There are, generally, three groups of words in the English language. These are phrases, clauses and sentences. In a hierarchy, sentences are the highest due to their syntactic and semantic superiority. Following sentences are clauses which are only a level lower than the former. Finally, we have phrases, the otherwise elliptical but nevertheless, essential group of words.
This time, let's discuss prepositional phrases. Below is a list of phrases that are to be discussed in the following paragraphs:
1. Adjectival Phrases
2. Adverbial Phrases
It must be pointed out that prepositional phrases are divided into two categories: adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases. Adjectival phrases are phrases which act as modifiers for nouns and adverbial phrases are phrases which act as modifiers for verbs.
Understanding this better requires us to know that a prepositional phrase is composed of at least two parts: the preposition and the object. The object of the preposition is usually a noun or any noun form.
To begin with, let's first discuss how phrases are defined. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of the English Language, a phrase is "a group of two or more words that express a single idea but do not usually form a complete sentence." This is a little bit confusing since using this definition makes a clause a phrase.
To make it clearer, just remember that a sentence is a group of words without a subject, without a predicate and without a complete thought. I understand that this definition is still not enough for one to really grasp what a phrase is so let's get on with the examples of each of the kinds listed above.
ADJECTIVAL PHRASES
As was mentioned above, adjectival phrases are phrases which act as modifiers for nouns. Also, as a prepositional phrase, adjectival phrases should start with prepositions line in, to, at, beside, etc.
Simply put, adjectival phrases are groups of words, led by a preposition, which acts as adjectives. Here is an example:
The woman in blue shirt is the owner of the lost wallet.
Have you seen the prepositional phrase in the above example? Not yet? Well, there are two, actually. We have "in blue shirt" and "of the lost wallet." To identify that the prepositional phrases we've found are actually adjectival phrases, let's ask the question "Which one?" or "What kind of?"
Moreover, to identify whether there are adjectival phrases in a given example, pick out a noun and ask, "Which (noun)?" or "What kind of (noun)," the answer will probably be an adjective if there's an adjective there and if the answer is a prepositional phrases, viola, you have an adjectival phrase.
Remember that adjectives are words that modify nouns. This means that they lessen the possible coverage of the word being modified. This is the same way adjectival phrases work.
In the example we have above, "woman" and "owner" are very broad terms. Googling the term "woman" in Google.com returns about 1,160,000,000 results. In the like manner, "owner" returns 1,270,000,000 results.
However, if we add the adjectival phrases, modifying the terms, we only get 563,000,000 results for "woman in blue shirt" and only 203,000,000 for "owner of the lost wallet."
"In blue shirt" tells us which woman the speaker is referring to and "of the lost wallet" tells us which owner.
ADVERBIAL PHRASES
As was also mentioned above, adverbial phrases are phrases which modify verbs. Also, as prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases start with prepositions.
Simply put, adverbial phrases are groups of words, lead by a preposition, which tell us how the verb was done or the impact of the verb. Here is an example:
The dancer moved with style and the audience watched in awe.
In the above example, the adverbial phrases we have are "with style" and "in awe."
To identify whether there is or there is not an adverbial phrase in a given example, pick out a verb and ask "He (verb) in what manner?" or "How did he (verb)?" The answer will probably be an adverb if there's an adverb in the example and if it's a prepositional phrase, there you have an adverbial phrase.
Remember that adverbs, aside from verbs, also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Take the following for example:
The chicken my mother cooked is delicious to the bones.
They fought very violently beyond human tolerance.
To identify whether or not we have an adverbial phrase in the first example, let's pick out an adjective and ask the question "How (adjective)?" Using the adjective of the first example, we can ask "How delicious was the chicken" and the answer is "to the bones," a prepositional, adverbial phrase.
violently did they fight?" and the answer is "beyond human tolerance," a prepositional, adverbial phrase.
No comments:
Post a Comment