This document defines and provides examples of adjective phrases, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, and clauses. It explains that adjective phrases have an adjective as the head and can include modifiers and qualifiers. Adverb phrases are structures with an adverb as the head, while adverbials are clause elements. Prepositional phrases are headed by a preposition and can take a complement. Clauses require a verb and are the key unit of syntax, with verbs determining the clause type as intransitive, monotransitive, copular, ditransitive, or complex transitive.

1. Unit 1
Introductory concepts and categories
(IV)

2. Adjective phrases
• Adjective phrase/Adjectival group: A phrase with an adjective
as its head: (modifier)+HEAD+(qualifier) m h q (ex.:
good/definitely good/good enough)
• Modifiers answer the question about the degree of a quality
• Adjective heads often take complements which answer the
question “In what sense is the adjectival quality to be
interpreted?” (ex.: guilty of a serious crime/slow to respond)
• The most important roles of AP are as modifier (attributive) &
subject predicative (ex.: a deeply sick man/He’s totally crazy)
• APs may be split into two parts by the noun head (ex.: He’s a
really tough player to beat)

3. Adverb phrases
• Adverb phrase/Adverbial group: a phrase with an adverb as
its head: (modifier)+HEAD+(qualifier) m h q (ex.: there/pretty
soon/fortunately enough)
• Adverb phrases are different from adverbials: adverb
phrases are structures while adverbials are clause elements
(adverb phrases, prepositional phrases and adverbial clauses
can all function as adverbials)
• Two basic syntactic roles of adverb phrases are: 1) modifier in
adjective/adverb phrases (ex.: He was an attractive little
creature with a sweetly expressive face); 2) adverbial (ex.: She
smiled sweetly)

4. Prepositional phrases
• Prepositional phrase/Prepositional group: a phrase with a
preposition as its head: (modifier)+HEAD+completive m h k
(ex.: considerably to the right/on the night of the first day)
• Prepositions can also take complement clauses that behave
like NPs (normally wh-clauses and ing-clauses) (ex.:
instructions on where they are used/after spending some time
in California)
• PPs have two basic syntactic roles: 1) adverbial (ex.: He
worked in a shop); 2) modifier/complement of a noun (ex.: He
was a teacher of philosophy)
• Stranded prepositions are not followed by their complements
(found in direct questions, interrogative clauses and direct
clauses; ex.: What more could a child ask for?)

5. Clauses
• Clause: key unit of syntax capable of occurring independently
• Clause: complete description of an event/state of affairs (ex.:
Have you got an exam on Monday?/She smiled sweetly)
• All clauses may be utterances but not all utterances are
clauses
– ex. (1): More sauce? vs. Would you like more sauce?
– ex. (2): Thirty pence please vs. It’s thirty pence please

6. Clauses
• Verb is the key element of a clause (valency of the verb
controls kinds of elements that follow it). Five major valency
patterns (each term used to refer to both valency and clause
pattern):
– Intransitive (S+V): Sarah and Michael dissapeared
– Monotransitive (S+V+DO): She’s changed her dress
– Copular (S+V+SP and S+V+Adv): The Swiss cheese has gone
bad/Marc was in the bathroom
– Ditransitive (S+V+IO+DO): You gave her the wrong answer
– Complex transitive (S+V+DO+OP and S+V+DO+A): That
makes me so mad/They’re sending us to Disneyland
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7. Clauses
• Verb is the key element of a clause (valency of the verb
controls kinds of elements that follow it). Five major valency
patterns (each term used to refer to both valency and clause
pattern):
– Intransitive (S+V): Sarah and Michael dissapeared
– Monotransitive (S+V+DO): She’s changed her dress
– Copular (S+V+SP and S+V+Adv): The Swiss cheese has gone
bad/Marc was in the bathroom
– Ditransitive (S+V+IO+DO): You gave her the wrong answer
– Complex transitive (S+V+DO+OP and S+V+DO+A): That
makes me so mad/They’re sending us to Disneyland
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