Lecture 9

The Phrase: Principles of Classification

  1. The phrase as the basic unit of syntax. Differential features of the phrase and of the sentence. The phrase in the hierarchy of language units.
  2. The notion of collocation and its semantic status.
  3. Types of phrases. The traditional part of speech classification of phrases. Nominative classifications of phrases. The problems of interpretation of predicative phrases.
  4. The structural and the semantic properties of the phrase. The valency and the constructive value of its constituents.
  5. Agreement and government as two main types of syntactic relations.
  6. Adjoinment and enclosure as special means of expressing syntactic relations.

 

Syntax treats phrases and sentences. Both syntactic units are studies in paradigmatic and syntagmatic syntax.

The phrase is a combination of two or more words which is a grammatical unit but is not an analytical form of a word.

The difference between the phrase and the sentence is fundamental: the phrase is a nominative unit which fulfils the function of polynomination denoting a complex referent (phenomenon of reality) analyzable into its component elements together with various relations between them; the sentence is a unit of predication which, naming a certain situational event, shows the relation of the denoted event towards reality.

Linguists discuss different classifications of phrases, all of them having their own advantages. The traditional classification of phrases is based on the part of speech status of the phrase constituents.

Phrases can also be classified according to the nominative value of their constituents. Three major types are identified: notional, formative and functional.

Syntactic relations of the phrase constituents are divided into two main types: agreement and government. Agreement takes place when the subordinate word assumes a form similar to that of the word to which it is subordinate. Government takes place when the subordinate word is used in a certain form required by its head word, the form of the subordinate word not coinciding with the form of the head word.

Adjoinment is described as absence both of agreement and of government. By enclosure some element is put between the two parts of another constituent of a phrase.