Assignment

descriptive linguistics
topic: phrases and its types
submitted to :Dr. Sumaira kanwal
submitted by: Rimsha Sajjad
Saima bibi
Muhammad Irfan
Muhammad Saleem
Atta -ul- Allah
department: English linguistic
semester : 1st M.Phil.
The Islamia university of Bahawalpur
Phrase
A group of words that:
• Stand together as a singe grammatical unit
• Do not contain a subject and verb
• More broadly we can say that
• “a phrase is a group of words that stand together as a single
grammatical unit, typically as a part of clause or sentence.
• A phrase does not contain a subject and a verb and consequently can
not convey a complete thought.
Examples
• Janet eats cakes daily.
• Walking in the rain can be difficult.
• Getting a promotion is exciting.
These sentences has no phrase all of the parts of the sentence are
single words
A phrase is an important part of sentence. A phrase acts as a noun or
an adjective or as an adverb in a sentence. Hence a phrase can also be
defined as a group of related words that acts a single part of speech in
a sentence
Example
• She wrote an interesting story, (as a noun object)
• One of my friend has gone America (as a noun subject)
Depending upon its function in a sentence the phrase are divided into many
types such as
• Noun phrase
• Verb phrase
• Adjective phrase
• Adverb phrase
• Appositive phrase
• Infinitive phrase
• Gerund phrase
• Prepositional phrase
Noun phrase
A noun phrase consist of noun and all its modifiers.
A noun phrase comprises of a noun as a head-word and other related
word may came before or after the noun . The entire phrase srve as a
noun in a sentence
Example
• They hired a huge beautiful home. (noun object)
• A woman in the window shouted for help (noun subject)
A sentence can also consist of more than one noun phrase.
One of our close relative bought a beautiful red car.
Prepositional phrase
A prepositional phrase is a group of words that consist of a preposition,
its object (which will be a noun or a pronoun)any words that modify the
object. Prepositional phrase has a noun pronoun which is called the
object of preposition
Example
• The kids were laughing at the joker
• He is sleeping on the carpet
• I lived near the beach
Adjective phrase
An adjective phrase is a group of words headed by an adjective that
modifies a noun.
A phrase that acts like an adjective in a sentence is called adjective
phrase. Like an adjective it modifies a noun or pronoun.
Examples
• A kid on the roof is looking at the sky
• A student from my college won the competion.
Adverb phrase
An adverb phrase is a group of words that acts like an adjective. It
modifies a verb or other adverb in the sentence. It contain an adverb
and other words, which acts as an adverb phrase
Example
• He drives a car in a very high speed.
• He sings in a low register.
Verb phrase
A verb phrase is the group of main verb and helping verbs whithin a
sentence
Examples
• She is writing a letter
• She is waiting for someone.
Infinitive phrase
An infinitive phrase contain an infinitive(to+base form of verb )and
modifiers and other related words linked to the infinitive.
An infinitive phrase will always acts as a noun or adverb in a sentence.
Examples
• I enjoyed to drive a car
• To get success in exam is an ambition of every student
Gerund phrase
A gerund phase is a group of gerund (verb +ing)modifiers and other
related words linked to the gerund.
Gerund phrase act as a noun in the sentence
Example
• I enjoyed listing to the music
• Crying of a baby disturb me more
Appositive phrase
An appositive phrase is a noun or noun phrase that sits next to an other
noun to rename it or to describe it in an other way
Example
• Thomas Edison the inverter of the light bulb is often called US`s
greatest inventor .
Key points
• When the noun phrase is the subject of the verb don’t let the
modifiers divert your eye from the head noun as it must govern the
verb
• Join the adverb “well "to any objective its modifying with a hyphen
• Split infinitive are fine.
• Use gerund phrases to write shorter better flowing sentences
• Placed at the front of the sentence a participial phrase is offset with a
comma.