AKA:

• noun groups are also known as noun phrases
• verb groups are also known as verb phrases
• in functional grammar, sentences are sometimes called clause complexes

Examples

🧾Definition

Although you could describe any text as simply a collection of words chained together, like carriages on model train set, it is more helpful to think of the ways that words are grouped together in to meaningful units, like different sized blocks of Lego.

• Sentences are formed by one or more clauses and are separated in writing with sentence-final punctuation (periods, exclamation points, or question marks).
• Clauses contain groups of nouns and verbs that are connected together; for example, the simplest clause contains a subject and verb and sometimes an object.
• The verb group (verb phrase in traditional grammar) contains the main verb in the clause and any auxiliary or modal verbs that are needed
• Noun groups start with a head noun and can be expanded by adding articles (a, an, the), adjectives, prepositional phrases and other modifiers.

Or, taken in the opposite direction, we can say that words are combined in groups that form clauses which may be connected into longer sentences.

🔬Discovery

✅Form

• In functional grammar, every clause has a verb, or more technically, a verb group
• Clauses that have a subject and a verb are known as finite clauses; this includes imperatives (commands), which don’t have subjects (e.g. Sit down!).
• Clauses that have a verb without a subject (except for imperatives) are known as non-finite clauses.