# Phrase: Phrases and Utterances

Last update: 2006-12-13 09:36:48 CET

Produced by gfdoc - a rudimentary GF document generator. (c) Aarne Ranta (aarne@cs.chalmers.se) 2002 under GNU GPL.

        abstract Phrase = Cat ** {

When a phrase is built from an utterance it can be prefixed with a phrasal conjunction (such as but, therefore) and suffixing with a vocative (typically a noun phrase).

          fun
            PhrUtt   : PConj -> Utt -> Voc -> Phr ; -- But go home my friend.

Utterances are formed from sentences, questions, and imperatives.

            UttS      : S   -> Utt ;                -- John walks
            UttQS     : QS  -> Utt ;                -- is it good
            UttImpSg  : Pol -> Imp -> Utt;          -- (don't) help yourself
            UttImpPl  : Pol -> Imp -> Utt;          -- (don't) help yourselves
            UttImpPol : Pol -> Imp -> Utt ;         -- (don't) help (polite)

There are also 'one-word utterances'. A typical use of them is as answers to questions. Note. This list is incomplete. More categories could be covered. Moreover, in many languages e.g. noun phrases in different cases can be used.

            UttIP   : IP   -> Utt ;                 -- who
            UttIAdv : IAdv -> Utt ;                 -- why
            UttNP   : NP   -> Utt ;                 -- this man
            UttAdv  : Adv  -> Utt ;                 -- here
            UttVP   : VP   -> Utt ;                 -- to sleep

The phrasal conjunction is optional. A sentence conjunction can also used to prefix an utterance.

            NoPConj   : PConj ;
            PConjConj : Conj -> PConj ;             -- and

The vocative is optional. Any noun phrase can be made into vocative, which may be overgenerating (e.g. I).

            NoVoc   : Voc ;
            VocNP   : NP -> Voc ;                   -- my friend

        }