Phrasesmeanings and these meanings connect their objects to other parts of the
sentences in which they occur. For example, in (16), to indicates that its
object NP represents the recipient of the money:
(16) Tony donated $10,000 to the hospital.
In (17), for indicates that the cardiac laboratory is to be the beneficiary of
the money:
(17) The money was for the cardiac laboratory.
Notions such as recipient and beneficiary are called semantic roles,
about which we will have much more to say in our chapter on Basic Clause
Patterns.
the adjective phrase (ap).
Each of the following is an AP:
(18) a. Impertinent (adjective alone)
b. Very impertinent (intensifier + adjective)
c. Unaware of any wrongdoing (adjective + PP)
d. Disappointed that someone had lied (adjective + clause)
e. Afraid to make a move (adjective + infinitival)
f. Fully aware of his surroundings (adverb + adjective + PP)
From a functional perspective, adjective phrases may be analyzed as:
(19) (Modifier) + Head + (Complement)
The modifiers may be either intensifiers or degree adverbs, just as in AdvPs;
the complements may be PPs, finite clauses, or infinitivals. Only some types
of adjectives take complements—mainly those that denote mental or emo-
tional states, e.g., aware, afraid, sorry, disappointed, astonished, hopeful, sad.
We can represent the structures of (18a-f) as the following trees, respec-
tively: