The hierarchical grouping of words into nested phrases.
Also called: phrase structure.
In precise terms
A representation of syntactic organisation as nested constituents, each headed by a lexical item. Contrasted with dependency representations, which encode relations between words directly.
An example
[The old man] [saw [the child [with the telescope]]]
What is going on here
The bracketing shows why the sentence is ambiguous: 'with the telescope' can attach inside the object noun phrase or to the verb phrase. The words and their order are identical in both readings — only the structure differs.
Why this matters when you are learning a language
Structural ambiguity cannot be explained by word order alone, and it is a real source of misunderstanding in a second language. Seeing structure is what lets you resolve it.
Across languages
The heads of phrases come first in head-initial languages such as English and Arabic and last in head-final ones such as Japanese and Turkish, which is why those languages feel 'backwards' to each other.
Related terms
- Phrase and constituentIntermediate — A group of words that behaves as a single unit inside a sentence.
- DependencyAdvanced — An analysis of syntax as direct links between words — each word depends on one head.
- Prepositional phraseIntermediate — A preposition plus the noun phrase it governs — 'on the table', 'after lunch'.
- Word orderIntermediate — The order in which subject, verb and object normally appear.
Where to go next
- Language guides — See grammatical and lexical categories used in context.
- Terminology quiz — Test the terms on this page.