Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis)

Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis)



Sentences are not simply random words strung together by means of various devices. English, like every other language has a limited number of recurring sentence patterns. A fundamental technique of syntactic analysis is to identify these patterns by a process of successive substitution. The linguistic procedure which divides sentences into the component parts or constituents is known as Constituent Analysis. The term was first introduced by Leonard Bloomfield and systematized with theoretical formulations by Roulon Wells and Zelling Harris.

eg:                          The dog bit the burglar 

                                    /              \

                            The dog         bit the burglar

                             /         \                   /       \

                            The     dog          bit       the burglar

                                                                      /         \

                                                                  the        burglar

                     (S)

  The lion roared loudly

                                                       /                        \

                                      (NP)     The lion              roared loudly (VP)

                                                /         \                        /              \

                                            The       lion               roared         loudly (adv)

                                            (def)      (v)                   /                    \

                                                                            roared            loudly

                                                                            /       \                 /    \

                                                                   (v)  roar  -ed (pt) loud(adj) -ly (+ly)

In the above diagram, each joint or nod on it can be labelled, so that the whole construction becomes clearer.

This is called labelled tree diagram.

The dog bit the burglar (S)

                                                        /                          \

                                        (NP) The dog                      bit the burglar

                                                  /         \                          /             \

                                            The         dog                  bit            the burglar  

                                            (det)        (N)                    |                      |

                                                                                    (V)                 (NP)               

                                                                                                           /       \

                                                                                                        the       burglar

                                                                                                        (det)        (N)

The girl ran into the forest.

                                                               /                                 \

                                                         The girl (NP)              ran into the forest (VP)

                                                          /               \                    /                         \

                                                       The           girl               ran               into the forest (prepstnl phrase)

                                                       (det)          (N)                (v)                 /              \

                                                                                                               into          the forest (NP)

                                                                                                                                 /              \

                                                                                                                              the            forest

                                                                                                                             (det)             (N)

He is a doctor.

                                                                       /                 \

                                                                   He                is a doctor (complimentiser)

                                                                   (N)                  /            \

                                                                                        is              a doctor (NP)

                                              (a verb which shows conditions)       /              \

                                                                                                     a                doctor (Direct object)


The aim of IC Analysis is to analyze each utterance and each constituent into maximally independent sequences. The ultimate constituents are the smallest meaningful units which any given construction can be broken down into, consisting a morpheme at the morphological level and a word at the syntactic level. The task of IC Analysis is not of describing what utterances occur, but of describing, after these utterances have been given, what their constituents are. There is a hierarchy of structuring in sentences and IC Analysis helps us to discover how units are layered in sentences, each lower layer constituent being part of a higher level constituent. This kind of analysis aim at analyzing each utterance into the smallest meaningful unit possible. In this model we begin by cutting the sentence into two natural division and each of these is again cut into two and process of binary segmentation is continued until we reach the meaningful units. These units at the level are the ultimate constituents. IC Analysis helps us to discover how units are hierarchically layered in sentences, each lower layer unit or constituent being part of a higher constituent. 

[The Lion]                    [roared loudly]

        |                                        |

[The] [Lion]                 [roared] [loudly]

                                     [roar] [ed] [loud] + [ly]

This method is called bracketing. IC Analysis can be done through tree diagrams, bracketing (and also through box diagrams). And each stages of division the consequence are called the immediate constituents or IC's of, that particular construction. Thus, 'the lion' and 'roared loudly' are the immediate constituents of the sentence [The Lion roared Loudly].'The' and 'Lion' are the IC's of [The Lion] 'roared' and 'Loudly' are the IC's of [roared Loudly]. 'roar + ed' and 'loud + ly' are the ultimate constituents of roar loudly. After this no further analysis is possible.

Advantages and Limitations of IC Analysis

Advantages

  1. Layers of relationship in a sentence can be graphically displayed by analysing it into its units and showing how they it into its units and showing how they are hierarchically organized to form the sentence.
  2. It can account for certain types of ambiguities to an extent. In the construction.
The pen on the table that belongs to me 

[The pen] [on the table that belongs to me]

head                         modifies

Analysed thus the meaning the belong to me and the pen is on the table belongs to me and the pen is on the table. 

[The pen on the table] [that belongs to me]

Here it means:

The pen belongs to me and it is on the table.

gerund= A verbal noun

[Flying] [planes can be dangerous]

[Flying planes] [can be dangerous]

For each meaning we have to do a separate IC Analysis

Limitations:

IC Analysis, though a very useful technique is inadequate to handle all the problems in understanding the grammatical structure of a language.

  • Problems of Ambiguity
  • Problems of Discontinuity
  • Problem of Conjoining
  • Problem of Inter Sentence relationships
  • Problem of Overlapping
  • Problem of Multiple IC's
  • Problem of Indirect Elements


Prepared by:

Dr. Susan Mathew

Dept. of English

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