UNIT 3

CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE

English Grammar I. 2021-2022

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 ENGLISH GRAMMAR STUDENTS

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 3.1. The Concept of Structure

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 STRUCTURE

 HYPOTHESIS: sentences are structured.

 EVIDENCE:
 (i) Structural ambiguity:

(1) a. He hit the guy with a hammer.

b. We need more intelligent politicians.
c. Small boys and girls scare me.

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 STRUCTURE
 (ii) We need the concept of structure to account for
sentence formation & to state grammatical rules
(e.g. question formation in English).

 EXAMPLE: To form a question from a declarative sentence, locate the

first auxiliary verb that follows the subject of the sentence and place it
immediately to the left of the subject.

 To get to the final Q-rule we need to refer to:

(i) Linear order
(ii) Different classes of words (aux Vs ≠ main Vs)
(iii) Constituent structure (notion of “subject”)

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 STRUCTURE
 Our hypothesis that sentences are structured seems
correct, but how can we represent it?

 Whatever method we use to represent that, it must

include the facts that we already know about sentences:

 Linear order
 Categorization of words into parts of speech
 Constituent structure

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 3.2. Constituency and constituent
structure tests

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 CONSTITUENCY
 Constituency: property of a word or an intuitively
natural grouping of words that behaves as a unit with
respect to some grammatical rules.

 If a constituent behaves as a unit it can:

(i) Occupy a constituent position.
(ii) Be moved around.
(iii) Be replaced by a proform roughly keeping the same meaning.

(2) The famous scientist will receive a surprise at the new lab
before the ceremony.

→ WHAT GOES WITH WHAT IN (2)?

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 3.2.1. The motivation for
constituent structure

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 MOTIVATION
 Without the assumption that sentences have
constituent structures, it is impossible to specify
what is and what is not possible in a L.

(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

(4)

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 MOTIVATION

(5) S → D N V A P D N

(6) *Boy the was angry about girl the.

(7) The boy gave the girl the book.

(8) The boy was angry that the girl had come to the
party.

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 MOTIVATION
 There are sequences of words which can appear in
different places:

(9) It was the girl that the boy was angry about.
(10) It was about the girl that the boy was angry.
(11) It was the boy that was angry about the girl.
(12) *It was angry about that the boy was the girl.

 There are positions which can be occupied by

different sequences.

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 3.2.2. The investigation of
constituent structure

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 CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE

 STRINGS vs. CONSTITUENTS:

 String:any sequence of at least two adjacent

elements.

 Constituent: a string which has formal

properties, i.e. which has internal cohesion.

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 CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE
 A sequence of words is a constituent if it can appear
in some other position in a related sentence.

 BEWARE!!

(13) It was the girl that the boy was angry about.
(14) The girl that you saw is my sister.
(15) I find the girl that said that really attractive.
(16) I told the girl that she should return at a better time.
(17) I was so mad at the girl that I asked her to leave.

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 CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE

 Related structures are those linked by some sort

of grammatical operation.

 All grammatical operations are structure-

dependent.

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 Constituency Tests

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 Grammatical operations can function as
CONSTITUENCY TESTS:

 RULES:

 They tell us how to arrive at the representation of a

sentence.
 All rules make reference to structure and/or grammatical
concepts.
 All grammatical positions are constituent positions.
 Only constituents can occupy constituent positions.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS

 Q-formation rule: “The aux after the subject has

to be moved immediately before the subject”.

(18) a. The students will get here on time.

b. Will the students get here on time?
(19) a. The men I couldn’t see yesterday will come today
again.
b. *Couldn’t the men I see yesterday will come today
again?
c. Will the men I couldn’t see yesterday come today?

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 Passive formation rule: “Move the sequence in the
object position to the subject position and use the
corresponding passive morphology on the verb”.

(20) a. The government granted the best student a very good

scholarship.
b. The best student was granted a very good scholarship.
c. *The best student a very good scholarship was granted.
(21) a. The government granted a very good scholarship to the
best student.
b. A very good scholarship was granted to the best student.
c. *A very good scholarship to the best student was granted.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS

(22) a. Miley hit the wall with a wrecking ball.

b. The wall was hit with a wrecking ball.
c. *The wall with a wrecking ball was hit.
d. *With a wrecking ball was hit the wall.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 FOCALIZATION: Only single constituents can
appear in the FOCUS position:

 Cleft sentences:

(23) a. Those people will move the desk into the hall.
b. It is THE DESK that those people will move into the
hall.
c. It is INTO THE HALL that those people will move the
desk.
d. *It is THE DESK INTO THE HALL that those people will
move.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS

 Pseudo-cleft sentences:

(24) a. John wrote a book on the accident.

b. What John wrote was a book on the accident.

