Definition and general characteristics

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 662.

THE WORD-GROUP

1. Definition and general characteristics of the word-group.

2. Classifications of word-groups.

3. Subordinate word-groups.

4. The noun-phrase.

5. The verb-phrase.

6. The predicative word-group.

There are a lot of definitions concerning the word-group. We'll take the following: the word-group is a combination of at least two notional words which do not constitute the sentence but are syntactically connected.

Note: According to some other scholars (the majority of Western scholars and professors B.Ilyish and V.Burlakova – in Russia), a combination of a notional word with a function word (on the table) may be treated as a word-group as well. The problem is disputable as the role of function words is to show some abstract relations and they are devoid of nominative power. On the other hand, such combinations are syntactically bound and they should belong somewhere.

General characteristics of the word-group are:

1) As a naming unit it differs from a compound word because the number of constituents in a word-group corresponds to the number of different denotates: a black bird – черная птица (2), a blackbird – дрозд (1); a loud speaker (2), a loudspeaker (1).

2) Each component of the word-group can undergo grammatical changes without destroying the identity of the whole unit: to see a house - to see houses.

3) A word-group is a dependent syntactic unit, it is not a communicative unit and has no intonation of its own.