IC analysis is a tool in structural linguistics that analyzes sentence structure by breaking sentences down into their smallest meaningful constituents. It was introduced by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933 and further developed by others. IC analysis involves identifying the immediate constituents of a sentence and labeling them to show hierarchical relationships. While it is useful for describing sentence structure, IC analysis has limitations such as not handling ambiguous sentences or discontinuous expressions, and it does not provide a theoretical framework.

1. I C ANALYSIS
BUSHRA AHMAD
M.A. ELT I SEMESTER
16ETM05

2. WHAT IS IC ANALYSIS
• A tool in structural linguistics
• Immediate - Constituent Analysis
• A system of grammatical analysis
• Analyses sentence structure
• Introduced by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933
• Further developed by Roulon Wells and Zellig Harris

3. DEFINITION
IC Analysis is:
• a system
• of breaking down sentences
• into their smallest meaningful constituents
• for analysing their structure.

4. EXAMPLE:
I am giving a presentation
am giving a presentationI
am giving a presentation
am giving a presentation
(give + ing) (present + ation)

5. FEATURES
• Idea– a sentence is a sequence of components
• Sentence – CONSTRUCTION
• I, am giving a presentation – IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS
• I, am, give + ing, a, present + ation – ULTIMATE
CONSTITUENTS
• Order of elements is (usually) unchanged
• IC cuts are (usually) binary
• Isolates the constituents hierarchically

6. LABELLED IC ANALYSIS
1. Formal Labelling
On the basis of grammatical category/form
Barking dogs seldom bite
Noun Phrase
barking dogs
Verb Phrase
seldom bite
Adjective
barking
Noun
dogs
Adverb
seldom
Verb
bite

7. 2. Functional Labelling
On the basis of the function of the constituents
• Structure of predication (Subject + Predicate)
• Structure of modification (Head + Modifier)
• Structure of complementation (Verbal + Complement)
• Structure of subordination (Subordinator + Dependent
unit)
• Structure of co ordination (Independent unit +
Coordinator + Independent unit)

8. My friend ate apples and oranges in the morning
Subject
My friend
Predicate
ate apples and oranges in the morning
Head
my
Modifier
friend
Verbal
ate
Complement
apples and oranges in the morning
Head
apples and oranges
Modifier
in the morning
Independent
unit
apples
Coordinator
and
Independent
unit
oranges
Subordinator
in
Dependent
unit
the morning
Modifier
the
Head
morning

9. LIMITATIONS
• Constructional homonymy
• Ambiguous sentences
• Discontinuous expressions
• A method
• Simply describes, no theory
• A lot of exceptions

10. THANK YOU