Constructions

Lecture 1

Constructions can be divided:

1 according to level

l

2 according to type

1 According to level, constructions are divided into:

a phrases

b clauses

c sentences

A sentence (Se) consists of one or more clauses higherA clause (Cl) consists of one or more phrases ↑A phrase (Ph) consists of one or more words ↓A word (Wo) lower

We are using “high” and “low” in a special way: what we mean is that a unit of the higher rank consists of one or more of the units of the next lower rang. So a sentence can consist of only one clause (such sentences are called simple sentences) and a phrase can consist of only one word.

Look at the sentence:[(My uncle Olaf) (was eating) (his peach)

(with relish)].

The whole of this sentence is a single clause (as signaled by the square brackets) and each word also constitutes a phrase (in round brackets). A whole sentence can consist of a single word:

Shoot! This is a sentence consisting of one clause consisting of one phrase consisting of one word.

2 According to type, constructions

are divided into:

a endocentric

b exocentric

Phrases with heads are endocentric.

If a phrase lacks a head, it is known as exocentric.

What is a phrase ?

A phrase, is a group of interrelated words. Groups of interrelated words can be moved around inside clauses as a single unit. Phrases are intermediate units between clause and word.

In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words (or sometimes a single word) that form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence.

A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause.

• Phrases can be very short or quite long. Here are two examples:

- After lunch …

- After slithering down the stairs and across the road to scare nearly to death Mrs. Philpot busy pruning her rose bushes …

Within one phrase, there can be another.Example:

The house at the end of the street is red.

The words in bold form a phrase that acts like a noun. This phrase can be further broken down; 1 a prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective can be identified:– at the end of the street

2 a smaller prepositional phrase can be identified inside this greater prepositional phrase:– of the street

3 within the greater prepositional phrase, one can identify a noun phrase:– the end of the street

The following sentence consists of nine words, but these words are grouped into four phrases: (My uncle Ben) (was munching) (his peach)

(with relish).Like words, phrases belong to a number of different classes. My uncle Ben = a noun phrase (NP)was munching = a verb phrase (VP)

his peach = a noun phrase (NP) with relish = a prepositional phrase (PP)

• There are certain relationships between words. One word, that is named head, controls the other words, the modifiers. A given head may have more than one modifier, and may have no modifier.

• Words are grouped into phrases and that groupings typically bring together heads and their modifiers.

– In the large dog, the word dog is the head, and the and large are its modifiers.

– In barked loudly, the word barked is the head and loudly the modifier.

• How can we understand the statement ‘one word, the head, controls the other words, the modifiers’?

Examples (asterisk – ‘*’ – marks unacceptable examples).

Ethel was sitting at her desk.*The Ethel was sitting at her desk.

*Accountant was sitting at her desk. The accountant was sitting at her desk.

Accountants audit our finances every year.

The distinction between heads and modifiers has been put in terms of one word, the head,

that controls the other words in a phrase,

the modifiers.

We can consider the head as conveying a central piece of information and the modifiers

as conveying extra information.

Heads and modifiers Most phrases have an important word defining the type and linguistic features of the phrase. This word is the head of the phrase and gives its name to the phrase category. The heads in the following phrases are in bold:

the massive dinosaur - noun phrase (NP)watch TV - verb phrase (VP) too slowly - adverb phrase (AdvP)very happy - adjective phrase (AdjP)at lunch - preposition phrase (PP)

The head can be distinguished from its modifiers (the rest of the phrase other than the head) because the head of the phrase determines many of the grammatical features of the phrase as a whole. The examples just given show the five most commonly acknowledged types of phrases.

Head words in the phrases:

Noun Verb Adj Adv

[(Aunt Gladys) (has seemed) (rather grumpy) (just recently)].

noun phrase verb phrase adjective phrase adverb phrase

Head words are essential to the structure. If we reduce the sentence to a minimum by subtraction we will end up with them alone:

[(Gladys) (seemed) (grumpy) (recently)].

Heads may have several modifiers. This is most easily illustrated with verbs; the phrase:

bought a present for Jeanie in Jenners last Tuesday contains four modifiers of1 bought – a present, 2 for Jeanie, 3 in Jenners and 4 last Tuesday. A present signals what was bought and narrows down the activity from just buying to buying a present as opposed to buying the weekly groceries. For Jeanie narrows the meaning down further – not just ‘buy a present’ but ‘buy a present for Jeanie’ and similarly for the phrases in Jenners and last Tuesday.

Form classes

Words are divided into word classes such as • noun (N)• verb (V)• adjective (Adj)• adverb (Adv)• pronouns (proN)• determiners (det)• conjunction (con)• interjunctions (interj)

We shall recognize six classes of phrase.

