UNIVERSITY OF GJAKOVA “FEHMI AGANI”

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

DIPLOMA THESIS

The Internal Structure of Lexical Phrases

Mentor: Candidate:

Prof. Ass. PhD. Shqipe Husaj Elizabeta Gjeta

Gjakovë, 2020

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I, the undersigned Elizabeta Gjeta, student of the Faculty of Philology at the University of

Gjakova, with registration number 150204040, author of the written final work of studies,

entitled:

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF LEXICAL PRASES

DECLARE that:

The written final work of studies is a result of my independent work. The printed form of the

written final work of studies is identical to the electronic form of the written final work of

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included in the written final work of studies and in this declaration, together with the publication

of the written final work of studies.

Date: _________________ Student’s signature: ______________

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who stood beside me during the hard work done

to complete this diploma thesis. Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to my mentor,

Professor Shqipe Husaj, for her constructive suggestions until the finalization of this diploma

thesis.

I am grateful to every professor of English Language and Literature Department at University of

Gjakova “Fehmi Agani”, for benefiting from their courses during four years of study.

I would also like to acknowledge the biggest support and unceasing encouragement that came

from my family and friends.

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Abstract

The way a phrase is structured, understood, divided, and rewritten in its internal structure has

been an issue for linguists since a long time ago. The term “phrase” was used for the first time

between 1914 and 1933 by the linguist Leonard Bloomfield. The first important theory regarding

the internal structure of phrases, which this paper will mention, was given in the 1950s by Noam

Chomsky. Chomsky introduced phrase-structure rules and therefore an understandable way of

describing the internal structure of a phrase was made possible. He based his theory on the

theory of Leonard Bloomfield and after the 1940s Chomsky began to change and modify it. To

understand phrases and their internal structure, we should first be familiar with the definitions of

grammar, syntax, and phrase. This paper provides some definitions of the above mentioned

terms. The main purpose of the paper is to tell how phrases are structured and classified, also

how to describe the internal structure of these phrases governed by the phrase-structure rules. All

types of phrases have their general phrase-structure rule formed by symbols that describe all the

constituents of a particular phrase. These internal structures consisting of symbols represent the

key to changing phrases into a rational formula. Phrase-structure rules are applied to every

structure of the language until each of them has a rule. Each lexical type of phrase is analyzed by

syntactic analysis.

Keywords: phrase, internal structure, phrase-structure rule, syntactic analysis

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Abstrakt

Mënyra sesi një frazë është ndërtuar, sesi ajo kuptohet, ndahet, dhe rishkruhet në strukturë të

brendshme ka qenë një çështje e gjuhëtarëve prej shumë kohësh. Termi “frazë” u përdor për herë

të parë mes viteve 1914 dhe 1933 nga gjuhëtari Lenoard Bloomfield. Teoria e parë e

rëndësishme lidhur me strukturën e brendshme të frazave, e cila do të përmendet në këtë

hulumtim u dha nga Noam Chomsky në vitet 1950. Chomsky prezantoi rregullat e strukturës së

brendshme dhe kështu mundësoi një mënyrë të kuptueshme për paraqitjen e strukturës së

brendshme të një fraze. Teorinë e tij e bazoi në teorinë e Leonard Bloomfield dhe pas viteve

1940 filloi ta ndryshoj dhe modifikoj atë. Në mënyrë që të kuptojmë frazat dhe strukturën e tyre

të brendshme së pari duhet të njihemi me përkufizimet e gramatikës, sintaksës, dhe frazës. Disa

nga këto përkufizime të termave të lartpërmendur janë dhënë në këtë hulumtim. Qëllimi kryesor i

këtij hulumtimi është të tregojë sesi frazat janë të ndërtuara dhe të klasifikura, poashtu si të

përshkruajmë strukturën e brendshme të këtyre frazave që udhëhiqen nga rregullat e strukturës së

frazës. Të gjitha llojet e frazave kanë rregullin e tyre të përgjithshëm të strukturës të krijuar nga

simbole që përshkruajnë të gjitha elementet e një fraze të caktuar. Këto struktura të brendshme të

përbëra nga simbolet paraqesin çelësin për shndërrimin e frazave në formula racionale. Rregullat

e strukturës së brendshme zbatohen tek secila njësi gjuhësore derisa secila prej tyre të ketë një

rregull. Secili lloj i frazave është analizuar me anë të analizës sintaksore.

