SYNTACTIC PREDICATE

Section 7-3 Verb phrase

Composition of the verb phrase
Overview of verb phrase structures

Composition of the verb phrase.

The verb phrase may include a noun phrase or noun clause (as a predicate argument), an adjective phrase, a partitive phrase, or an adverbial adjunct to express the logical predicate. When one of these elements is a part of the verb phrase, the verb is a copula, which then has little more than grammatical significance marking what follows as a logical predicate.

The verb phrase may include an object argument (a noun phrase or clause, as with the structure of a subject) or an adverb phrase in the adjunct here as a complement. In (3) the adverb phrase (from the adjunct in [P3]) modifies (is predicative of) the rest of the sentence. In (4) one adverb phrase is a prepositional phrase in a complement which is within (is a logical argument of) the logical predicate; the second prepositional phrase is in an adjunct of [P3]. Objects and other complements are ways English has of modifying the verb’s meaning.

Overview of verb phrase structures.

Here are the examples promised for some of the structural elements generated by [P6]:

	Sentence	Structural Description
(1)	John is a friend.	copula with argument as complement
(2)	John is of a certain kind.	copula with partitive phrase
(3)	Some students were ill.	copula with adjective phrase
(4)	The janitor was there.	copula with adverb phrase
(5)	The janitor was where he usually was.	copula with adverbial clause
(6)	The gunman surrendered.	(intransitive) verb
(7)	He gave up.	verb with adverb particle
(8)	The prosecution referred to it.	verb with preposition particle and argument as object
(9)	His wife spoke of it to him.	verb with preposition particle, argument & adverb phrase
(10)	He loved her.	(transitive) verb with argument
(11)	They found the gun there.	verb with argument and reduced adverb clause
(12)	They just sat in the corner.	verb with prepositional phrase

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