Classification of the phrase according to its structure

According to the structure phrase maybe subdivided into two big groups: “elementary” and “compound”. Elementary phrases are phrases constitute by one syntactic bond. Elementary are subdivided into “simple” and “complex”. Simple are phrases with only one adjunct, e.g.: “The outer enemy could, and did, parody it in hundred ways” (D.Lessing). where the word “enemy” is the head-word of the phrase and it is modified only by one adjunct “outer”. The type of coordination is “subordination”. In order to understand the types of complex phrases it’s necessary to learn what “adjunct” means. The adjunct means words(s) or phrase added to explain, describe or define another word.

Complex phrases are subdivided into three types:

Phrases with an expanded head should contain not less than two adjuncts to the head-word, e.g.: “Better a good long sleep an’ keep the table spread till Ah waken” (S.Chaplin). The phrase “a good long sleep” consists of the headword “sleep” and two adjuncts “good and long”. NB: The head is not considered to be expanded, if it has only one adjunct, it should have two or more.

Phrases with an expanded adjunct should contain at least one adjunct to an adjunct of the headword, e.g.: The water dribbled from tightly closed lips (S.Chaplin). In the phrase “tightly closed lips” the headword “lips” has one adjunct “closed”; the adjunct “closed” is modified by its own adjunct “tightly” (closed how? - tightly). The adjunct may have only one word, which it is modified by (another adjunct) to be called expanded.

Phrases with an expanded head and adjunct should contain at least two adjuncts to the head-word and one or more adjuncts, which become the head-words to their own adjuncts, e.g.: On a December evening just three weeks before Christmas, after an easily mild day that had died in a darkening flush of violet twilight, Christy came down … to look for his long-lost pal, Tommy Flynn (S.Barstow). The phrase “a darkening flush of violet twilight”, consists of the head-word “flush” which has two adjuncts “darkening, twilight” that is why it may be called “a phrase with an expanded head”. The adjunct “twilight” has its own adjunct “violet” that’s why the whole phrase is called a phrases with expanded head and adjunct”.

Compound are phrases constitute of two or more syntactic bonds:

Coordination and predication, e.g.: This of course caused ears to pick up and ribald comments to form on various lips. (L. Durrell). This sentence contains two predicative constructions – “ears to pick up”, “ribald comments to form on various lips” – Objective-with-the-Infinitive constructions. They are connected with the help of the conjunction “and”, which indicates the syntactic bond – coordination.

Coordination and subordination, e.g.: Three old ladies and one fierce-looking old gentleman raised their heads and gazed at the intruder with deadly venom (A.Christie). Where the heads “ladies and gentleman” are connected coordinately, “three old ladies” and “one fierce-looking old gentleman” are connected subordinately.

Predication and subordination, e.g.: The dog sniffed at it, his intelligent eves fixed on the man’s face (A.Christie). where “eyes fixed” is an absolute nominal participial construction, which means that two elements of this construction are connected predicatively, syntactic bond – predication, “his intelligent eyes” and “on the man’s face” – subordination. The word “eyes” is the headword, and the words “his, intelligent” are the adjuncts to the headword. In the phrase “on the man’s face”, the headword is “face” and the adjunct is “man’s”.