This document discusses constituency tests which are used to identify syntactic constituents in sentences. There are three main types of constituency tests: movement tests, substitution tests, and stand alone tests. Movement tests involve rearranging parts of the sentence. Substitution tests involve replacing parts of the sentence with pronouns or other words. Stand alone tests check if parts of the sentence can stand alone as fragments. The document provides examples to illustrate how each of these tests can identify constituents.

1. LANE 334 -EA: Syntax
2011 – Term 2
CONSTITUENCY TESTS 4
By: http://SBANJAR.kau.edu.sa/
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com
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2. What is a constituent?
A constituent: is a syntactic unit that combines with other constituents
according to a grammatical rule to produce a larger structure.
Constituents may be:
1. Words: e.g.
• snake ( )
• killed( )
2. Phrases : e.g. NP &
[ The snake] [ killed [ the rat ] ]
3. Clauses: e.g. S1 &S
[S1 I know [S that the snake killed the rat] ]
4. Sentences e.g. S &
[S She laughed]
S
[ [ S2 The snake killed the rat ] and [S3 it swallowed it] ]
]
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3. • Words that go together form a
constituent (or a phrase).
We can use square brackets to mark
constituents:
[ The snake] [ killed [ the rat ] ]
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4. Constituency tests
•In order for a string to be confirmed as a
constituent, it needs to pass one of the
constituency tests.
•If one of the tests applies to a string of words,
they form a constituent.
•If a test fails to apply to a string of words, it
doesn’t show that they do not form a
constituent.
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5. Constituency tests
There are Three types of
constituency tests:
I. Movement Test
II. Substitution Test
III. Stand Alone Test
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6. One test for a constituent is that, because it is a coherent unit, it
can move from one position to another in the sentence.
• To find out whether a string is a constituent or not, we can take
this string and move it to some other position in the sentence.
• If the resulting sentence is still grammatical, then the string is a
constituent.
• In English, strings cannot be moved at random, or anywhere in
the sentence. Only specific types of movement are permitted so
let us look at some examples of possible movement in English:
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7. Often we can move a constituent to the beginning (to
emphasize it, contrast it, etc):
I don’t like cheese cakes.
Cheese cakes, I don’t like (but chocolate cakes I love!)
This cannot be done to items that are not constituents.
For example, like cheese above cannot be fronted:
* Like cheese, I don’t cakes.
Constituents may be fronted as a unit in English:
Tasar is produced in a humid and dense belt of tropical
forest in India.
In a humid and dense belt of tropical forest in India, tasar
is produced.
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8. Salma selected a doughnut filled with strawberry cream
from the bakery.
From the bakery, Salma selected a doughnut filled with
strawberry cream.
This student will answer all questions immediately.
Immediately, the student will answer all questions.
All questions, the student will answer immediately.
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9. A constituent with a patient role undergoes movement
from the object position to the subject position so active
voice will be changed into passive voice:
a. Wild silk moths in countries like India and Japan also
produce it.
• It is also produced by wild silk moth in countries like
India and Japan.
b. People cultivate several species.
• Several species are cultivated.
* Several are cultivated species.
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10. Passivisation operates as:
c. These trucks produce filthy fumes.
• [Filthy fumes] are produced by trucks.
•Since we can move the unit filthy fumes to a
different part of the sentence, filthy fumes is a
constituent.
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11. a. She liked Arabic coffee (normal sentence)
• Arabic coffee she liked. (clefted sentence)
•* [Arabic ] coffee she liked (ungrammatical
sentence)
NOTE: This doesn’t work with VPs (Verb Phrases):
•* [like Arabic Coffee ] she did.
b. The girls should have taken a taxi.
the girls should have taken a taxi.
a taxi the girls should have taken.
•* should have taken the girls a taxi.
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12. The operations of fronting a constituent like ‘ from silk worms’
and surrounding it by ( ) are part of a
process known as CLEFTING. If we represent the string from
silk worms by , we could summarise the process as following:
CLAUSE It is X that CLAUSE
[with X] [without X]
So:
c. Most of the silk we see in Britain comes from silk worms.
