And the reading for that lecture too...

[major_kerina]

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Phrases
Defining Phrases
A phrase is a word or sequence of words that has a particular word as its head,  acts as a constituent in a larger grammatical structure, and performs particular grammatical functions.  Each of these three points will be discussed at length below.
The Internal Structure of Phrases
In English, the principal words that serve as the heads of phrases are members of the five lexical categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions, meaning that the basic phrases found in English are the noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), adjective phrase (AP), adverb phrase (AdvP), and prepositional phrase (PP).  Because each type of phrase has a particular head, every time a member of a particular word class is present so is the phrase associated with that particular word class; consequently, every noun is the  head of a NP, and every verb is the head of a VP, and so on as in the examples below:
 (1)  a lively conversation (NP)  
 (2)  will attend (VP)
 (3)  quite lengthy (AP)
 (4)  very carefully (AdvP)
 (5)  in good spirits (PP)
An important feature of phrases is that their internal structures follow specific patterns that always conform to the grammar of the language.  The specific structure for each type of phrase can be explicitly and succinctly stated as a phrase structure rule.
Phrase Structure Rules
Phrase structure rules are formal devices for representing the structure of phrases.  They contain the head of the phrase, show the other structural parts (the word classes and  phrases) that can occur with the head,  reveal the linear order in which all of the structural parts occur, and indicate which structural parts are optional and obligatory.  As an example, a simplified phrase structure rule for APs appears below:
 (6) AP  -->  (DA) A  (PP)
The notation to the left of the arrow is the phrase that is to be defined by the phrase structure rule; in this case it is AP, an adjective phrase.  The arrow can be interpreted as “is realized as,” and the three notations to the right of the arrow represent the three structural parts that can constitute the AP: a degree adverb (DA), the adjective A, which acts as the head of the phrase, and a prepositional phrase (PP).  Two of  the structural parts are optional as indicated by the parentheses around them.  Because the A does not have parentheses around it, the rule explicitly shows that an adjective phrase can consist of just its head, an adjective; however, it may also have an optional premodifier such as a (DA) and a postmodifer such as a (PP).  The rule expressed in (6) can therefore be read as the following. 
 (7) An adjective phrase is realized as an adjective that can be optionally preceded
   by a degree adverb and optionally followed by a prepositional phrase.
The phrase structure rule explicitly represents the order of the constituents in the AP.  If an AP has two or more of the  structural parts above, they must occur in the order given.  As  an example, let's use very as the DA, fond as the A, and of chocolate covered strawberries as the PP.   As you can see, the result is a grammatically acceptable AP:
 
  (8)  very  fond  of chocolate covered strawberries
    DA     A   PP

Any other order produces an ungrammatical AP:
 (9)  *fond   very  of chocolate covered strawberries
               A      DA  PP

 (10) *of chocolate covered strawberries  fond  very
   PP                   A      DA

Types of Phrases
As mentioned above, English has five basic types of phrases: noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases. 
Noun Phrase  (NP).  The NP is defined as a head noun and all of its modifiers, if any.  According to this definition, a NP can consist of a single word, which of course is a noun, or many words. Below is a phrase structure rule for the NP:
 (11) NP  --->  (DET) (AP)  N  (PP)
The structural parts in parentheses are optional, which reinforces the idea that a NP can consist of just a noun.  Using the phrase structure rule above, we can see how each of the NPs from (12) to (16) are structured:
 (12)  dogs  =  N
 (13)  the dogs  =  DET  N
 (14)  the large dogs  =  DET  AP  N
 (15)  the dogs in the park = DET N PP
 (16)  the large dogs in the park  =  DET  AP  N  PP
As you can see, the NPs are ordered according to  the number of structural parts in each one.  (12) has one structural unit and (16) has four.  However, all the  phrases above are NPs because they follow the phrase structure  rule for NPs and because each has a noun  as its head.

The last constituent in the phrase structure rule exemplified in (11) is a PP, which in this case is a postmodifier of a noun. However, several types of grammatical structures can function as postmodifiers of a noun, the prepositional phrase being just one of them.  In later chapters you will encounter other postmodifiers of a noun including the adjective clause and the that clause.

