42. Principles of classification of phrases and types of relations between its constituents.

Phrases may be classified partly by their inner structure (syntactic relations between the components, morphological expression and position of components, or by order and arrangement) and partly by their external functioning (distribution, functions of the components).

The structural theory of word-groups, worked out by the American school of descriptive linguistics, founded by L. Bloomfield, divides word-groups into two main types: endocentric (headed) and exocentric (non- headed). The criteria for distinguishing between them are distribution and substitution. Endocentric phrases are word combinations in which at least one of the constituents can function on a higher level:

An old man came in. ---- A man came in.

Poor John ran away. ---- John ran away.

The distribution of an exocentric group differs from the distribution of its components:A man came in. Beside John

With me In the house By running away

None of the elements can be used to substitute the whole phrase at a higher level.

L. Bloomfield points out that in any language there are more endocentric constructions than exocentric. Thus, it’s natural that he focuses his attention on endocentric phrases. He distinguishes two kinds of endocentric phrases: coordinate and subordinative. In coordinate phrases the elements constituting the phrase are on the same footing – boys and girls. Any of its members can be used instead of the whole phrase.

The structure of subordinative endocentric constructions is different – only one element, which is called the head, can be used instead of the whole phrase; the other elements in the phrase are subordinate to the head - very fresh milk.

Very quickly Thus we may single out 3 types of syntactic relations within word-groups: subordination, coordination, interdependence. Accordingly, phrases are usually classified into subordinate, coordinate and predicative.

Phrases may be also classified according to the morphological expression of their members (N+V, Adv.+Adj., N+and+N), position of the components (A+N, N+A) and the number of components (V+N, V+N+N).

43. Ways of expressing syntactical relations between components of a phrase.

These fall under two main heads: (1) agreement (2) government.Agreement

method of expressing a synthectical relationship which consist in making the subordinate word take a similar form of the head word // this book, those books as to the problem of agreement of the verb with the noun and pronoun denoting the subject of the action // a child plays, children play – usually treated on the sentence level.

Government By government we understand the use of a certain form of the subordinate word required by its head word, but not coinciding with the form of the head word itself — that is the difference between agreement and government. The role of government in Modern English is almost as insignificant as that of agreement.

The only thing that may be termed government in Modern English is the use of the objective case of personal pronouns and of the pronoun who when they are subordinate to a verb or follow a preposition. "Enclosure" (Russian замыкание) – some element of a phrase is enclosed between 2 parts of another element, plays a significant part in Modern English. The most widely known case of "enclosure" is the putting of a word between an article and the noun to which the article belongs. The then government Adjoining: The most usual example of this type of connection is the relation between an adverb and its head word, whether this is an adjective or a verb (or another adverb, for that matter). An adverb is subordinate to its head word, without either agreeing with or being governed by it. This negative characteristic cannot, however, be said to be sufficient as a definition of a concrete syntactical means of expression.