Fjalët kyçe: frazë, strukturë e brendshme, rregull i strukturës së frazës, analizë sintaksore

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Abstrakt ......................................................................................................................................................... 5

List of figures ................................................................................................................................................ 7

List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 9

1.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................................. 10

1.1.2. Aims and objectives .......................................................................................................................... 10

1.2. Research questions ............................................................................................................................... 10

1.2.1. Hypothesis......................................................................................................................................... 11

1.3. Methodology of the study .................................................................................................................... 11

Chapter 2. Literature review ....................................................................................................................... 12

2.1. The history of the notion “phrase”, phrase structure grammars and phrase-structure rules ................ 12

2.2. What is a phrase? ................................................................................................................................. 15

2.2.1. Classification of phrases ................................................................................................................... 16

2.3. Modification ......................................................................................................................................... 18

2.4. The internal structure of phrases .......................................................................................................... 19

2.5. What should we know in order to be able to understand the phrase-structure rule of a phrase? ......... 20

2.6. Types of phrases and their phrase-structure rules ................................................................................ 21

2.6.1. Noun phrase ...................................................................................................................................... 21

2.6.2. Verb phrase ....................................................................................................................................... 23

2.6.3. Prepositional phrase .......................................................................................................................... 25

2.6.4. Adjectival phrase .............................................................................................................................. 28

2.6.5. Adverbial phrase ............................................................................................................................... 29

Chapter 3. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 32

References ................................................................................................................................................... 34

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List of figures

Figure 1. The structure of a simple phrase .................................................................................... 16

Figure 2. The structure of a simple phrase shown in an example ................................................. 17

Figure 3. The structure of a complex phrase ................................................................................. 17

Figure 4. The structure of a complex phrase shown in an example .............................................. 18

Figure 5. The most used prepositions by which prepositional phrases are constructed ............... 27

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List of abbreviations

Adj Adjective

AdjP Adjectival phrase

Adv Adverb

AdvP Adverbial phrase

Aux Auxiliary

D Determiner

Deg Adverb of degree

IC Immediate constituents

N Noun

NP Noun phrase

OP Object of a preposition

PP Prepositional phrase

PSG(s) Phrase structure grammar(s)

PSR(s) Phrase-structure rule(s)

S Sentence

V Verb

VP Verb phrase

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Chapter 1. Introduction

Language is a vital tool for effective communication. Every day a different language, especially

the English language is being taught. Each language has its primary important features, generally

those of grammar and vocabulary, features of syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics,

phonetics, and phonology. Among a lot of different quotations, the importance of grammar was

quoted by David Arthur Wilkins as well. According to Wilkins (1972), we cannot convey a lot

without grammar. Grammar is the whole system and structure of the specific language. Among

all those language parts, syntax, specifically, a small part of it will be discussed in this paper.

According to Matthews (1981), “Syntax” is an Ancient Greek term, originally sýntaxis, meaning

“arrangement”. It considers syntax as a branch of grammar dealing with the ways how words are

arranged in order to show the relation of meaning within the sentence.

In order to convey meaningful information, people should be able to construct a sentence with

the appropriate structure. This could be achieved by knowing syntax which as a branch of

linguistics is the pattern in which words are combined to create phrases, then words and phrases

are combined to create clauses and sentences (Miller, 2002). Being part of grammar it can be

said in other words that syntax is the rule of what word follows or precedes the other. In order to

create and understand a well-structured sentence, other grammatical units should also be

understood. As this paper will deal will the internal structure of lexical phrases, we should know

that phrases are established from the lower grammatical units; morpheme and word, and they

establish higher grammatical units; clause and sentence (Nuhiu, 2012).

Morpheme → Word → Phrase → Clause → Sentence

Phrases are one of the most important structures that help and improve understanding of the

English language. Terms related to phrases are important in syntax, semantics, and morphology.

Everything written in this paper will try to explain the rules and definitions related to the topic of

the internal structure of lexical phrases. Another important term and process related to phrases is

modification and its types. The syntactic analysis will be defined and described along with

labeled bracketing and some of the most important linguists who dealt with the internal structure

of phrases will be mentioned. What phrase-structure rules are, how they define the internal

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structure of phrases, in which grammar they belong to, and who invented them along with

definitions of syntax and phrases, the way in which phrase types are classified, simple phrases,

complex phrases, noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, adjectival

phrases, and examples to facilitate the comprehension of all of them will be described as this

paper continues.

1.1. Purpose

1.1.2. Aims and objectives

It is really important to understand that a phrase is a grammatical unit created by lower

grammatical units and creates upper grammatical units that will be correctly constructed only if

the phrase is understood properly. The aim of this study is to understand the meaning of a phrase,

how it is structured, how to identify one, and how to rewrite its internal structure. In particular,

some of the main objectives of this study are:

• Understanding definitions of syntax and phrase

• Understanding the importance of phrase-structure rules, phrase structure grammars and

their origin

• Analyzing phrases by labeled bracketing – syntactic analysis

• Examining possible internal structures of each phrase type

1.2. Research questions

This paper is based on these following research questions which are central to this study:

1. How are phrases in the English language classified?

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2. How to understand which phrase belongs to which type?