Verb Phrase (VP).  A verb phrase consists of a main verb and all of its auxiliaries, complements and modifiers, if any.  Of the five basic types of phrases it is most difficult to construct a phrase structure rule for the verb phrase, largely due to the fact that English has subcategories of verbs that take different complements.  You will learn much more about the subcategories of verbs and their complements in the next chapter.  For the moment, let's examine a phrase structure rule that is suitable for one of the most common types of verbs in English, the transitive verb,  which takes a single NP as a direct object:
 (17) VP  --->  (AUX) Vtrans NP (PP)
This phrase structure rule reveals that a VP with a transitive verb as its head must be followed by a NP that in turn may be optionally followed by a PP; the verb may also be optionally preceded by auxiliary verbs.    The following VPs are all grammatical according to the phrase structure rule above:
 (18) wrote a book
 (19) has written a book
 (20) wrote a book in 1957
Each of the examples above is a valid verb phrase because each adheres to the phrase structure rule for VPs:
 (21) wrote a book  =  Vtrans NP
 (22) has written a book  =  AUX Vtrans NP
 (23) wrote a book in 1957  =  Vtrans NP PP
Any VP with a transitive verb will be grammatical as long as the two obligatory structural parts are present, the V and NP, and all of the structural parts follow the order specified in the phrase structure rule.

 

Adjective Phrase (AP).  An adjective phrase consists of an adjective and all of its modifiers, if any.  This definition again points out the possibility of an AP consisting of just a single word, an adjective. A phrase structure rule for APs appears in (24):
 (24) AP  --->  (premodifier)  A  (PP)
This phrase structure rule reveals that an AP can have three structural parts:   a premodifier, an adjective, and a prepositional phrase.  Again, as long as the adjective is present, the AP can consist of one to three constituents as exemplified from (25) to (27):
 (25) pleased 
 (26) very pleased 
 (27) quite  pleased  with the election results 
Again, all of the structures above are valid APs because they adhere to the phrase structure rule for APs:
 (28) pleased   =  A
 (29) very pleased  =  premodifier  A
 (30) quite  pleased  with the election results  =  premodifier  A  PP

 

The general term premodifier appears in the phrase structure rule above because members of two different word classes can modify adjectives:  degree adverbs as exemplified in (26)  and (27) and general adverbs as demonstrated below:
 (31) uncomfortably cold

 

Adverb Phrase (AdvP).  An adverb phrase consists of an adverb and all of its modifiers, if any, so again an adverb phrase can consist of just a single word, which is an adverb, or it may consist of a premodifier, such as a degree adverb, and the head adverb.  A phrase structure rule for AdvPs appear below:
 (32) AdvP  --->  (DA)  Adv
According to this phrase structure  rule, both of the following structures would be acceptable  AdvPs:
 (33) gracefully  =  Adv
 (34) very gracefully  =  DA  Adv

 

Prepositional Phrase (PP).  A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a NP as stated in the following phrase structure rule:
 (35) PP  -->  P NP
The  phrase structure rule for the PP reveals that this type of phrase must have both a P and a NP, making it structurally different from the NP, AP, and AdvP.  In those phrases all of the constituents were  optional except for the head.  In the PP both constituents are obligatory and a PP would be ungrammatical without either constituent
 (36) in the envelope
 (37) *in
 (38) *the envelope
The NP that is an obligatory structural part of the prepositional phrase and consequently cannot be deleted is called the object of preposition.  Because both constituents need each other to form a phrase, they are in a state of mutual dependency.  In contrast, constituents that do not need each other to form a phrase are in a state of one-way dependency; in APs, NPs, and AdvPs a state of one-way dependency obtains between the head and its modifiers.  For example, a NP can contain just a noun; the modifiers are not necessary as demonstrated below.  Example (39) is a NP with two modifiers, an AP and a PP; (40) contains a single modifier, an AP; and the last example does not contain any modifiers, yet it is still an acceptable NP.
 (39)  old elephants with sinus infections
 (40)  old elephants
 (41)   elephants

 

 

