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Verb Phrases in the English Language
Teuta AGAJ
Abstract: Verbs are a necessary component of all sentences. A verb is a part of speech that functions
as a main element in a sentence. It expresses an action or a state of being, it agrees with the subject
in number and person, and it may be inflected for tense, aspect, voice and mood. Verbs can be used
in a variety of ways including giving commands and relaying descriptions of events to others. There
are some verbs in English that have more than one function. Sometimes they function as a noun,
sometimes as a verb and sometimes as a modifier. Therefore, analyzing what function a verb has in a
sentence is very important. The term verb phrase is used for the main verb and any auxiliary or
combination of auxiliaries that precedes it (can read, am playing, may have shown etc) and for any
complements that follows it (can finish your chores, is a good teacheretc). This paper presents a brief
description of English phrases focusing on verb phrases in particular and their division. It also
analyzes all the words that can appear before or after the head of the verb phrase and making them
clearer for the reader by drawing a tree diagram for each of the pre-modifiers and post-modifiers.
Keywords: phrase, verb phrase, pre-modifier, post-modifier.
Introduction
Sentences consist of a number of parts, using different parts of speech. One of these is the
verb phrase, which includes the main verb, and which may have auxiliary verbs to go with it. A verb is
a word which tells us about an action, a physical action, a mental action, an activity, a process, a state
of being, or a state of mind. In a sentence, the verb phrase is usually put immediately after the subject
and it tells us something the subject does or something about the subject’s state of being.The main
function of verb phrases is to describe situations. They provide specific relations among the
participants in the situation. All grammatically complete sentences in the English language contain at
least one verb. The form of a verb helps us to express some important ideas: the time the action is
taking place,whocarries it out, how likely it is that it will happen, how many people perform the action,
and so on. The verb phrase is an essential part of every sentence because it provides the central
meaning to a sentence.Verb phrases are considered to be complex phrases in English as they are
pre-modified and post-modified by certain linguistic structures.
2.What is a phrase?
A phrase may be defined as a single word or a group of words that together function as a
unit and it does not have its own subject and predicate:e.g.
will bring,
a number of workers.
Therefore, a phrase is a word or a group of words in which all the words are clustered around one
word, also referred to as the head of the phrase,bring and number in the above examples.According to
Blaganje and Konte (1979:14) the phrase is a grammatical unit that lies between the clause and the
word. It may consist of only one word called the headword (H) or it may consist of the headword with
one or more words clustered around it and dependent on it, these are called modifiers (M). In the
former case the phrase is simple, in the latter it is complex. A simple phrase may become complex by
expansion, i.e. by adding other words:

PhD candidate. Public University “KADRI ZEKA“ Gjilan, Faculty of Education. Email address: [email protected]
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e.g.student–simple phrase
H
thosestudents – complex phrase
M
H
thosehardworkingstudents – complex phrase
M
M
H
thoseextremely hardworkingstudents – complex phrase
M
M
H
thoseextremely hardworkingstudentsin our class – complex phrase
M
M
H
MThe words dependent on the headword, i.e. modifiers
may either precede the headword or follow it. Those preceding the headword are premodifiers (PreM),
those following it are postmodifiers (PostM).The headword is obligatory. There cannot be a phrase
without a headword. Premodifiers and postmodifiers are optional, i.e. the headword may be
accompanied by them or not (Blaganje and Konte 1979:14).The basic structure of the phrase may be
expressed by the following formula (Kabashi, 2000:22):
(M) H (M)
3. Kinds of Phrases
According to Eastwood (2005:2-3), there are five kinds of phrases:1.Noun phrases – the
headword is primarily a noun, a pronoun or any other structure in nominal function.e.g.acomputer
M
H2.Verb phrases – the headword is a lexical verb.e.g.canfind
M
H
3.Adjective phrases – the headword is an adjective.e.g.mostcool
M
H
4.Adverb phrases – the headword is an adverb.e.g.reallynever
M
H5.Prepositional phrases – the headword is a preposition plus an object of preposition (OP)
which can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb, another prepositional phrase, a gerundial clause, an
infinitive clause, and a finite clause.e.g.atany time
H (OP) NP
4. Verb Phrases (VP)
There are two types of verbs: lexical and auxiliary verbs. The lexical verb, also called main
verb, names the process taking place. It has the most meaning. It may occur in several forms: write(s),
wrote, written, writing, and (to) write and if the verb phrase has more than one verb, it comes last
whereas the auxiliary verbs also called helping verbs (be, have, be able to, do, will, would, can, could,
may, might etc), are the verbs in front of the lexical verb that help indicate when the process takes
place, will take place, or took place or how the whole process is looked upon by the speaker (Verspoor
and Sauter, 2000:48).A verb phrase or VP is a part of a sentence composed of at least a main verb
and its dependents such as: objects, complements and other modifiers, but not the subject.According
to Nuhiu (2002:42), a verb phrase consists of a verb and all the other words and group of words that
cluster around the verb.The lexical verb itself is called headword and it comes last in the verb phrase
whereas the other words that cluster around the headword are called verb modifiers.A verb phrase
therefore, can have this structure:
_______VP ______
↓
↓
↓
(PreM)
H
(PostM)Considering the following sentences: a.John is a teacher.
