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Delimitation of Syntactic Units

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Paul L. Garvin
Paul L. Garvin*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
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Extract

In the present state of our techniques we may assume that we know how to isolate morphemes properly—that is, unequivocally and without unaccountable residue. It is not so certain that we know how to isolate words, and hence how to separate morphology from syntax. Given a viable definition of the word for some particular language, we come finally to the problem of assigning words properly to relevant syntactic units such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. To illustrate one possible technique of discovering the syntactic framework of a language, I shall analyze a short text of Ponapean, a Micronesian language of the Eastern Caroline Islands.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 30 , Issue 3: July-September , September 1954, pp. 345 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © 1954 by the Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 A preliminary form of this paper was read at the meeting of the Linguistic Society in New York, 28 December 1953.

2 Cf. the definition given by C. C. Fries, The structure of English 23 (New York, 1952): ‘any stretch of speech by one person before which there was silence on his part and after which there was also silence on his part.‘

3 Louis Hjelmslev (transl. F. J. Whitfield), Prolegomena to a theory of language (Baltimore, 1953); Z. S. Harris, From morpheme to utterance, Lg. 22.161-83 (1946).

4 These terms are used in preference to Hjelmslev's tripartite division into interdependence (mutual dependence), determination (both bilateral and unilateral dependence), and constellation (mutual tolerance).