Excursus on stranding prepositions.  Most  students at one point or other in their educational career have received an instructor's comment on their papers such as "Don't end a sentence with a preposition" or "Do not strand prepositions."  These instructors apparently believe that a sentence ending in a preposition is ungrammatical, but is it really?  Look at the following two sentences:
 (42) *The manuscript is about.
 (43) What is the manuscript about?
The  first  sentence above is truly ungrammatical, but not because it ends in a preposition; it is ungrammatical because the preposition does not have an object.  Remember that  a  PP  consists of two mutually dependent parts: a preposition and an object of  preposition.  If either part is missing, then the sentence in which the PP occurs will be ungrammatical because it contains an ungrammatical PP, one that violates the phrase structure rule for PPs.  In contrast, though example (43) ends in a preposition, it is not ungrammatical.  If it is not ungrammatical, it must have an object even if the object does not immediately follow the preposition.  In (43) the object is what.  English has a movement  rule called WH movement that takes words such as who, what, where, when, why, and how (how is a WH word too, only the w occurs later than  the h) and  moves them to initial position in their own clauses.  It is the same rule in English used to form content questions:
 (44) We watched Casablanca.
 (45) What did you watch?
In (45) what questions the direct object in (44).  In other words, Casablanca becomes, what, and the rule of WH movement moves the WH word to the beginning of the clause.  WH movement is an obligatory rule of English, and one that every speaker of English practices everyday.
How is WH movement related to the stranding of prepositions?  A sentence can of course end in a prepositional  phrase, meaning that the last structural unit in the sentence will be  the NP functioning as the object of  preposition.  If the object of  preposition is a WH word, then it will move to the beginning of its own clause leaving the preposition as the last word in the sentence.  Look at (43) again, it started out as the following:
 (46) The manuscript is about what?
WH movement then moved what to the beginning of the sentence, leaving the preposition as the last word in the sentence as in (43).
The prescriptive rule that English sentences should not end in prepositions is over two hundred years old.  In the 1700's two influential grammars of English appeared:  Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) by Robert Lowth and English Grammar, Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners (1795) by Lindley Murray.  Both of these grammars were prescriptive, and instead of the authors describing the grammar of English as actually spoken and written, they recommended rules of correctness that would counteract what they perceived as the decline of the English language.  Their model for appropriate linguistic comportment was not English at all, but rather Latin, which still had prestige as a language of learning in Europe and the Americas in the 1700's. 
Stranding a preposition in Latin was ungrammatical, so some grammarians artificially imposed the same proscription on English.  However, Latin and English have dramatically different grammars, and rules from one cannot be superimposed capriciously onto the other. Those who say that stranding a preposition in English is ungrammatical are not being erudite and sophisticated; on the contrary, they are being pedantic and ignorant of the actual grammar of English.  So what should instructors say about the stranding of prepositions?  The choice of whether to strand a preposition or not depends upon style and situation.  Examine the two sentences below:
 (47) Prepositional phrases are structures students should be familiar with.
 (48) Prepositional phrases are structures with which students should be familiar.
Both of the sentences above are grammatical because neither violates any syntactic or morphological rules.  However, one or the other may be preferred for reasons outside of grammar.  Many would agree that the former is less formal and consequently more appropriate in conversation and perhaps even when writing to some audiences.  The second is more formal and would be the preferred form in technical writing and perhaps even in some forms of discourse, such as a professional presentation.  The important point is that speakers and writers have choices, and which words and sentences they use often depend on the context in which they are uttered or written.  To make a rule stating that stranding a preposition is unacceptable is to deny the role of grammar in communicative competence, the ability to use appropriate linguistic forms for particular communicative situations. 
Another way of stating this is that speakers, and writers, of a language have a number of styles at their disposal.  Nearly all of the sentences in these styles will be grammatical in that they adhere to the morphological and syntactic rules of the language.  However, even though two sentences may by synonymous as are (47) and (48), they will differ in appropriateness for the situation.   All instructors need to be aware of the difference between grammar and style, and they should never mark a sentence as ungrammatical when they really mean that they prefer a different style.  When instructors confuse grammatical goodness with style, they help convince young writers that they write poorly, and they take away the pleasure that most people have in expressing themselves, whether through speaking or writing.  All of us can make another person's writing bleed if we choose to concentrate on style.
This ends the discussion on the internal structure of the five basic types of phrases in English.  A summary of the five phrases occur in the figure below.

