Syntactic Categories

Question 1

Noun phrase

Answer 1

A phrase where the noun operates as its head.
A noun phrase functions as subject, object or complement of a sentence.

The girl in the blue shirt is my sister (subject)
I ate the sandwich made with mayonnaise.(object)
The old man lives in a little shabby hut (complement)

The structure of a noun phrase
Pre mod + head + post mod
Pre mod - adjectives, articles, possessive pronouns,
Post mod- prepositional phrases, adverb phrases,
Non finite phrases, infinitive phrases, relative clauses,participle phrases.
The hotel by the lake -pp
The girls playing ludo - non finite
The car which was bought yesterday - relative clause

Question 2

Verb phrase

Answer 2

A phrase that is headed by a verb
A verb phrase includes at least one verb followed by other dependent constituents like objects, complements.
The structure of a verb is as follows

Aux verb+main verb+ verb ending

She went to France
She fell in the pit 
She had been writing a letter 
Had been - aux 
Writing - main verb 
A letter - verb ending

Question 3

Preposition phrase

Answer 3

A phrase that begins with a preposition followed by a noun, pronoun, gerund as it object.

The object of a pp can consist one or more modifiers

Structure
Prep + noun/pronoun/gerund
Prep + mod+ noun/pronoun/gerund

Ex: under the big table
By the lake
From eating too much

Functions as a adjective or adverb
Adjectives- which one
Adverb- how

She hid under the big table
He grew fat from eating too much

Question 4

Infinitive phrase

Answer 4

A phrase that begins with an infinitive and is followed by an object and/or modifiers

Structure

Infinitive + object + mods

Functions as nouns, adjectives , adverbs

To make himself invisible harry potter received a cloak (noun)

The worst expression to see on dad’s face is disappointment

She wrote a long letter to apologize to her friend.

Question 5

Participle phrase

Answer 5

Begins with a present or past participle that is followed by objects and or modifiers.

If the participle is present the ending is ing
If the participle is past ending is ed

Functions as adjective

Fruits cut into small pieces

Question 6

Gerund clause

Answer 6

Begins with an ing verb followed by objects and/or modifiers

Structure

Gerund + object+ mod

Not participle phrase
Only functions as noun
Subject, object, complement