Transcript Chapter 4 From Word to Text

Chapter Four
From Word to Text
1

Syntax is the study of the
rules governing the ways
different constituents are
combined to form
sentences in a language,
or the study of the
interrelationships
between elements in
sentence structures.

句法学研究组词成句的规
则，研究句子内部组成成
分间的关系。
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1. Syntactic relations
（句法关系）

Syntactic relations can be analysed
into three kinds:
 relations of position
 relations of substitutability
relations of co-occurrence
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1.1 Relations of Position
（位置关系）


For language to fulfill its
communicative function, it must
have a way to mark the
grammatical roles of the various
phrases that can occur in a clause.
The boy kicked the ball
NP1
NP2
Subject
Object
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
Positional relation, or WORD
ORDER, refers to the sequential
arrangement of words in a
language.


If the words in a sentence fail to occur
in a fixed order required by the
convention of a language, one tends to
produce an utterance either
ungrammatical or nonsensical at all.
For example,
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
The boy kicked the ball




*Boy the ball kicked the
*The ball kicked the boy
The teacher saw the students
The students saw the teacher
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
Positional relations are a
manifestation of one aspect of
Syntagmatic Relations（横组合关系）
observed by F. de Saussure.

They are also called Horizontal
Relations or simply Chain Relations.
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
Word order is one of the basic ways
to classify languages in the world:


SVO, VSO, SOV, OVS, OSV, and VOS.
English belongs to SVO type, though
this does not mean that SVO is the only
possible word order.
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1.2 Relation of Substitutability
（替换关系）

The Relation of Substitutability
refers to classes or sets of words
substitutable for each other
grammatically in sentences with the
same structure.
The ______ smiles.
man
boy
girl
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
It also refers to groups of more
than one word which may be jointly
substitutable grammatically for a
single word of a particular set.


The
strong man
tallest boy smiles.
pretty girl
He went there
yesterday.
last week.
the day before.
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
This is also called
Associative Relations by
Saussure, and
Paradigmatic Relations
（纵聚合关系）by Hjemslev
（叶尔姆斯列夫）

To make it more
understandable, they are
called Vertical Relations or
Choice Relations.
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1.3 Relation of Co-occurrence
（同现关系/纵横关系）

It means that words of different
sets of classes may permit, or
require, the occurrence of a word
of another set or class to form a
sentence or a particular part of a
sentence.

For instance, a nominal phrase can be
preceded by a determiner and
adjective(s) and followed by a verbal
phrase.
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
Relations of co-occurrence partly
belong to syntagmatic relations,
partly to paradigmatic relations.
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2. Grammatical construction
and its constituents
2.1 Grammatical Construction
GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION （语法结构
体）or CONSTRUCT can be used to refer to
any syntactic construct which is assigned
one or more conventional functions in a
language, together with whatever is
linguistically conventionalized about its
contribution to the meaning or use the
construct contains.
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

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On the level of syntax, we distinguish for
any construction in a language its
external and its internal properties.
The external syntax of a construction
refers to the properties of the
construction as a whole, that is to say,
anything speakers know about the
construction that is relevant to the larger
syntactic contexts in which it is welcome.
For instance, the different terms such as
clausal type, phrasal type are assigned
to the properties of the constructions
respectively.
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
The internal syntax of a construction
is really a description of the
construction’s “make-up”, with the
terms such as “subject, predicate,
object, determiner, noun”.
Subject
+
Mary (subject)
Determiner
Verb
+
ate (verb)
+
this (determiner)
Object (clausal type)
an apple (object).
Noun (phrasal type)
edition (noun)
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
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In the context of discourse/text analysis,
construction refers to a token of a
constructional type.
The sentence The girl is giggling is
recognised as “Subject + Predicate” type,
but it is realized in a string The + girl + is
+ giggling.
It is the construction in this sense that
can be analysed into constituents.
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2.2 Immediate Constituents
(直接成分)

Constituent（成分）is a part of a
larger linguistic unit. Several
constituents together form a
construction:



the girl (NP)
ate the apple (VP)
the girl ate the apple (S)
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
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Constituents can be joined together with
other constituents to form larger units.
If two constituents, in the case of the
example above, B (the girl) and C (ate the
apple), are joined to form a hierarchically
higher constituent A (“S” , here a
sentence ), then B and C are said to be
immediate constituents of A.
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A (Sentence)
B
The girl
C
ate the apple
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

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This tree contains three Nodes.
The top-most node, A, is the mother of the
two lower nodes, B and C.
B and C are daughters of the same mother,
and so we refer to them as sister nodes.
The simple tree in the above represents a
constituent of category A which is
composed of two parts, one of category B
and the other of category C, occurring in
that order.
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
To dismantle a grammatical construction
in this way is called IMMEDIATE
CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS or IC analysis
(直接成分分析法)，the analysis of a
sentence in terms of its immediate
constituents---word groups (phrases),
which are in turn analyzed into the
immediate constituents of their own, and
the process goes on until the ultimate
constituents are reached
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
When a tree diagram is used to
represent the constituent structure
of a grammatical unit (e.g. a phrase
or sentence), syntactic categories
are used to label the nodes; the
most common of these are listed in
the following:
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Word-level
Phrasal
N= noun
A=adjective
V=verb
P=preposition
Det=determiner
Adv=adverb
Conj=conjuncti
on
NP=noun phrase
AP=adjective phrase
VP=verb phrase
PP=preposition
phrase
S=sentence or
clause
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Immediate Constituent Analysis
(IC Analysis)
The girl ate the apple
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S
Tree diagram
NP
Det
VP
N
V
NP
Det N
The girl ate the apple
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Bracketing
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
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In contrast to tree diagram, BRACKETING
is not so common, but it is an economic
notation in representing the constituent
structure of a grammatical unit.
(((The) (girl)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))
[[[The] [girl]] [[ate] [[the] [apple]]]]
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Advantages of IC Analysis

To demonstrate the internal structure of a
sentence clearly
To reveal the ambiguities

Leave the book on the shelf.

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
Leave the book on the shelf
Leave the book on the shelf
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2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric
Constructions (向心结构和离心
结构)

The syntactic constructions analysed
are of two main types: endocentric and
exocentric constructions, depending on
their distribution and the relation
between their constituents.
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

ENDOCENTRIC construction is one whose
distribution is functionally equivalent to that of
one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a
group of words, which serves as a definable
CENTRE or HEAD.其整体功能与其某个或某些组成
成分（单个词或词组）相同或相似，这个词组是整体
的核心或中心。因此向心结构也叫做中心结构 。
Typical endocentric constructions are noun
phrases (the three small children), verb
phrases(will have been leaving), adjective
phrases (really very late).
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The head is not necessarily the last
constituent. It may occur at the beginning.
the book on the shelf
the man about whom I’ve been talking
walked away immediately
hot beyond endurance
afraid of the talk
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
EXOCENTRIC construction refers to a
group of syntactically related words
where none of the words is functionally
equivalent to the group as a whole, that is,
there is no definable “Centre” or “Head”
inside the group, usually including




the basic sentence,
the prepositional phrase,
the predicate (verb + object) construction, and
the connective (be + complement)
construction.
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


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The boy smiled. (Neither constituent can
substitute for the sentence structure as a
whole.)
He hid behind the door. (Neither
constituent can function as an adverbial.)
He kicked the ball. (Neither constituent
stands for the verb-object sequence.)
John seemed angry. (After division, the
connective construction no longer exists.)
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
朱德熙在《语法答问》中指出：

布龙姆菲尔德（L.Bloomfield）把句法结构分成两类：
至少有一个直接成分跟整体的语法功能相同的结构叫“向
心结构”。向心结构里跟整体的功能相同的直接成分是这
个向心结构的核心（head）。所有的直接成分都跟整体
的语法功能不同的结构叫离心结构。（L.Bloomfield，
Language，194--195页）例如偏正结构（包括定语
加中心语的名词性偏正结构和状语加中心语的谓词性偏正
结构）的语法功能跟它的后一个直接成分（中心语）相同，
述宾结构和述补结构的语法功能都跟它的前一个直接成分
（述语）相同，所以都是向心结构。主谓结构的语法功能
跟它的两个直接成分（主语和谓语）都不一样，所以是离
心结构。所有由虚词组成的句法结构如介词结构，“的”
字结构等等也都是离心结构。联合结构的语法功能跟它的
每一项组成成分都相同，是一种多核心的向心结构，布龙
姆菲尔德管它叫并列式向心结构（co-ordinative
endocentric construction）。
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
布氏向心/离心结构理论的一些问题：
1 布氏的理论本身并不是完美无缺的。这一点布氏本人已经有所
认识。并非所有的向心结构其整体功能都与中心语或核心完全一
致，因此“向心/离心”结构理论即使就英语来说也不是一种能够
覆盖所有合成短语的分析模式。
2 可以这样理解向心/离心结构理论：在一个AB结构体中，如果
AB的整体功能和其中的某个成分一致，那AB就是向心结构。否
则为离心结构。跟整体功能一致的成分就是结构核心。这个理解
在汉语中碰到了麻烦，“雷锋精神”成为双核心的向心结构，
“这本书的出版”中“出版”变成了结构核心。如果从结构上来
考虑，所有的结构都是向心结构。如果从功能上来考虑就有两种
情况，一种是结构核心和整体功能一致的结构，另一种是结构核
心和整体功能不一致的结构。主谓短语、动宾短语在结构上都是
向心的，但是在功能上则不是向心的。至于叫他什么，那就无所37
谓了。
2.4 Coordination and
Subordination



Endocentric constructions fall into two
main types, depending on the relation
between constituents:
Coordination
subordination
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Coordination 并列结构

Coordination is a common syntactic
pattern in English and other languages
formed by grouping together two or more
categories of the same type with the help
of a conjunction such as and, but and or .

These two or more words or phrases or
clauses have equivalent syntactic status, each
of the separate constituents can stand for the
original construction functionally.
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
Coordination of NPs:


Coordination of VPs:


[PP down the stairs] and [PP out the door ]
Coordination of APs:


[VP go to the library] and [VP read a book ]
Coordination of PPs:


[NP the lady] or [NP the tiger]
[AP quite expensive] and [AP very beautiful]
Coordination of Ss:

[S John loves Mary] and [S Mary loves John too].
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
In a coordinate sentence, two (or more)
S constituents occur as daughters and
co-heads of a higher S.

One property coordination reveals is that
there is no limit on the number of
coordinated categories that can appear
prior to the conjunction.
[NP A man, a woman, a boy, a cat and a
dog] got into the car.
Therefore, coordination occupies its own
place in the creativity of language: i.e.
recursiveness

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Subordination 从属结构

Subordination refers to the process or
result of linking linguistic units so that
they have different syntactic status, one
being dependent upon the other, and
usually a constituent of the other.

The subordinate constituents are words which
modify the head. Consequently, they can be
called modifiers.
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



two dogs
Head
(My brother) can drink (wine).
Head
Swimming in the lake (is fun).
Head
(The pepper was) hot beyond endurance.
Head
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Subordinate clauses

Clauses can be used as subordinate
constituents. There are three basic
types of subordinate clauses:



complement clauses
adjunct (or adverbial) clauses
relative clauses
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


John believes [that the airplane was
invented by an Irishman]. (complement
clause)
Elizabeth opened her presents [before
John finished his dinner]. (adverbial
clause)
The woman [that I love] is moving to
the south. (relative clause)
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3. Syntactic Function 句法功能

The syntactic function shows the
relationship between a linguistic form
and other parts of the linguistic pattern
in which it is used.
 Names of functions are expressed in
terms of subjects, objects, predicators,
modifiers, complements, etc.
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3.1 Subject


In some languages, subject refers to one
of the nouns in the nominative case.
The typical example can be found in Latin,
where subject is always in nominative
case, such as pater and filius in the
following examples.


pater filium amat (the father loves the son)
patrum filius amat (the son loves the father)
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
In English, the subject of a sentence is
often said to be the agent, or the doer of the
action, while the object is the person or
thing acted upon by the agent.


