Syntax ( How Do We Identify Constituent?)

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HOW DO WE IDENTIFY CONSTITUENT? By: A Z Z M .

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What is CONSTITUENT?

Constituent in Syntax In English grammar, a constituent is a linguistic part of a larger sentence, phrase, or clause. For instance, all the words and phrases that make up a sentence are said to be constituents of that sentence. A CONSTITUENT CAN BE A MORPHEME A WORD

A CLAUSE

A PHRASE

2 Discovering Structure of Sentences

EVIDENCE OF STRUCTURE IN SENTENCES One way to show that syntactic structure actually exists is to examine sentences which are syntactically ambiguous; that is, sentences which have more than one meaning. FOR EXAMPLE: Lee went down to the bank. Does this mean ‘the river bank’ or ‘the place where money is kept’? In other cases, though, ambiguity arises because we can't tell which words group together to form a phrase.

Other Examples:

Structural Ambiguity

1.Black cab drivers went on strike yesterday a. Black [cab drivers] went on strike. b. [Black cab] drivers went on strike. 2. The boy and the girl’s uncle stayed to dinner. a. [The boy and the girl]’s uncle stayed. b. The boy and [the girl]’s uncle stayed.

In (1a), cab drivers forms a constituent, whereas in (1b), black cab forms a constituent. A constituent is a set of words that forms a phrase in a sentence. If you say aloud the distinct phrases in (1), you’ll probably fi nd that they each have a different intonation pattern; sometimes we show by our intonation which words group together to form constituents.

Constituency Tests Most often a speaker has an intuition as to which strings of word form a constituent. However, when this information is not clear, various ‘tests’ can be applied to identify the constituent structure of a sentence. A string of words need pass only test as evidence of a constituent. Furthermore, not every test will work in every situation.

1. The Question Test – Can the candidate constituent be used to answer a question? If a group of words can answer a question, it most likely is a constituent. [The French cooks] [love to bake] [chocolate eclairs]. The question “Who loves to bake chocolate eclairs?” can be answered by the constituent ‘The French cooks’ but not by ‘The French’, or ‘The French cooks love’. The questions “What do the French cooks love?” can be answered by “to bake chocolate eclairs’ but not by ‘bake chocolate eclairs’.

constituency test 2. The Movement Test– Can the candidate constituent be moved elsewhere in the sentence while maintaining grammaticality? The ability to move, or topicalize a string of words, resulting grammatical sentence is evidence of a constituent. a. No one would ride in the car with Henry [because he hadn’t showered.] We can topicalize ‘because he hadn’t showered’ and maintain grammaticality. b. [Because he hadn’t showered], no one would ride in the car with Henry. However if only a subset of this constituent is moved, an ungrammatical sentence results. c. * [Because he hadn’t] no one would ride in the car with Henry showered.

constituency test 3. The Substitution/Replacement Test– Can the candidate constituent be replaced with a pro-form? The ability to replace a string of words with an NP or VP pro-form is evidence of a constituent. a. [Todd and his classmates] like the Eagles. b. [They] like the Eagles. But Not c * [They] classmates like the Eagles. a. Michelle [walked to the zoo]. b. Michelle [did]. But Not c *Michelle [did] to the zoo.

Constituency Tests

4. The Ellipsis Test– Can the candidate constituent be deleted? A constituent may be, in certain structures, elided or deleted. If the entire constituent is not included in the deletion, an ungrammatical structure results. a. After the hosts taste the wine, then we will. (taste the wine) But Not b * After the hosts taste the wine, then we will taste. (the wine)

5. The Passivisation Test – Can the candidate constituent change places with a different argument in the sentence? If the subject and object can be reversed, or found in differing locations in a passive construction, and result in a grammatical sentence we can reliably say that each arguments is a constituents. In passivisation, the object moves to the subject position and the subject is lowered to an optional ‘by phrase’. a. [The foolish five year old] teased [Susan’s remarkably short brother.] b [Susan’s remarkably short brother] was teased by [the foolish five year old.]

constituency test 6.

The Coordination Test– Can the sentence be modified so that the

candidate constituent appears coordinated with a structurally similar constituent? If a phrase can be paired with another of the same syntactic category using a coordinating conjunction, then it forms a constituent. a. Reggie ate a tuna-fish sandwich for lunch. We can test the VP [ate a tuna-fish sandwich for lunch] by adding another VP. b Reggie [ate a tuna sandwich for lunch] and [played with a soccer ball in the park.] VP VP But Not c * Reggie [ate a tuna sandwich for lunch] and [with a soccer ball in the park.] VP PP b is evidence that [ate a tuna-fish sandwich for lunch] is a constituent.

Constituents Structure Tree

Constituents Structure Tree

RELATIONSHIP WITHIN THE TREE • It’s common to use LABELLED BRACKETS or LABELLED TREE DIAGRAMS in which each relevant constituent has a label showing its category. • The trees include word class and phrase class labels such as V, VP, PP, P, NP, and so on, telling us that what’s beneath that label is a PP, or a P, or an NP etc. • Tree diagrams can be drawn to show very detailed information about the syntactic structure of a phrase or sentence, or alternatively, some of the finer details can be omitted. Linguists choose to put more or less detail into their trees depending on what information they want to convey. • DEFINITION OF A CONSTITUENT IN A TREE DIAGRAM • A set of elements forms a constituent in a tree diagram if and only if there is a single node that dominates just these elements, and no other items.

Tree Diagram

DEVELOPING DETAILED TREE DIAGRAMS AND TESTS FOR CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PHRASAL VERBS AND PREPOSITIONAL VERBS A. PHRASAL VERBS A phrasal verb is a verb like pick up, turn on or get on with. These verbs consists of a basic verb + another word or words Example : verb + object + adverb → I switch the computer on.

B. PREPOSITIONAL VERBS

B C D

A prepositional verb is an idiomatic expression that combines a verb and a preposition to make a new verb with a distinct meaning. Example : verb + preposition + object → The cat jumped on the computer.

Developing Detailed Tree Diagrams • Applying some constituent structure tests – These fishermen switched on the shipping forecasts. – These fishermen relied on the shipping forecast. – switched on is a phrasal verb: • [V switch on] – relied on is a prepositional verb : • [V rely] [PP on…] The NP VP split of S reflects the split between subject and predicate of a sentence. • Here ‘predicate’ refers to a constituent consisting of the verb and all its modifier--complements and adjuncts. • In another usage, ‘predicate’ just refers to the verb (or to the predicate adjective or noun in languages without copulas).

An Introduction to the bar notation – The head noun together with its complement forms a constituent smaller than an NP. • I admired [NP the director’s treatment of the issues] • I admired [NP the director’s treatment of the issues] and [NP her sensitivity to the problems] • I admired [NP the director’s treatment of the issues and sensitivity to the problems]

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share your ideas? By: A Z Z M .

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