Download English Syntax The Phrase

English Syntax
The Phrase
The Structure of Grammatical
Description
Morpheme
Word
Phrase
Clause
Sentence
What is a phrase?
A phrase is a group of words which forms
part of sentence.
We like medieval music
John is very worried about his son.
She drives more carefully than her
husband.
The type of a phrase is determined by the
headword.
What is a noun phrase?
A noun phrase may consist of determiner
(not always), headword, and modifier.
ex: A
beautiful
girl
determiner
New
mod
modifier
books on
head mod
linguistics
mod
headword
Some Syntactic Categories of
Nouns
Count and Mass nouns
Count noun = countable nouns
ex: car, table, factory, etc.
Mass noun = uncountable nouns
ex: information, bread, water, etc
Proper Nouns
Proper nouns consist of the names of particular,
often unique, persons, places and things.
ex; Andy, Singapore, The Bahamas.
What is a Verb Phrase?
A verb phrase consists of verb as the
headword, auxiliaries, and complements of
the verb.
ex: was waiting
at the door
aux. head
complement(object of prep)
arrived
late
head
complement(S complement)
Some syntactic categories of
verbs
• Transitive verbs = Verbs that require an
object
ex: drink, buy, eat, kill, etc.
• Intransitive verbs = Verbs that don’t
require an object.
ex: sleep, cry, run, walk,etc.
• Linking Verb = Verbs that link the
equivalency between the subject and the
complement of the verb.
ex: be, become, seem, and look.