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Questions tagged [constituents]

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3 votes
2 answers
244 views

What words/phrases can grammatically specify groupings to remove ambiguity in statements?

It is very common for research involving mathematics to be primarily written in English (including proofs) because both correctness and comprehensibility are valued in this kind of writing. Any ...
-1 votes
0 answers
19 views

CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES [duplicate]

CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES • Label each constituent at the word level (determiner, noun, verb, adjective, adverb) • Bracket each constituent at the phrase level (NP, VP, PP) The boys threw the ...
3 votes
0 answers
90 views

What happens when a sentence and an aside require different sentence structures?

How do you handle when an aside -- a parenthetical or a dashed aside -- doesn't fit with what follows, but since the aside is the "closest" thing, the original thing doesn't fit either. ...
2 votes
1 answer
97 views

What is the constituent type of 'laugh' in 'I saw her laugh'?

Could someone explain to me the constituent type of “laugh” as in “I saw her laugh”? Best with an X-bar graph. I know it's a lot of trouble. You don't have to draw the whole thing, a simplified ...
2 votes
2 answers
249 views

An annoyingly technical question about right nonce-constituent coordination in Huddleston & Pullum (2002)

I'm currently reading Huddleston & Pullum (2002), aka CGEL, specifically the chapter on "right nonce-constituent coordination"; the relevant pages are pp. 1342-1343. My question is about ...
2 votes
0 answers
211 views

Can I really follow the theoretical framework proposed in the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language?

In the book 'the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL)', the authors propose the theoretical framework used to describe the English sentences as shown below: Text version: Clause: ...
0 votes
1 answer
217 views

Noun phrases + Colons + SemiColons

Given: John was causing obstruction: the act of preventing passage or progress. or The doctor said: "you need medical attention". What do the constituents of these phrases look like? Given that ...
-2 votes
2 answers
471 views

What parts of speech and sentence constituents are “yes” and “no” words in answers?

Let's look at some examples: — Would you like some ice cream? — No. — Are you happy? — Yes. According to Wiktionary “yes” is a particle: ParticleyesUsed to show agreement or acceptance... “No” and “...
2 votes
1 answer
82 views

Matrix clause or infinitival clause?

What is the function of “the doctor” in the following sentences? Is it a constituent of the matrix clause or of the infinitival clause? I wanted the doctor to examine my daughter. I persuaded the ...
0 votes
2 answers
63 views

Structural ambiguity [closed]

This sentence is supposed to be ambiguous. However I cannot see the ambiguity. "We heard Mr. Vaughn’s voice on the loudspeaker" My interpretation is: We: SUBJECT Mr. Vaughn's voice: DO On the ...
1 vote
2 answers
166 views

How can an adjective follow and modify an adverb in “somewhere new”? Is this ellipsis?

I would like to go somewhere new tonight. I met someone nice at the party Are the preceding two sentences the same as the following, but with ellipsis applied? I would like to go somewhere [that is] ...
1 vote
1 answer
317 views

Constituent structure of 'He arranged for me to go there'

This question was inspired by the discussions in this post. Consider the sentence [1] He arranged for me to go there. What is required is to determine its constituent structure (in the sense of ...
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

a [box [of apples] ] vs [a box] [of apples]

The standard linguistic analysis of the NP a box of apples is that we have a determiner (a) which acts on (modifies?) box of apples. (For an example of standard analysis, see e.g. Fig. 6 here). ...
8 votes
3 answers
727 views

In 'The hat is red', how do we know that 'is red' is a constituent?

As far as I understand, in the sentence [1] The hat i̲s̲ ̲r̲e̲d̲. the underlined part, is red, is a syntactical constituent ('a group of words that functions as a ...
1 vote
1 answer
161 views

In 'The hat is not red', how do we know that 'is not' is a constituent?

This post concerns the phrase structure point of view of grammar. 1. The basic question Consider the sentence [1] The hat is not red. The most common syntactic reading of that sentence (but not ...
2 votes
2 answers
688 views

What is and isn't a constituent, and how (whether?) can one argue that something is or isn't grammatical

Background In CGEL on p. 1317, we find the following analysis of the sentence [1] [Beauty] [as well as love] is redemptive. They note that the singular is signifies that as well as is here not a ...