English phrases are divided into :
Noun phrase, verb phrase, Adverb phrase, Adjective phrase, and Preposition phrase.
Examples :
The house at the end of the street is red.
The words in bold form a phrase; together they act like a noun (making them a noun phrase). This phrase can be further broken down; a prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective can be identified:
at the end of the street
Further, a smaller prepositional phrase can be identified inside this greater prepositional phrase:
of the street
And within the greater prepositional phrase, one can identify a noun phrase:
the end of the street
And within this noun phrase, there is a smaller noun phrase:
the street
Phrases can be identified by constituency tests such as proform substitution (=replacement). The prepositional phrase at the end of the street, for instance, could be replaced by an adjective such as nearby: the nearby house or even the house nearby. The end of the street could also be replaced by another noun phrase, such asthe crossroads to produce the house at the crossroads.
Types of phrase.
Noun phrase :
Noun phrase: is a word or group of words that can be a subject or an object in a sentence, and can also join with a preposition to make "Prepositional phrase" and it's abbreviated to NP.
In some modern theories of grammar, noun phrases with determiners are analyzed as having the determiner rather than the noun as their head; they are then referred to as determiner phrases.
If a noun phrase has only one word, then it's either a noun (dogs, cheese, Mary…etc.) or pronoun (she, he, somebody, myself….etc).
The function together as a noun or a pronoun, as the subject or the object of the verb.
Components of noun phrases:
A typical noun phrase consists of a noun (the head of the phrase) together with zero or more modifiers of various types. The chief types of these modifiers are:
-Determiners, such as the, this, my, some
-Attributive adjectives, such as large, beautiful, sweeter
-Adjective phrases and participial phrases, such as extremely large, hard as nails, made of wood, sitting on the step
-Noun adjuncts, such as college in the noun phrase a college student
-Prepositional phrases, such as in the drawing room, of his aunt
-Relative clauses, such as which we noticed
-Other clauses serving as complements to the noun, such as that God exists in the noun phrase the belief that God exists
-Infinitive phrases, such as to sing well and to beat in the noun phrases a desire to sing well and the man to beat.
-All the kids were sleeping.
- The boy in the blue jeans says he'll do it.
- You are a true hero.
- My dog is my best friend.
The noun phrase comes with\ or divided into three another phrases, they are :
1- Appositive phrase : appositive (single word, phrase , or a clause) renames another noun, not technically modifying it.
For instance : "Bob, My best friend, works here"
(or) "My best friend Bob works here".
So as we see here we have just changed the place of the noun "Bob".
2- Gerund phrase : is a noun phrase with a gerund as its head.
For instance "I love baking cakes"
3- Infinitive phrase : is a noun phrase with an infinitive as its head. Unlike the other noun phrase, however, an infinitive phrase can also function as an adjective or an adverb.
For instance: " I love to bake cakes"
The functions of the noun phrases:
Noun phrases typically bear argument functions. That is, the syntactic functions that they fulfill are those of the arguments of the main clause predicate, particularly those of subject, object and predicative expression. They also function as arguments in such constructs as participial phrases and prepositional phrases. For example:
For us the news is a concern. - the news is the subject argument
Have you heard the news? - the news is the object argument
That is the news. - the news is the predicative expression following the copula is
They are talking about the news. - the news is the argument in the prepositional phrase about the news
The man reading the news is very tall. - the news is the object argument in the participial phrase reading the news
Sometimes a noun phrase can also function as an adjunct of the main clause predicate, thus taking on an adverbial function, e.g.
-Most days I read the newspaper.
-She has been studying all night.
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