Introducing English Linguistics

Expanding the scope of the verb phrase.
Because Quirk et al. (1985)
restrict the verb phrase to consisting of only an obligatory lexical verb and
one or more optional auxiliaries, they would schematize the verb phrase
in the sentence I called my mother as diagrammed in Figure 5.1.
126
INTRODUCING ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

---

Aarts and Haegeman (2006: 130) argue for this analysis on the grounds
that called my mother is a single unit rather than separate constituents in
the sentence. As support for this claim, they note that if the pro-verb do
were used to substitute for a part of the above sentence, do would substi-
tute for both the verb and noun phrase, not just the verb. Therefore, if
someone inquired “Did you call your mother,” a possible reply would be
“Yes, I did” with did substituting for called my mother. Substitution, as
noted earlier, is one test for constituency.
Aarts and Haegeman (2006) provide additional evidence for including
other elements in the verb phrase, such as adverb phrases. In an earlier
discussion of the adjective phrase, it was noted that certain kinds of
adverb phrases can occur within the adjective phrase and be used to inten-
sify adjectives, as very does in the adjective phrase very nice. However, there
is a second kind of adverb phrase that is quite moveable in a clause and as
According to the tree diagram in Figure 5.1, the two noun phrases and
the verb phrase are separate constituents in the sentence (labeled as S): the
final noun phrase, for instance, is not embedded in the verb phrase.
Others, however, have claimed that post-verbal noun phrases such as my
mother are not separate constituents in the sentence but embedded in the
verb phrase, as diagrammed in Figure 5.2.
English syntax
127
S 
NP VP 
NP 
Pro V
det 
N 
 I
called   
my 
mother
FIGURE
5.1
The verb phrase in Quirk
et al. (1985).
S 
NP VP 
N
V 
NP 
 
I
called    det 
 N 
my 
mother  
FIGURE 5.2
Alternative view of the
verb phrase (Aarts and
Haegeman 2006).

---

a result can occur in many different positions. For instance, consider the
positions in which the adverb only occurs in the examples below:
I was the only teacher in the whole school who did not have textbooks 
(SBCSAE)
The planner is set up so you can only choose one action for each state.
(MICASE DEF270SF061)
In the first example, only is focusing the head noun teacher, stressing that
the teacher was the only instructor in the school without textbooks.
Because only occurs between the article the and the head noun teacher, it
makes sense to say that only is part of the noun phrase. In the second
example, only occurs between the modal auxiliary can and the lexical verb
choose. By the same logic, one would have to claim that only is part of the
verb phrase. To claim otherwise (i.e. that only is outside the verb phrase),
Aarts and Haegeman (2006: 129) argue, one would have to allow for a verb
phrase that is “discontinuous”; that is, that can and  choose in the above
example are literally split in two and would constitute separate verb
phrases separated by an adverb phrase containing only. Since such a con-
stituent structure is implausible, it makes sense to say that verb phrases
must be expanded to include adverb phrases as well.
Adverbs, which serve as heads of adverb phrases, are a very heteroge-
neous form class. As Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 563) comment, “the
adverb is a miscellaneous or residual category – the category to which
words are assigned if they do not satisfy the more specific criteria for
nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and conjunctions.” Although
Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 264) attempt to limit the number of items
included in the class of adverbs, the class is still very large and diverse.
While many adverbs end with the suffix -ly, this is not always the case.
For instance, the sentence below contains four adverbs ending in -ly:
A single-volume history has recently been courageously and skillfully
attempted by Hugh Honour and John Fleming, which inevitably suffers
from the problem of compression. 
(BNC AO4 450)
The first adverb, recently, is a time adverb, a class including other adverbs
ending in -ly, such as momentarily and  temporarily. However, other time
adverbs, such as now and then, do not end in -ly. Moreover, some words end-
ing in -ly, such as lovely and  lonely, are not adverbs at all but attributive
adjectives, because they occur before nouns:
It’s a lovely dress.
(BNC FS1 1260)
The remaining adverbs illustrate other adverb-types. The words coura-
geously and skillfully are manner adverbs: adverbs that can be paraphrased
as ‘in a courageous manner’ or ‘in a skillful manner.’ The last adverb,
inevitably, is part of a large class of adverbs that Quirk et al. (1985: 620) label
as content disjuncts: adverbs that enable a speaker or writer to “comment
on the content of what he [or she] is saying [or writing].” In the above
128
INTRODUCING ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

---

example, the writer uses the adverb inevitably to express his view that
because the book was only one volume in length, it did not contain
enough detail.
Although it is common for adverb phrases to be one word in length, if
the adverb head expresses degree it can be intensified with the same
adverbs used to intensify adjectives: