PHRASE CLASS

 PHRASE CLASS

Ifti Luthviana

Phrase : grouping of one or more words which focus around a headword element and which together perform the grammatical role which in other circumstances could be expressed by a single word.

1. Nominal Phrase (NP)

-          Has a noun or pronoun as its headword

-          be preceded and modified or determined by an article, a genitive phrase, a pronoun, an adjective or another noun, and they may be followed and qualified by a prepositional phrase, subordinate clause, an adjective, or nominal phrase.

-          E.g. my most enjoyable climb;

        The song that Jill sang;

        Jones the butcher;

-          Nominal phrases with pronoun headwords are often assumed to be single word phrases

E.g. She is on holiday

-          If where the headword is one or an indefinite pronoun

E.g. The one in the green jacket. The wild one.

-          If the pronoun forms cited earlier can occur with determinative and adverbial limiter words

E.g. You could win all this.

2. Verbal Phrase (VP)

-          Has a verb as a headword, which is a main verb. It may be preceded by an infinitive particle to and/or one or more auxiliary verbs.

-          E.g. to start; to have started; to have been started;

        is starting; was starting; will be starting; has been starting;

3. Adjectival Phrase (AdjP)

-          Has an adjective headword.

E.g. quick; fairly quick;

-          Adjectival complements / completive elements are handled within the adjectival phrase,

E.g. keen on music; interested in history.

4. Adverbial Phrase (AdvP)

-          Has an adverb as their headword.

E.g. quickly; fairly quickly;

5. Prepositional Phrase (PrepP)

-          Has a preposition as the headword.

-          A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus a nominal group

-          E.g. in the morning; at the beginning (nominal phrase)

in brief; for sure (adjectival phrase)

from off the shelf; to by the tree (prepositional phrase)

from what Jill said (nominal subordinate clause)

6. Subordinator Phrase (SubP)

-          Subordinating conjunctions serve to introduce subordinate clauses

E.g. only if . . . ; even though ...; ever since... ; just when;

        merely because ...; immediately after ...; almost until

        Frank will come only if he can be back by 6 p.m.

7. Genitive Phrase (GenP)

-          most  readily associated  with marking possession

-          Genitive phrases  are formed by adding an apostrophe and –s at the end of the nominal phrase which specifies the possessor, viz. -'s

-          E.g. David's sister is here