English Grammar: An Introduction

In (6a) the Adjective "yellow" is the only word in its phrase and is therefore the headword. The phrase is an ADJECTIVE PHRASE (AjP). In (6b) the pronoun "I" is a headword. Pronouns are used to replace Nouns so that we avoid needless repetition in our use of language, so it is not surprising that they function like Nouns. Because of this similarity of function, the type of phrase is still NP.

There are six types of phrases in the system of grammar we are following:

3.4.1. Noun phrases

The headword in a NP is usually either a Noun or a pronoun (see 6a and 6b). Occasionally the headword can be an Adjective used as a Noun:

A NP can contain one or more modifiers; these are usually Adjectives or determiners.

3.4.2. Verb Phrases

The headword in a VP is always a verb. Verbs are divided into MAIN VERBS (V), which carry most of the lexical meaning, eg. talk, run, love etc, and AUXILIARY VERBS (a), which modify the main verb. The main verb is always the headword. The PRIMARY AUXILIARIES (be, have, do) can be either main verbs or auxiliaries depending on whether they stand alone or modify other verbs. (See the sentences above and Unit 6.)

3.4.3. Adjective Phrases

The headword of an AjP is an Adjective. For reasons that will be explained in Unit 8 we do not need to label AjP's separately in a NP where they all modify the headword directly. Thus in (5) we simply labelled the headwords as modifiers within the NP. If the AjP comes after the Noun it modifies, as in (6a), we label it separately to make the relationship clearer.

3.4.4. Genitive Phrases

They are dealt with in 8.5.

3.4.5. Prepositional Phrases

PP's are easy to identify because they always begin with a preposition. Many of them give us extra information about the place or time of an action:

Other PP's are used metaphorically. In (8c), "love" is being conceptualised as some kind of space into which people fall.

The reason why there is no label above the line for pr is explained in 7.3.

Now think about the labels for this sentence:

8d. (She) (arrived) (after lunch)

In some systems of grammar, PP's are analysed as NP's, as in

This analysis is perfectly possible, but you are advised to avoid it since it can lead to complications when more complex NP's are analysed.

3.4.6. Adverb Phrases

A phrase with an Adverb as headword is an Adverb Phrase (AvP). Adverbs give us extra information about such things as the time, place or manner of the action described by the Verb. Semantically AvP's have much in common with PP's, since they too often give us information about time and place.

Compare

3.4.6.1. Degree Adverbs

There is a small subset of Adverbs which specifies the intensity of a quality or action. These are called DEGREE ADVERBS, and include the following: very, rather, quite, fairly, so, much. They can modify either Adjectives or other Adverbs.

We can check the headwords in these examples by the subtraction test: