BA in Modern Languages

Department of Arts and Education

Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco

Morphosyntax:
Phrases
Hiroe Minami, M.A.
From morphemes to sentences

sentences contain one or several

clauses contain one or several
phrases contain one or several
words contain one or several
morphemes
Phrase: Definitions
 A phrase is a word group held tightly together by meaning relationships.
 A phrase is defined to be one or more words that function as a unit within
a sentence. A phrase may consist of only one word.
 A group of words that work together as a unit but that do not have the
internal structure of a sentence. That is, there's no subject or verb in the
group of words.
 A phrase is a sequence of one or more words which forms a single
grammatical unit. A phrase does not have a subject or a finite verb.
 A phrase is a useful all-purpose name for any short sequence of words (or
even a single word, considered as an element in the structure of a clause or
sentence), especially a grouping which could be replaced by a single word. A
phrase which works like, or equates to, a noun is a noun phrase, one which
qualifies a verb is an adverb phrase and so on.
Phrase types

Phrase type Head Example

Noun Phrase (NP) Noun [the children in class 5]
Verb Phrase (VP) Verb [play the piano]
Adjective Phrase (AP) Adjective [delighted to meet you]
Adverb Phrase (AdvP) Adverb [very quickly]
Prepositional Phrase (PP) Preposition [in the garden]

The class of the most important word in any phrase will decide
what type of phrase it is. This important word is often referred
to as the head of the phrase. It determines the major
grammatical properties of the whole phrase. All the other
constituents are modifiers.
Head and modifiers
 the cafe (Head: cafe, Modifier: the)  NP

 the all-night cafe (Head: cafe, Modifiers: the, all-night)  NP

 in the all-night cafe (Head: in, Modifiers: the all-night cafe)  PP

the old man in the all-night cafe (Head: man, Modifiers: the, old,
in the all-night cafe)  NP

 important work (Head: work, Modifier: important)  NP

 do important work (Head: do, Modifiers: important work)VP

Three ways to identify phrases
There are three tests we can use to identify which groups
of words in a sentence are phrases. They are:

Movement

Meaning

Substitution
Three ways to identify phrases 1:
movement
A group of words that can move to a different position in a
sentence is a phrase. To produce grammatical sentences
you move groups of words:
The old man ate the chocolate cake.
What the old man ate was the chocolate cake.
It was the chocolate cake that the old man ate.
The chocolate cake was eaten by the old man.
not individual words:
* It was man the chocolate cake which the old ate.
* The the cake was eaten by chocolate old man.
(* means ungrammatical)
Three ways to identify phrases 2:
meaning
Phrases form units of meaning. Each one of the following
sequences of words is a phrase. They all have a coherent
identifiable meaning.
the old man
the chocolate cake
But the following don’t:
the the old
cake ate
Three ways to identify phrases 3:
substitution
The fact that we can substitute the old man for a pronoun
proves its status as a phrase.
The old man ate the chocolate cake.
He ate the chocolate cake. (grammatical sentence)
* The old he ate the chocolate cake. (ungrammatical sentence)
The fact that we can substitute the chocolate cake for a
pronoun proves its status as a phrase.
He ate the chocolate cake.
He ate it. (grammatical sentence)
* He ate the chocolate it. (ungrammatical sentence)
Three ways to identify phrases 3:
substitution
Any sequence that will substitute for another is a phrase. In
other words, any sequence which can occupy the same
location is a phrase.
Mary sold flowers at the corner store yesterday.
My sister sold hot dogs in the market a week ago.
Some students from my school sold home-made cookies in
front of the museum at the beginning of April.
Exercise: Identifying phrases
1) What are the phrases in the following sentences? Use all of
the above tests to find them.
a) My uncle bought a very old truck.
b) The new teacher will work very hard on her lesson plans.

2) In the following sentence, is her new bicycle in the garage

a phrase? Use whatever tests you need to prove your
answer.
My friend keeps her new bicycle in the garage.

