Constituency tests, presented by dr. shadia yousef banjar.pptx

LANE 334, EA-2nd term, 2011.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar.

1. LANE 334 -EA: Syntax
2011 – Term 2  
By:
Dr. ShadiaY. Banjar
http://SBANJAR.kau.edu.sa/ http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com
CONSTITUENCY TESTS
13/3/20111
4
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

2. A constituent
: is a syntactic unit that combines with other constituents
according to a grammatical rule to produce a larger stru cture.
Constituents may be:
1. Words: e.g.
•snake(
)
•killed(
)
2.
Phrases
: e.g.
NP
&
What is a constituent?
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2.
Phrases
: e.g.
NP
&
[
The snake
]
[
killed
[
the rat
]
]
3. Clauses:e.g.
S1
&
S
[
S1
I know
[S
that the snake killed the rat
]
]
4. Sentences e.g. S &
[SSShe laughed]
[
[ S2
The snake killed the rat
]
and
[S[S 33
it swallowed it
] ]
]
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

3. • Words that go together form a 
constituent (or a phrase).
We  can  use  square  brackets  to  mark 
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We  can  use  square  brackets  to  mark  constituents:  [ 
The snake
]
[
killed 
[
the rat 
]
]

4. •In order for a string to be confirmed as a
constituent, it needs to pass one of the
constituency tests.
•If one of the tests applies to a string of words,
they form a constituent.
•
If a test fails to apply to a string of words, it
Constituency tests
13/3/20114
•
If a test fails to apply to a string of words, it
doesn’t show that they do not form a
constituent.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

5. There are Three types of 
constituency tests:
I. Movement Test
II. Substitution Test
III.
Stand Alone Test
Constituency tests
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III.
Stand Alone Test

6. One test for a constituent is that, because it is a coherent unit, it
can move from one position to another in the sentence.
• To find out whether a string is a constituent or not, we can take
this string and move it to some other position in the sentence.
• If the resulting sentence is still grammatical,then the string is a
constituent.
• In English, strings cannot be moved at random, or anywhere in
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• In English, strings cannot be moved at random, or anywhere in the sentence. Only specific types of movement are permitted so
let us look at some examples of possible movement in English:
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

7. Often we can move a constituent to the beginning (to
emphasize it, contrast it, etc):
I don’t like
cheese cakes
.
1
Cheese cakes
, I don’t like (but chocolate cakes I love!)
This cannot be done to items that are not constitue nts.
For example,
like cheese
above cannot be fronted:
*
Like cheese
, I don’t cakes.
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*
Like cheese
, I don’t cakes.
Constituents may be fronted as a unit in English:
Tasaris produced
in a humid and dense belt of tropical
forest in India
.
1
In a humid and dense belt of tropical forest in Ind ia
, tasar
is produced.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

8. Salmaselected a doughnut filled with strawberry cre am from the bakery
.
1
From the bakery
, Salmaselected a doughnut filled with
strawberry cream.
This student will answer
all questions
immediately
.
1
Immediately
, the student will answer all questions.
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1
Immediately
, the student will answer all questions.
1
All questions
, the student will answer immediately.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

9. A constituent with a
patient role
undergoes movement
from
the object position
to
the subject position
so active
voice will be changed into passive voice:
a.
Wild silk moths in countries like India and Japan
also
produce
it
.
•
It
is also produced by
wild silk moth in countries like
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•
It
is also produced by
wild silk moth in countries like
India and Japan. b.
People
cultivate
several species
.
•
Several species
are cultivated.
*Several
are cultivated species.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

10. Passivisationoperates as:
c.
These trucks
produce
filthy fumes
.
• [
Filthy fumes
] are produced by
trucks.
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•Since we can move the unit
filthy fumes
to a
different part of the sentence,
filthy fumes
is a
constituent.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

11. a. She liked
Arabic coffee
(normal sentence)
•
Arabic coffee
she liked. (cleftedsentence)
•*[
Arabic
]
coffee
she liked (ungrammatical
sentence)
NOTE:
This doesn’t work with VPs (Verb Phrases):
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NOTE:
This doesn’t work with VPs (Verb Phrases):
• *
[
like Arabic Coffee
]
she did.
b.
The girls
should have taken
a taxi
.
the girls
should have taken a taxi.
a taxi
the girls should have taken.
•*
should have taken
the girls a taxi.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

12. The operations of fronting a constituent like ‘
from silk worms
’
and surrounding it by (
) are part of a
process known as CLEFTING. If we represent the string from
silk worms by
, we could summarisethe process as following:
CLAUSE                It is X that CLAUSE CLAUSE                It is X that CLAUSE
[with X]                                [without X]        
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So:
c. Most of the silk we see in Britain comes
from silk worms
.
•
from silkworms
most of the silk we see in Britain
comes.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

