Group Structure: The Other Groups

Abstract

Although the noun group is the most important group in a sentence, we should not underestimate the significance of the verb group and the adverb or prepositional groups which realise the functions of predicator and adjunct respectively. That the noun group carries more weight in sentence structure can be readily appreciated from the stress pattern of poetry. It is difficult to imagine a noun acting as the head of a noun group which does not carry stress, but this need not apply to the head of a verb group. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129, for example, the verbs in the first sentence do not carry stress:

Is lust in action, and till action, lust Is periurd, murdrous, blouddy full of blame.