BUSHRA AHMAD I C ANALYSIS

M.A. ELT I SEMESTER

16ETM05
 WHAT IS IC ANALYSIS
• A tool in structural linguistics

• Immediate - Constituent Analysis

• A system of grammatical analysis

• Analyses sentence structure

• Introduced by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933

• Further developed by Roulon Wells and Zellig Harris

 DEFINITION
IC Analysis is:
• a system

• of breaking down sentences

• into their smallest meaningful constituents

• for analysing their structure.

EXAMPLE:
I am giving a presentation

I am giving a presentation

am giving a presentation

am giving a presentation
(give + ing) (present + ation)
 FEATURES
• Idea– a sentence is a sequence of components

• Sentence – CONSTRUCTION

• I, am giving a presentation – IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS

• I, am, give + ing, a, present + ation – ULTIMATE CONSTITUENTS

• Order of elements is (usually) unchanged

• IC cuts are (usually) binary

• Isolates the constituents hierarchically

 LABELLED IC ANALYSIS
1. Formal Labelling
On the basis of grammatical category/form
Barking dogs seldom bite

Noun Phrase Verb Phrase

barking dogs seldom bite

Adjective Noun Adverb Verb

barking dogs seldom bite
2. Functional Labelling
On the basis of the function of the constituents
• Structure of predication (Subject + Predicate)

• Structure of modification (Head + Modifier)

• Structure of complementation (Verbal + Complement)

• Structure of subordination (Subordinator + Dependent

unit)
• Structure of co ordination (Independent unit +

Coordinator + Independent unit)

 My friend ate apples and oranges in the morning

Subject Predicate
My friend ate apples and oranges in the morning

Head Modifier Verbal Complement

my friend ate apples and oranges in the morning

Head Modifier
apples and oranges in the morning

Independent Coordinator Independent Subordinator Dependent

unit and unit in unit
apples oranges the morning

Modifier Head
the morning
 LIMITATIONS
• Constructional homonymy

• Ambiguous sentences

• Discontinuous expressions

• A method

• Simply describes, no theory

• A lot of exceptions
THANK YOU