1

Republic of the Philippines

University of Eastern Philippines
GRADUATE STUDIES
University Town, Northern Samar
Language and Literature 807
(Structure of English)
Mark P. Bonabon
MALL 2 Student

Villa C. Carpio, DALT

Course Professor

What is immediate constituent analysis?

Immediate constituent analysis, also called IC Analysis, in
linguistics, is a system of grammatical analysis that divides
sentences into successive layers, or constituents, until, in the
final layer, each immediate constituent consists of only a word or
meaningful part of a word (ultimate constituent). (A constituent is
any
word
or
construction
that
enters
into
some
larger
construction.) In the sentence The old man ran away, the first
division into immediate constituents would be between the old man
and ran away. The immediate constituents of the old man are
the and old man. At the next level old man is divided into
old and man. The term was introduced by the United States
linguist Leonard
Bloomfield in
1933,
though
the
underlying
principle is common both to the traditional practice of parsing and
to many modern systems of grammatical analysis.
How is IC analysis done?
The analysis starts with the whole sentence which is divided
into its principal parts, in this case, the subject and the
predicate. They make up the immediate constituents of a sentence.

Having divided the sentence into its principal parts, each of

those parts is further subdivided into constituents. In the case of
the subject, these would be friend which acts as the headword and
my which acts as the function word signaling the noun friend. Where
the subject is concerned, therefore the final layer of the analysis
is made up of my and friend. They both serve as the ultimate
constituents of the subject.

In the case of predicate, the analysis has to proceed through

two more layers. In the second layer, the constituent parts are the
predicate verb knows and its complement, in this case, the answers.
This can be further subdivided into its constituent parts, namely,
the noun headword answers and the article the which serves as a
signal to mark the noun, answers. The analysis shows that knows,
the, and answers are the ultimate constituents of the predicate of
the sentence.
The analysis started with the whole sentence and end up with
its constituent parts. Thus, it is a top-down process. However,
other applied linguists showed how immediate constituent analysis
might also proceed the other way around. It could be a parts-towhole movement with the end sentence in mind. In could be a bottomup process. Take a look at how Charles F. Hockett would proceed in
his immediate constituent analysis.

Interpretation:
The numbers in the top line would stand for the rise and fall
in pitch. They must have been placed at the top layer because
suprasegmentals are over the segmentals.
2
2

3 2
3 1

normal-rising-falling back to normal

normal-rising-falling-down to fade out

The arrow also stands for intonation. It points downward to

show that the statement is said with a final rising falling
intonation.
Since the first layer focuses on the suprasegmentals, then we
can say that the first layer analyzed is the phonological
layer.

{-s} is separated from knows and answers because {-s} is a

separate bound morpheme affixed to the free morphemes know and
answer.
The {-s} in knows and the {-s} in answers do not signal the
same meaning. In knows, {-s} is a third person singular
inflectional morpheme. It is affixed to the verb for agreement
in number (concord) with the subject in the sentence. However,
in answers, {-s} is a plural marking inflectional morpheme
affixed to nouns to indicate more than one.
The second layer, therefore, is mainly an analysis of the
morphemes that make up the sentence. It serves as the
morphological layer.
In the next two layers, we see the putting together, first of
all of the free and bound morphemes to make up the predicate
of the sentence.
The fifth layer shows the two immediate constituents of the
sentence, namely, the subject and the predicate.
The complete sentence is presented in the penultimate layer
with no notation as to how it is said.
In the last layer, we find the complete utterance with the
intonation pattern indicated.
VARIED PRESENTATIONS OF IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS
Using Diagonal Binary Strings (Bloomfield, 1933)
The analysis below proceeds in a binary fashion with each
layer divided into the two constituents that comprise it. The
strings may be diagonal lines pointing to the constituents in each
layer thereby calling attention to them.

Using Horizontal and Vertical Lines to Indicate Layers and

Immediate Constituents in Each Layer
At other times, a combination of horizontal and vertical lines
are used. The former highlights the layer while the latter points
to the immediate constituents in that layer. Using the previous
sentence analyzed, the analysis utilizing horizontal and vertical
lines would be presented this way.

Using Horizontal Lines to Show Layers (Gleason, 1955)

Henry Allan Gleason, made use of horizontal lines only. He
adopted a bottom-up approach where he started with the smallest
constructions within a sentence and moved upward to the complete
sentence.
The young lady who lives next door has left for her parents
house.

The first layer of horizontal lines indicate that there

are four constructions at the initial level, namely: (1) young
lady; (2) next door; (3) has left; and (4) her parents.
In the second layer, two of the initial four constructions
are expanded. Thus, next door takes on the verb lives to form lives
next door whereas the construction her parents takes on the noun
house to form her parents house.
In the fourth layer, the clause who lives the next door is
added to young lady showing that the noun lady is now modified by a
single word modifier young and a clause modifier who lives next
door.
In fifth layer, we now see the complete subject of the
sentence including its marker the, hence the young lady who lives
next door and the complete predicate has left for her parents
home.
Using Vertical Strings (Paul Roberts, 1962)
Whereas Gleason used only horizontal lines, Paul Roberts used
only vertical lines employing the top-down process. This might be
seen in the model that follows:
The lady
The
lady

won the grand prize

won the grand prize

The
The
The

won
won
won

lady
lady
lady

the grand prize

the
grand prize
the
grand

prize

The first binary division separates the subject the lady from
the predicate won the grand prize. The next binary division
concerns the subject which is divided into the article the which
signals the noun headword lady. The third division is between the
predicate verb won and its complement the grand prize which it
signals. Finally, the last division takes place between the
adjective grand and the noun headword prize which it modifies. At
this stage, the ultimate constituents of the sentence have been
singled out except for the verb win and its past tense morpheme.
Using Tree Diagram Model
Finally, among those who also used lines to show binary
division in IC analysis was John Lyons (1968). He, however
indicated what made up each level in the hierarchical structure of
the sentence. By indicating what made up a given layer and by
coming up with a tree-like diagram, Lyons may be said to be
employing a model similar to what Chomsky used for his
transformational generative grammar. Below shows the tree diagram
of the sentence Industrious workers work hard.

Using Boxes
IC analysis may also make use of boxes instead of lines.
Charles Hocketts bottom-up model included not only the words of
the sentence but even its phonological and morphological units. The
same sentence in the previous diagram would be analyzed by Charles
Hockett as follows:

In Charles Hocketts model, however, the syntactic structures

are not singled out. It was Nelson Francis model where syntactic
structures were incorporated in the analysis.
Employing the concept of Chinese boxes wherein several boxes
of the same shape but of different sizes are place one side the
other. Hockett and Francis came up with the idea of using boxes to
solve several problems posed by using string constituent analysis.
One such problem was that of discontinuous constituents that
occur in questions where the predicate verb is made up of a helping
verb before the subject and the main verb coming after it.
Example:
Statement: Everybody was notified.

Question: Was everybody notified?

To solve the problem of discontinuous constituents, Hocketts
presentation could take one of the two forms given below:

In A, the parenthesis that encloses the subject everybody

signals that it should not be there but in the empty parenthesis
marks found between the helping verb was and the main verb advised.
In B, the dotted line indicates that everybody is the subject
placed between the helping verb and the main verb.
Nelson Francis model of Chinese boxes illustrate this
differently. The subject is placed in a separate box from the
predicate with a capital letter P placed between them facing the
predicate. Note how this is shown in statements and in questions.

Another problem met using IC analysis was that of multiple

constituents. Since IC analysis usually employs binary divisions,
how would it treat multiple single-word modifiers as in this
example: We use the centimeter-gram-second system of measurement.
Hockett would present it this way:

Nelson Francis, on the other hand, would show it as follows.

Note that he used P to make the structure of predication with the P
separating the subject and the predicate and facing the latter. For
structures of modification, he used arrows pointing to the headword
and for structures of complementation the letter c was put between
the predicate and the complement with an indication made as to the
type of the complement used.

Exercise: Using (1) the diagonal binary strings (Bloomfield) and

(2) the boxes (Hockett), do IC analyses of the quote:
A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
- William Arthur Ward

Sources:
Immediate

Constituent

Analysis. (2015).

In Encyclopdia

Britannica.

Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/283528/immediateconstituent-analysis

Mildred J. Gonzales, et al. Applied Linguistics for Communication Arts.