A binary construction may be analyzed as consisting of an operator and an operand, the operator being typically, though not necessarily, a grammatical formative. Then the operand constitutes the scope of the operator.

Its semantic scope is the component that the operator relates to. If the construction is iconic, the semantic scope is reflected in the structure such that the operator is adjacent either to a grammatical boundary of the operand or to its head.

For instance, in a noun phrase like the beautiful pictures we saw yesterday, the nominal group beautiful pictures we saw yesterday constitues the scope of the definite article.

Some operators have varying scope. For instance, the negator in We did not leave yesterday may relate to the verb leave or to the adverb yesterday. The sentence might be followed by We just went for a stroll in the former case, but by It was day before yesterday that we left in the latter case. In the structure, the difference in semantic scope would be indicated by contrastive stress.