This definition seems to work for these
sentences:
Mary slapped John.
■ A dog bit Bill.
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
but is clearly wrong in the following
examples:



John was bitten by a dog.
John underwent major heart surgery.
In order to account for the case of
subject in passive voice, we have two
other terms “grammatical subject” (John)
and “logical subject” (a dog).
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

Another traditional definition of the
subject is “what the sentence is about”
(i.e., topic).
Again, this seems to work for many
sentences, such as


Bill is a very crafty fellow.
but fails in others, such as


(Jack is pretty reliable, but) Bill I don’t trust.
As for Bill, I wouldn’t take his promises very
seriously.
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


All three sentences seem to be “about” Bill; thus
we could say that Bill is the topic of all three
sentences.
The above sentences make it clear that the topic
is not always the grammatical subject.
What characteristics do subjects have?
Word order
Pro-forms
Agreement with verb
Content questions
Tag questions
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Word order 词序

Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in
the statement:


Sally collects stamps.
*Collects Sally stamps.
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Pro-forms

The first and third person pronouns in
English appear in a special form when the
pronoun is a subject, which is not used
when the pronoun occurs in other
positions:




He loves me.
I love him.
We threw stones at them.
They threw stones at us.
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Agreement with the verb

In the simple present tense, an -s is added
to the verb when a third person subject is
singular, but the number and person of
the object or any other element in the
sentence have no effect at all on the form
of the verb:



She angers him.
They anger him.
She angers them.
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Content questions

If the subject is replaced by a
question word (who or what),
the rest of the sentence
remains unchanged, as in


John stole the Queen’s picture
from the British Council.
Who stole the Queen’s picture
from the British council?
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
When any other element of the sentence
is replaced by a question word, an
auxiliary verb must appear before the
subject.



What would John steal, if he
had the chance?
What did John steal from the
British Council?
Where did John steal the
Queen’s picture from?
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Tag question

A tag question is used to seek
confirmation of a statement. It always
contains a pronoun which refers back to
the subject, and never to any other
element in the sentence.



John loves Mary, doesn’t he?
Mary loves John, doesn’t she?
*John loves Mary, doesn’t she?
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3.2 Predicate


Predicate refers to a major constituent of
sentence structure in a binary analysis in
which all obligatory constituents other
than the subject were considered together.
It usually expresses actions, processes,
and states that refer to the subject.




The boy is running. (process)
Peter broke the glass. (action)
Jane must be mad! (state)
The word predicator is suggested for verb
or verbs included in a predicate.
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3.3 Object

Traditionally, object may refer to the
“receiver” or “goal” of an action, and it is
further classified into Direct Object and
Indirect Object.


Mother bought a doll.
Mother gave my sister a doll.
IO
DO
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
In some inflecting languages, object is
marked by case labels: the accusative
case (受格) for direct object, and the
dative case (与格) for indirect object.



In English, “object” is recognized by tracing
its relation to word order (after the verb and
preposition) and by inflections (of pronouns).
Mother gave a doll to my sister.
John kicked me.
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
Modern linguists suggest that object
refers to such an item that it can become
subject in a passive transformation.
John broke the glass.  The glass was
broken by John.
 Peter saw Jane.  Jane was seen by Peter.
Although there are nominal phrases in the
following, they are by no means objects
because they cannot be transformed into
passive voice.
 He died last week.
 The match lasted three hours.
 He changed trains at Manchester. (*Trains
were changed by him at Manchester.)

