Worksheet 2 –Introduction to phrases and clauses (Chapter 3)

I- Meta-language

1) Match the terms below to their definitions or characteristics:

a) Finite verb phrase
b) Non-finite verb phrase
c) Discontinuous verb
phrase
d) Attributive adjective
e) Subject predicative
f) Prepositional
complement
g) Stranded preposition
h) Dummy pronoun
i) Predicative
j) Copular verb
k) Long verb phrase
( ) a pronoun that fills the place of the subject but has no
content (eg. It’s warm in here.).
( ) an adjective phrase before a noun (eg. We saw a very
good movie the other night.).
( ) does not show tense and cannot occur with modal
auxiliaries (eg. Leave immediately when you are asked to do
so.).
( ) a verb that links a subject to a complement that refers
to the subject (eg. He seems sad.).
( ) a preposition that is not followed by a prepositional
complement (eg. What more could a child ask for?).
( ) a noun phrase followed by a preposition (eg. on the
night of the first day).
( ) an adjective phrase, noun phrase or preposition phrase
that follows a verb phrase and the direct object (eg. His skin
was very pink.).
( ) shows distinctions of tense and can include modal
auxiliaries (eg. David plays the piano.).
( ) an adjective phrase that follows the verb be (eg. He’s
totally crazy.)
( ) can be split into two parts (eg. What’s he doing?).
( ) a verb phrase that includes other clause elements
which follow the main verb (eg. My mother was born in
Canada.).

2) Answer the questions below:

a) What’s the difference between a phrase and a clause?

b) What’s an embedded phrase?
c) Which five phrase types can be identified? Which element identifies each type?
d) What’s valency of a verb? Which are the five major valency patterns? What’s the
difference between them?
e) What’s the difference between an adverb phrase and an adverbial?
f) What’s the difference between an obligatory adverbial and an optional adverbial?
g) What are truly peripheral elements? Which six types of peripheral elements can you
identify?
II- Language in use

1) Recognizing phrase types:

In the following examples, phrases have been placed in brackets [ ].

a) Identify each phrase as a noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), adjective phrase (AdjP),
adverb phrase (AdvP), or a prepositional phrase (PP).
b) For each phrase, underline the main word, or head (i.e. noun or pronoun, verb,
adjective, adverb, preposition).

1- [They]NP [could have signed] VP [that check] NP. (CONV)

2- [He] [is] [a sweet boy] . [He] [came] [to my wedding] and [he] [looked] [so handsome]. (CONV)

3- [You] [must have] [some fun] [with that] . (CONV)

4- [I] [also] [told] [him] [the story of my life] . (FICT)

5- [The rebels] [had held] [Makati] [since Saturday] . (NEWS)

2) Labelling clause elements

In the following examples, brackets show phrase boundaries, and some of the phrases
are marked as clause elements S (subject), DO (direct object), A (adverbial), etc.
a) Fill in the gaps by labelling the other clause elements.

1- [My dislike of the man]S [returned]V. (FICT)

2- [Taco] [is] [really] [a smart dog]SP. (CONV)

3- [Some guy] [died] [at twenty]A [of a heart attack] . (CONV)

4- [Just] [ give] [them]IO [hot chocolate] .(CONV)

5- [The gallery] [became] [a reality] [in June]A . (NEWS)

6- [He]S [considered] [it] [a dumb quest ion]OP . (NEWS)

7- [During her short life] , [her two sisters] [bought]V [her] [a small teddy bear] . (NEWS)

8- [The Portuguese] [named] [the place]DO [Bom Bahia] [for its harbour] . (FICT)

9- [She] [went]V [crazy] [out in L.A.]A [for a few months] [back in 1987]. (CONV)

(Taken from: Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English Workbook)