Introducing English Linguistics

Table 5.3. Idiomatic combinations of prepositions with nouns, 
verbs, and adjectives
Category
Examples
Nouns
an expert 
in aerodynamics, an authority on golf, a fight over
money, the pick of the litter
Verbs
call off the meeting, tear up the contract, get on with your
life, cave in to their demands, talk through his problems,
track down the order
Adjectives
prone to anxiety, low on money, jealous of his brother, 
satisfied with the results

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since in an example such as the one above, one could embed preposi-
tional phrases in noun phrases ad infinitum. In practice, however, there
are obvious limitations on embedding: excessive embedding leads to
lengthy constructions that are not just stylistically awkward but difficult
to interpret.
The verb phrase
In general, linguists and grammarians have offered fairly similar defini-
tions of the noun phrase. However, there are two varying perspectives on
the verb phrase: one providing a relatively constrained definition of the
verb phrase, the other a more expansive definition.
For Quirk et al. (1985), the verb phrase contains two components: an
obligatory  lexical verb (or “full verb,” to use their terminology), which
acts as head of the verb phrase, and one or more optional auxiliary verbs.
If there are any auxiliary verbs in the verb phrase, they will always precede
the lexical verb, with modal auxiliaries coming first and primary auxil-
iaries
second. In the example below, the verb phrase begins with the
modal auxiliary can, which is followed by the primary auxiliary be and
then the lexical verb read:
Certainly, a lot can be read into a hairstyle. 
(BNC A7N 698)
Lexical verbs are an open class – new lexical verbs are continuously
being added to the English language – and can be classified as regular or
irregular
. Table 5.4 lists the five forms that all lexical verbs take and con-
tains examples of regular verbs as well as irregular verbs.
English syntax
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