3. What is the purpose of phrase-structure rules in defining the internal structure of phrases?

1.2.1. Hypothesis

• Two major classifications of English phrases are based on their structure and on the part

of speech the main word belongs to

• The type of a phrase is defined based on the part of speech the word governing the phrase

belongs to

• The purpose of the phrase-structure rules is to discover the relation between formal and

semantic structure

1.3. Methodology of the study

The main method used in this paper is a descriptive method. Through this method, the main

issues such as the construction, the classification of phrases, and the importance of phrase-

structure rules on the internal structure of phrases have been elucidated. The study continues

with the historical context of phrase structure grammars, syntactic analysis and labeled

bracketing. A part of this study includes information taken from different grammar books,

written by well-known linguists, this being the main source of information in this paper. So,

through this descriptive method information concerning the topic of the internal structure of

lexical phrases has been obtained and described.

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Chapter 2. Literature review

2.1. The history of the notion “phrase”, phrase structure grammars and phrase-structure

rules

In order to understand phrases and especially their internal structure, we should know that they

are mostly expressed by phrase-structure rules (PSRs), which are part of phrase structure

grammars (PSGs). Phrase structure grammar is a part of a generative grammar where the

structure of the constituents is expressed by phrase-structure rules. If we take a look at the

historical and formal context of the development of the phrase structure grammars, we see that

they and some other notions of phrase structure analysis originate in models of Immediate

Constituents (IC) analysis. Leonard Bloomfield, in 1933, was one of the first linguists who left

marks on these grammar models. He is believed to be the first linguist to introduce the notion of

phrase, somewhere between 1914 and 1933, although at the beginning in his An Introduction to

the Study of Language (1914), he used the notion ”phrase” to mean what today we would call an

idiom. Just later he referred to it a bit more clearly. Bloomfield developed the notion “phrase”

not much beyond the basics. His ideas were to be later developed by his successors, such as

Wells in Immediate Constituents, 1947, Harris in Co-occurrence and Transformation in

Linguistic Structure, 1957, and Harris’ student Chomsky in Syntactic Structures, 1957. These

models of IC analysis were created by theories that the structure of an expression could be

revealed if the expression would have been divided into its immediate constituents, and then

subdivided until no more syntactic units were obtained (Bloomfield, 1933). The idea of

Bloomfield about IC analysis was really durable and the core of several syntactic models

emerging since then. In the decade between 1947 and 1957, it began to be criticized by other

linguists, especially by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky (1957, 1962) argued for a more complex

formalism of syntax, or as he called it transformation grammar.

Noam Chomsky is a famous linguist of the 20s century, who introduced phrase structure

grammars in the 1950s. He based it on the traditional model of IC analysis. IC analysis differs

from Chomsky’s PSGs because it didn’t make real claims. Thus, Chomsky was forced in a way

to create a new theory that did not exist earlier. The current view of phrases is introduced by

Chomsky and it is more restrictive than ICs. PSGs are part of the language, they give the

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opportunity to correctly structure a sentence based on their usage of PSRs. PSG is the internal

structure of a linguistic unit organized hierarchically, as in:

Every human fights battle.

[S [NP [D every] [N human]] [VP [V fights] [NP [N battle]]]]

Abbreviations used above are S – for sentence, NP – for noun phrase, D – for determiner, VP –

for verb phrase, V – for the verb, N – for the noun. These and other abbreviations will be

constantly used while describing the internal structure of phrases through labeled bracketing. The

sentence consists of a NP and a VP. The NP has as its determiner every and human as its head,

which is a noun. The VP has as its head the verb fights and another NP as a post-modifier. This

NP consists only of a noun; battle. If we break down the sentence and leave only one phrase,

then we would have:

every human

[NP [D every] [N human]]

The phrase is a NP and it consists of the determiner every and the noun human.

This internal structure, created by symbols of the string when a sentence or a phrase is broken

down, is the key to changing these sentences or phrases into a rational formula. When the

structure of a phrase or a sentence is represented, brackets” []” are used to include within them

all constituents. This analysis is known as labeled bracketing. Each opened bracket must be

closed; otherwise, the equation would not be correct. Using labeled bracketing is the same as

representing the structure with a diagram tree. This analysis where a phrase or a sentence is

broken down into its constituents and all of them are labeled, stating their form and grammatical

function, is known as syntactic analysis.

The phrase-structure rule is the rule in which we note the syntactic categories of the given

language, internal structure of these categories, and then we follow a rule displaying the

structures for each of the categories. The purpose of PSRs is to properly express the relationship

of the elements of the phrase, even if these elements are of the minimal meaning and to discover

the relation between semantic and formal structure. A phrase-structure rule is formed by a single

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symbol written on the left of the row, indicating the syntactic category label, such as a phrase or

sentence, and one or possibly more symbols written on the right; the sequence of such labels:

A → B + C

For instance, in English, a sentence normally consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase, e.g.

