Unit 5- Constituents and phrases

5.1 The sentence and its constituents

5.1.1 What is a constituent?

A constituent is a structural unit, which has internal coherence

a) They are component parts of sentences

b) They are units within sentences
c) They have heads and depend on elements
d) They can be of different types

[Small children] [learn languages very quickly]

▪ What we can tell from this sentence is that ‘small children’ have a certain
independence from the rest, so we assign it a dot. The rest of the sentence is also
one unit, but we can also divide it into two constituents: ‘learn languages’ and
‘very quickly’

With constituents, there are certain words that are more important than others, these
words are the heads (the head is the word that is talked about):

▪ Small CHILDREN (the children are small)

▪ Very QUICKLY (the speed in which they learn is very quick)

(The sentence would still make scenes if we omitted the dependents: Children learn
languages quickly)

Linguists use the term phrase instead of constituents, when they want to distinguish
between constituents of different types.

▪ We speak of noun phrases and not noun constituents even though technically
they are constituents.

Constituents may consist of only one word and in this case we speak of head constituent.
We speak of phrasal constituents when a constituent contains the head and the other
elements.

▪ Phrasal constituent: [Monkeys] [jump]

Each constituent has both a form and a function in the sentence.

▪ The forms that constituents have include NP, VP, AdjP, PP and AdvP.
▪ The functions that these forms can be subject, DO, IO, subject complement,
object complement, adverbial complement and predicator.
5.1.2 Constituent test
There are several ways to discover which sequences of words in a sentence are
constituents or form constituents.

5.1.2.1 Replacement
The test implies replacing a sequence of words with a single word. If the sentence is still
grammatical, this will indicate that the substituted sequence was a constituent.

▪ [The book that you gave me at my birthday party] is very interesting.

o It is very interesting

The words we can use to replace are pronouns (especially for NP’s) and adverbs
(especially for PP’s). The verb ‘do’ is used to replace VPs’.

You can’t use grammatical words to replace constituents.

5.1.2.2 Movement
The test implies placing a sequence of words in a different position in the sentence. If
the resulting sentence is grammatical, the sequence behaves as a unit and is a
constituent.

▪ He was reading the newspaper [under a tree]

o [Under a tree] he was reading a newspaper

The passive construction also involves moving a constituent, the constituent in the
object position moves to the subject position:

▪ The player kicked [the ball]

o [The ball] was kicked by the player

5.1.2.3 Fragments
This test implies being able to use the sequence of words on its own, for instance as the
answer to a question.

▪ I like [boiled vegetables]

o What do you like? [boiled vegetables]

5.1.2.4 Coordination
This test relates to a general principle called ‘coordination principle’. Whenever we
coordinate two words, each of these sets must be constituents and must be of the
same type. (add and to coordinate words)

▪ [Women] go first
o [Women and children] go first (NP)

We can coordinate all types of phrases but only one type per constituent.
5.1.3 Ambiguity
Ambiguity is the phenomenon in which one structure expresses two or more meanings.
There are two types of ambiguity:

• Lexical
o When one sentence can have different meanings because a given word is
polysemous
• Structural (syntactical)
o When two or more sentences have the same words, but a different
constituent structure.

Constituency tests can disambiguate the meaning of an ambiguous sentence, if the

constituent can create a single constituent or two, it is ambiguous.

5.2 Phrases

5.2.1 What is a phrase?

Each of the major phrases in English corresponds to one of the word classes that we have
considered in chapter four. Thus, this means that word classes determine the kinds of
phrases that a language has.

5.2.2 The structure of phrases

When we analyze the structure of sentences the term hierarchy becomes relevant.

The head determines agreement with the verb of if it is the subject of the sentence.

The head if a phrase may have other words occurring before it or after it, which depend
on it in some way. We may refer to them as dependent.

• Dependents are often optional and are syntactically subordinate elements.

• Dependents are also called modifiers because they modify the meaning of the
head. If modifiers occur before the head, they are called pre-modifiers, if they
follow the head, they are called post-modifiers.

There are also post and pre modifiers, which are the word that modifi the head that
come after or before the head, respectively.

That rabbit with brown spots

Pre Head Post-modifier

5.2.3 The noun phrase

A noun phrase will always have

I. A noun head
 II. An adjective pre-modifier
III. An adverb post-modifier

5.2.3.1 The head

The head of the noun phrase can be premodifier by different elements:

• Premodifiers of NP’s
• Adjectives
• Determiners
• Nouns will also be pre-modifiers of nouns
o Bottle opener

What if the three (noun, determiner, adjective) co-occur, where does each one appear?

• The right order is: determiner, adjective, noun

Pronouns:

Pronouns are a category that is strongly related to nouns. Pronouns are traditionally
considered to be noun substitutes.

Pronouns can be analyzed as a noun phrase constituent, but they are not clear heads of
NPs. Heads of phrases can be modified, they can be preceded and followed by other
constituents, and pronouns can’t.

5.2.3.2 Pre-modifiers
The elements that precede the head noun phrase are called pre-modifiers, but we have
already seen that there is a special class that we call determiners.

Determiners are the elements that we find first in a NP and there are different types:

• Pre-determiner
• Central determiner
• Post-determiner

However, we can also find AdjPs in NPs and nouns whose function is to pre-modify an
NP

▫ Determiner modifier: All (pre-determiner) her (central determiner) twenty (post-

determiner) grandchildren
▫ AdjPs: An orange Italian silk tie
▫ Noun modifier: A cheese sandwich

5.2.3.2 Post-modifiers
The head noun may be follwowed by different types of constituents, which we call post-
modifiers. These may be prepositional phrases and clauses, and occasionally also
adjectives.
 5.2.3.2.1 Prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrases are very common as post-modifiers of NPs.There are no
restrictions apart from meaning incompatibility.

