Descriptive Grammar of English part 2 – Syntax
Topic 4: Constituency
Reference: Wardhaugh, Ronald. Understanding English Grammar. Malden, MA: Blackwell, Chapter 3
Tutor: mgr Jadwiga Bogucka

1. Constituency and Constructions

Construction – a syntactic arrangement consisting of parts – constituents
Sentences or phrases are not just flat strings of words – they have hierarchical structure

To determine whether a given string of words is a constituent, you need to perform
constituency tests:

Susan gave a minivan to Petunia
Clyde got a passionate letter from Stacy
I read this thick book yesterday

a. Coordination – only constituents of the same kind can be coordinated:

Susan gave [the minivan to Petunia] and [the stereo to John]
Clyde got [a passionate letter from Stacy] and [a minivan from Petunia]
I read [this thick book] and [that long letter] yesterday

b. Substitution

Noun phrases:
*Susan gave it (ungrammatical if it should mean the minivan to Petunia)
Clyde got it
I read it yesterday
Verb phrases:
If you say I should [go to the dentist], I will [go to the dentist]
If you say I should go to the dentist, I will [do so]
I said I would [read this thick book], and so I [did], yesterday

c. Preposing:

*You said that Susan would give [the minivan to Petunia], and [the minivan to Petunia] she
gave.
You said that Clyde would get [a passionate letter from Stacy] and [a passionate letter from
Stacy] he got.
I said I would read this thick book, and [this thick book] I read yesterday.

d. Clefting:

*It was [the minivan to Petunia] that Susan gave
It was [a passionate letter from Stacy] that Clyde got

It was [this thick book] that I read yesterday

e. Pseudo clefting:

What I did yesterday was read this thick book
What I read yesterday was [this thick book]

f. Questions

What did you read yesterday?
this thick book
*What this thick book yesterday?
*I read. (-not a constituent)

Constituents are mostly binary (=they are combined of at most two parts:

S

binary – at most two branches

NP

VP

I

VP

AdvP

yesterday

V

NP

read

Det

NP

this

book

2. Noun phrases:

Construction that typically has a noun or a pronoun as its head – (the central constituent
that the phrase is built around) – any other constituents are modifiers – (they tell us
something about it – modify)

Certain nouns can occur by themselves (e.g. without any determiners) – proper nouns, plural
count nouns and mass nouns – they form phrases by themselves

a. Other typical elements of noun phrases:



Determiners: a, the, some, this, much

they appear initially: a book, the book
there can only be one determiner per phrase: *the some books, *these much books



Predeterminers: all, such, half
can co-occur with determiners (if so, they precede them):
all these books
*these all books



Postdeterminers: other, last, second (ordinals), one (cardinal numerals)
Can occur with determiner (follow them:)
the first book
*first the book



Partitive expressions: a piece of cake, two slices of bread (they form noun phrases by
themselves)

b. Adjective phrases can also be components of noun phrases (sometimes just

adjectives)
A big, old hat
The small red car

c. Different ways of modification:

Implied comparison: a little elephant, a big meal
No implied phrases: a young man, a big tent
A beautiful dancer – can describe the dancer, or his/her activity
Some groups of adjectives follow nouns, rather than precede them:
China proper, attorney general, the people concerned
Nothing good, something interesting (indefinite pronouns)

d. Other word classes can also serve as modifiers:
Nouns: a stone wall, a tomato sandwich, John’s hat (genitives)
Verbs: failed attempt
Adverbs: upstairs room
prepositional phrases: piece [of cake]

e. Relative clauses – used within NP

The man who is rich
Can be restrictive (The man who I met yesterday was very handsome) and non-restrictive
(This man, who is a good friend of mine, won the race)
Appositives: Contain restatement of a non (can also be restrictive and non-restrictive)
The fact that you said it (restrictive, cannot be omitted)
My husband Fred (non-restrictive, can be omitted)

f. Sometimes other parts of speech can be found in noun positions:
Green is my favorite color Seeing him restored her confidence Now is the hour

g. Ambiguous phrases:

a British English student

(i)

[

NP

a [

NP

[

NP

British English] student]]

NP

Det

NP

a

NP

N

student

AP

N

British

English

(ii)

[

NP

a [

NP

[

AP

British] [

N’

