22

22. What are constituents and how do we recognize them?

A constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure

To recognize constituents we should use constituency test. There are numerous constituency tests applied to English sentences

To recognize constituents we should use constituency test. There are numerous constituency tests applied to English sentences

• replacement by a single word => if a string of words in the sentence can be substituted with a single word (e.g. a pronoun), it is a constituent of the sentence

• omission => if we can omit a string of words from the sentence and this does not affect the grammaticality of the sentence, this string is a constituent

(attention! There are some constituents that cannot be removed from the sentence e.g. subject)

• movement => if a string of words can be moved and such an action results in a grammatically correct structure, the sequence is a constituent.