Everything about Verb Phrase totally explained
In
linguistics, a
verb phrase or
VP is a
syntactic structure composed of the
predicative elements of a
sentence and functions in providing information about the subject of the sentence.
VPs in the generative grammar framework
In the
generative grammar framework, the verb phrase is a
phrase headed by a
verb. A verb phrase may be constructed from a single verb; often, however, the verb phrase will consist of various combinations of the main verb and any
auxiliary verbs, plus optional
specifiers,
complements, and
adjuncts. For example, consider the following sentences:
(1)
» a. Yankee batters
hit the ball to win their first World Series since 2000.
b. Mary
saw the man through the window.
c. John
gave Mary a book.
Example (1a) contains the verb phrase made up only of the verb
hit. The verb
to win, in infinitive form, is used here in a prepositional phrase (to win their first World Series). Example (1b) contains the main verb
see, the
noun phrase (NP) complement
the man, and the
prepositional phrase (PP) adjunct
through the window. Additionally, example (1c) contains the main verb
gave, and two noun phrases
Mary and
a book, both selected by the verb in this case.
Note that according to this definition, the verb phrase corresponds to what is commonly called the
predicate.
Up to the mid/late 1980s, it was thought that some languages lacked a verb phrase. These included languages with extremely free word order (so-called non-configurational languages, such as Japanese, Hungarian, or Australian aboriginal languages), and languages with a default VSO order (several Celtic and Oceanic languages). The current view in generative grammar is that all languages have a verb phrase, including the ones just mentioned. The apparent lack of a verb phrase is a consequence of constituents having moved from their positions.
VPs narrowly defined
Verb phrases are sometimes defined more narrowly in scope to allow for only those sentence elements that are strictly considered verbal elements to form verb phrases. According to such a definition, verb phrases consist only of main verbs,
auxiliary verbs, and other
infinitive or
participle constructions. For example, in the following sentences only the bolded words would be considered to form the verb phrase for each sentence:
(2)
» a. John
gave Mary a book.
b. They
were being eaten alive.
c. She
kept screaming like a maniac.
d. Thou
shall not
kill.
This more narrow definition is often applied in
functionalist frameworks and traditional
European
reference grammars. It is incompatible with the generative theory of the verb phrase, since the bolded strings are not constituents under standard generative analyses.
Further Information
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