1) noun phrase (NP)

2) verb phrase (VP)

3) adjective phrase (AdjP)

4) adverb phrase (AdvP)

5) prepositional phrase (PP)

6) genitive phrase (GP)

Noun phrases (NP), adjective phrases (AdjP) and adverb phrase (AdvP) all have the same basic structure

M + H + MThere can be one or more than one modifier (M). These phrases must have a head (H), but the modifiers are optional. We have two kinds of modifiers: premodifiers: (M) awful (H) weather postmodifiers: (H) something (M) awful

Of the remaining three types of phrase, both prepositional phrase (PP) and genitive phrase (GP) may be thought as a NP with an extra particle or marker added to them

Prepositional phrase: The bride of the heir apparentGenitive phrase: of the heir apparent’s bride

The verb phrase (VP) is a law unto itself, having a rather different structure from those of the phrases, and having a special pivotal role in the clause.

FUNCTION CLASSES

Function classes: elements of the clause Classes such as NP, VP and AdjP are called form classes because the classification of phrases in this way depend on how the unit is composed in smaller units, or on how it form can vary. But it is also necessary to classify units into function classes, i.e. to classify them according to how they are used to form larger units. A unit's function class determines such things as what position it can fill in a sentence. In traditional terms we have:

the subject (S) the predicator (P)the object (O)

• The predicator (P) is the only element of a clause which is a verb phrase, and so there is little difficulty in identirying it.

• The subject (S) typically comes before P, whereas O typically comes after P (S – P – O).

• S typically denotes the ‘actor’ of the action represented by P. S must normally be present (in a main declarative clause), whereas O is often omitted. Examples:

[S(He) P(works)].[ S(A big red apple) P(might have fallen)].[ S(Many men) P(prefer) O(beer)].[ S(My aunt) P(rides) O(a yellow bicycle)].[ S(Everyone) P(will enjoy) O(doughnuts)].

Function classes: elements of the phrase

• We shall identify two functional classes: HEAD (H) and MODIFIER (M). In the examples shown in the table modifiers come before the head.

• In general, the head is the word cannot be omitted from the phrase, whereas modifiers are optional. This applies to NP, AdjP and AdvP.

Verb phrase• In verb phrases the relation between the constituents is different

from this, and instead of the terms modifier and head, we use the terms AUXILIARY and MAIN verb.

AUXILIARIES (Aux) MAIN VERB (Mv)

Verb phrase (VP)

had

must be

may have been

is

received

working

broken

Prepositional phrase

• Prepositional phrases are essentially noun phrases (NPs) with an initial preposition (p) such as of, in, on, under.

p MODIFIERS (M) HEAD (H)

Prepositional phrase (PP)

in

of

under

strong

the squeaky old oak

luck

conventions

floor-boards

Noun phrase

MODIFIERS HEAD

Noun phrase (NP)

my

that strange

both his rich elderly spinster

Boris

bicycle

feeling

great-aunts

Adjective phrase

(AdjP) more

much much

extremely

pleasant

carefyl

happier

narrow

Adverb phrase

(AdvP) too

very very

now

slowly

often

Grammatical notations

It is essential to have a way or representing grammatical structure.

It is useful to have two different graphic notations:

1 bracketing and

2 tree diagrams.

1 Bracketing

A simple set of bracketing conventions is the following:Sentences are marked with an initial capital letter and a final full stop.Clauses are enclosed in square brackets: [ ]Phrases are enclosed in round brackets: ( )Words are separated by spaces.If we need to separate the grammatical components of words, we can use a dash: -

Examples:[(Our land-lady) (keep-s) (a stuff-ed moose) (in her attic)].[(Uncle Ben) (savage-ly] (devoured) (his six-th peach)].[(They) (‘re playing) (Arsenal) (at tome) (next week)].

Tree diagrams

The bracketings are easy to use, but they do not give a very clear visual picture of the relation between constituents. For this, when we want to, we can replace the brackets by a TREE DIAGRAM.

Se │

___________________Cl __________________ │ │ │ │ _Ph__ Ph ____Ph_____ ___Ph_____ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │

Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Our landlady keeps a stuffed moose in her attic.

The sentence:

Aunt Gladys has seemed rather grumpy

just recently.

Represented in bracketing

[(Aunt Gladys) (has seemed) (rather grumpy) (just recently)].

Using class labels:

Cl/Se

__________________________________

│ │ │ │

_NP_ _VP_ __AdjP_ __AdvP_ Ph

N N V V Adv Adj Adv Adv Wo

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │

Aunt Gladys has seemed rather grumpy just recently.

Using functional labels

Cl/Se

___________________________________

│ │ │

_S_ __P__ ____C___ ___A___ Ph

M H Aux Mv M H M H Wo

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │

Aunt Gladys has seemed rather grumpy just recently.

Summary:

We have introduced the following abbreviations:A rank scale consisting of four units: sentence (Se), clause (Cl), phrase

(Ph) and word (Wo)Form classes of word: noun (N), verb (V), adjective (Adj), adverb (Adv),

and preposition (p).Form classes of phrase: noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), adjective

phrase (AdjP), adverb phrase (AdvP), genitive phrase (GP) and prepositional phrase (PP)

Function classes within the phrase: modifier (M), and head (H); auxiliary verb (Aux) and main verb (Mv).

Function classes within the clause: subject (S), object (O), predicator (P). Two further elements we will consider later – complement (C) and adverbial (A).

The following conventions for brackets:( ) round brackets enclose a phrase[ ] square brackets enclose a clause