Lecture on Constituent Structure in Sentences

Introduction

• Sentences have an internal structure consisting of constituents, which may consist of smaller constituents.
• Questions to consider: How can we determine what the constituents are in a string of words?
• Key diagnostics for constituent structure:
  • Replacement/Substitution Tests: Can a sequence be replaced by a single word?
  • Movement/Displacement Tests: Can a sequence be moved within the sentence while preserving meaning?

Diagnostics for Constituency

Substitution or Replacement

• Noun Phrases:
  • Built around a noun, the noun is the head of the phrase.
  • Examples: "Cats are lovely", "Intelligent cats are lovely".
  • Heads of phrases are typically not omitted.
  • The head shares grammatical properties with the phrase, such as plurality.

Example: Plurality

• "The dog is waiting" vs. "The dogs are waiting".
• Head of a phrase determines grammatical properties.
• Complex noun phrases: "The dog with seven heads was waiting".

Gender Agreement in Languages

• French example: Gender of a noun phrase is determined by the head.
• Adjective agreement in gender: "La mère est morte" vs. "George est mort".

Ambiguity Example

• "Visiting relatives can be boring": Two meanings depending on the head of the noun phrase.
  • "Visiting relatives is boring" (visiting as head).
  • "Visiting relatives are boring" (relatives as head).

Diagnostic of Substitution or Replacement

• Noun phrases can be replaced by pronouns.
  • Example: "John saw the boy who fed the cats" can be shortened to "John saw him".
• Phrases can contain other phrases (recursive nature).

Types of Phrases

Prepositional Phrases

• Headed by prepositions (e.g., in, on, after).
• English prepositions precede the noun phrase.
• Locative and temporal expressions: Can be replaced by "there" or "then".

Adjective Phrases

• Built around adjectives (e.g., ill, loud).
• Can be expanded: "Mary is extremely ill".
• Some speakers use "so" to replace adjective phrases in predicative position.

Verb Phrases

• Can be replaced with "do so".
  • Examples:
    • "To insult your mother is disgraceful", "To do so is disgraceful".
    • "Jenny will attend the conference", "I will do so too".

Conclusion

• Understanding constituent structure is key to analyzing sentence structure.
• Replacement and movement diagnostics are essential tools for linguistic analysis.
• Different types of phrases (noun, prepositional, adjective, verb) have unique characteristics and substitution patterns.