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Understanding Sentence Structure and Constituents

Sentence structure refers to the arrangement of constituents in a sentence. Constituents are the elements that make up complex things like sentences. There are different categories of constituents that are arranged in a hierarchical structure. Analyzing the syntactic structure of a language involves (1) breaking down linguistic expressions into their constituents, (2) identifying the categories of those constituents, and (3) determining the function of each constituent.

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Nguyễn Khánh Dung
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18 views1 page

Understanding Sentence Structure and Constituents

Sentence structure refers to the arrangement of constituents in a sentence. Constituents are the elements that make up complex things like sentences. There are different categories of constituents that are arranged in a hierarchical structure. Analyzing the syntactic structure of a language involves (1) breaking down linguistic expressions into their constituents, (2) identifying the categories of those constituents, and (3) determining the function of each constituent.

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Khánh Dung
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 1 : Sentence structure constituents

1
.
Structure
startpositioning) of the elements that
figure in the sentences
of that language e

a very general concept that applies to


any plex thing
I divisible into
parts (its constituents)

E Leach
L there are
ie different kinds of parts (diff categories of constituents)
When anything ananalyse
be (the constituent are
arranged in certain way
a

constituent has specific function the structure


a in .

The constituents
ofcomplex thing are themselves complex -> hierarchical structure
a .

A
full syntactic description of any language will explain why some strings of words of the language are

well-formed expressions & others not


immediate constituents"
C

bicycle of "bicycle"
- S- ↑
00
wheel wheel Q
frame &
handlebars ...

/-
-
hub
2
spokes Fyrerim .

linguistic expressions into their constituents


(a) analysing
- those constituents
-syntactic structure (b) identifying categories of
-
the

1 (c) determining their functions


-

theposition of words in sentence is determined by the fact that the words are not immediate
a

constituents the sentence , but belong with other words to


of form groups phrases -

don't consist words


Sentences
certainly contains words but they of They consist of
=

phrases .

The
grammatical categories are traditionally called parts of speech .

Tree diagrams represent syntactic structure by marking which


2 .

Identifying -

strings of words in a

its constituent syntactic tree diagrams called


constituents sentence are
phrases .
So are
,
more
specifically ,

phrase markers

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