X-bar Schema Linguistics lecture series

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X-bar SchemaLinguistics lecture series

• Debasri Chakrabarti
• debasri _at_ cse.iitb.ac.in
• CFILT

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PS rules

• Phrase Structure Grammar provide rules for three
  types of constituents clauses, phrases and
  words.
• S ? NP VP
• VP ? V
• VP ? V NP
• VP ? V NP PP
• NP ? N
• NP ? Det N
• NP ? N PP
• NP ? Det AP N S
• PP ? P NP

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Inadequacy of PS rules

• S NP A boy VP met a girl
• NP N cows
• NP Det a N cow
• VP V reading NP the book
• VP V reading NP the book PP in the class
• A phrase may also include one or more phrases or
• clauses.
• 6. the girl who came late

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Need of an Intermediate Constituent

• Phrase Structure Grammar (PSG) includes two
  levels of categories
• word-level (N, V, A, P, etc.)
• phrase-level (NP, AP, VP, PP, etc.)
• PSG does not include a description for a string
  of words that is neither a full phrase nor a
  word, e.g., prime minister of India
• Consider, the construction
• 7. the prime minister of India

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Need of an Intermediate Constituent

• to prove that (6) is a constituent following
  tests are made
• Coordination
• 8. the prime minister of India and head of the
  ruling party
• Substitution
• 9. this prime minister of India is much more
  handsome than the last one
• these tests prove that the constituent is
• prime minister of India

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Need of an Intermediate Constituent

• prime minister of India is smaller than a clause
• Determiner the is not included in coordination or
  substitution
• 10. this prime minister of India is much more
  handsome than the last the prime minister of
  India.
• Thus there is a need for an intermediate category.

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X-bar Syntax

• X-bar is a theory of phrase structure which
  attempts to identify syntactic features common to
  all languages.
• The theory claims that there are certain
  structural similarities among all phrasal
  categories of all languages.
• Phrase structure concerns the hierarchical left
  to right relationships between syntactic
  categories.
• The letter X is used to signify an arbitrary
  lexical category for the head of the phrase in
  order to allow a generic description.

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X-bar Schema
XP
spec
X?
X?
adjunct
X
complement
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Features of X-bar Syntax

• XP is the maximal projection.
• X? is the intermediate level.
• XP contains a head type - X
• There can only be one head .
• Phrases are projection of their head.

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Endocentric Construction

• Phrases are endocentric , i.e., the category of
  the phrase is that of the head.
• Endocentric construction is a construction that
  contains  a head, which is the single obligatory
  element in the construction, and one or more
  optional elements subordinate to the head.
• Example
• a good boy

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Features of X-bar Syntax

• This is uniform across languages, i.e.,
• all phrases are endocentric across all
  categories
• and across all languages.
• PS rules have 4 components
• Specifier
• Head
• Complement
• Adjunct
• This is language universal

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Detailed description of Head and Complement

• Head of a phrase is obligatory
• Complements and Heads are in sister relation
• Position of the complements vary from language to
  language, e.g.,
• English picture of Einstine
• Hindi????????? ?? ?????

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Detailed description of Specifier and Adjunct

• Consider the sentence,
• their rejection of the agreement last week
• head complement
• What is their and last week ?
• their is the Specifier (spec) and last week is
  the Adjunct.

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X-bar Schema

• By assumption X-bar schema is universal across
  languages.
• In practice all nodes have binary branching.
• Corollary of Uniformity Across syntactic
  categories comp, spec and adjunct bears the same
  configurational relationship to the head.
• English VP V eat cake
• NP N picture of Einstein
• Hindi VP V ???? ????
• NP N ?? ????? ?????

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Position of Complement and Adjunct in X-bar
NP
det
N
N
the
PP
in the cabinet meeting
PP
N
of the cricket match
discussion
The discussion of the cricket match in the
cabinet meeting
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Logical Possibilities of Phrase Structure
XP
XP
1.
2.
X
spec
X
X
X
NP cows
NP the boys
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Logical Possibilities of Phrase Structure
4.
XP
XP
3.
spec
X
X
X
comp
comp
X
AP fond of sweets
NP a student of NLP
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Logical Possibilities of Phrase Structure
XP
5.
X
spec
X
adjunct
X
comp
NP a student of NLP in IIT
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Lexical Category

• N, V, A, P are lexical items.
• In some languages not all the lexical items are
  distinguished fully in both lexicon and syntax.
• e.g., work/v as in I worked.
• work/n as in the work.
• Each lexical category is associated with a
  maximal projection.

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Functional Category

• There are some categories in natural languages
  that do not fall into N, V, A, P.
• Consider, the following sentences
• English I think that it is your umbrella.
• It is not difficult for us to
  learn Linguistics.
• Hindi ???? ?? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?? ???? ??????
• Assuming Uniformity these items must be maximal
  projection of some category.

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Complementizer Phrase

• These are the clausal complements and the obvious
  candidate for this category is complementizer.
• The entire phrase is known as Complementizer
  Phrase (CP).
• Head of the phrase is the Complementizer (C).
• C is a functional category.

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Tree diagram
CP
spec
C
C
IP
That
it is your umbrella
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Exercise-1

• Identify the lexical and functional heads in the
  following sentences
• England will go head-to-head with Brazil in the
  final match.
• The idea that I would go there is absurd.
• We wonder whether he would come.

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Exercise 2

• Identify the specifiers, complements and adjuncts
  in each of the following phrases.
• the reason that we cant afford it
• The tall boy
• John loves Mary deeply.
• Put the book on the table.
• those boys in the class

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Exercise 3

• Draw Tree diagrams following X-bar schema for the
  following phrases
• 1. a. the publication of the book
• b. the publication of the book in Mumbai
• 2. a. I met the teacher in the library
• b. I met the teacher in the library after the
  class
• 3. on the table

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References

• Theory of Language- Steven E. Weisler
• Slavko Milekic
• Principle and Parameter Theory
• - Peter
  E. Culicover