Syntax 2

Structural Analysis and Tree Diagrams

                Tree Diagram showing the

Morphological Structure of a Poly-morphemic Word

We can use tree diagrams to show the internal structure of words, phrases or sentences.

At the level of morphology, we can show the structure of a poly-morphemic word by dividing it into its hierarchical components.

Let us take the word ‘unfriendliness’ and illustrate its structure by means of a tree diagram.

                                                               

                                                                Unfriendliness

                                                                    ↙           ↘

                                                      unfriendly           ness

                                                         ↙       ↘

                                                      un       friendly       

                                                                   ↙   ↘               

                                                           friend      ly     

The diagram shows that first of all, the suffix –ly is attached to the root friend to derive the word friendly. Then we attach the prefix –un to the stem friendly to derive the word unfriendly. Last of us, we attach the suffix ness- to the stem friendly to derive the ultimate form unfriendliness.

In other words, we can say that the two immediate constituents of the word unfriendliness are unfriendly and ness. The immediate constituent of unfriendly are un and friendly. The immediate constituents of friendly are friend and ly. The ultimate constituents of unfriendliness are un, friend, ly and ness.

 

 

 

Tree Diagram showing the internal structure of a prepositional phrase

Let us take the prepositional phrase ‘on the wooden table’ and analyse its structure.

                                                     On the wooden table

                                                                    PP

                                                                  ↙    ↘

                                                              P           NP

                                                            ↙            ↙ ↘

                                                          ↙          Det         NP

                                                       ↙              ↓           ↓   ↘                 

                                                    ↙                 ↓      Mod.     N                             

                                                 ↙                    ↓         ↓            ↘   

                                             On                  the     wooden     table

               P = preposition            Det. - Determiner         Mod. = Modifier        N = Noun

The diagram shows that the prepositional phrase ‘on the wooden table’ consists of two immediate constituents, the preposition ‘on’ and the noun phrase ‘the wooden table’. The noun phrase ‘the wooden table’ consists of two immediate constituents – the article ‘the’ and the noun phrase ‘wooden table’. The noun phrase ‘wooden table’ further consists of two immediate constituents – ‘wooden’ and ‘table’.

 

Analysis of the Structure of a Sentence Using a                       Tree Diagram

We shall take up the following sentence and analyse it to see its structure

The people in the room will move the desk into the hall

            S     

                                                                            ↙  ↓     ↘

                                                                       ↙       ↓           ↘                                                             

                                                                  NP       Aux             VP

                                                              ↙     ↘          ↓             ↙    ↘              

                                                          ↙           ↓         ↓         ↙    ↘       ↘                          

                                                    NP             PP        ↓        V      NP      PP                              

                                                ↙ ↘              ↙↘          ↓        ↓      ↙   ↘     ↘   ↘                      

                                             ↙     ↓         ↙       ↘        ↓        ↓      ↓        ↘     ↘    ↘                   

                                        Det      N       P         NP      ↓        ↓     Det        N       P   NP

                                    ↙            ↓        ↓        ↙  ↘       ↓       ↓        ↓        ↓        ↓     ↓   ↘          

                                 ↙              ↓         ↓      Det   N     ↓       ↓        ↓        ↓        ↓    Det    N                                                  ↙                 ↓         ↓       ↓      ↓      ↓       ↓        ↓       ↓        ↓       ↘           ↘                                  ↙                      ↓         ↓       ↓      ↓      ↓       ↓        ↓       ↓        ↓         ↓            ↘

                      The              people     in    the  room will  move   the   desk     into   the          hall

Immediate Constituent Analysis

 Constituent structure

The concept of constituent structure was first developed by Bloomfield. It was basically a syntactic concept which dealt with the distribution of word forms throughout the well-formed sentences of a language. It was expanded to cover morphology also by the post-Bloomfieldian linguists. Morphology deals with the internal structure of word forms. They started to apply the same principles to the grammatical analysis of word forms as to the syntactic structure of sentences. They abandoned the distinction between morphology and syntax and broadened the concept of syntax which then became the study of the distribution of morphemes rather than word forms.

Words according to them are minimal free forms which do not have any other  free form as their constituent and which can be used as utterances by themselves. Morphemes on the other hand are minimal grammatical units which cannot be further analysed for constituents.

Both words and sentences as well as phrases have a hierarchical structure which can be analysed using the technique of Immediate Constituent analysis. While conducting IC analysis, the structure at the head is analysed into two constituents to begin with.  Thereafter, every node of the tree diagram is divided into two branches. The process of division continues till we reach the ultimate constituents which cannot further be analysed for smaller constituents.

1. IC Analysis of a Complex (Polymorphemic) Word Form

Using the IC analysis, the word unfriendliness can be analysed as follows:

                                                                  Unfriendliness

                                                                    ↙           ↘

                                                      unfriendly             ness

                                                      ↙    ↘                       

                                                  un       friendly       

                                                               ↙  ↘          

                                                        friend     ly

The tree diagram given above shows that the word ‘unfriendliness is first analysed into two constituents - unfriendly and ness. The constituent unfriendly is then analysed into two constituents - un and friendly. Lastly, friendly is analysed into two constituents - friend and ly. The constituent friend cannot be analysed further to get smaller constituents. We have now arrived at the ultimate constituents of the word – un, friend, ly and ness.

The structure can also be shown with the help of bracketing.

                                    [ [ Un ] [ [ friend ] [ ly ] ] ] [ ness]

The bracketing here shows the same thing as the tree diagram above.