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3.4 The Relation between Classes and
Functions





Classes and functions determine each other, but
not in any one-to-one relation.
A class item can perform several functions.
For instance, a noun or a nominal phrase can
function as the subject, object, modifier,
adverbial and complement of a sentence.
A function can also be fulfilled by several
classes.
For instance, the subject of a sentence can
be realized by a noun, pronoun, numeral,
infinitive, etc.
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4. Category 范畴

The term category refers to the
defining properties of these
general units:


Categories of the noun: number, gender,
case and countability
Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice
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4.1 Number 数

Number is a grammatical category used
for the analysis of word classes
displaying such contrasts as singular,
dual, plural,(单数，双数，复数) etc.


In English, number is mainly observed in
nouns, and there are only two forms: singular
and plural, such as dog: dogs.
Number is also reflected in the inflections of
pronouns and verbs, such as He laughs: They
laugh, this man: these men.
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
In other languages, for example, French,
the manifestation of number can also be
found in adjectives and articles.


le cheval royal (the royal horse)
les chevaux royaux (the royal horses)
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4.2 Gender 性

Such contrasts as “masculine : feminine :
neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for the
analysis of word classes.


Though there is a correlation between natural
gender and grammatical gender, the assignment
may seem quite arbitrary in many cases.
For instance, in Latin, ignis ‘fire’ is masculine,
while flamma ‘flame’ is feminine.
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
English gender contrast can only be
observed in pronouns and a small number
of nouns, and, they are mainly of the
natural gender type.



he: she: it
prince: princess
author: authoress
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
In French, gender is
manifested also both
in adjectives and
articles.




beau cadeau (fine gift)
belle maison (fine
house)
Le cadeau est beau.
(The gift is good.)
La maison est belle.
(The house is beautiful.)
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
Sometimes gender changes the lexical
meaning as well, for example, in French:




le poele (the stove)
la poele (the frying pan)
le pendule (the pendulum)
la pendule (the clock)
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4.3 Case 格

The case category is used in the analysis
of word classes to identify the syntactic
relationship between words in a sentence.


In Latin grammar, cases are based on
variations in the morphological forms of the
word, and are given the terms “accusative”,
“nominative”, “dative”, etc.
There are five cases in ancient Greek and
eight in Sanskrit. Finnish has as many as
fifteen formally distinct cases in nouns, each
with its own syntactic function.
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
In English, case is a special form of the
noun which frequently corresponds to a
combination of preposition and noun, and
it is realized in three channels:




inflection
following a preposition
word order
as manifested in



teacher : teacher’s
with : with a man
John kicked Peter : Peter kicked John
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汉语的格

从Chomsky的“格理论”看汉语的“格”

刘道英

在传统语法研究中，由于汉语是分析性语言，名词没有“格”这
似乎已成定论。本文试就美国语言学家Chomsky的普遍语法——
“管约论”(简称GB)中的“格理论”(Case theory)，对汉语名词
的格进行分析，证实汉语名词有自己的格位形式标识——介词和
句法位置(词序)，有自己的格位类型，也证明了“格理论”同样适
用于缺少形态变化的汉语，它具有普遍性。

关键词： Chomsky
类
青海民族学院学报（社会科学版） 2000年02期
格理论
汉语
论旨
论元
格位
空语
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4.4 Agreement 一致关系

