Suggested Answers for Check Questions

Sentences are made up of words but these words are also organised into units which are smaller than the sentence itself. The best way to identify phrases is by having a look at their distribution: sometimes a single word can be substituted by another structure containing several words that cluster together, e.g. in Mary is dancing the constituent Mary can be substituted by The girl we met yesterday. These two structures (Mary and the girl we met yesterday) have the same function in the sentence and wherever Mary is used the girl we met yesterday can be used, too. Phrases come in different types, they are always identified by an element contained in the phrase. That central element in the girl we met yesterday is girl, a noun, so the whole structure is a noun phrase. Phrases can have a rather complex internal strucure, they can contain other phrases or even clauses as can be seen in the girl (that) we met yesterday, too.