Editing Phrase

{{Short description|Group of (one or more) words}}
{{distinguish|Phrase (music)}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2023}}

In [[grammar]], a '''phrase'''{{mdash}}called '''expression''' in some contexts{{mdash}}is a group of words or singular word  acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the [[English language|English]] expression "the very happy squirrel" is a [[noun phrase]] which contains the [[adjective phrase]] "very happy". Phrases can consist of a single word or a complete sentence. In [[theoretical linguistics]], phrases are often analyzed as units of syntactic structure such as a [[Constituent (linguistics)|constituent]]. There is a difference between the common use of the term ''phrase'' and its technical use in linguistics. In common usage, a phrase is usually a group of words with some special [[idiom]]atic meaning or other significance, such as "[[all rights reserved]]", "[[economical with the truth]]", "[[kick the bucket]]", and the like. It may be a [[euphemism]], a [[saying]] or [[proverb]], a [[fixed expression]], a [[figure of speech]], etc.. In [[linguistics]], these are known as [[phraseme]]s.

In theories of [[syntax]], a phrase is any group of words, or sometimes a single word, which plays a particular role within the syntactic structure of a [[sentence (linguistics)|sentence]]. It does not have to have any special meaning or significance, or even exist anywhere outside of the sentence being analyzed, but it must function there as a complete grammatical unit. For example, in the sentence ''Yesterday I saw an orange bird with a white neck'', the words ''an orange bird with a white neck'' form a [[noun phrase]], or a [[determiner phrase]] in some theories, which functions as the [[object (grammar)|object]] of the sentence.

==Phrase trees==
Many theories of syntax and grammar illustrate sentence structure using phrase '[[parse tree|trees]]', which provide schematics of how the words in a sentence are grouped and relate to each other. A tree shows the words, phrases, and clauses that make up a sentence. Any word combination that corresponds to a complete subtree can be seen as a phrase.

There are two competing principles for constructing trees; they produce 'constituency' and 'dependency' trees and both are illustrated here using an example sentence. The constituency-based tree is on the left and the dependency-based tree is on the right (where [[adjective]] (A), [[Determiner (linguistics)|determiner]] (D), [[noun]] (N), sentence (S), [[verb]] (V), [[noun phrase]] (NP), [[prepositional phrase]] (PP), [[verb phrase]] (VP)):

::[[File:The_house_at_the_end_of_the_street.jpg|alt=|Trees illustrating phrases]]

The tree on the left is of the constituency-based, [[phrase structure grammar]], and the tree on the right is of the [[dependency grammar]]. The node labels in the two trees mark the [[syntactic category]] of the different [[constituent (linguistics)|constituents]], or word elements, of the sentence.

In the constituency tree each phrase is marked by a phrasal node (NP, PP, VP); and there are eight phrases identified by phrase structure analysis in the example sentence. On the other hand, the dependency tree identifies a phrase by any node that exerts dependency upon, or dominates, another node. And, using dependency analysis, there are six phrases in the sentence.

The trees and phrase-counts demonstrate that different theories of syntax differ in the word combinations they qualify as a phrase. Here the constituency tree identifies three phrases that the dependency trees does not, namely: ''house at the end of the street'', ''end of the street'', and ''the end''. More analysis, including about the plausibilities of both grammars, can be made empirically by applying [[constituent (linguistics)|constituency tests]].

==Heads and dependents==
In grammatical analysis, most phrases contain a [[head (linguistics)|head]], which identifies the type and linguistic features of the phrase. The [[syntactic category]] of the head is used to name the category of the phrase;<ref>Kroeger 2005:37</ref> for example, a phrase whose head is a [[noun]] is called a [[noun phrase]]. The remaining words in a phrase are called the dependents of the head.

In the following phrases the head-word, or head, is bolded:

::too '''slowly''' — <small>[[Adverb phrase]] (AdvP); the head is an adverb</small>
::very '''happy''' — <small>[[Adjective phrase]] (AP); the head is an adjective</small>
::the massive '''dinosaur''' — <small>[[Noun phrase]] (NP); the head is a noun (but see [[#Functional categories|below]] for the ''determiner phrase'' analysis)</small>
::'''at''' lunch — <small>[[Preposition phrase]] (PP); the head is a preposition</small>
::'''watch''' TV — <small>[[Verb phrase]] (VP); the head is a verb</small>

The above five examples are the most common of phrase types; but, by the logic of heads and dependents, others can be routinely produced. For instance, the [[Subordination (linguistics)|subordinator]] phrase:

::'''before''' that happened — <small>Subordinator phrase (SP); the head is a [[subordinating conjunction]]—it subordinates the independent clause</small>

By linguistic analysis this is a group of words that qualifies as a phrase, and the head-word gives its syntactic name, "subordinator", to the grammatical category of the entire phrase. But this phrase, "'''before''' that happened", is more commonly classified in other grammars, including traditional English grammars, as a [[subordinate clause]] (or [[dependent clause]]); and it is then labelled ''not'' as a phrase, but as a [[clause]].