She took a pill. For this sentence we write a phrase-structure rule, related to the rewrite rule:

S→NP VP

The arrow “→” is understood as “consists of” or “has as its constituents” and the plus “+” is

understood as “followed by”. Usually, the plus sign is omitted. When writing phrase-structure

rules we have the opportunity to write optional choices, too. These optional choices are indicated

by parentheses. This type of bracket “()” means or is understood as “added optionally”, as in:

A → (B) C

So, B is optional and C is obligatory since there must be an obligatory element. When these

elements are mutually exclusive they are indicated with curly brackets “{}”, as in:

A →{B, C}

In this case, we have to choose B or C, but not both of them.

A rewrite rule is a phrase-structure rule, instructing how to rewrite a symbol on the left side

which describes the syntactic structure and one representing the constituent on the right.

According to Noam Chomsky (1965), the base rewrite rule is:

X → ... Y...

X is the element (e.g. the phrase) and the symbol on the right is the expansion of the X; it is a

string of at least one element.

So, when a constituent structure is expressed by phrase-structure rules we are dealing with

phrase structure grammars. It means that a particular sentence may consist of a NP and be

followed by a VP. The phrase-structure rule continues until every structure of the language has a

rule.

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2.2. What is a phrase?

Since a phrase is an object of study belonging to the syntax of a specific language, in our case of

the English language, first of all, we should be familiar with the simplest definitions about syntax

and just then continue with explaining phrases. Syntax is a branch of linguistics dealing with the

arrangement of words to form phrases or even clauses and sentences. Some analysts assert that

“syntax is the study of how the words combine to form sentences and the rules which govern the

information of sentences” (Richards, Platt, Weber, 1987). The definition of syntax is quite easy

and understandable and that is why almost all analysts’ definitions are very similar. “Minor”

Syntax is a part of syntax dealing with how phrases as non-commutative units are composed;

implying that phrases as a unit can not stand alone. It is the opposite of “Major” Syntax which

deals with grammatical units of communicative value (Rayevska, 1976).

According to Eastwood (2002) and to Verspoor and Sauter (2009), a phrase is a group consisting

of related words (sometimes a single word) that lacks a subject, predicate or predicator and it

does not convey a complete thought. In this way, it can not stand on its own as a single

meaningful unit. It is the grammatical unit ranked between a word and a clause. A phrase should

consist of the main word known as the headword or the head (H). The head of a phrase is the

central element of the phrase and it is obligatory; other words just complement or modify it. In

this way, these other words within the phrase are known as modifiers, (Ilic, 2008). If these

modifiers precede the head then they are called pre-modifiers (PreM) and if f they follow the

head they are called post-modifiers (PostM) of the head. Depending on the word class to which

the head belongs to phrases are classified into their types. If the head is a noun then it is a noun

phrase, if the head is an adjective then it is an adjectival phrase, and so on with all other types of

phrases. We should know that the length of a phrase is not strict; it differs, thus the length is not

the factor that indicates whether a group of words is a sentence or a phrase. For example, should

have been exercising is a phrase although it is longer than I sing., which is a sentence.

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2.2.1. Classification of phrases

It is important for everyone to know phrases and to be capable of distinguishing them from other

grammatical units. Cook (1969) stated that a phrase is a level of the grammar where groups of

words, which are not structured as clauses, are divided or broken down into words. After being

able to recognize phrases from other levels, their classification is easier. There are two major

classifications of phrases.

First of all, a phrase can be classified based on its structure, whether it is a simple phrase or a

complex phrase. A simple phrase consists of a single word, the head, without any other word

modifying it, as in (1) and it looks as in Figure 1. When the phrase consists of other words

modifying the head it is known as a complex phrase, as in (2) and it looks as in Figure 3.

(1) Children must play out.

(2) A beautiful old sofa was centered in the middle of the living room.

Figure 1. The structure of a simple phrase

The figure shows the simplest structure that a phrase in English can have. In this case, the phrase

consists of a single word, known as the head, and there are no other words modifying it.

Children, as mentioned in (1), is an example of a simple phrase and its structure would look like

that in Figure 2.

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Figure 2. The structure of a simple phrase shown in an example

In this figure the noun phrase Children consists of the head children, which is a noun, serving as

an example of a simple phrase. The internal structure of this phrase is:

[NP [N children]]

Figure 3. The structure of a complex phrase

The figure shows how a complex phrase is constructed. It consists of a pre-modifier, a head, and

a post-modifier. This is just a way how a complex phrase could be constructed; there are other

cases where there might be more than just one pre-modifier or post-modifier, so the structure of

the phrase would look more complicated. A beautiful old sofa is an example of a complex phrase

and its structure would look like that in Figure 4.

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Figure 4. The structure of a complex phrase shown in an example

In this case, the noun phrase a beautiful old sofa consists of three pre-modifiers, the determiner

a, the adjective beautiful, another adjective old, and the noun sofa as its head. The internal

structure of this phrase is:

[NP [D a] [Adj beautiful] [Adj old] [N sofa]]

The second classification is made based on the part of speech the main word belongs to, and the

main word is the one which governs the phrase. According to this classification, there are five

major types of phrases in English: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjectival phrase, prepositional

phrase, adverbial phrase. Each aforementioned type will be analyzed by their internal structure

and given examples to be better understood. Before explaining phrases and their internal

structure separately, another important process should be mentioned; a process closely related to

all these phrases, known as modification.

