Editing Phrase (section)

==Variation among theories of syntax==

Theories of syntax differ in what they regard as a phrase. For instance, while most if not all theories of syntax acknowledge the existence of [[verb phrase]]s (VPs), [[Phrase structure grammar]]s acknowledge both [[finite verb]] phrases and [[non-finite verb]] phrases while [[dependency grammar]]s only acknowledge non-finite verb phrases. The split between these views persists due to conflicting results from the standard empirical diagnostics of phrasehood such as [[constituent (linguistics)|constituency tests]].<ref>For empirical arguments against finite VP's, see Miller (2011:54f.) and Osborne (2011:323f.).</ref>

The distinction is illustrated with the following examples:

::The Republicans '''may nominate Newt'''. <small>- Finite VP in bold</small>
::The Republicans may '''nominate Newt'''. <small>- Non-finite VP in bold</small>

The syntax trees of this sentence are next:

::[[File:Phrase 2.jpg|Phrase picture 2]]

The constituency tree on the left shows the finite verb string ''may nominate Newt'' as a constituent; it corresponds to VP<sub>1</sub>. In contrast, this same string is not shown as a phrase in the dependency tree on the right. However, both trees, take the non-finite VP string ''nominate Newt'' to be a constituent.