Glossary term I

Immediate Constituent

An immediate constituent is any one of the largest grammatical units that constitute a construction. Immediate constituents are often further reducible.

(English)

In the complex noun phrase the dog that killed the cat, each of the following items are immediate constituents:

  • the
  • dog
  • that killed the cat
  1. Crystal 1985, 68
  2. Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985, 38
  3. Mish 1991, 281
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