Table 1.  The Internal Structure of the Five Basic Types of  Phrases
Type of Phrase Definition Phrase Structure Rule
Noun Phrase A noun and all of its modifiers if any. NP    (DET) (AP)  N  (PP)
Verb Phrase A verb group and all of its complements and modifiers if any. VP    (AUX) Vtrans NP (PP)
Adjective Phrase An adjective and all of its modifies if any. 
AP    (premodifier)  A  (PP)
Adverb Phrase An adverb and all of its modifiers if any. AdvP    (DA)  Adv
Prepositional Phrase A preposition and its complement. PP    P NP

You should now be able to discriminate among the five basic types of phrases.

 

Phrases as Constituents
In the previous section we examined the internal structures of the five most common phrases in English:  NPs, VPs APs, AdvPs, and PPs.  Each type of phrase was examined in isolation, completely outside of any larger linguistic context.  However, phrases normally do not appear in isolation; they combine with other phrases to form larger structures, such as clauses,  though phrases may also be structural units in other phrases such as a PP in a NP as exemplified in (15).  Any structural unit  that is part of a larger structure is a constituent of that larger structure; phrases are structural units (constituents) of clauses in the same way that a motherboard is a structural unit (constituent) of a personal computer.  Any phrase that is a constituent of a larger structure is a phrasal constituent.  For example, look at the phrase structure rule for NPs again.  NPs can have four constituents, two of which are  phrasal constituents, the AP and the PP, and two of which are lexical constituents, the DET and the N:
 (49) NP    (DET) (AP) N (PP)
The concept of constituent is quite important in linguistic analysis.  Once a phrase or word becomes a constituent, it also takes on a grammatical function in the larger structure.  An introduction to the grammatical functions of phrases appears later in this chapter.
Optional and Obligatory Constituents
Not all constituents are of equal importance in a clause.  The most important constituents are those that cannot be removed from the sentence without the original sentence becoming ungrammatical.  For example, examine the following sentence.
 (50) Most dogs have fleas.
The sentence is composed of  two major constituents, the NP, most dogs, and the VP, have fleas.  If either constituent is deleted from the original sentence, an incomplete (and therefore ungrammatical) clause will result as in (51) and (52).
 (51) *Most dogs
 (52) *have fleas
Though both of the phrases are grammatical as phrases, they are ungrammatical as clauses.  This example demonstrates that both phrases were obligatory constituents of the original clause.  In contrast, examine the following sentence:
 (53) In the 1300's the Black Death killed millions in Europe.
The sentence above contains two optional constituents, in the 1300's and in Europe.  If both phrases are eliminated from the original sentence, it  will still be grammatical though it will contain less information.
 (54) The Black Death killed millions.
The most common optional constituents are those that function as modifiers:  APs, AdvPs, and PPs.  In contrast, NPs and VPs are almost always obligatory constituents of a sentence. 

 

