1. SENTENCE STRUCTURE:
CONSTITUENTS AND
FUNCTIONS
Junnie Salud
December 10, 2011
University of Santo Tomas Graduate School

3.  a. it is divisible into parts (called
CONSTITUENTS);
 b. there are different kinds of parts (called
CATEGORIES);
 c. the constituents are ARRANGED in a
specifiable way;
 d. that each constituent has a certain
specifiable FUNCTION in the structure of
the thing as a whole.

9. IMAGINE ALL THE POSSIBLE OBJECTS
YOU COULD CONSTRUCT BY FIXING
THESE COMPONENTS TOGETHER…

11. ILL-FORMED (UNGRAMMATICAL)
1.) The nevertheless procrastinate foxtrot.
2.) And and if.
3.) Disappears none girls of the students.
4.) Put Mary.
5.) Max will bought a frying pans.
A full syntactic description of the English Language
consists in explaining why some strings of words of
the language are well-formed expressions and why
others are not.

12. wheel
…
wheel handlebars
frame chain

13. a constituent (part) of a bicycle.

14. Bicycle Wheel
Bicycle Spoke

15. [3a]
Tree-Diagram
Bicycle
…
wheel [3b]
spoke spoke Bicycle
wheel …
spoke spoke

18. [4]

19. [5]
old Sam sunbathed beside a stream
[6]
*Stream old Sam sunbathed beside a
[7]
*Sunbathed old beside stream a Sam

20. ESTABLISHING CONSTITUENTS
[4][5] OLD SAM SUNBATHED BESIDE A STREAM.
[10] Old Sam sunbathed beside a
[11] Old Sam sunbathed beside
[12] Old Sam sunbathed
[13] Old Sam
[14] Old
[15] Martha smiled.
[16] Martha smiled invitingly.

21. PHRASES
 Sequences of words that can function as constituents
(parts) in the structure of sentences.
 Since our tree diagrams are intended to represent structure
by marking which sequences of words in a sentence are its
constituent phrases, such diagrams are called PHRASE-
MARKERS.
 BESIDE A STREAM = a constituent of sentence [4].
= a phrase.

22.  [17] The very muscular gentleman next to me lit a cigar.
 [18] The (…) gentleman next to me lit a cigar.
 [19] The very muscular gentleman (…) lit a cigar.
 [20] The (…) gentleman (…) lit a cigar.
 Very muscular [18] [19]
 Next to me [19] [20]
***PHRASES which are OPTIONAL constituents (parts) in the
structure of sentence [17].
*If a sequence of words can be omitted from a sentence
leaving another good sentence, this is a good indication
that the sequence is a phrase functioning as a constituent
in the structure of the sentence. However, not all phrases are
omissible.

23. EXAMPLE (SENTENCE [16] )
 Martha smiled invitingly.
 INVITINGLY was a constituent in [16].
 *If you can replace a sequence of words in a sentence with a
single word without changing the overall structure of the
sentence, then that sequence functions as a constituent of the
sentence and is therefore a phrase.
 “Beside a stream” is functioning as a constituent in
[4] OLD SAM SUNBATHED BESIDE A STREAM.

24. [25a] [25b] [25c]
PHRASE PHRASE PHRASE
PHRASE PHRASE
beside stream beside a stream beside a stream
a

25.  [33] SAM SUNBATHED BESIDE A STREAM THAT HAD DRIED
UP.
[34]
PHRASE-a [35]
PHRASE-a
beside PHRASE-b
PHRASE-b PHRASE-c
a stream that had
beside a stream that had dried up
dried up

26. LET US TRY!!!
A
B C
D E F
g h
a b c d e f
In tree-diagram above, what are the immediate
constituents of:
1.) A? 2.) B? 3.) C?

27. Draw a phrase-marker for the
phrase:
their rather dubious jokes.
Showing that it contains further
phrase: rather dubious jokes,
which in turn contains rather
dubious as a phrase.

28. Draw a phrase-marker for the phrase:
Men from the Ministry
Showing that it contains further phrase:
from the ministry,
which in turn contains the phrase:
the ministry.

29.  SUBJECT AND PREDICATE
 [1] Ducks paddle.
SENTENCE
ducks paddle
The ducks are paddling away.
[The ducks] [are paddling away.]

30.  [5] [Those gigantic ducks] [were paddling away furiously].
 [6] [The mouth-watering duck on the table] [won‟t be paddling
away again].
 The sentences were divided into two divisions 1.) Subject and
2.) Predicate.
 Turn the sentence into a question that can be answered by
„yes‟ or „no‟.
 [7] Are [the ducks] paddling away?
 [8] Were [those gigantic ducks] paddling away furiously?
 [9] Won‟t [the mouth-watering duck on the table] be
paddling away again?

31.  The question movement test is important because it is
actually part of the definition of what a „subject‟ is that it
changes its position in such questions.
 [10] It is snowing again.
 [11] Is [it] snowing again?
 Identify the subjects of the following sentences:
 [12] Some nasty accident could have occurred.
 [13] The clown in the make-up room doesn‟t want to
perform.
 [14] Elizabeth and Leicester are rowing on the river.
 [15] None of her attempts to give up chocolate were really
serious.
 [16] As a matter of fact, the man you paid to do it has been
arrested.

32. NOUN PHRASE AND VERB PHRASE
 All the subjects we have looked at have one thing in
common: they all contain, and are centered on, the same
CATEGORY of word, which is a NOUN.
 They are all NOUN PHRASE.
 Any phrase that can function as a subject is a Noun
Phrase.
 The phrases functioning as PREDICATES, on the other
hand, all contain, and are centered on, a VERB.
 They are all VERB PHRASE.

33.  *Chiropodist- is a foot doctor @_@
 [25] The chiropodist fell in love with most of his patients.
 [32] The pianist has rejected the chiropodist.

34. S
NP VP
The ducks are paddling away.
Try with sentence [32]:
THE PIANIST HAS REJECTED THE CHIROPODIST.

35. DEPENDENCY AND FUNCTION
 When two constituent nodes are immediately dominated by
the same single node, as is the case with B and C in [35],
they are said to be sisters.
[35] A
B C
B and C are also daughters of A.
A, the node that immediately dominates them.

36. MODIFIER AND HEAD
PHRASE-a
their
PHRASE-b
PHRASE-c jokes
rather dubious
There are three sister relationships:
1.) their and PHRASE-b,
2.) PHRASE-c and jokes,
3.) rather and dubious.
Rather depends on dubious but not vice versa. This function is called
MODIFICATION.

37. HEAD AND COMPLEMENT
PHRASE-a
beside
PHRASE-b
a stream
HOW MANY SISTER RELATIONSHIPS ARE THERE IN THE PHRASE?

38.  BESIDE is the head of the phrase
 BESIDE demands a following phrase like “a stream.”
 When a head demands a further expression in this way,
that other obligatory expression is said to be
COPLEMENT.
 Complements typically follow their heads in English

39. IDENTIFY THE SUBJECTS AND
PREDICATES OF THE FOLLOWING
SENTENCES:
 a. Her memory for names and dates was a constant
source of amazement to him.
 b. The prune fritters left something to be desired.
 c. There are too many uninvited guests here.
 d. Only six of the thirty domino-toppling contestants
came properly equipped.
 e. It was Lydia who finally trapped the pig.
 f. The fact that you received no birthday greetings
from Mars doesn‟t mean that it is uninhabited.
 g. In the machine, the gremlin could be heard
juggling with ball-bearings.