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Richard W Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Verb and noun phrases

Hi, was just hoping for some clarification to see if I've got this right. Could the phrase "Rules ignored" be read in two ways, both as a noun and a verb phrase? Such as:

Rules were ignored - verb phrase
Ignored rules - noun phrase.

I'm not too good with this sort of thing, so any help would be much appreciated, thanks!
  

Top answer

In my opinion, you have it exactly right. Both readings (meanings) are possible. I'm sure you understand that these are not sentences, but perhaps headings above lists.

— Avangi

  • In my opinion, you have it exactly right.
  • Both readings (meanings) are possible.
  • I'm sure you understand that these are not sentences, but perhaps headings above lists.
  • Often these designations are determined by the way the phrase is used in a sentence.
  • " (with the period) happens to be a complete sentence.
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3 Answers
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Richard WRules were ignored - verb phrase
Ignored rules - noun phrase.In my opinion, you have it exactly right. Both readings (meanings) are possible.

I'm sure you understand that these are not sentences, but perhaps headings above lists.

Often these designations are determined by the way the phrase is used in a sentence.
"Rules were ignored." (
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I'd just add that in "Rules were ignored", the underlined sequence is the verb phrase, and "Rules" is the subject. In your second example, "Ignored rules" is indeed a noun phrase with "rules" as the head (main word) of the phrase and "ignored" as its modifier. "Ignored", here, is the past-participle of the verb "ignore"; it's function is very much like that of an adjective (cf "strict/terr
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Hi, Bill. Thanks for the definition of "head of the phrase." I've been laboring under a misapprehension. Emotion: surprise (probably no news)
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