Testing for Constituents
Tests exist to determine the boundaries of phrasal constituents, the three most important being movement, deletion, and substitution.  If a sequence of words in a sentence can undergo movement, deletion, or substitution and the sentence remains grammatical, then the sequence is a phrase and a constituent of the sentence.  Each of these tests will be presented below.
The tests that are going to be described here are not only useful for identifying constituents, they can also be used to help determine the grammatical functions that the  constituents play in the sentence when they are used in conjunction with each other and with some other syntactic clues that will be discussed in a later chapter.
Movement.  If a sequence of words in a sentence can be moved as a unit and the remaining sentence is still grammatical, then that sequence is a phrasal constituent of the sentence.  In examples (55) and (56), the bolded structure has been moved from the end of the sentence to the beginning:
 (55) The Normans invaded England in 1066.  
 (56) In 1066 the Normans invaded England.
Movement worked above because the bolded structure is a PP and a constituent of the sentence; movement only works when the target structure is a true phrase and constituent of the sentence.  Look what happens when movement  is applied to another sequence of words from the same sentence:
 (57) The Normans invaded England in 1066. 
 (58) *England in 1066 the Normans invaded.
Sentence (58) is ungrammatical because the moved sequence of words is not a phrase and therefore cannot be a  constituent of the sentence.
Although movement is a test for finding constituents, do not suppose that any constituent in a sentence can undergo movement.  The true characterization is as follows.
If a sequence of words can be moved, then the sequence constitutes a phrase and is  consequently a constituent of the sentence.  However, not all constituents of a sentence can undergo movement.  In other words, when movement works, we can be sure that we have discovered a constituent, but when it does not work, we cannot be absolutely sure that the structure that we just tested is not a constituent. Examine the following two examples:
 (59) Santo Domingo is in the Dominican Republic.  
 (60) *In the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo is.
Even though in the Dominican Republic is a PP and a constituent of the original sentence (59), it cannot be moved as exemplified in (60).  In this case, movement is not a satisfactory procedure for discovering that in the Dominican Republic is a constituent.
Deletion.   If a sequence of words in a sentence can be deleted as a unit and the remaining sentence is still grammatical, then that sequence is a phrase and a constituent of the sentence. 
 (61) They had a view of the Arno from the terrace.  
 (62) They had a view of the Arno.
The use of deletion reveals that the PP, from the terrace, is a constituent of the sentence because the sentence remains grammatical after the deletion.  In contrast, sequences of words that do not form a constituent cannot be deleted from a sentence without producing an ungrammatical structure.
 (63) They had a view of the Arno from the terrace.  
 (64) *They had a view of the.
Deletion is especially useful for finding the optional constituents of sentences, which include APs, AdvPs, and PPs.  However,   not all constituents of a sentence can be discovered with the use of deletion; this is especially true of NPs, simply because they are almost always obligatory constituents.  Fortunately, NPs are easy to find using the test described below.
Substitution.   If a single word can substitute for a sequence of words and the sentence remains grammatical, then the sequence constitutes a constituent.  This test is especially useful for finding NPs in a sentence because pronouns substitute for NPs.  The example sentence below contains a  single bolded NP, and the pronoun it can substitute for the phrase:
 (65) The discovery of penicillin was important.  
 (66) It was important.
Because pronouns substitute for NPs, we can find exactly where NPs begin and end with pronoun substitution.  For example, PPs can follow a noun.  In some cases the PP will be a postmodifier of the noun and therefore be a constituent of the NP.  An example of this occurs below:
 (67) Dr. Johnson wrote the book on the Roman Empire.
The pronoun, it, substitutes for the book on the Roman Empire as shown in (68):
 (68) Dr. Johnson wrote it.
Note that the pronoun cannot just substitute for just the book:
 (69) *Dr. Johnson wrote it on the Roman Empire.
In contrast, a  PP can follow a noun and not be a postmodifier of the noun; the PP is therefore not part of a NP, which can again be proven with pronoun substitution:
 (70) Dr. Johnson wrote the book on vacation.
 (71) Dr. Johnson wrote it on vacation.
In  (71) the pronoun substituted for just the book, so on vacation is not part of the NP.  Some readers might argue that it can also substitute for the book on vacation.  However, it is easy to demonstrate that the PP, on vacation, is not a part of the NP headed by book.  If a PP follows a noun, it is either a postmodifier of the N and therefore part of the NP, or it is an adverbial.  If it is an adverbial, it may answer constituent questions beginning with where or when, which always elicit adverbial responses.  If you ask the following question,
 (72 ) When did Dr. Johnson write the book?
the answer is
 (73) on vacation
clearly indicating that on vacation is a PP functioning adverbially.

