Clauses consist of subject and predicate.

In phrases, there is a head, which defines what sort of phrase it is, and the other elements are dependents of the head. Phrases can contain dependents or without, and so clients is a noun phrase, and so is some clients. The subject precedes the verb in basic sentence structures, while following it in the interrogative construction. There is a distinction between function and category. Subject is a function, while NP is a category. When describing a subject, we are describing it in relation to the rest of the clause it is the subject of the clause; function is hence a relational concept. A category, in contrast, relates other expressions that are grammatically alike. Cat and cats are different words, but constitute the same lexeme, whereby they are different in terms of inflections (different inflectional forms of the same lexeme, i.e. the singular and plural forms of the lexeme cat respectively) Interjections are words like oh, hello, wow, ouch, etc., which forms a minor category of words. Traditional term, parts of speech, is used to call categories of words and lexemes, and there are 8 of such categories: noun, verb, adjective, determinative, adverb, preposition, coordinator, subordinator. The first six can function as the head of corresponding phrases. In verbs, the term situation is used for whatever expressed in a clause, and the verb is the chief determinant of what kind of situation it is, e.g. an action, an event, a state (know, understand). A verb in the past tense that is marked by inflection is termed a preterite. There are two classes of verbs: auxiliary verbs, which constitutes a small part of verbs, and the rest, lexical verbs. Auxiliary verbs have special properties, such as being able to precede the subject, which occurs in interrogatives. (e.g. can, do, has, will, would, may, shall, etc.), and are followed by another verb. Adjectives can occur in two major functions: attributive and predicative. In the attriutive use, it functions as a modifier within a NP structure. Most central adjectives are gradable, and can take on inflectional forms, such as those to compare (plain (without grade), comparative and superlative). Determinative is the name of the category, while determiner is the name of the function: this, that, some, any, many, few, one, three, third, etc. Adverbs usually function as modifiers of verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Preposition can function as dependents of a range of elements, especially verbs, nouns and adjectives. E.g. keen on golf, with keen (adj) as the element on which the PP is dependent. Coordination is marked between elements of equal syntactic status, where this syntactic equality is typically reflected in the ability for any one element to stand in place of the whole coordination (i.e. X = A & B. X = A. X = B.). Coordination is not a head + dependent construction. The central members of the subordinator category are that, whether, if. The addition of a subordinator to he did his best, which is a main clause, transform it into a subordinate clause, where now it is a dependent element within the structure of a larger clause, say I realize that he did his best, where

that is the subordinator, and the subordinate clause is dependent on the verb realize. That is often optional, but the clause still remains a subordinate.