4Lecture Phrases

What is a Phrase?SENTENCE ↔ CLAUSE ↔ PHRASE ↔ WORD ↔

MORPHEME Words combine together to form phrases according

to rules called phrase structure rules.The set of phrase structure rules for a language form

a generative grammar.Different phrase structure rules generate phrases of

different categorical structure: noun phrases (NP), verb phrases (VP), prepositional phrases (PP), adjective phrases (AP), adverbial phrases (AdvP), etc.

 

Phrase types: are they parallel ?

Noun Phrases (NP)The following phrase structure rule NP → Det (AP) N (S)

(PP)  generate grammatical NP:  [NP [N I ]] love [NP [N chocolate]][NPThe [Ntramp]] read [NP the [Ndiary]][NP[DetBoth][Ngirls]] enjoy [NP[APclassical]

[Nmusic]][NP [Det The] [Ndiary] [Swhich the tramp was

reading]] was amusing[NP [Det Two] [Nboys] [PPwith red hair]] entered

the room 

A Noun PhraseA noun phrase contains of a head noun that is non-omissible.

The head noun may be preceded by a determiner specifier and an adjective that modifies the noun (premodifier):

The head noun may be followed by a postmodifier 

   

   

NP The diary which the tramp was reading ”

Verb Phrases (VP)

Is it only ONE phrase structure rule that generate VPs? Do all verbs belong to the same type?

to laugh 

a) The tramp laughedb) * The tramp laughed the little kid.

 VP → V

 to lean

 a) The tramp leaned towards the German girl.

b) * The tramp leaned.  

VP → V PP  

Each verb seems to have a different rule (or rules) for generating verb phrases.

Verbs fall into different (sub)categories depending on the number and category of phrasal complement, if any, they required they required to form a grammatical VP.

 

Intransitive verbs subcategorise for 0 complement (e.g. laugh, sleep, etc.)Intransitive verbs subcategorise for 1 adverbial PP complement (e.g. lean, move, etc.)Copula verbs subcategorise for 1 AP, NP, or PP (e.g. be)Monotransitive verbs subcategorise for 1 NP or S (e,g, says, believe).

Transitive verbs subcategorise for 1 NP and 1 adverbial PP complement (e.g. put, lay, etc.)

Ditransitive verbs subcategorise for 2 complements 1 NP plus 1 PP or 2 NPs (e.g. told, send).

Complex transitive verbs subcategorise for 2 complements 1 NP plus 1 AP or 2 NPs (e.g. call, put).

 

Whether Determiner + noun

OROne word ( NOUN )

ORPronoun ( He – she – it – they – you ….)

consists of one or more than one word this unit is called a PHRASE

For example:A dog chased that girl.

S

phrase A verb phrase B

chased Determiner noun

noun Determiner

A dog that girl

The dog chased that girl.

S determiner+noun + verb + determiner+noun.

(determiner + noun ) functions as a single unit.. (the pronoun ) can replaces the entire unit..

S

Phrase A verb phrase B

Determiner + noun Determiner + nounThe man the girl

Noun chased NounHenry carol

PRO PROHe her

This kind of phrase is called a NOUN PHRASE or NP as a short form.

S

NP verb NP

DET NOUN DET NOUN

a dog chased that girl

•In terms of forms, a sentence consists of anoun phrase and a verb phrase.

•In terms of function, a sentence consists of asubject and a predicate.

subject and a predicate. A predicate must containa predicator which is a verb.

Tree diagrams and phrase structure rulesA tree diagram is a notational device which is equivalent to labeled bracketing.

It provides the same information about the syntactic structure of the sentence

On a tree diagram The two way split into noun phrase NP

(SUBJECT..)And verb phrase VP ( PREDECATE )..Looks like this:

Predicate

Subject

What is meant by “phrase structure rules?”

A convention used to sum up the system of expanding one unit into other units.

It is a set of instructions called

PS rules