bracketing (n.)

A technique used in LINGUISTICS to display the internal (HIERARCHICAL) structure of a STRING OF ELEMENTS, in a similar manner to that used in mathematics and symbolic logic. In the SENTENCE The cat saw the king, for example, the various intuitively motivated divisions it is possible to make are each associated with the imposition of a pair of brackets on to the sentence, e.g. distinguishing the cat from the king would lead to the representation [the cat] [saw] [the king]. Each pair of brackets may be associated with a label which indicates the GRAMMATICAL reason for their presence (a labelled bracketing); for example:

In a more sophisticated analysis, the order in which the pairs of brackets are applied is also made explicit, as in PHRASE-STRUCTURE GRAMMAR (here illustrated without labelling), for example:

It is plain that, as sentences become more complex, the sets of brackets within brackets will become increasingly difficult to read. The TREE diagram display is the most widely used convention to overcome this difficulty.

 

(2) Many of the abbreviating conventions used in writing a grammar involve brackets. In GENERATIVE grammar, the following kinds of brackets are widely used to conflate RULES:

)a) parenthesis notation (round brackets) ( ) encloses OPTIONAL elements, e.g. a rule involving D(Adj)N refers to the potential occurrence of two STRUCTURES, DN and D Adj N;

(b) brace notation (curly brackets) { } encloses alternative elements, e.g. a rule involving  refers to the selection of only one of the two structures, either D Adj N or DNN. In other approaches these brackets are used to indicate MORPHEMES, or MORPHOPHONEMIC forms;

(c) bracket notation [ ] requires that elements be matched along the same horizontal row, e.g.  reads that ‘A becomes C’ and ‘B becomes D’;

(d) angled brackets notation < > signals an interdependency between optional features in generative PHONOLOGY, e.g.  reads that ‘feature A becomes feature C, and if feature B is present it becomes feature D’. In other approaches these brackets may be used to indicate GRAPHEMES or a piece of deleted material (e.g. feb<rua>ry).

(3) In PHONETICS, there are two main uses of brackets: square brackets enclose a SEGMENTAL phonetic TRANSCRIPTION or a DISTINCTIVE FEATURE notation (e.g. [+grave]); slashes // enclose PHONEMIC transcription.

(4) Square brackets are also used to enclose FEATURES at a GRAMMATICAL or SEMANTIC LEVEL, e.g. [+common], [−countable], [+male], [−female].

الاكثر قراءة في Morphology

Words and lexemes, types and tokens

Kinds of morphemes

Types of compounds

Unpredictable or partially predictable allomorphy

Predictable allomorphy

The index of synthesis and the index of fusion

Derivational and inflectional morphemes

What do affixes mean?

Morphs and allomorphs

Free and bound morphemes

Kamhmu

Productivity versus creativity

Multiple processes

Problems in morphological description

Lexical and functional morphemes

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم الإعلام يشارك في الاجتماع التحضيري لمناقشة الخطة الإعلامية لزيارة عاشوراء

بحضور متوليها الشرعي.. العتبة العباسية المقدسة تواصل إقامة المجالس الحسينية لإحياء شهر المحرم

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يطلق برنامجه التبليغي في أكثر من 20 دولة إفريقية

شعبتا الخطابة النسوية والتوجيه الديني تواصلان إقامة المجالس الحسينية في مرقد أبي الفضل العباس (عليه السلام)

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

دراسة تكشف علاقة خطيرة بين عمر الأم وصحة مولودها

دراسة تحذر.. اضطراب نوم بسيط قد يسبب الموت المبكر ؟

الاستحمام بالماء الساخن.. راحة مؤقتة وأضرار دائمة للبشرة

ماذا يحدث للجسم عند تخطي وجبة الإفطار؟

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

كيف تساعد الصيانة الوقائية في الحفاظ على كفاءة التكييف في سيارتك ؟

في ظاهرة غريبة حيرت العلماء.. كوكبنا قد يسجل أقصر يوم في التاريخ هذا الصيف!

السد الصيني العملاق يعيق دوران الأرض ويغيّر شكلها ؟

السعودية تطلق 10 تجارب علمية إلى محطة الفضاء الدولية

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Mirror in nominal morphology

Appendix 2: Hapax legomena from the Cobuild corpus

Appendix 1: 20th century neologisms from the OED

Morphological Productivity Structural Constraints in English Derivation Conclusion

Verbal derivation and the separation hypothesis

The separation hypothesis

Theoretical implications: Against the separation of form and meaning in morphology

Rival morphological processes 4: Where have all the rivals gone? Summary

Conversion vs. -ize, -ify and -ate

Rival morphological processes -ize vs. -ate

Rival morphological processes -ize vs. -ify

Rival morphological processes 4: Where have all the rivals gone?