Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Chapter 2 - Grammatical Foundations: Structure

This might sound contradictory, but it is not. The fact is that phrases can consist of one
or more words. Thus, while smile is a verb, it is also a VP in the following sentence:

(115) the Cheshire cat [VP smiled]

Furthermore, while a pronoun is a determiner, it is also a DP in the following sentence:

(116) I never knew [DP that]

We have also seen that the word there can replace prepositional phrases, and so not
only is it a word, it is also a PP:

(117) we don’t go [PP there]

The situation is easy enough to represent in terms of a tree diagram:

(118) a VP b DP c PP

V D P

smiled that there

In such trees the dual status of these elements as both word and phrasal categories is
clearly represented.

Check Questions

1 What are phrases?

2 What are rewrite rules?

3 Define what a recursive rule looks like and comment on its importance in the
grammar.

4 Compare characteristics of subjects in finite and non-finite clauses.

5 What is an direct object, an indirect object and a prepositional object?

6 Compare the dative construction with the double-object construction.

7 What tests can you use to define whether a string of words forms a constituent
or not?