Inflectional Phrase - Definition

Definition

An inflectional phrase is a phrase which contains as its head an abstract category called Infl (short for 'inflection'). the Infl head bears inflectional properties such as tense and person, and may or may not be realised as separate words in the surface representation of the phrase. The other usual components of the IP are a Verb phrase (VP) which is the complement of the phrase, and a Noun phrase (NP) which is structurally the specifier of the phrase, and structurally the subject of the phrase. In this analysis, every simple sentence (i.e. one which is not coordinated) is an IP.

Read more about this topic:  Inflectional Phrase

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is relative; and the definition of it becomes unmeaning and useless in proportion to its abstractness. To define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, not to find a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of aesthetics.
    Walter Pater (1839–1894)

    ... we all know the wag’s definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this—”devoted and obedient.” This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.
    Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)