1. VERBAL PHRASE & PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
ENGL 341

2. THE VERBAL PHRASE
Verbal phrases encode our experience of events (activities, processes, states)
The VP can be simple and of one verb (stand, catch, waiting, went, caught, etc) or complex and so consist of 2 to 5 words
Even when extended/complex with 2 or more items, the VP is replaceable by a single main verb
VP can have ff structures:
aux(s) + a negator + a lexical verb

3. The Head
The head is the most important item and so is obligatory in the VP structure
A lexical verb (stay, came, sleeps, wonder, etc.) or an auxiliary main verb (is, was, has, been, do, etc) feature as the head
Examples of VP heads:
The stayed overnight
They have paid their dues
He is intelligent
We have your details
They do everything
He is sleeping

4. Auxiliaries Up to a maximum of 4 aux verb can preface a main verb:
He must eat/ they have slept/
He must have eaten/ she has been waiting
They must have been beaten
He must have been being beaten
Aux are of the 2 types:
The primary auxiliaries – be, have, do (carry gram meaning – tense, aspect, person, number); and
The modal auxs – will, would, shall, may, etc. (encode modal meanings – possibility, probability, necessity, obligation)
Only Primary auxs can function as main verbs
The first auxiliary verb in the VP is called the operator
Identify the operator in the VP above

5. The Operator Can be any aux vb (primary/modal) Possesses 4 properties:
They take negative particles in contracted expressions: we shouldn’t have come
They undergo inversion in interrogative structures: shouldn’t we have come?
They are coded (substituted with main verb): I will be coming if Fred will, we shouldn’t have come, should we
They receive emphasis: You should have come
these 4 properties constitute the acronym NICE
HOW DO WE COME BY THIS ACRONYMY?

6. PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE PPs may have the structure:
Modifier + prep + complement
Right through my house
Quite in front of the shop
Just at that meeting
THE HEAD: (ref to 534 – 535 for more examples)
Always a preposition which may be simple - 1 word (in, before, under, against, about, beside, etc.)
Or a multiword:
2 words: but for, as for
3 words: (in addition to, in contrast to, by way of, apart from, by way of
Or verbal derivatives (considering, given, including,
Unlike in other phrase types, the head of the PP cant stand alone, nor can the entire structure be replaced by a single preposition.
Both prep and complement are obligatory

7. Prepositional complements
The main complements are NPs (Ns, Pron)
From me, for them, in my father’s house, by the fireside, through his infant soul, throughout his entire years, in accordance with the constitution, as a result of the disruption, on behalf of the organisation
Other items may sometimes complement the prepositional head:
AdjPs, AdvPs, PPs, Fin (pg 536

8. Modifiers in the PP Not all preps accept modifiers
Generally, ff elements can function as modifiers in the PP:
Grading modifiers:
Intensifying modifiers:
Directional modifiers:
Attenuating modifiers:
Quantifying modifiers:
Descriptive or attitudinal modifiers:
Focusing/reinforcing modifiers:
English Grammar; a Univ Course – Downing et al. Pg