Immediate Constituents and Syntactical Constructions in the English Language

Immediate Constituents and Syntactical Constructions in the English Language Abstract Every syntactic construction is made up of immediate constituent (IC), i.e., a term used in grammatical analysis to refer to the major divisions that can be made within a syntactic construction, at any level. For instance, the sentence The boy is walking has its immediate constituents as the boy and is walking. These in turn can be analysed in their immediate constituents to include: (the + boy, is + walking). The process goes on until irreducible constituents are reached. This procedure is known as immediate constituent analysis or constituent analysis. Different constituents have different constructions. The study of constructions is important in that it helps us to compare languages and is also of use in dealing with the grammatical and syntactic analysis of a specific language. It also reduces ambiguity in language. This paper examines the immediate constituent analysis and types of constructions we have in the English language, citing adequate examples. Key words: constituents, immediate constituents, construction, endocentric and exocentric construction, coordinate and subordinate construction Introduction Immediate Constituents When we consider the sentence My friend came home late last night, we find out that it consists of seven words arranged in a particular order. In syntax, the seven words in this model sentence are its ultimate constituents. This sentence and in general any sentence of the language may be represented as a particular arrangement of the ultimate constituents, which are the minimal grammatical elements, of which the sentence is composed. Every sentence has therefore what we will refer to as a linear structure. The small units are known as its immediate constituents. Immediate Constituents Analysis In Linguistics, Immediate Constituent Analysis, known as IC analysis, is a method of sentence analysis first explicitly introduced by an American linguist, Leonard Bloomfield; in his book Language published in1933. It is a major feature of Bloomfeldian structural linguistics. Collins Dictionary Online defines immediate constituent as a constituent 64 of a linguistic construction at the first step in an analysis; for example, the immediate constituents of a 82 sentence are the subject and the predicate (http://dictionary.reverso.net/englishdefinition/immediate%20consti tuent) In IC analysis, a sentence is divided up into major divisions or immediate constituents, and these constituents are in turn divided into further immediate constituents, and this process continues until irreducible constituents are reached i.e. until each constituent consists of only a word or meaningful part of a word (morpheme). That is to say, sentences are regarded as hierarchies of interlocking smaller units, or constituents. After a sentence is cut into its constituent elements, the two parts that are yielded are called immediate constituents. Then, we get the smallest grammatical unit obtained through the division, or segmentation, which is seen as the ultimate constituent. For example: the boy is smart. This sentence can be divided into immediate constituents: the boy and is smart. These in turn can be analyzed into immediate constituents (the + boy) and (is + smart). The segmentation of the sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cuttings until its ultimate constituents are obtained is an important approach to the realization of the nature of language, called Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis). The analysis can be carried out in ways of tree diagrams, bracketing or any other. For example: (1) Poor John ran out. (2) Tree Diagram The tree diagram is a visual description of each unit that constitutes the constituents hierarchically. For example, as follows: 83

Example (a) Example (b) S Poor Poor John Nnolim: Achebe as a Social Critic Poor John ran out NP VP AdjP AdvP Det N Aux V Adv Adj Adv Adj The weather has turned very cold just recently Three sizes of unit have been distinguished: clause, phrase, and word. A further level would distinguish morphemes (turn, -ed, recent, -ly) as constituents of words. The terms for different phrase (noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, etc) obviously reflect the character of the words which are the main constituents of these units. The issue here involves part-whole relation, that is, units which are indirectly part of a larger unit. Thus in the above example, not only [the weather], but indirectly also [the] and [weather] are constituents of the whole clause. We however, use the term Immediate Constituent for those units which are the parts into which another unit is immediately divisible: thus the verb phrase [has turned] is an immediate constituent of the whole clause and the auxiliary [has] and the main verb [turned] are immediate constituents of the verb phrase [has turned]. The three fundamental characteristics of immediate constituent syntactic analysis as expounded in Bloomfield s Language are: 1. That any sentence breaks down or can be split binarily into a subject part and a predicate part. Thus, the English sentence Poor John ran away breaks down into poor John, the 84 ran out John ran out subject part, and ran away, the predicate part. 2. That some groups of words are syntactically equivalent to single words. Thus, the group of words very rich is equivalent syntactically to the single word poor in the expressions very rich man and poor man. [p. 233] 3. That the analysis of a sentence yields a single unbroken hierarchy of groups. For example, the sentence Poor John ran away is analysed first into poor John and ran away. The first of these two constituent parts of the sentence is in turn analysed into poor and John, and the second into ran and away. In no instance are discontinuous constituents recognized, say poor... away, nor do any constituents overlap, as they would if we posited poor John and John ran as constituents. Note also that two constituents are recognized each time the process of analysis is applied to a sequence. To divide a sentence such as English John loves Mary into three immediate constituents (John, loves, and Mary would not be considered a normal analysis by the practitioners of this theory (161). Constructions A construction is a relationship between constituents. Different constituents have different constructions as noted above. A construction type is defined by Hockett as a group of constructions which are similar in some specified way (183). He used the sentence The old dog lay in the corner to illustrate this. The first ICs are old dog and lay in the corner. Moving further we have (old + dog, lay + in the corner). Though these constructions may differ, they may show certain similarities that determine their classifications. For instance, an old dog, in terms of meaning, is one kind of dog, and lying in the corner is one kind of lying. The situation we have here is that one IC is modifying the meaning of the other, though this is not true of all situations as in the ICs men and women do not refer to one kind of men or to one kind of women. 85

