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Phrases and Clauses

Phrases a. Definition b. Kinds Clauses a. Definition b. Kinds

PHRASE

What is a phrase?
A phrase is a group of words acting as a single function unit in a sentence but not having a subject of its own.

Kinds of Phrases
Prepositional phrase Verb phrase Verbal phrase a. participial phrase b. gerund phrase c. infinitive phrase

Prepositional Phrase
It is composed of a preposition plus object and modifiers. Example: The participating units in the Independence Day rites are carefully rehearsed before the parade.

Functions of prepositional phrase


Adjective The spokesman of the group came forward to offer an explanation. Adverb The ethnic groups came in the evening.

Verb phrase
It is a combination of auxiliary verb and principal verb Example: The group dynamics approach is being applied to improve interpersonal relations.

Verbal phrase
It refers to any group of words composed of a verbal plus a subject, object, or modifier of the verbal. VERBAL a modifier or a noun in the position of subject, object, predicate complement, or object of the preposition.

Three kinds of verbals


Infinitive (to+V) To speak is necessary to improve ones English. Gerund (V+ing) Speaking is necessary to improve ones English. Participle (P-Group) Speaking English always, she acquired mastery of the language.

Participial phrase
It consists of either the present or the past participle of the verb plus its subject, object, and modifiers. Its only function is an adjective modifier. Example: The person responding to the call of duty is to be admired. Interacting among ourselves, our group arrived at a favorable decision.

Gerund phrase
It consists of the gerund (present participle of the verb) plus object and modifiers. It is used as a noun, and serves as subject, object of the verb, object of the preposition, subjective complement, or appositive

Example: Feeling for others must be inculcated in the youth. She enjoys mingling with others.

Infinitive phrase
It consists of the infinitive (to+V) and its subject, object, and modifiers. It may be used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Example: To give priority to the environment is the crying need of the times.

CLAUSE

What is a clause?
A clause is a group of words acting as subject, object, complement, or modifier, but having a subject and verb of its own.

Two principal kinds of a clause


Main or independent clause Subordinate or dependent clause

Main/Independent Clause
It is an independent thought unit. It may constitute a sentence.

Subordinate/Dependent Clause
It is a clause whose thought is dependent on another structure for completeness of meaning. It may be a noun, adjective, or adverb clauses.

Noun clause
They have the same functions as nouns, and they are commonly used as subjects of verbs or verbals or as objects of verbs, verbals, or prepositions. The most common subordinators used with noun clauses are what, who, that, whether, which, and whose.

Subjects of Verbs: That some nations are in conflict is a fact. Object of Verbs: Progressive organizations should donate whatever they can to the refugees. Subjects of Infinitives: The judge accepted what the witness stated under oath to be the truth. Objects of Participles: Realizing that the plane was out of control, the passengers panicked. Objects of Prepositions: There is no truth in what the witness said.

Adjective clause
It modifies or describes a substantive. It usually follows the substantive it modifies. The subordinators who, that, which are the most common words that introduce it, as well as relative pronouns as and but. Also, whose, when, where and why. It may not have connecting words to introduce it as well.

Without connecting words: John is a man everybody admires. With the most common connector (who, that, which): The people who lived here have migrated to Canada. With (whose, where, when, why): The girl whose beauty once charmed his young heart is already dead.

Adverb clause
It functions the same way as an adverb it modifies a verb, a verbal, an adjective, or another clause. a. Modifying verbs: We arrived when the zarzuela Minda Mora was about to begin. b. Modifying verbals: Studying until he fell asleep, Ben mastered the lesson well.

c. Modifying adjectives: The girl was more sensitive to the needs of others than most of us were. d. Modifying adverbs: The man ran faster than the other athletes did. e. Modifying main clause: As it turned out, the investigation into the illicit traffic of drugs yielded positive results.

Relative Clause
Clauses introduced by a relative pronoun (that, which, who) they can modify an entire clause or even a series of clauses.

Sentential Clause
A relative clause that refers to or modifies entire clauses Example: Charlie might very well take a job as headmaster, in which case the school might as well close down

Elliptical Clauses
Elliptical Clauses are grammatically incomplete in the sense that they are missing either the relative pronoun (dependent word) that normally introduces such a clause or something from the predicate in the second part of a comparison. The missing parts of the elliptical clause can be guessed from the context and most readers are not aware that anything is missing. In fact, elliptical clauses are regarded as both useful and correct, even in formal prose, because they are often elegant, efficient means of expression.

When you use a pronoun in a comparison using the words than or as, use the proper pronouns as if all the words were being said. Most of the time when we use a comparison using than or as, we leave words out. This is technically called an elliptical clause-a clause with an ellipsis. An ellipsis is words left out.

Classification of Clauses
Restrictive and Nonrestrictive A nonrestrictive clause is not essential to the meaning of the sentence; it can be removed from the sentence without changing its basic meaning. Nonrestrictive clauses are often set apart from the rest of the sentence by a comma or a pair of commas (if it's in the middle of a sentence).

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