Immediate Constituent Analysis

Nadira Aljović, Melisa Melisa Bureković. University Bureković. University of Zenica, Fall 2015

Immediate constituent analysis Sentence elements, functions S – sentence sentence (category) S – subject subject (function) V – verbal verbal predicate (function) DO – DO – direct direct object (function) IO – IO – indirect indirect object (function) A – adverbial adverbial (function) Pc – Pc – predicational predicational complement (function) Ac – Ac – adverbial adverbial complement (function) Remarks: DO, IO, Pc, Ac are complements. Categories: N – N – noun noun (house) NP – NP – noun noun phrase (a house) P – preposition preposition (in) PP – PP – prepositional prepositional phrase (in the house) A – adjective adjective (nice) AP – AP – adjective adjective phrase (nice, very nice) Adv – Adv – adverb adverb (quickly) AdvP – AdvP – adverb adverb phrase (quickly, rather quickly) Coord – Coord – coordinating coordinating conjunction (and) Sub – Sub – subordinating subordinating conjunction (that) Remarks: Some labels overlap: S for Sentence and for Subject; A for adverbial and for Adjective. Some lables are "dangerously" "dangerously" similar: Adverbial (func.) vs. Adverb (cat.) The label V stands for the predicate function (verbal predicate) and the category 'verb'; verbs are represented simultaneously and in a straightforward fashion, by this double (function-category) label.

Immediate constituents The sentence contains minimally elements S and V (subject and intransitive verbal predicate), i.e. two immediate constituents identified by their function. It can contain three immediate constituents: S, V, DO, when the verbal predicate is transitive, ex. The teacher reviewed the papers of his students.

To understand better the notion of immediate constituent, observe the following structure representation:

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Nadira Aljović, Melisa Bureković. University of Zenica, Fall 2015

S S

V

DO

NP D the

N

NP D

N

PostM PP

teacher reviewed the papers

P

NP

of

D

N

his students

Explanation of lables and relations among the constituents: Sentence's immediate constituents: S, V, DO S(ubject) realized as NP V realized as 'reviewed' Do realized as NP (Subject) NP's immediate constituents: D, N D realized as 'the' N realized as 'teacher' (DO) NP's immediate constituents: D, N, PostM D realized as 'the' N realized as 'papers' PostM (postmodifier) realized as PP PP's immediate constituents: P, NP P realized as 'of' NP's immediate constituents: D, N D realized as 'his' (! possessives are determiners) N realized as 'students' Immedate constituent analysis consists in successively identifying elements immediately contained within larger constituents (first thier functions and then realizations), beginning with the sentence (the largest constituent or unit of syntactic analysis). S  S V DO S  NPD N Dthe N teacher V reviewed DO  NP  D N PostM Dthe N papers PostMPP P NP Pof NPD N Dhis

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Nstudents


Basic sentence elements 1. SUBJECT – VERB Intransitive verbs, sentence type: S V a. Our queen snores. b. Our professor is running. c. The teacher has arrived. S  S V S  NP  D N Dour(the) V  snores (is running / has arrived)

Nqueen(professor/teacher)

The subject is usually realized as NP. NP typically contains a determiner and a noun (the head word of the entire phrase). The SV sentence type occurs with intransitive verbs (i.e. verb not selecting a complement (object)), such as run, sleep, etc.

2. OBJECT Transitive verbs, sentence type: S V DO DO=direct object (typical realization by NP) 1 Our queen ate the soup. 2 Their father robbed a bank 3 Our teacher invited a group of his students. S S V DO S  NP  D N V  ate DO  NP  D N

Dour Nqueen Dthe

Nsoup

(Do ICA for the other two examples, too) Questions: What kind of determiners do we find in NPs? What is the obligatory element in an NP? What kind of phrase realizes Subjects and DOs in the above examples? What kind of elements appear in the direct object NP in example 3. above? (3) ... DO NP  D N PP The PP has a function of a postmodifier (PostM) – we indicate the function: ... DO NP  D N PostM D a N group PostM  PP P NP Pof NPD N Dhis Nstudents

3. DIRECT OBJECT – INDIRECT OBJECT Ditransitive verbs, sentence types: S V IO DO or S V DO IO Both types are typically realized by NPs, IO almost exclusively by NPs. 3


Typical ditransitive verbs: give, offer, etc. 1. Mary gave his father a gift. 2. John offered his boss a poor excuse for his mistake. (2) S  S V IO DO ... DO  NP  D AP N PostM (AP – premodifier PreM, so...) DO  NP  D PreM N PostM Da PreMAP A  poor N excuse PostMPP P NP Pfor NP D N Dhis Nmistake Remarks: 1. Adjectives always form a phrase, even if they are the only element of that phrase (so analyse always "APA poor", not only "A poor") 2. Possessive pronouns/adjectives are in fact possessive determiners – their function in NP is parallel to that of an article. The same holds for other categories that function as determiners, predeterminers and postdeterminers. 4. Mary gave a gift to his father. S  S V DO IO S ... S ... V  ... DO  ...

IO PPP NP

Pto NPD N

Dhis

Nfather

Summary: All sentence elements are analysed by first identifying the type of phrase they are realized by: S(ubject)  NP Then, we state the immediate elements within this phrase: S  NP  D N Sometimes, an element can be "zero" or invisible, which must be stated by using the symbol Ø: S  NP ØD N The next step is to identify the type of phrase realizing the elements identified in the previous step. Sometimes they are individual words: S  NP  D N D the N house Sometimes they can be phrases, too: S  NP  D PreM N D  the PreM  AP ...

We continue by identifying the immediate constituents (elements) of that phrase (AP in our example), before returning to the identification of the remaining immediate constituents of the higher phrase (NP in our example): S  NP  D PreM N D  the PreM  AP  A N house

little

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Overview of verb types Intransitive John snores, Mary is slimming Transitive Susan loves Bill Ditransitive She gave John the money, She gave the money to John (NP, NP or NP, PP) Copula (linking) She is happy, ... a happy student, ... in a filthy mood Copula(linking)+Adv. complement She is in London/upstairs, The book remained with my brother Transitive +Adv. compl. He put the money in a box. „Complex transitive“ She called him foolish/a fool

SUBCATEGORIZATIN FRAMES AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE VERB PHRASE – VP (Not a constituent represented by a label in immediate constituent analysis) [VP main verb + its complements, adjuncts] [VP V ..... ] Examples: VP is the underlined part of the sentences with V in bold: Maigret will imitate Poirot with enthusiasm. Miss Marple will reconstruct the crime in the kitchen. Subcategorization frame (constituents in VP)

[VP V ] [VP V - AdjP ] - NP - PP [VP V NP ] S] [VP V NP – NP ] NP – PPto/for ] [VP V PP ] AdvP ]

[VP V NP PP ] AdvP ] [VP V NP AdjP ] NP ] S]

Examples

Functions in ICA

John snores Mary is slimming She is happy a happy student in a filthy mood Mary says that Susan loves Bill She gave John the money She gave the money to John She is in London upstairs The book remained with my brother. He put the money in a box.

She called him foolish a fool what she liked She made him run after the bus 5

Verb type (traditional)

S[V]

Intransitive

S [ V Pc]

Linking (Copula)

S [ V DO ] S [ V IO DO ] [ V DO IO] S [ V Ac]

Transitive Ditransitive

S [ V DO Ac]

S [ V DO Pc ]

Copula (linking)

Transitive (no special name wrt to type 3) Complex transitive


Immediate constituent analysis - Predicational (predicative) complement in SVPc type On copular verbs see Quirk & Greenbaum 1973 p. 171 sec.7.9 (on current and resulting attribute), also p. 352 sec.12.8 (Intensive complementation), sec. 12.9 (NP and AP as subject complement) Or: Quirk & Greenbaum 1990, p. 343-4, sec. 16.12 (Copular verbs); p. 209, sec. 10.9 ("Agentive, affected, recipient, attribute" – examples illustrating the role of subject of so called 'attributes' with the structure S V Pc only) Note that Quirk & Greenbaum's Subject complement is our Predicational (predicative) complement (Pc). The pit looked a danger to health S  S V Pc S  NP D N Dthe V looked Pc  NPD N PostM Da Ndanger PostMPPP NP

N pit

Pto NPØD N

Nhealth

Do the immediate constituent analysis of the following sentences.

