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Immediate Constituents and Syntactical Constructions in The English Language
Immediate Constituents and Syntactical Constructions in The English Language
Immediate Constituents and Syntactical Constructions in The English Language
1, 2012
Constructions in the English Language sentence are the subject and the predicate
Abstract
(http://dictionary.reverso.net/englishdefinition/immediate%20consti
Every syntactic construction is made up of immediate constituent (IC), i.e., a term
used in grammatical analysis to refer to the major divisions that can be made tuent)
within a syntactic construction, at any level. For instance, the sentence “The boy In IC analysis, a sentence is divided up into major divisions or
is walking” has its immediate constituents as the boy and is walking. These in
immediate constituents, and these constituents are in turn divided
turn can be analysed in their immediate constituents to include: (the + boy, is +
walking). The process goes on until irreducible constituents are reached. This into further immediate constituents, and this process continues until
procedure is known as immediate constituent analysis or constituent analysis. irreducible constituents are reached i.e. until each constituent
Different constituents have different constructions. The study of constructions is consists of only a word or meaningful part of a word (morpheme).
important in that it helps us to compare languages and is also of use in dealing That is to say, sentences are regarded as hierarchies of interlocking
with the grammatical and syntactic analysis of a specific language. It also
smaller units, or constituents. After a sentence is cut into its
reduces ambiguity in language. This paper examines the immediate constituent
analysis and types of constructions we have in the English language, citing constituent elements, the two parts that are yielded are called
adequate examples. immediate constituents. Then, we get the smallest grammatical
Key words: constituents, immediate constituents, construction, endocentric and unit obtained through the division, or segmentation, which is seen
exocentric construction, coordinate and subordinate construction as the ultimate constituent. For example: the boy is smart. This
sentence can be divided into immediate constituents: “the boy” and
Introduction “is smart”. These in turn can be analyzed into immediate
Immediate Constituents constituents (the + boy) and (is + smart).
When we consider the sentence My friend came home late last The segmentation of the sentence up into its immediate constituents
night, we find out that it consists of seven words arranged in a by using binary cuttings until its ultimate constituents are obtained
particular order. In syntax, the seven words in this model sentence is an important approach to the realization of the nature of
are its ultimate constituents. This sentence and in general any language, called Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis).
sentence of the language may be represented as a particular The analysis can be carried out in ways of tree diagrams, bracketing
arrangement of the ultimate constituents, which are the minimal or any other. For example:
grammatical elements, of which the sentence is composed. Every
sentence has therefore what we will refer to as a linear structure.
The small units are known as its immediate constituents. (1) Poor| John║ ran |out.
Immediate Constituents Analysis
In Linguistics, Immediate Constituent Analysis, known as IC (2) Tree Diagram
analysis, is a method of sentence analysis first explicitly introduced
by an American linguist, Leonard Bloomfield; in his book The tree diagram is a visual description of each unit that constitutes
Language published in1933. It is a major feature of Bloomfeldian the constituents hierarchically. For example, as follows:
structural linguistics. Collins Dictionary Online defines immediate
constituent as a constituent64of a linguistic construction at the first
step in an analysis; for example, the immediate constituents of a
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Example (a) subject part, and ran away, the predicate part.
Poor John ran out
2. That some groups of words are syntactically equivalent to
single words. Thus, the group of words very rich is
equivalent syntactically to the single word poor in the
Poor John ran out expressions very rich man and poor man.|[p. 233]
3. That the analysis of a sentence yields a single unbroken
Poor John ran out
hierarchy of groups. For example, the sentence Poor John
ran away is analysed first into poor John and ran away. The
first of these two constituent parts of the sentence is in turn
Example (b) analysed into poor and John, and the second into ran and
S away. In no instance are discontinuous constituents
NP VP AdjP AdvP recognized, say poor ... away, nor do any constituents
overlap, as they would if we posited poor John and John ran
Det N Aux V Adv Adj Adv Adj as constituents. Note also that two constituents are
The weather has turned very cold just recently recognized each time the process of analysis is applied to a
Three sizes of unit have been distinguished: clause, phrase, and sequence. To divide a sentence such as English John loves
word. A further level would distinguish morphemes (turn, -ed, Mary into three immediate constituents (John, loves, and
recent, -ly) as constituents of words. The terms for different phrase Mary would not be considered a normal analysis by the
(noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, etc) obviously reflect practitioners of this theory (161).
