Phrase

A phrase (Greek ?????, sentence, expression, see also strophe) is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence.

Related Topics:
Greek - Strophe - Word - Syntax - Sentence

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For example the house at the end of the street (example 1) is a phrase. It acts like a noun. It contains the phrase at the end of the street (example 2), which acts like an adjective. Example 2 could be replaced by white, to make the phrase the white house. Examples 1 and 2 contain the phrase the end of the street (example 3) which acts like a noun. It could be replaced by the cross-roads to give the house at the cross-roads.

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Each phrase has a word called its head which links it to the rest of the sentence. In English the head is often the first word of the phrase.

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Phrases may be classified by the type of head they take

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• Prepositional phrase (PP) with a preposition as head (e.g. in love, over the rainbow). Languages that use postpositions instead have postpositional phrases. The two types are sometimes commonly referred to as adpositional phrases.
• Noun phrase (NP) with a noun as head (e.g. the black cat, a cat on the mat)
• Verb phrase (VP) with a verb as head (e.g. eat cheese, jump up and down)
• Adjectival phrase with an adjective as head (e.g. full of toys)
• Adverbial phrase with adverb as head (e.g. very carefully)
 
Phrase: Formal definition ►