Syntax

  • Constituents: phrase or sub-unit of structure within a sentence that functions together

    • constituent structure reveals how the sentence as a whole functions syntactically

  • Constituency Tests

  • Q and A: If a phrase can serve independently as the answer to a question, they are a structural unit

  • Clefting: A constituent is moved to the beginning of a clause introduced by ‘It was…’

  • Coordination: Another full syntactic constituent of the same type is added to the possible constituent.

  • Substitution: the constituent is replaced with a proform (pronoun, proverb, etc.)

  • Constituency tests

    • demonstrate how word-forms are organized as smaller phrasal units within a sentence
    • allows you to isolate why a sentence is ungrammatical