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PE2379 ch05.qxd 24/1/02 16:06 Page 400<br />

phrase<br />

A phrasal-prepositional verb consists <strong>of</strong> a verb, an adverb particle, and<br />

a PREPOSITION:<br />

We must cut down on expenses.<br />

They put their failure down to bad advice.<br />

The meaning <strong>of</strong> some <strong>of</strong> these verbal constructions can be guessed from<br />

the meanings <strong>of</strong> their parts (e.g. cut down on). But the meaning <strong>of</strong> others<br />

is idiomatic (e.g. put down to).<br />

Nowadays the term “phrasal verb” is <strong>of</strong>ten used to include phrasal verbs,<br />

prepositional verbs, and phrasal-prepositional verbs.<br />

see also IDIOM<br />

phrase n<br />

see CLAUSE<br />

phrase-marker n<br />

also P-marker<br />

a representation <strong>of</strong> the structure <strong>of</strong> a phrase or sentence.<br />

see also TREE DIAGRAM<br />

phrase structure n<br />

also constituent structure, syntactic structure<br />

a representation <strong>of</strong> the set <strong>of</strong> constituents that an expression contains. For<br />

example, the constituents <strong>of</strong> the English noun phrase this big house are the<br />

demonstrative this the adjective big the noun house. Phrase structure<br />

is usually represented in terms <strong>of</strong> a labelled bracketing or a tree diagram.<br />

phrase-structure grammar n<br />

a grammar which analyzes the structure <strong>of</strong> different sentence types in a<br />

language. It consists <strong>of</strong> phrase-structure rules which specify the constituency<br />

<strong>of</strong> syntactic categories. For example, one phrase-structure rule<br />

specifies that a noun phrase (NP) can be expanded or “rewritten as” (Art)<br />

(Adj) N (PP), that is, an optional article plus an optional adjective plus a<br />

noun plus an optional prepositional phrase. The structure <strong>of</strong> sentences<br />

generated by such rules is <strong>of</strong>ten illustrated by a TREE DIAGRAM.<br />

400<br />

S<br />

(Sentence)<br />

NP VP<br />

(noun phrase) (verb phrase)<br />

DET N V ADV<br />

(determiner) (noun) (verb) (adverb)<br />

the parrot shriked noisily

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