MOHAMMAD FAJAR GUMILAR

2019111040
5B

1. When it says complex, it’s not complicated thought but, it’s divisible into parts (its
constituents), there are different kind of parts (different categories of constituents), the
constituents are arranged in a certain way, and each constituent has a specifiable
function in the structure of thing as a whole.
2. In short, constituent is a syntactic unit that functions as part of larger unit within a
sentence. We can use diagrams to show how things are analysed into their constituent
parts. For the example in the sentence : “My Cat Dougy bit the postal carrier on the
ankle.” The constituent parts are the subject, made up of a Noun Phrase (“my cat
Dougy”), and predicate, a Verb Phrase (“bit the postal carrier on the angkle”).

3. When anything can be analysed in this way, it has structure. And it’s important to
note that, more often than  not, the constituents of a complex thing are themselves
complex. In other words, the parts themselves consist of parts, which may in turn
consist of further parts. When this is so we’re dealing with a hierarchy of parts and
with hierarchical structure.
4. Sentences consist of words.’ In the rest of this chapter (and, for that matter, the rest of
the book),  In  fact, the discussion of hierarchical structure and the importance of
recognizing that sentences have such structure forces us very quickly to abandon the
idea that sentences consist, in any simple way, of words.
5. Ultimately, a full syntactic description of any language consists in explaining why
some strings of words of the language are well-formed expressions and others not.
Just how this ultimate (and very ambitious) goal might be attempted is discussed later.
It’s enough to say here that it couldn’t be achieved without recognizing structure. Just
as the concept of structure was required in distinguishing between the bicycles and the
would-be bicycles, so it’s essential in distinguishing between strings of words that are
well-formed expressions and those that are not.