LECTURE - 5 TYPES OF PHRASES

LECTURE -  5

TYPES OF PHRASES

THE FIVE TYPES

The five types of phrases are named after the class of the word that is the head of the phrase. The phrase types are exemplified below in the order that they are discussed in this chapter.

1.      Noun phrase      recent deluges of reports  (head; deluges)

2.      Verb phrase      might have been accepted (head: accepted)

3.      Adjective phrase    surprisingly normal (head: normal)

4.      Adverb phrase     more closely (head: closely)

5.      Prepositional phrase    for a moment  (head: for)

Prepositional phrase always consist of two constituents: a preposition and the complement the preposition. In the prepositional phrase for a moment, the constituents are the preposition for and its complement a moment, a noun phrase with two constituents – the indefinite article a and the noun moment.  Other phrase types may consist of just one word as head; for example, in [1] – [4], the noun phrase lectures, the verb phrase brought, the adjective phrase cold, and the adverb phrase badly.

[1]   Lectures begin at nine.

[2] They brought me a box of chocolates.

[3] I’m feeling cold.

[4] They are behaving badly.

NOUN PHRASE

THE STRUCTURE OF THE NOUN PHRASE

A noun phrase has as its head a noun, a pronoun, a nominal adjective, or a numeral. The noun phrases in [1] are indicated by italics:

[1] Female spotted hyenas are so much like males that it’s hard to tell them apart. Now, scientists believe they know why.

Noun phrases that have a as their head are often introduced by the definite article ‘the’ or the indefinite article ‘a’ or  ‘an’.

               The possible functions of noun phrases are listed below:

1.      Subject

[1]  And my earliest memory of the theatre is going to the Hippodrome in ipswich.

2.   Direct object

[2].  Sign your name there

3.  Indirect object

[3] I always tell people I am not a musical person

4. Subject Predicative

[4]  Uh faith has been a gift for me

5. Object Predicative

[5] I called this little talk a survey for global bifurcations

6. Complement of a preposition

[6] Uhm but why isn’t it French

7. Premodifier of a noun or noun phrase

[7] Simon’s on this revision course

[8] So a lot of my friends were in one parent families as well.

8. Vocative

[9] You’re snob Dad

        There are number of other functions performed by restricted ranges of noun phrase

9. Adverbial

Noun phrases function as adverbials in expressions of time, location, directions, manner, and intensification.

[10] But you have to wait al long time

[11] The flag goes up far side

[12] Some of it’s coming out this way.

[13] [. . . ] and would certainly not have been designed that way today

[14] The loss in nineteen seventy hit him a great deal

10. Preomodifier  of adjective

[15] The plane was 4hours late

[16] It’s sixteen feet long six feet high six feet wide

11. Premodifier of preposition

[17] He revealed that Washington had informed the Kremlin an hour before the start of the assault

[18] Two sleek grey bodies were effortlessly riding our bow wave just a toot or so beneath the surface

12.  Premodifier of adverb

[19]  Now Mercedes have always been good at insulating their car but they’ve gone a stage further with this

13. Premodifier of noun

[20] Women may suffer lack of “acceptable partners” because too many of the man their age are dead [. . . ]