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.

(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

(French)

The French negative ne … pas are discontinuous constituents:

Je ne sais pas. ‘I don’t know.’