e.Judy studies mathematics.b.Alice is very pretty.
f.He gave the money to
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Sally.c.The students are in the room.
g.He gave Sally the money.d.Steve snores.
h.Gaby is allergic to cats.it can be said that a verb phrase structure rule that would allow us to account
for the above structural possibilities follows (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999:98):
5. Kinds of Verb Phrases
There are two kinds of verb phrases (Blaganje&Konte, 1979:198):a. Simple – consists of
only one verb which is the headword.e.g.Theyworkhard.
VP
↓
H
↓
Vb.Complex – consists of a lexical verb as headword which is preceded by a modal auxiliary or by one
or more primary auxiliaries as pre-modifiers and followed by one or more words as postmodifiers.e.g.They areworkinghard.
_____________VP_______________
↓
↓↓
PreM
HPostM
↓
↓↓
Aux
VAdv
↓
↓↓
are
workinghard
6. Pre-modifiers of Verb Phrases
Verb pre-modifiers are (Nuhiu, 2002:42-44):1.Modal auxiliariese.g. Johncanread
______VP
↓
↓
PreM H
↓
↓
Mod V
↓
↓
can
read
2.Primary auxiliariese.g. The people havecome
_______VP
↓
↓
PreM
H
↓
↓
Aux
V
↓
↓
havecomeThere can be two or three preverbal modifiers in a VP:e.g.
mayhavebeeninjured
The boy
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_____________________VP
↓
↓
↓
↓
PreMPreMPreM
H
↓
↓
↓
↓
Mod
Aux
Aux
V
↓
↓
↓
↓
may
have
been
injuredAccording to Carter and McCarthy (2006:159), modal verb comes
first. More than one modal is not permitted but there may be several auxiliary verbs. Where there are
combinations of modal verbs and auxiliary verbs, the order of these is:
modal verb – perfect have – progressive be – passive be – lexical verbItmight
have
been
being
used
at the timeEach element requires a particular kind of
complementation to follow it: the modal verb must followed by the bare infinitive (without to); the
perfect have must be followed by the –ed participle; the progressive be must be followed by the –ing
form and the passive be must be followed by the –ed participle.Sometimes the verb can be separated
from the headword especially in questions.
e.g.a).Haveyou (NP)sleptwellrecently?
_______VP______________
↓
↓
↓
↓
PreMH
PostMPostM
↓
↓
↓
↓
Aux V
AdvAdv
↓
↓
↓
↓
Have slept
well recently
e.g. b).ShallI (NP)gotherewhen she comes?
_______VP______________
↓
↓
↓
↓
PreM H
PostMPostM
↓
↓
↓
↓
Mod
V
AdvCl
↓
↓
↓
↓
shall go
there when she comes
7. Conclusion
By the way of conclusion, it can be said that a verb phrase consists of one or more verbs. It
has a central word which controls the other words, phrases and even clauses that occur in it. The
central word is the head whereas the other words and phrases are modifiers of the verb phrase and
they typically occur next to their head. They cluster together to form a verb phrase. The relationships
between heads and modifiers are called dependencies or dependency relations. Verb phrases play an
important role in the construction of a sentence. In a complete sentence or clause, the predicator is
realized by the verb phrase. Without verb phrases, there are many ideas that we would be unable to
express. Without knowledge of verb phrases in English, learners could not produce comprehensible
sentences. An approach to teaching grammar that asks what purpose a structure serves can enable
teachers to design exercises that demonstrate function as well as form. In order for students to be able
to use English effectively, they must learn these structures and how to use them.
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References
- Blaganje, D. and Konte, I. (1979). Modern English Grammar.DrzavnaZalozbaSlovenije. Ljubljana.
- Carter, R. & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English.A Comprehensive Guide. Spoken
and Written English. Grammar and usage.Cambridge University Press.
- Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar Book.An ESL/EFL Teacher’s
Course. HEINLE, Cengage Learning.
- Eastwood, J. (2005). Oxford Learner’s Grammar.Grammar Finder.Oxford University Press.
- Greenbaum, S. and Quirk, R. (1990). A Student's Reference Grammar of the English
Language.Harlow: Longman.
- Huddleston, R. and Pullum, K, G. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English
Language.Cambridge University Press.
- Kabashi, J. (2000). English Grammar - Morphology.University of Prishtina.Prishtina.
- Miller, J. (2002). An introduction to English Syntax.Edinburgh University Press.
- Nuhiu, V. (2002). English Syntax.University of Prishtina, Prishtina.
- Verspoor, M and Sauter, K (2000). English Sentence Analysis: an introductory course. John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
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