General Classification. All word-combinations (WC) can be divided into two general groups on the ground of:
4) Principle of Form (inner structure, grammatical morphological relations and sequence of elements inside of WC);
5) Principle of Syntactic Function (behaviour of WC and its elements inside of Sentence).
In accordance to these two principles there are two general types of WC:
1) Endocentric: combination of words where one or any component can substitute the whole combination in a bigger, extended structure which is Sentence;
2) Exocentric: combination of words where any component can not substitute the whole WC.
For example:
1) Endocentric WC:
a) Poor John; in a sentence it can be replaced by one component: John has already recovered.
b) John and Marry. It is possible to separate the components: John and Marry ran. = John ran. Marry ran.
2) Exocentric WC:
a) John ran. It can not be replaced by one component.
b) In front of John. The same.
Another classification grounded on the Principle of the Inner Structure of WC is presented in the tab. 7.1.
Table 7.1