Syntax

Syntax

The study of word order

Constituent

A group of one or more words that is a component of a phrase

Head + Dependents

In a constituent, the head is the word that determines the syntactic category or function. If the constituent is one word, then that word is the head. Any word in a constituent that is not the head is a dependent.

Constituent test: Replacement

The entire noun phrase can be replaced by a pronoun (ex: ‘Those three big books’ becomes ‘them’)

Constituent test: Internal composition

The noun phrase needs a noun with something before or after it (ex: prepositional phrase ‘the girl in the movie’ or the demonstrative + noun ‘That boy’)

Noun phrase

A syntactic constituent consisting of a noun or pronoun (the head) and its modifiers (dependents)

Prepositional phrase

Contains a prepo