08. Phrases: Noun, Adjective, Adverb, and Prepositional Phrases
What are phrases?
What makes a phrase?
What are the components of a phrase?
Adjective phrases
- adjective
- She was popular.
- Pre-modified by adverbs
- Jane was really tired yesterday.
- Post-modified by adverbs
- He was not strong enough.
Basically, adjective phrase = optional pre-modifiers + adjective + optional post-modifiers
Adverb phrases
- Adverb
- They sing beautifully.
- Pre-modified by adverbs
- Bill walked very slowly.
- Post-modified by prepositional phrases
- Unfortunately for Jack, the treatment came too late.
Basically, adverb phrase = optional pre-modifiers + head adverb + optional post-modifiers
Noun Phrases
- Nouns: defined in terms of meaning
- Person, place, thing
- Nouns: defined by their form
- Can be made plural and possessive
Noun phrases are made of a head noun and others.
- Which one is the head noun?
- Life
- Back pain
- Fires in hospitals
- Absence from work
- Bad attitude in children
- Firewall security breaches
- Itchy skin disease in the cat
- Failure in metallic structures
- Home owner insurance claims
- A computer problem in my residence hall
Determiners in noun phrases
I saw the boy on the bus.
Multiple determiners in noun phrases
his first love
few other books
Pre-modifiers in noun phrases
- Adjectives
- Nouns
- Phrases
- the best solution – Adjective
- the really old car – Phrases
- the church warden – Nouns
Post-modifiers in noun phrases
- Prepositional phrases
- the beginning of the end
- Adjective phrases
- girls fond of chocolate
- Non-finite clauses
- the war to end all wars
- Relative clauses
- the parcel that went astray
Basically, noun phrase = optional determiners + optional pre-modifiers + head noun + optional post-modifiers
Prepositional phrases
preposition + noun phrase
- Is this about my application?
- In this current study, we are seeking smokers.
- I’ve lived here since 2013.
Not to be confused with the infinitive (to + verb)
- I went to the store.
- “to” as a preposition
- I went to buy groceries.
- “to”” as an infinitive marker
Multiple embedded prepositional phrases
e.g.: She opened the drawer in the cupboard near the antique table in the middle of the room.
Verb phrases
Verb phrases will be discussed in detail in the future.
- optional auxiliaries + optional negation + optional pre-modifiers + head verb + optional post-modifier
Homework
Quiz: Parts of noun phrases
Quiz: Identifying prepositional phrases
Quiz: Adjective, adverb, or prepositional phrase
Supplement Reading
Diagramming Supplement Part 1 (Introduction, w/ Abbreviations)