Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Nino Kirvalidze
63
called an “adjunct”. Due to this feature, subordinate word-groups can be called 
“dominational.”
Subordinate connection is achieved by different classes of words, prepositions 
(i.e. prepositional government) and word-order. Cf.: 
a pretty girl
( 
girl
= a head-word, 
pretty
= an adjunct, i.e. modifier); 
a book of stories
( 
book
= a head-word,
of stories
= prepositional ad-
junct); 
The head and the adjunct of a subordinate word-group are its immediate con-
stituents. The head is that part of a subordinate word-group which can replace the 
whole word-group in a sentence. The adjunct is the part of a subordinate word-
group which cannot be substituted for the head. 
According to the head, subordinate word-groups can be classified into: 

noun-groups:
a sleepless night 
; 

verb-groups:
to work hard 
; 

adjective-groups:
extremely clever 
;

adverb-groups:
quite near
, 
very quickly 
; 

pronoun-groups:
some of the students
. 
Noun-groups and verb-groups are the most wide-spread types of word-groups 
in modern English. According to the structure, subordinate word-groups are classi-
fied into:

simple (unextended) word-groups, consisting of two notional words: 
an 
interesting book
, 
very tired
, etc. 

complex (extended) word-groups, comprising more than two notional 
words:
a very interesting book
; 
to work pretty hard
, etc. 
2.
coordinate word-groups comprise elements which have the same syntactic func-
tion, being related to one another on an equal rank. Depending on this feature, this 
kind of word-groups can be called “equipotent.” For instance: 
Nick and John
; 
day 
and night
; 
came and went
; 
tired but happy
, etc.

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
64
3.
predicative word-groups are formed by a combination of a noun phrase or a pro-
noun in the objective case and a non-finite verbal form, reflecting the relationship 
between the logical subject and the predicate. Such are infinitival, gerundial or