I. O. Macari, Morpho-Syntax, Lecture 5, Lecture 4 Sem. I, 2020

I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 5 sem.
I, 2020 , Lect
Table of Contents
4. The Phrase ................................................................................................................................... 1
4.1. Types of phrase .................................................................................................................... 1
4.2. Syntactic functions of phrases ............................................................................................. 3
4. The Phrase
4.1. Types of phrase
When examining a clause in English, one can sense that it is made up of words or groups of
words connected by relations that turn them into units (see 2.6.). To understand how such
relations work, look at the examples below:
The dog| ate| the treat|. SVO pattern
The big friendly dog of my neighbour on the third floor| ate| the tasty treat on the table near the
window that gave on the park in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral|. SVO pattern
The two clauses, though very different in length, are both SVO clauses, and have exactly the same
number of constituents, each having exactly the same syntactic function: subject, verbal, and object.
The difference then should rest at phrase level, because syntactic functions in the clause are
realised by phrases. Indeed, every clause element consists of a grammatical unit, called phrase1.
Both the dog and the big friendly dog of my neighbour on the third floor are noun phrases that
realize the function of subject.
The head is the most important element of the phrase, the word that cannot be omitted without
destroying the phrase itself. To put it differently, if the clause pattern is the minimal structure of a
clause, the head is the minimal structure of a phrase.
The head determines the relationships and the behaviour of the phrase as a whole. In the two
examples above, both subjects are realized by nouns phrases. These phrases are labelled as noun
phrases because the central element in both is the noun dog and, consequently, each phrase
behaves as a noun.
The table below contains an example for each of the five types of phase recognized in English
grammar, with the head word in bold.
11
Romanian speakers of English have to be aware of the fact that phrase and frază are false friends, because they
look and sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning.
I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 5 sem. I, 2020 , Lect
type example word-class of head

1. noun phrase a nice chat noun
2. verb phrase must have been dreaming verb
3. adjective phrase very nice adjective
4. adverb phrase very calmly adverb
5. prepositional phrase of the language preposition
It is important to note that the number of phrase types (five) is smaller than the number of word-
classes (ten). For comparison purposes, they are put side by side below:
type of phrase examples word-classes examples
noun phrase (NP) (the friendly) dog nouns dog
verb phrase (VP) go verbs go
adjective phrase (AdjP) (very) nice adjectives nice
adverb phrase (AdvP) (very) slowly adverbs slowly
prepositional phrase (PpP) to the dog prepositions to
-- -- pronouns it
-- -- numerals five
-- -- conjunctions and
-- -- determiners the
-- -- interjections ouch
Pronouns, numerals, conjunctions, determiners, and interjections do not have a corresponding
phrase, i.e., there is no example of Pronoun Phrase or Numeral Phrase. Personal pronouns and
numerals can sometimes realize the function of head in noun phrases ([NP I] love his novels! [NP
I]'ve read [NP five].). Similarly, numerals can sometimes realize the function of head in adverb
phrases (He came [AdvP fifth] in the car race.)
We already know that each phrase, except the prepositional phrase, can consist of the head only.
To see how that works, let us look again at the bracketed noun phrases in the examples above:
the dog and the big friendly dog of my neighbour on the third floor. The longer phrase can be
contracted to the head only – dog – by removing in turns all the determinatives and modifiers, or
can be expanded into a longer sequence by adding the modifiers back. If we scale the phrase as
below, it becomes obvious that depending on where we start from, top – down or bottom – up,
various head dependents can be added/ removed before and after the head.
[the dog]
[the big friendly dog]
[the big friendly dog of my neighbour]
[the big friendly dog of my neighbour on the third floor]
Each object in the two examples above is also realized by a noun phrase: the treat and the tasty
treat on the table near the window that gave on the park in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral,
I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 5 sem. I, 2020 , Lect
respectively, and the difference in length between them is even more outstanding. By arranging
them on the same pyramidal scale, it becomes obvious that a phrase that consists of other
elements besides the head can be analyzed in more than one way. This happens because, in
English, phrases can be embedded (see 2.6.3).
[NP [det the] treat]
[NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat]
[NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table]]
[NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table] [PpP near the window]]
[NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table] [PpP near the window] [that-Cl that gave on the park]]
[NP [det the] [AdjP tasty] treat [PpP on the table] [PpP near the window] [that-Cl that gave on the park] [PpP in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral]]
As we can see, the treat on the first line is a noun phrase, which on the line below is combined
with an adjective – tasty, then with a prepositional phrase, on the table, which in turn is
combined with that gave on the park, to which in front of the Old Catholic Cathedral is added,
and such additions can potentially go on endlessly.
Notice that within a phrase, we can even add a clause like that gave on the park, as in the
window that gave on the park. Such occurrences, obtained by adding further phrases, or even
clauses, within the basic structure of a phrase, are examples of embedding (see 2.6.3.). The fact
that a phrase may contain another (embedded/nested) phrase or clause is one of the central
features of English phrases.
4.2. Syntactic functions of phrases
Another feature that describes phrases is the fact that there are two types of syntactic relations that apply
to them. As we have seen, phrases can have syntactic functions in the clause - they can realise subjects,
verbals, objects, complements or adverbials. At the same time, the phrases that are embedded within other
phases can have syntactic functions in the phrase they belong to. The table below presents the major
syntactic functions the different phrase types can have at clause and phrase level.
phrase type syntactic function in clause syntactic function in phrase
NP subject; direct object; indirect object; subject complement of preposition in PpP;
complement; object complement, adverbial premodifier in NP; apposition to other NP
VP verbal -
AdjP subject complement; object complement premodifier in NP; postmodifier in NP; head in
NP
AdvP adverbial modifier in AdjP, AdvP
PpP adverbial postmodifier in NP; complement in AdjP;
premodifier in NP
Examples for each situation above will be provided and discussed in the following sections.

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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 5 sem.

4.1. Types of phrase

type example word-class of head

4.2. Syntactic functions of phrases

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