(25) a. John put the blame on the accident.

b. *What John put was the blame on the accident.
c. What John put the blame on was the accident.
d. Where John put the blame was on the accident.
e. What John did was put the blame on the accident.

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 EXERCISE

 By using the FOCALIZATION TEST (Cleft

sentences), show that the following sentence can be
parsed into constituents in two different ways:

 The criminal killed the bank manager with the gun.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 TOPICALIZATION: Only single constituents can
appear in the Topic position:

(26) Jeff bought a new boat. And a very expensive boat it

was.
(27) a. I can’t understand that sort of viciousness (base
position).
b. That sort of viciousness, I can’t understand (derived
position).

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS

(28) a. I hoped the officer would search the suspect, and he

did search the suspect.
b. I hoped the officer would search the suspect, and
search the suspect, he did.

(29) a. John put your new car in the garage.

b. Your new car, John put in the garage.
c. In the garage, John put your new car.
d. Your new car in the garage, John put.
e. *New car, John put your in the garage.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 THOUGH FRONTING: Only single constituents
can be fronted:

(30) a. Although the exam was difficult, she passed it easily.

b. Difficult though the exam was, she passed it easily.
(31) a. Although she failed this time, she didn't give up hope
of passing eventually.
b. Fail though she did this time, she didn't give up hope
of passing eventually.
(32) a. John loves her, although he is very envious of Mary.
b. Very envious of Mary though he is, John loves her.
c. *Very envious though he is of Mary, John loves her.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 COORDINATION: only constituents (and of the
same type) can be coordinated:

(33) a. John washed his clothes and went out.

b. John washed his clothes and mine.
c. John left his clothes on the floor and around the
house.
d. *John studies with his friends and chemistry.
e. *John wants me to study more and his money.
f. *John expects to die old and a good time.

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 EXERCISE
 What does the COORDINATION TEST show in
sentence (ii) about sentence (i)?

(i) The criminal killed the bank manager with the gun.
(ii) The criminal killed the bank manager with the gun
and the security guard.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 PRONOMINALIZATION/PROFORM
SUBSTITUTION: only sequences that are unitary
constituents can be pronominalized or replaced by a
proform:

(34) [The sleepy student on that chair]i is tall. [He]i hardly

fit through the door.
(35) Give me this [coat]i and keep that [one]i.
(36) Take this [blue coat]i and keep that [one]i.
(37) I believe [that Bill is nice]i, and you believe [so]i too.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
(38) a. That student of linguistics that asked you a question
came after you left.
b. That one came after you left.
c. That student of that came after you left.
d. That student of linguistics that asked you a question
came then.
e. That student of linguistics that asked you a question did
so.
f. That student of linguistics that did so came after you
left.

 Not every kind of phrase can be replaced by a pronoun.

 Replacement works as a test only if the meaning stays
roughly the same.
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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 WH-QUESTIONING: only sequences that are
unitary constituents can be questioned with a wh-
word:

(39) a. Who came after you left?

b. *Who of linguistics that asked you a question
came after you left?

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 SENTENCE FRAGMENTS: only sequences that
are constituents can serve as sentence fragments
(stay alone answers):

(40) a. I discovered the secret to staying healthy.

b. What did you discover?
c. The secret to staying healthy.
d. ?The secret.
e. ?The secret to staying.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 DELETION/ELLIPIS: only sequences that are
unitary constituents can be deleted:

(41) a. Mary has been to her father’s wedding.

b. (Who has been to her father’s wedding?) Mary
has.
c. (Who will go to her father’s wedding?) I don’t
know but Mary has been.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 Sometimes we apply a test and find that the sentence we
end up with is ungrammatical. For example, we might
want to find out if very happy with is a phrase in (i):
(i) John seems very happy with his new bathroom.
 If we apply the movement test, we get:
(ii) *Very happy with John seems his new bathroom.

 A test is just as useful whether it ends up with a

grammatical sentence or an ungrammatical
sentence. The ungrammatical sentence in this case
suggests that very happy with is not a phrase: so it tells
us something. So we have to be interested in
ungrammatical sentences. (Fabb, 1984, p. 6).

