PHRASE STRUCTURE (PS) GRAMMAR

There are three distinct periods of development in the theory of

constituent structure.
1. Bloomfield only introduced the notion and explained it by means of
examples.
2. His followers, notably, Eugene Nida, Rulon Wells, Zells Harris,
formulated the principles of constituent analysis in greater detail.
3. Finally, the theory of constituent structure has been formalized and
subjected to mathematical rigor by Chomsky and the other scholars
and has been called Phrase Structure Grammar.
Once we start to use labels we have clearly departed from simple
analysis and are undertaking analysis somewhat similar to traditional
phrasing, the division of sentences into already established grammatical
elements. This kind of analysis is called phrase structure grammar.
Phrase Structure Rules or Grammar considers sentence as linear
sequence of elements. The aim is to identify these elements for their
functions and class them appropriately. This is, therefore, better viewed as an
alternative system to the IC analysis.

IC Analysis in Phrase Structure Grammar

The Sentence (The boys played with the girls) may be divided into two
constituents: The boys and played with the girls. The first constituent may be
categorized as NP (Noun Phrase) and the second as VP (Verb Phrase). This
structure may be shown by a tree diagram. A phrase structure tree diagram
will have all the nodes labelled. The above sentence may be analyzed as
under.
The boys played with the girls.

A tree such as this represents an analysis of the sentence and may be

described variously as an analysis tree, a phrase marker, or a parse tree,
or is called simply an analysis or parse for the sentence. Now we shall take a
long sentence. For example

A tall man with a gun followed the boy in a white uniform.

S

Det

NP

VP

Adj

Noun

A tall man

Prep Art

Verb

with a gun

Past

Art

Prep

follow -ed the boy

Art

in

Adj

white uniform

Let us consider another sentence:

Old Sam sunbathed beside a stream
According to the PS model, the constituents of this sentence can be shown in
the following manner.

1. S

NP + VP

(Old Sam + sunbathed beside a stream)

2. NP

Mod (Adj) + N

( Old + Sam)

3. VP

MV + PP

(sunbathed + beside a stream)

4. VP

Verb

(sunbathed)

5. PP

Prep. + NP

(beside + a stream)

6. NP

Art. + N

(a + stream)

This can be shown in a tree-diagram

S
VP
NP
PP
Mod

Adj.
Old

Sam

NP
V

Prep.

Art.

sunbathed

beside

stream

A sentence thus consists of an NP (Noun Phrase) and a VP (Verb

Phrase) or the Predicate Phrase. The Verb Phrase may include a verbal group
and one or more Noun Phrase(s), Adjective Phrase(s) or Adverbial or
Prepositional Phrases.
Chomsky presented three models of grammar in his revolutionizing
book Syntactic Structures: Finite State Grammar, Phrase Structure
Grammar, and Transformational Grammar. The first, the Finite State
Grammar is the most basic and elementary and is full of inadequacies. The
Phrase Structure Grammar takes us a long way in removing these
shortcomings. The Transformational model is an extension of the PSG with
addition of more complex type of rules.

Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase-structure rules are a way to describe a given languages
syntax. They are used to break a natural language sentence down into its
constituent parts (also known as syntactic categories) namely phrasal
categories and lexical categories (or traditionally parts of speech).
Phrasal categories include the Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, and
Prepositional Phrase; Lexical categories include Noun, Verb, Adjective,
Adverb, and many others. A grammar which uses phrase structure rules is
called a phrase structure grammar.
Phrase structure rules are usually of the form A
B C. meaning
that the constituent A is separated into two sub constituents B and C. Some
examples are:
1. S

NP

VP

2. NP

Det. N

3. VP

VP

The first rule reads: An S consists of an NP followed by a VP. This means,

A sentence consists of a noun phrase (NP) followed by a verb phrase (VP).
The next one: A noun phrase consists of a determiner (Det.) followed by a
noun.

Some further categories are listed here: AP (adjective phrase), AdvP

(adverb phrase), PP (prepositional phrase), etc. Applying the phrase structure
rules in a neutral manner, it is possible to generate many proper sentences of
English. But it is also quite possible that the rules generate syntactically
correct but semantically nonsensical sentences. The following example
sentence is notorious in this regard, since it is complete nonsense, even
though it is syntactically correct:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
This sentence was constructed by Noam Chomsky as an illustration that
phrase structure rules are capable of generating syntactically correct but
semantically incorrect sentences. Phrase structure rules break sentences
down into their constituent parts. These constituents are often represented as
tree structures. The tree for Chomsky's famous sentence can be rendered as
follows:

NP
NP

VP

Colorless

green

ideas

sleep

Adv.

furiously.

A constituent is any word or combination of words that is dominated

by a single node. Thus each individual word is a constituent. Further, the

subject NP Colorless green ideas, the minor NP green ideas, and the VP sleep
furiously are constituents. Phrase structure rules and the tree structures that
are associated with them are a form of immediate constituent analysis.

Phrase structure grammar is itself hemmed in with limitations. It is

efficient in explaining intra-sentence constituent elements, but cannot show
inter-sentence relations such as declarative-interrogative, active-passive,
and so on. It runs into difficulties when seeking to account for ambiguous
sentences, ambiguity being more than a matter of immediate constituency as
we can see in this ambiguous sentence.
Flying planes can be dangerous.
Similarly, PS rules cannot explain such discontinuous sentences as, He
called me up, when the object is a pronoun and the discontinuous
construction is obligatory.
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SHUAIB ASGHAR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE
HAROONABAD