the character of the words which are the main constituents of these
units. The issue here involves part-whole relation, that is, units Constructions
which are indirectly part of a larger unit. Thus in the above A construction is a relationship between constituents. Different
example, not only [the weather], but indirectly also [the] and constituents have different constructions as noted above. A
[weather] are constituents of the whole clause. We however, use the construction type is defined by Hockett as “a group of constructions
term “Immediate Constituent” for those units which are the parts which are similar in some specified way” (183). He used the
into which another unit is immediately divisible: thus the verb sentence “The old dog lay in the corner” to illustrate this. The first
phrase [has turned] is an immediate constituent of the whole clause ICs are old dog and lay in the corner. Moving further we have (old
and the auxiliary [has] and the main verb [turned] are immediate + dog, lay + in the corner). Though these constructions may differ,
constituents of the verb phrase [has turned]. they may show certain similarities that determine their
The three fundamental characteristics of immediate constituent classifications. For instance, an old dog, in terms of meaning, is one
syntactic analysis as expounded in Bloomfield’s Language are: kind of dog, and lying in the corner is one kind of lying. The
situation we have here is that one IC is modifying the meaning of
1. That any sentence breaks down or can be split binarily into a
the other, though this is not true of all situations as in the ICs —men
subject part and a predicate part. Thus, the English sentence
and women do not refer to one kind of men or to one kind of
Poor John ran away breaks down into poor John, the
women.
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The importance of the study of construction in language cannot be marked by those of the constituent is the head or center; the other
over-emphasised. Hockett describes two of them: constituent is the attribute. This head word relates to and confers
Construction types are useful in comparing languages as meaning with the rest of the words comprising the phrase; for
constructions should be defined separately for languages, example, in “three little pigs”, the word ’pigs’ is the head word.
though they may be similar in some cases. ’Pigs’ relates to ’little’ to make ’little pigs’ and to ’three’ to make
• Again, “construction-types are also helpful in dealing with a ’three pigs,’ but ’little’ and ’three’ do not relate to one another
single language because there are instances in which it is not directly, as ’three little’ makes no sense. In the phrase: ’dogs and
easy to tell whether two constituents have been built by a demons’, there are two head words, ’dogs’ and ’demons.’
single construction or only by two similar ones” (183). Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to
This he illustrates with the constituents white house and little house. endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to
One may tend to think that the constructions are similar but while the Head. Let us look at other heads or centres in the following
little may be added to the first to have little white house, we may diagrammatically explained:
not be able to add white to the second —no one says white little
house. But the constructions are certainly of closely similar type.
(a) these two oldest stone bridges
According to Hockett, the specification of constructions involves:
1. designation of the form-class from which each constituent is
selected, and
2. designation of the form-class to which the resulting
Head
constituent belongs.
Thus the construction of old/dog may be described (1) as involving
a descriptive adjective (new, old, young, big, friendly, etc.) as first
IC and a singular noun (dog, cat, boy, table, etc.) as second; and (2) (b) will be leaving
as yielding constituent which also belongs to the class of singular
nouns. A form-class, in its turn is defined in terms of a range of
privileges of occurrence in larger forms.
The syntactic constructions analyzed are of two main types: Head
endocentric and exocentric constructions, depending on their
distribution and the relation between their constituents.
(c) very late
1. Endocentric Construction
Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally Head
equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a
group of words, which serves as a definable centre or head. Put in
other words, the constituents whose privileges of occurrence are Source:http://notions-english-
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(Complement clause)
Coordinate constructions can also be exemplified by these (b) Elizabeth opened her presents [before John finished his
constructions: both James and John; neither John nor Peter; either dinner]. (Adverbial clause)
Mary or Jane; (I don’t know) whether he likes it or not; three plus
three; three times three; three minus three, etc. (c) The woman [that I love] is moving to the south.
Another variety of coordinate construction is the appositive (Relative clause).
subtype. This is where in the endocentric construction it is difficult Since all clauses contain a noun phrase subject and a finite
to say which IC is the head as in the following examples: Queen verb phrase predicate, you can expand their noun phrases
Mary, Lake Chad, Professor Martins, Mister Paul, Miss Veronica, and verb phrases, and you can rearrange and conjoin them,
John\the Baptist, the boy I was telling you about; Clark \the in this sense, subordination, as well as coordination, can
dramatist; Ohaeto,\author of “The Chants of the Minstrel.” take part in the recursiveness of language in several ways.
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