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The difference between phrases and sentences

The functions of the fourth-level units of grammar are actually completely unbalanced. Morphemes, words, and phrases are static standby units, while sentences are the units of use, dynamic units, and the basic units for transmitting information. Take the phrases that are closest in form to sentences, but they are also fundamentally different. Let’s take a look with me below.

First of all, as a standby static unit, phrases have nothing to do with context, while sentences are closely integrated with a certain context and are specific to a certain person. It is used to convey certain information on certain occasions and for certain purposes. Therefore, the meaning of the same content, phrases and sentences may be very different. For example, "No Smoking", as a phrase, can be said to generally refer to the behavior of prohibiting smoking, but as a sentence, such as posting this slogan at a gas station or waiting room, it specifically refers to the fact that smoking is not allowed in this place, not Promoting anti-smoking. Another example is "No parking". The phrase means that cars cannot stop, and as a sentence, it specifically means that parking is not allowed where this slogan is posted. Otherwise, the car will have to be driven forever!

Secondly, precisely because of the context and the hints of superiority and inferiority, structural components of non-important information content in the sentence can be omitted. For example, "When are you going to go see a movie?" The answer must be "tomorrow" or "the day after tomorrow" or some other specific time. Generally speaking, we don't say "I'm going to go see a movie tomorrow". Such complete sentences are common in communication. It is an incomplete subject-predicate sentence, whether it is a question or an answer. As a phrase, such omission is impossible. It can be seen that the structure of sentences is relatively flexible in certain contexts.

Third, sentences convey information and have a certain tone, and correspondingly, phrases, as static backup units, do not represent any views or express any feelings, so they have no intonation. A sentence is a unit of expression. Therefore, every sentence must reflect a certain purpose of the speaker and express a certain tone. When people speak, they do nothing more than state facts, ask questions, issue exclamations, and make requests. Therefore, sentences must always reflect the tone of statements, questions, imperatives, and exclamations. In form, there are corresponding intonations as signs. As static language units, words and phrases have no purpose and therefore do not have a specific tone or intonation.

Fourth, the meaning of the phrase is uncertain and has no specific content, while the referent of the sentence is certain and must have specific content, not just meaning. Specifically, the nouns in the sentence all have references, and the verbs in the sentences all have descriptions. For example, "We will meet in the library tomorrow", if it is a phrase, who is "we", "tomorrow" refers to when (no time starting point), and which library "library" is, the references are all unclear. Yes, it can be said to be meaningless. But as a sentence, it's different. "We" must refer to the specific speaker and the listener, "tomorrow" refers to the next day when the speaker speaks, and "library" refers to the book that both the speaker and the listener know. pavilion. These implicit messages are understood by both the speaker and the listener. As a phrase, there is no such specific referential content.

There is a story about a restaurant owner who, in order to trick customers into coming to eat, wrote a big advertisement outside the door: There is no charge for eating tomorrow. When people saw it, they believed it and came to the restaurant to eat the next day. After finishing the meal and wiping their mouths and preparing to leave, the boss and the waiter stopped everyone and demanded payment for the meal. Everyone said, didn’t you say you would have free meals tomorrow? The boss said, yes, it will be free tomorrow, not today. Everyone had no choice but to pay. In fact, according to the difference between phrases and sentences, everyone can not pay at all, because the boss's advertisement is a sentence, and the referent of the words in the sentence is clear, and the message conveyed is clear. Tomorrow is the second day of the speech. . The boss confused the fundamental difference between phrases and sentences here, which is a scam. If we reason according to the boss's thinking, then "getting paid tomorrow" will be far away. This is impossible. If everyone knows the boss's conspiracy, they can also confront each other tit for tat and say, "I'll come for dinner tomorrow", then the boss's scam will be self-defeating.

The difference between sentences and phrases

(1) Definition

A sentence expresses a relatively complete meaning, with pauses before and after, and a certain intonation. People use The basic unit of language for communication. In writing, periods, question marks, or exclamation points are used to indicate pauses and intonation. For example:

I want to drink water!

The intonation of the whole sentence tends to decrease, and the decrease is larger, which is an exclamation tone.

(2) The difference between sentences, words and phrases

Words and words can form phrases. Words and phrases are structural units, and sentences are not from the perspective of structure, but from the perspective of use. divided. In other words, words and phrases are standby units, and sentences are usage units; words and phrases are static units, and sentences are dynamic units; words and phrases have a combination relationship, and words, phrases and sentences have a realization relationship.

1. The difference between the two is a qualitative difference

The difference between words and phrases and sentences does not lie in quantity, but in quality. No matter how small the quantity is, even if it is just one word, as long as it is accompanied by intonation, it is a sentence. For example:

"Water!" has different meanings in different contexts. When the patient was lying on the bed in a daze, he said softly, which meant "I want to drink water." When the army was marching rapidly in the dark ravine, the soldier walking in front suddenly shouted, which meant "There is water here, be careful not to step on it." When a group of people got lost in the desert and walked for several days, feeling dry and thirsty, the person walking in front suddenly shouted loudly, meaning "We finally found water."

No matter how large the amount is, even a dozen words or even dozens of words may still be a phrase. For example:

"The new partnership between China and Russia must be further consolidated and developed for the 21st century" as the predicate phrase, in "Both sides agree that it is necessary to further consolidate and develop the new partnership between China and Russia oriented towards the 21st century". "New Partnerships for the Twenty-First Century" is just a syntactic component. Only when it carries an intonation and is used in a certain context can it be realized as a sentence.

In the same way, a sentence is not necessarily a subject-predicate phrase. The subject-predicate phrase may also be just one component of the sentence, such as:

The subject-predicate phrase "He likes to play ball" only serves as the object in "I know he likes to play ball".

2. The complexity of sentence structure is inversely proportional to the degree of context dependence

When words and phrases are realized as sentences, the degree of dependence on context is inversely proportional to the complexity of their own structure. . The simpler the linguistic unit, the greater its dependence on context. The more complete a language unit is, the less dependent it is on context and the less ambiguous it is. Such as:

a. Water.

b. Drink water.

c. I want to drink water.

d. I want to drink water.