Add your text

HOW DO WE
IDENTIFY
CONSTITUENT?
By:
A Z Z A H R A N A N D A I S L A M I
M . A L I F R I F Q I
 What is
1 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 CLAUSE

A WORD 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.
 Structural Ambiguity
Other Examples:
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 B. PREPOSITIONAL 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.
C D
B
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]
 Add your text

thank you!
share your ideas?
By:
A Z Z A H R A N A N D A I S L A M I
M . A L I F R I F Q I