linguistics1-5  Exercise 1: Word Classes and Constituents
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Sentence: A tall student read a long book

Word classes:

  A        determiner (Det)
  tall     adjective (Adj)
  student  noun (N)
  read     verb (V)
  a        determiner (Det)
  long     adjective (Adj)
  book     noun (N)

Labelled bracketing:

  [S [NP [Det A] [Adj tall] [N student]]
     [VP [V read] [NP [Det a] [Adj long] [N book]]]]

As a tree:

  S
  ├── NP
  │   ├── Det   A
  │   ├── Adj   tall
  │   └── N     student
  └── VP
      ├── V     read
      └── NP
          ├── Det   a
          ├── Adj   long
          └── N     book

Substitution test:

  "A tall student read a long book"  ->  "She read it."

  The pronoun "she" replaces the whole group "a tall student", and "it"
  replaces the whole group "a long book". A group that a single pronoun can
  replace is a noun phrase. (The test does not work for "tall student read",
  which is not a constituent.)