposition of, etc. Form words do not perform any independent syntactical functions; they express relations between words in a sentence (e.g. the trees in the garden; Tom and Joe) or specify the meaning of a word (e.g. only tomorrow; very nice indeed). Prepositions and conjunctions are called connectors.

It is noteworthy that the division of words into parts of speech can be accepted only with certain reservations - there are words which cannot be classed among any of the above mentioned parts of speech (e.g. please, anyway).

1.12. Nouns

Nouns are one of the four large parts of speech, the others being verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Nouns name things. They also name people, places, processes and qualities.

There are several ways to identify and classify nouns in English. Semantically, nouns fall into proper (e.g. Ned, Shakespeare, London) and common (e.g. table, air, anger). Both proper and common nouns can refer to something animate (e.g. Ned, friend) and inanimate (e.g. London, table).

The most reliable way to identify nouns is by form. We find that most nouns in English can be identified by their ability to form the plural number (e.g. toy - toys, bird - birds). Nouns that inflect for number are called countable nouns. They are always either singular (naming one object) or plural (naming more than one). The singular form has no inflection; it coincides with the root of the word. The plural has the ending -s or -es (A few irregular nouns form their plural in other ways). .

Nouns that cannot have a plural form (e.g. bread, harm, furniture) are called uncountable.

English nouns have a two-case system: the common case and the genitive case. The common case coincides with the stem of the noun.

The genitive singular has an apostrophe -s inflection added to the root of the noun (e.g. pilot’s, newcomer’s). The genitive of regular plurals has no ending in speech; in writing these nouns only add an apostrophe (e.g. pilots’, newcomers’).

The genitive case is generally used with proper and common nouns denoting human beings and animals. The genitive with inanimate nouns though grammatically possible (e.g. the chair’s leg, the tree’s leaves, the storm’s strength) is not regularly used.

In the sentence nouns mainly function as subjects (1) and objects (2).

1. A bell began to ring furiously;

2. He opened the door: I looked at the ornaments on the desk.

Nouns can also be predicatives.

This is just an old politician.

Many nouns in the common and genitive cases function as attributes.

They lived in a country house; The policemen’s words came back to him.

It is very common to use nouns as attributes by putting them before other words: e.g. car door, cassette box, table leg. But it is not always possible to put two nouns together in this way. Sometimes it is necessary to use the construction with ‘of’ (a loaf of bread, but not *a bread loaf) or the genitive (a miner’s lamp, but not *a miner lamp).

Quite often nouns used attributively are introduced by prepositions. In such cases they follow the head noun: e.g. the contents of the chapter; the man in the road.

Nouns can function as adverbial modifiers.

They visit their parents every year.