• from silkworms most of the silk we see in Britain
comes.
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13. A constituent can be focused as a cleft surrounded by it is/was
….. that:
d.1. Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
• on Saturday Jane gave this book to Bill.
d.2. Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
• to Bill Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
d.3. Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
this book Jane gave to Bill on Saturday.
d.4. Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
Jane gave gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
d.5. Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
•* Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
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14. A process closely related to clefting is that of pseudo-clefting.
A constituent may be focused as a pseudo-cleft using the
This
is a test that works for VPs.
a. She liked Arabic coffee. (normal sentence)
• she like Arabic coffee. (pseudo-clefted sentence)
b. The girls should have taken a taxi.
• the girls should have taken a taxi.
c.1. Jane gave this book to Bill on Saturday.
• Jane give this book to Bill on Saturday.
c.2. Jane [gave [this book ]to Bill on Saturday].
• Jane gave to Bill on Saturday this book.
• This book Jane gave to Bill on Saturday.
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15. Another type of constituency test is substitution.
• A particular string of words is a constituent if it can be
substituted/replaced by another string: such a string
could be a single word (e.g. pronoun), a series of
words, or even by nothing at all.
• This won’t really always work for identifying single-word
constituents.
•Just as with movement, English permits only certain
types of substitution. We will now look at types of
substitution in English:
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16. Only constituents can be replaced by pro-
forms.
pronouns she, he, it, they, us, her, that
pro-verbs do, be
pro-adverbs there, then, here
pro-adjectives such, so, thus
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17. (for NPs)
• [My older sister] admires [men who can eat a lot]
• admires
• *[She] admires [them can eat a lot]
• *[My older ] admires [ ]
The idea is that pronouns can only substitute for
full constituents, not for parts of constituents.
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18. •Tim waited [at the station]. (Normal sentence)
• Tim waited [there]. (there-substituted sentence)
• She knows an Italian student of English and I know a
Spanish [student of English].
• She knows an Italian student of English and I know a
Spanish [one].
(for VPs)
• He wrote a letter and she [wrote a letter], too.
• He wrote a letter and she [did so], too.
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19. Under coordination constituents can often be substituted by a
pronoun or more generally ‘pro-form’, such as:
• he/she/it etc. for people
• there for locations
• do so/it/that etc. for some VPs and sentences
A. The girl admires her teacher and the children admire her
too.
B. David and his brother drove for hours and they got scared
by the heavy fog.
C. Tom was waiting at the station and Sara was waiting there
too.
D. I love having my work done on time and Dalia does (so) too.
E. I think that the boys found the diamonds and the officer
thinks so too.
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20. •Some words in a sentence are linked more closely together than
others.
•They form grammatical units within the sentence.
•These grammatical units (sentence, clause, phrase, words) are
the constituents of the sentence.
•There are various processes which can help to identify such
constituents.
•For example , the string ‘at Harvard’ can be identified as a
constituent using some ‘constituency tests’:
a) George allegedly cheated at Harvard.
a. 1) The string ‘at Harvard’ can be replaced by one word (there):
George allegedly cheated at Harvard
there
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21. a. 2) one can ask a question of the following form:
Where did George allegedly cheated?
The answer will be ‘at Harvard’. Where corresponds
to ‘at Harvard’.
a. 3) At and Harvard can be moved around together,
as the following sentences illustrate:
• George allegedly cheated at Harvard.
• at Harvard George allegedly cheated.
• allegedly George cheated at Harvard.
• allegedly at Harvard George cheated.
• George at Harvard allegedly cheated.
• George at Harvard cheated allegedly
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22. • a. 4) ‘at Harvard’ can be the focus element X in a cleft
sentence:
• It was at Harvard that George allegedly cheated.
• These tests are used to determine the constituent-
hood of ‘At Harvard’:
• Their applicability may be summed up as follows:
• At + Harvard
A.Substituted by one word : Yes
B.Questioned by one word : Yes
C.Move together : Yes
D.Can be the focus element X in a cleft sentence : Yes
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