18. Phrase. Types of relations between its constituents.

Relations between the components of word groups:

(1) Coordination – between the elements related to one another on an equal rank:

• neither of them is the modifier of the other;

• the same role in the syntactic structure;

• syndetic: prose and poetry, quick but not careless;

• asyndetic: no sun, no moon; silent, immovable, gloomy;

• open (theoretically unlimited): a young man of sense, of character, of temper, of manners, and of fortune…

• closed (consisting only of two components): cold but clear, not only the teacher but also the students, both read and retell.

(2)SUBORDINATION unites syntactically unequal elements:

• one is the modifier of the other;

• perform different functions in a syntactic structure;

• The principal element (the dominating, the modified one) – the kernel / headword;

• the subordinate one (the dominated one) – the adjunct / expansion / modifier. a careful observer, seemingly careful, to write a letter, etc.

Order of components of subordinate word groups:

regressive (tail-head): modifier - headword: an old brown stone house; fairly well; to always object

progressive (head-tail): headword – modifier: a list of names; to hear of the news; bad for one's health

Part-of-speech classification of subordinate word groups:

• nominal / substantival real friends, this book, world leaders

• adjectival: very nice, ice cold, rich in minerals,

• adverbial: quite safely, far away; readily enough

• verbal: hear voices, insist on coming, laugh happily,

(3) Interdependence – bilateral mutual domination/dependence of elements within the predicative group:

• the noun element (subject) dominates the verbal element (predicate) determining the person of the predication

• the verbal element (predicate) dominates the nominal element (subject) by ascribing to it some predicative quality, state or action

Syntactic links

1) Agreement – expressing syntactic relationship by the modifier copying the form of the headword.

• In English – between demonstrative pronouns and nouns (this day – these days, that day – those days)

• between the Subject and the Predicate (agreement in Number). English agreement is an agreement of notions rather than agreement of forms. My family are early risers. The United Nations is located in New York.

• The predicates agree not with the grammatical subjects but with their references.

2) Government – the use of a certain form of the adjunct as required by the headword, but not coinciding with it.

3) Adjoinment – expressing syntactic connections without a change of forms, by mere juxtaposition.

• In English, is very widely spread: happy life, give advice, widely known

• The combination of words by adjoinment is limited

(a) grammatically: *Adv+N, *Adj+V

(b) lexically (semantic compatibility): * to read a chair, * long snow

4) Enclosure (замыкание) – some element of a phrase is enclosed between two parts of another element:the then government, an on-the-spot investigation, have never seen, to be always searching

5) Connection (коннекция) – using formal words (prepositions, conjunctions)a book of poetry, rain or snow