1. The ice in Antarctica is getting thinner all the time. 2. A good teacher is strict. 3. A good teacher is available outside the classroom. 4. He became more ambitious. 5. She was envious of him. 6. Climbing was fashionable at that time.

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Immediate constituent analysis - Adverbial complement in the SVAc type of sentence Adverbial complement is a sentence element where ‘adverbial’ stands for the type of meaning expressed by this element, and ‘complement’ for the type of function. This means that this is an obligatory el ement, traditionally said to be a type of complement introduced after copular verbs, and with adverbial meaning. Ac can be realized by adverb phrases or by prepositional phrases. Adverbial complements can also be expressed by a special type of relative clauses called nominal relative clauses (ex.3). The verb element is most often the verb to BE. Examples of SVAc sentences can be found in Q&G p. 354 sec. 12.10 (“predicative adjuncts”). 1 Your jacket is upstairs/there/here/nowhere 2 All my friends are in the garden. 3 Your book must be where you left it last night. All my friends are in the garden. S  S V Ac S  NP PreD D N PreD all V are Ac PPP NP Pin Dthe Ngarden

Dmy

Nfriends

Note: PreD (a possible) label for Predeterminers. If ‘all’ or any other pre- or post-determiner appears alone, it is enough to use just the lable D all chairs … NP D N Dall Nchairs

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Immediate constituent analysis of interrogative sentences - The S Aux inversion is represented by a line connecting the two discontinuous parts of the predicate (i.e. V) - The displaced (moved) interrogative element: its movement is not explicitly represented, only the ‘landing’ position is (where it “lands” after being moved, i.e. the initial position in the sentence). The word order (WO) of sentence elements in ICA reflects the surface WO of the interrogative sentence (with the moved element at the beginning, whatever its sentence function might be). - When the interrogative constituent is the subject of the sentence, no inversion takes place, no particular WO changes ocurr.

What book did he write? S

DO V S V DO NPD N

interrDwhat

N book

Vdid write S pers.pr.  he Where did he go? S

Ac V S V

AcAdvP  interrAdv  where V did go S  pers.pr. he What did she become? S

Pc V S V Pcinterr.pron.  what V  did become S  pers.pron.  she

Which car did you sell to John? S

DO V S V IO DO NP  D N interrDwhich Vdid sell S  pers.pr.  you IO  PP  P NP P  to NP 0D N NJohn

Who bought a new car? S S V DO S  interr.pron.  who …

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Ncar


Thematic roles Identify theta-roles assigned to the arguments in the following sentences. Write them separately for each argument. The first is done for you. 1. He immediately understood her feelings He – Experiencer

2. The previous owner recommended this car. 3. He didn't see the point of some of her ideas. 4. Susan creates her paintings in several stages. 5. She likes a certain amount of disorder. 6. She dislikes criticism of her painting methods. 7. My overseas letters arrive from Mangala in Sri Lanka. 8. A lady also writes to me from France. 9. I improved my French. 10. My biggest letter-writing success, however, came this summer. 11. My daughter writes me little letters. 12. We had been corresponding for 29 years (but had never met). 13. Poor handwriting can spoil your enjoyment of a letter. 14. They got lost last night. 15. My job involves planning for the unexpected. 16. I don't like routine in my working life.

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17. I provide passengers with a souvenir of their trip. 18. Cavers explore underground places such as mines. 19. She reminded him of his daughter. 20. She hadn't given much thought to her appearance. 21. They were genuinely interested. 22. They telephoned for permission. 23. She wrote him an interesting letter. 24. Her father was making gloves for her school friends. 25. Most tanneries today have been running [ Ac for over a hundred years] 26. They still use traditional methods. 27. Seymour admires his father's enthusiasm for the business. 28. Susan has left her jacket behind. 29. Luke knocked over the old lady's bicycle by accident. 30. I've already planned my holiday. 31. A very friendly taxi drove us into town. 32. We didn't enjoy our walk along the seafront. 33. He received the wrong sofa. 34. A good teacher has experience. 35. He developed more interest in people.

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Immediate Constituent Analysis

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