The phrase is traditionally considered an independent syntactic unit, fundamentally different from the sentence. It appears in the language for nominative purposes. A complex name that carries the same nominative function that a word has is a phrase.
Sentence and phrase - how to distinguish them?
The difference between a phrase and a word needs no explanation. The name of the term indicates it. And what is the difference between a phrase and a sentence? First of all, it is a combination of a word and a word form, the implementation of its obligatory and typically optional valencies. In Russian Grammar-80, the phrase is understood as a semantic-grammatical model of the distribution of the word.
A proposal is an extremely complex and multidimensional unit. Behind each of them are 3 patterns: formal, semantic and communicative (pragmatic). The main grammatical meaning of a sentence is predicativity, which makes it possible to correlate information about extra-linguistic reality (the fact of communication) with the speech situation in which the statement is generated (with the act of communication). That's the difference between a phrase and a sentence, in short.
In the syntax, only free phrases are studied, that is, those in which independent lexical meanings of the words included in it are completely preserved. If they are lost, we are dealing with phraseological units, which are no longer the subject of a study of grammar.
Building collocations
Phrases are built according to a specific historically developed model in the language, that is, are reproduced in speech. They have a system of forms of change, a paradigm that completely coincides with the paradigm of the main word (here is another difference between a phrase and a sentence).
They may include not only two components: the main and the dependent (simple phrase). In the statement, within the meaning and grammatically, several components (more than two) can be combined, between which different types of syntactic dependence are observed.
Types of multicomponent phrases
They may be:
- combined (sequential submission): buy a desk, a friend of my father;
- complex (parallel submission): widely known in the city, give a friend a book;
- common (with heterogeneous definitions at the main): an old crystal vase, juicy uncowed grass ;
- merged (formed during the formation of the proposal): bought newspapers and magazines, woolen and silk fabrics.
Phrase Analysis
The first analysis procedure is the selection of a whole phrase block from a sentence, determining its type and dividing it into simple (two-component) ones.
The second step is the analysis of a simple phrase taking into account many parameters characterizing it according to the following scheme:
1) initial form;
2) the part-affiliation of the main word;
3) the type of syntactic connection and the means of its expression;
4) the type of syntactic relations;
5) conditionality of the form of the dependent word;
6) model (block diagram).
Conditionality of the form of the dependent word
The conditionality of the form of the dependent word can be determined by the grammatical properties of the main one, for example, by belonging to a certain class of words (part of speech) or to a particular grammatical category. So, the ability to be determined using an adjective is inherent in nouns: a cheerful milkman, an old book.
Verbs, as a grammatical class of words, are defined by qualitative adverbs: work hard, speak loudly. All these phrases are grammatically determined. The presence of a dependent form in the accusative case without an excuse is determined by the lexical and grammatical properties, the transitivity of the main verb: read a book, drink milk.
The form of a dependent word can be determined by the fact that the main one belongs to a certain semantic class or lexico-semantic group (LSG). So, all words with the meaning of verbal communication form phrases with a dependent noun in the form of instrumental case with the pretext "c": speak with someone, discuss with someone. Tokens of different parts of speech, including the modal component (opportunity, desire, necessity, etc.), have the infinitive of the verb as a dependent: want to learn, need to learn, desire to learn, ready to learn. All these phrases are semantically conditioned.
And finally, the form of the dependent word can be determined by the individual lexical meaning of the main. In this case, even representatives of one LSH can form different phrases: sell fruit - sell fruit; pay for travel - pay for travel; be proud of a friend - bow to a friend. In this case, they talk about lexically related phrases.
Unlike other word combinations
Knowing how a phrase differs from a sentence, it is necessary to distinguish it from other combinations of words.
As a special syntactic unit having a number of properties and having a language model (structural diagram), it must be distinguished from the following combinations of words in a sentence:
1) from predicative combinations (subject + predicate): the boy runs;
2) from semi-predictive ones: and he, rebellious, asks for a storm;
3) from writers: trees and shrubs grew in a clearing;
4) from appositive combinations (a combination of an application and a defined word): student Ivanov came out;
5) from combinations arising only in the sentence: father and son were very similar.
Knowing how the phrase differs from the sentence and other combinations of words in it, you will correctly perform parsing and avoid grammatical errors. This is an important point in the study of the section "syntax", because the above elements are basic in it, and they must be distinguished. We hope we clearly explained in this article how to distinguish a phrase from a sentence.