關於愛，我是個小學生。

In Taiwan, many students as well as teachers are vexed with the catagories of various word groups, which hold together as a certain expression and sometimes consist with certain single entries sharing the same specific meanings. We call such word groups often as 'phrase'. Yet what on earth does a phrase refer to and what subdivisions are there in the general concept of 'phrase'? That's indeed a myth hard to crack and somehow worthy being discussed.

How to define 'phrase'? The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines as 'A sequence of words intended to have meanings'. The key word is 'a sequence', which means a continual linking of orders, one goes after another, back to back, shoulder to shoulder. So, to see it in different light, we may understand that a word group in which the words may not be in a sequence, that is, in series connection, such as 'not... untill', 'too... to', or 'so... that', cannot be conceived as 'phrases' while 'be able to', 'look at', or 'beat about the bush' in which the words are series connected with a cogent expression are 'phrases' proper.

However, in Longman, the version will be another rendition: 'A word or group of words read or spoden as a unit and separated by pauses or other junctures'. Namely, whether it is 'in a sequence' or not will no longer be put as emphasis. Namely still, we may no longer 'tell' a word group from a genuine phrase by only visual interpretation. As long as some words form themselves together as a consistant, characteristic, and commonly accepted expression, they are counted as phrases. How shall we Chinese, Orientals, or pagans know what 'phrase' actually means provided that the native speakers themselves can't find a clue about it and be in elegant accordance?

Interestingly enough, Collins English Dictionary elicits the meaning of 'phrase' explicitly like this: 'A group of words forming an immediate syntactic constituent of a clause.' Well, what does 'immediate' try to indicate here? In my opinion, we can apprehend that 'if and only if' as any group of words arouses an instant association with a certain image, an idea, an expression, or even a synonym can be catagorized under the 'phrase family'. But what if the understanding about the word 'immediate' varies? Your kinda 'immediate' equals only to my 'lento'; his 'immediate' is the exact as her 'presto'. And bizarre also, why does a phrase have its function work only in a 'clause' rather than a 'sentence'? So, by which means can people decently put all word groups together and bracket them out? Or we take all the words just as they appear, devouring them up without making a single hiccough? If so, then learning English is really a long, long way to go.

To be a phrase or not to be, that is the question.