Within the domain of syntax two levels should be distinguished: that of phrases and that of sentences. In giving characteristics of a part of speech we consistently kept apart the two layers in so far as they concern the syntactical functions of parts of speech- their ability to combine with other words into phrases, on the one hand, and their function in the sentence, on the other.

HISTORY: early English syntax concerned itself only with the study of word-groups, their structure and relations between their elements. In the second half of the 18-th century the term “phrase” was introduced to denote a word-group in English. This term, accepted by the 19-th century grammarians, denoted at first any combination of two or more words, including that of a noun and a verb, but later when the clause came to be defined as a syntactic unit containing a subject and a predicate, the term “phrase” was used to designate any word-group except the group of words which made up a clause.

English scientific grammar did not elaborate this part of syntax and rejected even the term “phrase” as it stated by Sweet. The author prefers to speak of word-groups, but defines this notion practically in the same way as the phrase used to be defined.

Sweet describes the relations between the elements of a word-group as based on grammatical and logical subordination. In Kruisinga’s grammar we find an elaboration of the same principle in his theory of close and loose word-groups. Jespersen does not use any special term to denote this syntactic unit, but his syntactic theory, which comprises the concept of junction and nexus (i.e. of attributive or predicative relations), as well as the theory of ranks, applies both to relations between the members of a word-group and the parts of a sentence.

The basis of the structural theory of word-groups is the dichotomic division of phrases into endocentric (i.e. containing a head-word or centre) and exocentric (i.e. non-headed) phrases, suggested by L. Bloomfield. Though not stated explicitly by Bloomfield, discussing his classification linguists have observed that it is made by means of criteria of distribution and substitution. Thus the endocentric group has the same distribution as the one of its members and the exocentric group has a distribution different from either of its members. In terms of substitution, the head word of the endocentric group functions in the same way as the whole phrase, whereas the members of exocentric phrases cannot be used in the function of either of its members.

Transformational grammar does not discuss word-groups in isolation, but the analysis of sentences is based upon the concept of phrase-structure and some transformations produce as their output word-groups.

We will term “phrase” every combination of two or more words which is a grammatical unit but is not an analytical form of some word (the perfect forms of verbs). The constituent element of a phrase may belong to any part of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions). We should not narrow (сужать) the term “phrase” to the understanding it as containing at least two notional words, as is done in a number of linguistic treatises. The inconvenience of such understanding is that, for example, the group “preposition + noun” remains outside the classification and therefore neglected in grammatical theory.

The difference between a phrase and a sentence is a fundamental one. A phrase is a means of naming some phenomena or processes, just as a word is. Each component of a phrase can undergo grammatical changes in accordance with grammatical categories represented in it, without destroying the identity of a phrase. For instance,

1)Write 2)letters: 1) the first component can change according to the verbal categories of tense, mood, etc.

2) according to the category of number

Writes a letter, has written a letter, would have written letters- are grammatical modifications of one phrase.

With a sentence, things are entirely different. A sentence is a unit with every word having its definite form. A change in the form of one or more words would produce a new sentence. A phrase has no intonation. Intonation is one of the most important features of a sentence.

There is also difference in the grammatical aspect of the study of phrase and the lexicological aspect. Grammar has to study the aspects of phrases which spring from the grammatical peculiarities of the words making up the phrase, and of the syntactical functions of the phrase as a whole, while Lexicology has to deal with the lexical meaning of the words and their semantic groupings.

Thus, from the grammatical point Read letters, invite friends are identical, since they are build on the same pattern “V+ N indicating the object of the action”. From the lexicological point: they are essentially different, as the verbs belong to totally different semantic spheres, and the nouns too; one of them denotes a material object, while the other denotes a human being.

In studying phrases from a grammatical viewpoint we will divide them according to their function in the sentence into:

1. those which perform the function of one or more parts of the sentence, for example, predicate, or predicate and object, or predicate and adverbial modifier, etc, and

2. those which do not perform any such function but whose function is equivalent to that of a preposition, or conjunction, and which are, in fact, to all intents and purposes equivalent of those parts of speech.

Types of phrases

1. The type “noun+ noun” is the most usual type of phrase in Modern English. It must be divided into two subtypes, depending on the form of the first component, which may be in the common or in the genitive case (родительный падеж).

a) the type “noun in the common case + noun” may be used to denote one idea as modified by another, in the widest sense (speech sound, silver watch, army unit)- the first component may be a proper name as well (London Bridge, a Beethoven symphony).

b) The type “noun in the genitive case + noun” has a more restricted meaning and use.

2. Another type is “adjective + noun”, which is used to express all possible kinds of things with their properties.

3. The type “verb + noun” may correspond to two different types of relation between an action and a thing. In the vast majority of cases the noun denotes an object of the action expressed by the verb, but in a certain number of phrases it denotes a measure, rather than the object of the action (walk a mile, sleep an hour, wait a minute). The meaning of the verb divides, for instance, the phrase wait an hour from the phrase appoint an hour, and shows the relations in the two phrases to be basically different.

In a similar way other types of phrases should be set down and analyzed. Among them will be the types “verb + adverb”, “adverb+ adjective”, “ adverb+ adverb”, “noun+ preposition+ noun” (cup of tea), “adjective+ preposition+ noun” (Good for Michael), “verb+ preposition+ noun”, etc.

An important question arises concerning the pattern “noun+ verb”. In our linguistic theory different opinions have been put forward, on this issue. One view is that the phrase type “noun+ verb” (which is sometimes called “predicative phrase”) exists and ought to be studied just like any other phrase type such as we have enumerated above. The other view is that no such type as “noun+ verb” exists, as the combination “noun+ verb” constitutes as a sentence rather than a phrase.

Besides phrase patterns consisting of two notional words with or without a preposition between them, there are also phrases consisting of a preposition and another word, mainly a noun. Thus such groups as in the street, at the station, at noon are prepositional phrases performing some function or other in a sentence. Some of these phrases are phraseological units (by heart), but this is a lexicological observation which is irrelevant from the grammatical viewpoint.

Phrases consisting of two components may be enlarged by addition of a third component

Adj + noun:         high + houses

                             New +high +houses (the limit is hard to define here).