2.3. Modification

Modification happens when an expression is accompanied by an element not necessarily needed

or required by the expression itself. It is usual that nouns are modified by adjectives, but they do

not grammatically require an adjective; it is optional, as in true fans. The adjective true modifies

the noun fans, the same as in sing loudly, where the adverb loudly modifies the verb sing. So, the

two most important classes used to modify English words are adverbs and adjectives. Adverbs

do not modify only verbs, but also adverbs, adjectives, etc. It is the same about modification in

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phrase types. As mentioned above, modifiers of these phrases are called pre-modifiers and post-

modifiers, depending on the place they take, whether they precede or follow the head. Modifiers

are functional terms and they play a functional part in these phrases. Modification can be non-

restrictive and restrictive.

Non-restrictive modification is also known as appositives. In this type, the modifier adds

information that is not crucial for finding the reference of the phrase modified, as in (3). In

written English, this type of modification is set off by commas, as secondary information. In

spoken English, it is set off from other parts of the utterance by short pauses and a drop in the

pitch.

(3) Alma, who was singing your favorite song, won an award.

Restrictive type of modification is when a word is restrictively modified by another one and the

reference is also restricted, as in old papers. If the word papers were to occur without the pre-

modifier it would refer to all papers, but the reference is restricted just to the old ones because of

the pre-modifier. So, the information that it expresses is essential to the meaning of the phrase or

sentence.

2.4. The internal structure of phrases

To describe the internal structure of a phrase in English we should know that phrases consist of

words labeled with the appropriate syntactic category, such as an adjective, adverb, noun, verb,

determiner, preposition, etc. Therefore, each phrase depends on the syntactic category of the

main word, as mentioned before, known as the head. The structure of a phrase can be equally

expressed by diagram trees and labeled bracketing; this paper will only deal with labeled

bracketing as a way to describe the internal structure of phrases. To illustrate it the teacher of

history will be used as a typical English (noun) phrase.

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NP

the teacher of history

D N P N

NP PP

Therefore, [NP [D the] [N teacher] [PP [P of] [NP [N history]]]]

It can be said that the phrase the teacher of history is a noun phrase, the is a determiner, teacher

is a noun and of history is a prepositional phrase as a post-modifier. The as determiner indicates

that the teacher is someone specific and the prepositional phrase expresses what the teacher

studies. So, both of them complement the head.

2.5. What should we know in order to be able to understand the phrase-structure rule of a

phrase?

Having understood the definition of the PSR mentioned above, the fact that the PSR gives the

internal structure of a phrase should be comprehensible. All types of phrases have several

possible PSRs. It is important to know that the pattern of the PSR of a phrase is not always the

same even why it follows a strict order. To be able to easier write and comprehend the PSR of

particular lexical phrase these questions must be answered:

• What must be part of a phrase?

• What is optional in a phrase?

• What can be repeated in a phrase?

• What relative order exists?

When these entire questions will bee answered the PSR of each type of phrase will be clearly

recognized. Generally, the head is what must be part of the phrase since it governs the phrase.

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Every other element is just optional. When these elements are optional they are written inside the

parenthesis “()”. Some of them may possibly be omitted or sometimes repeated, but there are

elements that must never be repeated otherwise the phrase would be grammatically incorrect,

such as determiners. When an element is repeated we indicate it by adding the plus sign “+”

inside the parenthesis. Taking into consideration every possible phrase in the English language it

can be said that there is a relative order of elements to be followed, and this applies for all of the

phrases. All these questions will be answered separately in the particular section of each type of

phrase below.

2.6. Types of phrases and their phrase-structure rules

2.6.1. Noun phrase

According to Leech, Deuchar, and Hoogan (1982), a noun phrase (NP) is a phrase consisting of a

noun or a pronoun functioning as its head; a simple noun phrase, e.g. we or John. In other cases,

it consists of the head and other words modifying the head (Verspoor and Sauter, 2009); a

complex noun phrase, e.g. the valuable trait of a human being, the very noisy visitor. In the

valuable trait, the is a determiner functioning as a pre-modifier, valuable is an adjective

functioning as a pre-modifiers as well, trait is the head, and of a human being is a prepositional

phrase functioning as a post-modifier. In the very noisy visitor, the is a determiner functioning as

a pre-modifier, very is an intensifier functioning as a pre-modifier, noisy is an adjective

functioning as a pre-modifier as well, and visitor is the head. The noun phrase is treated the same

as a noun. The noun phrase functions as a noun and sometimes it is the subject (4), the object (5),

and the complement (6) of the sentence (Quirk, 1985). Sometimes a noun phrase can be rooted

inside another noun phrase, for instance, the noun phrase many of these books contains another

smaller noun phrase these books. The internal structure of this phrase is written as: [NP [D

many] [PP [P of] [NP [D these] [N books]]]]

(4) The museum was built many centuries ago.