The importance of the study of construction in language cannot be over-emphasised. Hockett describes two of them: Construction types are useful in comparing languages as constructions should be defined separately for languages, though they may be similar in some cases. Again, construction-types are also helpful in dealing with a single language because there are instances in which it is not easy to tell whether two constituents have been built by a single construction or only by two similar ones (183). This he illustrates with the constituents white house and little house. One may tend to think that the constructions are similar but while little may be added to the first to have little white house, we may not be able to add white to the second no one says white little house. But the constructions are certainly of closely similar type. According to Hockett, the specification of constructions involves: 1. designation of the form-class from which each constituent is selected, and 2. designation of the form-class to which the resulting constituent belongs. Thus the construction of old/dog may be described (1) as involving a descriptive adjective (new, old, young, big, friendly, etc.) as first IC and a singular noun (dog, cat, boy, table, etc.) as second; and (2) as yielding constituent which also belongs to the class of singular nouns. A form-class, in its turn is defined in terms of a range of privileges of occurrence in larger forms. The syntactic constructions analyzed are of two main types: endocentric and exocentric constructions, depending on their distribution and the relation between their constituents. marked by those of the constituent is the head or center; the other constituent is the attribute. This head word relates to and confers meaning with the rest of the words comprising the phrase; for example, in three little pigs, the word pigs is the head word. Pigs relates to little to make little pigs and to three to make three pigs, but little and three do not relate to one another directly, as three little makes no sense. In the phrase: dogs and demons, there are two head words, dogs and demons. Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to the. Let us look at other heads or centres in the following diagrammatically explained: (a) these (b) will (c) very late two be leaving oldest stone bridges 1. Endocentric Construction 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. Put in other words, the constituents whose privileges of occurrence are 86 Source:http://notions-english- 87

disciple.blogspot.com/2011/08/endocentric-and-exocentric.html The endocentric word of a noun phrase is the most important word contained within the phrase. In compound words, two words merge together to create a third word that combines attributes from both. For example, the stem word board can be combined with black and white to make blackboard and whiteboard. The head word in the endocentric construction is board as the colors merely modify the meaning of the head. Other examples of endocentric constructions in compounds include the saw in hacksaw and the brush in hairbrush. Some constructions are such that the form-class of the constituents is similar to the form-class of at least one of the ICs. Still using Hockett s examples, the construction of old/dog is of the sort just described. Old dog is a singular noun just as is dog: the privilege of occurrence in larger forms of old dog is much the same as those of dog. Thus the dog (or old dog) ran away; I saw the (old dog); a big (old) dog; one (old) dog; and so on. The construction of lay/ in the corner is also of this sort. He lay there (or there in the corner) yesterday; He lay (or lay in the corner) motionless; and so on. In old dog, old is attribute and dog is head. In lay in the corner, lay is head and in the corner is attribute. In men and women both ICs are heads and there is no attribute. An endocentric construction involving an attribute is attributive or subordinate ; one with no attribute is co-ordinate. Any construction which shows the property just described and illustrated is endocentric. Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between constituents: coordination and subordination. 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 88 and, but and or. This phenomenon is known as coordination. And 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. Let us look at the following examples: Coordination of NPs: The lady or the tiger (NP + NP) Coordination of VPs: Go to the library and read a book (VP + VP) Coordination of PPs: down the stairs and out the door (PP + PP) Coordination of APs: quite expensive and very beautiful (Adv. Phrase + Adv. Phrase) Coordination of Ss: John loves Mary and Mary loves John too (S + S) Such structures are usually considered to be double headed, since both of the conjoined elements function as heads of the larger unit. That is, in a coordinate sentence, two (or more) S constituents occur as daughters and co-heads of a higher S. One property of coordination is that there is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction. Thus, we can form structures such as A man, a woman, a boy, a cat and a dog got into the car in which the subject NP contains smaller NPs prior to the conjunction and one after it: Therefore, coordination occupies its own place in the creativity of language otherwise known as recursiveness From the above examples, one can say that there are subtypes of Coordinate constructions: additive, alternative and appositive (Hockett 185). It is additive when it involves the marker and as in men and women; red and green (lights); she walks slowly and ungracefully; (He) ran up and kissed her; one hundred \twenty; twenty \eight. Alternative coordinate construction is marked by or : men or women; (Did he come) yesterday or today?; red or green (lights). 89