First we separate unfriendly and ness . We put red square brackets around both.

Then we separate un and friendly. Again we put green square brackets around both.

Now we separate un and friendly and again put blue square brackets around both.

The division is neutral between analysis and synthesis. Alternatively, it tells us that we first combine the noun friend and the suffix ly to derive the adjective friendly. This is quite a productive process in English as quite a good number of adjectives are derived from nouns by adding the suffix ly. Then the prefix un is attached to friendly to derive another adjective unfriendly which is opposed to friendly. Making negatives of adjectives by prefixing un is also a very productive process in English. Lastly, we derive the abstract noun unfriendliness by adding the suffix ness. This is also a very productive process as a large number of abstract nouns are formed by adding ness to adjectives.

We did not divide unfriendliness into un and friendliness at the first stage itself because that would mean that the form unfriendliness which is an abstract noun is derived by adding un to another abstract noun friendliness. This is not a very productive process in English. Not many abstract nouns are derived by adding the prefix un to existing abstract nouns.

N (concrete)   + ly = Adj              ----- Productive

Adj + un = Adj                              ------ Productive

Adj + ness = Noun (abstract)    ------ Productive

Noun (abstract) + un = Noun (abstract)     ---- Unproductive

 

 

2. IC Analysis of a Phrase

                                                               On a wooden table

                                                                      PP

                                                                  ↙      ↘

                                                               P               NP

                                                               ↓           ↙      ↘

                                                               ↓      Art          NP

                                                               ↓       ↓              ↓     ↘

                                                               ↓       ↓          Mod      N

                                                               ↓       ↓              ↓         ↓

                                                              On       a        wooden      table

The tree diagram shows the IC analysis of the prepositional phrase ON A WOODEN TABLE.

It is clear from the tree that the PP consists of two constituents – ON which is a preposition and A WOODEN TABLE which is a noun phrase. The NP consists of two constituents – article A and noun phrase WOODEN TABLE. This smaller NP consists of two constituents – the adjective WOODEN and the noun TABLE. ON – A – WOODEN – TABLE are the ultimate constituents of this prepositional phrase.

IC Analysis of a Sentence

Sentence - The people in the room will move the desk into the hall.

                                                               S

                                               ←←←←←←←→→→→→→→

                                             ↓                                                      ↓                                         

                                           NP                                                    VP

                               ←←←→→→→                                ←←←→→→→

                              ↓                          ↓                              ↓                          ↓

                            NP                        PP                           VP                       NP

                  ←←←→→             ←←→→               ←←→→          ←←←→→→

                 ↓                 ↓            ↓               ↓            ↓            ↓          ↓                      ↓              

               Art               N            P              NP        Aux        V         NP                    PP  

                 ↓                ↓             ↓        ←←→→     ↓           ↓     ←←→→         ←←→→

                 ↓                ↓             ↓       ↓             ↓     ↓           ↓    ↓              ↓       ↓              ↓                    

                 ↓                ↓             ↓     Art           N     ↓           ↓   Art           N      P             NP

                 ↓                ↓             ↓       ↓             ↓     ↓           ↓    ↓              ↓      ↓        ←←→→

                 ↓                ↓             ↓       ↓             ↓     ↓           ↓    ↓              ↓      ↓       ↓              ↓ 

                 ↓                ↓             ↓       ↓             ↓     ↓           ↓    ↓              ↓      ↓     Art             N

                 ↓                ↓             ↓       ↓             ↓     ↓           ↓    ↓              ↓      ↓       ↓              ↓

              The           people        in     the        room will   move  the         desk into    the           hall

  

Sentence --- Your students and my students may join the group in the evening.

                                                                    S   

                                        ←←←←←←←←← →→→→→→→

                               ↓                                                               ↓

                               NP                                                           VP

                   ←←←←←←← →                                  ←←← ←←← →→

                  ↓              ↓              ↓                                 ↓                                ↓

                NP₁          conj         NP₂                              VP                             PP

      ←←→→→         ↓         ←→→→            ← ← →→→→                  ←←←→→

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓               ↓         ↓                         ↓               ↓                  ↓

  Det                 N       ↓       Det           N         VP                      NP              P                NP

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       ←←→→         ←←→→       ↓           ←←→→

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       Aux       V       ↓             ↓       ↓           ↓             ↓

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓          ↓        ↓       Det          N       ↓         Det           N                   ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓          ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       ↓           ↓             ↓

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓          ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       ↓           ↓             ↓

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓          ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       ↓           ↓             ↓                                         ↓                  ↓              ↓          ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       ↓           ↓             ↓

     ↓                  ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓          ↓        ↓        ↓              ↓       ↓           ↓             ↓

Your         students   and     my      students  may   join     the         group   in        the      evening

The concept of immediate constituent analysis was first developed by Bloomfield. It was further refined by Chomsky.

The concept of immediate constituents (ICs) initially covered syntax alone. But later on, it was expanded to cover morphology also. Chomsky demonstrated that word forms are also formed by combining two constituents (morphemes) at a time – a root or stem and a bound morpheme.

While analysing any structure for its immediate constituents, we divide a structure into two parts at a time.

Some scholars are in favour of trinary division (dividing a structure into three immediate constituents) at some points. That would certainly be a better approach when the NP functioning as the object of the verb is followed by a structure functioning as the adverbial. While analysing the above sentences, in the second step, we then may divide the VP into three constituents - the VP, the NP and the PP.