Most theories of syntax view most phrases as having a head, but some non-headed phrases are acknowledged. A phrase lacking a head is known as [[exocentric]], and phrases with heads are [[endocentric]].

===Functional categories===
Some modern theories of syntax introduce [[functional category|functional categories]] in which the head of a phrase is a functional lexical item. Some functional heads in some languages are not pronounced, but are rather [[covert (linguistics)|covert]]. For example, in order to explain certain syntactic patterns which correlate with the [[speech act]] a sentence performs, some researchers have posited ''force phrases'' (ForceP), whose heads are not pronounced in many languages including English. Similarly, many frameworks assume that covert [[determiners]] are present in bare noun phrases such as [[proper name]]s.

Another type is the [[inflectional phrase]], where (for example) a [[finite verb]] phrase is taken to be the complement of a functional, possibly covert head (denoted INFL) which is supposed to encode the requirements for the verb to [[inflection|inflect]] – for [[agreement (grammar)|agreement]] with its subject (which is the [[Specifier (linguistics)|specifier]] of INFL), for [[grammatical tense|tense]] and [[grammatical aspect|aspect]], etc. If these factors are treated separately, then more specific categories may be considered: ''tense phrase'' (TP), where the verb phrase is the complement of an abstract "tense" element; ''aspect phrase''; ''agreement phrase'' and so on.

Further examples of such proposed categories include ''topic phrase'' and ''focus phrase'', which are argued to be headed by elements that encode the need for a constituent of the sentence to be marked as the [[topic (linguistics)|topic]] or [[focus (linguistics)|focus]].

==Variation among theories of syntax==

Theories of syntax differ in what they regard as a phrase. For instance, while most if not all theories of syntax acknowledge the existence of [[verb phrase]]s (VPs), [[Phrase structure grammar]]s acknowledge both [[finite verb]] phrases and [[non-finite verb]] phrases while [[dependency grammar]]s only acknowledge non-finite verb phrases. The split between these views persists due to conflicting results from the standard empirical diagnostics of phrasehood such as [[constituent (linguistics)|constituency tests]].<ref>For empirical arguments against finite VP's, see Miller (2011:54f.) and Osborne (2011:323f.).</ref>

The distinction is illustrated with the following examples:

::The Republicans '''may nominate Newt'''. <small>- Finite VP in bold</small>
::The Republicans may '''nominate Newt'''. <small>- Non-finite VP in bold</small>

The syntax trees of this sentence are next:

::[[File:Phrase 2.jpg|Phrase picture 2]]

The constituency tree on the left shows the finite verb string ''may nominate Newt'' as a constituent; it corresponds to VP<sub>1</sub>. In contrast, this same string is not shown as a phrase in the dependency tree on the right. However, both trees, take the non-finite VP string ''nominate Newt'' to be a constituent.

==See also==
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*[[Clause]]
*[[Constituent (linguistics)]]
*[[Dependency grammar]]
*[[Finite verb]]
*[[Head (linguistics)]]
*[[Non-finite verb]]
*[[Phrase structure grammar]]
*[[Sentence (linguistics)]]
*[[Syntactic category]]
*[[Verb phrase]]
*[[Phraseme]]
*[[X-bar theory]]
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==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
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*Finch, G. 2000. Linguistic terms and concepts. New York: St. Martin's Press.
*Kroeger, Paul 2005. [https://books.google.com/books?id=rSglHbBaNyAC Analyzing grammar: An introduction]. Cambridge University Press.
*Miller, J. 2011. [https://books.google.com/books?id=a0UQHXUzR9AC A critical introduction to syntax]. London: continuum.
*Osborne, Timothy, Michael Putnam, and Thomas Gross 2011. [https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/tlir.2011.28.issue-3/tlir.2011.009/tlir.2011.009.xml Bare phrase structure, label-less structures, and specifier-less syntax: Is Minimalism becoming a dependency grammar?] The Linguistic Review 28: 315–364.
*Sobin, N. 2011. Syntactic analysis: The basics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

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[[Category:Syntactic categories]]
[[Category:Phrases| ]]