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 PRACTICE

 UNIT 3 - PRACTICE (i)

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 We have seen that sequences of words can be
manipulated by replacing them or moving them; we call
these sequences ‘phrases’. The replacement and
movement tests discover the phrase structure of a
sentence, otherwise hidden from immediate view. We
have seen that different ways of grouping words into
phrases correspond to sentences with different meanings.
So this suggests that one of the characteristics of a
sentence which makes it have a particular meaning is the
way in which its words are grouped into phrases: that is,
the phrase structure contributes to the meaning
of the sentence. So we can see why phrases are an
essential component of a sentence: they have a role in
enabling a sentence to have a particular meaning.
(Fabb, 1984, p. 5).
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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 Sometimes it’s not possible to apply the tests we have
seen in this section on certain sequences to provide
evidence of their constituency or lack thereof. However,
we still feel some sequences have different constituent
structures from similarly looking sequences:

(42) I read about a pretty complicated decision.

(43) I read about a recent complicated decision.

(44) I read about a decision which was pretty complicated.

(45) *I read about a decision which was recent complicated.

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 More on grammatical operations
used as constituency tests

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 TOPICALIZATION: only word strings that are
unitary constituents can be fronted.

 Topicalization is the movement of some linguistic

material to the position before the subject. This is why it
is also called fronting.

(46) John said that the new Chevrolet was cozy and very cozy it
was ___________.
(47) Give in to blackmail, I never will ______________.
(48) *Will give in to blackmail, I never ______________.
(49) They said that John would publish a new book this year and
publish a new book he did _______.
(50) *They said that John would publish a new book this year and
published a new book he _______.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 ELLIPSIS: only sequences which are unitary
constituents can be omitted.

(51) a. You can do these exercises but you don’t have to do

these exercises.
b. You can do these exercises but you don’t have to
_______________.
(52) A: Jay won’t wash the dishes.
B: I bet he will wash the dishes if you are nice to him.
I bet he will ____________ if you are nice to him.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 Typically, in English, only VPs can undergo ellipsis:

(53) a. Mary won’t put soda water into scotch, but her
brother will put soda water into scotch.
b. *Mary won’t put soda water into scotch, but her
brother will put soda water into _______.
c. *Mary won’t put soda water into scotch, but her
brother will put soda water ___.
d. *Mary won’t put soda water into scotch, but her
brother will put ____________.
e. Mary won’t put soda water into scotch, but her
brother will_______________.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 ORDINARY COORDINATION: only sequences
which are constituents and constituents of the same type
can be coordinated:

(54) John saw a lion and a tiger.

(55) Do you sing in the kitchen or in the bathroom?
(56) She speaks very slowly but very articulately.
(57) John wrote to Mary and to Fred.
(58) John wrote a letter and a postcard.
(59)*John wrote a letter and to Fred.
(60)*John wrote to Fred and a letter.
(61)*She speaks very articulately and French.
(62)*John rang up his mother and up his sister.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 SHARED CONSTITUENT COORDINATION: the
sequence that is being shared by both conjuncts must be
a unitary constituent.

(63) John sold and Mary bought a house.

(64) John broiled and Mary ate a catfish.

 In (63) [a house] functions as the object of both sold and

bought, and in (64) [a catfish] functions as the object of
both broiled and ate.

(65) John walked (and Mary ran) up the hill.

(66) You will, and Mary may, go to the party.
(67) You can (but you don’t have to) send it by email.
(68) *John rang (and Mary picked) up Mary’s sister.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 Two features of Shared Constituent Coordination:
 Non-shared parts are intonationally marked.
 Shared constituent appears to the right of the non-shared
material.

(69) Carla denied but John admitted complicity in the

crime.
(70) John insists that (but I wonder whether) he will be here
on time for the baby’s birth.

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 CONSTITUENCY TESTS
 WH-QUESTIONING: only sequences which are
constituents can be questioned about by a Wh-Phrase.

 If it is possible to ask a question about a set of

consecutive words in a sentence, they form a constituent.

(71) a. My brother gave a book to Jeff hurriedly.

b. Who gave a book to Jeff hurriedly?
c. Who did my brother give a book to ________hurriedly?
d. How did my brother give a book to Jeff ________?
e. To whom did my brother give a book ________
hurriedly?
f. What did my brother give ________ to Jeff hurriedly?
g. What did my brother do __________?

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 PRACTICE

 UNIT 3 - PRACTICE (ii)

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 3.2.3. The representation of
constituent structure

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 REPRESENTATION

 Whatever method we use to represent

constituent structure, it must include:

 Linear order
 Categorization of words into parts of speech
 Constituent structure

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 REPRESENTATION

 (i) Tree-structure representations:

(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

(4)

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 REPRESENTATION

(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

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 REPRESENTATION

(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

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 REPRESENTATION

(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

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 REPRESENTATION
(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

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 REPRESENTATION

 (ii) Square bracketing:

(3) The boy was angry about the girl.

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 REPRESENTATION
 A tree-structure representation is a hypothesis.

 How can we check if it is correct?

 Constituency Tests.

