Constituent

How it is used

A core term in syntax. Linguists use constituency tests, such as replacing a group of words with a pronoun or moving it, to check whether it forms a constituent. In politics the same word means a voter in an area.

Example sentences

1. 'On the table' is a constituent, because we can replace it with 'there'.

2. In a tree diagram, each node represents a constituent.

Common collocations

• immediate constituent
• constituent structure
• constituency test
• sentence constituent

Related terms

• phraseA group of words that works as one unit in a sentence but usually has no subject-verb pair, such as 'the old library' or 'in the morning'.
• tree diagramA drawing that shows the structure of a sentence or word as branches, with each phrase and its parts shown as nodes connected by lines.
• syntaxThe study of how words are combined into phrases and sentences, and the rules of a language that decide which word orders and structures are possible.
• noun phraseA group of words built around a noun or pronoun that works as one unit, often as subject or object, such as 'the tall man in the blue coat'.

More terms: Syntax

• word order
• agreement