3) Use the methods given above to find every single phrase in

each of the following sentences.
a) Five bicycles were stolen on campus yesterday.
b) Tracy and her friend hiked the Yosemite trails last summer.
Exercise: Head and modifiers
For each of the following phrases, mark the head word with H, any
modifiers with M. Make sure to identify the entire expression in each instance.
For example, [The] [cat] [in the hat].
(M) (H) (M)
a. Happy Christmas
b. a steep hill
c. the experts in the government
d. a meeting in the new conference room
e. free appraisal
f. the only word in the phrase
g. celebrating our 20th anniversary
h. to the mountains
Embedding: phrases within phrases
The process where a phrase appears as part of another phrase

[NP very small children]

[NP [AP very small] children]

very small children

[PP across the road]

[PP across [NP the road] ]

across the road

Noun phrase
A noun phrase is a constituent that has a noun as its head. It may contain
other elements, either before or after the head. The examples in the table
below show how noun phrases can grow in length.
Sentence

NP VP
Modifiers Head Modifiers

Quantifier Determiner Quantifier AP PP

The buns are for sale

All the currant buns are for sale

Not quite all the currant buns are for sale

Not quite all the hot tasty currant buns are for sale
Not quite all the many hot tasty currant buns on the table are for sale
Noun phrase
The noun phrase is built up as follows:
Patterns Examples
Noun: people; money
Determiner + noun: the village; a house; our friends;
those houses
Quantifier + noun: some people; a lot of money
Determiner + adjective + noun: our closest friends; a new house
Quantifier + determiner + noun: all those children
Quantifier + determiner + adjective + noun: both of my younger brothers
Noun phrase: postmodifiers 1
Some words and phrases come after the noun.These are called postmodifiers.
A noun phrase can be postmodified in several ways. Here are some examples:

with a prepositional phrase: a man with a gun

with an –ing phrase:
with a relative clause:
the boy in the blue shirt
the house on the corner
the man standing over there
the boy talking to Angela
the man we met yesterday
the house that Jack built
the woman who discovered radium
an eight-year-old boy who attempted
to rob a sweet shop
Noun phrase: postmodifiers 2
Some words and phrases come after the noun.These are called postmodifiers.
A noun phrase can be postmodified in several ways. Here are some examples:

with a that clause.
This is very common with reporting or
summarising nouns like idea, fact, belief,
suggestion:
He’s still very fit, in spite of the fact
that he’s over eighty.
She got the idea that people didn’t
like her.
There was a suggestion that the
children should be sent home.

with a to-infinitive.This is very common You should take something to read.

after indefinite pronouns and adverbs: I need somewhere to sleep.
I’ve got no decent shoes to wear.

There may be more than one an eight-year old boy with a gun who
postmodifier: tried to rob a sweet shop
that girl over there in a green
dress drinking a coke
Adjective phrase
An adjective phrase is a constituent that has an
adjective as its head.
Sentence
AP
Modifiers Head Modifiers
AdvP PP
Susan is clever
The doctor is very late
I’m afraid of the dark
My sister is extremely fond of animals
Adverb phrase
An adverb phrase is a constituent that has an adverb as
its head.
Sentence
AdvP
Modifiers Head
AdvP
He graduated very recently
She left quite suddenly
Prepositional phrase
A prepositional phrase is a constituent that has a preposition as its head.
Sentence
PP
Modifiers Head Modifiers
AdvP NP
He threw his computer through the window
That 89th minute penalty kick went over the bar
The concert started after midnight
He threw his computer straight through the window
That 89th minute penalty kick went right over the bar
The concert started just after midnight
John walked in
Verb phrase
A verb phrase is a constituent that has a verb as its head.
Sentence
NP VP
Modifiers Head Modifiers
AdvP NP
Some singers do not compose their songs
Some singers never compose their songs
Paul deliberately broke the window
My son made a cake
Susan smiled
Verb phrase
can/could
may/might
or main
s hall/
verbs s hould
w ill/would
lexical modal mus t
verbs auxiliary
help verbs
has help
perfective
aspect have
auxiliary
verb auxiliary aspect
verbs auxilary
phrase verbs
can have

progressive
passive
aspect
auxiliary
dummy auxiliary
verbs
do
be
be
Tense and aspect
TENSE refers to the absolute location of an event or action
in time, either the present or the past. It is marked by an
inflection of the verb.
 Present
 Past

ASPECT refers to how an event or action is to be viewed

with respect to time, rather than to its actual location in
time.
 Simple
 Progressive
 perfective
Verb phrase: simple aspect
The verb phrase in English has the following forms:
1) a main verb:
Verb
We are here
I like it
Everybody saw the accident
We laughed

The verb may be in the present tense (are, like) or the past tense
(saw, laughed). A verb phrase with only a main verb expresses
simple aspect.
Verb phrase: progressive aspect
2) an auxiliary verb ("be") and a main verb in –ing form:
Progressive aspect Verb (-ing)
auxiliary “be”
Everybody is watching
We were laughing

A verb phrase with "be" and –ing expresses progressive

aspect.
Verb phrase: perfective aspect
3) an auxiliary verb ("have") and a main verb with past participle:
Perfective Verb (perfect
aspect auxiliary participle)
“have”
They have enjoyed themselves
Everybody has worked hard
He had finished work

A verb phrase with "have" and the perfect participle expresses

perfective aspect. A verb with have/has expresses present
perfect, and a verb with had expresses past perfect.
Verb phrase: perfect progressive aspect
4) an auxiliary verb ("have" + "been") and a main verb in the –ing
form:
Auxiliary Verb (-ing)
“have” +
“been”
Everybody has been working hard
He had been singing

A verb phrase with auxiliary verbs "have" and "been" and a verb
–ing form expresses perfect progressive aspect. A verb with
have/has expresses present perfect progressive, and a verb with
had expresses past perfect progressive.
Verb phrase: modal verbs
5) a modal verb (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will,
would) and a main verb:
Modal verb Main verb
They will come
He might come

6) We can use modal verbs with the auxiliaries "be", "have", and
"have been":
Modal Auxiliary Verb
They will be listening
He might have arrived
She must have been listening
Order of verbs

Verb phrase

Modal auxiliary verb Aspect auxiliary “have” Passive auxiliary “be” Lexical (main) verb

could have been cut

Exercise: main verbs
Put brackets around the main verb in each of the following
clauses. For example, The cat [escaped] from the house.
a.This chapter has several purposes.
b.The book provides copious exercises for you.
c.The student appears calm.
d.We begin with easy exercises.
e. Unskilled writers omit parts of sentences.
f. Sentences stand alone.
g. Government mismanagement caused huge losses.
h. She tried yoga for her nerves.
i.The queen moves for any distance in any direction.
j. Alice and the March Hare went to the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
k. It rains heavily here.
Exercise: auxiliary verbs
Identify any auxiliary verb(s) in each of the following clauses.
For example, We [are] expecting rain.
a. Oscar is waiting for a train.
b. Frieda has finished all her homework.
c.The Insectoids have built a protective shield.
d. He must be staying for dinner.
e. She could have been arrested by the TSA officers.
Exercises
Draw tree diagrams for the following phrases:
a) the linguist
b) very anxiously
c) in the room
d) a man with a hat
e) that expensive dictionary
f) that quite expensive dictionary
g) the old man’s cat
References
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Delahunty, Gerald P., and Garvey, James J. (2010). The English Language: From Sound to Sense.
Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press.
Available: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/sound/ [23 Sep. 2010]

Kuiper, Koenraad and Scott Allan,W. (1996). An Introduction to English Language. London: Macmillan.

Puschmann, C. (2008). Introduction to English Linguistics (Part 1) Session 9 Syntax: Phrases, Clauses,
Sentences, University of Düsseldorf. Available:
http://files.ynada.com/teaching/introling/session_9/Introling_9_Syntax_2.pdf [21 Sep. 2010]

Moore, A. The Structure of English Language [On-line], Available:

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/engstruct.htm [1 Apr. 2008]

University College London. The Internet Grammar of English [On-line], Available:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/home.htm [18 Sep. 2010].