Testing for Structurestring of words, the bank manager with the gun with the DP the security guard, the
ambiguity is resolved:
(111) the bishop killed the bank manager with the gun and the security guard
In this example two DP objects are coordinated, one the bank manager with the gun
and the other the security guard. The first conjunct cannot be interpreted as a separate
DP with following PP modifying the VP as this would not constitute a single
constituent which could be coordinated with the second DP.
Again we can turn these observations round to provide a test for structural
analyses. If we claim that a certain part of a sentence constitutes a phrase, then to test
this claim we could take another similar element and see if the two things can be
coordinated. Thus, to go back to the structure proposed in (100), there are three
constituents proposed: the subject DP, the VP and the object DP inside the VP. If this
is accurate, we should be able to find an element to coordinate with these constituents
to form grammatical sentences:
(112) a [[the policeman] and [the chief constable]] searched the bishop
b the policeman [[searched the bishop] and [confiscated his crosier]]
c the policeman searched [[the bishop] and [the verger]]
The prediction seems to be supported and hence we can feel reasonably confident
about the structure proposed in (100).
The coordination test, however, needs to be carefully applied. Recall that the way
coordination works is to take two elements and form them into a single element that
has the same function as the two elements would have individually. It therefore
follows that two elements cannot be coordinated if they do not have the same function,
even though they may be constituents of the same category. For example, if we tried to
coordinate a PP that was a locative modifier of a DP with one which was an
instrumental modifier of a VP the result would be ungrammatical:
(113) *the bishop shot the bank manager with a moustache and with a gun
By the same token, two constituents with the same function can be coordinated,
even if they do not have the same categorial status:
(114) you should take the medicine regularly and under proper medical supervision
In this example the adverb regularly and the PP under medical supervision have the
same modifying function in the VP and hence can be coordinated.
Still, despite these few complications, it remains a fact that only constituents can be
coordinated and hence the coordination test is also a fairly reliable one for constituent
structure.
3.4 Single-word phrases
There is an important point we should make before finishing this chapter. We have
claimed that elements which have the same distribution have the same categorial
status. We have also seen cases where phrases can be replaced by a single word. This
leads us to the conclusion that these words have the status of the phrases they replace.