2. Structure and classification of word-groups

The term 'syntactic structure (formula)' implies the discription of the order and arrangement of member-words in word-groups as parts of speech. For instance, the syntactic structure of the word-groups a clever man, a red flower may be described as made up of an adjective and a noun, i. e. A + N; of the word-groups to take books,to build houses — as a verb and a noun, i. e. V + N.

The structure of word-groups may also be described in relation to the head-word. In this case it is usual to speak of the pattern but not of formulas. For example, the patterns of the verbal groups to take books, to build houses are to take + N, to build + N. The term syntactic pattern' implies the description of the structure of the word group in which a given word is used as its head.

According to the syntactic pattern word-groups may be classified into predicative and non-predicative. Predicative word-groups have a syntactic structure similar to that of a sentence, e.g. he went, John works. All other word-groups are called non-predicative. Non-predicative word-groups may be subdivided into subordinative (e.g. red flower, a man of wisdom) and coordinative (e.g. women and children, do or die)

Structurally, all word-groups can be classified by the criterion of distribution into two extensive classes: endocentric and exocentric

Endocentric word-groups are those that have one central member functionally equivalent to the whole word-group, i. e. the distibution of the whole word-group and the distribution of its central member are identical. For instance, in the word-groups red flower, kind to people, the head-words are the noun flower and the adjective kind correspondingly. These word-groups are distributionally identical with their central components. According to their central members word groups may be classified into: nominal groups or phrases ( red flower), adjectival groups (e.g. kind to people), verbal groups (speak well), etc.

Exocentric word-groups are those that have no central component and the distribution of the whole word-group is different from either of its members. For instance, the distribution of the word-group side by side is not identical with the distribution of its component-members, i.e. the component-members are not syntactically substitutable for the whole word group.

3. Types of meaning of word-groups

The meaning of word-groups can be divided into: 1) lexical and 2)structural (grammatical) components.

1) The lexical meaning of the word-group may be defined as the combined lexical meaning of the component words. Thus, the lexical meaning of the word-group red flower may be described denotationally as the combined meaning of the words red and flower. However, the term combined lexical meaning' is not to imply that the meaning of the word-group is a mere additive result of all the lexical meanings of the component members. The lexical meaning of the word-group predominates over the lexical meanings of its constituents.

2) The structural meaning of the word-group is the meaning conveyed mainly by the pattern of arrangement of its constituents. For example, such groups as school grammar (школьнaя грамматика) and (grammar school) are semantically different because of the difference in the pattern of arrangement of the component words. The structural meaning is the meaning expressed by the pattern of the word- group not either by the word school or the word grammar. It follows that it is necessary to distinguish between the structural meaning of a given type of a word-groups as such and the lexical meaning of its constituents.The lexical and structural components of meaning in word-groups are interdependent and inseparable. For instance, the structural pattern

of word-groups all day long, all night long, all week long in ordinary usage and the word-group all the sun long is identical. The generalized meaning of the pattern may be described as 'a unit of time'. Replacing day, night, week by another noun — the sun the structural meaning of the pattern does not change. The group all the sun long functions semantically as a unit of time. But the noun sun included in the group, continues to carry the semantic value, i. e. the lexical meaning that it has in word-groups of other structural patterns, e.g. the sun rays, African sun .Thus, the meaning of the word-group is derived from the combined lexical meanings of its constituents and is inseparable from the meaning of the pattern of their arrangement.