Lecture 12 phrase

The problem of the definition of the phrase. F.F.Fortunatov, A.Shahmatov and AM.Peshkovski started the theory of the phrase (end XIX- beginning XX century) they consider any syntactical group of words to be a phrase, they didn't take into account the meaning of such groups. Beginning from 50th of XX century V.V. Vinogradov narrowed this definition. The phrase was considered to be any syntactical group of notional words, agreed with each other (subordination). The coordinate and the predicative connection of words were excluded from the theory of phrase [6, 100-101]. At present, Phrase is considered to be every combination of two or more words, which are a grammatical unit but not an analytical form of some word [22,171]. The phrase may denote:

• A concrete thing, e.g.: "A little winding path led them to the river, (W.S. Maugham)

• An action, e.g.: "Here, I said. 'You're soaked. Come and have a drink.1 (V.S.Pritchetl)

A quality, e.g.: "// at once struck him that her hair wax almost identical in. color with sand, so incredibly fine and sun-bleached that it was a/most white. "(H.E,Bates)

• A whole situation, e.g.: "it's from a man who wants you to investigate the disappearance of his wife's Pekinese dog" (A. Christie) The underlined phrase may be transferred into a sentence - "His wife's Pekinese dog disappeared".

The phrase may consist of:

• Notional words alone, which have a very clearly pronounced self- dependent nominative destination, e.g.: He held a small pickled onion delicately on the end of his fork "(S.HHI)

Notional and functional words, these combinations are stamped, e-g-; 'It is to some extent seasonal work" (S.Hill). She turned and looked at Guy. (W.S, Maugham), the words "some, extent; looked" are notional, the words "to; at" are functional.

Only functional words, used as connectors and specifiers of notional elements of various status "so that", "out of, "up to", "such

as", etc., e.g.: "I like a bit of singing and dancing, it cheers you up,

Esine, if takes you out of yourself ."(S.Hiii)

The phrase may perform different functions in a sentence:

1. Subject, e.g.: "To hurt a boy would have been nothing" (J. Wain)

2. Predicate, e.g.: "I don't give much thought to it." (J.Wain)

3. Object, e.g.: I wanted him to be free and happy (V.S. Pritchett)

4. Attribute, e.g.: There was a man in an allotment who had asked him. for a light and wanted to know his business. (V,S. Pritenet)

5. Adverbial modifier, e.g.: He fiat and waited, his eyes cast down shyly (W.S.Maugham), The features of the phrase: 1. It is a nominative unit 2. It is a unit of language, 3.It is a part of a sentence, 4. It isn't a communicative unit, 5. It is not internationally marked.

The syntactic bond is a syntactical relation between the components of a phrase. There are two theories concerning the types of syntactic bond.

I. Professor B.Ilyish distinguishes two main syntactical

relations between the components of a phrase: Agreement and government Agreement is a method of expressing a syntactical relationship, which consists of making a subordinate word take a form similar to that of the word to which it is subordinate, e.g.: this worn these words. Government - is the use of a certain form of the subordinate word required by its head, but not coinciding with the form of the head word itself, e.g.: find him, invite her.

2. L.S Barhudarov, MY,, Blokh , I.P.lvanova, V.V.Burlakova, G,G.Pocheptsov and other our scholars distinguish three main types oh the syntactic bonds - coordination, subordination and predication.

3. Blokh M.Y. distinguishes one more type - cumulation (see the table attached)

CLASSIFICATION OF THE PHRASE ACCORDING TO ITS J

STRUCTURE

According to the structure phrases maybe subdivided into the big groups: "elementary" and "compound". Elementary phrases &, phrases constitute by one syntactic bond. Elementary are subdivided into “simple” and “complex”. Simple are phrases with only one adjunct, e.g.: "The outer enemy could, and did, parody it in a hundred ways. " D. Lessing). where the word "enemy" is the head-word of the phrase and it is modified only by one adjunct "outer". The type of coordination is "subordination". In order to understand the types of complex phrases it's necessary to learn what "adjunct" means. The adjunct means words(s) or phrase added to explain, describe or define another word. [20,9]

Complex phrases are subdivided into three types: Phrases with an expanded head should contain not less than two adjuncts to the headword, e.g.: " Better a good lone sleep an1 keep the table spread till Ah waken' (S. Chaplin). The phrase " a good long sleep" consists of the headword "sleep" and two adjuncts "good and long ". NB: The head is not considered to be expanded, if it has only one adjunct, it should have two or more.

Phrases with an expanded adjunct should contain at least one adjunct to an adjunct of the headword, e.g.: The water dribbled from his tightly dosed tips (S. Chaplin). In the phrase "his tightly closed lips" the headword "lips" has one adjunct. " closed"; the adjunct "closed" is modified by its own adjunct "tightly" (closed how? -tightly). The adjunct may have only one word, which it is modified by (another adjunct) to be called expanded.