Coordinate constructions can also be exemplified by these constructions: both James and John; neither John nor Peter; either Mary or Jane; (I don t know) whether he likes it or not; three plus three; three times three; three minus three, etc. Another variety of coordinate construction is the appositive subtype. This is where in the endocentric construction it is difficult to say which IC is the head as in the following examples: Queen Mary, Lake Chad, Professor Martins, Mister Paul, Miss Veronica, John\the Baptist, the boy I was telling you about; Clark \the dramatist; Ohaeto,\author of The Chants of the Minstrel. (Complement clause) (b) Elizabeth opened her presents [before John finished his dinner]. (Adverbial clause) (c) The woman [that I love] is moving to the south. (Relative clause). Since all clauses contain a noun phrase subject and a finite verb phrase predicate, you can expand their noun phrases and verb phrases, and you can rearrange and conjoin them, in this sense, subordination, as well as coordination, can take part in the recursiveness of language in several ways. SUBORDINATION: Another type of endocentric construction is subordination. 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. Thus the subordinate constituents are words which modify the, as shown in the underlined parts of the constructions. Consequently, they can be called modifiers. Examples: (a) Two dogs (b) (My brother) can drink (wine). (c) Swimming in the lake (is fun). (d) (The pepper was) hot beyond endurance. Certainly, clauses can be used as subordinate constituents, the three basic types of subordinate clauses are: complement clauses, adjunct (or adverbial) clauses, and relative clauses. (a) John believes [that the airplane was invented by an Irishman]. 90 1. Exocentric Construction The second basic type of construction is the EXOCENTRIC construction. Exocentric construction is one in which the primary constituent or constituents do not function like the complete construction. It is defined negatively as a construction whose distribution is not functionally equivalent to any of its constituents (http://course.cug.edu.cn/cug/eng_language/chpt4/4-2-3.htm). Example, in the house is exocentric because the constituent the house functions differently from a prepositional phrase. Sentences are exocentric because the constituents function differently from the whole. John takes coffee. None of the constituents is comparable to the entire sentence. 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. This kind of construction includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate (V + object) construction and connective (be + complement) construction. Examples include: a) The boy smiled. b) He hide behind the door. c) He kicked the ball. d) John seemed angry. 91

The difference between endocentric and exocentric constructions is also usually the difference between phrases and clauses. In an exocentric construction, the words are not syntactically related, and so words can be removed and there will still be a meaning. Clauses that are exocentric include we heard her. Conclusion The study has shown that a sentence does not only have a LINEAR structure, consisting of individual words one after another in a line; they also have a HIERARCHICAL structure, made up of layers of word groups. The words in a sentence form into word groups first. These functional categories are the clause constituents and they include: subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial. Object can be subdivided into direct object and indirect object. Complement can be subdivided into subject complement and object complement. All these constituents may serve certain syntactic function in a clause. Works Cited Bloomfield, Leonard. Language. New York: Henry Holt, 1933, p. 161; Collins English Dictionary. 5th Edition. first published in 2000 HarperCollins Publishers, 2000 Endocentricity And Exocentricity. Anti Essays. 2 May. 2012 <http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/5546.html> Hockett, F. Charles. A Course in Modern Linguistics. Delhi, India: Surjeet Publications, 2006. Notions of English Disciple. Endocentric and exocentric Construction. 2 May, 2012. < http://notions-englishdisciple.blogspot.com/2011/08/endocentric-andexocentric.html> Word to Text Endocentric and exocentric constructions 2 May, 2012 <http://course.cug.edu.cn/cug/eng_language/chpt4/4-2-3.htm> Nneka, Umera-Okeke, Ph.D teaches in the Department of Languages School of General Studies Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, Nigeria E-mail: nne.supreme@yahoo.com 92 93