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(5) He solved the mathematical puzzle.

(6) With her strong desire and a great voice, she will one day be a perfect singer.

The general phrase-structure rule of a noun phrase is:

NP → (D) (AdjP+) N (PP) e.g. (The) (big) (red) apple (on the table)

The head apple is obligatory and all other elements of the phrase are optional. The adjectival

phrase is repeated, but also the prepositional phrase can be, although not in this example. The

relative order of the noun phrase is optional determiner, optional adjectival phrases, obligatory

noun, and optional prepositional phrases. By labeling each of the components, the internal

structure of the upper example is: [NP [D the] [Adj big] [Adj red] [N apple] [PP [P on] [NP [D

the] [N table]]]]

The possible patterns of the PSR of the noun phrase:

NP → (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+)

apple

The apple

The big apple

The big red apple

The apple on the table

The big red apple on the table

The big red apple on the table of the room

As seen, a noun phrase has its pre-modifiers and post-modifiers, or pre-nominal and post-

nominal modifiers. A noun phrase may contain all the possible modifiers, although rarely. Here

is a classification of the words which modify a noun phrase. Each one of them will be listed

below and given examples.

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Pre-modifiers Examples

Determiners Many people wanted to participate.

Saxon genitive Kosovo’s weather is unpredicted during winter.

Adjectives A successful year is about to come.

Participles (-ed, -ing) A crying doll is not a doll girls want.

Nouns Our history professor is very old.

Post-modifiers Examples

Prepositional phrases A man with a gun stood by my window.

Adjectival phrases The buyer present has ordered it months ago.

Adverbial phrases The day before, everything was so quiet.

Noun phrases A car this color would melt his heart.

Numerals Page thirty must be read for the test.

Appositives You writers make books a warm place to live in.

Non-finite clauses It is quite a problem to solve.

Finite-clauses That student, who is holding her notebook, has passed the

exam.

2.6.2. Verb phrase

According to Herring (2016), a verb phrase (VP) is a phrase consisting of a verb as the head and

sometimes of other words, modifiers, structured around the head, e.g. predict, are seeing, are

loyal people. Predict is the head as the only verb. Are is a primary auxiliary verb, seeing is the

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head. In the last phrase, the noun phrase loyal people modifies the verb are. The function of the

verb phrase is to provide information about the subject of the sentence. In a verb phrase, apart

from the main verb, we mostly find attached the auxiliary verbs which precede the main verb

(Herring, 2016). The main verb or the head is always a lexical verb functioning as a predicate, as

in teach, run, examine. Other verbs such as modals (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may,

might, must, have to, ought to) and primary auxiliary verbs (be, do, have) are called verb

modifiers. For instance, in must have gone, must is a modal verb, have a primary auxiliary verb,

and gone is the main verb. So, must and have are pre-modifiers and gone is the head. The

internal structure of this phrase is: [VP [Aux must] [Aux have] [V gone]]. In the example should

have been cleaning, the pre-modifiers are should as a modal verb, have as a primary auxiliary

verb, been as a primary auxiliary verb, and the head is the lexical verb cleaning. Its internal

structure is: [VP [Aux should] [Aux have] [Aux been] [V cleaning]]

The general phrase-structure rule of a verb phrase is:

VP → (AdvP) V (NP) (AdvP) (PP) (AdvP) e.g. (always) ate (breakfast) (very early) (in his

house) (quickly)

In this phrase always is the optional adverbial phrase, ate is the obligatory verb, breakfast is the

optional noun phrase, very early is the optional adverbial phrase, in his house is the optional

prepositional phrase, and quickly is another optional adverbial phrase. The adverbial phrases and

prepositional phrases can be repeated. Only an adverbial phrase can precede the verb, other types

of phrases only follow the verb. By labeling each of the components, the internal structure of the

upper example is: [VP [Deg always] [V ate] [NP [N breakfast] [AdvP [Adv very] [Adv early]

[PP [P in] [NP [D his] [N house] [AdvP [Adv quickly]]]]]]]

The possible patterns of the PSR of the verb phrase:

VP → (AdvP) V (NP) (AdvP) (PP) (AdvP)

ate

ate breakfast

always ate breakfast

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ate very early

ate breakfast very early

always ate breakfast very early

ate in his house

always ate breakfast very early in his house

ate breakfast very early in his house

always ate breakfast very early in his house quickly

Except for the headword and auxiliary verbs which function as pre-modifiers, the verb phrase

also has its post-modifiers. Each one of them will be listed below and given examples.

Post-modifiers Examples

Adjuncts He yelled repeatedly.

Clauses with adjunct function That didn’t happen when we were there.

