Discontinuous constituent

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A Discontinuous constituent is a constituent whose constituting elements are somehow separated.

Example

the sentences in (i) and (ii) contain constituents which are discontinuous in the a-sentences, but not in the b-sentences.

(i)  a  wat heeft hij [ - voor boeken] gekocht ?
        what has he [ - for books ] bought?
        'what type of books did he buy?'
     b  [wat voor boeken] heeft hij gekocht ?
(ii) a  hij heeft [een boek - ] gekocht met een harde kaft
	he has [a book - ] bought with a hard cover
	'he bought a book with a hard cover'
     b  hij heeft [een boek met een harde kaft] gekocht

Usually, discontinuous constituents are analyzed as the result of movement of only part of a constituent.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics