CHAPTER 2: ICs

1. Definition of ICs
Immediate Constituents “are any of the two meaningful parts forming a larger linguistic unit.”
[Arnold, 1986: 83]
e.g. un gentle man ly

[gentle+man]: Noun
[gentleman+-ly]: Adjective
[un-+gentlemanly]: Adjective with negative meaning
2. Recommendations on IC division
(1) If a word ends in an inflectional suffix, the first division is between this suffix and the rest of
the word.
e.g. un likeli er pre conceiv (e) ed

(2) One of the ICs should be a free morpheme or a meaningful construction.

e.g. Wrong Right
en large ment en large ment

(3) The meaning of the ICs should be related to the meaning of the word.
e.g. “restrain”
Wrong Right
rest rain re strain