VERBAL PHRASE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE ENGL 341 THE VERBAL

VERBAL PHRASE & PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE ENGL 341

THE VERBAL PHRASE • Verbal phrases encode our experience of events (activities, processes, states) • The VP can be simple and of one verb (stand, catch, waiting, went, caught, etc) or complex and so consist of 2 to 5 words • Even when extended/complex with 2 or more items, the VP is replaceable by a single main verb • VP can have ff structures: • aux(s) + a negator + a lexical verb

The Head • The head is the most important item and so is obligatory in the VP structure • A lexical verb (stay, came, sleeps, wonder, etc. ) or an auxiliary main verb (is, was, has, been, do, etc) feature as the head • Examples of VP heads: • • • The stayed overnight They have paid their dues He is intelligent We have your details They do everything He is sleeping

Auxiliaries • Up to a maximum of 4 aux verb can preface a main verb: • • He must eat/ they have slept/ He must have eaten/ she has been waiting They must have been beaten He must have been being beaten • Aux are of the 2 types: • The primary auxiliaries – be, have, do (carry gram meaning – tense, aspect, person, number); and • The modal auxs – will, would, shall, may, etc. (encode modal meanings – possibility, probability, necessity, obligation) • Only Primary auxs can function as main verbs • The first auxiliary verb in the VP is called the operator • Identify the operator in the VP above

The Operator • Can be any aux vb (primary/modal) • Possesses 4 properties: • They take negative particles in contracted expressions: we shouldn’t have come • They undergo inversion in interrogative structures: shouldn’t we have come? • They are coded (substituted with main verb): I will be coming if Fred will, we shouldn’t have come, should we • They receive emphasis: You should have come • these 4 properties constitute the acronym NICE • HOW DO WE COME BY THIS ACRONYMY?

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE • PPs may have the structure: • • Modifier + prep + complement Right through my house Quite in front of the shop Just at that meeting • THE HEAD: (ref to 534 – 535 for more examples) • Always a preposition which may be simple - 1 word (in, before, under, against, about, beside, etc. ) • Or a multiword: • 2 words: but for, as for • 3 words: (in addition to, in contrast to, by way of, apart from, by way of • Or verbal derivatives (considering, given, including, • Unlike in other phrase types, the head of the PP cant stand alone, nor can the entire structure be replaced by a single preposition. • Both prep and complement are obligatory

Prepositional complements • The main complements are NPs (Ns, Pron) • From me, for them, in my father’s house, by the fireside, through his infant soul, throughout his entire years, in accordance with the constitution, as a result of the disruption, on behalf of the organisation • Other items may sometimes complement the prepositional head: • Adj. Ps, Adv. Ps, PPs, Fin (pg 536

Modifiers in the PP • Not all preps accept modifiers • Generally, ff elements can function as modifiers in the PP: • • Grading modifiers: Intensifying modifiers: Directional modifiers: Attenuating modifiers: Quantifying modifiers: Descriptive or attitudinal modifiers: Focusing/reinforcing modifiers: • English Grammar; a Univ Course – Downing et al. Pg 538 - 539