Sentence Structure

• Similarly, sentences do not consist of a string

of words. They also have an internal
hierarchical structure.
• The structural elements of sentences are
called syntactic constituents.
 Constituents
• The following sentence is not just a string of
eleven words:
Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at
the park.
• It is made up of four basic constituents:
Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at
the park.
• N NP VP AdvP PP
 Constituency tests
• I can demonstrate that these are constituents
by movement and substitution tests.
• Only constituents can be moved to another
part of the sentence; only constituents can be
substituted for in a sentence.
 Test 1: Movement
Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the
park.
• We can move at the park:
Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
• We can’t move at the:
*Bill and John ate all the cookies at the
yesterday park.
 Test 2: Substitution (1)
• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.

• Substitute they for Bill and John:

• They ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

 Substitution (2)
• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.

• Substitute did so for ate all the cookies:

• Bill and John did so at the park yesterday.

 Substitution (3)
• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.

• Substitute there for at the park:

• Bill and John ate all the cookies there

yesterday.
 Substitution (4)
• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.

• Substitute then for yesterday:

• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park

then.
 Substitution 5
• Can’t substitute across boundaries:
• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.

• Substitute did so for ate all the:

• *Bill and John did so cookies at the park

yesterday.
 Substitution 6
• Can’t substitute across boundaries:
• Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.

• Substitute them for cookies at:

• *Bill and John ate all the them the park

yesterday.
 Constituents are phrases
• all the cookies is a noun phrase. We can substitute
any noun phrase for it:
• They ate cookies yesterday.
• They ate some cookies yesterday.
• They ate the cookies left over from dinner last week
yesterday.
• They ate the cookies that their mother told them
several times not to eat yesterday.
 Sentence structure
• We form sentences by combining words into
phrasal constituents, phrases into larger
constituents, and these constituents into
sentences.
• All phrases have the same basic structure:
 Phrase Structure
Phrase (XP)

Specifier Head (X) Complement(s)

• The specifier narrows the meaning of the

head. The complements give more
information about the head.