Phrases and Clauses

...the basic components of writing

These chapters are best viewed using Firefox. Internet Explorer causes misalignments and bad formatting. David McMurrey

Clauses at play

Phrases and clausesalong with parts of speech and parts of sentencesare the basic components of sentences. e fit these things together in infinite ways to create an infinite variety of sentences rather li!e parts of a highly complicated home entertainment system.

All about Phrases

" phrase is two or more words that lac! some semblance of both a sub#ect and verb. This rather vague definition will be clearer when you see the definition of clauses and examples of them. Noun phrase. " noun and all its modifiers $articles% ad#ectives% adverbs modifying those ad#ectives&. 'ome grammarians include

prepositions that modify the noun. Noun phrase: An entirely new culture emerges when people can work together to build a wiki.
Phrase: " phrase is a group of related words that does not include a sub#ect and verb.

Verb phrase. The parts of the verb that function as the grammatical verb of an independent or dependent clause. Verb phrases: People have said that creating a standard for wikis would bea good idea, and many proposals have been made for standardizing various aspects of wikis, but none have taken hold. "nybody can recogni(e a one) word verb. The verb phrases in this compound sentence $yes% three independent clauses& show you a nice range of examples. Prepositional phrase. " phrase made up of a preposition% and the phrase or clause that acts as its ob#ect. Prepositional phrase: One of the best ways to understand wikis is to see how wikis are different from many other tools for Internet-based communication such as email, blogs, bulletin boards, forums, content

management systems, and eb publishing systems. Three prepositional phrases here. $The dictionary doesn*t want to commit whethersuch as is a preposition+ it certainly functions li!e one&. ,otice that the phrase to see how wikis are different... is not a preposition+ it is an infinitive because it contains the verb see. Infinitive and infinitive phrase. "n infinitive is a phrase in its own right- to plus a verb% for example% to read. .owever% an infinitive phrase can also be the infinitive plus any phrase or clause associated with it. Infinitive phrase: One of the fastest ways to get an understanding of wikisis to see how wikis are different from many other tools for Internetbased communication such as e-mail, blogs, bulletin boards, forums, content management systems, and eb publishing systems. The second infinitive phrase contains an adverb clause- how...systems.
" gerbil pretending to be a noun

Gerund and gerund phrase. " gerund is an )ing form of a verb functioning as a noun in a sentence. " gerund phrase is the gerund

plus any phrase or clause associated with it. Gerund: !etween "##$ to "##%, entrepreneurs noticed the market opportunity for providing hosted wikis &also known as wiki farms' that that would allow people to create wikis without needing their own server or special skills. /oth these gerund function as ob#ects of the prepositions for and without. Appositive. "n appositive is a noun phrase along with any phraes or clauses associated with it% the composite of which 0renames0 a noun or pronoun. In the sentence (oan )oe, our mayor, dedicated the new school% the appositive is our mayor. Appositive: *nited +tates federal intelligence agencies,,the -IA, the .+A, the )efense )epartment, and others,, use a wiki to help gather, share, and analyze information. Particularly complex appositives for example% ones with their own internal punctuation% often use dashes as in this examples. Parentheses can also be used to set off appositives. Participial phrase. " participial is an -ing or -ed form

of a verbnot functioning as a noun. Instead% it and the phrases or clauses associated with it function as a modifier in a sentence. Participial phrase: Instead of physical ob/ects, pages in a wiki are electronic virtual ob/ects created by the wiki engine. Sentence predicate. It*s hard to !now where to put the predicate. It is simply everything after the sub#ect and its modifiers. Predicate: !efore "##%, the only way that you could use a wiki was to first set up a wiki engine on a server. also 0hus, to use a wiki, you had to have access to a server that was available through the Internet as well as the skills to set up and run a wiki engine. Sentence "subjecticate." This is made up1 If the predicate is everything after the sub#ect% why isn*t there a term for everything before the predicate2 In other words% the sub#ect and all its modifiers. This includes introductory elements. : !efore "##%, the only way that you could use a

wiki was to first set up a wiki engine on a server. If you are confident that you can identify the different types of phrases% use these two sets of exercises to test yourself Identify different types of phrases

" highly independent clause

All about Clauses

" clause is a group of words that contains the elements of a complete sentence specifically% something acting as a sub#ect and something acting as a verb. The two basic categories of clauses are independent clauses and dependent clauses.

Independent clause. " complete sentenceno matter how brief. It works is a complete sentence1 Dependent clause. "lmost a complete sentencesomething about the sub#ect or the verb is not complete. 3ependent clauses cannot stand on their own as complete sentences. Dependent clauses: A sandbo1 is a practice page on a wiki where you can become familiar with how wikis work. The highlighted dependent clause contains still another dependent clause within it- how wikis work. Adjective clause. " dependent clause that functions as an ad#ective and modifies a noun or pronoun. In other words% it adds extra information about that noun or pronoun. T o independent clauses: ard -unningham was interested in solving problems and sharing his ideas using his wiki creation, but he generously did not patent his creation. Ad!ective clause: A wiki is a collection of eb pages that anyone can edit.
"lause: " clause is a group of related words containing a sub#ect and a verb. In some dependent clauses% a relative pronoun $such as that or hich acts as placeholder for the sub#ect.

Adverb clause. " dependent clause that functions as an

adverb and modifies a verb $or possibly an ad#ective or adverb&. "dverbsincluding adverb clausesprovide how% when% where% why information to a sentence. Adverb clause: hen ard -unningham created the first wiki engine in 233$ and then released it on the Internet in 2334, he set forth a ma/or revolution. Noun clause. " dependent clause that functions as a noun in a sentence. ,oun clauses can act as sub#ects% direct ob#ects% and ob#ects of prepositions. Noun clause: People get involved with this technology when they learn how to solve their problems with wikis. This noun clause functions as the direct ob#ect of the verb learn. It doesn*t matter that this noun clause is located within an adverb clause.