Sunteți pe pagina 1din 4

Rank Scale

Every sentence can be analysed at four distinct levels: word-level, phrase-level, clauselevel & sentence-level
Labelled bracketings
It is a notation method where words that belong together in a constituent are enclosed in
square brackets.
W = word, P = phrase, C = clause, S = sentence
Word level
[ Peter] [ has] [ bought] [ a] [ very] [ expensive] [ car]
W

Phrase level
[ [ Peter]] [ [ has] [ bought]] [ [ a] [ [ very] [ expensive]] [ car]]
P

Clause level
[ [ [ Peter]] [ [ has] [ bought]] [ [ a] [ [ very] [ expensive]] [ car]]]
C

Sentence level
[ [ [ Peter]] [ [ has] [ bought]] [ [ a] [ [ very] [ expensive]] [ car]]]
SC

Tree-diagrams.
It is a method used to represent syntactic structures. They provide a much clearer
representation:
Peter has bought a very expensive car
Clause

phrase
word

phrase
word

phrase
word word

phrase

word

word word
Peter

has

bought

a very expensive car

A grammatical unit (a clause or a phrase) can function as a constituent of a unit of the


same rank as itself
Clauses as constituents of Clauses A Clause within a Clause
[ [ That the earth is round] [ was discovered] [ by Columbus]]
c

Phrases as constituents of Phrases A Phrase within a Phrase


[ [ The] [ red] [ book] [ on the table]]
c

or of a lower rank
Clauses as constituents of phrases A Clause within a Phrase
[ [ [ The] [ dress] [ that you bought yesterday]] [ is] [ [ very]
[ elegant]]
c

Clause

C
That the earth was round

Phrase
was discovered
w

That the earth was round

was discovered

Phrase
by Columbus
w

by Columbus

Phrase
w

The red book on the table


Clause

Phrase
The dress that you bought yesterday
w

cl

The dress that you bought yesterday

Phrase
is
w
is

Phrase
very elegant
w

very elegant

Produce labelled bracketings for the tree below:


Clause

phrase
word

word

This

poison

phrase

phrase

word

word

kills

rats

Using labelled bracketings, analyse the following sentence at the word,


phrase, clause & sentence levels. Then produce a tree diagram:
Freddy sent the doctor a postcard

Draw/produce tree diagrams for the following phrases:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

a story about the king of Spain


that beautiful carpet in the hall
extremely familiar to us
despite his objections
quite hard
ready to leave
averse to hard work
great damage
furiously
afraid of the darkness
in a bakery
the man who has just spoken
the man at the gate
my poor old mother
in spite of the bad weather

4. Draw/produce tree diagrams for the following sentences:


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

I saw a purse lying on the floor


John seems very happy with his work
The book she is reading is mine
He is pretty expert at solving problems
She put the flowers in the vase she had brought
All the stories that were published on Monday are unreliable
The news that England had won was a surprise.
John read the book I recommended
He feels proud of being Martins friend
The old lady I met on the street was wearing a beautiful dress

S-ar putea să vă placă și