The Phrase

The word-group (phrase) is a grammatical unit formed by a combination of two or more notional words, which doesn’t constitute a sentence. The notional words are connected syntactically within the structure of the sentence (cold water, reads a book). They may belong to any part of speech. A word group as such has no intonation, as it is one of the most important features of the sentence. As to syntactical connection English phrases are classed as follows:

1. subordinate word-groups (fine weather, to write a letter, fond of reading)

2. co-ordinate word-groups (brother and sister, neither here nor there, king dear)

3. predicative word-groups (weather permitting, for u to go)

Subordinate word-groups fall into two parts: the head (an independent component) and the adjunct (a dependent component)

A good [adjunct] book [head]

Subordinate word-groups can be classified:

1. According to the head-word

   1. nouns groups: a sleeping night

   2. verb groups: to work hard

   3. adjective groups: extremely clever, rich in oil

   4. adverb groups: quite near, very quickly

   5. pronoun groups: some of the students.

2. According to the structure

   1. simple [unextended] word-groups consisting of two notional words: a good book, fond of reading.

   2. Complex [extended] word-groups consisting of more than two notional words: a very good book.

The grammatical relations between words in a word-group are primarily expressed by means of word order, prepositions (a good book, the cover of the book).

The structure of a word-group in English must be grammatically complete because of the absence of inflexions. In noun groups the prog-words one (ones), that (those) are extensively used in English: He is a doctor, and a great one.

In verb groups after a transitive verb the formal ‘it’ often occurs in English: I like it here. He found it impossible to utter the next word.

The grammatical characters of the word is determined by the structure of the word-group: Watch me carefully – verb. He was on duty during the morning watch (noun).

Coordinate phrases may be

1) syndetic and 2) asyndetic

3) copulative and 4) appositive

e.g. harsh and loud (1,3), the city of Rome (2,4), they all (2,4).

Appositive phrases may be close and loose 1) Wilson the writer; 2) Tolstoy, the great Russian writer, is dead.

Predicative word-groups

Predicative word-groups consist in two parts: a subjectival and a predicatival.

He didn’t want for me [subjectival] to come [predicatival].

The relations between the subjectival and the predicatival are similar to those of the subject and the predicate. There is no correspondence in person and number between the predicatival and subjectival.

Predicative word-groups like other word-groups are semantic and grammatical units; cannot function as independent sentences as they do not express communications.

The person (thing) expressed by the subject of the sentence and the subjectival are different: Val likes you to look nice. The subject ‘Val’ and the subjectival ‘you’ denote different persons.

Classification of predicative word-groups

There are bound and absolute predicative word-groups:

1) bound predicative word-groups are grammatically connected with the verb-predicate of the sentence, functioning as subject, object, predicative, adverbial, or with the noun (attribute), the subjectival is unusually having a dependent form (him, their, John’s), they are not isolated.

E.g. They watched him running down the slope (object).

2) Absolute predicative word-groups are always isolated expressing an additional (parallel) quality. They are usually connected by means of intonation with the whole sentence and not only with the verb predicate, the subjectival of the absolute construction denotes a person or a thing other than the object.

E.g. The situation being urgent, we had to go ahead.

Bound Predicative Word Groups

a) Accusative with the Infinitive.

She saw the girl come in.

b) Accusative with the Participle.

Dinny saw her uncle walking out.

c) Accusative with a nominal part of speech: the chaw made the ice insecure.

These constructions are used only after some verbs (to see, to hear, to watch, to feel, to think, to believe, to suppose, etc.)

d) Nominative with the Infinitive.

Philip Bosinney was known to be a young man without fortune.

e) Nominative with the Participle.

They were heard talking together.

f) Infinitive for-phrases: For me to go back now would be to admit that I am afraid. He didn’t wait for me to finish.

g) gerundial complexes: Erik’s coming to-night meant that a great deal of work had to be put off.

Both the infinitive for-phrases and gerundial complexes are more independent of the verb predicate as their use is not usually restricted be definite verbs.

Absolute Predicative Word Groups

1) Nominative (isolated) absolute constructions.

Her mother remaining in bed, Dinny dined alone with her aunt.

2) Prepositional absolute constructions (with, without)

I simply couldn’t sit with Hubert on my mind.

Syntactical Relations between the Components of Phrase

They may be divided into 3 groups: 1) agreement; 2) government; 3) adjoinment. Agreement is a means of syntactical relationship between words which implies that the use of one form necessitates the use of the other.

1) an adjunct word agrees in number with its headword (a noun) E.g. this (that) book – these (those) books.

2) a singular subject requires a predicate in the singular, a plural subject requires the predicate in the plural. E.g. I am a student. There are 2 books on the table. But in Modern English there is sometimes a conflict between form and meaning, in these cases the predicate doesn’t agree with the subject. My family are early risers. My family is small.

Government is a means of connecting words consisting in the use of a certain case form of the adjunct required by its headword.

1. The use of the objective case of personal pronouns and of the pronoun ‘who’ when they are subordinate to a verb or follow a preposition: e.g. I saw him (her, them). Whom did u see there?

2. We also find government between the headnoun and the attributive adjunct noun. E.g. The boy’s mother; the student’s answer.

Adjoinment is such a way of connecting words when they are joined to one another without any specail forms by only their position and combinability. It is found in the following cases:

1. Adverbs are joined to the verb. E.g. they walked slowly.

2. Adjectives, participles, pronouns (when used as attributes) are joined to their head-nouns. E.g. a small room.

3. Adverbs are joined to adjectives or other adverbs: very interesting, very well.