Phrases: Definition, Type and Discrimination in old type and new type.

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Phrases are words or group of words within sentence that can discriminate by their type and function. I will explain 3 parts of phrase including their definition, their types and how to discriminate them both in old type (emphasize on grammar structure) and new type (emphasize on easy to remember).
I will start with the definition of phrases. According to Whitesmoke (2002) Phrases is the group of words that have no both subject and predicate; it also couldn’t stand alone as a clause or a sentence. It means that they must have more than 1 word to be phrase, they also have their own meaning but they can’t stand alone (lack of subject or verb or the passive) as a sentence because of their lack of full meaning. For example: some black cats (lack of subject)/ the girl that I love (noun phrase). However, there is an argument that only a single word can also be phrase too. TutorMax (2011) explains that only a single word can also be phrase. For example: They/ Jack/ I (can also be noun phrase). In my opinion, I agree with TutorMax because a single word also has its own meaning and can be phrase too.
Next, I will talk about types of phrase and how can you discriminate them. The types of phrase have been discriminated into 2 main types, the old type that discriminate the structure, and the new type which discriminate the word type. I will start with the old type which I use to learn from high-school. This type is harder than the new one and can make many students confusing. According to Simmons (1997) to identify types of phrase, we need to know the types of phrase and its grammatical rule and structure clearly. There are 5 types of phrase including Gerund Phrase that will begin with –ing word and always function as noun. They can wo...

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..., verb, adverb, adjective and preposition. For example, to identify noun phrase, you only have to look for noun (I, He, Tommy) and to identify verb phrase, only look for verb (run, swim, watching, jump). If you want to identify which type, you just look for that word type in that sentence. If you have a good knowledge at basic word type in path of speech, you can also use them to identify the phrase too. We can call it “Two birds, one stone” for this new type.
In conclusion, Phrase has the conflict in itself. We can see that both of their definition and type are different, the old type that stick to structure rule; and the new type that easy to remember. However, if we need to choose, I recommend new one because it easy for student to learn and remember. I’m sure that “More easy to learn, more easy to love”. We better improve and walk forward to the better future.

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