TERMS (the definitions below are simplified for our purposes and do not include some qualifications)

Verb Phrase: it has two meanings

    Meaning #1: the whole predicate of the sentence

    Meaning #2: the working main verb plus its auxiliaries

Nominal: a phrase that functions in the role of a noun (usually an NP– a noun phrase)

    It always answers the question "what" or "who" (HOOT)

    Usually it is a noun with its modifiers (an NP)

    Nominals are crucial parts of sentences (the subject or the object); they also can be unimportant parts of sentences when they are tied up by prepositions, since a prepositional phrase is never a subject or an object.  A prepositional phrase is always an adjectival or an adverbial, in other words a modifier within an NP or a VP)

Modifier: an adjectival or an adverbial (in other words something that modifies a noun or a  verb)

    Modifiers are usually within NP’s and VP’s

Adjectival: a phrase that modifies a noun (if it’s a single word, it’s often an adjective, but determiners (like "the") also modify nouns, and sometimes other nouns modify nouns, as in "The kitchen sink," which means "the sink in the kitchen" or "of the kitchen– not "the sink that is kitchen." If it were an adjective, it would mean "the sink that is kitchen", as in "the yellow sink," which means "the sink that is yellow."

Adverbial: a phrase that modifies a verb (if it’s a single word, it’s usually an adverb)

Preposition: a word that ties up an NP

    Together with its NP, the preposition forms a "Prepositional Phrase" (PP)

    PP’s always function as either adjectivals or adverbials (never as nominals

Verb Particle: the same group of words that constitutes prepositions.  When these words group  with the verb before rather than with the NP that follows, they are functioning as verb particles.

Transitive Verb: a verb that demands an object (a following NP)

    The resulting sentence pattern will be SVO

Intransitive Verb: A verb that is not following by an NP (an object). It can have many     many modifiers, but no NP.

    The resulting sentence pattern is SV

Linking Verb: The main verb (not an auxiliary) can be replaced by a form of "be"     (is/were/will be/etc.) or "become." A linking verb, by definition links: it is followed by either an NP or an AP that restates or describes the subject of the sentence. Most linking verbs are forms of "be" and "become." Sometimes verbs of the senses function as linking verbs, as in "The milk tasted strange" (=the milk was strange). "Tasted" in the preceding sentence functions as a linking verb because it is followed by an adjective that describes the subject of the sentence– "milk". Normally, adjectives are in front of the noun they modify or behind it (next to that noun). Linking verbs are the only time an adjective is found far away from the noun it modifies (on the other side of the verb).

The resulting sentence pattern is SV_LNP or SV_LAP  (AP=adjective phrase; NP=noun phrase; V with a subscript L=a linking verb).