13. A constituent can be focused as a cleft surrounded by
it is/was
….. that:
d.1. Jane gave this book to Bill
on Saturday.
•
on Saturday
Jane gave this book to Bill.
d.2. Jane gave this book
to Bill
on Saturday.
•
to Bill
Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
d.3
.
Jane gave
this book
to Bill on Saturday.
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d.3
.
Jane gave
this book
to Bill on Saturday.
this book
Jane gave to Bill on Saturday.
d.4.
Jane
gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
Jane
gave gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
d.5.
Jane gave
this book to Bill on Saturday.
•*
Jane gave
this book to Bill on Saturday.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

14. A process closely related to cleftingis that of pse udo-clefting.
A constituent may be focused as a pseudo-cleft usin g the
This
is a test that works for VPs.
a. She
likedArabic coffee.
(
normal sentence
)
•
she
likeArabic coffee.
(
pseudo-cleftedsentence
)
b.
The girls
should have taken
a taxi.
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b.
The girls
should have taken
a taxi.
•
the girls
should have taken
a taxi.
c.1. Jane
gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
•
Jane
give this book to Bill on Saturday
.
c.2. Jane [gave
[this book ]
to Bill on Saturday].
•
Jane gave to Bill on Saturday
this book
.
•
This book
Jane gave to Bill on Saturday.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

15. Another type of constituency test is substitution.
• A particular string of words is a constituent if it can be
substituted/replaced by another string: such a string
could be a single word (e.g. pronoun), a series of
words, or even by nothing at all.
• This won’t really always work for identifying
single
-
word
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• This won’t really always work for identifying
single
-
word
constituents.
•Just as with movement, English permits only certain
types of substitution. We will now look at types of
substitution in English:
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

16. Only 
constituents
can be replaced by 
pro-
forms.
pronounsshe, he, it, they, us, her, that
pro-verbsdo, be
pro-adverbsthere, then, here
pro-adjectives    such, so, thus
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17. •
[My older sister]
admires
[men who can eat a lot]
•
admires
•
*
[
She
] admires [them can eat a lot]
•
*
[My older
] admires [
]
The idea is that pronouns can only substitute for
(for NPs)
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The idea is that pronouns can only substitute for full constituents, not for parts of constituents.

18. •Tim waited [
at the station
]. (Normal sentence)
• Tim waited [
there
]. (there-substituted sentence)
• She knows an Italian student of English and I know a
Spanish [
student of English
].
•
She knows an Italian student of English and I know a
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(for VPs)
• He wrote a letter and she [
wrote a letter
], too.
• He wrote a letter and she [
did so
], too.
•
She knows an Italian student of English and I know a
Spanish [
one
].

19. Under coordination constituents can often be
substituted
by a
pronoun or more generally ‘
pro-form
’, such as:
•he/she/it etc.
for people
•there
for locations
•do so/it/that etc.
for some VPs and sentences
A.
The girl
admires her teacher and the children admire
her
too.
B.
David and his brother
drove for hours and
they
got scared
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B.
David and his brother
drove for hours and
they
got scared
by the heavy fog.
C.
Tom was waiting
at the station
and Sara was waiting
there
too.
D.
I
love having my work done on time
and Dalia
does (so)
too.
E.
I think
that the boys found the diamonds
and the officer
thinks
so
too.
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

20. •
Some words in a sentence are linked more closely to gether than
others.
•
They form grammatical units within the sentence.
•
These grammatical units (
sentence, clause, phrase, words
) are
the constituents of the sentence.
•
There are various processes which can help to identify such
constituents.
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constituents. •
For example , the string ‘at Harvard’ can be identified as a
constituent using some ‘constituency tests’:
a)
George allegedly cheated at Harvard.
a. 1)
The string ‘at Harvard’ can be replaced by one word (
there
):
George allegedly cheated at Harvard
there

21. a. 2)
one can ask a question of the following form:
Where did George allegedly cheated? The answer will be
‘at Harvard’.
Where corresponds
to ‘
at Harvard
’.
a.3)
At and Harvard can be moved around together,
as the following sentences illustrate:
•
George allegedly cheated
at Harvard
.
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•
George allegedly cheated
at Harvard
.
•at Harvard
George allegedly cheated.
•
allegedly George cheated
at Harvard
.
•
allegedly
at Harvard
George cheated.
•
George
at Harvard
allegedly cheated.
•
George
at Harvard
cheated allegedly

22. •
a. 4) ‘
at Harvard’
can be the focus element
X
in a cleft
sentence:
•
It was
at Harvard
that
George allegedly cheated.
•
These tests are used to determine the constituent-
hood of ‘
At Harvard
’:
•
Their applicability may be summed up as follows:
•
At
+
Harvard
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•
At
+
Harvard
A.
Substituted by one word
: Yes
B.
Questioned by one word
: Yes
C.
Move together
: Yes
D.
Can be the focus element X in a cleft sentence
: Yes

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