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[[pencil]] √ Begin [[/pencil]]

Syntactic Meaning

The Eng. actor - action constr. has universality. It is the "favorite sentence type" of English. In any given utterance, an expression which is not in a constr. with any other part of the utterance is a "sentence" ([[underlined]] Fire! [[/underlined]] or [[underlined]] Jon ran away [[/underlined]]. [[strikethrough]] ) [[/strikethrough]] The former is a "minor sentence", the latter a "full sentence". There are 2 other types of "full sentence in Eng: "commands" [[strikethrough]] ( [[/strikethrough]] and "collocations" The latter is an archaic type - such as [[underlined]] The more the merrier [[/underlined]]. The Eng. passive constr. is a matter of syntax. The Latin passive is a morphological category. 

Closely related to the meaning is the "ordering" of the constituents. We must always analyze a phrase into its "immediate constituents". If one of the immediate constituents of a phrase should in turn be a phrase, this would have a constr. of its own & would have to be analyzed similarly into its own immediate constituents, & so on, until finally the smallest constituent phrase had been broken up into words. Thus, in syntax the "ultimate constituents" of any phrase are words. 

The Function of Phrases

If a phrase has the same function as one or more of its immediate constituents, it is an "endocentric phrase" & has an "endocentric construction". [[underlined]] Fresh milk [[/underlined]] has the constr. as [[underlined]] milk [[/underlined]]. One constituent is the [[underlined]] "head" [[/underlined]] & the other the "attribute"

If a phrase does not have the same function as any of its immediate constituents, it is an "exocentric phrase" and has an "exocentric construction." - as prep. & object in [[underlined]] for John, in fresh milk [[/underlined]]. These phrases are not preps. & are not substantive expressions; they function rather as attributes of nouns ([[underlined]] a present for John [[/underlined]]), of verbs ([[underlined]] wait for John [[/underlined]]), & of adjs ([[underlined]] good for John [[/underlined]]). An exocentric constr. has neither a head nor an attribute. Actor - action phrases are exocentric. They enter into construction with subordinating conjunctions ([[underlined]] when John ran away [[/underlined]]) and with subordinate clauses ([[underlined]] Just as we reached the hill, our horses ran away [[/underlined]])