Structural analysis

One type of descriptive approach is called structural analysis and its main concern is to investigate
the distribution of forms in a language. The method involves the use of “test-frames” that can be
sentences with empty slots in them. For example:

(Example)

There are a lot of forms that can fit into these slots to produce good gramatical sentences of English
(e.g. car, child, donkey, dog, radio). As a result, we can propose that because all these forms fit in
the same test-frame, they are likely to be examples of the same grammatical category. The label we
give to this grammatical category is, of course, “noun.” However, there are many forms that do not
fit those test-frames. Examples would be Cathy, someone, the dog, a car, and many others. (That
is, we wouldn’t say *The Cathy … or *The the dog … here.) For these forms, we require different
test-frames, which could look like this:

(Example)

Among the other forms that comfortably fit these test-frames are it, the big dog, an old car, Ani
Difranco, the professor with the Scottish accent, and many more. Once again, we can suggest that
these forms are likely to be examples of the same gramatical category. The common label for this
category is “noun phrase.” Observing that it fits in this second set of test-frames, and not in the first
set (*The it makes a lot of noise), allows us to improve on the older, Latin-influenced, analysis of
pronouns in English. In the older analysis, pronouns were described as “words used in place of
nouns.” We can now see that it is more accurate to say that pronouns are used in place of noun
phrases (not just nouns). By developing a set of test-frames of this type and discovering which
forms fit the slots in the test-frames, we can produce a description of (at least some) aspects of the
sentence structures of a language.

Constituent analysis

An approach with the same descriptive aims is called constituent analysis. The technique employed
in this approach is designed to show how small constituents (or components) in sentences go
together to form larger constituents. One basic step is determining how words go together to form
phrases. In the following sentence, we can identify nine constituents at the word level: An old man
brought a shotgun to the wedding. How do those nine constituents go together to form constituents
at the phrase level? Does it seem appropriate to put the words together as follows?

(Example)

We don’t normally think of these combinations as phrases in English. We are more likely to say that
the phrase-like constituents here are combinations of the following types: an old man, a shotgun,
the wedding, which are noun phrases; to the wedding, which is a prepositional phrase; and brought
a shotgun, which is a verb phrase. This analysis of the constituent structure of the sentence can be
represented in different types of diagrams. One type of diagram simply shows the distribution of the
constituents at different levels

(Example)
Using this kind of diagram we can determine the types of forms that can be substituted for each
other at different levels of constituent structure. One advantage of this type of analysis is that it
shows rather clearly that proper nouns or names (Gwen, Kingston) and pronouns (I, him, her),
though they are single words, can be used as noun phrases and fill the same constituent space as
longer phrases (e.g. an old man).

(Example)

Labeled and bracketed sentences

An alternative type of diagram is designed to show how the constituents in sentence structure can
be marked off by using labeled brackets. The first step is to put Brackets (one on each side) round
each constituent, and then more brackets round each combination of constituents. For example:

(Example)

With this procedure, the different constituents of the sentence are shown at the word

level [the] or [dog], at the phrase level [the dog] or [loved the girl], and at the sentence

level [The dog loved the girl]. We can then label each constituent using these abbreviated
grammatical terms:

(Example)

In the next diagram, these labels are placed beside each bracket that marks the beginning of a
constituent. The result is a labeled and bracketed analysis of the constituent structure of the
sentence.

(Example)

In performing this type of analysis, we have not only labeled all the constituents, we have revealed
the hierarchical organization of those constituents. In this hierarchy, the sentence (S) is higher than
and contains the noun phrase (NP). The noun phrase (NP) is higher than and contains the noun
(N). We can also see that the sentence (S) contains a verb phrase (VP) which contains a verb (V)
and another noun phrase (NP). We will return to the important concept of hierarchical organization
in gramatical structure in the next chapter.

Before moving on, however, we should note that constituent analysis is not only useful for
describing the structure of English sentences. We can take a sample sentence from a language
with a grammatical structure that is really quite different from English and apply the same type of
analysis.

A Gaelic sentence

Here is a sentence from Scottish Gaelic which would be translated as “The boy saw the black dog.”

(Example)

One very obvious difference between the structure of this Gaelic sentence and its English
counterpart is the fact that the verb comes first in the sentence. Another noticeable feature is that,
when an adjective is used, it goes after the noun and not before it. We can represent these
structural observations in a labeled and bracketed diagram.

(Example)
The diagram makes it clear that this Gaelic sentence is organized with a V NP NP structure, which
is rather different from the NP V NP structure we found in the English sentence analyzed earlier.

It is not, of course, the aim of this type of analysis that we should be able to draw complicated-
looking diagrams in order to impress our friends. The aim is to make explicit, via the diagram, what
we believe to be the structure of grammatical sentences in the language. It also enables us to
describe clearly how English sentences are put together as combinations of phrases which, in turn,
are combinations of words. We can then look at similar descriptions of sentences in other
languages such as Gaelic, Japanese or Spanish and see clearly what structural differences exist. At
a very practical level, it may help us understand why a Spanish learner of English produces phrases
like *the wine red (instead of the red wine), using a structural organization of constituents that is
possible in Spanish, but not in English.