What are the phrasal categories of the bold constituents "my friendly neighbor" and "speedily but smoothly" in the following sentences: My...

Any phrase is a group of words that does not include both a subject (person or thing doing an action) and a verb (an action). Groups of words containing both subjects and verbs are instead called clauses. There are many different types of phrases, and the type is determined by the words contained in the phrase and the phrase's function.

In the first sentence, the phrase "my friendly neighbor" is a noun phrase.

A noun phrase contains a noun and its modifiers, such as adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives are words that give further meaning to or describe nouns; adverbs can be used to give further meaning to either verbs or adjectives. Noun phrases will also function as either a subject (person or thing doing the action) or an object (person or thing receiving the action). Dr. Victoria Mikelonis of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities gives us the following example of a noun phrase acting as a subject and containing an adjective:

• 
  The flight attendant drove to Rome.

Here, the phrase "the flight attendant" contains the noun attendant being described by the adjective flight. In addition, it is the flight attendant doing the action of driving. Therefore, we know the whole phrase is a noun phrase acting as a subject.

In the first sentence, the phrase "my friendly neighbor" contains the noun neighbor being modified by the adjective friendly, and it is the "friendly neighbor" who is doing the action of being away; therefore, we know the phrase is a noun phrase acting as a subject.

In the second sentence, "speedily but smoothly" is an adverbial phrase of manner.

Adverbial phrases contain adverbs and other modifying words such as adjectives. There can be adverbial phrases of time, which answer the question when something happened; adverbial phrases of place, which answer the question of where something happened; and adverbial phrases of manner, which answer the question of how something happened. The Cambridge Dictionary (2016) gives us the following example of a sentence containing an adverbial phrase of manner:

• We walked very carefully across the floor.

In this example, the adverbial phrase contains the adverb carefully, which is being modified by the adjective very. Plus, since the phrase explains in what manner the subject in the sentence walked, we know the phrase is an adverbial phrase of manner.

Likewise, in the second sentence, the phrase contains two adverbs: speedily and smoothly. Since the entire phrase explains in what manner the car was driven, we know the phrase is an adverbial phrase of manner.