The

Structure of
Sentences
Group 1
Ahmad Zaki
Mubarak
(1502972)
Novia Tri Febriani
(1503203)

Outline
Introduction
The

structure of words
How do we know sentences have structure?
Constituency tests
Three additional tests
Nested constituents
Representing structure
Points to remember

The structure of words

The

part which make up words are

morphemes.
The morpheme is the smallest unit of
meaning in the structure of language
Ex: windows

window + -s

2 morphemes
undeniable
government

Bound vs Free
Morphemes
Free

morphemes:
Those morphemes which can stand alone
as words

Has function as stem/root/base

ex: black, pet, floor, door, etc.

 Bound

Morphemes:
Those morphemes which cant stand
(dependent)
- Classified as affixes, where:
Prefixes

Affixes

Infixes

Suffixes

alone

Inflection vs Derivation
Inflectional

morphemes:
bound morphemes which dont change the
meaning of the stem or the category, ----Always suffixes
Ex:
Bag (noun)
Bags (noun)
Walk (verb)
Walked (verb)
A child (noun)
A childs memory
(noun)

 Derivational

morphemes:
bound
morphemes
which
generally
combine with the base and change the
meaning or and the part of speech class of
words.
Ex:
Run (verb)
Dog (noun)
Nation (noun)

Runner (noun)
Dogged (verb)
National (adj)

Compounding

`words that built from more than one free

morpheme

Ex:
Breakfast (noun)
break (verb) + fast
(adj)
Earring, bathtub, birthday, etc.
Cran-morphemes
roots which can never occur independently.
Ex:
Cranberry

How do we know sentences

have structures
Constituents:
String of words which function as a
group at some level.
Ex:
They ate a gigantic burger with extra
meat for breakfast.

Constituency tests

To decide whether a particular string is a

constituent or not.

There are four tests:

1. Substitution
2. Unit of sense/ sentence fragment
3. Movement
4. Co-ordination

The seven days of existence food-rejection therapy

included near-drowning in a soup-filled Jacuzzi

1. Substitution
replacing the string investigating by a single
word. Words that naturally as replacement is
pronoun, substitution test for verb, or a word.
Ex:
The seven days of existence food-rejection
therapy included this.
- A man with dark glasses is following us.
We watched a movie about cheese-making
last week

2. Unit of sense/sentence fragment

By making question-answer sequenced based
on the original sentence (using one of those whquestion words.
Ex:
Question:
What did you say the food-rejection therapy
included?
Answer:
Near-drowning in a soup-filled Jacuzzi
That is my brother
The keys are on table.

Who is that?
Where are the keys?

3. Movement
move the constituents investigated in a
sentence(move items into other positions in order
to emphasize the message).
Types of movement:
Fronting, a device whereby we shunt elements
to the first position in the sentence.
Ex: Near-drowning in a soup-filled Jacuzzi,
the seven days of existence foodrejection therapy included
Ive always enjoyed fishing with my dad.
Fishing with my dad, Ive always enjoyed.

Clefting
shifting elements around in a sentence
(usually builds a new structure). It was /is
that

Ex:
It was near-drowning in a soup-filled Jacuzzi that
the seven days of existence food-rejection
therapy included
They put the bodies in the basement
It is in the basement that they put the bodies.

4. Co-ordination
co-ordinate the sequences of words/phrases
using linking items, like and, but, and or.
two constraints on co-ordination:
only those strings that make up constituents can
be conjoined
only constituents of the same category can be
conjoined
Ex:
Her friends from Peru went to the movies.
Rani and her friends from Peru went to the movies.

The girl who wore pink dress passed your house

yesterday.
1.
2.
3.
4.

She passed your house yesterday.

When did the girl who wore pink dress pass
your house?
It was your house that the girl who wore pink
dress passed yesterday.
The girl who wore pink dress and white scarf
passed your house yesterday.