1. Introduction
This paper presents a sentence to analyze how constituents function and the four test that can be used to prove the constituent. Linguist consider a constituent to be a structural unit made of a word or words that create the sentence and other phrases as well. In (1) the sentence that is analyzed and the constituents that are going to be tested are presented. Branches are used to show the boundaries that form the constituents.
1. Sentence and Constituents
a. He might have been watching television.
b. He might have been [watching television].
c. He might have [been watching television].
d. He might [have been watching television].
e. He [might have been watching television].
To gain a better understanding and view of the constituents presented in (1a-e) a syntactic tree diagram will be presented. In addition, to presenting …show more content…
If any of these test produce an ill formed sentence it would prove that the group of words after the insertion are not constituent. The third test that will be used to argue that expressions in (1) contain constituents is sentence fragments. In (8) the constraint that govern sentence fragmenting is presented.
8. Constraint on sentence fragmenting
Only constituents can serve as sentence fragments
This constraint puts a restriction ion the group of words that can be used by themselves. According to this if a groups of words is able to stand by itself and be grammatical then it is a constituent. Furthermore, if the group of words are ungrammatical then it proves that they are not a constituent. In (9) the test and data is presented.
9. Sentence fragment data
Speaker A: What did you think he might have been doing?
a. Speaker B: Watching television. or
b. Speaker B: Been watching television. or
c. Speaker B: Have been watching
This paper presents a sentence to analyze how constituents function and the four test that can be used to prove the constituent. Linguist consider a constituent to be a structural unit made of a word or words that create the sentence and other phrases as well. In (1) the sentence that is analyzed and the constituents that are going to be tested are presented. Branches are used to show the boundaries that form the constituents.
1. Sentence and Constituents
a. He might have been watching television.
b. He might have been [watching television].
c. He might have [been watching television].
d. He might [have been watching television].
e. He [might have been watching television].
To gain a better understanding and view of the constituents presented in (1a-e) a syntactic tree diagram will be presented. In addition, to presenting …show more content…
If any of these test produce an ill formed sentence it would prove that the group of words after the insertion are not constituent. The third test that will be used to argue that expressions in (1) contain constituents is sentence fragments. In (8) the constraint that govern sentence fragmenting is presented.
8. Constraint on sentence fragmenting
Only constituents can serve as sentence fragments
This constraint puts a restriction ion the group of words that can be used by themselves. According to this if a groups of words is able to stand by itself and be grammatical then it is a constituent. Furthermore, if the group of words are ungrammatical then it proves that they are not a constituent. In (9) the test and data is presented.
9. Sentence fragment data
Speaker A: What did you think he might have been doing?
a. Speaker B: Watching television. or
b. Speaker B: Been watching television. or
c. Speaker B: Have been watching