Diagramming Sentences
Consider the sentence:
She landed the space shuttle at the airfield on a Friday.
One possible structure tree:
-----------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ | |
/ | |
NP VP__ |
/ / | \ \______________ |
/ / | \ \ |
/ / | \ \ |
/ / | \ \ |
/ / | \ \ |
/ / | \ \ |
she | | \ PP |
| | \ ^ |
| | \ / \ |
| | PP / \ |
VERB | ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ on a Friday |
landed / \ / \ |
/ \ at the airfield |
/ \ |
/ \ |
/ \ |
the space shuttle |
|
-----------------------------------------------------
Many linguists would disagree with this even though it captures the fact that the PP's modify the verb.
A "worse" alternative would be, for example:
-----------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ | |
/ | |
Head Rest |
/ / | |
/ / | |
/ Head Rest |
/ / | \_________ |
/ / | / \ |
/ / | Head \ |
she | | / Rest |
| Head | \______ |
| | | / \ |
| | PP / \ |
VERB | ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ on a Friday |
landed / \ / \ |
/ \ at the airfield |
/ \ |
/ \ |
/ \ |
the space shuttle |
|
-----------------------------------------------------
They might like to see it like this:
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ VP |
/ | |
NP - ____________ |
/ V \______________ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ - _______________ \ |
/ V \ \ |
she | \ PP |
- _____ \ ^ |
V \ \ / \ |
| \ PP / \ |
| \ ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ on a Friday |
| / \ / \ |
| / \ at the airfield |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| the space shuttle |
| |
VERB |
| |
landed |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------
What's special about this tree (discounting the sub-trees PP and NP)? It's a binary tree.
Motivation for this structure:
Consider the further set of sentences:
Lucid will land her space shuttle at the airfield on a Friday.
Musgrave will do so at Edwards in the morning.
Glenn will do so in the future.
Jemison will do so too.
We can say "do so" can replace any words (subtree) under a V-bar node or under the VP node itself. With the first version of the tree structure, restrictions would have to be placed on which subsets of the VP's descendants "do so" can replace.
Lucid will land her space shuttle at the airfield on a Friday.
Without worrying about "will" - an inflection of the main verb, we can diagram as below.
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ VP |
/ | |
NP - ____________ |
/ V \______________ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ - _______________ \ |
/ V \ \ |
Lucid | \ PP |
- _____ \ ^ |
V \ \ / \ |
| \ PP / \ |
| \ ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ on a Friday |
| / \ / \ |
| / \ at the airfield |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| her space shuttle |
| |
VERB |
| |
land |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------
Musgrave will do so at Edwards in the morning.
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ VP |
/ | |
NP - ____________ |
/ V \______________ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ - _______________ \ |
/ V \ \ |
Musgrave | \ PP |
- \ ^ |
out --> V \ / \ |
| (snip) PP / \ |
| \ ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ in the morning |
| / \ / \ |
| / \ at Edwards |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| her space shuttle |
| |
- |
V ___ |
| \ |
| \ |
| so |
VERB |
| |
do |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn will do so in the future.
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ VP |
/ | |
NP - ____________ |
/ V \______________ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ - (snip) __ \ |
/ out -> V \ \ |
Glenn | \ PP |
- \ ^ |
out --> V \ / \ |
| (snip) PP / \ |
| \ ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ in the future |
| / \ / \ |
| / \ at Edwards |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| her space shuttle |
| |
- |
V ___ |
| \ |
| \ |
| so |
VERB |
| |
do |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jemison will do so too.
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
sentence |
/| |
/ | |
/ VP |
/ | |
NP - ____________ |
/ V \______________ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ | \ |
/ - (snip) __ \ |
/ out -> V \ \ |
Jemison | \ PP |
- \ ^ |
out --> V \ / \ |
| (snip) PP / \ |
| \ ^ / \ |
| NP / \ / \ |
| ^ / \ too |
| / \ / \ |
| / \ at Edwards |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| her space shuttle |
| |
- |
V ___ |
| \ |
| \ |
| so |
VERB |
| |
do |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------