CONSTITUENTS AND PATTERNS

Objectives:
Distinguish between the constituents of

grammatical structure of constituent analysis, Differentiate among the different kinds, Show the relations of the language items in a structure by employing different forms of immediate constituent analysis.

What is Constituency?

CONSTITUENCY
the idea that syntactic units are

not simply arbitrarily grouped and ordered but form identifiable units.

Constituents and Constituency Tests

Constituents-natural groupings or parts of

sentence. - refer to any word or group of words that appears at the bottom of one of the lines of the hierarchical order of syntax structure. - one of the parts of a construction.

Test to reveal the constituents of a sentence:

1) Stand Alone Test- if the group of words can

stand alone.

Example: Q: What did you find? A1: found a A2: A puppy

2) Replacement by Pronoun
-if pronouns can substitute for natural groups.
Example:

Q: Where did you find the puppy? A: I found it in the park.

3) Move as a unit test-if a group of words can

moved.
Example: The child found a puppy. It was a puppy that the child found. A puppy was found by the child.

be

Constituents and Construction

Refer to any word or group of words that appears at the bottom of one of the lines of the hierarchical order Is the relationship between constituents.

of syntax structure.

the boy jumped

the boy the
boy

jumped

constituent construction

Immediate Constituent Analysis /Parsing Method (Leonard Bloomfield in 1933)

analysis where each word in a sentence was

labeled according to its part of speech.

W. Nelson Francis
points out that the emphasis at that time was on the logical relationship between words.

W. Nelson Francis said..

English

syntax is a many- layered organization of relatively few types of basic units. Every structure may be divided into its Immediate constituents, almost always two, each of which may turn be divided and subdivided until the ultimate constituents, (in grammar, the words) are reached.

English Syntax
Immediate Constituents Ultimate Constituents

My friend knows the answer. My friend My friend knows the answer knows the the answer answer

Question:
How did the analysis proceed? Did it start

with the whole and end up with the constituent parts of that sentence or did it start with the parts and show how these parts might be put together piece-by-piece to produce the whole?

Whole-to-Parts/Top-Down
(W. Nelson Francis )
My friend knows the answer.

My friend
My friend My friend

knows the answer

knows the answer knows the answer

the answer

Parts-to-whole/Bottom- up
(Charles F. Hockett)
2
My

3
friend

2
know -s the

1
-s

answer

answers
the answers My friend knows the answers

My 2 My

friend 3 2 friend

knows 2 knows

the

answers 3 1 answers

the

I.C. Analysis Utilizing Diagonal Binary Strings (Bloomfield, 1933)

The witness can tell who was at fault The witness can tell who was at fault

The

witness
can

can tell
tell who

who was at fault

was at fault

was
at

at fault
fault

I.C. Analysis Utilizing Horizontal and Vertical Lines to Indicate Layers and Immediate Constituents in Each Layer
The witness can tell who was at fault The witness The witness can tell who was at fault can tell can who was at fault tell who was at fault was at fault at fault

Constituents of Words

Word and its spelling

jumped jump 2) man man -s -ed

Word and its phonemic realization

1) /j /j mp/ mpt/ /t/

2)
/mn/

/men/
/() e/

Word and its meaning

1) jump 2) man jumped past tense men plural

However, not all words containing affixes are easy to analyze

unhappiness unhappi unhappi -ness unhappi unhappiness happiness -ness

disrespectful disrespect re-spect respectful -ful

disrespectful disrespect disrerespect -spect -ful

Problems in analyzing constituents of word groups

A)
very pretty girls very pretty girl s very

B)
very pretty girls pretty girls

very

pretty

pretty

girls

A) two young girls two young girls young girls

B) two young girls two young

girl

young girls girls

-s

Discontinuous Constituent in word groups

Discontinuous constituent A constituent which is in two parts because of

the presence of another constituent between parts. you ready ? Are I

can

go

Presentation of discontinuous constituent in word groups

Are

you

ready

you are ready

question

you
are

are ready
ready

Charles Hocketts presentation of discontinuous constituents

A
( You) are ( ) ready

B
Are you ready

Multiple constituents with and, but, and or

Jack and Jill Jack

and

Jill

Constituent Analysis and Constituent Structures

Constituent Structure
-

a sentence of couple of large pieces, each of which consists of some smaller pieces each of which in turn consists of some still smaller pieces and so on, until we reach the smallest pieces of all, the words or morphemes and every one of these pieces is constituent of the sentence.

Constituent Structure can be presented in different ways:

1) P-S Trees- show the constituent of a particular sentence with all the

intermediate constituents. 2) P-S Rules- are more general representation of possible sentences. Example: S NP + VP NP D + N Vi + (PP) VP Vt + (NP) be + Adj

 P-S Tree

The boy chased the dog

The

boy chased
the dog

P-S Rules

The End