• The film about the war

5.2.3.2.2 Clauses
Different types of clauses may follow the noun head. These may be finite or non-finite,
depending on the form of the verb that they contain.

5.2.3.2.2.1 Finite clauses

The finite clauses which may follow nouns in a NP are relative clauses and appositive
clauses.

Relative clauses: are usually introduced by a relative pronoun which may have
different functions within the relative clause:

• Subject function: The person who greeted you is my boss.

• Object function: The book which he read won the Pulitzer Prize.
• Complement and preposition: The person who you were talking to happens to be
my aunt.

On the basis of their relationship with the head noun, relative clauses can be divided
into relative and non-relative.

Restrictive relative clauses: have a stronger defining link with the head noun. They add
information which is essential to identify the head noun.

• The students who study every day have more chance of passing the final exam.

Non-restrictive relative clauses are modifiers that add information which is not
essential to identify the head noun. In non-restrictive sentences we cannot use ‘that’
we have to use a wh-relative pronoun.

• Those students who study every day, have many chances of passing the final.

Appositive clauses: look like relative clauses but they are different in the element
‘that’, which introduces them is not a relative pronoun but conjunction.

• The news that Bush has won the American elections has disappointed many
people.

5.2.3.2.2.2 Non-finite clauses

There are three non-finite forms of the verb (infinitive, present participle and past
participle) and there are also three types of non-finite clauses.

o Infinitive: I have many exams to correct.

 o Present participle: The student sitting in the back row is sleeping
o Past participle: The book reviewed in the journal turned out to be very
interesting.

5.2.4 The verbal phrase

The verbal phrase is the constituent of the sentence that has a verb as its head.

The elements that precede the verb are:

• Auxiliaries

The elements that follow the verb are:

• Complements
• Adjuncts

The auxiliaries, the verb head, the complements and the adjuncts are all part of the VP.

5.2.4.1 The verbal sequence

We refer to the sequence of auxiliaries and lexical verbs in a VP as the ‘verbal
sequence’.

The possible combinations of verbal elements in a verbal sequence are limited.

The simplest one is when there is only one verb, the lexical verb, which is the only verbal
element that can occur alone.

If there are auxiliaries, they must follow a certain order:

o Modal – Perfect – Progressive – Passive – Main verb

5.2.4.2 Types of lexical verbs

The lexical verb in a VP is the main verb, because it is the head of the phrase and
because it establishes the number of constituents that the VP will have (sub-
constituents).

Depending on the type and number of constituents required, the verb will belong to one
type or another.

Direct object: She reads a book

Indirect object: She gave her friend a book

Subject complement: She is very nice

Object complement: She considers him the best candidate

Adverbial complement: She put the butter in the fridge

 5.2.4.2.1 Verb types
Verbs are classified into types depending on the elements they require.

Intransitive verbs: neither object nor complements

• Her husband snores

Monotransitive verbs: direct object

• Jhon baked a cake

Ditransitive verbs: direct object + indirect object

• She told the children stories

• She told stories to the children

Linking verbs: subject complement

• He became ill

Complex transitive verbs: direct object + object complement

• They set the prisoners free

Intransitive verbs with adverbial complement: adverbial complement

• They remained in the country

Transitive verbs with adverbial complement: direct object + adverbial complement

• She put the book on the shelf

5.2.4.3 Complement vs adjuncts

The general term we use of necessary elements in phrases are complements, the main
verb determines their occurrence.

But a VP may also contain other elements that follow the verb as well, but which are not
required by the main verb.

• They remained in the country [after the war]

The elements that occur in a verb phrase and are not required are called adjuncts. They
may be omitted without affecting the grammaticallity of the sentence and they may be
added to the sentence independently of the verb type.

• She read a story to her children [after diner] [every night] [in their room]

Adjuncts are often PPs and AdvPs .

If we want to specify further the function they have in the VP where they occur, then we
use the terms DO, IO, Subject Complement, Object Complement and Adverbial
Complement.

5.2.5 The adjective phrase

The heads of adjective phrases are adjectives.

The pre-modifiers of APs are adverbs

The post-modifiers of APs are PPs and clauses (finite and non-finite)

APs very often occur as modifiers of nouns in NPs, when we see them in said position,
we say they occur in attributive position.

APs also have different functions in the VP, they can occur:

o With linking verbs

o With complex transitive verbs (as subject or object complements)

When they are in a VP, we say they occur in a predicative position.

5.2.6 The adverb phrase

AdvPs very often contain only the head, an adverb.

• She spoke quietly

We must say they make up AdvPs because they can be proceeded by certain elements
(adverb) and followed by others (PPs).

AdvPs can occur:

o After a verb
• She spoke quietly to her children
o In a sentence initial position
• Unfortunately, they didn’t arrive on time
o Between an auxiliary and a lexical verb
• I have never seen that film

The function of them us most often that of adjunct. However, they can also be
complements if they are required by those verb types which take adverbial complements
(intransitive and transitive verbs with adverbial complements).

5.2.7 The prepositional phrase

The preposition is a head of a phrase, but it can’t occur alone, it must always be
followed by an NP.

• He went to the cinema

In English leaving a preposition at the end of a sentence and placing the NP in an initial
position is very frequent, even though it should be followed by the NP. This is called
preposition standing and is common when there is a wh-element forming part of the
constituent complement of the preposition.

The functions PPs have are:

o Indirect object
• He gave it to his father
o Adverbial complement
• I put the milk in the fridge
o Adjuncts
• On Sunday, she went to the beach after lunch