Section A Question 1

English sentences are composed of Constituents and the Constituents are characterised by
Hierarchical Structure.

Use the following sentence and any other you deem relevant, along with the literature, to explain
Hierarchical Structure in English. Ensure that you discuss the syntactic categories that are
present in the data and the role of Heads, Complements and Adjuncts.

Extremely confident students have read the notes

A sentence is not just a string of words that makes complete sense or expresses a complete
thought. When we see words in linear order, there is a hierarchical structure. In linguistics, this
term refers to the organization of sentences into groups as phrases or constituents, which are
further grouped into high-level phrases, and so on until the entire sentence has been analysed
(Frank, Bod and Christiansen, 2012). The knowledge of hierarchical structure in any language
enables both native and non-native speakers to better understand the language and consequently,
be more expressive in their oral and written forms. Simply put, a sentence (a constituent) has
several smaller constituents with heads. These heads are classified according to their syntactic
categories and then they possess modifiers which are labeled as complements or adjuncts based
on their role as modifiers. A constituent refers to the words and phrases that make up a
sentence. This essay will discuss the syntactic categories along with the role of heads,
complements and adjuncts as indicative of the sentence, 'Extremely confident students have read
the notes '.

The head or nucleus of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic category of that
phrase. We classify a phrase as a 'verb phrase' because its head is a verb. This same classification
is used for labeling other phrases; the word class of the head determines the class of the phrase
that it heads. In the data presented, the words ‘students’ and ‘have read’ are the two heads of the
two major constituents of the sentence: subject and predicate. That is, the subject – Extremely
confident students and the predicate – have read the notes. A further thought on the heads of
constituents gives rise to the internal composition of the phrase that the head heads. For example,
a verb phrase can possess a verb and a noun phrase and or prepositional phrase. However, not all
of these options are available to all verbs. For this reason, heads also determine what type of
other elements may appear in the phrase to complete it.

Hence, elements in a phrase that complete the meaning and the syntax of the head are
called complements. On the other hand, not all elements in a phrase are complements of the
head. Some elements simply give more details that help readers to identify or have a more vivid
idea of how an event took place. These phrases are referred to as adjuncts. Examples of these
phrases are adjectival and adverbial phrases. In the data under review, the phrase, ‘extremely
confident’ is an adjunct while the phrase ‘the notes’ is a complement. The former adds more
details about the student. It adds an addition to the head but is not necessary for completing the
syntax of the head. On the contrary, the latter is needed to complete the meaning and or syntax of
the head. The phrase - the notes - answers the question, what did the students study? One
difference between the complement and the adjunct lies in the fact that there are restrictions
regarding the number of complements in a head. In writing adjuncts, there are no restrictions. To
ascertain the need for a complement or an adjunct, ask, “can the statement do without this
phrase?” In relation to the data, the sentence can simply omit the phrase – extremely confident –
the noun ‘students’ can stand on its own. However, the sentence will be deemed ungrammatical
if the phrase, ‘the notes’ should be omitted. Thus, we can conclude that the omission of some
complements will result in ungrammaticality while the absence of adjuncts would not.

A syntactic category is a set of words and/or phrases in a language which share a

significant number of common characteristics (Glossary of linguistic terms). Members of a
syntactic category may appear in the same position of a sentence, comprised or constructed from
similar syntactic elements and display similar behaviors. As mentioned previously, the data
under review is divided into two major constituents. With a focus on syntactic category, the two
constituents will no longer be deemed as subject and predicate but noun phrase and verb phrase
respectively. Within those two constituents, smaller syntactic categories can be extracted. Within
the noun phrase – extremely confident students - an adjectival phrase can emerge. This phrase is
‘extremely confident’ with the word ‘confident’ as its head hence, the name of the phrase.
Additionally, the verb phrase – have read the notes – can also have another phrase. The words,
‘the notes’ are classified as a noun phrase with the word ‘notes’ as its head.

