adjunct

a constituent not selected by a head.

adjunct rule

one of the three rules of X-bar theory, a recursive rule of the form

Xn → Xn, Y/YP

This rule states that an adjunct can be adjoined to the head, the intermediate projection or the maximal projection. Heads can be adjoined to heads, phrases can be adjoined to the intermediate or maximal projection.

The constituent an adjunct is adjoined to is doubled. The comma in the rule indicates that the order of the two constituents is not fixed.

arguments

the participants minimally involved in an action defined by the predicate. The complements and the subject, the latter also called an external argument.

category variable

in X-bar theory and the rules of X-bar theory X is a category variable that can be substituted by any of the categories. XP can be NP, VP, PP, DP, etc.

clause

a structure containing a (visible or invisible) subject and a predicate.

complement rule

one of the three rules of X-bar theory of the following form:

X' --> X YP which states that the intermediate category X' can be rewritten as X (the head) and YP (the complement, always a full phrase of some kind), in this order.

complementiser

a constituent introducing a sentential complement. The complementisers in English are that, if ,and for. They occupy the head position of CP and have selectional restrictions on the force and finiteness of the clause. Feature composition: [+F, –N, –V]

constituent

a linguistic expression that functions as a unit in grammatical structure. A group of words that undergo syntactic processes together.

determiner

the head of a Determiner Phrase, a closed class item taking an NP complement defining its definiteness. Feature composition: [+F, –N, +V]

determiner phrase (DP)

a phrase headed by a central determiner or the possessive ’s morpheme. The complement of a DP is an NP, the specifier the DP the possessive ending attaches to.

immediate constituent

the immediate constituent of a node is the node that is lower than the given constituent and is connected to it by a single branch. It is the constituent directly below the node it is the immediate constituent of.

language

a system that enables people who speak it to produce and understand linguistic expressions.

maximal projection

the phrase-level projection, XP, where X is a categorial variable.

phrase

a group of words that can undergo syntactic operations (e.g. movement) as a unit.

preposition

a syntactic unit preceding its complement, the most often a DP defining a special syntactic and/or semantic relationship between the complement and another constituent: cat in the bag/grapes of wrath/tea without sugar/a reduction of taxes. Feature composition: [–F, –N, –V].

preposition phrase (PP)

a phrase headed by a preposition. It usually takes a DP complement but certain types of CPs can also appear in the complement position of PPs. PPs themselves can be complements of different constituents such as verbs, nouns and adjectives.

rewrite rule

a phrase structure rule defining what the immediate constituents of e.g. a phrase are. On the left of the rule we find the phrase-type being defined followed by an arrow. On the right side of the arrow we can find the immediate constituents of the given phrase, which may be further rewritten. Bracketed constituents indicate optionality, the presence of a comma means that the order of the constituents is not restricted to the order found in the rule. See also adjunct rule, specifier rule, complement rule.

specifier position

a position defined by X-bar Theory. The specifier is sister to X', daughter of XP. It is a phrasal position, the nature of the phrase depends on what it is the specifier of. E.g. the specifier of IP is the subject, the specifier of DP is the possessor in possessive structures.

specifier rule

one of the three rules of X-bar Theory of the following form:

XP ® YP X'

where the specifier is the phrase-sized constituent preceding the intermediate projection. The order of YP and X' is fixed.

theme

one of the thematic roles where the argument is not affected by the action described by the verb e.g. in Peter saw John nothing directly happens to John as a result of being seen. In terms of the UTAH the theme theta-role is assigned to the specifier position of the VP.

there-construction: see existential there-construction.

verb phrase (VP)

a phrase headed by a verb. It is in the VP together with the vp(s) that the basic argument structure of the clause is formed, thus, theta-role assignment takes place here. The specifier position of the VP is occupied by the constituent bearing the theme/patient theta role. In passive structures this constituent has to move from the specifier position of the verb to the specifier position of IP in order to get Case. A VP can have different types of complements such as a DP, CP, IP, PP.

word category

a set of expressions that share certain linguistic features, a grouping of words that cluster together, e.g. noun, verb. See also functional category, thematic category.

zero level projection

the head of a phrase, X in an XP.

