Verb phrase
By Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb_phrase
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In linguistics,
a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic
structure composed of the predicative
elements
of a sentence
and functions in providing information about the subject
of the sentence.
VPs in the generative grammar framework
In the generative
grammar framework, the verb phrase is a phrase
headed
by a verb.
A verb phrase may be constructed from a single verb; often,
however, the verb phrase will consist of various combinations
of the main verb and any auxiliary
verbs, plus optional specifiers,
complements,
and adjuncts.
For example, consider the following sentences:
(1)
- a. Yankee batters hit the ball to win their first
World Series since 2000.
b. Mary saw the man through the window.
c. John gave Mary a book.
Example (1a) contains the verb phrase made up only of the
verb hit. The verb to win, in infinitive form,
is used here in a prepositional phrase (to win their first
World Series). Example (1b) contains the main verb see,
the noun
phrase (NP) complement the man, and the prepositional
phrase (PP) adjunct through the window. Additionally,
example (1c) contains the main verb gave, and two
noun phrases Mary and a book, both selected
by the verb in this case.
Note that according to this definition, the verb phrase
corresponds to what is commonly called the predicate.
Up to the mid/late 1980s, it was thought that some languages
lacked a verb phrase. These included languages with extremely
free word order (so-called non-configurational languages,
such as Japanese, Hungarian, or Australian aboriginal languages),
and languages with a default VSO order (several Celtic and
Oceanic languages). The current view in generative grammar
is that all languages have a verb phrase, including the
ones just mentioned. The apparent lack of a verb phrase
is a consequence of constituents having moved from their
positions.
VPs narrowly defined
Verb phrases are sometimes defined more narrowly in scope
to allow for only those sentence elements that are strictly
considered verbal elements to form verb phrases. According
to such a definition, verb phrases consist only of main
verbs, auxiliary
verbs, and other infinitive
or participle
constructions. For example, in the following sentences only
the bolded words would be considered to form the verb phrase
for each sentence:
(2)
- a. John gave Mary a book.
b. They were being eaten alive.
c. She kept screaming like a maniac.
d. Thou shall not kill.
This more narrow definition is often applied in functionalist
frameworks and traditional European
reference
grammars. It is incompatible with the generative theory
of the verb phrase, since the bolded strings are not constituents
under standard generative analyses.
See also
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb_phrase
Published - December 2008
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