The Verb Phrases

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The Verb Phrases Verb phrase is the second part of the basic sentence, and it functions as a predicate. One constituent that the VP must contain is the VERB GROUP (Vgrp), and the Vgrp consists of (Auxiliary) verb or (Lexical) verb which is optionally preceded by other (Auxiliary) verbs. We can distinguish between the auxiliary verb and the lexical verb by: 1- Making questions. Or 2- Adding inflections. Some words can belong to more than on category such as: (Interest, Present, content). Verb Groups and Complements A- Intransitive verbs Examples: 1- Ali slept. 2- *Ali slept Ahmed. (Intransitive verbs can't be followed by NP) 3- Ali slept in the garden.(Optionally PP) Another example: 1- He died. 2- *He died the man. 3- He died in Amman. (Sighed, sunbathed) - Ergative verbs: verbs that can be both transitive and intransitive. Examples: 1- The ice melted. 2- The window broke. 3- The topic changed. 4- Many factories closed. (Fly, drive, walk, sink, bake, sailed, turn) B- Transitive Verbs - Monotransitive Verbs: Verbs that require a single NP. to complement it. Examples: 1- The cat bit me. 2- I ate the apple. 3- He opened the door. 4- We finished our work. - Ditransitive Verbs: Verbs that require two NPs as its complementation. Examples: 1- Ali passed Anas the Ball. (to) 2- She is baking us a cake. (for) 3- He gave her ten dollars. (to) 4- My uncle bought his wife a golden ring. (for) (Told, shown, Found) - The indirect object can be specified by (NP) or (PP containing to or for). - Intensive Verbs: Vgrp require a single complement which can be AP, or NP, or PP. Examples: 1- He was in the class.(PP) 2- She is a teacher. (NP) 3- Ali is intelligent. (AP) The most obvious intensive verb is (be). Other intensive verbs are:

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