Phrases and their characteristics

Words can be organized into bigger units – phrases:
1 2 3
(The opposition) (demands) (a more representative government.)
- the sentence consists of 3 phrases:

1. noun phrase
2. verb phrase
3. noun phrase

Identification of phrases:
● substitution: It demands something…
● movement test: A more representative government is demanding by the opposition.
(voice – active → passive)

Embedding – when we place a set of brackets inside another set it means that one phrase is embedded inside another
e. g.: They passed the table with the two men.
- the sentence can be understood in two ways:
embedding

A [They] [passed] [the table[with [the two men]]] (-two men were sitting at the table)
NP VP NP PREpNP

B [They] [passed] [the table] [with[the two men]] (-two men passed the table)

Syntactic rules of phrases: subject, verb, object

Type of phrases:
1. noun phrase
2. verb phrase
3. adjective phrase
4. adverb phrase
5. prepositional phrase

Noun phrase
● simple: Determinative + Head Noun
the book; my brother; this year
● complex: Determinative + (Pre-modifier) + Head Noun + (Post-modifier)
her below-the-knee skirt; heavy rain driven by gales
/d./ / pre-modifier / /HN/ /pre-m.//HN//post-modifier/

Verb phrase
[auxiliary verb] + lexical verb
● Finite VP (show distinction of tense and can include modal auxiliaries)
(určité slovesné tvary)
● Non finite VP (neurčité slovesné tvary)
- non finite VP is represented by these forms: infinitive, present participle (-ing), past participle (-ed)/irregular

Forms:
simple (show, shows, showed)
perfect (has/have/had shown)
progressive (am/is/are/was/were showing)
passive (is/are/was/were shown)
perfect progressive (has/have/had been showing)
perfect passive (has/have/had been shown)
progressive passive (am/is/are/was/were being shown)

Adjectival phrase
e. g.: old, poor, so lucky, good enough, desperately poor
- some with pre-modifier → expressing degree of quality
- some head adjectives can take a complement (answer a question – “In what respect is the adjectival quality to be interpreted”):
guilty of a serious crime
subject to approval by
slow to respond