 

The Functions of Phrases
When phrases are constituents in a sentence, they perform grammatical functions in the sentence.  Adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases generally perform the broad grammatical function of modification.  Noun phrases perform at  least six grammatical functions in sentences: subject of verb, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, and object of preposition.  The fifth phrase that we have examined, the verb phrase,  has the sole function of predicate.
Modifiers
When a constituent is a modifier, it restricts the interpretation of the word or phrase  that it modifies.  Imagine that you want someone to locate a book in your home.  If you were to say "Find the book," the person you instructed would not be able to locate it, especially if you were the typical university professor who collects books in the same way that packrats collect sundry bits of string.  However, if you were to state, "Find the book with the red cover," you might expect more success though the task would still be formidable.  If you were to state, "Find the book with the red cover on the kitchen table," you could expect almost instantaneous success, provided that you do not keep a lot of books with red covers on the kitchen table.  Because the word book has been modified, its interpretation has been restricted; the more the modification, the more  restricted the interpretation, which is perhaps why politicians speak with a paucity of modifiers or worse yet use ones that are nearly devoid of semantic content.
Not only are adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases modifiers, they are almost always optional modifiers; that is, they can be deleted  without destroying the grammatical goodness of the sentence in which they are constituents:
(74) The students in the linguistics course had to attend a very long lecture in the auditorium.
The sentence above contains three phrases serving as optional modifiers, in the linguistics course, very long, and in the auditorium.  All three can be deleted from the sentence, leaving (75):
(75) The students had to attend a  lecture.
A major point is that phrases that can be deleted from a sentence are almost always optional modifiers, so deletion is a test for finding optional modifiers.
At times modifiers are not optional:
 (76) The students were in the auditorium.
Although in the auditorium is a modifier, it is not optional;  if it were deleted, the ungrammatical structure in (77) would be the result:
 (77) *The students were
The grammatical function of adjective phrases.  As discussed above, APs are modifiers of nouns, but more specifically they are usually premodifiers of a noun as exemplified in the following example:
 (78) the very boring lecture
In (78) the AP is very boring, and it occurs within a NP, a point that can be more clearly made by putting the NP in a short sentence and then substituting a pronoun for it.  Remember that pronouns substitute only for NPs:
 (79) The very boring lecture finally ended.  
 (80) It finally ended.
Some APs do not occur in NPs but rather after a sub-class of verbs known as intensive verbs, which will be discussed more fully in the following chapter:
 (81) The lecture was very boring.
As seen in (81), the AP, very boring, appears after the verb, was. That the AP is still modifying the NP, the lecture, can be demonstrated by using the simple test of  placing it in the NP acting as  the subject of the sentence; note that the resulting NP is the same as the one in (78):
 (82) the very boring lecture
Because the resulting NP in (82) is grammatical, very boring has to be an AP.
APs are not the only structures that modify nouns; others include prepositional phrases and adjective clauses.  When each of these modifies a noun, they occur in a NP, which again can be proven through the use of pronoun substitution:
 (83) The lecture on anaphora finally ended.  (Prepositional Phrase)
 (84) The lecture that I was forced to attend finally ended.  (Adjective Clause)
Again, a pronoun can substitute for the two NPs, meaning that (79), (83), and (84) can all be reduced to (80).  Any constituent that modifies a noun is called an adjectival, so APs, adjective clauses, and prepositional phrases that are postmodifiers of nouns are adjectivals.
The grammatical functions of adverb phrases.  Although AdvPs are modifiers, they have a number of more specific functions.  Some occur within an AP and modify the A as in (85):
 (85) delightfully dishonest
Other AdvPs occur only in a VP and consequently are called predicate adverbs; they essentially modify the rest of the predicate:
 (86) The audience completely ignored the speaker.
Predicate adverbs can move within the predicate as in (87), but they cannot be moved out of it as in (88):
 (87) The audience ignored the speaker completely.
 (88) *Completely,  the audience ignored the speaker.
Other AdvPs that essentially modify the content of the entire sentence are called sentence adverbs; they can appear either in the VP or be moved out of it, usually to the beginning of the sentence:
 (89) Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
 (90) My dear, I don't give a damn, frankly.
Other syntactic units such as prepositional phrases and adverb clauses can also perform one or more of the adverbial functions just described; any constituent in a sentence that can perform one of these functions is an adverbial.  Constituents functioning as predicate and sentence adverbials are the most mobile in English; adverbials are also almost always optional modifiers, so any constituent that can be both deleted and moved is most likely functioning adverbially.  For example, look at the bolded PP in the sentence (91) below:
 (91) During the Great Depression, a quarter of the work force was unemployed.
If the PP is deleted, a grammatical sentence remains, demonstrating that that PP was an optional constituent:
 (92) A quarter of the work force was unemployed.
In addition, the PP can be moved to the end of the sentence, and the sentence is still grammatical as in (93).  Together these two tests reveal  that the PP is functioning as an adverbial:
 (93) A quarter of the work force was unemployed during the Great Depression.
Another way of testing for adverbials is through the use of constituent questions beginning with words such as when, where, why, or how.  As the name indicates, constituent questions always elicit constituents as responses, and constituent questions beginning with the four words above elicit constituents that only function adverbially.  For example, examine the bolded phrase in the sentence below:
 (94) WWII ended in 1945.
If you ask  the question in (95), the answer will be the phrase in  (96), so in 1945 is a constituent that is functioning as an adverbial in (94).
 (95) When did WWII end?
 (96) in 1945
The grammatical functions of prepositional phrases.  PPs are unlike APs and AdvPs in the range of grammatical functions that they can have.  APs are always adjectivals, and AdvPs are always adverbials, but PPs  can be adjectivals and adverbials:
 (97) I couldn't stop reading the book on the Sepoy Rebellion.  (adjectival)
 (98) The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.  (adverbial)
The PP in (97) is an adjectival because it occurs in a NP, which again can be proven with pronoun substitution.
 (99) I couldn't stop reading it.
As demonstrated in (99), the book  on the Sepoy Rebellion is a NP because the pronoun, it, substituted for the entire structure.  Because on the Sepoy Rebellion is inside the NP, it is an adjectival.  In contrast, in 1776 is an adverbial because it can move to the beginning of the sentence as in (100) and because it answers the constituent question in (101).
 (100) In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed.
 (101) When was the Declaration of Independence signed?
PPs also have other functions that will be discussed in a later chapter.
Noun Phrases and Verb Phrases
The grammatical functions of noun phrases.  Noun phrases  as constituents in sentences can have at least six grammatical functions.  Because these six functions will be  discussed in great detail in a later chapter,  they will be just briefly introduced here.  The six grammatical functions of NPs are  subject of verb (SV), subject complement (SC), direct object (DO), indirect object (IO), object complement (OC), and object of preposition (OP).  The function that a NP performs depends upon where it occurs in a sentence relative to other constituents.  This can best be demonstrated by using the same NP in six different sentences:
 (102) The Duke of Wellington commanded the British army in Spain.   (SV)
 (103) The victorious general at Toulouse was  the Duke of Wellington.  (SC)
 (104) No one defeated the Duke of Wellington.  (DO)
 (105) Lady Ashley gave the Duke of Wellington an ultimatum.  (IO)
 (106) The king made Arthur Wellesley the Duke of Wellington.  (OC)
 (107) Parliament received the resignation from the Duke of Wellington.  (OP)
In later chapters you will learn that constituents other than NPs can have the same grammatical functions as NPs, for example, noun clauses and that clauses among others. Any syntactic structure that can perform any of the six grammatical functions above and that can be replaced by a pronoun  is called a nominal.
 (108) Some students forgot that the date for the exam was changed.  
 (109) Some students forgot it.
 (110) The government will prosecute whoever set off the bomb.  
 (111) The government will prosecute them.
Sentences (108) and (110) above contain a that clause and a noun clause respectively.  Both types of clauses are nominals because a pronoun substitutes for each as displayed in (109) and (111).
The grammatical function of the verb phrase.  The final phrase is the VP, and it has a single grammatical function, that of predicate.  However, even though the VP has only a single function, the predicate, the two terms are not synonymous.  VP is a syntactic category referring to phrases that have a particular internal structure as exemplified in (17).  Predicate, on the other hand,  is a functional category, one that shows the grammatical purpose of a particular constituent in a sentence.  The predicate is important in the analysis of English clauses because it is one of the two major constituents in which the clause can be divided, the second being the subject.
Subject and Predicate
Every English clause minimally consists of a subject and a predicate.  The phrase constituting the subject is a noun phrase or some other nominal.  The verb phrase of a clause is the predicate.  Given that each clause consists of two immediate constituents, the task of determining the boundary between them should be quite easy, and it is with a few admonitions. 
Subject and Predicate in Simple Declarative Sentences
Simple sentences consist of a single independent clause as exemplified in the sentence below:
 (112) The Germans scuttled the Graf Spee in 1939.
The predicate of a sentence usually begins with the verb group.  The sentence above contains the one-word verb group, 'scuttled,' so the entire verb phrase and hence the complete predicate is 'scuttled the Graf Spee in 1939.'  The subject is the noun phrase that occurs before the predicate, 'the Germans,'  giving us the following boundary between the two constituents:
 (113) The Germans || scuttled the Graf Spee in 1939.
As long as you can identify the first word of a verb group, you can find the boundary between the subject and the predicate.  Many verb groups will contain one or more auxiliary verbs,  so one potential problem in finding the predicate is determining the first auxiliary in the verb group.  Fortunately, this task is also quite easy; look at the example sentence below.
 (114) Napoleon should have invaded Russia.
To find the first auxiliary of a verb group, simply make the sentence negative:
 (115) Napoleon should not have invaded England.
The negative particle 'not' always occurs after the first auxiliary of a the verb group, so in sentence (114) 'should have invaded Russia' is the predicate, and 'Napoleon' is the subject:
 (116) Napoleon || should have invaded Russia.
Though finding the subject and predicate in simple declarative sentences is normally quite easy, a number of possible problems arise as discussed in the next four sections.