Agreement (or concord) may be defined
as the requirement that the forms of two
or more words of specific word classes
that stand in specific syntactic
relationship with one another shall also,
be characterized by the same
paradigmatically marked category (or
categories).
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This syntactic relationship may be
anaphoric（照应的）, as when a pronoun
agrees with its antecedent （先行语）,
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Whose is this pen? --Oh, it’s the one I lost.
or it may involve a relation between a
head and its dependent, as when a verb
agrees with its subject and object:
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Each person may have one coin.
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
Agreement of number between nouns and
verbs:
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This man runs.
These men run.
The bird flies.
These birds fly.
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5. Phrase, Clause and Sentence
Sentence 句子
Clause 分句/小句
Phrase 短语
Word 词
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5.1 Phrase
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PHRASE is a single element of structure
containing more than one word, and
lacking the subject-predicate structure
typical of clauses.
Traditionally, it is seen as part of a
structural hierarchy, positioned between
clause and word.
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Therefore,
 1. a phrase must be a group of words
which form a constituent.
 2. a phrase is lower on the grammatical
hierarchy than clauses.
 More precisely, simple clauses may (and
usually do) contain phrases, but simple
phrases do not (in general) contain
clauses.
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the three tallest girls
(nominal phrase)
has been doing
(verbal phrase)
extremely difficult
(adjectival phrase)
to the door
(prepositional phrase)
very fast
(adverbial phrase)
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Distinction between WORD GROUP
and PHRASE.
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A word group is an extension of word of a
particular class by way of modification with its
main features of the class unchanged.
Thus we have nominal group, verbal group,
adverbial group, conjunction group and
preposition group (e.g. right behind, all along).
“To the door” is still accepted as a prepositional
phrase which consists of a preposition plus a
nominal group, and is, consequently, no longer a
preposition.
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LINGUISTICS
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5.2 Clause
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A constituent with its own subject and
predicate, if it is included in a larger
sentence, is a CLAUSE.
Clause can also be classified into FINITE
and NON-FINITE clauses, the latter
including the traditional infinitive phrase,
participial phrase, and gerundial phrase.
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LINGUISTICS
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A finite clause（限定性分句） has a finite
verb. A finite verb has tense.
E.g.: “I run daily.”
A non-finite clause（非限定性分句） has
a verb without tense.
E.g.: "...to run daily..."
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Clause
Finite
Non-finite
Subject
Object
Infinitive
Adverbial
Relative
Participial
Appositional
Complement
Gerundial
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5.3 Sentence
Bloomfield (1935) defined the sentence as
one “not included by virtue of any
grammatical construction in any larger
linguistic form”.
Sentences may be classified along the
intersecting dimensions of structure and
function.
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LINGUISTICS
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Sentence: traditional approach
simple
Sentence
complex复合句
non-simple
compound并列句
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Sentence: functional approach
疑问
Interrogative
Indicative
陈述语气
Yes/no
wh-
Declarative
Sentence
Jussive 命令语气
Imperative
祁使语气
Optative 祈愿语气
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Basic sentence types: Bolinger
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Mother fell. (Nominal + intransitive verbal)
Mother is young. (Nominal + copula（系词）
+ complement)
Mother loves Dad. (Nominal + transitive
verbal + nominal).
Mother fed Dad breakfast. (Nominal +
transitive verbal + nominal + nominal)
There is time. (There + existential +
nominal)
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Basic sentence types: Quirk
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SVC
Mary is kind.
a nurse.
SVA Mary is here.
in the house.
SV
The child is laughing.
SVO Somebody caught the ball.
SVOC We have proved him wrong.
a fool.
SVOA I put the plate on the table.
SVOO She gives me expensive presents.
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6. Recursiveness 递归性

Recursiveness mainly means that a phrasal
constituent can be embedded within
another constituent having the same
category, but it has become an umbrella
term such important linguistic phenomena
as coordination and subordination,
conjoining （连接）and embedding（嵌入）,
hypotactic（从属关系） and paratactic（并
列关系）

All these are means to extend sentences.
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
Theoretically, there is no limit to the
embedding of one relative clause into
another relative clause, so long as it does
not become an obstacle to successful
communication. The same holds true for
nominal clauses and adverbial clauses.
This is what we call recursiveness.

