sentence of constituents

Ø  Definition of sentence
            The sentence is a syntactic unit composed of the fundamental constituents of which is usually a clause, equipped with conjunctions when needed, and be accompanied by a final intonation. Final intonation  which is an important requirement in the establishment of a declarative sentence intonation can be (in the form of full stop), interrogative intonation (in the form of a question mark), imperative intonation (in the form of an exclamation mark), and interjection intonation (in the form of words and exclamation marks). Without a final intonation, a clause would not be a sentence.
            As we know, that language is composed of two layers, namely the shape layer and layers of meaning. Form of language made up of units that can be divided into two units, namely the units of phonological and grammatical units. Phonological unit includes phonemes and tribes, while the grammatical units include discourse, sentence, clause, phrase, word, and morpheme (Ramlan, 1996).

Ø  Constituents & Construction

            Lapalomborn (1976: 173) states that the constituent is a syntactic unit that combines with other syntactic unit to form a construction.
Constituents is a unit smaller elements if arranged to form a new larger unit

             Groups of words (phrase) is an arrangement of words that function in the sentence structure can be called a constituent (Burton-Roberts, 1997).
The sentence consists of the basic constituents and intonation final, while conjunctions only when necessary. Basic constituents usually a clause. However, words and phrases could also be a minor constituent in a sentence or short answers.

example:

1. Ardi read comics in the room.

2. Ardi reading comics in the room, while Fauzan read a newspaper on the terrace.

3. My mother! (As a response to the sentence interrogative sentence: Who came yesterday).

4. Comic! (As a response to the sentence interrogative sentence: What book did you read Ardi).

The fundamental constituents of the sentence (1) is a clause, the fundamental constituents of the sentence (2) are two clauses, the fundamental constituents of the sentence (3) is a phrase, and the fundamental constituents of the sentence (4) is a word. Each sentence given final intonation.

            Hocket (1958: 164) states that construction is a pattern for building forms a composite grade forms of the elements of the composite of a class of direct constituent element classes of the special form.

            Kridalaksana (1982: 92) states that the construction is the process and the result of the grouping units into a unified meaningful language.

Example determine construction and constituents in a sentence
Gerobak  bakso Pak Dodo itu tertabrak mobil

 In the example above sentence consists of two constructs: yaitu (1) Gerobak bakso Pak Dodo itu (FN)dan (2) tertabrak mobil (FV).

Immediate constituents in the example sentence is as follows.

·         Gerobak bakso Pak Dodo itu tertabrak mobil.

·         Gerobak bakso Pak Dodo itu dan tertabrak mobil

·         Gerobak bakso Pak Dodo dan itu

·         Gerobak bakso dan Pak Dodo

·         Gerobak dan bakso

·         tertabrak dan mobil

maka, dalam contoh kalimat  terdapat lima konstituen yaitu (1) gerobak,(2) bakso,(3) Pak Dodo, (4) tertabrak, dan (5) mobil. Kata demonsativa “itu” dalam contoh kalimat 1 tidak termasuk konstituen karena tidak bisa berdiri sendiri.

A bar chart to determine the construction and constituents in the example sentence.

Ø  Constituents as psychological reality

     In this section are discussed in detail is whether the right to the distribution of sentence constituents have a psychological reality or merely a way linguist for shredding sentence? It turned out to constituents is not only about cutting sentences that are arbitrators only, but a little mistake in cutting said it will affect hearing and interfere with comprehension because the constituents have basically psychological grounding and powerful syntax. It can be seen in the following three things;

1. Constituents is a conceptually coherent whole.

Example: The old Thugs stole my bike.

Noun phrases on the old thug has a conceptual meaning intact because this phrase could be replaced by other constituents which consists of only one word, for example, Alex or her.

2. Cutting group of words will affect our comprehension.

3. stored in memory is not a word that in spite of its constituents, but the unity of the meaning of each constituent.

Example: The old Thugs stole my bike. Stored in memory we must thug with his attributes. For bicycles, the ownership of the bike that will be kept, namely, that the bike belonged to me.

Summary

In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that function(s) as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down into constituent parts.