English student]]]

NP

Det

NP

a

AP

NP

British

NP

N

English

student

3. Adjective phrases (AP):
They have adjectives as their heads



Many adjectives take premodifiers (intensifiers) - very, rather, pretty
Or adverbs: ridiculously handsome
Or nouns: a mile high, two inches thick



Adjectives occurring in noun phrases – attributive (a very sad movie)
Adjectives which do not occur as parts of noun phrases, but rather as predicates –
predicative (this movie was very sad)
Some predicative adjectives require a complement (prepositional phrases, clauses,
comparisons, infinitives): He is [fond of chocolate]

a very sad movie

very fond of chocolate

NP

AP

Det

NP

Int

AP

a

very

AP

N

A

PP

movie

fond

Int

A

P

NP

very

sad

of

chocolate

4. Prepositional Phrases (PP)
They have prepositions as their heads



There [was [a young woman] [in the car]] – PP as an independent part of a sentence,
modifying the verb phrase:
[A young woman] was [in the car]
Tests:
It was a young woman who was in the car
*It was a young woman in the car who was



[A young woman in the car] was injured - PP as a part of a noun phrase, forms a
whole with the noun phrase and if it is separated, the meaning changes:
It was a young woman in the car who was injured (=ok)
It was a young woman who was injured in the car (= not a good paraphrase,
completely different meaning)



Similar situation:
Fred [emptied [the bucket in the bathroom]] (= the bucket was in the bathroom, PP as
a part of the NP)
Fred [[emptied the bucket] [in the bathroom]] (= the bucket was emptied in the
bathroom, PP as a part of the VP)



Some PP consist of complex prepositions: according to, due to



They may take modifiers
a week before
[

PP

right [

PP

to the end]]

5. Verb phrases
Has a verb as its head, may be finite or non-finite



Finite (specified for tense):
I [don’t know his address]

He [likes bananas]



Non-finite (not specified for tense, may contain an infinitival marker to):
He wants [to go to the theater]
[Living dangerously] is exciting (participial)



Auxiliaries and modals are also parts of the verb phrase:

Tense (modal) (perfective) (progressive) (passive) VERB

a. Modality:

Possibility, necessity, obligation, etc.

Epistemic vs deontic uses of modals



Epistemic (true, false, possibility, probability, necessity, ability)
He may be responsible for this
I’m sure he can speak French
He must have a wife
John will sing at the party, as always
We should know tomorrow



Deontic – necessity or obligation, permission, future oriented
He may go now (I allow him)
He can speak French in my presence
He must do it!
We should tell him (we have an obligation)



Sometimes the two uses of modals clash:
Can I open the window? Yes you can but no, you may not.

b. Aspect: perfective and progressive:

Perfective: have +en
Progressive: be+ ing
Some stative verbs do not take progressive, if they do, the meaning is changed

c. Voice

Passive voice – with transitive verbs (taking one or more objects)
Be + en



If all elements (modality, aspect and voice) are combined, the following picture
emerges:

Tense (modal) (have+en) (be+ing) (be+en) VERB

They always appear in the same order AND
The suffixes appear on the next verb to the right!


He past can have+en be+ing be+en beat =>
He can+past have be+en be+ing beat+en =>
He could have been being beaten

d. Negation:

Appears after (or on) the first auxiliary verb in the verb phrase :

He must not go = He mustn’t go
They will not go = He won’t go
He couldn’t have been being beaten

If there is no auxiliary – do support:
I don’t know him
I didn’t know him

e. Non-finite verb phrases as phrasal adjuncts (providing additional information):

Badly burned, the bread had to be thrown away
Being alerted, he avoided the unlit street
Sometimes they are misused - dangling pariticiples:
Trying to climb the ladder, his foot slipped

6. Adverb phrases



Adverb as its head



May take modifiers: very quietly



Appear in other phrases



Usually used as adjuncts – optional structural elements which provide extra
information



Sometimes classified semantically – place, manner, time



They have substantial freedom of movement:
He left suddenly
He suddenly left
Suddenly, he left



Predicate adjuncts:
He left quietly
The did it without hesitation



Necessary complements:

Put it there
John is at the back



Conjunctive adverbs: however, nevertheless



Disjuncts: obviously, naturally