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 REPRESENTATION
 Basic terminology of tree representation:

(72) Branches: the lines.

(73) Nodes: the points from which lines branch.
(74) Branching node: a point from which two or more lines
branch.
(75) Non-branching node: a point from which only one line
branches.
(76) Dominance: A node X dominates a node Y iff there is a
purely downward path through the tree from X to Y.
(77) Immediate dominance/Motherhood: A node X
immediately dominates a node Y iff X dominates Y and
there is no node Z such that X dominates Z and Z
dominates Y.

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 REPRESENTATION

(78) X is a constituent of Y iff Y dominates X.

(79) X is an immediate constituent of Y iff Y immediately
dominates X.
(80) X is the mother of Y iff X immediately dominates Y.
(81) X is the daughter of Y iff Y immediately dominates X.
(82) X and Y are sisters iff they have the same mother.
(83) Constituent: a subtree dominated by a single node.

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 REPRESENTATION
 Restrictions on the representation of constituent
structure:

 No branch crossing (84).

 No node with more than one mother (85).

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 EXERCISE
 Draw tree-structure representations for the following
sentences:

 John ate an apple.

 My friend is extremely happy.
 The girl threw the ball.
 They are good at languages.

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 3.3. Discontinuous dependencies
or discontinuous constituents

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 DISCONTINUOUS CONSTITUENTS
 The movement of certain parts of the sentence
to the left or to the right may bring about
discontinuous constituents:

 Particle Movement: given a [V + particle]

construction, the particle may be shifted away from
the V, moved immediately to the right of the object
NP:

(86) a. John picked up the students.

b. John picked the students up.

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 DISCONTINUOUS CONSTITUENTS
 Extraposition: given an NP containing a head N
directly followed by a modifying clause, the modifying
clause may be shifted out of the NP to the end of the
sentence:

(87) a. The students who came from Northern Europe arrived

late.
b. The students arrived late who came from Northern
Europe.

(88) a. John picked up the students who came from Northern

Europe.
b. John picked the students who came from Northern
Europe up.
c. John picked the students up who came from Northern
Europe.

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 PRACTICE

 UNIT 3 - PRACTICE (iii)

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 3.4. Sentence structure and
Anaphora: C-COMMAND

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 ANAPHORA

 Anaphora: a grammatical relationship in which

a linguistic unit derives its interpretation from a
previously expressed unit:

(89) a. John said that he witnessed the crime.

b. He said that John witnessed the crime.
c. The thought that he witnessed the crime haunts
John.

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 C-COMMAND

 C-command: A node A c-commands a node B if

and only if:
(i) A does not dominate B,
(ii) B does not dominate A,
(iii) the first branching node which dominates A
dominates B.

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 C-COMMAND
A

B C

D E

A dominates all nodes  does not c-command any node

B c-commands all C, D & E

C c-commands B

D & E c-command each other

68 UNIT 2. Phrase Structure
 ANAPHORS
 Anaphor: an expression which cannot have
independent reference.

(90) They believed each other / themselves to be

innocent.
(91) They are always talking to each other /
themselves.

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 ANAPHORS
 C-command condition on anaphors: An anaphor
must have an appropriate c-commanding antecedent:

(92) The children might hurt themselves.

(93)

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 ANAPHORS

(94) *The children’s behaviour might hurt themselves.

(95)

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 ANAPHORS
 The c-command condition on anaphors makes correct
predictions about whether a given appropriate NP in a given
structural position can or cannot serve as the antecedent of a
given anaphor.

(96) The men will shoot the arrows at each other.

 What’s the antecedent of the reciprocal? Can c-command

handle this situation?
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 ANAPHORS

 Note: c-command is relevant but not sufficient to

account for coreference relations of pronominal
expressions. The notion of LOCALITY is also
necessary. See Unit 6, Haegeman (1994, pp. 201-
241); English Grammar II.

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 PRACTICE

 UNIT 3 - PRACTICE (iv)

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 REFERENCES
ACKMAJIAN, A., DEMERS, R. A., FARMER, A. K., & HARNISH,
R. M. (1993). Linguistics. An Introduction to Language and
Communication. MIT Press. (pp. 123-191).
ACKMAJIAN, A., & HENY, F. (1976). An Introduction to the
Principles of Transformational Syntax. MIT Press.
BORSLEY, R. (1999). Syntactic Theory. Arnold. (pp. 15-37).
COWPER, E. A. (1992). A Concise Introduction to Syntactic
Theory: The Government-Binding Approach. The
University of Chicago Press. Selected chapters.
FABB, N. (1984). Sentence structure. Routledge.
HAEGEMAN, L. (1994). Introduction to Government and
Binding Theory. Blackwell.

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