Constituency: Movementand Substitution

1. Constituency: Movement
and Substitution
Presented to: Dr. Hafiz Qasim
Presented by: Shahbaz Haider

2. What is constituents?
•Constituents are strings of one or
more words that syntactically and
semantically behave as a unit. We
defined constituents formally in
terms of the notion dominance.

3. (1) My father admires my mother.

4. In this tree S has four immediate constituents instead of three
(namely NP1, ‘I’, VP and NP2).

5. 1. Movement
• 1.1 Movements to the Left
1.1.1 Topicalisation
Topicalization is a mechanism of syntax that establishes an expression as the sentence
or clause topic.
a) Flora Do you like Belgian beer and Belgian wine?
Ben [Belgian beer] I like — , but [Belgian wine] I hate —
b) I like Belgian beer, but I hate Belgian wine.

7. Examples
a. The boys roll rocks for entertainment.
b. For entertainment, the boys roll rocks. -Topicalization of the adjunct for entertainment
a. Everyone refused to answer because the pressure was too great.
b. Because the pressure was too great, everyone refused to answer. -
Topicalization of the adjunct because the pressure was too great
a. I won't eat that pizza.
b. That pizza, I won't eat. - Topicalization of the object argument that pizza
a. I am terrified of those dogs.
b. Those dogs, of which I am terrified. - Topicalization of the object argument those dogs

9. 1.1.2 VP-Preposing
VP-Preposing involves movement of a Verb Phrase from its normal position in the clause to
the beginning of that clause, and as such is a special type of Topicalisation.
VP-Preposing can only apply if the sentence in question contains an auxiliary
verb,

10. Errors

11. Example
• Ralph says that he will clean his room meticulously.

12. 1.1.3 Though-Movement
The term Though-Movement is misleading because it isn’t the word
though that moves, as the sentences above show.

13. the Adverb Phrases meticulously and carefully are inside the VP of these
sentences. We can apply Though- Movement to find out. This is the result:

14. 1.2 Movements to the Right
• 1.2.1 Heavy-NP-Shift
Heavy NP shift is an operation that involves re-ordering (shifting) a
"heavy" noun phrase (NP) to a position to the right of its canonical
position under certain circumstances.
Direct Objects typically occur immediately to the right of the verb
that subcategorises for them

15. Heavy NP shift in English
Examples 1a, 2a, and 3a all show canonical order whereas
1b, 2b, 3b show the NP shifted to the right of its canonical position:
1. a) I gave the book that I bought last week to Mary.
1. b) I gave to Mary the book that I bought last week.
2. a) I met my rich uncle from Detroit on the street.
2. b) I met on the street my rich uncle from Detroit.
3. a) I sent the recipes from the paper that I was talking about to
you.
3. b) I sent to you the recipes from the paper that I was talking
about.

16. A restriction on HNPS is that we cannot move Indirect Objects or Objects
of prepositions to the right:

17. 1.2.2 Extraposition of Subject Clauses
The Subject of the sentence is the clause that the film ended so
soon. We can move (‘extrapose’) it from a clause-initial to a clause-
final position

18. 1.2.3 Extraposition from NP
ENP seems to be more acceptable if the Verb Phrase is relatively light, e.g. if it consists of
an intransitive verb or a Raising verb (seem, appear, become, etc.). The following
sentence, which contains a transitive verb, seems to be much less good:

19. Example
1. (a) Six women with yellow hats on their heads appeared.
(b) Six women — appeared with yellow hats on their heads.

21. 1.2 Substitution
•The idea here is that a particular string of
words must be a constituent if it can be
replaced by something else: by a single
word, by another string of words, or even
by nothing at all. Like Movement,
Substitution can affect full phrases

22. 1.2.1 Substitution of Nominal Projections: NP
and N’
•My father admires my mother.
• Proform Substitution
• A particular string of words is a constituent if it can be
substituted by a suitable proform.
• e.g (My father admires my mother.)
He admires her.

23. Phrase & Clause Substitution
• Pronouns can replace quite complex NPs:
Other phrase types, and even clauses, can be replaced by proforms too, as the following sentences
demonstrate: