Here is a simple procedure you can use if you are trying to identify clauses either in a transcription of spoken English or in a written English text. This is only a guide and it may not be sufficiently robust to enable you to identify some of the…
Rank order We have seen (Clauses) that each higher order unit of organization in language is constituted from elements of the immediately lower unit of organization. We see that morphemes combine into words, that words combine into phrases and that phrases combine into clauses. There…
Phrases take on different grammatical functions within clauses. There are five types: verb, subject, object, complement and adjunct.
What is a clause? We represent our experiences linguistically by packaging information into clauses. As such, clauses can be considered to be the key unit of grammar. They are units of information structured around a verb phrase (VP) and, according to some theories (e.g. Systemic Functional…
Phrases combine according to set rules into larger structures known as clauses. There are seven basic clause structures in English. Clauses may be further combined in spoken language into clause complexes.
We have noted how verb phrases have a verb as the head, noun phrases have a noun (or pronoun), and adverb phrases and adjective phrases have an adverb and an adjective as the head respectively. Prepositional phrases (PrepP) do…
The head word of an adverb phrase (AdvP) is always an adverb, e.g. As with noun phrases and adjective phrases, the head word (usually just referred to as the ‘head’) of an adverb phrase can also be pre-modified by the…
Adjective as ‘head’ As the name implies, adjective phrases (AdjP) have an adjective as the head word, e.g. Like noun phrases, the head adjective in an adjective phrase can also receive pre-modification through the use of an intensifying adverb. Pre-modifying intensifying adverbs…
