Constituents, Constructions and Syntactic Relations

Constructions vs. Constituents

Constructions

• Defined last week as the “larger building blocks” of syntax—complete structures such as clauses or whole sentences.
• Example: “The boy ran” and “The boy” are both treated as constructions because they are multi-word groupings that can stand alone as syntactic units.

Constituents

• Smaller building blocks found inside a sentence; always part of something larger.
• May be:
  • A single word: boy, ran, the.
  • A phrase: the boy, won the valuable prize.
  • A longer group of words that functions as one unit within a higher-level construction.
• Key distinction: a sentence (S) can be a construction but never a constituent of itself.

Hierarchy Illustrated

• Using tree diagrams the instructor repeatedly split a sentence S → NP + VP, then further decomposed each branch.
• Example tree for “The girl won the valuable prize”:
  • S
  • NP → Det the + N girl
  • VP → V won + NP the valuable prize
    • NP → Det the + Adj valuable + N prize
• From that tree:
  • Constructions (multi-word units): S, “the girl”, “won the valuable prize”, “the valuable prize”.
  • Constituents (any node): 9 total – each leaf word plus every phrase (NP, VP).

Tests for Identifying Constituents

Four classical diagnostics. Any single successful test is enough to claim “constituent”.

1. Replacement / Substitution

Substitute the string with a single word (often pronoun, pro-verb, "do so", etc.). If meaning and grammaticality stay intact → constituent.

• “The small boy ate his delicious chocolate.”
  • Substitute NP: He ate his delicious chocolate. ⇒ “the small boy” is a constituent.
  • Substitute NP object: He ate it. ⇒ “his delicious chocolate” is a constituent.
• Negative example: “The small cried” shows that small alone cannot be substituted because an NP minimally needs a noun head.

2. Displacement / Movement

Move the candidate chunk as a whole; resulting sentence must still be grammatical and preserve sense.

• “He ran a marathon last night.”
  • Fronting PP: Last night he ran a marathon. ⇒ “last night” is a constituent.
  • Cannot split “last night” (Last he ran a marathon night ✗) or “a marathon” (Marathon he ran a last night ✗). Hence those internal pieces are not movable together, affirming proper constituency boundaries.

3. Deletion

Delete the candidate; remaining sentence remains grammatical/coherent, usually with an understood meaning (ellipsis).

• “He can do this work, and I also can __.” Deleting this work shows it forms a constituent.
• “The teacher knows that he was ill; I also know __.” Deleting the complement clause that he was ill confirms it as a constituent (a CP/noun clause).

4. Coordination

Coordinate the string with another of the same syntactic type using and/or.

• “Nimal and Sunil are friends, and Ruwan and Kamal are too.”
  • Because Nimal and Sunil is coordinated with Ruwan and Kamal, the entire NP “Nimal and Sunil” is a constituent.
• “This boy and that girl will prepare tea.” Coordination signals that both NPs are constituents; prepare tea is also shown to be a VP constituent because it is shared.

Abstract Relations Among Constituents

Abstract (structural) relations describe how units are arranged or permitted in a language.

Distributional Relations (Syntagmatic)

1. Word Order
   • 6 logically possible orders of S, V, O; English uses SVO, Sinhala & Tamil predominantly SOV.
   • Word order choices encode grammatical roles and influence meaning.
2. Positional Relations
   • Specific slots determine modification/government.
   • Adjective position in English: the handsome boy (Adj before N). The boy handsome ✗.
   • Complement vs. Adjunct distinction:
     • Complement = obligatory element that completes the predicate (e.g.
       “The boy read \text{the paragraph}”).
     • Adjunct = optional, adds extra information (e.g. “quickly”, “in the library”).

Dependencies (Agreement & Government)

• Dependencies are grammatical requirements a word imposes on the form or presence of another.

a) Agreement

• Number: this man vs. these men; one man / two men.
• Gender (in Sinhala/Tamil verb forms), Person-verb agreement in English (he goes).

b) Government

• Prepositions or case markers determine the morphological form of the following NP.
  • English: “I gave the book to her” (not to she).
  • Sinhala: postposition -\u0db0ි (veni) forces preceding pronoun to change ( mama → maweni ).
• Infinitival to governs bare verb: to go, to come (not to going).

Substitution (Paradigmatic Relations)

• Vertical relation: items of the same category can replace each other.
• Frame \text{NP} \; \text{V} \; \text{NP} allows unlimited sentences: The boy ran, Sara cooked dinner, Teachers discuss syntax … because nouns replace nouns, verbs replace verbs.

Functional Relations: Thematic (Θ) Roles

Functional relations link a verb’s argument slots to semantic roles. Valency: number of arguments a verb selects (intransitive = 1-place, transitive = 2-place, ditransitive = 3-place).

Common Θ-roles

Illustrative Examples

• “The boy kicked the ball.” Agent = boy; Theme = ball.
• “She felt sad.” Experiencer = she (undergoes emotion).
• “She cut the paper with a knife.” Agent = she; Theme = paper; Instrument = knife.
• “She gave him a book.” Agent = she; Theme = book; Goal = him.
• “She took the book from the shelf.” Agent = she; Theme = book; Source = shelf.
• “They met at the park.” Agents/Experiencers = they; Location = park.
• “He baked a cake for her.” Agent = he; Theme = cake; Benefactor = her.

Observations

• One lexical noun can realize different roles in different clauses (just as a person can be teacher, mother, friend in different contexts).
• Adjunct arguments (>3) often express roles like Location, Time, Manner but are not required by verb valency.

Worked Classroom Analyses

The lecturer and students practised constituency on several sentences using tree diagrams and counting:

1. “The girl won the valuable prize.”
   • 4 constructions (S, “the girl”, VP, “the valuable prize”) ; 9 constituents when individual words included.
2. “The poor boy chased the rich girl.”
   • 4 constructions; 10 constituents identified by counting tree leaves & branches.
3. Identification tip: in a tree, every “V-shape” (node) ends in two or more branches; count the terminal nodes (leaves) to total constituents.

Practical & Pedagogical Connections

• Builds on previous lecture’s notion of “building blocks”. Now moves from whole constructions to internal constituents.
• Tests mirror real-world editing tasks: pronoun replacement, fronting for emphasis, ellipsis, and coordination.
• Understanding dependencies explains learner errors (e.g. to she) and informs language teaching, parsing, and NLP tagging.
• Thematic roles underpin semantic analysis, interface to pragmatics and discourse.

Ethical / Philosophical Notes

• Language diversity: word-order and agreement examples highlight that no single language is “default”; analysis must respect each system’s logic.
• Collaborative learning: upcoming student presentations foster teamwork; lecturer emphasised contribution acknowledgment (names, student numbers).

Numerical / Structural Quick Reference

• 4 constituency tests.
• 6 logical S/V/O word-orders; major ones discussed: SVO (English) vs SOV (Sinhala, Tamil).
• Valency counts: 1-place (intransitive), 2-place (transitive), 3-place (ditransitive). Extra arguments = adjuncts.

Study Tips & Next Steps

1. Practise drawing tree diagrams; count constituents vs. constructions.
2. Test every suspected constituent with at least one of the four diagnostics.
3. Memorise core Θ-roles and locate them in new sentences.
4. Compare English examples with your L1 (Sinhala/Tamil) to notice differing agreements/government.
5. Review past exam papers; expect application questions more than pure definition lists.
6. Prepare the group presentation (15 min) and email slides to lecturer; include full contributor list.