Hierarchical structure denotes several constituents within a constituent. This structure

shows the role of syntactic categories, heads and modifiers as speakers seek to understand their
language better. As such, we say that a word ‘heads’ the phrase. The syntactic category of this
head determines the syntactic category of the phrase it heads. And finally, heads have
complements or adjuncts.

Reference

Everaert, M. B. H., Huybregts, M. A. C., Chomsky, N., Berwick, R. C., & Bolhuis, J. J. (2015).
Structures, not strings: Linguistics as part of the cognitive sciences. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 19 (12), 729–743. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.09.008

How hierarchical is language use? | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
(royalsocietypublishing.org)

What is a Syntactic Category | Glossary of Linguistic Terms (sil.org)

Section B - Morphology.
Answer ONE question from this section. Write your response in continuous prose.
Remember to include an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a concluding
paragraph.
Question 4
The advent of technology has occasioned the expansion of the vocabulary of English via
various Word Formation Processes. Show how Semantic Shift, Compounding and Blending
are apparent in this expansion. Ensure that you make reference to the literature and include
technology related examples from the last ten years. [20 marks]

No language is stagnant and hence, there is no fixed lexicon. The spread of the internet in the
early 1990s posed a very significant component in the widespread use of the English Language. Today
the use of technology represents the fastest and broadest means of communicating information all over
the world. For this reason, the English language has undergone several word formation processes to
accommodate this new change. This essay will show how the advent of technology has occasioned the
expansion of the vocabulary of English via semantic shift, compounding and blending within the last ten
years.
Compounding is a word formation process that creates words from already existing words.
Words that comprise a compound word may have of one of the following: simple words, complex words
formed by affixation and or complex words formed by compounding. In English, hundreds of compound
words exist and they do so via several written formats. A compound noun is a noun that is made with two
or more words. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can be modified by adjectives and other
nouns However, during the increase in technological advancement, several compound words have
surfaced as a result. Words such as cell phone, touchscreen, homepage, download, flash drive and people
ware, crowdturfing, brainjacking, are among the thousands of words that have been created to express or
denote some technological process or object. As with all compound words, the final word is considered as
the head of the entire word. For the above words, this is also true. Persons use the term phone for cell
phone; screen instead of saying homescreen. They say load or loading and drive for flash drive.
Blending has also been used to create new words in the area of technology. This word process
refers to the creation of new words by using parts of already existing words and pairing the resulting
combination with a new or somewhat new meaning. In English words such as motel, brunch and
infomercial are prime examples of blending. In the area of technology, several words have been born.
Examples of these words are: international and network – internet; binary and table – byte; electronic and
mail – e-mail; binary and digit – bit; medical and health – mhealth; electronic and card – e-card. In the
case of the latter (e-card) many new words have been formed by the use of the prefix ‘e’ to a noun.
In assessing semantic shift, new words are created by using existing words in new ways. Here,
the original word may be modified in some way or, in some aspects, the original meaning may be
replaced over a period of time. Some of these words are:
Buffer – This word means to reduce a shock or to form a barrier between people or things.
However, since the birth of technology, it refers to temporary, short term storage of data in a
memory bank while transferring a large amount of data.
Breadcrumbs – This refers to small pieces of bread that remain on one’s plate or fall to the
ground. In relation to technology, it is defined as an option in a site that shows you where are in
relation to the site itself. A tool that makes navigation easy.
Boot – Boot refers to a sturdy item of footwear covering the foot and ankle, and sometimes also
the lower leg. In technology, boot can also refer to process of loading an operating system into
the computer’s main memory or random - access memory.
This essay has shown that there is a positive correlation between the advancement of
technology and the expansion of the English language lexicon. Word formation processes in the
areas of compounding, blending and semantic shift have caused an expansion of the English
language lexicon in order to accommodate the rise and advancement in modern technology. As
new technology emerges, new words must be coined to accommodate this emergence.