Prepositional phrases The shop opens at eight o’clock.

Noun phrases She has been telling that story to everyone.

2.6.3. Prepositional phrase

According to Downing and Locke (2006), a prepositional phrase (PP) is a phrase consisting of a

preposition, which is the head, and an obligatory object of a preposition, e.g. before dawn, to her.

By function, everything that comes after the preposition is called the object of a preposition

(OP). A noun, sometimes a pronoun, a noun phrase, adjectival phrase, prepositional phrase,

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adverbial phrase, etc. in the prepositional phrase serves as the object of a preposition. For

instance, in “We went to the game” the prepositional phrase begins from to the game, exactly

where the preposition to is located and continues with everything that follows it. In this case, the

game functions as the object of a preposition of the phrase. Prepositional phrases sometimes are

embedded in another prepositional phrase and in this way they give more information about the

sentence, as in on top of the cupboard in your office (Downing and Locke, 2006). Here, on top is

the prepositional phrase which has as its post-modifier two prepositional phrases starting from of

the cupboard in your office. The internal structure of this prepositional phrase is: [PP [P on] [NP

[N top] [PP [P of] [NP [D the] [N cupboard] [PP [P in] [NP [D your] [N office]]]]]]]. It is the

same with the other prepositional phrase: in an envelope under the letters in the drawer. The

internal structure of this prepositional phrase is: [PP [P in] [NP [D an] [N envelope] [PP [P

under] [NP [D the] [N letters] [PP [P in] [NP [D the] [N drawer]]]]]]]

The general phrase-structure rule of a prepositional phrase is:

PP → P OP e.g. at the door

This prepositional phrase consists of the obligatory preposition at and the obligatory object of a

preposition. In this case, the noun phrase the door is the post-modifier of the phrase. So, the noun

phrase always follows the preposition. By labeling each of the components, the internal structure

of the upper example is: [PP [P at] [NP [D the] [N door]]]

Prepositional phrases can function as adjectives (7), adverbs (8) or nouns (9) within the sentence.

(7) The book with the torn pages resulted to be the one most read.

(8) The picture of their father hangs over the wall since the day he left them.

(9) The meeting is on Wednesday.

There are a lot of prepositions used to construct a prepositional phrase (Figure 5). Some of them

are used wildly and some of them rarely. All these prepositions are classified into four big

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groups which show time, place, direction, and agent. None of them can stand alone while

constructing a prepositional phrase, so they are always followed by an object of a preposition.

Figure 5. The most used prepositions by which prepositional phrases are constructed

A prepositional phrase has its post-modifiers modifying it. Each one of them will be listed below

and given examples.

Post-modifiers Examples

Noun phrases Both of them stood by the sea till the dawn.

Adjectival phrases In brief everyone was content with their choices.

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Adverbial phrases “From here to eternity” was their motto.

Prepositional phrases Since before his birthday he was in a low mood.

Non-finite clauses He apologized for being such a child.

Finite clauses Clay was doubtful on what was said.

2.6.4. Adjectival phrase

According to Downing and Locke (2006), an adjectival phrase (AdjP) is a phrase consisting of

only an adjective as the head when it is a simple phrase, e.g. fond, shy. In other cases, when the

head is modified by other words, it is a complex adjectival phrase, e.g. quite fond, really shy to

ask. Quite is an intensifier and fond is an adjective functioning as the head. It is the same with

really shy to ask; really is an intensifier and shy is an adjective functioning as the head, to ask is

an infinitive functioning as a post modifier. The internal structure of the phrase quite fond is:

[AdjP [Adv quite] [Adj fond]]. An adjectival phrase may function as the subject complement

(10) or the object complement (11) of the sentence.

(10) The house was terribly old.

(11) Anna made her mother very sad.

The general phrase-structure rule of an adjectival phrase is:

AdjP → (AdvP) Adj (PP) e.g. (fully) aware (of his surroundings)

In this phrase, the head aware is obligatory, fully as an adverbial phrase is optional, and of his

surroundings is an optional prepositional phrase. The optional adverbial phrase always precedes

the obligatory adjective and the optional prepositional phrase follows the adjective. By labeling

each of the components, the internal structure of the upper example is: [AdjP [Adv fully] [Adj

aware] [PP [P of] [NP [D his] [N surroundings]]]]

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The possible patterns of the PSR of the adjectival phrase:

AdjP → (AdvP) Adj (PP)

aware

fully aware

aware of his surroundings

fully aware of his surroundings

These are the pre-modifiers and post-modifiers of the adjectival phrase. Each one of them will be

listed below and given examples.

Pre-modifiers Examples

Adverbs Today the patient is feeling much better.

Adjectives The weather is icy cold.

Nouns Grandmother’s hair was silver grey.

Post-modifiers Examples

PP or prepositional clause She is careful in dealing with math problems.

Infinitives/infinitive clauses She was determined to succeed.

