An alternative type of diagram is designed to show how the constituents in sentence structure can be marked off by using labeled brackets. The first step is to put brackets (one on each side) round each constituent, and then more brackets round each combination of constituents. For example :

With this procedure, the different constituents of the sentence are shown at the word

level [the] or [dog], at the phrase level [the dog] or [loved the girl], and at the sentence level [The dog loved the girl].

We can then label each constituent using these abbreviated grammatical terms:

In the next diagram, these labels are placed beside each bracket that marks the beginning of a constituent. The result is a labeled and bracketed analysis of the constituent structure of the sentence.

In performing this type of analysis, we have not only labeled all the constituents, we have revealed the hierarchical organization of those constituents. In this hierarchy, the sentence (S) is higher than and contains the noun phrase (NP).

The noun phrase (NP) is higher than and contains the noun (N). We can also see that the sentence (S) contains a verb phrase (VP) which contains a verb (V) and another noun phrase (NP).