Verb Phrase

动词短语

The term is used in two senses. Traditionally, it refers to a group of verbs which together have the same syntactic function as a single verb, e.g. is coming, may be coming, get up to. In such phrases (verbal groups, verbal clusters), one verb is the main verb (a lexical verb) and the others are subordinate to it (auxiliary verbs, catenative verbs). A verb followed by a non-verbal particle (similar in form to a preposition or adverb) is generally referred to as a phrasal verb.

In generative grammar, the verb phrase (VP) has a much broader definition, being euqivalent to the whole of the predicate of a sentence, as is clear from the expansion of S as NP + VP in phrase-structure grammar.

有两个涵义，传统上指几个动词组合在一起，其句法功能有如单个单词，例如is coming“正来”，may be coming“可能要来”，get up to“赶上”等。这类短语（动词组，动词丛）中，一个动词是主要动词（词汇动词）而其他动词是从属动词（助动词，连接动词）。一个动词后如果带一个非动词性小词（形式上类似于介词或副词）一般称作短语动词。

生成语法中，动词短语的定义要宽泛得多，相当于句子的整个谓语，这可从短语结构语法将S扩展为NP+VP中清楚地看出。