Relative that clause They were jealous that the other team had won the trophy.

2.6.5. Adverbial phrase

According to Nuhiu (2012), an adverbial phrase (AdvP) is a phrase that has an adverb as its

head, often being a simple phrase, e.g. efficiently, carefully. The complex adverbial phrase

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consists of another word functioning as a pre-modifier or a post-modifier of the adverb. When it

is structured as a complex phrase usually it consists of one modifier, e.g. very efficiently,

distinctly enough. Very is an intensifier and it functions as the pre-modifier of the adverb head

efficiently. Distinctly is the head being an adverb and enough is another adverb functioning as a

post modifier. The meaning of an adverbial phrase is the same as that of an adverb of the

adverbial clause. It answers the questions when, why, where, how, etc. and it shows the meaning

of manner, time, reason, and place (Wren and Martin, n.d.). The syntactic function of this type of

phrase is to modify other expressions. In the adverbial phrase clearly enough, clearly is the head

and enough is the post-modifier as it modifies the head. Both of them are adverbs. The internal

structure of clearly enough is: [AdvP [Adv clearly] [Adv enough]]

The general phrase-structure rule of an adverbial phrase is:

AdvP → (AdvP) Adv e.g. (rather) quickly

The obligatory adverb is quickly and the optional adverbial phrase is rather. The adverbial

phrase must precede the adverb. By labeling each of the components, the internal structure of

the upper example is: [AdvP [Adv rather] [Adv quickly]]

The possible patterns of the PSR of the adverbial phrase:

AdvP → (AdvP) Adv

quickly

rather quickly

Some adverbs are known as intensifiers, which never happen to have the function of the head of

the phrase but only that of the modifier (Downing and Locke, 2006). An intensifier shows

emphasis by strengthening the meaning of an expression, e.g. very strangely, highly

recommended, extremely delicious, etc. Some of these intensifiers are:

absolutely really pretty

extremely so too

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highly totally exceedingly

rather very at all

These are the pre-modifiers and post-modifiers of an adverbial phrase. Each one of them will be

listed below and given examples.

Pre-modifiers Examples

Intensifiers Your locomotive is running very smoothly.

Particular adverbs Leave all your things over there.

Noun phrases A mile ahead us a miracle is waiting to happen, so let’s

move!

Post-modifiers Examples

“Enough” as an adverb He said that distinctly enough.

Prepositional phrase The hotel is over there near the statue.

Infinitive/infinitive clauses She has somewhere to go after the birthday party is over.

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Chapter 3. Conclusion

Understanding the grammar of the English language is a really hard job. It is a complicated

learning process especially for those who are not native speakers of the English language.

Grammar is the whole system and structure of the specific language, including syntax,

morphology, pragmatics, semantics, phonetics, and phonology. Syntax is the rules by which

smaller grammatical units are combined into larger ones creating grammatically correct

sentences. Among these grammar branches and grammatical units, this paper dealt with the unit

of a phrase. As mentioned above a phrase is a unit consisting of a group of words that lack the

subject and the predicate. It can not stand alone nor convey meaningful information. In order to

show the internal structure of a phrase, the phrase must be broken down into its components and

then these components must be labeled by putting each of them into a bracket “[]”. Each

component is expressed by a particular symbol. So, it is as called in grammar, syntactic analysis

of a phrase and briefly, that is what phrase-structure rule describes. Phrase-structure rule’s

purpose is to express the relationship of the elements of the phrase and to discover the relation

between formal and semantic structure. This and other phrase-structure rules are part of the

phrase structure grammar introduced by Chomsky during the 1950s. To comprehend the internal

structure of phrases the mentioned PSRs’ main questions must be understood and answered, such

as what must be part of the phrase, what can be added optionally, which element could be

repeated and is there an order to always be followed in different patterns. Chomsky’s PRSs and

PSGs are based on Leonard Bloomfield’s IC analysis. Phrases have two major classifications.

The first classification is based on their structure; simple and complex phrases. The second

classification is based on the part of speech the main word belongs to; noun phrase, verb phrase,

prepositional phrase, adjectival phrase, and adverbial phrase. If the main word of a phrase is a

noun then the phrase is a noun phrase, if it is an adjective then the phrase is an adjectival phrase

and so on. So, the type of a phrase is determined by the syntactic category of the most important

word in that phrase. Usually, the main word of the phrase is accompanied or completed by other

words around it. These words function as modifiers. If the modifier precedes the main word it is

a pre-modifier, if it follows the main word it is a post-modifier. Therefore, modification as a

process related to phrases and its types were explained in this paper as well.

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Except for all of these terms and processes being mentioned and given information about, this

study also had as it purpose to give information about each type of phrase separately and to

clarify them with specific examples. It showed their general phrase-structure rule and how their

internal structure is described in different possible patterns. The point is to know that if all the

above mentioned rules are applied correctly, any sentence produced by following them ought to

be grammatically correct.

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