Linguistics & Semantics

Lesson 4: Syntax

Phrases and Clauses

Phrases and Clauses are divided into units and Syntax has the duty to study the hierarchical structure and the arrangements of these units. All languages have their patterns that serve to make phrases and clauses. The Noun Phrase is constituted by a Noun and Adjectives. The Adjective can follow or precede the Noun.

However some languages may prefer to have in the clause first the subject followed then by the verb (English, French, Italian). The Phrase consists of a group of words seen as an Unit. If you look at this example ‘Your beautiful red cat was running after a mouse right in the corner of your house’ we can be aware that a substitution is possible. So we can replace ‘the beautiful cat’ by using ‘it’. In this case there will be another choice between the usage of ‘he or it’ because the cat can be regarded as an human creature with a sexual distinction too (he for male she for female).

Even the form ‘in the corner of your house’ can be replaced by ‘there’. In this sentence we replace a number of words with only one. Similarly in ‘ Who was running after a mouse?’ the answer will be ‘My cat’ or ‘Where was he/it running?’ and the answer will be ‘just right the corner of my house’. Therefore it is obvious that certain groups of words possess an internal coherence as they function as a unit.

A clause is a group of words formed by a finite verb and cannot occur alone as it is only part of a sentence. In each complex sentence we have, at least, two clauses: the main clause which usually corresponds to a simple sentence and at least one subordinate or dependent clause. Examples: ‘He was eating an apple when the phone rang’. 'She believed that the sun was a bright star'; the fact that the 'sun is a bright star' is well known. Subordination is a kind of embedding that occurs when one clause is made by a constituent of another clause. Example: 'The weather here in Venece has been remarkably windy and rainy'; 'They returned from New York last Friday'; The weather here in Venece has been remarkably windy and rainy since they returned from New York last Friday'.

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