I met a man who had a son whose wife sold
cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that
was fully equipped with electrical appliances
that were new …
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John’s sister
John’s sister’s husband
John’s sister’s husband’s uncle
John’s sister’s husband’s uncle’s daughter, etc.
that house in Beijing
the garden of that house in Beijing
the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing
a bird on the tree in the garden of that house in
Beijing
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6.1 Conjoining连接
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Conjoining: coordination.
Conjunctions: and, but, and
or.
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John bought a hat and his wife
bought a handbag.
Give me liberty or give me
death.
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6.2 Embedding嵌入
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Embedding: subordination.
Main clauses and subordinate clauses.
Three basic types of subordinate clauses:

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Relative clause: I saw the man who had visited
you last year.
Complement clause: I don’t know whether
Professor Li needs this book.
Adverbial clause: If you listened to me, you
wouldn't make mistakes.
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7. Beyond the Sentence

Linguists are now exploring the syntactic
relation between sentences in a
paragraph or chapter or the whole text,
which leads to the emergence of text
linguistics（篇章语言学） and discourse
analysis（话语分析）.
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7.1 Sentential Connection

Hypotactic从属分句 (subordinate clauses):
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You can phone the doctor if you like. However,
I very much doubt whether he is in.
We live near the sea. So we enjoy a healthy
climate.
Paratactic 并列分句 (coordinate clauses):

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In Guangzhou it is hot and humid during the
summer. In Beijing it is hot and dry.
He dictated the letter. She wrote it.
The door was open. He walked in.
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7.2 Cohesion and cohesiveness衔
接和连贯

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Cohesion is a concept to do with discourse or
text rather than with syntax. It refers to relations
of meaning that exist within the text, and defines
it as a text.
Cohesiveness can be realized by employing
various cohesive devices衔接手段:
 Conjunction连词
 Ellipsis省略
 Lexical collocation词汇搭配
 Lexical repetition词汇复现
 Reference指称
 Substitution, etc. 替代
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
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“Did she get there at six?”
“No, (she got there) earlier (than six).” (Ellipsis)
“Shall we invite Bill?”
“No. 1 can’t stand the man.” (Lexical collocation)
He couldn’t open the door. It was locked tight.
(Reference)
“Why don’t you use your own recorder?”
“I don't have one.” (Substitution)
I wanted to help him. Unfortunately it was too
late. (Logical connection)
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Study Questions
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1. Define the following terms.
syntagmatic relation
paradigmatic relation
immediate constitute analysis
endocentric construction
exocentric construction
coordination
subordination
number
gender
case
agreement (concord)
phrase
clause
sentence
recursiveness
conjoining
embedding
cohesion
2. Create a tree diagram and also make a bracketed analysis
of the following sentence: The thief stole a wallet.
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3. Cut the following into immediate constituents by putting a
slash (/) where the cut should be made in each sentence.
Ignore the elements in brackets where they occur.
E.g. I rode back/when it was dark.
(a) The boy was crying.
(b) The pretty little girl in a clean white dress has been talking
since she came into the room.
(c) Shut the door.
(d) Open the door quickly.
(e) (The happy teacher in that class (was beaming away).
(f) (I spoke to) the kindly old lady in the choir who was praying for
me.
(g) (He) bought an old car with his first pay cheque.
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4. For each of the underlined constructions or word groups, do the
following:
--State whether it is headed or non-headed.
--If headed, state its headword.
--Name the type of constructions.
E.g. His son will be keenly competing.
Answer: headed, headword—competing; verbal group
(a) Ducks quack.
(b) The ladder in the shed is long enough.
(c) I saw a bridge damaged beyond repair.
(d) Singing hymns is forbidden in some countries.
(e) His handsome face appeared in the magazine.
(f) A lady of great beauty came out.
(g) He enjoys climbing high mountains.
(h) The man nodded patiently.
(i) A man roused by the insult drew his sword.
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5. Combine the following pairs of sentences. Make the
second sentence of each pair into a relative clause, and then
embed it into the first.
(a) The comet appears every twenty years. Dr. Okada discovered
the comet.
(b) Everyone respected the quarterback. The quarterback
refused to give up.
(c) The most valuable experiences were small ones. I had the
experiences on my trip to Europe.
(d) Children will probably become abusers of drugs or alcohol.
Children’s parents abuse alcohol.
(e) Many nations are restricting emissions of noxious gases. The
noxious gases threaten the atmosphere.
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