Declarative Sentences with Sentence Adverbials.  In the previous section we found the predicate of simple declarative sentences by  identifying the first word of the verb group; the predicate usually begins with the first word of the verb group and extends to the end of the sentence.  In turn, the subject is the NP before the first word of the verb group.  Some sentences, however, have adverb phrases that appear at the  beginning of the sentence and could therefore possibly be interpreted as part of the subject, but they are not as revealed in the sentences below:
 (117) Fortunately, the driver was not injured in the accident.  
 (118) The driver was not injured in the accident fortunately.
Even though sentence adverbs such as fortunately can appear at the beginning of a  sentence as in (117), they are part of the predicate.  Simply move them to the end of the sentence to find the subject as in (118).  In addition to adverbs, prepositional phrases can also perform the function of sentence adverbial;   they can also appear in both sentence-initial and sentence-final position as exemplified below:
 (119) In 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. 
 (120) Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.
In the sentences above, the prepositional phrase, in 1928, is functioning adverbially because it is possible to move it from the beginning of the sentence to the end.  A second way exists for demonstrating that sentence adverbials are not part of the subject;  the subject of a sentence is a NP or some other nominal; given that pronouns unambiguously  substitute for  NPs we can determine that the PP is not part of the NP.  For example, in  (119) the prepositional phrase is  not part of the subject because the pronoun he  substitutes for  Sir Alexander Fleming, not for in 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming:
 (121) In 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.  
 (122) In 1928 he discovered penicillin.
Another way of finding the subject is to first find the predicate as described in the previous section:  Find the first auxiliary, and everything from that word to the end of the clause is the predicate.  After finding the predicate, ask the question who or what of the predicate, and the answer will be the subject given that who and what form constituent questions always eliciting NPs as responses and that the subject of a sentence is a NP or other nominal.  Examine the following example that questions sentence (119):
 (123) Who discovered penicillin?
The answer is the subject of (119):
 (124) Sir Alexander Fleming
Note that testing with a constituent question works whether the sentence has a sentence adverbial at the beginning or not.  The answer will always be just the NP that is the subject.  For example, (125) would not be an appropriate response to (123):
 (125) *in 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming
In sum, to find the subject of a declarative statement that contains a sentence adverbial in initial position, simply move the adverbial back to the end of the sentence as demonstrated in (126) and (127):
 (126) In August 1893 Krakatoa exploded violently.  
 (127) Krakatoa exploded violently in August 1893.
The NP, Krakatoa, is now the sole constituent before the predicate, which can be proven by substituting a pronoun for it as in (128). 
 (128) It exploded violently in August 1893.
Another way of finding the subject whether the sentence has an initial sentence adverb or not is to find the predicate and ask a constituent question of it beginning with who or what: