A ‘Chinese Box’ representation

of grammatical structure: clauses

and groups
clause
A small gnome in the garden wiped his hands.

A small gnome in the wiped his hands

garden

in the
garden

the
garden
 Tree diagram:
constituency structure
A small gnome in the garden wiped his hands.

A small gnome in the wiped his hands

garden

A small gnome in the wiped his hands

garden

in the
wipe -ed he hand -s
garden
 ‘Tree diagram’ representation of
grammatical structure
A small gnome in the garden wiped his hands.
clause
group group
A small gnome in the wiped his hands
garden
group
group
A small gnome in the
garden
wiped his hands
word word word word word

in the
wipe -ed he hand -s
word garden
group morphemes
 The Rank Scale

Clauses

Groups & Phrases

Words

Morphemes
 Names of parts: Rank Units

A small gnome in the garden wiped his hands.

clause
group group
A small gnome in the wiped his hands
garden
group
group
A small gnome in the
garden
wiped his hands
word word word word word

in the
wipe -ed he hand -s
word garden
morphemes
group
 ‘Tree diagram’ representation of
grammatical structure: down to groups
A small gnome in the garden wiped his hands.
clause

A small gnome in the wiped his hands

garden
verbal nominal
nominal group
group group
in the
garden
prepositional phrase

the
in
garden
preposition nominal group
 Rank Units: down to groups
A small gnome in the garden wiped his hands.
clause

A small gnome in the wiped his hands

garden
verbal nominal
nominal group
group group
in the
garden
prepositional phrase

the
in
garden
preposition nominal group
 The Rank Scale
• clauses
• groups and phrases
– nominal groups
– verbal groups
– adjectival groups
– adverbial groups
are made up of
– prepositional phrases
• words
• morphemes
 A map of linguistic structure

Thomas T. Tatimus has been tying his tubs tentatively to two tall trees

Ranked Constituen
(minimal bracketting)
Functional structure: clauses
consist of

prepositional phrases
Circumstances adverbial groups

Participants nominal groups

Process verbal group

function FORM
 A map of linguistic structure

Thomas T. Tatimus has been tying his tubs tentatively to two tall trees

Useful as a way of
decomposing a
sentence into parts
Ranked Constituen
(minimal bracketting)
that can be quickly
related to
functional elements