What are discontinuous constituents?

Definition
	Discontinuous constituents are constituents which are
	separated from each other by one or more intervening constituent, and considered either syntactically contiguous and unitary, or realizing the same, single meaning.

Examples (English)
	Here are some examples of discontinuous constituents in English:
	Certain phrasal verbs, such as “switch the light on” Word segments separated by expletive insertions, such as “abso-bloomin-lutely” Inflectional agreement markers

Example (French)
	The French negative ne … pas are discontinuous constituents:
	Je ne sais pas. ‘I don’t know.’

Generic
	Discontinuous constituents are a kind of
	What is a constituent?

Sources
	Crystal 1980:114
	Hartmann and Stork 1972:68–69
	McCarthy 1982:575

Context for this page:

Concept module: discontinuous constituents
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): D
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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