Phrases with an expanded head and adjunct should contain at

least two adjuncts to the head-word and one or more adjuncts, which

become the head-words to their own adjuncts, e.g.: On a December

evening just three weeks before Christmas, after an easily mild day

that had died in a darkening flush of violet twilight. Christy came

"own ... to look for his long-lost pal, Tommy Flynn (S. Barstow). The

phrase "a darkening flush of violet twilight", consists of the head-word

flush" which has two adjuncts "darkening, twilight" that is why it

!lay be called "a phrase with an expanded head". The adjunct

twilight" has its own adjunct "violet" that's why the whole phrase is

"ed " a phrases with expanded head and adjunct".

Compound are phrases constitute of two or more syntactic bonds:

Coordination and predication, e.g.; This of course caused ears to pick -up_ and ribald comments to form on various lips. (L Durrell). This sentence contains two predicative constructions - "earn to pick up ", "ribald comments to form on various lips " - Objective-with-the-Infinitive constructions. They are connected with the help of the conjunction "and", which indicates the syntactic bond - coordination.

Coordination and subordination , e.g.: Three old ladies, and one fierce-looking old gentleman raised their heads and gazed at the intruder with deadly venom (A. Christie). Where the heads "ladies and gentleman" are connected coordinately, "three old ladies^1 and "one fierce-looking old gentleman" are connected subordinately.

Predication and subordination, e.g.: The dog sniffed at it, his intelligent eves fixed_ on the man's face (A. Christie). Where "eyes fixed" is an absolute nominal participial construction, which means that two elements of this construction are connected predicatively, syntactic bond - predication, "his intelligent eyes" and "on the man's face" - subordination. The word "eyes" is the headword, and the words "his, intelligent" are the adjuncts to the headword'. In the phrase "on the man's face", the headword is "face" and the adjunct is "man's".

CLASSIFICATION OF THE PHRASE ACCORDING TO THE HEAD COMPONENT

According to the head component all phrases maybe subdivided into "headed" and "non-headed". Headed are phrases containing a headword. Non-headed are phrases, the elements of I which are either equal (coordination, cumulation), or stand in a predicative relation to each other (predication). Headed subordinate phrases are subdivided into regressive and progressive types.

Regressive are phrases the headword of which follows the adjuncts:

1. An adverb phrase, the headword is expressed by an adverb, e.g.: Art opened his eyes again, looked wonderingly at the face so it near his own (S.Chaplin).

2. An adjective phrase, the head-word is expressed by an adjective, e.g.; Pekinese are terribly sensitive -just as sensitive as children "(A. Christie).

3. A noun phrase, the headword is expressed by a noun- She let the conversation end, simply giving him another long,

searching enigmatic smile. (H .E. Bates)

Progressive are phrases the headword of which stands before the adjuncts. There are four types of headed subordinate progressive phrases:

A noun phrase, the head-word is expressed by a noun, e.g.: The slant of the roof, veering toward him so abruptly, must have given an expression of closing in, (S.Chaplin)

An adjective phrase, the headword is expressed by an adjective, e.g.: She was shy, of course, but cool enough, and when / said something to her she gave me a smile, Maugham

A preposition phrase, the headword is expressed by a preposition- He turned unwillingly, with dragging feet, towards the cab, and. got in besidethe driver. (S. Chaplin)

A verb phrase, the headword is expressed by a verb (or verbal), e.g.: Then, indeed, I hardly knew whether I had anything to offer_ with sincerity. ... We were poles apart, and moved though I was; his need had not succeeded in bridging the gap, (S. Chap/in) Non-headed phrases are subdivided into:

1. Non-headed predicative phrases:

Scholars have different opinions on the notion. Primary predication: some of them consider it to be a phrase, others consider it to be a sentence consisting of a subject and predicate. We share the latter opinion, e.g.: So we took him out bye. (S. Chaplin).

Secondary predication is a phrase expressed by any predicative construction, e.g.: ...Geordie went through first, then returnee/, heads awards me, his hands reaching out for the handles (S, Chaplin).

2. Non-headed coordinative phrases are subdivided into syndetically a|id asyndetically connected phrases, that is according to the presence (syndetica!) or absence ( a syndetical) of a conjunction between the elements of the phrase:

Syndetical, e.g.: I had been counting on a sponge, food and lodging with some junior who would be proud to know me and house me. (L. Ditrreli).

A syndetical, e.g.: Well, I walked round to try and raise the wind at Goupil, the Crillon , the Ritz and so on, (A.Christie)

3. Non-headed cumulative phrases are subdivided into:

One-class phrases are those, which contain adjuncts belonging to the same part of speech, e.g.: ... A dear little mite. Such lovely rosy cheeks (A. Christie). The words "dear, little " and "lovely, rosy" -belong to the same part of speech - adjective.

Muiti-class phrases are those which contain adjuncts belonging to different parts of speech, e.g.: Just think if those two little brats were yours (W.S. Maugham) The word" those" is a pronoun, the word "little" is an adjective, the word "two" is a numeral, and so they belong to different parts of speech.