Read Chapter 7 (Brinton. 2010), and other materials, and answer the questions.
Submit the answers
in assignment.
1. What is a phrase?
A phrase is a group of words that works together in a sentence but does not contain a subject or a
verb. Often phrases are used for descriptions of people, things, or events.
2. What are the most common types of phrases in English?
There are five main types of phrases:
Noun phrase.
Adjective phrase.
Adverb phrase.
Verb phrase.
Prepositional phrase.
3. What is the basic structure of an English phrase?
SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT.
4. What types of words can function as determiners, pre-modifiers, the head, and post-modifier
in a noun phrase? Give examples.
The four main types of determiners are:
articles (the, a, an)
possessives (ours, yours, hers, his, mine, theirs)
demonstratives (that, this, there, these, those)
quantifiers (all, many, few).
There are three types of pre-modifiers:
Determiners
Articles : a, an, the (This is a book.)
Possessive adjectives : my your, his, her, their, our, its (My dog is not as big as yours.)
Demonstrative adjectives : this, that, these, those (Don’t touch this box.)
Distributive adjectives : each, Every, either, neither, any, both, etc(You can take either box.)
Quantifiers : Some, any, enough, plenty of, much, many, a few, the few, a lot of, several, etc (I have a
few friends to meet.)
Numbers
Examples:
Linda has two houses.
I bought 5 chairs last month.
This is my first trip to Phu Quoc.
She was his second love.
Adjectives
Examples:
It is a big hotel. We all can stay here.
It is an expensive hotel; we can’t afford it.
He is a tall man.
We need some talented people to run our business.
You are an old fighter.
Tom doesn’t want cheap things.
5. What are classes of English verbs? What is the basis for this classification? Give examples of
each verb class.
Based on the type of complement a verb takes, a number of subcategories of verbs can be
identified:
1. Intransitive verb (intrans), e.g. arrive, cry, laugh, or swim
2. Transitive verb (trans) (also known as “monotransitive”), e.g. hit, eat, kill, or tie
____ NP I dug a giant hole.
3. Ditransitive verb (ditrans), e.g. give, send, tell, lend, buy, offer, or show,
____ NP1 NP2 Maggie’s niece sent her flowers.
____ NP2 PP[to/for NP1] Huber sent flowers to teachers.
4. Copula(tive) verb (cop), e.g. become, seem, appear, feel, be, grow, or look,
____ NP She is a computer software analyst.
____ AP She seems perfectly relaxed.
____ PP He was in a good mood.
5. Complex transitive verb (complex trans)
____ NP NP I consider him a real colleague.
____ NP AP She made him uneasy.
____ NP PP You regard that as a problem?
There are two subclasses of verbs in this category:
a. nonlocative: find, consider, make, think, elect, call, hold, regard (as), take (for), devote
(to);
b. locative: hang, put, place, lay, set, touch, shoot, pierce.
6. Prepositional verb (prep), with the following subcategorization frame:
____ PP Arvydas had insisted on the scorpion.
Colleen stood on her tiptoes.
There are two subclasses of verbs in this category:
a. locative: stand, lie, lean, hang, sit, flow; and
b. nonlocative (idiomatic): agree (to), work (for), depend (on), look (into), refer (to),
insist (on), respond (to).
7. Diprepositional verb (diprep), e.g. confer, talk, or consult, with the following sub-categorization
frame:
____ PP PP I argued with the officers about little things.
a. diprepositional: We talked with our parents about buying a house. (discussed a
specific topic)
b. prepositional: We talked with our parents. (conversed generally)
6. What is an adjective phrase? Give examples.
An adjective phrase or adjectival phrase is a group of words based on an adjective,
such as `very nice' or ` interested in football.' An adjective phrase can also consist simply of an
adjective.
7. What parts of speech can modify an adverb? Give examples.
-An adverb can modify a verb.
Ex:The girls ran quickly but happily through the puddle. (The adverbs quickly and happily modify the
verb ran by telling how.)
-An adverb can modify an adjective. The adverb usually clarifies the degree or intensity of the
adjective.
Ex:He was very happy about being so good at such an extremely challenging sport. (The adverb very
modifies the adjective happy, so modifies good, and extremely modifies challenging by describing
the degree or intensity of the adjectives.)
-An adverb can modify another adverb. The modifying adverb usually clarifies the degree or intensity
of the adverb.
Ex:Jack can discuss the English language very thoroughly. (The adverb very modifies the adverb
thoroughly by telling to what degree.)
8. What is a prepositional phrase? What makes a prepositional phrase different from other
phrases? Give examples.
Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and the words which follow it (a complement). The
complement (underlined below) is most commonly a noun phrase or pronoun, but it can also be, an
adverb phrase (usually one of place or time), a verb in the -ing form or, less commonly, a
prepositional phrase or a wh-clause:
EX: They first met at a party. (preposition + noun phrase)
A prepositional phrase is a phrase that contains a preposition and its object whereas an adverbial
phrase is a phrase that acts as an adverb in a sentence. The difference between prepositional phrase
and adverbial phrase is that prepositional phrase can either act as an adjective or an adverb whereas
adverbial phrase always acts as an adverb.