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Basic English Syntax with Exercises

3.1.1 Rewrite rules and some terminology

We will start by looking at some general principles that determine the basic structure of phrases and sentences. The perspective we will present claims that these principles are simple because there are a very small number of them that apply to all structures. In fact this theory claims there to be at most three different rules which determine the nature of all structures in a language. These can be stated as follows:

(1)aX' → X YP
bXP → YP X'
cXn → Xn, Y/YP

Recall from chapter 2, rewrite rules which tell us how structures of various kinds decompose into their constituent parts. The rules in (1) are like these, only far more general. The generality is achieved through the use of category variables, X and Y, which stand for any possible category (nouns, verbs, prepositions, determiners, etc.). Thus these rules tell us how phrases in general are structured, not how particular VPs, PPs or DPs are.

The third rule in (1) introduces a position into the phrase called the adjunct. Given that we have yet to introduce these elements we will put off discussion of this rule until section 1.3. where we will give a fuller account of both adjuncts and the adjunction rule.

The first rule (1a) is called the complement rule, as it introduces the structural position for the complement (the YP of this rule). The structure it defines is given below:

(2)

There are several things to note about this structure. First there are two immediate constituents of the X' (pronounced “X bar”): X, which is called the head of the phrase and the complement YP. The complement, which, as its label suggests is a phrase of any possible category, follows the head. This is a fact about English and in other languages the complement may precede the head.

Whether it precedes or follows the complement, the head is the central element of the phrase and is a word of the same category as the X'. Thus, if the head is an adjective, the X' will be an A' and if the head is a complementiser the X' will be a C'.

Here are some structures that conform to this pattern:

(3)

Note that, although these are constituents of different types, they all have a very similar pattern: the head is on the left and the complement is on the right. This is exactly what the X-bar rules were proposed to account for. It is clearly the case that there are cross-categorial generalisations to be made and if constituents were described by the rewrite rules of the kind given in chapter 2, where for each type of constituent there is a specific rule, it would be impossible to capture obvious similarities between phrases.

The rule in (1b) is the specifier rule, as it introduces a structural position called the specifier (the YP of this rule). The structure it defines is as below:

(4)

Again there are several things to note about this structure. Once more, there are two immediate constituents of the phrase. The specifier, a phrase of any category, precedes the X', the constituent just discussed containing the head and the complement. Again the ordering of these two constituents is language dependent: specifiers precede X's in English, but this is not necessarily so in all languages. Specifiers are a little more difficult to exemplify than complements due to complications that we have yet to discuss. However, the following are fairly straightforward cases:

(5)

The specifier of the DP is the possessor and this precedes the D' constituted of the determiner and its complement. The VP in (5) is exemplified in the following sentence:

(6)we watched [the bubbles rise to the surface]

This VP has many things in common with a clause and indeed it looks very much like one. We will discuss the difference between the two in a subsequent chapter. The important point to note is that the theme argument of the verb (the argument undergoing the process described by the verb – in this case, the bubbles) occupies the specifier position of the VP as defined by the rule in (1b).

Note that the X' and the phrase share the same categorial status (X) and so if X' is P' XP will be PP, etc. As X' is the same category as the head, it follows that the whole phrase will be of the same category as the head. In this way, the head of the phrase determines the phrase’s category.

The property of sharing category between the head, the X' and the phrase is called projection. We say that the head projects its categorial status to the X' and ultimately to the XP. If we put the two parts of the structure together, we can more clearly see how projection works:

(7)

The line of projection proceeds from the head, via the X' to the phrase thus ensuring that phrases and heads match.

The meaning of the ‘bar’ can be seen in terms of the notion of projection. We can imagine a phrase as a three-floored building, with a ground floor, a first floor and a top floor. On the ground floor we have the head, which is not built on top of anything – it is an unprojected element. Often heads are called zero level projections, to indicate that they are not projected from anything. This can be represented as X0.

Above the head, we have the X', the first projection of the head. The bar then indicates the projection level of the constituent: X' is one projection level above X0.

On the top floor we have the phrase, XP. This is the highest level projected from the head and hence it is called the maximal projection. Another way of representing the maximal projection is X'', an X with two bars (pronounced ‘X double bar’), with the bars again representing the projection level. It seems that all phrases project to two levels and so we will not entertain the possibility of X''', or X'''', etc. Typically we will maintain the custom of representing the maximal projection as XP.

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